How Tech Companies Disrupted Silicon Valley’s Restaurant Scene: It wasn’t so long ago that the aroma of Moroccan spiced prawns and wood-oven pizzas wafted out to a downtown street here from the open-air patio of a once popular eatery called Zibibbo. Today that patio is behind locked doors, obscured by frosted glass. The pizza oven is gone. The formerly crowded bar has been converted into a sparsely populated start-up space of a dozen engineers, their bikes and whiteboards. After 17 years in operation, the restaurant closed in 2014. The space is now an American Express venture capital office and a start-up incubator. The building blocks of Japanese cuisine: When it comes to Japanese food, we’ve reached beyond the fifties-era soy sauce, sukiyaki, and tempura and the seventies-era sushi, sashimi, and miso. Now, in this fermentation-crazed time, we are ready to step up our understanding of the building blocks of Japanese cuisine on our way to appreciate how the sauces used in Japanese … [Read more...]
Chefs Revolution: Creativity and the importance of terroir the focus on final day
Creativity, innovation and the importance of the terroir where the chefs work was the main focus of the presentations that took place on the second day of Chefs Revolution that took place on Monday in Zwolle. The Dutch avant-garde festival organised by Jonnie and Therese Boer of the restaurant and hotel De Librije in Zwolle and Port Culinaire (who will also be organising Chef Sache in Cologne this weekend), this year brought together a very interesting international lineup of chefs. While the focus on the first day was the importance that vegetables are playing in today's high end kitchens, the second day brought an array of chefs who are really focusing on their terroir to create something unique and special. The first to take the stage was the Russian chef Vladimir Mukhin of Moscow based restaurant White Rabbit. The Russian chef gave a very interesting presentation of what is happening in Russia at the moment and his bid to rediscover the flavours that Russia had lost because … [Read more...]
‘I never expected to get to where I am today” – Mauro Colagreco on 10 years of Mirazur
Mauro Colagreco is celebrating 10 years of his award-winning restaurant Mirazur this year. But as he himself says, he never expected to achieve what he has managed to achieve in the past 10 years. "These 10 years have been amazing and have gone way beyond my expectations," he told Food and Wine Gazette in an interview at Chefs Revolution in Zwolle last weekend. He arrived in France with nothing except a telephone and a friend of a friend. He had trained to be a chef in Argentina. In France he went to work in Burgundy to work with Bernard Loiseau at his restaurant in the Côte d’or. He stayed there for one and a half years. After the tragic death of Bernard Loiseau in February 2003, Mauro decided to move to Paris to work at L’Arpege, the legendary restaurant run by Alain Passard. He stayed there for a year and a half and he considers this time as the one which allowed him to develop his own sense of creativity, attention to detail and imagination. Mauro also worked with Alain Ducasse … [Read more...]
Chefs focus on vegetables and sustainability on first day of Chefs Revolution in Zwolle
Vegetables took the centre stage on the first day of the third edition of Chefs Revolution, an event organised by Therese and Jonnie Boer of De Librije Restaurant in the Netherlands and the team at Port Culinaire in Zwolle. Jonnie Boer, Magnus Ek, Eneko Atxa and Mauro Colagreco delivered splendid presentations on their approach to cooking at the Spiegel Theatre in this beautiful Dutch city. On a sunny day, over 1,500 turned up to Chef's Revolution to listen to what these chefs had to say about the state of gastronomy today and also see them present their cuisine during live cooking presentations. Jonnie Boer, Magnus Ek and Mauro Colagreco put the spotlight on vegetables and they all seemed to be in agreement that in future people will have to eat less protein if we are to ensure a sustainable future. On that same theme was Eneko Atxa's presentation who spoke about the philosophy behind Azurmendi and the holistic approach of the restaurant to sustainability. Jonnie Boer, … [Read more...]
Gelinaz! headquarters descends on Brussels: 20 of world’s best chefs to cook together on 10 November
Brussels will be turned into the gastronomic capital of the world on 10 November as Gelinaz!, the collective of chefs from around the world organises what it is calling the first ever Gelinaz! Headquarters in Brussels. 20 among today's most creative culinary talents in the world will be descending in Brussels to create a 4x3 hour long dinner and much more. No details have been released except for the names of the chefs which will make food lovers in Brussels salivate at the thought of having some of the world best chefs cooking in Brussels. The chefs that will come to Brussels to join the only Brussels based chef Christophe Hardiquest of Bon Bon include the two Belgian chefs Kobe Desramaults (In De Wulf) and Geert de Mangeleer (Hertog Jan). Also participating in the event are Davide Scabin (Combal Zero, Italy), Claude Bosi (Hibiscus, London), Petter Nilsson (Spritmuseum, Sweden), Yannick Alleno (Alleno, Pavillon Ledoyen, France), Kristian Baumann (Restaurant 108, … [Read more...]
Humphrey Restaurant (Brussels): A welcome addition to the Brussels restaurant scene
Many of today's most influential chefs have one thing in common. They have all spent time working in Ferran Adria's kitchen. Massimo Bottura, Rene Redzepi, Grant Achatz to mention just a few of the most creative chefs around have spent time with the Spanish genius of el Bulli fame. Most of these chefs have gone on to develop their own style, their own philosophies and their own cuisine. There is no question that being mentored by a great chef has a lasting impact on your cooking style and also your philosophy, even if you depart from that approach. The new generation of chefs is also moving around from one restaurant to another gaining as much experience as possible benefiting from the 'globalisation' of haute cuisine. Just like the previous generation developed their own style and approach to cooking, the new generation is also making good use of the experience they have gained to take completely new directions. Chefs who were inspired by the inventiveness of Ferran Adria … [Read more...]
New movement in Los Angeles: LA chefs for Human Rights
Cassia, a partnership between husband and wife duos Bryant & Kim Ng and Josh Loeb & Zoe Nathan is organising the first charity dinner called LA Chefs for Human Rights at their restaurant in Los Angeles, California. The new movement that has just launched aims to raise funds for the Programme for Torture victims in its first event that will be organised on 10 October. The event will feature chefs like Nancy Silverton of Osteria Mozza, Niki Nakayama of n/naka, Ray Garcia of Broken Spanish and Zoe Nathan from the Rustic Canyon Family of Restaurants. It is already sold out. Chefs worldwide are nowadays using their influence and status to help raise awareness on issues of global importance. Only recently, thousands of restaurants pledged to support the earthquake struck Italian village of Amatrice by donating a part of every Spaghetti Amatriciana they served in their restaurants worldwide to help rebuild the city. The restaurant Cassia in Los Angeles takes roots from … [Read more...]
Benoit Nihant opens second chocolate store in Brussels
10 years after opening his first boutique shop, Benoît Nihant, the bean to bar Belgian chocolatier, has opened his second shop in Brussels in the Fort Jaco area in Uccle. The elegant store, which opened in August was officially inaugurated last week and marks a shift from the more classic store in Ixelles with its modern lines and white, black and gold colours. The large photos which adorn the shop show you part of the process to turn cocoa beans into the end product. Known as the bean to bar process, this Belgian chocolatier, who has his workshop in Awans, close to the Belgian city of Liege, has been producing his own chocolate from the beans he procures for the past six years. Benoit Nihant is one of only very few chocolate makers worldwide who starts his chocolate making process buying his beans directly from different plantations worldwide. He has recently also invested in his own plantation in Peru. In an interview with Food and Wine Gazette he had said it was not an easy … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #88
Why Are So Many Great NYC Restaurants Closing? It’s Not Just The Rent: It’s happening all over New York City, to restaurants big and small, from acclaimed pioneers, like WD-50, Union Square Café, Telepan, the Campbell Apartment and the Four Seasons, to more humble and beloved spots, like Bianca, Hamilton’s and Brooklyn Fish Camp. All shuttered or packing up because the rent is due and it’s too damn high. How high? The Seagram Building’s owner, RFR Holding, is said to have wanted to raise the Four Seasons’ annual rent to a market rate of $3.7 million from $784,000. Mark Grossich, who took over the Campbell Apartment space 17 years ago, was paying $350,000 a year and offered to pay his landlord, the MTA, $800,000 per year to save his bar. Not enough. Nightlife guru Scott Gerber made a bid for $1.1 million a year, and after a contentious lawsuit with the MTA, Gerber got the deal. Union Square Café’s rent was tripled. No credit for making the neighborhood great in the first … [Read more...]
11 tips on how to avoid a tourist trap
If you travel to any major city or tourist destination in the world, you are bound to encounter more tourist traps than you can handle. And while you might be smug to think that you will be able to spot a tourist trap once you see one, this is not so evident in places which are extremely busy with tourists and which have a bad reputation when it comes to food. Places which welcome many tourists each day are bound to take many short-cuts including with the quality of the produce they serve. Although online crowd-sourcing guides such as Tripadvisor or Yelp may serve as a deterrent compared to the past, they cannot always be relied upon. When you have no control of time on a trip, then you need to be particularly careful if you want to eat well since you might not have time to book a restaurant before hand. That was very much in evidence on a recent very short trip to Venice. While it has a bad reputation when it comes to food, particularly because of the large amount of tourists … [Read more...]