This has been the week of major announcements. We’ve written about the announcement by René Redzepi of Noma that he will be closing the restaurant for good in December 2016. It was also the week in which Massimo Bottura cooked dinner for French president Francois Hollande amid scepticism from the latter on whether Italians could match the class of the top French chefs. You can read all about these on previous articles on Food and Wine Gazette.
Around the web, we’ve come across a number of interesting articles which we are sure you will enjoy.
Allan Jenkins has a superb article about Enrique Olvera, Mexico’s leading chef. He speaks about the difficulty to find the best corn, chillies and meat in Mexico with his ultimate aim of producing the country’s finest tacos. The chef is constantly on the lookout to find the best produce available and he has a full time person finding stuff for him so that he can ge this hands on the best corn, chillies and even a fish seller. It is hard, he says.
In the UK, we’ve recently heard of a shortage of skilled chefs. It has boiled over into a full existential crisis and one which could effect how and what we eat. This is probably one of the best articles we have read about the subject and raises a lot of questions about the future of dining in restaurants.
Alex Atala is the most famous Brazilian chef. Here, in this interview, he talks about burgers, what he would eat as his last meal and the thing he is most likely to eat at 1am. He also says the best advice he has ever gotten was to just be himself.
A new generation of chefs in Paris is transforming bistros by serving refined, inventive and affordable food in restaurants. Following in the trend of Bertrand Grébaut who opened Septime there is now a movement in Paris called ‘bistronomy’. Read about it here.
Hervé This can be considered the father of molecular cuisine. He is now looking at the future of food and believes there is a way to eradicate world hunger.
Ruth Reichl is one of the US most influential food writers. She was the food editor of the Los Angeles Times, the restaurant critic of the New York Times and for a decade, the editor of Gourmet, the oldest food and wine magazine in America before it was closed down abruptly. The New York Times has the story.
Would you pay top notch for a Michelin star takeaway? The service is on offer in the UK but Guardian restaurant critic Marina O’Loughlin is not impressed.
Read about the quest to save the endangered Muscat vines in the Sicilian island of Pantelleria. The grapes, known in Sicily as Zibibbo are also known as Muscat of Alexandria and is used to make Passito wines, some of Italy’s most prized dessert wines.
Beaujolais does not have a great reputation when it comes to wine but that is not the case with some of its best wines which can be complex and meaningful and on a level with great wines found in other areas of the world. Read about Beaujoulais revival here.
Here is a city guide to Porto with tips on what to see, where to eat and drink and also where to stay.
And to conclude, these tips on cooking pasta are worth remembering.
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