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...]
Jake Westacott: The gypsy chef who is always on the road
I am speaking to you in Maine not Los Angeles, what are you doing there? I'm here to organise a new section of an existing kitchen with its open faced wood fired pizza oven, cooking and teaching staff how to use it. Meanwhile having fun experimenting with it between house orders and teaching. I mastered Montreal style bagels last week. So its not just about you cheffing then, what is involved in your teaching? It is fundamentally Neapolitan Pizza Making 101 but the basics are all about working with wood fire and heat. How to be organised before the cooking even begins, knowing your wood, firing the oven, watching and understanding the temperature. Then we get to dough making, the character of flour, yeast. It is very hands on experiential learning and then finally it is about shaping pizzas, creating sauces, choosing toppings and bread making. I have a bit of a flour fetish too. We used Italian flour until I discovered Canadian flour in Toronto which became my … [Read more...]
Kobe Desramaults (In de Wulf): ‘Adapt, create, evolve’
Kobe Desramaults, chef of restaurant In De Wulf, Dranouter, has a credo which he likes to use in his kitchen. "Adapt, create and evolve." And that is what he seems to be doing after his shock decision to close the world famous restaurant in December 2016. He tells Food and Wine Gazette that he had reached a point where he needed to decide whether to buy the property from his mother or not and he thought for very long whether he wanted to take a loan that would tie him to a place for at least another 20 years. "I think there was a time when chefs were making decisions for life. But we are in a different age and we see what is going on in the world. We see different things and I want to try different things," he says. The Flemish chef became world famous for a style of cooking that is pure, natural and has no classic dishes or traditional sauces. He is one of the most internationally recognised Belgian chefs and has created one of the top destinations for foodies in the world. (His … [Read more...]
Bishop’s Gin: Blending tradition with modernity
Bishop's Gin is a new London Dry Gin that has just been launched on the Belgian market. Created by Thierry Ponet, founder of Ponet Spirits and Matthieu Chaumont of Brussels cocktail bar Hortense, it is a gin that is steeped in tradition while being innovative at the same time. The gin with its distinct label designed by Stranger and Stranger is already competing for the best packaging in the World's Packaging Design Society. This new gin is the result of a collaboration and a discussion between master cocktail maker Matthieu Chaumont who was on the watch for a versatile gin and Thierry Ponet who wanted to revive his family's anestral genever craftsmanship. Ponet lived in London for 15 years before moving back to Belgium around two years ago. "Thierry wanted to relaunch the distillation activity of his family but we reflected that it would be better to create a gin rather than genever. The name Bishop's Gin comes from the fact that when they were looking at Thierry's family … [Read more...]
Delphine Lippens – from Brussels to Los Angeles: ‘Working with clay was never part of my plan’
An illuminating discussion with Belgian-born, longtime Los Angeles resident Delphine Lippens, currently a successful ceramicist. We met in February at her studio, proudly located in South Central Los Angeles. Artisan Block Los Angeles (A B.L.A) is a collective of artists, artisans and makers located in one single block in this area of the city. Lippens created Humble Ceramics in 2010 and what you see today is the evolution of an exploration in clay. Delphine where are you from originally? Brussels but I came to live in Los Angeles, in 1982. when I was almost 13. Have you lived in California ever since? Yes primarily but I also spent time and years going to and fro from Europe when I was a little older. So where does Humble Ceramics begin? I am sitting with you in a vast warehouse surrounded by ceramic filled shelves in all degrees of readiness. How did you get to be here? Working with clay was never part of my “plan”. So this is a very unexpected evolution. After … [Read more...]
Malta’s first craft brewery Lord Chambray starts to export its beer
Malta's first craft brewery Lord Chambray is starting to export a newly released beer, Special Bitter, to Germany and Italy. Special Bitter, is the fifth beer in Lord Chambray's range of beers. Samuele Imperio, managing director of Lord Chambray told Food and Wine Gazette during the first ever craft beer master class organised in Malta that a new beer, the Special Bitter which is a traditional English style bitter is now available in Germany and Italy. The beer, which was tasted in Malta for the first time last week, is characterised by an optimal balance between the scents of malts and mild notes of hops. The choice of hops have been rigorously sourced from the English countryside and give the beer its character while remaining faithful to the traditional style. This bitter ale has a medium body and a moderate carbonation that guarantees that the beer is easy to drink. Hops is added during maturation to increase the bitterness of the beer. The end result is a … [Read more...]
Chocolate maker Benoît Nihant seeking to expand in Brussels and beyond
Benoît Nihant, the bean to bar Belgian chocolatier is looking to expand with the opening of more shops without losing the artisanal approach that makes his chocolates so special. Having successfully opened a shop in the Belgian capital city, Brussels, and exported his chocolates to Asia, Benoît wants to open additional shops in Brussels and does not exclude openings in Antwerp and Gent though his focus for the time being is Brussels. He told Food and Wine Gazette he was actively looking for places in the area of Uccle, Waterloo and Stockel to go closer to where his customers are. His current store in Brussels is in Ixelles but it took him a long time to find it. "We had been wanting to open a shop in Brussels for a long time but we could not find a suitable place. We did not want to be near the Grand Place because it is the place where only the tourists go, we did not want to go the Sablon because that is more of a showcase, the rent is very expensive and it is why there are … [Read more...]