One of society's biggest challenges is work life balance. Can you succeed in life and have an adequate work life balance? As David Choe, an artist friend of David Chang rightly put it, being a workaholic could be the last socially acceptable addiction. In Eat like a Peach - a memoir, David Chang speaks about his battle with depression, his suicidal thoughts which come and go and says that "the paradox for the workaholic is that rock bottom is the top of whatever profession they’re in.” The first time I met David Chang was in Vienna a few days before the GELINAZ! event GELINAZ! does Upper Austria. In the span of a few days, I would get to eat next to him, to have dinner conversations, listen to him discuss what his team would cook, the tension surrounding the preparations, the stress of fine-tuning the dish amid ‘huge personalities’ and the final relief when it was all over. I’d naively told him to relax and have fun but I still recall him saying these events caused him a huge … [Read more...]
Norbert Niederkofler launches Cook the Mountain – The nature around you book
BRUNICO: At the ALPINN restaurant, over 2,300 metres above sea level, chef Norbert Niederkofler has finalised a project that started in 2008. "Cook the Mountain" - The nature around you is the book he has been working on over the past 10 years. The chef, who became famous for his Cook the Mountain philosophy at St Hubertus said he is telling all the stories of the mountain culture, the mountain food, the producers, their way of working, sustainability, how they used to work in the old days and what they have been doing to recover and bring back these traditions for the next generation. Printed entirely on apple paper (made from apple waste) and in a fully recyclable box, the book will be on sale as from October. The chef has announced that the 400 page book is being sold from his website. The first 500 copies will be signed by the chef himself and will be numbered. "With this book, I want to motivate people to become part of this harmony that exists between nature, culture … [Read more...]
Travel to Italy this summer with Cucina Tipica: An Italian Adventure
Cucina Tipica: An Italian Adventure is the story of Jacoby Pines, a disheartened American who arrives in Italy on holiday, and decides he never wants to leave. What follows is a wine-soaked, food-filled, travel-laden adventure about one man’s quest for an antiquated existence in the modern world. This is the third novel by Andrew Cotto, an award-winning author whose regularly contributed to The New York Times and has written for Parade, Men's Journal, Rolling Stone, The Huffington Post and Conde Nast Traveller among others. The story takes you through the villages of Liguria, Tuscany, Umbria and Marche. You will read about the wines of the various regions and meals of fried calamari, shrimp, bream and whole anchovies, steamed prawns, pasta with pesto and clams, a mixed roast of lamb, sausage, rabbit and pasta with black truffles not to mention the bistecca fiorentina (t-bone steak) or the uccellini in brodo (white beans with tomatoes in borth) among others. What follows … [Read more...]
Classic cookbook Great Dishes of the World available online for first time
ckbk, a new service providing digital access to the world’s best cookbooks, today announces that it is making Robert Carrier’s classic cookbook, Great Dishes of the World, available online for the first time. Great Dishes of the World had a huge impact on its publication in 1963, and went on to sell more than 10 million copies in numerous editions. According to cookbook editor Jill Norman, “With Great Dishes of the World, Carrier persuaded readers to look beyond their usual culinary boundaries and to experiment, inspired by his confident and exuberant style.” When the 1000 Cookbooks project asked chefs and authors to identify the cookbooks which most influenced them, Great Dishes of the World was one of the top choices. Shaun Hill, a Michelin-starred chef who started his career in Carrier’s London restaurant, welcomed the news: “Robert Carrier is an underrated influence. His food was unashamedly luxurious, with plenty of cream, eggs, … [Read more...]
New book about Wine in Austria to be launched in December
A new book called Wine in Austria: the History was unveiled recently during this year's edition of the Austrian wine Summit. This is the first time that an academically substantiated and comprehensive volume on the history of viticulture in Austria from prehistoric times to this present day will be published. The book includes an individual chapter devoted to the life and work of Dr Friedrich Zweigelt.More than two and a half years of work went into creating the 500-page book, which was commissioned by Willi Klinger and came to fruition under the academic aegis of Professor Dr Karl Vocelka. It will be published by Brandstätter Verlag in December. Mr Klinger said: “More than thirty authors worked to research and write about the long and rich history of Austrian wine in all its facets in this handsome volume. Grape varieties, cultivation and cellar techniques, the role of wine in religion and traditions, the emergence of the Austrian winegrowing regions and the successful … [Read more...]
Lateral Cooking: Niki Segnit on the art of unleashing your creativity in the kitchen
Food writer Niki Segnit believes that by learning the basics of cooking you can unleash your creativity without needed to use a recipe book any longer. With the release of her second book Lateral Cooking, which she has been working on for the past 8 years, she explores the basis of 77 recipes which show readers how one dish can lead to another as they expand their culinary horizons and increase their confidence in cooking. Having worked on this book for 8 years, this is the companion to her first award winning book Flavour Thesaurus which won critical acclaim among chefs and food lovers alike. With Lateral Cooking she wants people to understand the connection between a custard, a creme caramel, a creme brûlée and an ice-cream. "Ultimately, they are all variations of the same theme," she explained. The book grew organically and she never expected it to take eight years to finalise but she continued to discover new things as she went about her research and she had to test each … [Read more...]
A tour of the world in 75 recipes: San book launched
Sang Hoon Degeimbre, Belgian chef of L’ Air du Temps in Liernu and creator of three successful San restaurants has launched a cookbook called San, Around the world in 75 recipes. The book is inspired by recipes of dishes that have been served in the San restaurants since the first one opened 3 years ago in Brussels. The concept behind the restaurant is to serve food in a bowl and to eat it with a spoon. The menu changes every month according to the seasons and the travels of San and his team and is always inspired by Belgium, Korea or cities around the world. Out of over 100 dishes that have been created at the San restaurant over the past three years, 75 recipes have been selected. The main criteria has been that of ensuring that the recipes could easily be replicated at home and where quantities of certain components of the dish are not impossible to make at home. The book is published by Racine and the photography is by Frederic Raevens. It is currently available in … [Read more...]
Nick Bril launches his first book
Nick Bril, chef of two Michelin star Antwerp restaurant The Jane has launched his first book 'Nick Bril 33'. At 33, the Dutch chef has been cooking at the highest level for a long time having been the sous chef with his business partner Sergio Herman at Oud Sluis, a 3 Michelin star restaurant that closed at the end of 2013. For his first book, Nick Bril 33, the Dutch chef has bundled together 33 recipes, thoughts and projects from inspiring trips. It depicts a year in the life of this talented chef. The book has been written by Pascale Baelden, a journalist who has worked among others with Weekend Knack, Feeling and Sabato. She can boast of a 20-year career. Her curiosity about life stories and respect for the narrator is central to her interviews. Photographer and designer Jan Mast provided powerful visuals to the book while food photographer Kris Vlegels was responsible for the recipe photos. The book is a unique look into the soul and life of a top chef and passionate … [Read more...]
Is this the future of cookbooks? René Mathieu creates first ever augmented reality book
René Mathieu, the Belgian chef of Michelin star Luxembourg restaurant Bourglinster will shortly be launching the first ever augmented reality recipe book. The book Vegetal (published in French) is much more than a recipe book. It showcases the creativity of the chef but just in his cuisine (he has an 18 score in the Gault-Millau guide) but also his way of looking at the future of cookbooks using augmented reality. What is special about the recipe book is not just its design which includes the way to plate the dishes, what plates to use and the wines that go will with the dishes but the use of an application called Admented which turns the book into an augmented reality work. Using this technology, the reader will be able to leave the book and enter the universe of René Mathieu by watching original audiovisual content that has been created and filmed specifically to accompany the recipes. This content is not only visual and informative but it gives the reader a completely new … [Read more...]
Gert de Mangeleer Unplugged, a collection of recipes to share in English released
Gert de Mangeleer, chef of three Michelin star restaurant Hertog Jan in Zedelgem, Bruges has just released his collection of recipes to share in a book called Unplugged in English. Originally published in Flemish, the book is now also available in English. “This is the first book in which I collected many of my favourite recipes. I never was really into sharing my recipes until now because my style of cooking evolves too much for that. Nor did I want to give people the impression that they could easily recreate the dishes we serve at Hertog Jan at home. Because they can’t. I cannot even do the things I do in my restaurant at home, because I neither have the kitchen equipment nor the team for it,” he says in the introduction to the book. Instead the book is accessible and presents a series of the tastiest dishes the Belgian chef has prepared for his family and friends in recent years. He says he gets inspiration for his dishes everywhere he goes and that is very visible in the … [Read more...]