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...]
No brunch, no well done steak and no fish on Monday: RIP Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain, a cook, a writer, a traveller, a TV personality and producer, a foodie at a time when food was barely on the radar screen and one of the main instigators of today’s culinary travels is no more. He sadly took his life away in what is an apparent suicide. It’s hard to think that someone you have never met could impact you so much but that was the case with Anthony. His two seminal books Kitchen Confidential and A Cook’s Tour where what triggered an interest in me for food, food books and food writing. He was a cook when he wrote 'Don’t Eat before reading this', a seminal piece in the New Yorker which was the prelude for his career as an author and TV producer. In that article he gave tips on what to avoid in restaurants from doing the restaurant a favour by ordering a well done steak (they will serve you the worse piece of meat you can imagine), by avoiding the dish of the day (it is what restaurants needed to sell lest it is thrown away), the dreaded brunch or … [Read more...]
Is Sebastien Bras’ decision to give back his Michelin stars a one-off or the start of something bigger?
In France, the Michelin guide is big, bigger than anywhere else in the world. It is the benchmark by which chefs and restaurants are judged. And for the French public its a bit like the bible. So when Sébastien Bras took to Facebook to announce that he wanted Michelin to take back his three Michelin stars and did not want to be listed any longer in the Michelin guide he shocked many. In France, and in many other places in the world, no one has the audacity to counter the red guide. They have the ability to make or break you. And they also have an impact on the bottom line. Moving from one star to two stars or from two stars to three stars means an increase in turnover for the restaurant. Some restauranteurs calculate this at 20%. On top of it, three Michelin stars are also scarce. He is one of only 27 chefs and restaurants that have been awarded the coveted three Michelin stars in France. And many more aspire for that accolade. But away from the fanfare is another reality and … [Read more...]
What impact does social media have on creativity and our restaurant experience?
Social media and the smartphone may be creating havoc not only in how we experience a restaurant but also in how chefs approach food and how they innovate. People are busy looking at their phones wherever I look. I am interested not only in what they are doing but also in how they are using their phones. Some have their earphones on and are listening to music or their latest favourite podcast. Most are using social media from Instagram to Facebook. There is also a lot of Messaging going on whether its through SMS, WhatsApp or Snapchat. It is difficult to keep up amid this ‘noise’. I am writing this piece from a cafe and while I have my laptop which keeps me focused on writing, it takes an effort to not pick up my phone and ‘follow the crowd’. On the way to the place where I decided to write this piece, I lost count of the number of people that were playing with their phones while driving, walking or even riding their bicycles. It seems like no place is safe from the greatest … [Read more...]
Everyone likes a bad review: the scathing restaurant review that went viral
Jay Rayner's scathing restaurant review of Paris restaurant Le Cinq has been the talk of the internet since the article appeared online on Sunday morning in the Guardian. It went viral pretty instantly confirming that there is nothing that readers like more than a bashing particularly if this has colourful language and has made the writer angry. Jay Rayner's website collapsed as visitors flocked to get the back story to the Guardian review. Readers on social media were urging their followers to read the article saying that this would be the best thing they read that day and the article instantly went viral. By the time of writing the article had over 2,700 comments on The Guardian. When the restaurant critic termed this his worst experience ever readers got curious. They were amused with the colourful language. It was no wonder with gems like "never did I think the shamefully terrible cooking would slacken my jaw from the rest of my head," or "my lips purse, like a cat's arse … [Read more...]
A fine dining experience seen through the eyes of an 8-year-old
It had been long in coming and the day was finally here even though there was not much time to prepare for the event. The booking at the two Michelin star restaurant L'Air du Temps, in Liernu, Belgium had been secured only a day before and so there was not much time to prepare our 8-year-old son on what to expect. As many like to say, the journey is as important as the destination and it did require some hard work on our part to get to this point and it was at times difficult. Like all parents who take their kids to restaurants, we have had some embarrassing experiences. He had been to many restaurants before but nothing had ever approached this level. So although we were confident that it would work out, it was with a sense of trepidation that we arrived at the restaurant, fingers crossed that our judgement was not blinded by parental love. He had only one request before we left home. He wanted a notebook and a pen. We of course did not object. With notebook and pen in hand, … [Read more...]
Revisiting L’air du temps: Winter is not a barrier to creativity
The sun is glistening and shining on the snow that is covering the fields in Liernu. Spring is still far away and the vegetable garden at L'air du temps is still resting. The first shoots from the garden will only come in late February though San Degeimbre is already preparing his February menu called "Waiting for the Green". January is not necessary the best month to visit a restaurant. It comes just after the holidays and is the month when you normally try to detox from the excesses of the previous month. And it is not the best month for fresh produce. But a friend who happens to be a Maltese chef is in Belgium and we have planned to visit Wallonia's culinary cathedral. San Degeimbre is a chef in evolution. Today, he has reached a level of maturity that one would expect from a restaurant that is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. But that maturity is not stopping him from experimenting or trying new things. The creative streak is all the more visible even if it does … [Read more...]
Time and scarcity are today’s luxuries and will define tomorrow’s trends in food and wine
As we start the New Year, it is normally the time to reflect on the previous year but also more importantly to look at what is coming next and to try and spot the novelties that might become trends in the years to come. We have read many articles about predictions for 2017 doing the rounds from Michelin’s take of the 10 trends for 2017 to a sceptical look at the articles predicting trends. There is an obvious tendency to get it wrong and you end up with egg on your face. So instead of looking at what we think will be the top trends we focus on one issue, time, and look at how this will have an impact on the food and wine world in the coming months and years. To take a look at the future, many times you need to look to the past. The start of this article came over a lunch discussion with with Fulvio Pierangelini, Gert de Mangeleer, Clare Smyth and Peter Nillsson a day before the Gelinaz! Headquarters event in Brussels where we ended up discussing the state of fine dining … [Read more...]
Michelin’s guide for Belgium exposes problem of consistency and credibility
To understand what is truly happening in the Belgian gastronomy scene today you would need to at least visit five restaurants, one in Brussels, three in Flanders and one in Wallonia. The restaurants of Christophe Hardiquest (Bon Bon in Brussels), Peter Goossens (Hof Van Cleve, Kruishoutem), Gert de Mangeleer (Hertog Jan, Zedelgem), Kobe Desramaults (In de Wulf, Dranouter - the restaurant will close next month and the chef opens a new restaurant in Gent next year) and Sang-Hoon Degeimbre (L'Air du Temps, Liernu) have over the past years left a significant mark on Belgian cuisine. Any foreigner visiting Belgium or looking to learn about Belgian cuisine would discover five chefs and restaurants with a distinct culinary style and a cuisine that is varied, territorial and innovative. But Belgium's culinary scene does not stop here. It is also home to The Jane in Antwerp, for example, a restaurant owned by Sergio Herman and Nick Bril which has been fully booked since the first day … [Read more...]
Childhood memories and food – a new series
Childhood memories are the source of inspiration of many a chef. Some chefs can be at their most creative when they recreate dishes out of their childhood memories or the flavours that they remember from when they were young. Memories and storytelling are what makes us human beings. We are the stories that we tell ourselves and others and our memories have a way of stirring our emotions and connecting us to our history and to where we come from. Recalling our earliest childhood memories is not always easy. How often are our memories real and how often are they the stories that we have been told by our families and friends. This is particularly true for our earliest childhood memories. What is your first memory? And are you sure it is your memory or is it a story that you have been told? An old photo may trigger a memory, or else it may trigger the memory of your mother or father explaining the context to you. I recall my mother say that whenever she used to try and give … [Read more...]