A Maltese restaurant outside Maltese shores is not a common sight. And there is a reason. The island is small and few Maltese chefs have ventured out of Malta to cook Maltese-style cuisine in their own restaurants. Many Maltese chefs have gone abroad to train but most return to work on the island. It is even more unusual when that cuisine is replicated by a Belgian chef but there is a reason for this. Since 2011, Maarten Van Steen and Anna Vella Bardon have been serving Mediterranean style food with a Maltese twist at their restaurant Villa Bardon in Sluizeken, Gent. "It was always our dream to open a restaurant and Gent was a great location. As a chef I studied in the Flemish city of Bruges and was classically trained. Then I went to Malta for two years, (my wife Anna is from Malta) and it was here that I got to know Maltese food and Mediterranean culture," he tells Food and Wine Gazette. He loved the freshness of the fish and the purity of the flavours. "There are things … [Read more...]
Senzanome (Brussels): Possibily the best Italian meal outside Italy
Italian restaurants outside Italy can sometimes be hit and miss. While many tend to be good, they are not exceptional. Italian restaurants, especially those outside Italy tend to adapt to the culture of the country they are based in making them far less authentic. Senzanome is the flagship Italian restaurant in Belgium and especially in the Belgian capital Brussels. Giovanni Bruno, of Sicilian origin, has been cooking since the 1980s and has taken over from his parents who opened the restaurant in 1991. Since 1997, he has been at the helm of the restaurant and achieved an unexpected Michelin star in 2004. It has since then gone from strength to strength and was voted the best Italian restaurant outside Italy in 2011 and 2012. That is no easy feat given the number of Italian restaurants that exist worldwide. I've been wanting to try this restaurant for a very long time despite the fact that I had heard mixed reviews about the restaurant. Some really raved about the restaurant … [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...]
Sven Elverfeld: Food education should start with young children
Sven Elverfeld is a chef with a conscience. His restaurant Aqua in Wolfsburg may be one of the best in the world (it has three Michelin stars since 2009) and is currently 33rd in the World's 50 Best Restaurant list) but he is thinking not only about the current refugee crisis but also how to raise awareness about proper eating among children. When I sat to talk to him at Chef Sache in Cologne a few days ago he started talking about the current refugee crisis and how he recently organised a charity dinner at Aqua with the Wolfsburg football team to raise money for refugees. So even though I am interested in his creative process (which we discuss later) my first question is about the current crisis. I asked him why he felt the need to do something and he said: "At the moment, I have the possibility to do it. If you are known in your community then it is easier to do something like this. It is not all about glamour. This is a problem and it does not scare me but makes me sad. When you … [Read more...]
Virtual reality for Tim Raue’s restaurant in Berlin
When Tim Raue went up on stage in Cologne to present a new concept, we knew he was onto something. Despite admitting that the technology is still in its early stages, Raue is experimenting with offering diners at his restaurant a unique experience by immersing them into his kitchen and explaining what they are about to eat in a personalised audiovisual manner. He is using virtual reality goggles to take diners at his restaurant on a 'tour of Berlin' and see the chef explain the story behind the dish he is serving as well as how it is prepared. Raue said at Chef Sache that many of the guests at the restaurant might not have time to visit Berlin. "We could have told the story in a different way but we felt that it would be more appropriate to use visuals to tell the story," Raue said. Two Michelin star chef Tim Raue can be considered as one of the most prominent German chefs in Berlin if not the whole of Germany. Apart from his flagship restaurant Tim Raue, the German chef has a … [Read more...]
Brussels welcomes San
San, the new restaurant of two-Michelin star chef San Degeimbre, is ready to start welcoming guests from Monday 5 October. The restaurant is built around a simple concept, that of serving food in bowls. This concept has already been tried and tested for lunch at the two Michelin star restaurant L'Air du Temps in Liernu, Belgium. San's restaurant is a welcome addition to the Brussels scene and has long been awaited by foodies in the city, particularly after the announcement of its opening earlier this year. The Belgian-Korean chef is going back to his roots by serving dishes in a bowl, something which is very common in Korea. There will be no forks and knives but only spoons. 'When you are using a spoon, you are forced to pick up what's on the plate and thus mix flavours," San told Food and Wine Gazette. Indeed, the dishes served at a press dinner showcased this concept to perfection. The taste from each spoonful was different and the flavours lingered on for a long … [Read more...]
Au Grand Forestier: A new restaurant by the owners of a Brussels institution
The Au Vieux Saint-Martin is a Brussels institution that needs no introduction. Serving Belgian specialities since its opening in 1968, it can be found in one of Brussels most prestigious squares, the Sablon. The owners of the restaurant, Albert-Jean and his son Frédéric Niels, whose family have a long-standing tradition running restaurants, have recently opened a second restaurant, Au Grand Forestier in the south of Brussels in the commune of Watermael Boitsfort. It is one of those places which only locals or people in the know will visit. Set just next to the Forest des Soignes, you will find it hard to believe that you are only a few kilometres away from the Brussels city centre. A typical Belgian brasserie, it serves all the traditional Belgian dishes such as the steak tartare or 'Américain' with fries, or tomatoes stuffed with crayfish. This is an ideal place for tourists coming to Brussels and wanting to find a typical Belgian brasserie that is off the beaten track. … [Read more...]
Hedone to close down and then reopen with no menu
This has been a week of big announcements in the restaurant world. René Redzepi, chef of Noma, announced he would be closing his award-winning restaurant Noma in December 2016 to reopen it as an urban farm. It might not have come as a surprise to those who follow this chef, but it still hit world headlines. A lot has been written but for those who want to know more you can read about it here. But there was also another surprise announcement about one of the most sought after restaurants in London, Hedone. Chef Mikael Jonsson announced he would be closing his restaurant for 10 days and will reopen it in a completely different format in October. The new Hedone will have no menu, will have just 22 covers instead of the current 40 and will be open for just six sittings every week. Jonsson, a lawyer by profession, is a self-trained chef who has risen to be one of the top stars of the international culinary scene over the past years. Some might consider this to be a PR gimmick … [Read more...]
L’Air de Rien: a voyage of discovery
There is something playful about the choice of the name of the restaurant L'Air de Rien, in Fontin in the province of Liege. When I ask chef Stéphane Diffels what it means he smiled and told me that sometimes you might feel the air blowing from behind you, you turn and there is nothing, 'rien'. There are other times when you just sit, relax and let time go by. The name of the restaurant may come from a play on words but there is also something playful going on in the kitchen. The cuisine is inventive, avant-garde but relaxed at the same time. The chef has created a style that manages to showcase the produce of the area using different techniques and textures to create a unique set of emotions when you are eating. The restaurant recently launched their new website and for the occasion they held a bloggers' lunch which we unfortunately had to miss. Nevertheless, an invitation came to visit the restaurant and given the logistics (it's around 120 kilometres away from Brussels) … [Read more...]
What Massimo Bottura’s 20th birthday at Osteria Francescana means for Italian cuisine
No one in recent years has worked as hard to put Italy on the worldwide gastronomic map as Massimo Bottura. The avant-garde chef from Modena has for the past months been on a worldwide tour to promote his brilliant book Never Trust a Skinny Italian chef and also showcase his unique Italian style. Yesterday marked the 20th birthday of Massimo Bottura's restaurant Osteria Francescana. This Italian restaurant has three Michelin stars and is at the moment considered to be the third best restaurant in the world in the World's 50 Best Restaurants awards. In 2011, he was also given the Chef's Choice as the best chef in the world by his colleagues. Today, Massimo Bottura is recognised among his peers as the chef who moved Italy to the 21st century. Over the years at Osteria Francescana he has pushed barriers, introducing new techniques to age old recipes and ingredients and new ways of seeing things which were bound to be extremely controversial in a land where the grandmother's recipe … [Read more...]