With a laser focused vision Sunny Hodge is determined to shake up the London wine scene. He has set the bar high, wanting to turn a former pub in Elephant and Castle into one of London's top destination wine bars and after just a few weeks open he believes he is on the right track. The son of an Olympian and commonwealth games silver medalist and a graduate of Mechanical Engineering he has a contrarian vision just like Diognes, a Greek cynic who inspired the name of the wine bar. “I want Diogenes The Dog to be a place where people come to try something new and different and that they cannot try anywhere else, a place that will attract wine drinkers, wine suppliers, winemakers and that gives you a unique wine experience and a truly unique evening,” Sunny told Food and Wine Gazette when we met him at the newly opened wine bar and shop. His objective is to turn the spot he shaped with his own bare hands from a dodgy boozer in Elephant and Castle into one of the top 5 wine bars in … [Read more...]
Marvin Gauci: The Maltese chef and restauranteur eyeing overseas expansion
Marvin Gauci is one of the most successful Maltese restauranteurs and chefs. After opening four successful restaurants in Malta, of which one is his ‘flagship’ Tarragon where he made a name for himself, he has opened his first restaurant outside the Mediterranean island of Malta in the Hungarian capital city Budapest. Caviar and Bull, the second restaurant with the same name is housed in the Corinthia Hotel in Budapest. “If you would have asked me a year ago whether I would open a restaurant outside Malta, I would have told you that this was not possible,” the Maltese chef and restauranteur Gauci told Food and Wine Gazette. Today, he does not exclude opening further restaurants outside Malta. It all started around this time last year. The CEO of the Corinthia, a highly successful Maltese hotel chain with hotels in various cities across Europe and beyond told him that he needed a holiday. Two of Marvin’s restaurants, Caviar and Bull and Buddhamman are in the premises of a … [Read more...]
Richard Ekkebus: ‘I have not changed. The people of Hong Kong have changed’
For an avid book reader like Richard Ekkebus it must have been a source of both pride and a sense of worry that the restaurant in Hong Kong was called the one with the ‘Da Vinci’ code menu. Was the restaurant Amber, which he created at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong so ahead of its time? And would he manage to find the ‘Grail'? Today, the Dutch chef of the acclaimed restaurant has guests telling him how happy they are that he is the chef of the restaurant because the previous one was not good. They don't realise that it was he who created Amber. "But I have not changed, it is the people who have changed. Hong Kong has evolved. Today there is a big surge of restaurants, new cool concepts being opened and we have grown within this environment and gained acceptance to the point where everybody loves us which means we need to push a bit further again, to make our customers feel a little uncomfortable again.”" he said. He has been proven right but that has taken a long … [Read more...]
Anne Sophie Pic and David Sinapian: Putting human resources at the centre of their business
More and more professionals such as lawyers and engineers are showing an interest in gastronomy says David Sinapian, CEO of Anne-Sophie Pic and president of Les Grandes Tables du Monde. "We have found that staff that do not necessarily have culinary training are not only interested but also capable of following their dreams. They want to be creative and do something different," David told Food and Wine Gazette after his presentation at the congress organised by the collective of chefs from Wallonia, Generation W. "What matters most is their motivation and not their training. We have also found that diversity is extremely important for our business. What people might lack in technical skills can be compensated by other skills such as management skills," he said. David took over the family business with his wife Anne Sophie Pic more than 20 years ago. Since then, they have grown the Pic group to include not only the three Michelin star restaurant (they got the three Michelin … [Read more...]
Manu Buffara: ‘You need to know your land, your food, your culture, then you can cook with your soul’
For Brazilian chef Manoella Buffara of Restaurant Manu story-telling comes naturally. After all, she was studying to become a journalist before she decided to embark on her career as a chef. And that is a very good thing for Brazil. Cooking in her home town Curitiba where there was nothing as she herself says, she has taken a gamble that her story will attract not only people from her home town but also world travellers. But she clearly knows what she is doing from the flour she prepares for the restaurant to her journey through the kitchens of René Redzepi and Grant Achatz. Mention Brazil and the first chef that comes to mind is Alex Atala. It was he who discovered 'Manu' as she is known and it was he who encouraged her to go out and tell the story to the world. And what a story it is. A chef with a communications' background, she is spreading her story using not only travel but also social media. "I loved journalism before I experienced the kitchen. But then I discovered … [Read more...]
Q&A with Enrico Crippa: Innovation is simpler than tradition in cooking
In the second part of our interview with Enrico Crippa, we fire some quick questions and get spontaneous responses from one of Italy's most talented chefs. Read on to discover what the chef of one of the most acclaimed restaurants in Italy, Piazza Duomo has to say about innovation, tradition, upcoming Italian chefs and his best meal ever among others. What is the best dish you have ever created? The salad. When someone tastes it, they become really enthusiastic. The most curious thing is that this is a dish created by a chef but there is no cooking involved. What do you like to eat at home? Pasta or rice because can be done very quickly, gives me energy, I can eat it before I do sport. Do you cook at home? Yes from time to time. I cook as much as I go out to eat. What is something that is in a professional kitchen and which should be in a domestic home? I would say it is a chiller. It is a piece of equipment that brings down the temperature very quickly and … [Read more...]
Christophe Hardiquest fulfills dream to cook without pressure and constraints this summer
Christophe Hardiquest, chef of two Michelin star restaurant Bon Bon is fulfilling his dream of opening a bistro this summer albeit for just two months. He is opening Mon Bistro d'été by Christophe Hardiquest in the old Chez Marie restaurant in the Flagey area of Brussels. The restaurant had been closed for over two years. "A bistro is something fun. It is a great opportunity to work with new suppliers and produce new recipes away from the constraints and expectations of a fine dining restaurant. We don't want to raise expectations though we will use high quality products but differently. My aim is to work with new products which I am not accustomed to use at Bon Bon," the Belgian chef told Food and Wine Gazette in an interview. The chef has decided to open this pop-up restaurant instead of going for a two-month vacation while the restaurant kitchen of Bon Bon is completely refurbished in July and August. The new Bon Bon kitchen, which welcomed 19 chefs from across the whole of … [Read more...]
Rasmus Kofoed: You need to look for what is not obvious
Michelin inspectors have arrived at a restaurant in the Danish capital Copenhagen. Usually they would get away with anonymity but this time, Rasmus Kofoed and his team know that the persons dining at table are from the Michelin guide. How they realised is a story that has yet to be told but on that day, somehow, the staff at Geranium, the three Michelin star restaurant in Copenhagen knew they were serving Michelin inspectors. The tension must have been palpable. Not knowing that you are being inspected may keep you on tenterhooks every day but there is probably no feeling more intense for a chef to know that he is being tested on the spot particularly when so much is at stake. They serve razor clams and when the plate returns back to the kitchen, the chef and cooks realise that the edible clam shell has been left intact. So they ask the service team to send another set of razor clams to tell them that the shells are edible. Rasmus Kofoed tells Food and Wine Gazette in an … [Read more...]
Virgilio Martinez (Central): ‘I find inspiration by listening. We need to listen more’
In today's fast world we do not listen enough. And that is a problem for people in all walks of life. Virgilio Martinez, chef of Central, the restaurant in Lima, Peru says he finds inspiration from people. "I find inspiration by listening. We don't listen enough but listening is very healthy. We listen too much to ourselves. As a chef, you sometimes start to take decisions without listening to people," the Peruvian chef told Food and Wine Gazette in an interview at Chef's Revolution in Zwolle recently. Virgilio is the chef of Central, the restaurant in Lima that is the 'Best restaurant' in Latin America and 4th restaurant in the World's 50 Best Restaurants list. The Peruvian chef is considered to be one of the most influential chefs in Latin America if not the world and is known for using modern cooking techniques to make the best use of Peruvian ingredients. He is also heavily influenced by the landscape and ecosystem. With Peru's dramatic changes in its terrain in a relatively … [Read more...]
Andy Hayler: The man who has eaten in all three Michelin star restaurants in the world
Andy Hayler is the only man in the world to have eaten in all three Michelin star restaurants. He first completed this feat in 2004 and then did it again in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 and this year. He has been reviewing restaurants on his website since 1994 making it one of the oldest in the world and the site is updated with several new reviews each week. Eating in all three Michelin star restaurants has become more complicated given that the number of such restaurants has increased from 49 in 2004 to 113 this year. While Andy does not like to term any one restaurant as the best he particularly likes the cooking at Michel Guerard's restaurant Pres des Eugenie in France because he likes that style of food, but there are many other fine restaurants that are objectively up there on a par. Other particular favourites include Schloss Berg in Germany, Le Calandre in Italy, Hotel de Ville in Switzerland and Mizai in Kyoto. He believes there are a number of two star restaurants that … [Read more...]