A year after the opening of the first San Restaurant in central Brussels, two Michelin star chef San Degeimbre of L'Air du Temps restaurant in Liernu, Belgium is opening his second San restaurant in Brussels, this time in the Sablon area. The restaurant opens on Thursday 13th October on Rue Joseph Stevens, just a few metres away from Place Sablon. The restaurant will follow the same concept as the first restaurant in Rue de Flandre in the Place St Catherine area which serves food in bowls. The concept had been tried and tested for lunch at the two Michelin star restaurant L’Air du Temps in Liernu, Belgium and has been also successful in Brussels. Despite the difficult times that the city has faced after this year's terrorist attacks, there have been a number of interesting restaurant openings in the city this year including the bistro by Brussels two Michelin star chef Pascal Devalkeneer, Amen this summer as well as the opening of Humphrey's by former Noma sous-chef Yannick … [Read more...]
Innovation and new trends are the main themes of final day of Chef Sache
Many people sometimes tend to forget that the most essential element of cooking is time. And for Taiwanese chef Andre Chiang of Restaurant Andre, time means fermentation. He is on a mission to try and create a new experience in the restaurant by serving fermented juice for those who don't feel like drinking wine. "All the best restaurants in the world have invested so much on produce, technique, cutlery, equipment, service, wine and interior design but we have forgotten those who don't want to drink wine in a restaurant for one reason or another," he said. His presentation was one of the highlights of the second day of Chef Sache, the avantgarde Cologne cuisine festival which celebrated its 10th anniversary this edition. The day focused on innovations taking place in the different restaurants around the world. The lineup on the second day included Albert Adria of El Bulli fame as well as the first ever French chef to make a presentation at Chef Sache, Alexandre Gauthier from … [Read more...]
Jordi Roca takes centre stage at Chef Sache on first day
Jordi Roca, one of the three Roca brothers of the world renowned restaurant El Celler de Can Roca in Girona took centre stage at Chef Sache, the Cologne avant garde cuisine festival. He spoke about what goes into the creative process at El Celler de Can Roca and the importance they attach to innovation and creativity and was the highlight of the day as could be seen from the crowd that gathered to take photos with the pastry chef at the end of his presentation on creativity and the creative process at the restaurant that is celebrating 30 years this year. Also on stage on the first day of Chef Sache was Poul Andrias Zizka, chef of Faroe Islands restaurant KOKS and Jonnie and Therese Boer from De Librije. The first international chef to take the stage was Poul who spoke about his cuisine in the Faroe Islands, a remote group of islands north of Denmark where as he himself said has more sheep than people. Here he focuses mainly on seafood and fish which reaches the restaurant 15 … [Read more...]
Chefs Revolution: Creativity and the importance of terroir the focus on final day
Creativity, innovation and the importance of the terroir where the chefs work was the main focus of the presentations that took place on the second day of Chefs Revolution that took place on Monday in Zwolle. The Dutch avant-garde festival organised by Jonnie and Therese Boer of the restaurant and hotel De Librije in Zwolle and Port Culinaire (who will also be organising Chef Sache in Cologne this weekend), this year brought together a very interesting international lineup of chefs. While the focus on the first day was the importance that vegetables are playing in today's high end kitchens, the second day brought an array of chefs who are really focusing on their terroir to create something unique and special. The first to take the stage was the Russian chef Vladimir Mukhin of Moscow based restaurant White Rabbit. The Russian chef gave a very interesting presentation of what is happening in Russia at the moment and his bid to rediscover the flavours that Russia had lost because … [Read more...]
‘I never expected to get to where I am today” – Mauro Colagreco on 10 years of Mirazur
Mauro Colagreco is celebrating 10 years of his award-winning restaurant Mirazur this year. But as he himself says, he never expected to achieve what he has managed to achieve in the past 10 years. "These 10 years have been amazing and have gone way beyond my expectations," he told Food and Wine Gazette in an interview at Chefs Revolution in Zwolle last weekend. He arrived in France with nothing except a telephone and a friend of a friend. He had trained to be a chef in Argentina. In France he went to work in Burgundy to work with Bernard Loiseau at his restaurant in the Côte d’or. He stayed there for one and a half years. After the tragic death of Bernard Loiseau in February 2003, Mauro decided to move to Paris to work at L’Arpege, the legendary restaurant run by Alain Passard. He stayed there for a year and a half and he considers this time as the one which allowed him to develop his own sense of creativity, attention to detail and imagination. Mauro also worked with Alain Ducasse … [Read more...]
Chefs focus on vegetables and sustainability on first day of Chefs Revolution in Zwolle
Vegetables took the centre stage on the first day of the third edition of Chefs Revolution, an event organised by Therese and Jonnie Boer of De Librije Restaurant in the Netherlands and the team at Port Culinaire in Zwolle. Jonnie Boer, Magnus Ek, Eneko Atxa and Mauro Colagreco delivered splendid presentations on their approach to cooking at the Spiegel Theatre in this beautiful Dutch city. On a sunny day, over 1,500 turned up to Chef's Revolution to listen to what these chefs had to say about the state of gastronomy today and also see them present their cuisine during live cooking presentations. Jonnie Boer, Magnus Ek and Mauro Colagreco put the spotlight on vegetables and they all seemed to be in agreement that in future people will have to eat less protein if we are to ensure a sustainable future. On that same theme was Eneko Atxa's presentation who spoke about the philosophy behind Azurmendi and the holistic approach of the restaurant to sustainability. Jonnie Boer, … [Read more...]
Gelinaz! headquarters descends on Brussels: 20 of world’s best chefs to cook together on 10 November
Brussels will be turned into the gastronomic capital of the world on 10 November as Gelinaz!, the collective of chefs from around the world organises what it is calling the first ever Gelinaz! Headquarters in Brussels. 20 among today's most creative culinary talents in the world will be descending in Brussels to create a 4x3 hour long dinner and much more. No details have been released except for the names of the chefs which will make food lovers in Brussels salivate at the thought of having some of the world best chefs cooking in Brussels. The chefs that will come to Brussels to join the only Brussels based chef Christophe Hardiquest of Bon Bon include the two Belgian chefs Kobe Desramaults (In De Wulf) and Geert de Mangeleer (Hertog Jan). Also participating in the event are Davide Scabin (Combal Zero, Italy), Claude Bosi (Hibiscus, London), Petter Nilsson (Spritmuseum, Sweden), Yannick Alleno (Alleno, Pavillon Ledoyen, France), Kristian Baumann (Restaurant 108, … [Read more...]
New movement in Los Angeles: LA chefs for Human Rights
Cassia, a partnership between husband and wife duos Bryant & Kim Ng and Josh Loeb & Zoe Nathan is organising the first charity dinner called LA Chefs for Human Rights at their restaurant in Los Angeles, California. The new movement that has just launched aims to raise funds for the Programme for Torture victims in its first event that will be organised on 10 October. The event will feature chefs like Nancy Silverton of Osteria Mozza, Niki Nakayama of n/naka, Ray Garcia of Broken Spanish and Zoe Nathan from the Rustic Canyon Family of Restaurants. It is already sold out. Chefs worldwide are nowadays using their influence and status to help raise awareness on issues of global importance. Only recently, thousands of restaurants pledged to support the earthquake struck Italian village of Amatrice by donating a part of every Spaghetti Amatriciana they served in their restaurants worldwide to help rebuild the city. The restaurant Cassia in Los Angeles takes roots from … [Read more...]
Benoit Nihant opens second chocolate store in Brussels
10 years after opening his first boutique shop, Benoît Nihant, the bean to bar Belgian chocolatier, has opened his second shop in Brussels in the Fort Jaco area in Uccle. The elegant store, which opened in August was officially inaugurated last week and marks a shift from the more classic store in Ixelles with its modern lines and white, black and gold colours. The large photos which adorn the shop show you part of the process to turn cocoa beans into the end product. Known as the bean to bar process, this Belgian chocolatier, who has his workshop in Awans, close to the Belgian city of Liege, has been producing his own chocolate from the beans he procures for the past six years. Benoit Nihant is one of only very few chocolate makers worldwide who starts his chocolate making process buying his beans directly from different plantations worldwide. He has recently also invested in his own plantation in Peru. In an interview with Food and Wine Gazette he had said it was not an easy … [Read more...]
A future for Amatrice – how you can help
When the hilltop medieval town of Amatrice was recently devastated by the recent earthquake that rocked central Italy, the founder and president of Slow Food Carlo Petrini launched an appeal aimed at all restaurants around the world to help rebuild the town. "Through this iconic dish that is the gastronomic symbol of Amatrice we hope to share the values of solidarity and sharing," Carlo Petrini, president of Terra Madre and Slow Food said when launching a solidarity scheme to help the people hard hit by the earthquake and give them hope for the future by helping in the rebuilding of the town. Amatrice is known for a pasta sauce called 'amatriciana' which is made with 'guanciale', and pecorino which come from the same town, San Marzano tomatoes, white wine, pepper and chilli peppers. Slow Food launched an initiative called 'A future for Amatrice' using #unfuturoperamatrice as the hashtag and have asked restauranteurs around the world to include the iconic dish from Amatrice in … [Read more...]