The Michelin guide and Robert Parker, one of the most influential wine guides if not the most influential over the past years have announced that they have joined forces. It is still unclear what the collaboration will mean though Michelin and Robert Parker have been collaborating since 2016 in Singapore and Hong Kong Macau to offer unique dining experiences based on pairing fine cuisine and wine. Michelin has announced that initially they will be focusing on markets in Asia and North America before pursuing their deployment in Europe and others regions of the world. "We are very excited to inform our readers that Michelin, the globally renowned tire company and name behind the world’s leading guide to quality restaurants, MICHELIN guide, announced today its acquisition of a 40% stake in Robert Parker Wine Advocate and RobertParker.com, the world’s most widely read independent consumers’ guide to fine wine," said Lisa Perrotti-Brown, editor in Chief of Robert Parker's wine … [Read more...]
Filip Claeys: Activist chef shows that where there is a will there is a way
We have heard many times how difficult it is for chefs to be activists and to raise awareness around certain issues. After all, the impact can be limited if you just practice what you preach in your restaurant. But then there are chefs who become activists, who create movements and who start to slowly change the system despite the odds that are heavily stacked against them. Habits are extremely difficult to change but each one of us has the power to change these habits if we work enough on them. Belgian chef Filip Claeys of Brugge two Michelin star restaurant De Jonkman and founder of North Sea Chefs is someone who believes in taking action particularly when its a subject that is close at heart. You could easily say that his mantra is 'where there is a will there is a way'. He did this at a cost. He lost 30 per cent of his customers when he started to introduce humble fish in his menu. But it was a fight he was willing to take on. Nearly 10 years ago, he founded North Sea Chefs … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #118
Two Kitchens: an exclusive extract from Rachel Roddy’s new book, part one: Of course I thought Rome was glorious, but I didn’t want to stay. A month – three at most – then I’d return to Sicily to finish the clockwise journey I had interrupted. An area of the city called Testaccio tripped me up with its workaday, easy charm. It was where I met my partner, Vincenzo, a Sicilian, and it was nearly 12 years ago that we settled into a life there. Although Testaccio is in the heart of the city, it feels more like a village; it is where Roman food – distinctive, traditional and inextricably tied with the history of daily life of the place – seems to permeate everything. It was living in this quarter of Rome that the idea that “every cuisine tells a story” made absolute sense. I soon discovered that if you ask someone to show you how to cook something, they almost always give you a story too – be it a small domestic tale or a great, sweeping history. You also get lunch … possibly a rambling … [Read more...]
Tokyo meets Alba in unique four hands dinner between Enrico Crippa and Zaiyu Hasegawa at Piazza Duomo
When Zaiyu Hasegawa went to Alba the first time it was just a very short visit lasting less than 5 hours. He had been at an event in Milan and couldn't resist a visit to the temple of the white truffle. Little did he know that some time later he would be invited to cook with one of his idols Enrico Crippa, chef of the three Michelin star restaurant Piazza Duomo in Alba. Collaboration and sharing knowledge is one of the secrets to success in life. And when this happens in the kitchen of one of the best restaurants in the world, then magic is bound to happen. That was the case of the four hands dinner between Crippa and Hasegawa in Alba last week. That this would be a match made in heaven was to be expected. The Japanese chef of Den is known for his playful style of modern kaiseki. He also has access to produce grown in his sister's garden which supplies his restaurant. On the other hand, Enrico loves Japan and Japanese culture and has worked for three years there in the past so … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #117
The New Foodieism: Like many of us, I spent the winter muddling through a mental miasma, pondering the meaning of life and democracy. I did, of course, think about “food” — how it’s produced, marketed, discussed, consumed, and so on — during my self-imposed hiatus from near-constant writing, which began more than 18 months ago. But I also wondered about its relevance. So much so that, after the election, I said that working on food issues had to take second place to “defending democracy”: It seemed to me that food was somehow less important than it had been BT“Before Trump.” Since this is a food column, after all, we could also say “before the chickens came home to roost,” acknowledging that the founders actually established a faux-democracy, which allows the system to be rigged to the point where even a statement like “all white men are created equal” is a joke; and how that, in turn, left a large enough number of voters apathetic and/or frustrated enough to make room for a disrupter … [Read more...]
Inside the magical world of Enrico Crippa’s garden is the secret to his legendary salad
For a food lover or chef, visiting Enrico Crippa’s garden just a few kilometres outside of the town of Alba is a bit like visiting the magical world of Roald Dahl's chocolate factory. To understand the Italian chef of Piazza Duomo in Alba, one of the best restaurants in the world, you need to understand this garden. Ideally, you need to wake up early and visit it with him. Because it is here that you will discover the secret to his success, to his flavours and to his story. His ‘Insalata’ or salad as it is known is the stuff of legend. A lot has been written about it, photos taken and he describes it as the best dish he has ever made. “But there is no cooking or preparation,” he smiles. You may have come with preconceived ideas about the dish but nothing prepares you for the experience. A table of eight people including Zaiyu Hasegawa, the Japanese chef of Tokyo restaurant Den, Andrea Petrini, one of the co-curators of The Gelinaz! and host Roberta Ceretto representing the … [Read more...]
Round trip for four chefs starts at Le Coq aux Champs
The concept of four hands dinners has become common over the past few years. The idea is that of allowing the chefs to experiment, to exchange ideas and views and learn from each other and also to offer the restaurant's clients something different. Christophe Pauly of Le Coq aux Champs has taken four-hands dinners to the next level by inviting three chefs of well known Belgian restaurants to join him at his restaurant this year. He will then reciprocate with a round-trip to the restaurants of these three chefs next year. The first chef to visit Le Coq aux Champs will be Dimitry Lysens, of Michelin star restaurant Magis in Tongres. The dinner takes place on 5 July. On 16 October, it will be Filip Claeys, chef of two Michelin star restaurant De Jonkman in Bruges who will cook together with Christophe Pauly. The guest chef on Sunday 26 November will be Karen Torosyan, chef of the Michelin star restaurant Bozar Brasserie in Brussels. Pauly will join the chefs in their … [Read more...]
Noma Mexico: a masterclass in how a restaurant can use social media for storytelling
The use of social media by René Redzepi and his Noma Mexico team was a masterclass in how a restaurant can use social media to document its story and intrigue hundreds of thousands of followers who can never make it to visit the restaurant not only because of logistics and cost but also because it would be impossible to cater for so many people. Noma Mexico took a year of planning to come into fruition and existed for just seven weeks but it involved building a 32-metre long kitchen and settling 145 staff members including spouses and children. But what was most striking was not necessarily the reviews of the food that was created using the produce the team found in Tulum, Mexico, but rather the creative use of social media and in particular Instagram. Redzepi used both his private account as well as the restaurant account to document the seven week journey using the Instagram feed as well as the Stories feature giving viewers a unique glimpse of what happened in the background … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #116
Around the World in 30 Steaks: The Best From Las Vegas to Tokyo: Restaurant food doesn't get much simpler than a properly cooked chunk of beef—and rarely delivers so much pleasure. The smoky sweetness of the char, with its hint of crispness. The soft flesh releasing the deep and earthy flavors of the meat. It's the stuff of meaty dreams and enjoyed worldwide. Yet it's easy to ruin a steak. No amount of sauce or mustard can fix bad beef. Overcooked meat will be dry and chewy. Walk into a random steakhouse when traveling and you may suffer more disappointment than joy. The Team Behind The ‘World’s Best Restaurant’ Tackle Fast-Casual: Dinner at Eleven Madison Park, Will Guidara and chef Daniel Humm’s vaunted haute cuisine hangout — which closes June 9 for renovations and a summer Hamptons pop-up — costs a lofty $295 per person. For many, that kind of expense would rightly raise eyebrows and prompt double takes. Even a meal at the NoMad — the partners’ clubby hotel restaurant that … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #115
Massimo Bottura and his global movement to feed the hungry: Massimo Bottura is running late. You imagine this is probably a perennial condition. In the previous week, as I know from various emails, the man who was in 2016 voted the number one chef in the world, has been in Tokyo, Melbourne and London, returning between each trip to cook at Osteria Francescana, his three Michelin-starred restaurant in the northern Italian city of Modena. See how he's disrupting fine dining - and he isn't even a chef: The clean lines and chilled vibes of the dining area at Nahm, one of Bangkok’s most renowned restaurants, are what you’d expect from a joint with an acclaimed, history-driven menu that has set it apart as one of the best in the city. But behind the scenes, back in the kitchen, you encounter the clatter of pans, bursts of flames, staccato knocks on chopping boards and shouts of “Yes, chef!” and “Service!” It works, this careful chaos, thanks to a delicate balance of trust between the … [Read more...]