Weekly round-up of great reads on food and wine #39

Have you ever booked a restaurant and never turned up? If the answer is no, you may be surprised to read that in the UK alone, the rate of people that do not turn up for bookings in restaurants is estimated at between 5 and 20 per cent. The cost of no-shows in the UK is costing restaurants £16 billion a year. Read about it here.

This recipe (video) is in Italian but you get the gist. It is a splendid way of cooking tuna and it is incredibly simple and quick. For those who don’t understand Italian, the time involved on each side is just over 10 seconds. The secret is to get the pan hot. Enjoy.

We have experimented with cooking vegetables directly on charcoal but we have never tried cooking meat directly on hot coals. But after reading this we are tempted to give this method a try.

Since we are on the theme of cooking, here is an interesting article on ice cream. The author gives you five things to consider about ice cream. If you like to make your own ice-creams, this is well worth a read.

There are many women in the food world who do not get the necessary recognition they deserve. Food Tank has compiled a list of 30 influential women aged 30 and under in food and agriculture. Get some inspiration here.

Here is a list of nine young Sicilian chefs worth watching. It is in Italian but you can find the name of the restaurants and chefs in bold.

The following is a superb video about the closing of the restaurant wd-50, an innovative restaurant of Wyliee Dufrense with its avant-garde and era-defining cooking. The restaurant was the victim of its own success. By bringing three-star cuisine to a once gritty neighbourhood, Dufrense helped drive up the area’s prices and his landlord decided to turn the restaurant into an apartment building.

Parmiggiano Reggiano must be made in Reggio Emilia and is one of the world’s most famous cheeses but did you know that immigrant Sikhs from India are the backbone of Italy’s most famous cheese-making industry. Read about it here.

The Italian winemaker Gravner needs no introduction. He has a formidable reputation both in Italy and internationally. He claims that he takes the selfish approach to wine, making wine which he likes. He has said in the past that “I only make wine for myself. If there’s any left over, we sell it.” Read why here.

Influential wine critic Robert Parker has apologised to Burgundy producers for being aggressive in his treatment of their wines from 1978 to 1993. “I’ve learned through age that we can all make those points much more diplomatically. I made them way too bluntly, aggressively and was often probably rude,” he says.

The French do not like screw-caps for their wines. André Lurton, the first Bordeaux winemaker to put classified whites under a screwcap in 2003 has abandoned the experiment after French wine trade buyers were reluctant to abandon cork.

If you are heading to Stockholm this summer, or any time soon, this is a great read.

And to conclude, here is a great interview with Mario Batali on travel. If you are not familiar with Batali, you should get to know this chef. He has a splendid website and application and has a weekly feature with simple videos how to cook Italian food. Here he reveals what he likes about travel.