TOKYO: There is still no date set for the opening of Gucci Osteria Tokyo, a contemporary Italian restaurant created by one of the world's leading luxury fashion brand Gucci and world renowned chef Massimo Bottura. This will be the third outpost for Gucci Osteria. The first one was opened in January 2018 in Florence, Italy at the Gucci Garden. The second in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles opened in February last year. The third restaurant will open in Ginza later this year. It will be located on the top floor of Gucci Namiki - Gucci’s latest flagship store which will open on the 29th April - Gucci Osteria Tokyo will be curated by three-Michelin star chef Massimo Bottura in collaboration with Karime Lòpez, Head Chef of the original Gucci Osteria in Florence that was awarded its first Michelin star in the 2020. The restaurant will have its own dedicated entrance from street level. This will be the third global outpost for Gucci Osteria, the first of which opened in January 2018 at the … [Read more...]
Side by Sight: Three restaurants in collaboration with The Hotel Brussels
Three chefs from the L’Air du Temps group of restaurants which have restaurants in Brussels have teamed up with The Hotel Brussels to offer safe dinners at the hotel given that the restaurants in Belgium remain closed. From March 25 to April 24, chefs Valerie Borriero of San Sablon, Toshiro Fujii of restaurant Toshiro and Kevin Perlot of restaurant VerTige will take turns taking over the kitchens of The Hotel Brussels to share the values and vision of their Brussels restaurants. Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, they will each offer a 4-course menu with wine pairing that can be enjoyed in the comfort of a room that has been transformed especially for the occasion into a private restaurant. Guests will upon arrival receive two keys. While one opens the door to their room, the other gives them access to one of the Deluxe Panorama Room which offers breathing views over the Belgian capital. The event called Side by Sight will start of March 25. The first chef will be Kevin … [Read more...]
Ta’ Betta Winery: ‘The ride of a lifetime’
What makes two professionals, highly respected in their fields put all their life savings into a project to create a boutique winery in Malta making top quality wines? How do they find the time to manage a wine business despite their professional commitments? That’s the story of Dr Astrid Camilleri, a gynaecologist and Prof. Juanito Camilleri a former University rector and former CEO of a mobile operator who have set up the Ta’ Betta Winery in Malta with the aim of making fine wines with personality that have ageing potential. “It’s a long story,” Astrid tells me. It is not a problem for me. It is a beautiful albeit windy summer evening at Ta’ Betta winery, a gem of a place the two have created over many years of hard work. You could call it their life or passion project but it has turned out to be much more than that. “We met in Cambridge while we were studying. I had started working there and Juanito was reading for his PhD. We got to know each other and we got married within 2 … [Read more...]
A taste of Sicily in your home as restaurant delivers across Europe
A Sicilian restaurant is sending a taste of Sicily directly to the homes of people in Europe and further afield. Il Consiglio di Sicilia, a happiness-driven restaurant and an acclaimed seafood restaurant in Donnalucata in Ragusa has launched two new special deliveries called Let’s Cook Together and Chilled Out. Roberta Corradin said that this is a time of instability and isolation for so many. “We are really missing our guests at least as much as they are missing us. What this pandemic has shown us is that the care and the love we feel for each of them has actually come to define us. We want to send more than food to the table of our guests and friends. We want to share with them the joy in our hearts,” said the co-owner of the restaurant and wife of chef Antonio Cicero. Antonio on the other hand said: “We are part of a community that relies on us and on which in turn we rely on them. It is a passionate, cheerful and supportive community. The purpose of these boxes is not just … [Read more...]
That sense of lost liberty – Valentino Cassanelli
If there is one thing that has been taken from many of us over the past year, it is the feeling of liberty. That feeling of being able to take the car, train or aeroplane and visit places that are a bit further away than your place of residence. Valentino Cassanelli, chef of Lux Lucis is no exception. He is dreaming of that day, some time soon, when he will be able to just take the car and discover those parts of Italy he has not really explored yet, like Sicily for example. “I would like to regain that sense of liberty. I want to be able to discover some places or rediscover others. All this lockdown has made me think of the places that I don’t know really well. I know Italy but I want to delve deeper,” he tells me. The Italian 37-year-old chef, who grew up in Spilamberto, a small town in the countryside outside Modena also relishes a trip to London to see how the city has changed during this pandemic, what has happened to certain neighbourhoods and what new restaurants will … [Read more...]
The curious case of the postponed Michelin announcement in Malta
VALLETTA: Michelin works in mysterious ways. We all know this particularly when it comes to transparency or lack of it. But when it comes to announcing the awards it is normally done with a lot of anticipation and much fanfare. So it came as a bit of a surprise today that the Michelin Guide today skipped the Malta announcement. Restauranteurs and chefs were told last month that the results for 2021 would be announced on 9 March. Malta was one of the few places in Europe which kept restaurants open after summer but last week they were ordered closed because of the COVID-19 crisis. Chefs and restauranteurs were hoping for a bit of good news to boost their morale particularly since the closure came as a surprise given the previous week their opening hours were extended. Some restaurants, we are told, had prepared their communication teams for the 11am announcement. But it was not to be as they were informally informed by the Malta Tourism Authority that the event had been … [Read more...]
Billy Wagner: Lack of transparency in Michelin’s sustainability award has to stop
Billy Wagner of Nobelhart & Schmutzig in Berlin is provocative. He doesn’t shy away from admitting it. In his restaurant, you are asked to not use your phone to take photos, message or whatever. So when he calls the Michelin intransparent that is an understatement but he goes further. He says that when it comes to sustainability, lack of transparency needs to end. He goes to call the green leaf unsustainable saying it promotes marketing rather than action. In an Instagram post, Billy Wagner said he was proud but also annoyed to have been given a Green leaf together with another 18 restaurants in Germany. “I am annoyed because the Michelin sustainability emblem is intransparent, misleading and not sustainable. I am quite aware that calling Michelin intransparent is like calling me provocative. It is a given. We all know that’s Michelin works in mysterious ways. Inspectors are anonymous. They taste our food, our service like any other guest. That is the Michelin guide and … [Read more...]
Sixty year anniversary for Santa Margherita’s Pinot Grigio
Sixty years ago, Santa Margherita’s Pinot Grigio made its debut. It launched a real revolution in taste and in wine-drinking pleasure. In these first sixty years of history, Pinot Grigio has become the leading Italian white varietal wine worldwide, and the Pinot Grigio from Santa Margherita continues to be one of its flagships: a wine that has made a huge contribution to the development of Italian winemaking, revolutionizing both the national and foreign markets. The story began towards the end of the 1950s when, preempting future trends, the visionary and forward-thinking Count Gaetano Marzotto began looking for a new type of wine that was no longer a cliché: one that was able to stand out due to its originality and distinctive taste profile, and had a strong varietal/ territorial identity. He was looking for a different approach to wine, one which would become the real protagonist of the contemporary dining experience. His quest for a perfect combination between … [Read more...]
Kevin Lejeune of restaurant La Canne en Ville sets shop at Steigenberger Wiltcher’s for a month
BRUSSELS: Restaurants have been closed since the end of October and for the time being there seems to be no indication of when they will be allowed to reopen. However, a leading hotel in Brussels has teamed up with young and upcoming chef Kevin Lejeune of restaurant La Canne en Ville to offer a dining experience within the hotel throughout the month of March until Easter. The initiative is a collaboration between Steigenberger Wiltcher's and Gault and Millau young chef of the year Kevin Lejeune. The chef and his team will elevate room service to a real evening 'as if you are in a restaurant'. Many of the rooms on the first floor of the hotel have been converted into individual dining rooms so that residents of the family rooms and suites can enjoy a stay with their family or as a couple without having to dine next to their bed. The maitre d'hotel of La Canne en Ville (Kevin's restaurant) will welcome guests throughout the month. A four-course menu will be served following … [Read more...]
The time for creativity is now – David Ghysels
BRUSSELS: The phone rings. David Ghysels, the man behind Hakuna Matata, an advertising and communications agency specialised around food brings out his phone to switch it off. It is an old Nokia. One rarely seen nowadays. How can the man behind Dinner in the Sky and a communications agency use a phone like this, I wonder. He tells me without any prompting or asking that he does not like distractions and prefers to have the time to make things happen by accident. “Bring two ideas that have nothing to do with each other and that’s were creation happens. A guy working in communication and gastronomy and someone working with cranes might not have much in common but this was what led to Dinner in the Sky,” he said. “The reason I don’t have a smart phone is that I like to spend time exploring, I prefer to pick up a magazine if I am at the doctor. Same for music, I prefer to listen to the radio than to a playlist. When you leave space for creativity, you find that this is when … [Read more...]