What better way to get to know part of the GELINAZ! crowd than with a casual lunch at O' Boufés, the casual restaurant of chef Konstantin Filippou and his wife Manuela. The duo hosted chefs and journalists for a lunch on Wednesday before the welcome dinner at the world renowned Vienna restaurant of Heinz Reitbauer, Steirereck and the transfer to Muhlathof in Neufelden where the GELINAZ DOES UPPER AUSTRIA took place. Chef Konstanin Filippou and his wife Manuela own two restaurants in Vienna, the causal O' Boufés and their flagship restuarant called Konstanin Filippou which gained a Michelin star soon after it opened its doors. The O Boufés was opened two years ago and is next door to their flagship restaurant and has been an integral part of their story. Serving pure and simple food that is characterised by great ingredients and good taste the cooking style at the O Boufés clearly reflects Konstantin's multicultural background (he is half Greek having a Greek father and … [Read more...]
GELINAZ DOES UPPER AUSTRIA: how 23 chefs revisited 3 matrix dishes
23 chefs, 7 teams, 3 matrix dishes with clearly defined ingredients, 14 courses. It may sound simple but it definitely is not. Chefs are meant to collaborate, to spend time together, to learn from each other and to exchange ideas. Its a bit like summer camp but it is also stressful and tiring. That is what the GELINAZ! DOES UPPER AUSTRIA dinner was all about. It is not the first time that chefs have been asked to revisit matrix dishes. And it will definitely not be the last. So what was served in Neufelden earlier this month when 21 top chefs were hosted by father and son duo Helmut and Philip Rachinger at the idyllic Mühltalhof restaurant and hotel? The dishes may have looked simple: what's not to like about a simple fresh water dish, a goulash and venison but the end result was far from simple. The chefs were grouped in teams of three or four people and they have one dish to reinterpret. There are seven teams in all. Three teams must reinterpret the venison dish, two the fish … [Read more...]
GELINAZ! DOES UPPER AUSTRIA: Magic happens outside the comfort zone
What makes chefs drop everything and travel across continents, sometimes with very little sleep in between, to push boundaries and challenge themselves outside the comfort of their kitchens and teams? Why do they leave their usual environment, their homes, their families and risk their reputation to participate in an event where you can always expect the unexpected? The answer is GELINAZ! It is a the collective of chefs that is co-curated by Andrea Petrini and Alexandra Swenden and which likes to promote itself as being beyond food and evil. They organise events ranging from impromptu dinners to chefs swapping restaurants for one day, retreats and also the most recent (before last Sunday’s event) being a chef shuffle at the same time as a gathering of 20 chefs called Brussels Headquarters. This was held at Christophe Hardiquest’s Bon Bon where they cooked 4 consecutive services from 12 noon to 3am. This time, they charted new territories with GELINAZ! DOES UPPER … [Read more...]
noma 2.0 still on track to open in December. Pop-up restaurant to open in the meantime
Noma 2.0 is still on track to open in December. In an email sent to their subscribers, the team at noma led by René Redzepi said that the creative team was currently traveling through the Nordic region to meet their friends and collaborators, and to seek out new ones. But the rest of the team, about 30 of them, will be opening their own popup restaurant in Copenhagen. The sous chefs and restaurant managers have joined forces to create an outdoor, family style, open fire restaurant. noma said their team was from all parts of the world; will this influence our menu? It certainly will. "The noma team will be serving the the freshest food of the day cooked how they want to, not necessarily how it would be at noma. The essence of it is that while we are waiting for the new noma to open, the noma staff will be collaborating on a menu of simple delicious food that they would eat themselves on a summer night," said the noma team. The pop-up restaurant will be a collaboration … [Read more...]
The natural wines of Goyo Garcia Viadero: Amazing in their purity
A swirl of the glass, I smell the wine and I get that preliminary 'animal' smell which indicates that this is a natural wine. Within minutes, the smell mellows down to reveal a stunning 100% Tempranillo. We had no idea at this stage that this was a natural wine though I could suspect from the smell. But this is one of those wines which really challenges your perception of what a natural wine should be. While natural wines may get away with being 'unstable' this was neither unstable nor does it have any sign of oxidisation even though it has been open for more than three hours and has been double decanted. Last week, I tasted three wines made by Spanish winemaker Goyo Garcia Viadero at a wine-tasting of Ribero del Deuro wines at a wine club I am member of. Present for the wine tasting, Goyo, the Spanish winemaker, told us that for 50 years he had been working in vineyards. "I've worked all my life in vineyards for others. I was a bit of a 'mercenary' but I had this idea of the … [Read more...]
Eneko Atxa to open Basque restaurant in London
Eneko Atxa, chef of 3 Michelin star restaurant Azurmendi, ranked 19th in the World's 50 Best restaurants and voted first by Opinionated about Dining in 2015 has announced plans to open a Basque restaurant in London. He will open his first restaurant in the UK next year at the One Aldwych Hotel. The hotel is situated in centre of London's Covent Garden. Atxa said the aim of the new restaurant was that of presenting a modern take on rustic Basque cuisine focusing on simplicity and quality ingredients. The Basque chef who is known for his inventive cuisine is considered to be one of the rising stars of Spanish cuisine. In an interview with Food and Wine Gazette last year, Atxa spoke about the importance he give to sustainability (he won the sustainable restaurant of the year award in 2014). “We are a very young team. I don’t think about the future. I am dreaming about the future. And in my dream, the future will be more sustainable and the environment will be more important … [Read more...]
Details of Alinea Madrid pop-up restaurant announced
Booking for Alinea Madrid, the pop-up restaurant of the Chicago-based Grant Achatz, considered as one of the most inventive chefs in the world is now open as details of the restaurant have been announced. Alinea Madrid will launch on January 12 and will stay open till February 6. This American restaurant is considered to be one of the best in the world and is a collaboration between chef Grant Achatz and restauranteur Nick Kokonas. Alinea Madrid said that the history of Alinea is inextricably linked with the modernist cuisine of Spain. It is no secret that Achatz, like many contemporary chefs, has been inspired by pioneering Spanish chefs like Arzak and Adria to embrace culinary innovations and risk-taking. "On both sides of the Atlantic, dining as an experience, both cultural and artistic, has allowed chefs a new freedom to rethink what a restaurant can be...and in turn to give patrons exciting and delicious ways to enjoy dining out," says Grant Achatz. Alinea Madrid fulfills a … [Read more...]
Redzepi’s non-profit foundation MAD partners with Yale University to create institute for chefs
News about René Redzepi seems to be coming out each week. Today comes the announcement that the non-profit foundation MAD (Danish for Food), created by Redzepi, will be partnering with Yale University to develop a new leadership institute for chefs. This comes in the wake of announcements that Noma, the award-winning restaurant run by Redzepi will close its doors in December 2016 as well as the announcement of the launch of VILD MAD, a resource for learning, tasting and exploring wild food. The programme, which will be piloted next spring at Yale, will help create and curate new discussions among leading chefs as their influence continues to develop past the walls of their restaurants. In an age when chefs have become celebrities and have helped to raise awareness on issues such as food waste, this partnership is significant because it recognises the positive influence chefs can have on issues like kitchen culture and sustainability among others. Redzepi, considered to be … [Read more...]
Adria brothers cook together for first time in seven years at Bottura’s soup kitchen
The Adria brothers cooked together for the first time in seven years at Massimo Bottura's soup kitchen in Milan, the Refettorio Ambrosiano, today 2 September. Ferran Adria wrote on his twitter feed that he was supporting Massimo Bottura's amazing initiative while his brother Albert took to Instagram to say it was amazing how time flies and that it was the first time in seven years that he has cooked with his brother. Foodies around the world would probably have travelled thousands of kilometres and paid hundreds if not thousands to get a taste of Ferran and Albert Adria's cooking. They have not cooked together since they took different paths seven years ago. Instead, they joined forces with Italy's top chef Massimo Bottura to feed Milan's poor using 'waste' generated at the Milan Expo. Massimo Bottura wrote on his Instagram feed that they had cooked a chicken nugget that wants to be a soup to a group of children present at the Refettorio yesterday for lunch. The Italian … [Read more...]
Noma’s Redzepi launches VILD MAD, a resource for learning, tasting and exploring wild food
Rene Redzepi has billed it as one of his proudest moments he can think of. And it is called VILD MAD (in Danish) or Wild Food. It is a resource for learning about, tasting and exploring wild food and is being launched in Denmark, the home of Redzepi, one of the world's best chefs. VILD MAD is split into three parts. The first is a curriculum for school kids in Denmark. The project wants to encourage children of all ages to explore their local landscape and taste the abundance of flavours around them. "We aspire to see knowledge of natural food being taught in schools as commonly as reading, writing and mathematics. We believe that providing young children with a basic understanding of edibility and of the landscape will broaden their perception of flavour, connect them to their surroundings in a more profound way and enable them to understand nature's resources and flow." The second part of VILD MAD is a foraging and wild food school for all Danes. The aim behind the project … [Read more...]