In today's fast world we do not listen enough. And that is a problem for people in all walks of life. Virgilio Martinez, chef of Central, the restaurant in Lima, Peru says he finds inspiration from people. "I find inspiration by listening. We don't listen enough but listening is very healthy. We listen too much to ourselves. As a chef, you sometimes start to take decisions without listening to people," the Peruvian chef told Food and Wine Gazette in an interview at Chef's Revolution in Zwolle recently. Virgilio is the chef of Central, the restaurant in Lima that is the 'Best restaurant' in Latin America and 4th restaurant in the World's 50 Best Restaurants list. The Peruvian chef is considered to be one of the most influential chefs in Latin America if not the world and is known for using modern cooking techniques to make the best use of Peruvian ingredients. He is also heavily influenced by the landscape and ecosystem. With Peru's dramatic changes in its terrain in a relatively … [Read more...]
The story of Gelinaz! and what’s in store for the future: ‘Being creative and continuing to surprise people’
Go back 10 years and the world of food and gastronomy was completely different to what we know today. The World's 50 Best Restaurants was not as influential as it is today, high-end restaurants were still extremely formal, social media and sharing was in its infancy and many of the world's top chefs were still obsessing with trying to 'copyright' their creations. But influential Italian chef Fulvio Pierangelini and Andrea Petrini had other ideas. They saw the opportunity of bringing chefs together from around the world to share knowledge and collaborate on a global level and had the foresight to do this way back in 2007 at a time when food was still not mainstream as it is today. The start was slow but over the past two years, the ambitions of the Gelinaz! collective of chefs has grown despite the fact that it is not a business. Gelinaz!, has made a name for itself over the past years for its creative gastronomic events and for pushing the boundaries every time an event was … [Read more...]
Interview with Andrew Borg: A vision for Malta’s dining scene
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...]
Dan Brennan: ‘Time makes the wine’ and time makes a wine career
Isabel Gilbert Palmer interviews Daniel Brennan, an American who has settled in New Zealand and is working to do something different with wines in Hawkes Bay. His advice to anyone taking a step towards a winemaking career is to be ready to work hard and not make much money for a very long time. He says its important to work with people who have the same mindset as yours and are passionate. Here is his story. Lets begin with a timeline Dan. What year did you come to New Zealand and specifically why? 2008 to study Wine Science at the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) in Hawkes Bay. Where do you live and from where did you come from originally ? I live in Hawkes Bay. I am New York-born, and grew up in Philadelphia in a Sicilian-Irish family. What brought you from the East Coast of USA not exactly known for wine growing to the East Coast of New Zealand and Hawkes Bay, well known for it? I can answer that partly with a question for you. Do you think tasting a wine … [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...]
Andy Hayler: The man who has eaten in all three Michelin star restaurants in the world
Andy Hayler is the only man in the world to have eaten in all three Michelin star restaurants. He first completed this feat in 2004 and then did it again in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 and this year. He has been reviewing restaurants on his website since 1994 making it one of the oldest in the world and the site is updated with several new reviews each week. Eating in all three Michelin star restaurants has become more complicated given that the number of such restaurants has increased from 49 in 2004 to 113 this year. While Andy does not like to term any one restaurant as the best he particularly likes the cooking at Michel Guerard's restaurant Pres des Eugenie in France because he likes that style of food, but there are many other fine restaurants that are objectively up there on a par. Other particular favourites include Schloss Berg in Germany, Le Calandre in Italy, Hotel de Ville in Switzerland and Mizai in Kyoto. He believes there are a number of two star restaurants that … [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...]