British entrepreneur Mark Weingard has the ambition to turn a new restaurant that is set to open in Valletta, Malta later this year into one of the world’s most spectacular restaurants and also one of the best in the world. The chef at the helm is Tim Butler, who is also chef and co-owner of Esenzi in Phuket. Esenzi will open in a new boutique hotel being currently refurbished on St Barbara Bastions which is considered as Malta’s best street with a spectacular view of the Grand Harbour. Mark Weingard has set an ambitious target of November for the opening of the restaurant. The 23 room hotel, Iniala, is scheduled to open around March next year. Tim Butler, the chef and co-owner of the restaurant told Food and Wine Gazette in an interview he has been visiting Malta every month since January to build his knowledge of local produce and to get a feel of the clientele and their habits. He is also experiencing the huge change taking place in Valletta with the constant openings of hotels … [Read more...]
Tim Butler in series of charity dinners in Malta
A series of dinners by Tim Butler, chef of Thailand restaurant Esenzi have been organised at the Maltese president’s summer residence at the Verdala Castle to raise money for charity over the past few weeks. The dinners are also a way for the chef to assess the local’s response to his cuisine as he is set to open a Maltese version of his signature restaurant Esenzi in Phuket while researching on Maltese produce, suppliers and also receive feedback from Maltese customers for his Asian inspired cuisine. Held in a majestic dining room in a palace built by the Knights of St John in 1586, Tim and Mark Weingard, the Englishman who has been investing heavily in Malta in the past few years and who will open the boutique hotel Iniala on the St Barbara bastions where the restaurant will be based welcomed a group of international food journalists for what was probably the first ever food related press visit on the island of Malta. Tim used Maltese produce from the sea and combined it … [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...]
Restoring the Valletta food market to its former glory
The closed food market in Valletta was in a state of decay, a few shops remained in what was once the place where people used to come from all across the island to shop there. There were butchers, fishmongers, cheesemongers and every family seemed to have their favourite supplier. That has changed thanks to the refurbishment of the Is-Suq tal-Belt as it is known by the locals. The food market opened its doors officially on 3 January and crowds have started to flock there first out of curiosity but also to savour the food that is on offer there. I still remember the trips to Valletta which ended with a visit to the market where my mother would stock up on anything from blood pudding to calf liver or Maltese sausage. But over time, the allure of the market was lost as people preferred to shop locally and supermarkets sprouted around the island. It died a slow death, dilapidated with just a few shops remaining that served mainly the dwindling Valletta population. Today the market … [Read more...]
Interview with Andrew Borg: A vision for Malta’s dining scene
The life of a passionate chef is not always easy, particularly when he or she needs to fight against tradition and a dining scene that is not necessarily ready for a new approach. Tradition and habit may be the hardest things to fight against because few people may understand what you are trying to do. Then there is also the business side of running a restaurant. Do you follow the crowd or do you try to persist in creating something different even if that comes at a huge expense? Andrew Borg, the chef patron of Black Pig Restaurant in Valletta, the capital city of Malta, not only had to fight tradition and habits, but also against a bank manager in order to convince him that he did not want to open a takeaway instead of a fine dining restaurant. That restaurant, unfortunately closed last month. A few days ago, Andrew announced that he had closed his restaurant and that he would be taking a sabbatical before coming back with a new exciting project next year. The intention to … [Read more...]
A different way to use sea urchins
When I was young the way to eat sea urchins (rizzi in Maltese or ricci in Italian) was to break them open at the beach, rinse them with sea water and then scoop out the custard-like orange gland and enjoy the sweet and briny flavour either on fresh bread or else just scooping them out with a spoon and eating them. They used to be abundant and we would have them for lunch. They were served soon after they were picked and needless to say, freshness here is of the essence. In recent years, spaghetti ai ricci has become ubiquitous in Maltese restaurants. At first you could find it only in fish restaurants but it has now become considerably more common. Every chef has his own version though in my view, the simplest method is the best. For a recipe you can take a look here. While this is a dish that I continue to crave everytime I am in the Mediterranean and in particular my home country, Malta, I still think that the freshness of the sea urchin is somehow ruined by the hot pasta … [Read more...]
First craft beer masterclass organised in Malta by Lord Chambray
Lord Chambray organised the first ever Craft Beer masterclass in Malta in collaboration with Lorenzo Dabove, one of the world's renowned craft beer experts who is considered as one of the most important expert on Belgian beers and who is known worldwide for promoting lambic beers and craft beers. We attended this masterclass in Malta a few weeks ago. Dabove said that the craft beer revolution, that had swept through the United States to Italy and many other countries has now reached Malta. "Lord Chambray is the southernmost craft brewery in Europe. We can now say that there are craft breweries from the Lapland to Malta". There are now over 1,000 micro breweries in Italy, 3,000 in the United Kingdom and 5,000 in the United States. The tasting started with a wheat beer or White Beer, the Blue Lagoon. Wheat beer originated from the Belgian village of Hoegaarden and has been made since the Middle Ages. In the 19th century, the village had 13 breweries and 9 distilleries. In 1957, … [Read more...]
Malta’s first craft brewery Lord Chambray starts to export its beer
Malta's first craft brewery Lord Chambray is starting to export a newly released beer, Special Bitter, to Germany and Italy. Special Bitter, is the fifth beer in Lord Chambray's range of beers. Samuele Imperio, managing director of Lord Chambray told Food and Wine Gazette during the first ever craft beer master class organised in Malta that a new beer, the Special Bitter which is a traditional English style bitter is now available in Germany and Italy. The beer, which was tasted in Malta for the first time last week, is characterised by an optimal balance between the scents of malts and mild notes of hops. The choice of hops have been rigorously sourced from the English countryside and give the beer its character while remaining faithful to the traditional style. This bitter ale has a medium body and a moderate carbonation that guarantees that the beer is easy to drink. Hops is added during maturation to increase the bitterness of the beer. The end result is a … [Read more...]
A contemporary take on Maltese cuisine at Michael’s in Valletta
Maltese chef Michael Cauchi needs no introduction in Malta. Famous for his former restaurant Il Re Del Pesce, today the chef works together with his son Daniel at Michael's in Valletta. When I was younger (and still living in Malta), the chef was a household name on this small Mediterranean island. He used to be on television showcasing his fish dishes, for which he was renowned even at a time when food was not as in vogue as it is today. Since that time, he has worked in various kitchens on the island but none more important than Aziamendi's 100 day pop-up restaurant two summers ago. Michael and his son Daniel were involved with Eneko Atxa and his team who set up the pop-up restaurant in a historic building in Valletta known as L’Hostel De Verdelin, after Fra Jean Jacques De Verdelin, a nephew of Grandmaster De Verdalle. On a recent visit to this restaurant, we really loved the freshness of the food, the clean flavours, the presentation and also the restaurant itself with … [Read more...]
Houston, we have a problem: The Maltese are the fattest in Europe and something needs to be done about it
"Houston. We have a problem." It is not every day that my country makes it to the international headlines given it's one of the smallest countries in the world. But recently it has done so for all the wrong reasons and not for something I am proud of. According to the 2015 European health report published by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Maltese have tipped the scales as the fattest population in the European Union. 68.5 per cent of men and 59.6% of women over the age of 18 were found to be overweight by the WHO study. You might ask why this should be of any concern to Food and Wine Gazette. Alas it does because obesity is one of society's greatest problems and has implications way beyond the food world. But the problem also lies in lack of education, awareness and a certain naivety which the food industry banks on to profit from the masses. We recently read that the Maltese government had announced measures to disallow tuck shops at school from selling soft-drinks. … [Read more...]