Sous-vide cooking, once the domain of high-end chefs is coming to households very soon with the launch of Joule, a small sous-vide machine that can be used with the pots and pans you have in your homes. Sous-vide cooking means cooking in a water bath to a set time and temperature. It is only now starting to gain popularity among home cooks but has been used by professional chefs in restaurants for decades. It is relatively simple to cook and removes unnecessary stress from cooking by ensuring that what you are cooking is perfect all the time. The launch of Joule, a sous-vide machine that is less than half the weight of even the smallest consumer sous vide device available at the moment is set to launch in September in the United States. Created by ChefSteps, a Seattle-based startup, the machine will not immediately ship outside the United States though the company hopes to make this machine available elsewhere in the world as soon as possible. Joule is housed in a sleek cylinder … [Read more...]
More details announced for Autumn event that replaces Culinaria in Brussels
More details have been announced for the event that will replace Culinaria. Named Autumn, the event changes format and will be held between 18 October and 30 October in Brussels. Over the past years Culinaria has made a name for itself as the top food event in Brussels. Autumn, this year, will feature a food market, a cocktail bar and a restaurant. Organisers have said that there will be le Mercato, a food market created by chefs. There will be le Club which will bring together some of the best bartenders and cocktail masters from Belgium and Europe and le Gastronomique, a restaurant which where four chefs will be cooking every evening. The location has not yet been announced but the organisers have said that the place does not exist and will cease to exist after the event which indicates it will be a pop-up location. Every evening four chefs will create a unique eight course meal. Guests can exceptional service with a maitre d'hotel in attendance, sommeliers, chefs in the … [Read more...]
Andy Hayler: The man who has eaten in all three Michelin star restaurants in the world
Andy Hayler is the only man in the world to have eaten in all three Michelin star restaurants. He first completed this feat in 2004 and then did it again in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 and this year. He has been reviewing restaurants on his website since 1994 making it one of the oldest in the world and the site is updated with several new reviews each week. Eating in all three Michelin star restaurants has become more complicated given that the number of such restaurants has increased from 49 in 2004 to 113 this year. While Andy does not like to term any one restaurant as the best he particularly likes the cooking at Michel Guerard's restaurant Pres des Eugenie in France because he likes that style of food, but there are many other fine restaurants that are objectively up there on a par. Other particular favourites include Schloss Berg in Germany, Le Calandre in Italy, Hotel de Ville in Switzerland and Mizai in Kyoto. He believes there are a number of two star restaurants that … [Read more...]
‘Memory is really important. It is a vehicle to get to know who you are’ – Dominique Crenn (Chef’s table review)
Memory is a very important part of what Dominique Crenn does at her restaurant Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, California. "Memory is really important. It is a vehicle to get to know who you are inside." Understanding where she has spent most of her childhood has a lot to do with what her restaurant is all about. "It is not about us creating dishes, it is about us connecting everything from start to finish," Dominique Crenn says. The French born chef is the first ever female to earn two Michelin stars in the United States. She did that in two consecutive years from 2011 to 2012 (her restaurant only opened in 2010). David Gelb depicts her story on Chef's Table (Season 2) in an impeccable way as he follows her to Brittany where she connects with her roots. It is yet another unmissable episode of this series which is not just about food and restaurants but also about the story of chefs and how they discovered themselves through food. It shows how chefs use food as a vehicle … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #83
A hotel chef has been fired after boasting on Instagram that he feeds meat to vegans: A hotel chef has been fired after boasting on social media that he had secretly served meat to vegans. Alex Lambert was fired from his job as head chef of the Littleover Lodge Hotel in Derby after saying it was his “personal favourite” to serve “animal products” to vegans during an online argument on Instagram The Food-Sharing Economy Is Delicious And Illegal—Will It Survive? Renee McGhee, a 59-year-old grandmother of nine, was at home recuperating from a bicycle accident when she opened her neighborhood newsletter and saw an advertisement for home-cooked meals. A few clicks later, she learned that the neighbor who posted it had joined Josephine, an online marketplace that helps home cooks coordinate small takeout-food businesses. McGhee’s last job as the manager of a cake bakery had required heavy lifting. After breaking bones in both hands, she’d crossed anything like that job off of her list of … [Read more...]
Chef’s table review: ‘I was a punk and I became a chef’ – Alex Atala (D.O.M.)
No one has been more important for Brazilian cuisine than Alex Atala, chef of world renowned restaurant D.O.M. in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Chef's Table episode about this 47-year old Brazilian chef is a must watch for food lovers interested in learning the story of the chef who fought against the odds to make Brazilians love 'Brazilian' cuisine and become Brazil's topmost food ambassador. Cooking Brazilian food did not come naturally though. He recalls a conversation he had with a French chef who told him that he was a good chef who understood flavour but he would never be able to cook French cuisine like a French chef because he did not have the cultural background. "I felt bad. I had a tattoo, i was different. If I was not able to cook French cuisine like a Frenchman, than nobody could do a better Brazilian experience than me so I started to switch gradually to Brazilian ingredients," Atala said. The Brazilian chef's story is an inspiring one. It is incredible to think that he … [Read more...]
Bottarga (Mullet or Tuna roe): Versatile and simple to use
As summer approaches, the nostalgia for produce from the Mediterranean increases. Despite the fact that summer in large parts of Northern Europe has yet to arrive this year, you can replicate that summer feeling using one ingredient which you can find easily in Italian delis and which is a perfect reminder of a hot summer day and your holidays in the South of Italy. It is an ingredient that is synonymous with Sardinia and Sicily though it is used in a lot of countries in the Mediterranean like North Africa, the South of France, Greece and Malta. An ancient ingredient, bottarga is salted, pressed and dried roe from either tuna or grey mullet. Don't be intimidated if you have never used this ingredient. If you have never tried it before, all you need to do is slice some bread and serve with olive oil and very thin slices of bottarga. It may not look appealing in its block state with the wax which seals the red-golden colour but once grated or sliced it has an amazing flavour. … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #82
The Sportsman, a seaside pub where the menu is on a blackboard and main dishes cost about £20 ($26), was named U.K. restaurant of the year, beating some of the biggest names in British gastronomy in a Top 100 list otherwise dominated by London establishments. Heston Blumenthal on taking photos of your food and his once-in-a-lifetime food experiences: HESTON Blumenthal is like a rock star of the cooking world, and so is his food. But there’s one thing he wishes people would stop doing in his restaurants — taking pictures of their food. “Chefs always have this problem now, it’s across the board and you can’t control people,” he told news.com.au while in Melbourne to film Heston Week which starts tonight on MasterChef. I would prefer if they (diners) didn’t take any photos and just enjoyed themselves at the table and certainly not take them throughout the whole meal." The ultimate grilling guide: Check out Bon Appetit's summer grilling guide with lots of recipes as well as … [Read more...]
‘Foam is for shaving and not to go on top of food’ – Gordon Ramsay during AMA on Reddit
"Foam should be used for shaving and not to go on top of food. When foam hits a plate, unless you eat it within three or four seconds, at the end it looks like sort of toxic scum on a stagnant pool," said Gordon Ramsay during an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit today. The British chef said that he had started to use foam in the 90s and is amazed that it is still around. "We need to get rid of the foam and keep the foam for shaving," said the chef to a Reddit user. Ramsay launched his first ever mobile game #GordonRamsayDASH where gamers get to build their own restaurant empire with Ramsay as their guide. The game is available on iTunes Store and Google Play and has already received some great reviews. The award-winning chef and restaurateur has 30 restaurants world wide and has presented television programmes like Hell's Kitchen, MasterChef, MasterChef Junion and Hotel Hell. Asked what was the easiest dish to get wrong and how to avoid it, Ramsay said that the easiest dish that … [Read more...]
Third edition of Chefs Revolution, the Dutch Avant Garde Cuisine Festival to be held in September
The third edition of Chefs Revolution, the Dutch Avant Garde cuisine festival will take place in Zwolle, the Netherlands on 18 and 19 September. The event is organised by Jonnie and Thérèse Boer of three Michelin star De Librije in cooperation with the team Port Culinaire Thomas and Carola Ruhl. The first chefs that will participate in this third edition have already been announced. These are two Michelin star chef Magnus Ek from Oaxen Krug in Stockholm, Sweden, two Michelin star chef Tanja Grandits from Stucki, Switzerland who was also Gault Millau chef of the year for 2014. Virgilio Martinez, chef of Central in Lima, Peru will be travelling to the Netherlands to present his cuisine. Having a Michelin star, he is no 4 in the World's 50 Best and also no 1 in the Latin America list. The other chefs are Eneko Atxa, three Michelin star chef of Azurmendi (16th in the World's 50 Best list), Joachim Wissler, three Michelin star chef of Vendome (35th in the World's 50 Best), … [Read more...]