The rise of social eating networks is giving the possibility to many to monetise skills that are not widely utilised in male-dominated restaurant kitchen culture. In Italy, Gnammo is the largest of many restaurants popping up all over Italy to promote a new trend in dinner parties. Users can search through chefs' online profiles for a menu they like and then dine at the chef's … [Read more...]

Your dose of inspiration this week should start with this article about Mikael Jonsson of Hedone who traded a career as a successful lawyer in Sweden with being a Michelin starred chef in London. He decided to do this when he was 44 when he says it started to grind in the back of his head that he should take his home-cooking skills and see how could he could become as a chef. … [Read more...]

Alain Ducasse is one of the world's greatest chefs. The 59-year-old French chef has 23 restaurants in seven countries, including two in London, and a total of 20 Michelin stars. He also runs cookery schools, has written numerous cookbooks, and last year he even devised a menu for the International Space Station (bon app, Tim Peake!). Read his story in an excellent interview … [Read more...]

As we start the New Year and resume our weekly round-ups of the things we enjoyed reading after a two-week break you may want to start with this long read about an Italian chef who took on the Calabrian Mafia, the 'Ndrangheta. It is the story of Filippo Cogliandro of restaurant L'Academia in Reggio Calabria and how he fought the battle against the Italian mafia. He will be … [Read more...]

Times are changing and as people have less time to cook the Italian tradition of the aperitivo is slowly changing to the 'apericena'. It is a new student supper and combines the old aperitivo (an old Italian custom in the north) with a buffet. Students are flocking to bars which have started to offer a buffet of homemade hot and cold dishes with evening drinks. They are … [Read more...]