https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX7kwfE3cJQ Home cooking is extremely important for health and it can change your life. This is the message Michael Pollan gives in the above lecture as he is presents the book Cooked: A natural history of transformation launched earlier this year. We have linked to this video in our weekly reads but felt that the message was so important that it would be good to summarise it for people who might not have 20 minutes to watch it. He speaks about fast food companies and notes that when you let fast food companies cook your food, you end up with vast monocultures of soya, corn and animals. The reason for this is that fast food companies and food processors push to drive the costs down relentlessly by forcing economies of scale and efficiency. Pollan gives the experience of Mcdonalds and their french fries. He says that they use a potato which is unusually long and difficult to grow. If it has blemishes they will not buy it. This forces farmers … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #12
This week's theme is about healthy eating and the importance of teaching people how to cook. We have come across many different interesting articles about this theme and in particular the problems related to fast food and processed food. Most of the readers of Food and Wine Gazette may be familiar with many of these issues but we always find some interesting points which we might have missed elsewhere or which help to raise awareness. Our first read of the week is a Tedx Talk on Why the farm is not getting to the table. It is an interesting article by Leah on what is considered to be the food movement's last mile problem - cooking. It is a skill that we are losing and it is the skill that actually connects the farm to our tables. If you look at the numbers it is pretty scary. In 1900, 2 per cent of meals were eaten outside the home. In 2010, 50 per cent were eaten away from home and one in five breakfasts is from McDonald's. 20 per cent of all American meals are eaten in the car. … [Read more...]
Michelin star storm hits Brussels – but is it much ado about nothing?
The Michelin guide revealed its results for Belgium and Luxembourg last Monday and in the process created a storm of controversy in the Belgian media and social media. The controversy centres around the move of chef Alexandre Dionisio from his own restaurant Alexandre (now closed) to La Villa in the Sky which opened earlier this month. When Michelin announced the results for Brussels they mentioned that new restaurants had earned a one Michelin star, Le Monde est Petit, Le Pigeon Noir and Da Mimmo. They, however, failed to mention that the restaurant by Alexandre Dionisio called Alexandre (we were there a few months before this website was launched and ate incredibly well, though it has since closed) was no longer in the list and instead the award had moved with Alexandre to La Villa in the Sky. For those who have missed the new Michelin releases, there were new one Michelin star announcements (See all the list here) with no new two and three Michelin star … [Read more...]
Interview with Sang Hoon Degeimbre: Creativity comes from constant questioning and keeping an open mind
It was a crispy autumn morning last week when I visited L’Air du Temps for the second time in just a few weeks. This time I had come to interview Sang-Hoon Degeimbre, the chef of this two Michelin star restaurant in Liernu, around 50 kilometres outside Brussels. I was intrigued by his story, particularly because of the inventiveness of his cuisine and also after having listened to his presentation at Chefs Revolution in Zwolle. How could such an inventive and talented chef be self-taught? What was the driving force behind his creativity? I was also wondering what led Sang-Hoon to open the restaurant in Liernu, when he could have moved his restaurant closer to a main city. But driving to the restaurant, I realised that this question would be redundant because of the beauty of the Wallonian countryside and the purity of the air. “Sometimes when I come here early in the morning I just head to the garden and just look at the sunrise and the countryside and that is really something … [Read more...]
A reader sends us two wine horror stories in restaurants
A few weeks ago we wrote about wine mistakes that are often made in restaurants. This has been one of the most popular posts on the website. A reader, who we know to be an avid wine lover, has sent us two of his wine horror stories which are all the more scary because they happened in two highly reputable restaurants. We know the names of the places in question but we are opting not to mention them because our aim is to raise awareness about these mistakes and to ensure that more attention is given to wine service in restaurants. Do not hesitate to share your stories with us. Story #1 : It was a special occasion and our reader and his wife went to a highly reputed restaurant for lunch. "We had a look at the menu and I had seen that I could have as a starter a "tranche de foie gras cru accompagné d'un verre de Sauternes". The name of the wine figured on the list, but I cannot unfortunately remember exactly which one it was. So, when the sommelier came over to ask … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #11
Yesterday there was a very interesting conversation between Elizabeth Auerbach of the blog Elizabeth on Food and the World's 50 best list which I intended to write about given it touched many interesting points about lists, bloggers, guides and the importance. Elizabeth asked whether those who vote on the list are allowed to accept invitations from chefs and restaurants for free meals. The answer was yes and the World's Best 50 tried to defend its method. But when the conversation started to get heated up, Elizabeth on Food said "she had just got an email from the World's 50 saying that they don't want to continue the conversation on Twitter #sore subject." There is a good report of the discussion on Eater. While we are on the subject of lists, here is an article about the world's most expensive restaurants. I am sure they may have missed a few. Also from the Daily Meal is a report about a four year old who reviewed a meal at The French Laundry, one of the best restaurants in … [Read more...]
Interview with Eneko Atxa (Azurmendi): Putting the guest at the centre of the experience
Eneko Atxa's restaurant Azurmendi retained its 3 Michelin Stars for 2015 when the new classification for Spain was announced on 19 November. The restaurant, perched on a hillside just outside Bilbao does not need any introduction among food connoisseurs. Ranked 26th in the World’s 50 Best restaurants, it is also the winner of the sustainability award. Eneko, the 37-year-old chef of the restaurant told Food and Wine Gazette, when we interviewed him in Cologne during Chef Sache 2014 last month that the most important honour for him is to finish a service and ensure that his guests are happy. "I always say that we have to fight every day to ensure that our guests are happy. If we achieve this every day for 365 days a year, then we win. This to me is the most important honour. Obviously awards are important because they help us to get more people to the restaurant. We are not obsessed with the awards, but with the guest. For us, satisfaction of each guest is the most important," Eneko … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #10
From the wines of Mount Etna in Sicily, to wine writer ethics, how to boil an egg, food as a political issue, restaurant trends for 2015, a guide to Brussels or how one of the most renowned chefs claimed a rival sabotaged his new restaurant's opening night, this is my weekly roundup. Many thanks to my readers who send articles or links from time to time. These are always welcome. The wines of Mount Etna in Sicily have been exciting interest of wine lovers over the past few years like no other wine region in Italy. Jancis Robinson writes about the wines from this active volcano and picks 5 of her favourites. But while there were only 5 wineries producing Etna wines 15 years ago, most Sicilian notable wine companies have all invested in land on the mountain and some have even built wineries. But the locals claim only they know how to work in these really special vineyards Max Allen writes on www.jancisrobinson.com about wine writer ethics. He speaks about conflicts of interest and … [Read more...]
The impact of social media on the food and wine world
Social media is becoming more and more influential in today's world and, whether you like it or not, no sector of the economy is spared. What is the impact of social media on restaurants? How do some people use the power of social networking to their benefit? And what do you do if you find yourself in an embarrassing situation like having a blogger who refuses to pay the restaurant bill? This topic was the subject of a very interesting panel discussion at Chef Sache in Cologne animated by Ralf Bos. It is not an easy subject and the same issues also apply beyond the food and wine world. In many cases there is no right or wrong answer. The panelists were German chef Thomas Buhner, Giovanni Zanetti, the Wine Punk, Dr Ingo Scheuermann, a professor of finance who is crazy about food and fine-dining and writes about food on www.culinary-insights.de and Sebastian Wussler who created the Chefstalk Project. Giovanni Zanetti has a winery in Italy and sells pretty much all his wine … [Read more...]
Henri Le Worm – a great app to teach children about food
Anyone who has children knows how difficult it is to get them to eat their vegetables. As our doctor once said, the golden age for children is up to the age of 18 months following which their love affair with vegetables abruptly comes to an end. From then onwards it becomes a struggle to get them to eat their greens. In an age where a lot of emphasis is being placed on food provenance and where knowledge of where our food comes from is not so common, an app was launched earlier this year featuring Henri Le Worm. The app aims to teach children about food in an entertaining way. It is a really well made interactive application (available for Android and IOS devices) aimed at children aged between 2 years and 8 years and features a number of characters including Henri Le Worm, Derek the Ladybird, Sebastian the Intelligent Slug and Texas Lou the Spider. The colours are vibrant and app is very interactive. It allows children to click on vegetables in a garden and get interesting facts … [Read more...]