The importance of distraction by Andoni Luis Adoriz: I’ve always been easily distracted. When something doesn’t motivate me, or bores me, I drift away; my mind escapes and ends up somewhere else. At school, I was one of those students who barely passed. I did poorly even in subjects that are impossible to fail, such as gymnastics, and in religion, which even atheists manage to effectively negotiate. My mother thought that I was a kid without a passion. She perceived that I might be doomed to failure and felt the obligation to do something so that I would not die of hunger. And what better place to eat every day than a kitchen? That’s how I ended up in this profession, triggering an internal struggle within myself, between my desire to please my parents and my eagerness to find my place in the world. The secret code of unleashing the world's most amazing flavours by David Chang: My first restaurant, Momofuku Noodle Bar, had an open kitchen. This wasn’t by choice—I didn’t have enough … [Read more...]

Charcoal grilling tastes better than gas. It's just science: The statistics I just made up don’t lie: More people will die this summer from fighting each other over gas grilling versus charcoal grilling than all other causes combined. Americans, you see, have themselves some assertive opinions about their grilling. How did Denmark become a leader in the food waste revolution: A six-year-old sniffs asparagus suspiciously as his father grapples with a grapefruit and several women admire a selection of cabbages, in search of a bargain.  “Everyone pays 20 kroner (about £2) for a reusable bag to fill with whatever they like,” says Bettina Bach, 31, of Bo Welfare, a social housing project in the Danish city of Horsens that runs the food waste pop-up shop. Wylie Dufresne: Wisdom of a New York Chef: Last year I seemed to bump into Wylie Dufresne (one of my favorite people) all over the place in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, far from his NYC base. I ran into him again in Mexico City … [Read more...]

A hotel chef has been fired after boasting on Instagram that he feeds meat to vegans: A hotel chef has been fired after boasting on social media that he had secretly served meat to vegans. Alex Lambert was fired from his job as head chef of the Littleover Lodge Hotel in Derby after saying it was his “personal favourite” to serve “animal products” to vegans during an online argument on Instagram The Food-Sharing Economy Is Delicious And Illegal—Will It Survive?  Renee McGhee, a 59-year-old grandmother of nine, was at home recuperating from a bicycle accident when she opened her neighborhood newsletter and saw an advertisement for home-cooked meals. A few clicks later, she learned that the neighbor who posted it had joined Josephine, an online marketplace that helps home cooks coordinate small takeout-food businesses. McGhee’s last job as the manager of a cake bakery had required heavy lifting. After breaking bones in both hands, she’d crossed anything like that job off of her list of … [Read more...]

The Sportsman, a seaside pub where the menu is on a blackboard and main dishes cost about £20 ($26), was named U.K. restaurant of the year, beating some of the biggest names in British gastronomy in a Top 100 list otherwise dominated by London establishments. Heston Blumenthal on taking photos of your food and his once-in-a-lifetime food experiences: HESTON Blumenthal is like a rock star of the cooking world, and so is his food. But there’s one thing he wishes people would stop doing in his restaurants — taking pictures of their food. “Chefs always have this problem now, it’s across the board and you can’t control people,” he told news.com.au while in Melbourne to film Heston Week which starts tonight on MasterChef. I would prefer if they (diners) didn’t take any photos and just enjoyed themselves at the table and certainly not take them throughout the whole meal." The ultimate grilling guide: Check out Bon Appetit's summer grilling guide with lots of recipes as well as … [Read more...]

The Italian Riviera: Italy's vegetarian heartland: The beautiful, rocky coastline of Liguria – also known as the Italian Riviera – stretches from the French border in the east to Tuscany in the west, taking in fishing villages, famous resort towns and the historic city of Genoa. The maritime Alps separate Liguria from the northern Italian provinces of Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna, creating a narrow strip of land between mountains and sea. Olive trees stretch as far as the eye can see, and tiny ancient villages perch precariously on mountainsides. Food as poetry: Massimo Bottura, the cultured chef at the top of the culinary world: When the World’s 50 Best Restaurants announced earlier this week that Massimo Bottura’s Modena restaurant Osteria Francescana had made it to the top of the list for the first time few in the culinary world were surprised. His rise to the top of the culinary world has been progressive and constant. What may have been surprising was the time it took for him to … [Read more...]

96 of the world's best chefs share their favorite food experiences: Shopping local markets, the perfume of durian, Andean mountain cooking, oyster omelets with Sriracha sauce and warm milk straight from the cow -- these are some of the world's best chefs' favorite food experiences. On the eve of the 2016 World's Best Restaurant awards, we asked chefs from the world's current top 100 eateries to nominate an all-time favorite culinary experience that they'd recommend to traveling foodies. Why did I fall in love with fermentation: Growing up in a house void of inspiration, I always looked outward for my involvement, expression and stimulation through food and creativity. I grew up in the mountains of New Mexico and then in my teens moved to a larger city where I quickly embraced the best of both cultures. Take it with a pinch of salt – the food marketing myths we’ve swallowed whole: What came first, the chicken-is-healthy study or the eggs-are-unhealthy study? Nutritional advice is … [Read more...]

Peek Inside Bordeaux’s New Cité Du Vin, The Disneyland For Wine Lovers: Earlier this week, the French city of Bordeaux solidified its reputation as the Mecca of the wine world, with the opening of its long-awaited, 10-story, $9 million monument to viticulture, La Cité du Vin, or City of Wine. How to Rank the Restaurant Rankings: In a crowded field, choosing a best-of list on which to base your reservation can be a maddening exercise. Here’s a handy breakdown of the restaurant rankings currently carrying weight. Festa a Vico: Three days of food immersion in the bays of Naples: Vico Equense, a small town in the greater bay of the Naples metropolitan area, beautifully located on a tuff cliff, from 29th till 31st of May transformed itself into a big restaurant with hundreds of chefs cooking on the streets and thousands of food lovers enjoying their creations. This will happen in the occasion of the twelfth edition of Festa a Vico. What is Festa a Vico? The whole … [Read more...]

The Eater guide to the whole entire world: Tapas at the bar in Barcelona, perfect roast goose in Hong Kong, dinner in a vineyard outside Melbourne, and brunch on a terrace in São Paulo — when we travel now, we travel to eat. But global restaurant-hopping goes beyond that perfect iconic essential dish: Restaurants and bars are an opportunity to slip into daily life and experience a city's unique rhythm. We tapped dozens of local experts to open the doors to the best, the coolest, the weirdest, the most inspiring culinary experiences a traveler can have — in short, these maps are exactly what we want to have at our fingertips when we step off a plane. Don’t see your next destination on this list? Sit tight. We’ll be adding many, many more. Cheesed-off Italy wants pay-out over US soap opera gag:  Producers of Italian hard cheese Grana Padano have told those behind the long-running US soap-opera, The Bold and the Beautiful, to pay damages after their product was the butt of a cheesy … [Read more...]

Heston Blumenthal: from brink of bankruptcy to giant of gastronomy: "When I was 15, I went to a restaurant in Provence with my folks. I could hear the legs of lamb being carved and the clink of glasses, I could smell the lavender. The waiters’ feet crunched on the gravel and the crickets sang. I went into a multi-sensory wonderland, and I was hooked.” It was this moment, 35 years ago, that convinced Heston Blumenthal to become a restaurateur. Alinea 2.0: Reinventing One of the World's Best Restaurants: "Did that work?" Nick Kokonas asks from the atrium of the recently renovated Alinea. It's Tuesday afternoon. The restaurant reopens on Friday night, after undergoing a five-month, seven-figure facelift. And its owner can't find the light switch. "I'm still learning where everything is," he says as the lights turn on over the service station in one of the four dining rooms — each of which has totally different decor and an entirely new menu. Meanwhile, Grant Achatz is fixed to … [Read more...]

Empty tables after Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks: — Les Bouquinistes has long been a favorite luxury restaurant of Paris visitors. Set on a quay along the Left Bank, founded by Guy Savoy, a three-Michelin-star chef, it offers a warm welcome, a contemporary setting, a creative menu, prices that are not stratospheric and drop-dead views of the Seine and Notre-Dame. But on a recent Thursday evening, this 50-seat food emporium was empty except for one couple at a table in front and a small group celebrating a birthday in a back room. 16 incredible dishes from the world's best female chef: Chef Dominique Crenn of Atelier Crenn and Petit Crenn was recently named the world’s best female chef by The World's 50 Best Restaurants. The San Francisco restaurateur and chef is the only female chef in the United States to earn two Michelin stars. She is internationally renowned for her "poetic culinaria," which means that she likes to tell a poetic story through food. Overfishing … [Read more...]