Richard Ekkebus, chef of Amber Restuarant has made a name for himself in Hong Kong where he has build the restaurant at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental from scratch. Following our in-depth interview which you can read here, this is our rapid fire question and answer with the Dutch chef. Your best ever meal? Michel Bras. It was with Pierre Gagnaire. We had a table of five as part of a team building. Is there something you don’t eat? There are things that for certain reasons I will not eat such as bluefin tuna or whale. But as a chef, I cannot judge until I try food so I am open to everything. I’ve tried monkey, I’ve tried whale and also insects. Any chefs that inspire you? Anybody who is passionate. There is community today that is very open and also happy to share. Do you cook at home? Never. My wife cooks really well and I love her cooking. I am the sommelier at home. I walk to the wine cellar, open a bottle and decant it. Your favourite dish? I have been … [Read more...]
Ana Roš: “I believe we should be our own heroes and find a way to express ourselves”
Serendipity is probably the word that would best describe Ana Roš's story to date. An unlikely chef who never got any formal training in the kitchen, she would probably have imagined herself as more of a diplomat or even a European Commission official. Truth be said, she was actually offered a job in Brussels which she turned down on the spur of the moment. As fate had it her partner's father was retiring from the restaurant he owned, the Hiša Franko and there was no one to take over his work expect Victor who would become her husband. On the spot and against the will of her father she decided to stay in Slovenia and build her career in the restaurant. Having knowledge of 5 languages, she did not start in the kitchen but soon she realised that this would be necessary. Little did she know that this decision would make her one of the most recognisable figures in the world of gastronomy, sought after in food congresses and events worldwide. Together with her partner and husband … [Read more...]
Richard Ekkebus: ‘I have not changed. The people of Hong Kong have changed’
For an avid book reader like Richard Ekkebus it must have been a source of both pride and a sense of worry that the restaurant in Hong Kong was called the one with the ‘Da Vinci’ code menu. Was the restaurant Amber, which he created at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong so ahead of its time? And would he manage to find the ‘Grail'? Today, the Dutch chef of the acclaimed restaurant has guests telling him how happy they are that he is the chef of the restaurant because the previous one was not good. They don't realise that it was he who created Amber. "But I have not changed, it is the people who have changed. Hong Kong has evolved. Today there is a big surge of restaurants, new cool concepts being opened and we have grown within this environment and gained acceptance to the point where everybody loves us which means we need to push a bit further again, to make our customers feel a little uncomfortable again.”" he said. He has been proven right but that has taken a long … [Read more...]
Bo Songvisava: Dreaming of a self-sustainable restaurant
Bo Songvisava is a chef with a vision. With her husband, chef and business partner Dylan Jones, they have received critical acclaim for their progressive, ethical Thai cooking at their restaurant Bo.Lan in Bangkok. They have already made plans to become a zero carbon restaurant by next year. But they also have plans to move out of Bangkok even if this is a long term objective. The vision is already set, it is now about implementing in when the time arrives. “We want to be able to serve fewer customers a night, we want to be independent and a self-sustainable restaurant. We do not want to hire anyone as we do not want to deal with the tax office. We will generate our own power, filter our own water, manage our own waste. The dream is to create something where we will not have to deal with bureacracy,” Bo told Food and Wine Gazette when we caught up with her at GELINAZ! Does Upper Austria earlier this year. While the place is not yet decided, Bo knows that she and her husband want … [Read more...]
Lukas Nagl: “You have to love what you do”
Food writer and GELINAZ! co-curator Andrea Petrini calls Austria the new Slovenia and he is definitely on to something. To date, Austria has been shy to present itself on the podium of world cuisine and present its chefs. But that is set to change after GELINAZ! does upper Austria Leading the revival in Austria is Heinz Reitbauer, chef of the amazing Steirereck in Vienna. But behind him is a growing number of young talented chefs who are pushing the boundaries, using local produce to create magic. One such talent is 28-year-old Lukas Nagl, a young Austrian chef who you are likely to hear much more about in future. He is the executive chef of the restaurant Bootshaus at the Das Traunsee in the idyllic Lake Traunsee. After working in the kitchens of Steirereck and Per Se among others, he decided to go back to his roots in Traunseehis first son was born in 2012. “This is the region I belong to. So when the opportunity arose to work there an to be able to work in the restaurant whose … [Read more...]
“Winters are getting shorter. I don’t know how this will impact food but it is not good” – Magnus Nilsson
Magnus Nilsson is a very busy man. His day job involves running one of the world’s most sought after destination dining restaurants, Fäviken. He has been featured in television series like Chef's Table and the Mind of a Chef but that’s not all. He has also written what some would consider to be the bible of Nordic cuisine called the Nordic Cookbook. It has taken him around all of Scandinavia, meeting people, researching old recipes and taking over 8,000 photographs during the three years it took him to work on the cookbook. He did all this in his free time writing over 700 recipes in the process. Some might wonder how he manages to do all this in a world where time seems to be so precious but as Magnus tells Food and Wine Gazette, “for me, it is important to do a lot of different things because like that you do not get tired of doing just one thing. It is a way to keep feeling motivated really," he said when I caught up with him during the GELINAZ! DOES UPPER AUSTRIA. As one of … [Read more...]
Magnus Ek: ‘The pace of innovation in food is incredible and is becoming faster’
Swedish chef Magnus Ek is a pioneer in many ways. He started using edible plants and foraging for food more than 20 years ago when it was still unheard of at the time. He did it without much fanfare and you could say that he is one of the early pioneers of the new Nordic cuisine. He is conscious of the fact that the ecosystem surrounding food is set to change but he cannot tell the direction it will go. "If I look at the kitchen of 20 years ago to how it looks now, it is completely different. The pace of invention and innovation has been incredible. And the curve is building really fast," he says. Magnus Ek opened his restaurant Oaxen Krog in Sweden more than 20 years ago at a time when foraging what not what restaurants did. Today, he still forages almost every day. He actually says he has more time for it now than in the past because things have become easier. “It used to be very difficult to find the vegetables I needed in summer. I used to have to go to different farms and … [Read more...]
David Chang on GELINAZ! “It is stressful but it is a small price to pay for hanging around with friends”
David Chang has done it all. He exploded to the scene in 2004 with his first Momfuku Noodle bar in East Village. Since then he has turned street food into haute cuisine winning all type of accolades in the process. He won the Outstanding Chef of the year at the James Beard award, opened one restaurant after another in different cities and countries becoming a highly successful restauranteur in the process. He’s written best selling books, reinvented how a culinary magazine should look like with Lucky Peach (now defunct) and is also a television personality. In a few words, he is a big figure in the world of gastronomy and that is not just in a literal sense. So why take part in events like GELINAZ! which are bound to cause him lots of stress? Why head to Austria for the GELINAZ! DOES UPPER AUSTRIA event when he does not even know most of the chefs that are taking part in the event? “I have not done a GELINAZ! event for some time because I have been busy. But there are two reasons … [Read more...]
Manu Buffara: ‘You need to know your land, your food, your culture, then you can cook with your soul’
For Brazilian chef Manoella Buffara of Restaurant Manu story-telling comes naturally. After all, she was studying to become a journalist before she decided to embark on her career as a chef. And that is a very good thing for Brazil. Cooking in her home town Curitiba where there was nothing as she herself says, she has taken a gamble that her story will attract not only people from her home town but also world travellers. But she clearly knows what she is doing from the flour she prepares for the restaurant to her journey through the kitchens of René Redzepi and Grant Achatz. Mention Brazil and the first chef that comes to mind is Alex Atala. It was he who discovered 'Manu' as she is known and it was he who encouraged her to go out and tell the story to the world. And what a story it is. A chef with a communications' background, she is spreading her story using not only travel but also social media. "I loved journalism before I experienced the kitchen. But then I discovered … [Read more...]
Heinz Reitbauer: GELINAZ! was a great opportunity to show the world what Austria has to offer
A quiet revolution has been going on in Austria in the world of food and that is being led by chef Heinz Reitbauer who has slowly but surely climbed up the rankings of the World's 5o Best Restaurants list to reach 10th place with his Vienna restaurant Steirereck which is housed in a monolithic glass cube. "We cannot imagine how important for Austria it is that GELINAZ! came to our country. It gives us a chance to show to a lot of people, to chefs and the whole world the products we have, the current state of gastronomy in Austria and what we are thinking about Austrian food. We have been working with our producers to build something for many years and now we have the chance to showcase it," Reitbauer told Food and Wine Gazette in an interview. "The quality of the products and the standard of cooking is very high wherever you go," says the most representative chef of Austria at the moment. "Maybe our wines are known better than our cuisine because you can nearly always find … [Read more...]