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
The iconic dish at Paul Bocuse: Soupe aux truffes VGE created in 1975 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 … [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...]
Valeria Piccini takes a touch of Tuscany to Angelo Agliano’s Tosca in Hong Kong
Valeria Piccini and Angelo Agliano at the four hands dinner in Hong Kong HONG KONG: Valeria Piccini and Angelo Agliano had never met before Valeria’s trip to Hong Kong. They had spoken briefly over the phone to plan a series of three four hands dinners. But you would not have noticed the moment they met on the 108th floor of the Ritz Carlton Hong Kong, the highest hotel in the world. Tosca, the restaurant run by Sicilian chef Agliano was hosting Valeria for the first in the series of events called Gems and Pearl which will see other female Italian chefs visiting Hong Kong next year. It was last Monday evening when Valeria arrived together with sous chef Guglielmo Chiarapini and Andrea Bertolino together with Agrodolce journalist and editor Lorenza Fumelli after a long flight via London. We sat down to sample Angelo’s cooking that evening and slowly get to know the team at Tosca. After a necessary visit to Macau on Tuesday, Wednesday’s morning start was not for the … [Read more...]
Pauly convinces Dionisio to cook his first ever four hands at Le Coq aux Champs
SOHEIT TINLOT: It is a Tuesday evening and for the first time ever, Alexandre Dionisio, chef of La Villa in the Sky, a two Michelin star restaurant with a breathtaking view of Brussels, is cooking outside his kitchen at a four hands dinner. Christophe Pauly, chef of Le Coq aux Champs, managed to convince him to leave the Brussels tower where the restaurant is housed to cook together. "We had travelled together, got to know each other and we promised each other we cook together. I really enjoyed it and I don't think it is going to be the last four hands dinner," Alexandre Dionisio told Food and Wine Gazette. This is the second season of what chef Pauly calls a round trip in which he invites Belgian chefs to cook with him at his restaurant and then visits them at their restaurants a few months later. "Apart from inviting chefs who I admire, I try to invite people who I get on well with and who have a similar vision. It does not have to be the same vision but it has to be … [Read more...]
Under the circus tent at Al Meni in Rimini
The heavens opened at around 3pm on Saturday a few hours after the official opening of the Al Meni, an annual event organised in Rimini under a giant coloured circus tent sent between the sea and the Grand Hotel that evokes a great master of world cinema, Federico Fellini. Heavy rain, thunderstorms welcomed the opening day of the seventh edition of Al Meni, a festival that is organised annually in the Emilia Romagna city of Rimini in June. “In a world where walls are being built, and in a place where we were surrounded with walls 1,000 years ago, we want to break the walls and say to everyone tat you are welcome here. We love to have you here, we love to host you here, come and enjoy yourself. This is what Al Meni is about,” Massimo Bottura said at the opening of the event before flying to Singapore for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants ceremony. The Italian chef was not there for the evening session where a thunderstorm and torrential rain forced the street market to close … [Read more...]
Two brothers from another sea: Kobus van der Merwe cooks in Willem Hiele’s ‘magical world’
Kobus Van der Merwe (left) with Margot Janse (centre) and Willem Hiele Thousands of kilometres separate South Africa from Belgium. But South African Kobus Van der Merwe, chef of Wolfgat and Belgian Willem Hiele, chef of the restaurant by the same name in Belgium have something that connects them to each other. It was therefore no wonder that Alexandra Sweden, who brought them together and introduced them through social media, termed them ‘Brothers from another sea’. Until a few months ago, the two chefs had not met despite a similar passion for the sea and ocean, for the people of their territory and their approach to cooking. Willem visited Kobus on a holiday earlier this year and there was instant chemistry. On Saturday, they cooked together for the first time at Willem Hiele’s restaurant in the Flemish seaside resort Koksijde. Kobus, whose restaurant, Wolfgat was recently awarded as ‘Restaurant of the Year’ and ‘Off-Map destination’ restaurant at the World Restaurant … [Read more...]
Riccardo Camanini’s magical Cacio e Pepe
Riccardo Camanini's Cacio e Pepe is served at table Go back a few years and few people would have known what Cacio e Pepe was. A staple of modern Italian cuisine, its simplicity was such that it was rarely if ever served in restaurants, especially those outside Rome where the dish seems to have originated. It was one of those comfort food dishes that many would eat at home when they lacked inspiration or ingredients. But, over the past few years, the Cacio e Pepe or ‘cheese and pepper’ as one would translate it from Italian, has become not just fashionable and trendy but also extremely common. The ingredients used to make this simple pasta sauce are water, cheese (pecorino Romano) and lots of pepper. Hunting for the best Cacio e Pepe or comparing one to the other may be difficult though of course the quality of the cheese used can make the difference. It’s akin to searching for the Holy Grail, you seem to be on the right track but it remains elusive. That changed in … [Read more...]
Cooking on the frontier: a culinary trip to Ana Ros and Antonia Klugmann
A small road sign on the way to L’Argine a Venco leads you to a small country road which takes you to Antonia Klugmann’s restaurant. Opposite is a sign saying Slovenia is just two kilometres away. A further 36 kilometres or just over a half hour drive is Hisa Franko, the restaurant of Ana Ros and Valter Kramer which has put Slovenia on the culinary map. This is Mitteleuropa or the German term for Middle or Central Europe. And here is home to two of Europe’s leading female chefs, both valid reasons for a gastronomic trip but also exceptionally close to each other to be worth combining them. There are similarities between the two chefs who find themselves working so close to each other on either side of the Italian and Slovenian border. They both have a very deep connection to their region and their territory and they both have rose to fame thanks to their cooking and television. Ana Ros was well known in gastronomic circles before Chef’s Table on Netflix but the episode in that … [Read more...]