Ana Ros, chef of Hisa Franko and Matea Benedetti, a Slovenian award-winning fashion designer have created a new range of uniforms for the restaurant which not only use non-animal textiles but also reflect both their deep love for nature. "The new uniforms of the service team reflect the soul of the restaurant and the beautiful environment the restaurant is part of," Ana Ros said about the new collaboration. Ana and Matea met through a common friend and they immediately understood each other and became friends which was no surprise. Matea said: "It is because we both have the same deep love for nature." Ana said she had been following Matea Benedetti's work for some time and had always admired daring people. "Our view of life is similarly colourful but above all it is very close to nature. One morning while I was staring across the meadows towards the mountain Km with coffee in hand, I was thinking about the future. It was just a few weeks before the reopening of the … [Read more...]

Food meets Science is one of the main events that will be organised as part of The Best Chef Awards taking place on 13 September in Amsterdam. The conference will connect the world of science and gastronomy. The event will include cooking shows and presentations that focus on two main subjects, Food and Space and Meat - No Meat.  “Science is an amazing tool to educate and to have a better understanding of things in the culinary world. With that knowledge, farmers, producers, chefs and even guests can make better and more conscious decisions about what they grow, how the fish, what they produce or buy, how they cook and what they eat just to name some examples. Through Food meets Science our goal is to spread that knowledge and education and to provide a worldwide platform to experts that are doing amazing work in both the culinary and the scientific world.” explains Joanna Slusarczyk, neuroscientist and one of the founders of The Best Chef. The lineup of experts has been … [Read more...]

This is a special year for Hélène Darroze. Fresh from the recently awarded three stars in the Michelin guide for her London restaurant Hélène Darroze at The Connaught" and two stars for "Marsan par Hélène Darroze" in Paris she has now announced a partnership to take over the entire food and beverage operations of Villa La Coste, a grand luxury hotel in Provence, France. She will be serving a cuisine in her image, imbued with emotion, sincerity and authenticity. Nestled at the heart of the Château La Coste Estate near Aix-en-Provence, the Villa La Coste is a modern-day luxury palace celebrating authentic and exclusive refinement, in total harmony with the artistic life of the surrounding estate. Seduced by the opulence and diversity of the vegetables and fruit from this French region, Hélène has chosen to make them the key focus of the menus she has created for the fine dining restaurant Hélène Darroze at Villa La Coste. From appetisers to end-of-meal delicacies, they lead the … [Read more...]

MONS: The 2022 edition of the Belgium and Luxembourg Michelin Guide will only be available in digital format, the guide has announced. The presentation of the guide and results will be announced on 21 February at the Royal Theatre in the city of Mons. Announcements for Belgium and Luxembourg used to take place late in the year but the guide announced that this new edition will be held in February to enable the inspectors and Michelin Guide team to have more time to visit restaurants given the difficult context linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite a tough situation for restaurants over the past months, the Michelin Guide said it was engaged on showcasing good restaurants and to honour those who make them what they are. "Since the month of May and the reopening of restaurants, our team of inspectors have been progressively visiting restaurants. They have noticed that despite some very significant challenges faced by restauranteurs they are still doing their utmost to create … [Read more...]

Two Japanese chefs Yoshiro Narisawa of Restaurant Narisawa and Hisato Hamada of Wagyumafia have teamed up together for a charity project called Onigiri for love. While collaborating on a recent project together, both chefs discovered a common love for sake and onigiri - a handmade Japanese rice ball. The onigiri is a simple yet very meaningful traditional comfort food. It is typically made by a loved one - most people in Japan have fond childhood memories of their mother preparing one for school lunch or as a snack.  A symbol of love and affection, the chef duo wanted to make onigiri to share during this time of forced separation and isolation due to national lockdowns and travel restrictions. Over the past few months, both chefs have been making onigiri together with local chefs at various distilleries across Japan. Together, they have been spreading a message of hope and unity.  In the process, they donate their onigiri to local community projects and hospital … [Read more...]

Fermentation and garums have been one of the sources of success of Noma as it shifted to a more vegetable based cuisine over the years. Now, two of their favourite garums will be available to the general public as part of a venture to help people bring more vegetables into their everyday cooking. Chef Rene Redzepi and his team have used the time during lockdown to create a new venture called Noma Projects which aims to share all their accumulated knowledge, craft and experimentation in this new project. "We will be launching products for your pantry to community based initiatives which will be a way for us to address issues we care about through the lens of food. Noma Projects will be a way for us to address the issues we care about, while fueling our own creativity," said Rene Redzepi as he launched the two garums or Project 001 as it has been called. "This is our take on a 1000 year old recipe that we have been developing over the past two decades. They are potent umami … [Read more...]

VIENNA: The second chapter of the GELINAZ! Silent voices on tour will be held on 11 July. The collective of chefs headed by Andrea Petrini and Patricia Meunier returns after a forced pause because of lockdowns making the organisation of such dinners impossible. The first chapter was held last December in various cities around the world and while the European leg was scheduled for the end of January, the pandemic wrecked havoc with those plans. Now, the Healthy Boy Band, three Austrian chefs who have been embracing improvisation and anarchy, will be performing in Vienna cooking live for 9 hours in the Viennese Club Prater-Strasse. Philip Rachinger of Muhltalhof in Neufelder, Lukas Mraz of Mraz & Sohn in Vienna, and Felix Schellhorn of Der Seehof - Goldegg will remix the matrixes written by what GELINAZ! calls the 'Silent Voices'. These are worldwide restauranteurs who remain anonymous till the end. Each of the nine courses will be remixed by the three chefs in a one hour … [Read more...]

All the origins of Austrian wine have been catalogued in a new website austrianvineyards.com, a first a wine-producing country. No other wine-producing country has ever catalogued all the origins of its wines and presented them in such a detailed way. Alongside the digital version, new single vineyard maps of all winegrowing regions are now available in printed form, showing all single vineyards that have been legally defined as such. The level of detail and cartographic standards also represent a milestone for the Austrian wine industry. The Austrian Wine Marketing Board (Austrian Wine) launched the digital atlas on 17 June after three years of groundwork. This site brings together all of Austria’s legally defined wine origins on a single interactive map – from the bottom level, where a wine’s origin is simply defined as being Austrian, through to the next levels of the country’s 27 winegrowing regions and 458 winegrowing municipalities, to the top level of origin, where wines … [Read more...]