ALT is the new project which Niko Romito, chef of three Michelin star restaurant Reale, considered to be one of the best restaurants in Italy if not the best. The project is part of the Niko Romito academy which will enable students of the school to run and operate this place along the road (the Statale 17) of Castel di Sangro where he and his sister operated their first restaurant before it moved to Casadonna. Niko Romito said the new spot will be completely managed by the students including the communication and social media. The idea behind the project is for people on a road trip to stop and spend some time eating, dining, having a snack or breakfast in an informal place on the road. ALT is the natural extension of the bread laboratory PANE which is just behind ALT. It is from here that bakery products which are either sold or delivered to various places in Italy are made. Niko said that the students will use the social media accounts (Facebook and Instagram) of the … [Read more...]
It is time to rethink Italy again: Why Italians hope Bottura’s rise to the top can put the country in the culinary spotlight
Italy is not just heritage. Under the surface, there is a lot going when it comes to food. It is time to think of Italy again When Ferran Adria placed at the top of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list successively he not only helped to make a name for himself and his restaurant el Bulli but he also lifted the fortunes of Spain and its gastronomy for good. Italians are now hoping that Massimo Bottura’s second top position in the space of three years will have a similar effect. Look at the world’s leading chefs today and most of them will have one thing in common. They have nearly all trained at the Adrias’ iconic restaurant el Bulli. No one has had an impact like the Spanish chef over the past years and one can say he has given chefs like Massimo Bottura and René Redzepi and many others the license to reinvent restaurants. There is maybe no one today who has the aura that Ferran Adria had though in a few years we may look at a number of today’s stars in the same … [Read more...]
Pino Cuttaia to organise Cooking Med in Agrigento, Sicily next year
Pino Cuttaia, chef of La Madia in Licata (photo courtesy of La Madia) Pino Cuttaia, chef of two Michelin star Sicilian restaurant La Madia will be organising Cooking Med, an event that will bring to the fore sustainability of the sea and focus on themes like marine pollution, seasonal fishing, cooking ‘humble fish’ and the geopolitical role of the Mediterranean. The first edition of the event takes place in Agrigento in September 2019. Cuttaia loves to call the Mediterranean Sea his garden and has decided to launch this project which aims to bring topics that have always been close to his heart from sea sustainability to the cultural role of the Mediterranean into the spotlight. He has been inspired by his friend and colleague Norbert Niedekofler, the organiser of Care’s and Cook the Mountain. Cuttaia’s aim is for Cooking Med to become a laboratory for research on gastronomy. He aims to bring together the traditions of various Mediterranean countries and explore the … [Read more...]
Chef of the century Joel Robuchon dies aged 73
Joel Robuchon, the French chef who owned and ran restaurants around the world including several that were awarded three Michelin stars, died today in Geneva aged 73. French newspaper Le Figaro reported that the French chef, one of the most influential chefs in the world who inspired a generation of chefs, died of cancer. The French chef was named the "chef of the century" by the Gault et Millau restaurant guide in 1990. Among his most iconic dishes was the Humber mashed potatoes cooked with a decadent amount of butter. He owned restaurants in cities from Paris to Monaco, Hong Kong to Las Vegas and Tokyo to Bangkok and over the past years was famous for his Robuchon, known for his mashed potatoes among many other dishes, owned restaurants in cities including Paris, Monaco, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Tokyo and Bangkok. He was the chef who held the most Michelin stars ever in 2016 with 32 (31 this year) including five three-star restaurants. He started a revolution with his “Atelier … [Read more...]
Dealing with loss: Cherishing the memories of a loved one through food
A few Christmases ago, my father was standing next to me at the stove as I was preparing the traditional Christmas lunch which I’ve been cooking pretty much since I met my wife in 2000. He asked me a very simple question. Where did your love for food and for cooking come from? And while that might look like a very simple question, my relationship with food, as Facebook would say, is complicated. It is a question I’ve often been asked and the best answer is probably centred around the key people in my life, that is my wife, my parents and my parents-in-law. This is maybe the closest that I’ll get to answering this question for the time being. The story is much longer and includes many twists and turns and stories along the way but you’ll get the gist below. A few weeks ago, as readers of the Food and Wine Gazette newsletter know, I lost my mother-in-law. For my wife who lost a mother and for me who lost a second mother, it was hard, very hard, made more complicated and difficult by … [Read more...]
Ana Ros: ‘Every ingredient is a challenge for a chef. The less valuable it is the bigger the challenge’
When Ana Ros, the Slovenian chef of Hisa Franko cooked at Christophe Hardiquest’s Bon Bon earlier this month she brought dishes with very bold flavours to reflect her style of cooking. “This is my character. I am very explosive. I cannot say that 100 per cent of my dishes are like this but 70 per cent of our dishes are very intense. They call me thunderstorm and I can be very emotional but this is how my kitchen is,” she told Food and Wine Gazette after the fourth Bon Bon dinner at the Brussels restaurants. “I don’t think the cooking is extreme because it is not extreme but it is strong. There is of course a risk that people don’t like it. For me, I prefer that 80 per cent love it and 20 per cent say never gain rather than staying in the middle.” That is understandable given that she has made it to the top of the game having been awarded best female chef last year and also featuring in Netflix’s popular food series Chef’s Table. Last month, for the first ever time, she made it … [Read more...]
Matthieu Beudaert: “Tasting menus are dead, we want gastronomic freedom”
Chef Matthieu Beudaert, a former art historian turned chef and his wife Sofie Delbeke have announced that they have decided to close their fine-dining restaurant Table d’Amis and gastro bar Gust to reopen in a more casual style a new restaurant called Beudaert. The decision comes a few weeks after the 9th anniversary of the opening of the restaurant in the Belgian city of Kortrijk. “We have been reflecting for a long time and on a trip to Bordeaux and San Sebastian last summer we became convinced that fine dining and long tasting menus was not what we wanted to do any more,” Matthieu told Food and Wine Gazette in an interview. “We no longer want to force our guests to spend a lot of money on a tasting menu. Our new place will have an a la carte menu and it will reopen on 2 September. We will change the interior and the concept and name but we believe that the restaurant in its current format restricts us,” he said. Table d’Amis in the Flemish city of Kortrijk was considered to be a … [Read more...]
Nick Bril: “People want to dine in a fine dining restaurant but don’t want to dine in finesse”
Holidays are meant to calm you down and relax you before you are ready to face the daily grind again. And as many people in high stress positions know, that feeling of relaxation can immediately turn sour on return to work. Chef Nick Bril, one of the top European chefs who runs The Jane in Antwerp faced just that last weekend after he returned back to work from a deserved holiday. He went on to Instagram Stories to say that it was impossible to work properly because over a given service, there were 38 out of 80 customers who asked for something different because of allergies, a fashion diet or just because they did not like a given ingredient. The chef of the restaurant, considered to be one of the most beautiful in the world, operates on a fixed menu given that it caters for over 80 covers at a time. Nick Bril, who co-owns The Jane with Sergio Herman, then went on Instagram to explain himself on the trend of allergies, intolerances or simply not liking particular ingredients … [Read more...]
Gelinaz! to return with events in Los Angeles, Berlin and an Asia shuffle
GELINAZ! is set to return before the end of the year in Los Angeles with an event Vespertine plays Gelinaz! A series of events is currently being planned for 2019 including ones in Berlin and a shuffle in Asia. Just under a year after the highly successful Gelinaz! does Upper Austria at the Muhltalhof, Andrea Petrini one of the co-curators of the chef collective together with Alexandra Swenden told publisher Gestalten that the event in Los Angeles will be a gig staged at chef Jordan Kahn’s restaurant. “15 or so Gelinaz! chefs, boys and girls, exploring the four floors of the restaurant that is more like a spaceship than a restaurant, welcoming only 22 guests at a time. With Eric Owen’s visionary architecture all around,” he said. Andrea Petrini said that soon after, it will be 2019 and this will be the year that Gelinaz! will take over Berlin and rave non-stop with chefs, artists and a bunch of musicians in interdisciplinary settings. “Imagine the romantics of The Notwist underlying … [Read more...]
Second NEU dinner in Berlin to feature Will Goldfarb with René Frank
The second NEU Dinners will welcome Will Goldfarb, fresh from the latest season of Chef's Table of restaurant Room 4 Dessert in Ubud, Bali to cook one dinner in Berlin with René Frank from CODA in Neukölln. The dinner takes place in Berlin on Sunday 29 July from 7pm. The second edition of Berlin's most exclusive dinner series united two of the most recognised and forward-thinking chefs in their field to conceive a once-in-a-lifetime dinner at the Kreuzberg rooftop Atelier Berlin that organisers promise will 'blow minds on all levels'. "Think a full fine-dining tasting menu based on sweet and savoury 'dessert' creations, unlike anything you know about desserts with a matching cocktail and wine pairing, all while you watch the summer sun set over the roofs of Kreuzberg. The second dinner is hosted by the Bechstein Network at the legendary Atelier rooftop in Kreuzberg (www.atelierberlin.net) and there are 70 places. The beverage pairing for the evening will be a mix between … [Read more...]