NEW ZEALAND: Jake we last spoke with you in 2016 (May issue) and now it is a good time to talk again about this moment in 2020 because our paths have crossed and we are in in the same country at the same time because of COVID-19. Where were you when you heard about it, what was happening then, where are you and, of course, what are you doing now? From the top down, I am staying still and safe in my family’s beach house in New Zealand…for the moment and how ever long that needs to be …in a sleepy village on the edge of the South Pacific Ocean on the Coromandel Peninsula. The area has subtropical weather and there is a lot going on in nature. Bananas and persimmons are ripening in the backyard, the second lot of figs are coming in, there are quinces at the neighbours, feijoas are dropping like rain, field mushrooms are everywhere and wild blackberries are ripening along the roadside. The skies are bright blue all day, every day, with puffed clouds sailing east en route to … [Read more...]
‘Cruz del Sur began as a dream of having organic and tasty vegetables’ – Paula Segura Mallmann
JOSE IGNAGIO: I met Paula Segura Mallmann, in high summer at lunchtime at Cruz del Sur in Jose Ignagio, Uruguay when it was at its peak with it regular and chic holiday house residents and the restaurant was busy…busy in a welcoming way, casual, relaxed, encouraging. Families were there, some were eating alone, some in small groups and a gaggle of golden haired little boys, who’d been free wheeling all morning and had left their bikes piled at the gate, were sitting at a table reading menus, while waiting for their mothers to arrive. We had passed the little vegetable store at the entrance of the restaurant which suggested the food inside was going to be simple, same day picked and, brimful with sunshine and ripeness. I remember well, luminous flowers, zinnias and huge tassels of Amaranthus spilling out of vases everywhere, the abundant herb garden tucked in the back, the midday heat, the coolness on the shaded terrace. With good … [Read more...]
Sabine Caubarrere on discovering sourdough in Uruguay
In Borneo, Isabel Gilbert Palmer discovered Argentine chef Sabine Caubarrere who after her culinary studies in Buenos Aires Culinary Arts and Business Administration at IAG (Instituto Argentino de Gastronomía) and the UADE (Universidad Argentina de la Empresa) and before her current project in Uruguay travelled and worked in Spain. How was Spain? I stayed there for 6 months, 1 month and a half in Valladolid, where together with 11 other international students I studied at Escuela Internacional de Valladolid Fernando Perez while training in some typical restaurants in the city. Then we all got separated for three months training in fine dining restaurants. The restaurant I went to was Casa Solla in Pontevedra-Galicia which had a Michelin star and then later in France at Mirazur in Menton and the last months of In de Wulf with Kobe Desramaults until he closed the restaurant. And how did you find your way to Dranouter ? I was accepted for a 3 month training at … [Read more...]
Falling in love with Uruguay: Discovering La Barra and Borneo Coffee
Wedged between Brazil in the north and Argentina to the west, Uruguay has become Isabel Gilbert Palmer’s latest “I’ve fallen deeply in love with” part of the world. On the road during the month of January she travelled along the Uruguay coast, from Montevideo to Punte Del Esta tracing the coastal Ruta Gastromica from the seaside villages of Puente La Barra to Jose Ignaico and on the dusty ribboned backroads to Pueblo Garzon. Isabel shares some of her southern hemisphere summer finds and later stories during the same month, of travelling further afield to Argentina, the city Buenos Aires, her drive across the Pampas to Mendoza and the wine fields at the foot of the Andes. People, places, art, food, wine, where to stay and sunshine. An unforgettable Latin American experience and fortune willing she’s doing it all over again, and more next year. In the meantime memories are made of this . La Barra La Barra is one of the old fishing villages strung along … [Read more...]
Less is more, make that your mantra – Nancy Singleton Hachisu
Isabel Gilbert Palmer interviews food writer Nancy Singleton Hachisu about food in Japan. Phaidon will be publishing her third book called Japan the Cookbook on 6 April. Nancy says that Japan the Cookbook is not an examination of regional cooking traditions, as much as a curated experience of Japan's culinary framework from a specific moment in time. Using both line and generous strokes, she said she has put together what she hopes is a broad and rich picture of the food of this island nation. Three years in the making, the book hs a collection of over 400 recipes of authentic and traditional Japanese dishes and explores every part of Japan home cooking through soups, noodles, rice, pickles, one pots, sweets and vegetable dishes. Nancy I was introduced to your work by a chef in Malibu, Los Angeles, last summer who on one of his free days, picked Japanese farm food off a friend’s bookshelf, not because he’s a cookbook reader, but because of the title. He had spent 14 years living in … [Read more...]
Food writers: Jay Rayner and the Ten Food Commandments
Writers who write about food are writers, no question. How they write about food is as varied as how chefs and cooks make cheese on toast at home (more on that later) or roast a chicken at work and their readers, fans or haters decide each according to their own views if the writing works or not. In New Zealand, where I am having a sabbatical of sorts from life in Gent, it is exciting to see the country's major city Auckland hosting its annual Writers for Readers event (this is their 17th year ), shouting out that the festival brings the world to Auckland. There is truth to this as can be seen from the programme. What I am mostly interested in is Event 46 guest and showman Jay Rayner. Rayner is the UK’s Observer restaurant critic. He is a journalist, a jazz pianist and author of books like The Ten (Food) Commandments, A Greedy Man in a Hungry World, and My Dining Hell: Twenty Ways To Have a Lousy Night Out. He figuratively fell into my lap. He was already one on … [Read more...]
The first Chefs for Human Rights event held in Los Angeles
Chefs for Human Rights LA grew out of a conversations with Human Rights activists in California and their close social connections and histories with a group of notable chefs in Los Angeles. Chefs Bryant Ng, Nancy Silverton, Josh Loeb, Niki Nikayama, Ray Garcia and Zoe Nathan together with winemaker Mimi Casteel stepped up together to tackle these problems in a tangible way. Theirs was an answer to pressing contemporary social issues in their own city for those seeking asylum status which may take at least three years through the legal and bureaucratic process before these people can begin a new life in a new country. The chefs shared Bryant Ng's kitchen at Cassia and Casteel poured her wines for a crowd of LA guests who paid admirably for a seat at their table last month in October at Cassia in Santa Monica with all proceeds going to Programme for Torture victims. The event at the award-winning Cassia restaurant in Santa Monica raised over $100,000 for the Los … [Read more...]
Ichiyo Terauchi: From Japan to New Zealand with focus and determination
In the last in a series of interviews with new New Zealanders involved in the wine scene in New Zealand, Isabel Gilbert Palmer interviews Ichiyo Terauchi, sales and marketing executive of Te Mata Estate, New Zealand's oldest wineries Ichiyo, you are the last person I have chosen to interview in my series about new New Zealanders living and working in the Wine Industry in Hawkes Bay but you are working in a different but important area and are passionate member of the New Guard Group there. What is your interest and involvement in the industry? I am in Sales and Marketing Executive for Te Mata Estate. Its a family owned winery which was established in 1896 where the three original vineyards planted then are still in use and one of New Zealand's oldest like Mission Estate. What led you to come here? I first came to New Zealand when I was 17 years old on a school exchange program to learn English because I was fascinated by it as a language. At the time we could chose to study … [Read more...]
Dan Brennan: ‘Time makes the wine’ and time makes a wine career
Isabel Gilbert Palmer interviews Daniel Brennan, an American who has settled in New Zealand and is working to do something different with wines in Hawkes Bay. His advice to anyone taking a step towards a winemaking career is to be ready to work hard and not make much money for a very long time. He says its important to work with people who have the same mindset as yours and are passionate. Here is his story. Lets begin with a timeline Dan. What year did you come to New Zealand and specifically why? 2008 to study Wine Science at the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) in Hawkes Bay. Where do you live and from where did you come from originally ? I live in Hawkes Bay. I am New York-born, and grew up in Philadelphia in a Sicilian-Irish family. What brought you from the East Coast of USA not exactly known for wine growing to the East Coast of New Zealand and Hawkes Bay, well known for it? I can answer that partly with a question for you. Do you think tasting a wine … [Read more...]
Guillaume Thomas (Maison Noir): A French harvest nomad follows his dream in New Zealand
Isabel Gilbert Palmer interviews a French man who has settled in Havenlock North, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand and who has just started to produce wine under the Maison Noir label. Like many in the food and wine world, he took a long time to find out what he wanted to do in life and after a life in music decided to work in the wine industry, studying winemaking and wine marketing and then becoming a harvest nomad to travel around the world. He finally settled in New Zealand, the place where he met his wife and had a daughter. Guillaume as the first New New Zealander in this series lets begin with.. So where are you from originally ? I was born and spent my childhood in a very small French village,there were only 12 homes, in La Vrignais in the Aigrefeuille-sur Maine, the Loire-Atlantique department of western France, in fact near the city of Nantes on the Atlantic coast, in Brittany. Its perhaps an assumption to say that because you were born in a historical wine growing … [Read more...]