When you are on top of the game, whether it is in sport, art or in any other field, it is easy to rest on your laurels and bask in the glory of success. René Redzepi's restaurant Noma has been voted as the World's best restaurant in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014. When he lost the top position in the year the restaurant was hit with an outbreak of norovirus, he worked harder and focused to get back to the top position. He is considered by many to be one of the most influential chefs if not the most influential chef that came after the Spanish star Ferran Adria who reinvented modern cuisine in the 1990s. It is therefore no coincidence that a documentary film would be released about this talented chef who has put Copenhagen on the worldwide gastronomic map and has been hitting the headlines with incredible ease for his ground-breaking dishes and concepts in his restaurant. And that documentary becomes all the more topical as we learned just some months ago that Noma would close … [Read more...]
Magnus Nilsson: ‘Unlike other creative industries, you don’t get a second chance in a restaurant’ – Chef’s Table review
"Unlike other creative professions, when you cook in a restaurant you don't get a second chance. You cannot go to customer and say the crab was not very good today so you should come and try it another day," says 32-year-old chef Magnus Nilsson, chef of Swedish restaurant Fäviken. The Chef's Table documentary of this talented Swedish chef is a must watch, as it depicts the story of this creative chef who is cooking in what is probably the most well known remote restaurant in the world. Listed 25th in the world's 50 Best restaurants for 2015 announced on 1 June, Fäviken is unique in many ways. Saying that the restaurant is in the middle of nowhere is an understatement. It is located in Järpen, around 750 kilometres north of Stockholm, and Nilsson started cooking there by chance given the fact that he was recruited to oversee the wine cellars as a consultant. This was after he decided to stop cooking on his return to Sweden from France. The documentary brilliantly portraits this … [Read more...]
Francis Mallmann: ‘Get out of your chair and go out’ – Chef’s Table review
"I am a cook that uses cooking to send this message of a way of living. I am always cooking in remote places in the wild with fires. So the message is get out of your chair, sofa or office and go out," says the most influential chef from Argentina. When I sat down to watch Chef's Table documentary on Francis Mallmann I was intrigued by the visuals of the trailers which showed Argentina's arguably most high-profile chef cooking lamb with fire in snow with a stunning landscape as the backdrop. That intrigue was not misplaced. This documentary, produced by David Gelb is an exceptional portrait of a chef who has really returned to the basics of cooking, using fire in all its possibilities to produce simple dishes which are full of flavours. Mallmann explains that today we educate children to be settled and once they have a job, a car and a place to sleep the dreams are dead. "You do not grow on a secure path. All of us should conquer something in life. It needs a lot of work, it … [Read more...]
Chef’s table review – Massimo Bottura: A recipe as a social gesture
Massimo Bottura sees the world like few others. His passion for food is not only compelling but it is also contagious. You only need to see him in action live or on a television programme to realise that he has this capacity to stir emotions in people which is second to none. That he is passionate about cooking and food is no secret. But what few know is that one of the biggest secrets to his success is his wife Lara Gilmore, an American who he met in New York. This Italian restaurant in the city of Modena is probably one of the most famous restaurants in the world. It is listed as the world's 3rd best restaurant in the World's 50 Best Restaurants, has three Michelin stars and has really put Italy at the top of the world's league. While many are in love with Italian food, very few tend to associate Italian cuisine with innovation and avant garde cuisine. What Massimo Bottura has done is change all this in a country which does not like to mess with 'grandmother's recipe' as … [Read more...]
Sergio Herman Fucking Perfect: A stunning portrait of perfection and hard work
There is one constant of chefs that have made it to the very top of the culinary world. It is hard work, dedication and incredibly long hours of work. Reaching the top is extremely hard but staying there is no walk in the park either as chefs know that one mistake or bad review could shatter all their dreams. Few chefs have had the courage to give it all up and move on to do other things. The restaurant business is considered glamorous for many and the very best chefs may be considered to be stars in their own right appearing on television programmes, publishing their own books and becoming household names, even if few people can ever go to their restaurants. They have thousands of people following them on social media and huge recognition. Sergio Herman was at the top of the game when he decided to close his 3 Michelin star restaurant Oud Sluis on 22 December 2013 after 25 years working to put it at the top of the World's culinary map. Sergio Herman, Fucking Perfect is a … [Read more...]