Food and Wine Gazette will be at Chefs Revolution in Zwolle, The Netherlands for the first day of the Dutch Avant Garde Cuisine Festival on Sunday. This gastronomic festival provides among other activities cooking demonstrations supervised by international chefs such as Rene Redzepi, Massimo Bottura, Grant Achatz and Quique Dacosta among others. The festival is organised by Jonnie and Therese Boer of de Librije, one of the top 50 restaurants in the World. The cooking programme tomorrow (Sunday) includes Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana, Jonnie and Therese Boer the organisers, Richard Ekkebus of two Michelin starred Amber in Hong Kong. There is also Tim Raue of two Michelin-starred Restaurant Tim Raue Germany and Dave Beran of Restaurant Next in Chicago USA. Apart from that there is also a farmers market where we can get acquainted with the rich variety of Dutch products and ingredients used by some of the best chefs in the Netherlands. We will also watch an interesting … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine
As wine makers start to pick up the grapes for the 2014 vintage, this week's main news in the food and wine world has been the seizure by Italian police of 160,000 litres of fake Tuscan red wine. The cheap wine was set to be passed off as prized reds such as Brunello di Montalcino. This is just the latest in a series of scandals that has hit the country's premium wine sector. 220,000 wine bottles would have been involved in this scam, the third to hit Montalcino over the past few years. You can read about the news here in this article from the Telegraph. Wine fraud is becoming a huge problem particularly at the top end and you need to be extremely cautious about the provenance of the wine. It is becoming essential for the discerning wine buyer to look for value and quality and not to necessarily be allured to price or big names which can be hit by such fraud. It is a pity but unfortunately that is what is happening in high-end markets pretty much in every industry. In the … [Read more...]
Fit for a Masterchef challenge
The guests are about to arrive in 40 minutes, you are around 30 minutes into your food preparations but given the choice of menu you have to cook everything at the last minute. Your kitchen equipment all runs on electricity. And suddenly there is a power-cut and you don't know when it will be restored again. This would be a challenge fit for an episode of Masterchef or the French version Top Chef where the chefs are given countless challenges to try and cook their way out of a tricky situation. Yesterday evening Malta suffered a nationwide power cut and the challenge to continue with my plans was probably fit for a future episode of Top Chef. The cause of the power-cut was a fault in a generating unit in the power station followed by an explosion at a distribution centre resulted in the whole of the island being without electricity for several hours. The temperature is still high, above 30C, and the small gas lamp is emitting heat making the conditions in the kitchen pretty tough. … [Read more...]
What I enjoyed reading this week (6)
Here is a list of interesting articles I have come across this week. Enjoy your Sunday with these nice reads. You will find a great article about wine fraud and counterfeiting from wine searcher here which is food for thought especially for the risk it involves of buying expensive wines. For those in the know, drinking wines from Fleurie or Morgon may no longer be considered as inferior pleasures. Have you ever wondered in awe about wine sommeliers and their incredible depth of knowledge about wines. Here you will find what it takes to become a master sommelier. Chablis is a fantastic wine region and wine that is excellent with seafood. Here you will find a great lesson about Chablis. Fast food has a very bad reputation for health. However, eating in restaurants might not be any better according to a study. If you are heading to Amsterdam any time soon here is a list of 10 pop-up restaurants or food hotspots you can find in this Dutch city. … [Read more...]
Recipe 2 – Charred Aubergine Salad
Barbecues should not be boring. There is nothing like sausages or burgers on the barbecue but grilling outdoors can also be sophisticated. It all depends on your level of ambition. Before grilling meat or fish, I always like to prepare vegetables on the barbecue. Chargrilling peppers, onions, courgettes, aubergine, leeks, potato you name it. With the right condiments (herbs, olive oil and balsamic vinegar they are second to none) they can make for an excellent antipasto or perfect accompaniment to meat or fish. Among foodies or those who regularly view the BBC, Raymond Blanc needs no introduction. He is a French chef who settled in the UK many years ago. He is the chef of a Michelin starred restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons. He is passionate about cooking and his charisma whenever he is presenting a television programme is always visible. This winter, BBC had a superb series by Raymond Blanc on How to Cook and one of the programmes was about grilling. The following, which I have … [Read more...]
Recipe 1 – A taste of the sea
The weather has been extremely hot in Belgium over the past three days. On Friday evening, the temperature hovered around 30C and therefore I felt a great urge to eat some seafood as a reminder of summer holidays. To me, shellfish and fish are always a reminder of summer and holidays. If there is one dish which I crave for but which alas is so difficult to find away from the Mediterranean is a pasta with sea urchins which is pure heaven when sea urchins is available. It is normally the first thing I try to eat whenever I go back home to Malta. It is also something I look out for when I am in the South of Italy or Sicily. I headed to the fish shop close to our home to see what inspired me. Many times this is how I get inspiration for cooking. Nothing beats the joy of having no plan for lunch or supper and improvising on the basis of what you find on the market. I found the famous Moules de Bouchot (small mussels from France which are incredibly tasty) and therefore mussels it would … [Read more...]
What I enjoyed reading this week (3)
There is a renaissance of Italian cuisine and restaurants in Brussels. Two of my first reviews were about Caffe al Dente and Winehouse Osteria which are setting the bar. This has also made it to the Belgian press. The first read for this week (in French) is an article in Le Soir about the Italian food revival in Belgium. It mentions quite a number of interesting spots some already known and others still waiting to be discovered. One of the articles I enjoyed most this week, also for nostalgic reasons, since it has been a long time since I have been to Sicily is this list of 13 islands of Sicily for foodies. Above is a view from Lipari. You will also find a photo essay of some abandoned places which look really stunning. Here you will find a very nice story of two English men who took an Ape and travelled Italy before ending in London where they have opened a pizzeria as well as one on wheels. It's called Pizza Pilgrims. The Roca Brothers of El Cellar de Can Roca are travelling to … [Read more...]
What is happening to French restaurants?
There is no question, at least at the high end of the restaurant scene that the French are still at the top of the culinary world although the competition has become incredibly fierce with countries like Spain, Italy, the UK (yes you read that correctly) and Japan challenging for the top position. But amid that reputation is a creepy feeling that not all is rosy. While the top chefs can command huge international respect for their creations, you need to sit and wonder at what is happening in the more traditional 'bistros' and 'brasseries'. That feeling is more pertinent when you learn that France is introducing a law that will force restaurants to mark their food as 'fait maison' or home made to save their culinary reputation. When this happens you realise that things are not always as they seem. As you can see from this article in The Guardian, many mid-range restaurants are using industrial companies as a way to cut costs and serve customers food that has been prepared elsewhere. … [Read more...]
The wines of Sicily – a wine region like no other
Maybe it is because of Malta's close affinity to Sicily, or because of the fact that I have been there so many times, but I find Sicilian wines to be extremely interesting. True, they might not compare with the finesse of Barolo's from Piemonte or Brunello di Montalcino from Tuscany but still they are extremely fascinating. Sicilian cuisine to me epitomises what is best about Mediterranean food. Take simple, sometimes humble ingredients and within minutes you have the makings of a great meal. Like my home country, Sicily is a hotpot of different influences from the Mediterranean. Some of the most memorable meals I have experienced were in Sicily whether it was a menu free restaurant in Scoglitti serving just one fish dish after another of what their fishermen had caught earlier in the day, to some of the best pasta creations. Nothing beats their spaghetti with sea urchins or pasta with prawns and pine nuts or pistachios which are so common in Sicilian cuisine. But this post is not … [Read more...]
Winehouse Osteria – a taste of Italy in the heart of Brussels
It is with a certain amount of trepidation that I recommend and then test a place with friends particularly if it is relatively new and has very little reviews. But like the best secrets in life, word of mouth is normally a sure bet even if there is always that expectation that something might go wrong. I came across Winehouse Osteria thanks to recommendations from some friends after I wrote about Caffe al Dente in Uccle. This place just off the Place St Gery area is quite a find. Part wine shop, part coffee shop, part Osteria, the restaurant is extremely small and cosy but worth a visit. If you are nostalgic about Italy or craving for an Italian experience, then this will not disappoint you. Forget for a while that you are in central Brussels and this osteria/enoteca could easily be in a small beautiful village somewhere in Italy. The wine list is interesting and reasonably priced. You will find many bottles below 20 Euros which is not common in Brussels with a great … [Read more...]