The life of a passionate chef is not always easy, particularly when he or she needs to fight against tradition and a dining scene that is not necessarily ready for a new approach. Tradition and habit may be the hardest things to fight against because few people may understand what you are trying to do. Then there is also the business side of running a restaurant. Do you follow the crowd or do you try to persist in creating something different even if that comes at a huge expense? Andrew Borg, the chef patron of Black Pig Restaurant in Valletta, the capital city of Malta, not only had to fight tradition and habits, but also against a bank manager in order to convince him that he did not want to open a takeaway instead of a fine dining restaurant. That restaurant, unfortunately closed last month. A few days ago, Andrew announced that he had closed his restaurant and that he would be taking a sabbatical before coming back with a new exciting project next year. The intention to … [Read more...]
‘I never expected to get to where I am today” – Mauro Colagreco on 10 years of Mirazur
Mauro Colagreco is celebrating 10 years of his award-winning restaurant Mirazur this year. But as he himself says, he never expected to achieve what he has managed to achieve in the past 10 years. "These 10 years have been amazing and have gone way beyond my expectations," he told Food and Wine Gazette in an interview at Chefs Revolution in Zwolle last weekend. He arrived in France with nothing except a telephone and a friend of a friend. He had trained to be a chef in Argentina. In France he went to work in Burgundy to work with Bernard Loiseau at his restaurant in the Côte d’or. He stayed there for one and a half years. After the tragic death of Bernard Loiseau in February 2003, Mauro decided to move to Paris to work at L’Arpege, the legendary restaurant run by Alain Passard. He stayed there for a year and a half and he considers this time as the one which allowed him to develop his own sense of creativity, attention to detail and imagination. Mauro also worked with Alain Ducasse … [Read more...]
Q&A with Kurt Micallef: ‘I am at the point where I appreciate simplicity in food’
Kurt Micallef is an up and coming Maltese chef who is currently working at The Arches. He has gained experience working outside Malta at In De Wulf, the world renowned restaurant of Kobe Desramaults in Dranouter, Belgium. In an interview with Food and Wine Gazette a few weeks ago, the Maltese born chef said he was taking inspiration from old Maltese recipes and was working slowly and quietly to try to reinvent and modernise Maltese cuisine. You can read the full story here. Unlike other chefs who try and work in different Michelin star kitchens, Kurt took the opposite approach and went twice to train at In De Wulf. This enabled him to gain further experience and also to be inspired by Kobe's unique approach and style. This is our traditional rapid-fire question and answer session with Kurt What was your best meal ever? L’Arpege by Alain Passard in Paris. What is one tool that you find in a professional kitchen that should be in any home kitchen? I believe that what is most … [Read more...]
Kurt Micallef: Working to reinvent and modernise Maltese cuisine
I got to know about young Maltese chef Kurt Micallef in the least expected place. I was at In De Wulf, a restaurant on the border of Belgium and France when after an excellent meal I stopped to speak to chef Kobe Desramaults. He told me a Maltese chef had visited a few weeks before for dinner and had trained there before. I tracked him down and wanted to meet him while in Malta not only to see why he chose to go and train twice at Belgian restaurant, In De Wulf, but also to see what inspires him and how he is trying to reinvent Maltese cuisine. Kurt is a chef in transition. As a chef who studied and worked in top quality restaurants abroad, he is limited in his creativity by his work in his home country. "It is disheartening to come back to Malta and feel that your work is not appreciated. Unfortunately many people still prefer quantity over quality." "I don't want to sound negative but you have to face reality and you have to go through it. You try to push to make the scene … [Read more...]
‘I’ve spent a lot of time travelling to find what I wanted to do after Noma’ – Yannick Van Aeken (Humphrey)
When a young Belgian chef decided to open Humphrey in Brussels earlier this year, it immediately attracted the interests of those in the know. Young Belgian chef Yannick Van Aeken had been known in food circles particularly since he was sous-chef at Rene Redzepi's Noma for many years. He has also worked at Victor Arguinzoniz's Asador Extebarri, another restaurant that is considered to be among the best in the world and whose chef is clearly one of the top barbecue masters. So the expectations have been high not less because when we interviewed Kobe Desramaults earlier this year he named Van Aeken as one of two Belgian chefs to watch. With that pedigree, it is obvious that there is a lot of attention as to what Yannick is doing at Humphrey. But the young Belgian chef does not let this go to his head. He's opened the restaurant at a rather difficult time for Brussels just before the March terrorist attacks. "It is going well since we opened. Since the Brussels attacks, it has … [Read more...]
‘Social media can ruin a restaurant experience, it is like pollution’ – David Kinch (Manresa)
David Kinch, US chef of three Michelin star restaurant Manresa in Los Gatos, California is an avid book reader and therefore it does not come as a surprise when he says that the image on social media is like pollution. It is not that he is against social media. He tells Food and Wine Gazette in an interview that the restaurant is going to be over 15 years old and over 15 years we have seen the rise of social media. "I understand the power and potential of social media and I also understand that it is not going to go away. It is something we have to live with. Part of my job as a chef with my team is to harness the positive aspects of social media, spreading the notion of Manresa, our message and our story so people perhaps feel compelled to come and visit our restaurnant." "I have no problems with that. On the flipside, there is a lot of conversation that goes on in social media and in blogs that are public but do not necessarily have to happen in public. They would be much more … [Read more...]
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 achieve the pinnacle of success. This was as much a victory for Bottura, his wife Lara Gilmore and his team as much as it was a victory for culture and creativity. The Italian chef could have easily been a poet or an artist. He says creating a recipe is an intellectual gesture that involves ingredients, technique, memory and the compression of everything in bites of edible culture. He uses food as his medium for creativity and the palate to transmit emotions. "In a world of obligation, you can lose your point of reference. The secret is to keep a small space open for poetry, to be able to jump into that space and … [Read more...]
‘Travel is a great source of inspiration’ – David Kinch (Manresa)
Travel is a great source of inspiration for David Kinch who is back in the United States after his trip to France where he was the first of 10 guest chefs to cook at Mirazur in celebration of Mauro Colagreco's restaurants' 10 year anniversary. "In recent years, I had the opportunity to travel a lot. This has meant not only having the opportunity to eat in the restaurants of my peers but also to get a grasp of the culinary culture of the places I visited. When you travel somewhere for a long way, you suffer from jet lag, you wake up very early in the morning because you cannot sleep. What better opportunity then to go and check out the early morning markets? For me the markets tell you almost everything you need to know about a town or city you are visiting, the ingredients, the people who are shopping for them, the seasonality. It tells you many different things. If you have to create a menu, most of the work will be done with a visit to the market," Kinch … [Read more...]
Jock Zonfrillo: A 16 year old journey to discover the taste and origins of Australian cuisine
A trip by Scottish chef Jock Zonfrillo to Australia changed his life and the fate of Australia's indigenous cuisine. He was on a sabbatical from Restaurant Marco Pierre White that won a third Michelin star but that trip to Sydney was the turning point to an amazing journey of discovery. "I went back to Europe after this trip and kept thinking and thinking and asking myself why Australia was the only country I had visited where I could not taste anything about the culture of the country. There was no taste of original flavours of the country. There were good restaurants but they were French or European, not Australian." Zonfrillo moved to Australia in 2000 and has been there since then going on a journey that has led him to open world renowned restaurant Orana in 2013 which means 'welcome' in some aboriginal languages. While working at Restaurant 41 and Magill Estate Restaurant in Adelaide he set off to try and discover the history and taste of Australian food. And to do that … [Read more...]
Q&A with Kobe Desramaults (In De Wulf): Technology is not always better
Belgian chef Kobe Desramaults does not need much introduction. Chef of top foodie destination In De Wulf and owner in Gent of De Vitrine and De Superette, here he reveals his more personal side in a quick question and answer session when we interviewed him recently. See the fully story here. What are the trends today which weren’t around when you started? For many years, there has been a strive to use technology in the kitchen. I followed sous vide very closely. I did it all myself and I am not going to judge it but I believe in a certain different type of cooking. for example, recently we had a one year old lamb which was aged for three weeks. We cooked the shoulder on a very slow fire. The end result when you carve it cannot be achieved with a normal oven. Technology does not always mean better. But what worked in the past is also not necessarily better. It is important that we have the knowledge so we can be selective. That is technology. You should choose what you want to … [Read more...]