Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #30

A series of documentaries called Chef’s Table featuring Massimo Bottura from Italy, Magnus Nilsson from Sweden, Niki Nakayama and Dan Barber from the United States, Ben Shewry from Australia and Francis Mallmann was launched today.

Many have written about these documentaries. Judging from social media, the series created by David Gelb who directed the popular documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi in 2011 will be a success. Here you will find an interview with the creator of this series.

You can also read a review of the three episodes featuring Shewry, Nakayama and Mallmann here. He’s rated the three documentaries 5 out of 5 stars. On the same theme, you may want to watch this amazing Op-Doc video which focuses on one of these six chefs. Ben Shewry, whose restaurant Attica, in Melbourne, Australia, is constantly considered as one of the best, developed his love for nature while growing up on a farm in New Zealand. His menu is an example of how sustainable ingredients can be made absolutely delicious. It is only four minutes long but gives you an inspirational insight into how he is willing to fundamentally change the way he cooks to position his restaurant at the vanguard of sustainability.

The event Le Strade della Mozzarella, organised by Albert Sapere and Barbara Guerra earlier in April is still being covered by many. Here you will find an interview with Sicilian-Norwegian chef Christian Puglisi. He has a restaurant called Relae in Copenhagen which is extremely successful.

He makes his own mozzarella. He says that this cheese is available all over the world but strongly relies on the raw materials used. Puglisi believes that if he learnt the best production techniques and used high quality milk, he would be able to produce stretched cheese in Denmark too given they had excellent milk. “My choice, therefore, was to make a Danish mozzarella that would give up on competing with that from Campania. It will never be a ‘real mozzarella’ yet it will be my mozzarella, with a different quality because it shows the territory from which it is born.”

Bordeaux 2014 wines were released three weeks ago and apparently the sales are flat. Now some young winemakers are calling on a return to a system where they sell directly to customers, eliminating the traders who have encouraged speculation leading to an increase in prices.

It seems like there is a market for everything nowadays. Are you afraid of adding salt when you are cooking? In Spain, you can now buy seawater to cook with and to have the ‘perfect’ seasoning. Read about it here.

Here are some simple rules for healthy eating.

The wines of Liguria can be extremely interesting even though they are not necessarily easyto find. Here is a very interesting article about these wines. In particular we like the wines from the Cinque Terre and the sweet Cinque Terre Sciacchetrà. We also like the Colli di Luni which make quality Sangiovese reds and Vermentino whites.

We loved the interview with Maria Canabal who created the Parabene forum to promote women in gastronomy.

And if you are heading to Florence any time soon, here is an insiders guide to restaurants in this beautiful Italian city.

We wish you an excellent week ahead.