The price of olive oil is set to rise by around 20% following bad weather and disease that hit Europe's olive harvest. According to research group IRI, shoppers spent an additional €231m in 2015 on olive oil after the retail price of the oil rose by an average of 19.8 per cent across Europe in the first 11 months of last year. Truffle used to be considered as pig food in China before it became a treasure. Farmers now subsidize their income by truffle hunting. They do this not by using dogs as is common in Europe but rather using only their instinct and experience. Read the story here. Don't miss the story of how one tweet may change Cuban cuisine. One world-renowned chef challenged another to collaborate on a new restaurant in Cuba. Enrique Olvera and Andoni Aduriz take to Havana without a plan. But with the help of a third chef, Massimo Bottura, they come to realize their dream in a changing city. Cheap and easy food? Think about the true cost: EasyJet founder Stelios … [Read more...]
The Gelinaz! band is back with another unique event
The Gelinaz! gang, a collective of chefs that was formed by Italian food journalist Andrea Petrini, is back with another unique event after the successful organisation of Gelinaz shuffle last year. 14 chefs will be teaming up in pairs in an event called Walk with Us London. The event, which has been a sell out, takes place on 28 February. The chefs will be randomly teamed-up. Each Gelinaz! chef-duo will create four dishes (two starters, a main-course and a dessert). They will interpret and remix two original four-course menus specially created for the event by Isaac Mchale of The Clove Club and James Lowe of Lyle's. The restaurant in which each chef-duo is placed will only be revealed on the evening of the event. The organisers have promised the service will be 'a little shaken-up'. "Expect the evening to be interrupted, to leave the premises and....Walk with Us!" Gelinaz have said. The organisers have said that because of the concept, they are unable to cater for dietary … [Read more...]
Barone Ricasoli: A visit to the oldest winery in Italy and the one which created the Chianti Classico
The Brolio Castle in the heart of Chianti Classico between the communes of Gaiole in Chianti and Castelnuovo Berardenga is an imposing castle dating back to the middle ages. It houses the oldest winery in Italy, Barone Ricasoli and the second oldest in the world. Although I had already visited the castle some years back, the children on a recent trip to the area wanted to visit the castle given we were in the area. The largest winery in the Chianti Classico area, it was in this castle that the Baron Bettino Ricasoli invented the Chianti Formula in 1872. Francesco Ricasoli, Bettino's great-grandson who has been at the helm of the family business since 1993 says that 'the research we do today has almost one thousand years behind it'. You get a sense of history the minute you step in the grounds of the castle. This is one of the oldest standing family businesses in the world. The first stones of Brolio Castle date back to the middle ages. The castle passed into the … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #65
Do you know that we may have to think twice before being smug and write about how unhealthy it is to eat sugary food. A new study has found that it might actually be causing people to eat more by making such products more enticing. Dieters who were confronted with warnings that “all sugary snacks are bad” ate more cookies than those who were presented with a positive message, according to research published in the ‘Journal of the Association for Consumer Research’. Massimo Bottura, chef of famous Italian restaurant Osteria Francescana is known for serving a deconstructed Caesar salad at his restaurant (see photo above). The Wall Street Journal has adopted the recipe from his book Never Trust a Skinny Italian chef. It is really worth trying. A family of four can throw away up to $80 worth of food each month, twice what they think they throw away according to a survey carried out in the UK. The survey found that 81 percent of households with four people are under the impression … [Read more...]
Mindjî, the European festival of gastronomy to take place in Namur in June
Mindjî is the name chosen for the first European festival of gastronomy to be held at the Citadel in Namur. The event is organised by Generation W, a collective of chefs from Wallonia (the W representing the French speaking part of Belgium - Wallonia). The name mindjî, means to eat in the Wallonia. Two dozen chefs coming from around 20 different countries and regions of Europe will join chefs from Generation W and from Belgium. They will be accompanied by their artisanal suppliers and their favourite produce. Dozens of Michelin starred chefs will be taking part allowing visitors the chance to discover their cuisine through tastings, conferences and also demonstrations. The Wallonia Food Festival & Symposium will take place between 4th and 7th June in Namur and is organised by Generation W together with Culinaria Agency. Generation W is the brainchild of 10 Walloon chefs including the most representative chef of the region Sang-Hoon Degeimbre. It's aim is to promote … [Read more...]
Weekly round-up of great reads on food and wine #64
The rise of social eating networks is giving the possibility to many to monetise skills that are not widely utilised in male-dominated restaurant kitchen culture. In Italy, Gnammo is the largest of many restaurants popping up all over Italy to promote a new trend in dinner parties. Users can search through chefs' online profiles for a menu they like and then dine at the chef's own house. Read the story here. Do you want to learn some dirty secrets about the hotel industry? If you are heading to a hotel soon, you may not want to read the following because you may decide that a hotel is not for you. How much are you ready to spend on a good tomato sauce? The Guardian has tested the best tinned tomatoes you can buy. A restaurant in Italy has caused a stir by banning children below the age of 5 years for misbehaviour. But someone argues it would have made more sense to ban rude adults and iPads. We knew fish stocks were low. But it's much worse than we thought: About 164,000 … [Read more...]
Weekly round-up of great reads on food and wine #63
Your dose of inspiration this week should start with this article about Mikael Jonsson of Hedone who traded a career as a successful lawyer in Sweden with being a Michelin starred chef in London. He decided to do this when he was 44 when he says it started to grind in the back of his head that he should take his home-cooking skills and see how could he could become as a chef. And he does not believe that he will retire as a chef. "If I see there's another passion I really want to exercise, then I will probably change again. I don't understand this notion that you have one career in life and then that's it." Foodiva interviews Spanish three Michelin star chef Quique Dacosta. He is the first chef to take over Palazzo Versace's Enigma restaurant in Dubai for a three month pop-up. The restaurant will change hands every three months. Like Jonsson above, he is also a self-taught chef. On the subject of chefs, you should not miss the interview with Jason Atherton on opening 14 … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #62
Alain Ducasse is one of the world's greatest chefs. The 59-year-old French chef has 23 restaurants in seven countries, including two in London, and a total of 20 Michelin stars. He also runs cookery schools, has written numerous cookbooks, and last year he even devised a menu for the International Space Station (bon app, Tim Peake!). Read his story in an excellent interview here. This week we have written about what we think the world of food and wine will look like in 2016. Here is an article in Entrepreneur about 5 ways your restaurant experience will change in 2016. There has been a lot of controversy in the UK following the issuance of new guidelines on the amount of units of alcohol that men and women should drink. The new guidelines suggest that both men and women should drink no more than 14 units a week and said it is best to spread them over the week rather than binge. You can read an article about the truth about alcohol here and another here about why we should be … [Read more...]
What to expect in 2016 – 10 things we expect to see this year in the world of food and wine
The start of the new year is always a time for reflections on what happened in the previous year but also a way of looking forward to what might be coming next. They say it is foolish to make predictions particularly since there is a tendency for these to go wrong. But as we look back at the previous year we can observe the trends that are likely to shape the food and wine world. Which of these will come true when we look back at the same time next year? 1. Buying tickets for a meal in a restaurant will become more common Alinea and Next in Chicago have been experimenting with a ticketing system that allows customers to pre-purchase their meal at the restaurant for some time now. It is a completely different concept to what people are currently used to when dining out and it has worked. When Noma tried it recently for its pop-up restaurant in Australia, all covers for the four-month duration were sold out in the space of seconds. Even Magnus Nillson, the chef of Faviken in … [Read more...]
Dario Cecchini – the legendary butcher of Panzano in Chianti
No visit to the Chianti region in Tuscany would be complete without a visit to Panzano in Chianti at what may be considered as one of the most famous butcher shops in the world. Dario Cecchini, butcher of the Antica Macelleria Cecchini needs no introduction. He rose to fame during of the mad cow disease crisis when eating a 'bistecca fiorentina' or t-bone steak was prohibited for health scare reasons. He organised a funeral for the bistecca fiorentina and a plaque still commemorates the ceremony (see photo below). He has been mentioned in books such as Heat by Bill Buford and has been featured in most of the world's top newspapers and magazines over the past years. This 59-year-old legendary Italian butcher has literally made Panzano in Chianti a tourist attraction in its own right. While the hill-top village is attractive and located on a high ridge on the scenic Via Chiantigiana, many would probably not stop unless to take pictures of the beautiful scenery had Cecchini not … [Read more...]