MALTA: Two restaurants have been awarded with a Michelin star in Malta bringing the total number of Michelin starred restaurants on the island to 5. Chef Andrew Borg and his team clinched one star for the newly opened ION - The Harbour in Valletta. On the other hand, chef Tyron Mizzi and his team at Bahia in the small village of Lija in the centre of the island is the other new entry. These restaurants join the existing one star restaurants that retained their star for the second consecutive year. These are De Mondion, Noni and Under Grain. Gwendal Poullennec, International Director of the Michelin Guides said the last year has created enormous challenges for the hospitality industry around the world. "Our hearts go out to all those facing difficulties in these trying times. Our inspectors, like the restaurants themselves, have had to adapt, but we were very pleased that they were able to spend time on the islands and find two new Michelin stars and five new Michelin 'Plates' to … [Read more...]
2017 vintage of first Grand Cru from Himalayas released
Ao Yun, the first Grand cru from the Himalayas has released its 2017 vintage on 22 March. Ao Yun was born from a dream that began in 2008 to create a unique, world class fine wine in China. It is the first wine of its kind and brings a new region - Yunnan to the world winemaking map. The 2017 vintage boasts a concentrated yet fresh and velvety blend that symbolizes the wine that is made in a challenging climate. "Despite the challenging climate, the vintage is a reflection of the work we carry out in the vineyard and in our winemaking," said Maxence Dulou. "We managed to harvest powerful but ripe grapes and transformed them into a concentrated but fresh and velvety wine." The winery said that this was the most challenging vintage since the first in 2013. It started with a dry and warm winter which was followed by a cool spring that delayed growth in the vines. The summer was cool and too wet but in autumn a crucial window opened with a month of higher than average temperatures. … [Read more...]
Italian winery Venturini Baldini recruit winemaker Riccardo Cotarella in first ever Lambrusco project
Venturini Baldini, premium Italian sparkling wine producer based in Emilia-Romagna, has announced that Riccardo Cotarella has officially joined its winemaking team as Consulting Winemaker. Riccardo Cotarella will take on the role previously held by Carlo Ferrini who has acted as Venturini Baldini’s Consulting Winemaker for the last five years. Bringing decades of wine experience and expertise in Italian winemaking, Cotarella and his team led by Pier Paolo Chiasso will work alongside the longstanding team at Venturini Baldini to produce the winery’s 100% organic Lambrusco wines. Further, Venturini Baldini is the first winery specializing in Lambrusco that Cotarella will work on as winemaker. Over the past five years, the estate that is based on a 321-acre property in the food valley of Emilia-Romagna in Northern Italy has been elevated to new heights through the ownership of Julia and Giuseppe Prestia. As Lambrusco has enjoyed a recent revitalization, Venturini Baldini has … [Read more...]
Eight top chefs cook with Feeding Hong Kong to highlight food insecurity in the city
HONG KONG: Eight star chefs joined Feeding Hong Kong earlier this month to discover the brutal reality faced by more than a million people in the city. With seven Michelin stars between them, the chefs learnt why food insecurity has condemned a huge swathe of the city's population to have little or nothing special to eat at Chinese New Year, a time that usually celebrates prosperity and abundance. Every day, 3,600 tonnes of food waste are sent to landfills in Hong Kong, while more than one million people live in poverty struggling to afford nutritous meals. At the Feeding Hong Kong's Yau Tong headquarters, the eight chefs taking part were Vicky Lau from TATE Dining Room, Vicky Cheng from VEA, Nate Green from Henry, Agustin Balbi from ANDO, Grégoire Michaud from Bakehouse, Jowett Yu from Ho Lee Fook, Uwe Opocensky from Petrus and Olivier Elzer from L'Envol. First they learnt how Feeding Hong Kong support the supply of 250,000 meals per month, before they then helped to pack … [Read more...]
Christophe Pauly is Gault & Millau Belgian chef of the year 2021
BRUSSELS: Gault & Millau launched its 2021 guide, its 18th edition in a digital event that was streamed from Brussels. The title of Chef of the Year went to Christophe Pauly from Le Coq aux Champs in Soheit-Tinlot.The guides are slowly making a return back despite the COVID-19 complications that makes it difficult for everyone in the restaurant industry to plan anything. “Pauly works with the best ingredients, often from the terroir of Wallonia but he is also part of the North Sea Chef collection and also chooses the best that fishermen catch from ashore. Finesse and perfect balance of the dishes are two recurring characteristics of his style,” Gault & Millau CEO Marc Declerck said. Mr Declerck said that the decision to publish the guide in March/April of this year was not a given but as time progressed ‘we grew convinced’ that this was the right choice to make. Michelin, the other guide has delayed its presentation of the 2021 guide to January 11 of next year. “By … [Read more...]
Albert Adria temporarily closes all his restaurants in Barcelona including Tickets and Enigma
BARCELONA: Albert Adrià has decided to temporarily close all his restaurants in Barcelona due to COVID-19 which has proven to be lethal for the restaurant sector. Albert has a gastronomic empire in the city with five restaurants including four that have a Michelin star. These are Tickets, Enigma, Pakta and Hoja Santo. Albert, who rose to fame together with his brother Ferran at el Bulli created these group of restaurants in the same area of Barcelona and he called them “a gastronomic amusement park with differentiated concepts in the same neighbourhood.” The restaurants are highly sought after particularly by foodies who are curious to get a glimpse of the past el Bulli magic but have succumbed to lack of tourism. A small notice on the website says the restaurants will be closed until further notice. Catalan newspapers have reported that the absence of tourists have made a dent in this empire but while staff are concerned about their future Albert Adrià told Spanish media … [Read more...]
Tedeschi’s harvest begins in the name of sustainability
VERONA: “Today being a sustainable entity has become a moral obligation, and we are convinced that the entire production process can only benefit if we can achieve our goals to be sustainabile. We have chosen the right path as is evidenced by Italy’s work towards the development of a national certification that will be recognized at the local level,” said Sabrina Tedeschi from the Tedeschi winery in Verona. With Italy in harvest mode, the winery has begun to pick the grapes for the 2020 vintage. Tedeschi is among the first wineries in Verona to be certified by Equalitas, a sustainability project focused on wine production. Equalitas has started procedures to address social, environmental and economic issues. In 2018 Tedeschi decided to start the process to obtain voluntary certification of sustainable practice. Such a process involves examining all aspects of the business with particular attention to ethical issues imposed by certain markets, including the continuation of … [Read more...]
50 Top Pizza Europe: 50 Kalo in London takes first place
50 Kalo, a pizzeria by Ciro Salvo in London has remained at the top of the 50 Top Pizza Europe when the list was unveiled in an online event organised by Barbara Guerra, Albert Sapere and journalist Luciano Pignataro. The event had to take place on 28 April in Milan but the event had to be cancelled because of the pandemic. The list awards the best pizzeria in Europe outside of Italy. Ciro Salvo, who made a name for himself with 50 Kalo in Naples, Italy thanked his team for their work which made this award possible. “I want to thank all the 30 members of staff who work in London who are really fulfilling our concept of a pizzeria that focuses on everything from the product to the service. We try to do better and better,” he said. He is the third generation of a family of master pizza makers in Italy. Enopizzeria Via Toledo by Francesco Calo in Vienna placed second (a new entry), while Bijou in Partis by Gennaro Nasti placed third. Baest in Copenhagen and La … [Read more...]
Cabernet Sauvignon day marked by release of Director’s Reserve from De Toren Private Cellar
Stellenbosch winery De Toren Private Cellar, one of the first South African estates to produce high-end Bordeaux style red wines has released the Director's Reserve on the occasion of the International Cabernet Sauvignon Day which falls on 3 September. De Toren Private Cellar is a boutique winery specialising in Bordeaux-style wines and is situated on the Polkadraai Hills, overlooking the picturesque Stellenbosch in the Cape, South Africa. De Toren was one of the first-ever South African wineries to produce Bordeaux-style wines and the very first to ever make use of a gravity-fed cellar. The farm is renowned for meticulous attention to detail when it comes to nurturing its vineyards to grow the perfect berries, and for making wine through the softest and gentlest of processes. Cabernet Sauvignon features prominently in the first signature blend, the De Toren Fusion V, that the estate ever produced and continues to craft to this day. With an initial release in 1999, De Toren … [Read more...]
Fritz Miesbauer, winemaker for the city of Krems is winegrower of the year
KREMS: Stift Göttweig, a Benedictine abbey stands proudly across from Krems on the south bank of the Danube. Monks have been cultivating wine on the abbey’s 26 hectares of vineyards for almost 900 years. The winegrowing estate was outsourced in the early 1980s, and in 2006 a consortium of wine enthusiasts assumed responsibility for cultivation. It's fortunes had been waning, just like those of the wine in the Austrian city of Krems. Then, they decided to put Fritz Miesbauer at the helm, taking the reins not just of the city's wines but also the Stift Göttweig. Today, 14 years later that decision has been rewarded. The winemaker has become the toast of Austria as falfstaff magazine has named him Winegrower of the Year. The changes were not just cosmetic. While the winemaker upgraded the label to the unforgettable label motif: the world-famous ceiling frescos from Paul Troger from 1739, the wines inside also began a steep ascent. They emerged as emerging as classically … [Read more...]