What makes two professionals, highly respected in their fields put all their life savings into a project to create a boutique winery in Malta making top quality wines? How do they find the time to manage a wine business despite their professional commitments? That’s the story of Dr Astrid Camilleri, a gynaecologist and Prof. Juanito Camilleri a former University rector and former CEO of a mobile operator who have set up the Ta’ Betta Winery in Malta with the aim of making fine wines with personality that have ageing potential. “It’s a long story,” Astrid tells me. It is not a problem for me. It is a beautiful albeit windy summer evening at Ta’ Betta winery, a gem of a place the two have created over many years of hard work. You could call it their life or passion project but it has turned out to be much more than that. “We met in Cambridge while we were studying. I had started working there and Juanito was reading for his PhD. We got to know each other and we got married within 2 … [Read more...]
The Maltese ftira (flatbread) and how it made it to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list
MALTA: As the sun sets on the horizon children come out of the sea and asks her parents for something to eat. It is the middle of summer and nothing is more appetising that a local flatbread known as ftira with tomatoes, tuna, olives, capers, basil and olive oil. You could say that’s the taste of Malta, the taste of an island in the middle of the Mediterranean. This must be the most common ‘sandwich’ on the Mediterranean island and more often than not it is not the hobza tal-Malti (Maltese loaf) but rather the ftira typical of Malta that is used to quench the appetite after a summer swim. Now, that sourdough flatbread or ftira has been classified as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list. Local historian Noel Buttigieg, who took the lead in presenting the case to UNESCO knows the importance bread has held in local history. He has taken it upon himself to raise awareness and also help raise the quality of this Maltese bread. “We choose the Maltese ftira and … [Read more...]
The Douro Boys in the time of the pandemic
When the Douro Boys group was created, the aim behind the idea was not to work together commercially but rather to put the Douro on the wine map. That required a lot of travel both from Portugal and the Douro valley where the wineries are but also into the region. Today, 17 years later and as the group approaches its 20 years since its existence with a pandemic in between, the five wineries which have put the Douro on the wine spotlight are reflecting as to what the future holds. The Douro Boys was set up by the owners of five wineries, Quinta do Vallado, Quinta do Crasto, Quinta Vale D. Maria, Quinta do Vale Meão and the port wine house Niepoort to raise awareness for the Douro region worldwide. Over the past weeks, I sat down (albeit via Zoom) to speak with a representative of each of the wineries to discuss the impact that the Douro Boys have had on Portuguese wine in particular but more importantly what changes they are considering particularly given the COVID-19 pandemic … [Read more...]
‘This crisis is making us focus on the way we consume, the way we travel, how we treat earth’
BRUSSELS/LYON: What does the future hold for restaurants and guides like Michelin or the World’s 50 Best Restaurants? I’ve always thought that we were living a time that I liked to call ‘peak food’. Everywhere you looked, food, restaurants, chefs were part of our daily life. Then came COVID-19, lockdowns, closed borders and everything has been put into question. Over a virtual coffee, I sat down with Florent Bonnefoy, an entrepreneur who is currently working with clients across China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and France on new food-related venture development, restaurants brand building and customer experience maximisation to speak about the challenges that COVID-19 has brought to the restaurant world. In this wide-ranging conversation with the French entrepreneur, we discuss the future of fine dining, the restaurant business, deliveries and the acceleration of trends that this crisis has brought about. IB: The world of fine dining as we know it is changing. Rene Redzepi … [Read more...]
New experiences in restaurant design: IYO Aalto, unexpected story of contemporary Japan in Milan
MILAN: There is the contemporary idea of Japan in the project that the Italian architect Maurizio Lai has developed for IYO Aalto. This is the second restaurant of the group after IYO Taste Experience. The latter is the only Japanese restaurant in Italy awarded a Michelin star. Subtle references to tradition give way to a contemporary and pure design language, conceiving a place where essential materials and light merge to form a different narrative. Maurizio Lai has created a restaurant where the founding values of IYO are transferred to the space. IYO Aalto offers a dual experience, in an environment designed right down to the smallest detail. There is Tokyo's Edomae zushi culture, in a traditional Sushi Banco, and a boundless and contemporary cuisine in the elegant Gourmet Restaurant. The 320 square meters space embraces the open kitchen, the wine cellar, the exclusive Sushi Banco and the Gourmet Restaurant. Natural materials – walnut, porphyry, brass, leather – were … [Read more...]
A trip to Japan as Kawate, Shimizu are first guests of Gert De Mangeleer for Chef’s Invitation
BRUGES: Without a shadow of doubt, LESS Eatery in Bruges was among Belgium’s most exciting restaurant openings last year. The restaurant of Gert de Mangeleer and Joachim Boudens has been designed in a way that gives the restaurant a certain buzz that could fit well with a metropolitan city such as New York or Tokyo. They decided to open it in Gert’s hometown. After clinching a star within less than a year under the helm of young Ruige Vermeire, Gert de Mangeleer is inviting chef friends from around the world to cook at the restaurant and allow his young team to learn new techniques. The first such event called Chef’s Invitation took place last week in Bruges on Wednesday 29 and January 30. The first two chefs to cook were Hiroyasu Kawate of Florilege (not his first time cooking in Belgium) and Susumu Shimizu of Anis, both restaurants in Tokyo. Florilege has 2 Michelin stars and is no. 5 in Asia’s 50 Best Gert was very satisfied after the first event. “We … [Read more...]
Face to face with snake soup in Hong Kong
HONG KONG: No one spoke a word of English when we walked in to She Wong Lam, one of the last remaining snake butchers in Hong Kong. We are early. She Wong Lam serves soup normally from 11am till 4pm but Andrea Petrini had promised us a breakfast that starts with what he called a ‘snake cappuccino’. We fill the small room which has been serving snake for more than 125 years. The air is heavy. Some say there is an intense smell of snake. If I had to be honest, I cannot really smell it. But there are cages with snakes at the entrance to the restaurant all marked as poisonous. Before we sit at table, three men who are working inside the shop show us the snakes that are in the wooden boxes that fill the shop. One opens a few of these drawers to show us the different varieties of snake which will eventually be butchered at the back of the shop. There is every variety of snake and on every box there is a mark that they are poisonous. Now, this is definitely not the place for anyone … [Read more...]
Paul Bocuse’s loss of three Michelin stars is no surprise
LYON: In Lyon, France's capital of gastronomy, the city is waking up to news that Restaurant Paul Bocuse will lose its third star when Michelin announces its results on Monday 27 January. The news was published exclusively by Le Point who called the news 'an electrochoc' and the effect of a bomb in gastronomy. The restaurant in Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or in Lyon had three stars continuously since 1965. But the news comes as no surprise because it has been rumoured since last year when Marc Haeberlin (L'Auberge de l'Ill), Marc Veyrat (La Maison des bois) and Pascal Barbot at L'Astrance all lost their three stars. Le Point said that Gwendal Pullennec, the Michelin Guide director was in Lyon yesterday morning to announce the decision to the restaurant team telling them the decision 'was taken collectively'. For many months now, there have been rumours going around about the increasing possibility that the restaurant would lose its three stars following the death of Paul Bocuse … [Read more...]
Norbert Niederkofler cooks the mountain at St Hubertus
SAN CASSIANO: Norbert Niederkofler loved the mountains but wanted to travel so he left South Tyrol to cook his way around the world. In 1993 he returned to the region and was given the opportunity to be chef at the pizzeria of the Hotel Rosa Alpina in San Cassiano at the base of the Dolomite mountains in 1994. At the time, the hotel restaurant was a humble pizzeria and signs of this are still visible in the restaurant kitchen of this 3 Michelin star restaurant. Norbert took this restaurant and slowly but surely has turned the St Hubertus into one of Italy's culinary meccas and one of the latest Italian restaurants to get the 3 Michelin star accolade. To get there, he’s had to change direction and that breakthrough came with the birth of his first son a few years ago. Prior to that, he had been cooking with some of the best ingredients he could get his hands on from langoustines to caviar and fois gras. "The birth of my son made me realise that I needed to change my ways," … [Read more...]
GELINAZ stay at home shuffle: The tofu camembert that gave the game away
BRUSSELS: On November 17, an innocuous post was published on Inua's Instagram page. It was a repost from one of the restaurant chefs. "After 60 or so trials and variations (some of which were the worse things I've tasted in a very long time we've finally reached consistency in something we're pretty happy with." With it they posted a photo of tofu treated like camembert made with soy milk. Thousands of kilometres away, at Bon Bon Restaurant in Brussels, Christophe Hardiquest and his team were wrecking their brains on the matrixes they received from one of 148 chefs around the world. It was part of the GELINAZ! Stay in Tour Shuffle. "We have been working the whole month on the recipes. We were not used to certain produce, to certain ingredients and also to certain fermentations," Christophe Hardiquest told Food and Wine Gazette. He knew that the recipes came from Asia, that was evident from the ingredients and there also was a Nordic touch though though the penny really … [Read more...]