As you prepare to pack your bags for your next holiday, hopefully in the coming days or weeks, take some time to research places to eat in the destination you are visiting. For as long as I can remember, I have planned holidays not only on the basis of the places I wanted to visit but also on the places that I wanted to eat, food markets I wanted to visit and food speciality shops that were a must visit. In some cases, I might not recall the name of the restaurant but if the dish was memorable, I may have tried to recreate it at home and can remember not only what I have eaten but also what others at table had eaten. Given we are approaching the peak of the holiday season, here are some tips of what to look out for and what to avoid when you are on holiday. It is not a fool-proof method but you can rest assured that you will have some memorable meals. And after all, holidays are all about memories and what better than to have excellent memories related to food. Here are our … [Read more...]
Non-existent restaurant tops TripAdvisor list in Italian village
You find yourself in a city or village you are not familiar with and you have not really carried out any research so you take out your phone or tablet and try to look up reviews on a website like TripAdvisor or Yelp. You look for restaurants close to where you are and find that the best restaurant in the village is just 200 metres away. It has recently opened, has great reviews and people are raving about it. You walk to the address only to find that the restaurant does not exist. This is what might have happened to you if you were searching for La Scaletta in Moniga del Garda, Italy recently. Italia a Tavola carried out an experiment to verify the reliability of the most visited review portal, TripAdvisor. The restaurant did not exist, though they write that it has been open since the end of April. They put in a false address and telephone number and the reviews started to come in. The restaurant received ten excellent, but obviously false, reviews which led it to the first … [Read more...]
Eight reasons why we think the World’s 50 Best restaurants list may be in trouble
The influence the World's 50 Best restaurants has on the culinary world has been growing every year. But that influence seems to be coming at a price and that price is credibility. The criticism on the way that restaurants are judged has been there for many years but the noise is now growing louder. Over the past years, there were many judges who have quit because they did not agree with the way the list was composed. On Monday 1st June, as the awards were announced for yet another year and the organisers announced that they would be moving to New York next year, it was becoming clearer to independent observers that the event has a credibility problem. A few days earlier, a site Occupy 50 Best was created, calling on sponsors to withdraw from the contest unless it is reformed. And chefs, who may earlier have thought twice before criticising the list, are now becoming more vociferous. Joel Robuchon, Georges Blanc, Francis Mallmann and Gianfranco Chiarini are among the … [Read more...]
Prepaid meals arrive in restaurants in Europe and could revolutionise the way we eat – but will it work?
Are you ready to pay in advance for a restaurant meal just like you would do when going to a theatre performance, music concert or sports event? In September, when we wrote about Next, the Chicago based restaurant we asked a question whether such a system would work in Europe, given that this restaurant sold tickets in advance. Now, a few months later, the system called Tock, created by the co-owner of Alinea and Next, Nick Kokonas, has arrived in Europe. This new concept has faced some criticism as Clove Club in Shoreditch east London announced that it would be the first restaurant in the UK to adopt it for its tasting menus. Faviken, the Swedish restaurant also announced when they opened this season's bookings that they would ask for a prepayment for the food at the point of reservation, with accommodation and drinks to be paid for on site, after the stay. Many were quick to question the system and protest that theywould be paying in advance for the few who do not show up in … [Read more...]
A year after the Osteria Francescana experience
At this time last year, I was eating a pizza with two dear friends in Modena. Hard to believe after a 12 course lunch at Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana a few hours earlier. It was an experience that I will always cherish and it is one of the reasons (though the story is much more complicated than that) why Food and Wine Gazette was born. We are still months away from our first year anniversary of Food and Wine Gazette, but 9th May marks a very important milestone for me. Years earlier, when the word foodie was still not mainstream as it is today, I had set myself two targets when it came to experiencing Italian cuisine, that of eating at Fulvio Pierangelini's Gambero Rosso and at Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana. Both chefs have been extremely important for contemporary Italian cuisine though the styles cannot be more different to each other. Having eaten at Gambero Rosso a few years before it closed for ever, the visit to Massimo Bottura marked an important … [Read more...]
Money talks: Controversial sponsorship at Milan Expo highlights many contradictions
They say you need to lead by example so the announcement by Expo Milano recently that McDonald's and Coca Cola are now event sponsors has raised more than a few eyebrows. With the theme of the Expo Milano 2015 being 'Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life', many were quick to point out that this sponsorship announcement was jarring to say the least. With the Expo aimed at raising awareness about sustainability, food waste and healthy living, it is no wonder that the decision has been criticised by many. To understand this contradiction you may want to read further below what the Milan Expo is about. Slow Food were quick to point out the contradiction. They said that "we continue to believe that in order to feed the planet, it is essential that we consider social and economic sustainability, in terms of access to good, clear food that is fair for all. We also continue to believe that multinationals cannot in any way represent solutions as to how to nourish the … [Read more...]
Ten reasons why food critics in newspapers may disappear sooner than we think
Elisia Menduni, a journalist we follow on Twitter tweeted on Monday that editor of Observer Food Monthly Allan Jenkins had said that the food critic in newspapers will no longer exist in 10 years time. She was participating in the Parabere Forum organised for the first time in Bilbao. The forum aims to bring a collective of women from across the gastronomic industry. We replied saying we thought that this will happen much earlier. Twitter is a great tool for engagement but it is not necessarily the best platform to delve deeper into why we think so. So here are a few points on why we think that food critics (as we know them today) will disappear in newspapers sooner than 10 years. 1. Go back 10 years and think of what did not exist back then. When we look back, it is amazing to see how quick the pace of change has been. Few would have realised that such major disruptions in many industries were around the corner. 2. The newspaper (and media organisations as we … [Read more...]
L’air du temps: Four hands dinner with San Degeimbre and Bo Bech
Bo Bech, the Danish chef of restaurant Geist in Copenhagen was the first to inaugurate this year's series of four hands dinners with two Michelin star chef Sang-hoon Degeimbre at L'Air du Temps in Liernu, and what a great evening it turned out to be. When I had interviewed San in November, he had mentioned Geist as one of his favourite restaurants in the world, so I was incredibly curious to experience what the Danish chef and San could combine together. Bo Bech needs no introduction in Denmark. He is well known for having closed a Michelin star restaurant to open Geist, which is more like a brasserie. The cuisine is still impeccable but he wanted a less formal ambience. In Copenhagen, he was also well known for having a bakery without a name which made only one type of bread, and for many years he was a television personality who presented the Danish version of 'Kitchen nightmares'. When you meet Bo, you can actually feel his energy. We were invited to experience this … [Read more...]
2014 – A year of Food and Wine Gazette in review
Food and Wine Gazette was launched in September 2014. In four months, readers from over 110 countries have visited the website with most of the visitors coming from Belgium, followed by the United States and the Netherlands. Our top reads to date were the following: 1. Grant Achatz (Alinea): A genius of molecular cuisine 2. Carcasse: A restaurant by one of Belgium's best butchers, Dierendonck 3. A review of Massimo Bottura's great book Never Trust a Skinny Italian chef 4. Mauro Colagreco (Mirazur) showcases three great dishes using collagen 5. Interview with Sang Hoon Degeimbre: Creativity comes from constant questioning and keeping an open mind 6. Fulvio Pierangelini - an Italian chef in exile 7. De Superette (Gent): The bakery with a difference It has been a busy first few months with visits to Chefs Revolution in Zwolle and Chef Sache in Cologne as well as participation in a number of events in Brussels such as the Vini Birre Ribelli which focused mainly … [Read more...]
Are there times when it is not right to take a child to a restaurant?
The issue of children in a restaurant is always a very touchy subject. It is a sore point both for parents, restaurant owners and patrons alike. Earlier this year, there was a great controversy on the subject when renowned American chef of Alinea Grant Achatz tweeted that guests at his three-star restaurant had taken an eight-month old baby along to dinner. At one point the baby proceeded to cry and the chef said he could hear him from the kitchen. He did not kick them out but he did say that he was considering changing his policy vis-a-vis children in his restaurants. So when is it legitimate for a restaurant to say it does not accept children under a certain age? What is the definition of a child-friendly restaurant? When is it acceptable to take children to a restaurant and when should it be prohibited? What is the rule for high-end restaurants? Is there a particular age when a child should not be accepted in a restaurant? Where should you draw the line? Should parents with … [Read more...]