Kobe Desramaults. chef of In de Wulf, a Michelin starred restaurant in Dranauter, Belgium, has announced that he has not made it to the list of 100 best restaurants in the world. "I have found out that In de Wulf was not voted into the 100 best restaurants list of 2015. After the release of 51 to 100 yesterday, a lot of people believed we would actually climb up to 50 best this year. (Sorry to ruin the surprise)" he said on Instagram and Facebook. Voted 61st in the 2014 list, the restaurant is a culinary destination in its own right and was awarded the best European restaurant award from the OAD (Opinionated about Dining in 2014) and 4th this year. His Michelin starred restaurant In De Wulf is in Dranouter, a village in West Flanders on the border with France, in the middle of nowhere. The restaurant has become a major culinary destination because of the unique style of cuisine without classic dishes or traditional sauces. Kobe said that although he always thought of these … [Read more...]
World’s 50 Best restaurants announce 51-100 restaurants one week in advance
A week before the announcement of the much awaited World's 50 Best Restaurants list, the list of restaurants that have made it to the 51 to 100 list has been released. It gives a snapshot of the restaurants that have either fallen from the top 50 list or else have broken into the top 100 list for the first time. The list, published today, shows a number of restaurants that have lost their place from the 2014 top 50 list. These include De Librije (in number 29 last year), Martin Berasategui (35), Daniel (40), Geranium (42), Hof Van Cleve (45), The Fat Duck (47), Coi (49) and Wagu Ghin (50). The announcement of this list is one of the highly anticipated moments of the culinary calendar, despite the controversy it generates (like any other list). The list starts with number 51 which is Restaurant Geranium in Denmark which was 42 in 2014. Daniel Boulud who was 40 on last year's list drops to 80th place, though the chef will receive The Lifetime Achievement award at the … [Read more...]
Updated: Sang-Hoon Degeimbre of L’ Air du Temps to open restaurant in Brussels on 5 October
Updated: Brussels foodies have something to look forward to after the summer holidays as chef Sang-Hoon Degeimbre of the 2 Michelin starred restaurant L'Air du Temps in Liernu announced he will be opening his second restaurant SAN in the Belgian capital. The date for the opening of the restaurant has been set for 5 October. On the website of the new restaurant there is a photo of Sang-Hoon with a countdown and a small note saying San is coming to Brussels. San Bruxelles have announced that the bookings for the Brussels based restaurant will open on 15 September. Sang-Hoon, considered to be one of the best Belgian chefs and famous for his molecular cuisine as well as his love for exceptional produce, will offer a completely different experience to L'Air du Temps. His restaurant in Liernu is in the middle of the Belgian countryside. He loves the feeling that the countryside gives and when I had interviewed him he had told me: "Sometimes when I come here early in the morning I … [Read more...]
Guests will not know who will cook for them as Gelinaz Shuffle tickets are now on sale
Tickets for the Gelinaz shuffle are now on sale for what promises to be one of the major gastronomic events of the year. The event, which takes place on July 9 sees a global collaboration of 37 of the world's best chefs taking part. More details of the event have emerged as the tickets were put on sale. Chefs from countries like Japan, Chile, Brazil, Slovenia, France, Turkey, Sweden, Thailand, Australia, UK, Italy, Peru, Spain, Canada, Belgium and Denmark and all throughout the United States will take part in an unprecedented international restaurant swap. Each guest chef, after having found out the results of the Gelinaz! ballot will travel of the country of destination three days prior to the event to prepare his or her unique and unrepeatable 8-course menu. They will not take ingredients from home; they will prepare dishes combining their culinary approach with what they find on location. It will therefore be a fusion of 2 remarkable chef's personalities. You therefore … [Read more...]
Opinionated about dining release Top 100+ list of European restaurants for 2015
Opinionated About Dining has this evening announced the list of the top 100+ restaurants in Europe. Eneko Atxa, the Spanish chef of Azurmendi a few kilometers away from Bilbao has won the top spot in this awaited list. He takes the top spot from Belgian chef Kobe Desramaults of In De Wulf who has placed fourth in this year's list. Many of our readers will note that Food and Wine Gazette is not necessarily influenced by lists or guides. We consider them important to help you discover new places but should only be taken as guidance. Nevertheless, this guide, which is based on dining surveys that factor experience of the respondents into the rating system is rather unique. The 2015 results are based on over 160,000 reviews contributed by more than 4,500 people who registered for the survey. For the detailed list, visit their site where you can discover the 200 leading chefs in Europe according to this survey. The following are the top 30. The chefs with hyperlinks have been … [Read more...]
Bread is gold inaugurates Identità Expo in Milan
Expo Milano 2015 has officially opened its doors, today 1st May. Over 20 million visitors are expected to visit the expo over the next six months. "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life" is the core theme of Expo Milano 2015. This common thread runs through all the events organized both within and outside the official Exhibition Site. Among the most awaited events at Expo Milano is the Identità Expo which promotes fine dining under the brand of Identità Golose. For the next six months, great Italian and international chefs will be going to Milan to cook in a unique temporary restaurant. Identità Golose will also be organising lessons, cooking shows, meetings and demonstrations. The first chef at the temporary restaurant is Italy's most famous chef Massimo Bottura, one of the Expo's ambassadors. Bottura is the most well-known and recognisable Italian chef and is also working on a project to feed Milan's poor with food waste generated from the Expo. The Italian chef has taken … [Read more...]
Cipriani on celebrity chefs, Italian cuisine and the French guide to ‘tyres’
There is no question that Italian cuisine is stuck in tradition and in its rituals. In many ways, this nostalgia for the past as well as the quality of its ingredients have helped Italian cuisine to travel the world over the past years. But in Italy, many are speaking of an Italian cuisine that, like the whole of Italy, is suffering from an identity crisis. The problem, for some it seems, is that the country is too stuck in its ways. As Massimo Bottura likes to say, if traditions are put under glass they stagnate. So it is no surprise that an interview with Arrigo Cipriani, the owner of the legendary Harry's Bar in Venice, has created a storm in Italy. He said that Italian cuisine is today an ugly copy of French cuisine and destined to lose. "The obsession of designers, fancy restaurants without any substance," is ruining everything according to the 83-year-old proprietor of 22 restaurants across the world. In the interview with Il Fatto Quotidiano, Cipriani criticised two … [Read more...]
Hélène Darroze named female chef of 2015 by World’s 50 Best Restaurants
The World's 50 Best Restaurants have announced that the Veuve Clicquot World's Best Female Chef of 2015 is Hélène Darroze. She is a fourth-generation chef born into a family of chefs who has been cooking since the age of six. She has opened two highly acclaimed restaurants in Paris and London after three years of training under Alain Ducasse. After winning the award, Hélène spoke to The World's Best 50 website (see full interview here) saying that she was not expecting the award. She speaks about the hardships of being a chef and the fact that there are so few women at the top level in this industry. "There's one day in this job when you have to choose between being a wife and a mother and being a chef. The two things are very, very difficult to combine and most of the really talented young women in my kitchen stopped because they wanted to be a mum and a wife and they thought it was not compatible - which is probably not true but for them it was." Hélène who adopted two children … [Read more...]
Gordon Ramsay hated Noma but was nice about it – Redzepi on Reddit Q&A
Gordon Ramsay had visited Noma and hated it according to the award winning chef René Redzepi who was answering a question and answer session he organsied on Reddit called Ask Me Anything. "But he was nice about it," Redzepi said with a smiley. The AMA (as Ask Me Anything is called on Reddit) is full of incredible insights from one of the best chefs in the world. Here are some of the highlights, but if you are interested you might want to check out the whole session here. Redzepi is a chef from Denmark and the son of an Albanian Muslim immigrant and a Danish mother. He trained in many restaurants around the world before returning to Copenhagen and opening Noma in 2003. The restaurant celebrates the Nordic region's ingredients and aims to present a kind of cooking that expresses its location and the seasons, drawing on a local network of farmers, foragers and purveyors. Noma has held 2 Michelin stars since 2007 and was voted best Restaurant in the world in 2010, 2011, 2012 and … [Read more...]
Gelinaz gang of 37 chefs pushing boundaries again with unique shuffle in July
The Gelinaz! gang, a collective of chefs that was formed by Italian food journalist Andrea Petrini have announced an interesting plan as their next project. 37 of the world's best chefs from 17 different countries will swap places with each other and take over the respective restaurants for a day. The event takes place on July 9. Chefs come from countries such as Japan, Chile, Brazil, France, Sweden, Italy, UK, Peru, Spain, Belgium, Denmark and the United States among others. Tickets go on sale from May 13. The question being asked is who will be cooking in which restaurant? The full list of chefs taking part in this incredible shuffle are the following: Albert Adria, Danny Bowien, Blaine Wetzel, Jock Zonfrillo, Riccardo Camanini, Fulvio Pierangelini, Inaki Aizpitarte, Davide Scabin, Massimiliano Alajmo, Claude Bosi, Sean Gray, Magnus Nilsson, Colombe Saint-Pierre, Bertrand Grebaut, Rene Redzepi, Ben Shewry, Alexandre Gauthier, Paul Cunningham, Ana Ros, Kobe Desramaults, Alain … [Read more...]