It has been a hot summer’s day in Portugal. Temperatures have soared to 43 degrees celsius at the Herdade dos Grous farm in the Alentejo region which we visited with Hans Neuner, chef of two Michelin star restaurant Ocean and Kurt Gillig, the managing director of Vila Vita Parc who has invested in this 1700-acre farm to produce organic products for its hotel and restaurants. The heat is stifling. It is like nothing I’ve experienced before. But the evening promises to be cooler as we head to the Atlantic Ocean to fish for calamari. We set foot in the cold sea to board the fishing boat outside the idyllic beach in front of Vila Vita Parc and we are off to get a taste of what its like to fish for mackerel and calamari. We’re on a small fishing boat with Hans Neuner who never imagined he would still be in Portugal when he arrived here in 2007. “When I arrived, I had given it two three years to try it out and see how it goes. But I fell in love with it and stayed. You will not … [Read more...]
Ana Ros: ‘Every ingredient is a challenge for a chef. The less valuable it is the bigger the challenge’
When Ana Ros, the Slovenian chef of Hisa Franko cooked at Christophe Hardiquest’s Bon Bon earlier this month she brought dishes with very bold flavours to reflect her style of cooking. “This is my character. I am very explosive. I cannot say that 100 per cent of my dishes are like this but 70 per cent of our dishes are very intense. They call me thunderstorm and I can be very emotional but this is how my kitchen is,” she told Food and Wine Gazette after the fourth Bon Bon dinner at the Brussels restaurants. “I don’t think the cooking is extreme because it is not extreme but it is strong. There is of course a risk that people don’t like it. For me, I prefer that 80 per cent love it and 20 per cent say never gain rather than staying in the middle.” That is understandable given that she has made it to the top of the game having been awarded best female chef last year and also featuring in Netflix’s popular food series Chef’s Table. Last month, for the first ever time, she made it … [Read more...]
Q&A with Kasper Kurdhal: ‘Intellectual stimulation leads to creativity’
Kasper Kurdhal, the executive chef of Le Chalet de la Foret, a two Michelin star restaurant in Brussels loves intellectual stimulation and discussion. It is what guides him at work in his interactions with chef patron Pascal Devalkeneer but it is also something he cherishes in his friendships as you can see from the second part of our interview with this talented chef. He is at his best cooking in a fine-dining environment but away from the cooking he looks for authenticity and simplicity. For our in-depth conversation with Kasper head to our interview here. This is the second part of our interview in our usual Q&A format. Your best ever meal? I think the best ever meal was at Jean-Georges in new York. It was remarkable and the most surprising. I was with Davide Scabin, a very good friend. We created Aqua together. When I was el Bulli, his maitre d’ came to do a stage at the restaurant and the Adria brothers invited him over for two weeks to bring with him his creations. … [Read more...]
Andy Gaskin: The world is far more food oriented than it was in the past
You could say Andy Gaskin is a nomad. Born in London in 1962, his cooking journey has taken him from London to Anguilla with stops among others in Malta, Porto Cervo, Rome, Paris, Monte Carlo, Sicily, Africa, Thailand, China, the Pacific island of Bora Bora and more recently in Croatia. His love of travel has given him the opportunity to move and discover new places, get new ideas and create recipes and memories along the way. In the years he has been inspired by Professor Hubert from his culinary school, who taught him the basics, Marco Pierre White, whose dedication to top quality and perfection he immensely appreciates and Heston Blumenthal, with his creativity and constant re-examination of all the culinary aspects. Andy Gaskin does not consider himself as a cook or chef but rather a hyperactive artist with food as his medium and cooking as his chief technique. He describes his own style of cooking as innovative, light and inspired by the Mediterranean, with … [Read more...]
Kasper Kurdhal (Le Chalet de la Foret): The offer from Ferran Adria that was too good to accept
When Ferran Adria was riding the crest of popularity he offered Kasper Kurdahl, then 27, the possibility to become his sous-chef and go to Seville to open a restaurant with him. Most people would have jumped at that opportunity or pinched themselves to make sure they heard it right. But Kasper is not like that. While most people would think this is too good an offer to refuse, the Danish chef thought otherwise and reasoned that that it was too good an offer to accept so he turned it down. Were you too young I asked him. “No. I was very precise about it. If I had accepted, I would have become a product of el Bulli for the rest of my life. I did not want that. I wanted to be myself,” the Danish executive chef of Le Chalet de la Foret, in Brussels, Belgium told Food and Wine Gazette in an interview. Kasper doesn’t look back at that decision and does not regret it. “I am happy with the decision I took at the time. I think I did the right thing,” he said. “Ferran was a genius, an … [Read more...]
Q&A with Karen Torosyan: ‘You need to eliminate the excess’
In the second part of our interview with Karen Torosyan, chef of Bozar Restaurant in Brussels we get to know more about the chef who earlier this year bought the restaurant from David Martin of La Paix. The chef of Armenian origin arrived in Brussels when he was 18 years old and has established himself today as one of the most artisanal chefs in the country if not Europe. He is known for his pate en croute which made him famous not just in Belgium but also outside the country particularly when he won the pate en croute championship in 2015. But it was the evening that Michelin awarded Bozar Brasserie with a Michelin star that marked his career. On that day, Karen knew that he would be the master of his own destiny. Your best ever meal? I would say there are three. One was at Hof Van Cleve in 2013. The other was at Astrance both for the philosophy behind the cooking and also the service. It was unforgettable. Pascal Barbot is on another planet. The last was at La Paix the … [Read more...]
Karen Torosyan: “To evolve you need to compete with yourself not with others”
The evening that Michelin awarded Bozar Brasserie with a Michelin star was the day that Karen Torosyan knew that he would become the master of his own destiny. His fate changed that day, he knew he was about to make the investment of a life time. It was not the star that changed everything but rather the realisation that now was the moment to turn his dream of owning a restaurant into reality. Since he started cooking in Georgia at the age of 13, he always dreamt that he would one day own his own restaurant. “The moment we clinched a Michelin star it became clear in my head that I needed to become independent. This would be the final step in my career, to have a project with my wife, a project that we could call a family project,” Karen Torosyan, chef of Bozar Restaurant in Brussels told me in an interview. Earlier this year, the Armenian chef who was born in Georgia bought the Bozar restaurant from David Martin of La Paix and an investor. One of the first changes he made was … [Read more...]
How Bozar chef Karen Torosyan became the ‘pie king’ of Belgium
To understand Karen Torosyan you need to understand his love affair with the pâté en croûte. In 2015, he became the World Champion of Pâté en Croûte and there has been no looking back since then. In many ways it has defined who he is but it also explains the philosophy of this talented chef who pushed Gault & Millau to create a category of Artisan of the Year to acknowledge his talents and skills. Today foodies who visit Brussels or Belgium on a food trip are known to head to Bozar Restaurant for a taste of his world famous ‘pâté en croûte’. He is the pie and pastry king par excellence. On a recent visit to Brussels, Andrea Petrini of GELINAZ! fame among others, is known to have waited one and a half hours to have a millefeuille prepared for him from scratch. It is prepared on order and Andrea had not ordered it in advance. Karen Torosyan is today master of his own destiny having bought the restaurant that is housed in the Horta designed Palais des Beaux Arts (Centre of … [Read more...]
The newspaper review that saved Belcanto – José Avillez
Things were looking bright for José Avillez six years ago. He had been through two life-changing experiences first as a trainee at Ferran Adria's legendary restaurant el Bulli and then clinching a Michelin star at the oldest and most prestigious Lisbon restaurant. The opening of Belcanto was the culmination of a journey that had seen him move from a business management degree to cooking. The restaurant was fully booked in the first few weeks for lunch and dinner. José's idea was to serve contemporary Portuguese cuisine, something that at the time was not common in Portugal at the time. People were asking him to serve classics but he had other ideas. Then disaster struck. The financial crisis struck in Portugal and it threatened to bring everything down. "I was extremely worried because I had invested a lot into this restaurant. We stayed open and were serving maybe five lunches and 10 to 15 dinners. There were days we were serving no lunches and maybe 5 dinners. I started to get … [Read more...]
‘Simplicity comes from within. When you remove ingredients it has to be perfect’ – Niko Romito
When Niko Romito clinched a Michelin star for his restaurant Reale in Rivisondoli, a village of only 450 residents in Abruzzo, the people in the region believed it was a miracle. “After we earned that first star, they told us we would never achieve a second star because the place was too small.” The restaurant was born as a trattoria, you opened the door and the first thing you saw opposite the door was the toilet. Just over a year passed and when Niko and his sister clinched a second star in 2009 no one could believe it. At the time, they were the only starred restaurant in the whole of Abruzzo. “There were only 450 residents in the village, they were used to having a trattoria. We were very far from the cities, we did not know about guides or the press. We worked and even our neighbours thought we were mad. Because when they came, they did not like it and wanted something different.” Niko said. Mention Niko Romito today and people will tell you he is one of the most influential … [Read more...]