These entrepreneurs are using technology to turn a profit on food waste: Food waste is bad for our wallets. It’s also bad for the environment — the equivalent of throwing away the water, energy, and other resources that go into growing it in the first place. But as interest in reducing food waste grows, so does innovation to make it happen. Take a look at what some creative businesses are doing to turn trash into treasure. Shouty chef Gordon Ramsay is known for putting professional cooks through the ringer on television, but in this video, he's here to offer some sage advice to the amateur at home. Ramsay serves up 10 tips that are simple, but can improve anyone's home cooking game. The best sandwich ever: "Your Top 5 favorite sandwiches, in order, please. Go.” This is a game I play in the car with my children, as if we were characters in a Nick Hornby novel. It’s a diversion to make long travel more bearable. We play it all the time. The children rush to judgment, and as is true for … [Read more...]

You can buy a cheap chicken today, but we all pay for it in the long run: Have you ever asked yourself why an everyday “value” chicken can now be cheaper, pound for pound, than bread? Cheap chicken has become the “healthy” meat of choice for most shoppers and sales are booming, up 20% since 2000 in the UK. But is it really either cheap or healthy? Enigma chef Frantzen to open restaurant in Dubai: Swedish chef Björn Frantzén has revealed further details about his new venture in Dubai Design District (d3), following the news last month that his restaurant Frantzén is one of the culinary concepts set to open in the freezone this year. In an interview with Caterer Middle East, Frantzén, who is currently in residence at Engima in Palazzo Versace Dubai, said the restautant will "be a Nordic brasserie called Frantzén Kitchen". You Haven’t Seen The Last Of Jeremiah Tower: For a man who has just seen his life pass before him, Jeremiah Tower is handling things with complete composure and … [Read more...]

Restaurants are struggling to make ends meet and rising rents and changes in labour laws in various countries have made it even harder. David Chang has a great article on the subject. Called the earthquake that is about to hit restaurants he says razor-thin does not even begin to describe just how slender the margins are in the restaurant business, and that’s if you’re one of the fortunate few that don’t go under in the first year. Anthony Bourdain has 3 Best Tips For Eating Great When Traveling Abroad: If you like traveling and you're an even bigger fan of food, then you might also be a fan of Anthony Bourdain. The restaurant chef turned author has become a popular TV personality in recent years, first with his show No Reservations on the Discovery Channel and now with Parts Unknown on CNN. At 6 feet 4 inches tall, Bourdain has a large and respected presence in the worlds of food and travel. The 58-year-old is known for his honest, no bullshit approach to exploring and telling the … [Read more...]

Identita Golose has published Massimo Bottura's speech that was delivered at the event in Milan earlier this month. It is worth reading. Entitled the contemporary chef's manifesto, here is the first paragraph. "Creativity is a happy hindrance. When you have mastered a technique, you’ve become aware of your means, you have developed a critical ability and most of all you know yourself, at that moment, on the road to creativity, by slipping on an over mature banana, by tasting a pesto made with breadcrumbs or a lemon tartlet that fell down, at that moment you see the world with different eyes, the eyes of a child hiding underneath a table who steals a raw tortellino from the cutting board, catching a glimpse in the darkness." Recipe for success: Tiziano Gérard might be the greatest chef you’ve never heard of. He combines the skills and repertoire acquired in the kitchens of five-star hotels in Monte Carlo, Milan and Sardinia with the traditional cuisine of the Aosta Valley in … [Read more...]

It has been 20 years since "Under the Tuscan Sun" was published. The book became iconic and was also turned into a film. The New Yorker revisits the book that made people dream of going to live in Tuscany. The author of the article says it reads slightly better now though he has a longtime love-hate relationship with the book as its success has haunted him, teased him and turned him. Read why in the article especially if you are thinking of a trip to Tuscany any time soon. Robots could be staffing hotels by 2020 according to this article. Robot butlers and bartenders could be staffing hotels by 2020 as consumers become increasingly open to the idea, according to new research. A survey of 6,000 travellers from Europe, Asia and North America by Travelzoo found that almost two thirds would be comfortable with artificial intelligence being used in the travel industry in the next five years. Netflix has ordered more 'Chef's Table'. The streaming company has … [Read more...]

We are often reminded of the impact that technology is having on our lives. In Sweden, the first unstaffed food shop has opened. This is the work of a 39-year old IT specialist who runs a 24-hour shop with no cashier. Customers simply use their cellphones to unlock the door with a swipe of the finger and scan their purchases. All they need to do is to register for the service and download an app. They get charged for their purchases in a monthly invoice. In Australia, Noma Forages for Ingredients and Inspiration: On the menu that comes to the table at the end of the meal, it is described simply as “abalone schnitzel and bush condiments.” But those words don’t really do justice to the delicious eccentricity of the dish, part of a 10-week pop-up being staged there, through April 2, by the team from Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant famed for foraging indigenous ingredients and weaving them into a new kind of contemporary cuisine. The New York Times has an article about … [Read more...]

Here is a thought-provoking read about ordering food online in New York. It is about two savvy entrepreneurs who have created a successful company called Green Summit that is built on the notion that diners do not really care if their food comes from a restaurant that really exists in the real world. It offers menus from eight different virtual menus but the food is prepared in the same two kitchens. Could this be successful elsewhere? How often do you eat on your desk at lunch? The trend seems to be growing and that is not a good thing. According to an anthropologist the way people eat at work is pretty said. In the 1987 movie ‘‘Wall Street,’’ Gordon Gekko famously remarks, ‘‘Lunch is for wimps.’’ It has proved to be a prescient line in the American workplace, where taking time off for lunch has increasingly become a sign of idleness. But in an economy where the standard task is sitting in front of a computer, lunch is less intuitive and far more optional. On June 1st, … [Read more...]

If there is one thing that you should read this week then we recommend the following article which appeared in Wired. It's about Noma's taste of tomorrow and the future of food: One autumn afternoon in 2015, Danish chef René Redzepi is thinking hard about his restaurant's place in the world, both philosophically and geographically. "People consider Noma to be a local restaurant," he says. "We might be culturally local, but 'local' in terms of food miles - what does that mean? There are no definitions of these things. According to some 2008 Farm Act in America you have to source within 400 miles, which is like 650 kilometres, which makes us actually a Polish restaurant as well." Would you believe it if you are told that some of the best Italian food in Britain is served by non-Italians. There may be all sorts of reasons behind this odd fact but the reason is that the British chefs seem to have a stronger belief in a pan-Italian cuisine than most Italians do. Tim Hayward, has … [Read more...]

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...]

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...]