Carlo Cracco, one of Italy's most well-known chefs and television personalities has landed in trouble for using garlic in a pasta sauce. Cracco was making his version of an "amatriciana" sauce on a TV programme last Saturday when he added a 'secret' ingredient, garlic in its skin, to the sauce. But the mayor of the town of Amatrice, where the recipe originated from took issue with the recipe prepared by this famous chef saying that they were bewildered. Amatrice, the mayor said, was shocked by the mistake made by this chef who added garlic when the original recipe only has 'guanciale' from the town, pecorino from the same town, tomatoes from San Marzano, white wine, pepper and chilli peppers. He said that the Italian chef had made a 'lapsus' which was in good faith and invited him to the town to savour the real 'amatriciana'. The mayor noted that the sauce prepared by Cracco could be delicious but it could not be called an amatriciana. The controversy highlights the … [Read more...]
Jack O’Shea Chophouse in Brussels finally open
The much awaited Jack O'Shea Chophouse has opened in central Brussels a few days ago. Judging by the page views and searches on this site, this looks like it will be another top foodie destination in Brussels. Jack O'Shea is the second butcher in Belgium to open a restaurant this year. The first, Dierendonck, has opened Carcasse in January on the Belgian coast. The chophouse has opened in the Place St. Catherine area just a few metres away from his second butcher shop in the Belgian capital city. There is no question that the quality of the meat at Jack O'Shea. The meat which you get from this butcher whether it is a Wagyu beef t-bone steak, an Angus beef ribeye, an aged t-bone steak or just sausages from his large range (which includes mustard and spinach, Italian, beef and guiness, chorizo), are all exceptional. For those who have not heard about Jack O'Shea, he is probably one of Europe's leading butchers, though maybe not as famous as the much talked about as Dario … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #20
The art of eating is a quarterly print publication that has been published since 1986. Edward Behr, the founder, likes to list the top food books of the year. Here is a list of 12 books including Massimo Bottura's Never Trust a Skinny Italian chef which we reviewed on this site. We are currently reading one of them, The Third Plate by Dan Barber and will also review it when we finish it. Anyone who has been to Japan knows that the food scene is exceptional and the quality of ingredients is out of this world. We have come across a very interesting blog by a doctor who is incredibly passionate about food. We came across a splendid article on the sensational dishes of Japan in 2014. It makes us want to return to Japan. The photos are great, the descriptions mouth-watering. Japanese markets are special. This one is about the Nishiki market in Kyoto. And to keep with the Japanese theme, we have come across an article about the rise of Japanese chefs in Paris. Some chefs that have … [Read more...]
Inside the cellars of Grafé Lecocq in Namur: A winemaker like no other
Within the citadel of Namur, the Belgian city that provides a gateway to the Ardennes, lies a tunnel that for more than sixty years has been quietly ageing the wines of one of Belgium's leading wine 'negociants'. The conditions for holding up to 1,200 oak barrels are near perfect. Temperature is constant between 11C and 12C and the humidity reaches over 90% in these tunnels. Bernard Grafé, the CEO of Grafé Lecocq, took me to visit the impressive cellars within the Namur citadel and explains the story behind this incredible wine house. After our visit to the tunnels inside the Namur citadel, he takes me to the cellars of the Namur cathedral and the Courts of Justice, just opposite the house from where the business had started 130 years ago. There he shows me over 500 square metres of storage space with ideal and stable temperatures where the bottles are aged before they are distributed. The cellars have been used pretty much since the business started and had been built to … [Read more...]
Quique Dacosta: The idea is what matters
Where there is a will there is a way. That could be the title of the story of Quique Dacosta, a self-taught Spanish chef of a restaurant that is called by his name. Today, Quique Dacosta is considered to be one of the leaders of avant-garde cuisine in Spain. He has won awards and accolades from being in the top 50 list of the World's Best restaurants to having three Michelin stars. It is hard to believe that he started working as a chef in the restaurant which he now owns at the age of 17 and never cooked or trained anywhere else. It all started in 1989, when he joined a family restaurant by the name of El Poblet in 1989 without any previous experience as a chef. 10 years later, he bought the restaurant in Denia, close to Alicante and Valencia. He says that he owes his success to his team. "I am lucky to have a fantastic team that can help me to turn ideas into reality. They can focus on everything from the largest to the smallest of details. I always say that it is better to … [Read more...]
A few pinches of salt and the loss of a third Michelin star
Michelin has a lot of power despite the fact that reviews of restaurants are a few sentences long. Amid the many announcements of new classifications in France on 2 February 2015, came a decision which surprised many on Twitter. It was Michelin's decision to downgrade the Côte Saint Jacques from its 3 Stars in the next edition of the Michelin 2015. Many were asking why the restaurant had lost its third Michelin star. It seems a few pinches of salt (some flaws in seasoning) may have been the reason. Chef Jean-Michel Lorain left a statement on the hotel's Facebook page which we feel should be highlighted because it illustrates the pressure that chefs face on a daily basis. By the time of writing this post, his comment had received over 800 likes and shared more than 200 times. There were also many comments all encouraging the French chef to continue his great work. Lorain noted that during the last meeting with the director of the Michelin guide in November, he was told that … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #19
A photo of a 'live' prawn served at Noma's pop-up restaurant has been doing the rounds in the press and social media platforms this week. It was served with black ants which have also been used previously in various other dishes by chef Rene Redzepi in his Copenhagen restaurant. It is something rather normal in Japan (the actual shrimp isn't alive but it is so fresh that is is still twitching and moving because of electrical impulses). The moving crustacean is therefore just a piece of food theatre. You can read about it in this article. In another article, Joe Warwick explains the truth about the dish. There is something really special about artichokes served 'Jewish-style' in Rome. Here are suggestions of where to try some of the best in Rome. Neil Rankin writes about why we are so obsessed with food trends. He argues that when restaurants start obsessing over trends, they forget about what's more important, which is what people want to eat. We have written previously about Next, … [Read more...]
Kobe Desramaults: Using humble ingredients to create something special out of nothing
Kobe Desramaults, is a conscious Belgian chef with a conscious cuisine. He has a strong character and knows what he wants. His cuisine may appear simple because of its focus on pure flavours but there is a certain complexity to it. "When I am cooking I like to go back to the roots and try to extract as much flavour from the ingredients I use. When I go to eat somewhere the most important thing is memory. It is all about the food. And if you want to remember the food you eat, you cannot have many different flavours going on in a plate. You cannot have a 20 course tasting menu with each dish having six or seven flavour combinations, because you would go crazy and would not remember anything," he tells me when I interview him in Cologne at Chef Sache. "So what I like to do is to focus on one ingredient. The reason I do this is that when people read the menu, they can remember what they have eaten just by remembering that one ingredient. This is what I like in food and this is what I … [Read more...]
Kobe Desramaults: An inspirational story of hard work and success
"We worked from 8am till 2am every day and just kept going" There is no question that Kobe Desramaults is one of the rising stars of European cuisine. His story is inspirational because he had to work against all odds to turn a debt-ridden restaurant owned by his mother into the success story it is today. We met Kobe Desramaults at Chef Sache 2014 in Cologne. You can read our full interview with this Flemish chef, famous for his Michelin starred restaurant In De Wulf in Dranouter, his bakery De Superette and his second restaurant De Vitrine in Gent. In the interview, Kobe speaks about why he opened the restaurant in this Flemish village in West Flanders just on the border with France. Why did you open a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, I ask him. "People are now coming to visit the restaurant in the countryside," he tells me with a smile. "The reason is simple. My heart is there. My heart and my food. This is the area where I grew up. It is where I played in the fields with … [Read more...]
Salon du Chocolat in Brussels on first weekend of February
http://youtu.be/L7i4rl5QRCc The Belgian Salon du Chocolat will take place between 6 February and 8 February at the Brussels Expo. Over 70 Belgian and international participants from France, Germany, Hungary and Luxembourg among others will be participating in this chocolate show. They range from artisans to iconic brands, chefs and cocoa experts. They all share their passion for chocolate with the public and will demonstrate some of their favourite chocolate recipes. Among the participants are some of Food and Wine Gazette's favourite Belgian chocolatiers such as Pierre Marcolini, Van Dender, Laurent Gerbaud and Joost Arijs to mention a few names. Visitors will be able to taste fine chocolates and can also be able to follow many activities related to the world of chocolate including live demonstrations, talks and tastings, pastry workshops for adults, Chocoland with activities for children aged between 4 and 10, a bookshop dedicated to chocolate and the famous Chocolate … [Read more...]