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...]
Archives for August 2016
French chefs in focus in Chef’s Table season 3 to be launched on 2 September
For two consecutive seasons which featured 12 top chefs from around the world, France, the centre of the culinary world was ignored. But that seems to have been a deliberate decision by the producer who have now made amends by launching a whole season focusing on France. The highly successful documentary series featuring top chefs from around the world, will place the focus on France in its third season which launches on Friday 2 September. The chefs that will feature in the third season of Chef's Table are Alain Passard of L'Arpege and Michel Troisgros of Maison Troisgros. Both chefs need no introduction and have been mentors to many of today's rising stars with their approach to cuisine. The other two chefs are Adeline Grattard of Yam’Tcha and Alexandre Couillon of La Marine. The filmmakers embark on a personal look into the daily lives of these chefs from their diverse backgrounds to the evolution and craft of their chosen cuisine as well as their quests for sensory … [Read more...]
Weekly roundup of great reads on food and wine #87
A Food Crawl Through San Sebastián With One of the World’s Top Chefs: About an hour’s drive east of Bilbao, and just 12 miles west of the French border, lies San Sebastián, a coastal Northern Spain gem of a resort town located in the country’s Basque region. Reputed for its turquoise waters, palm tree–lined streets, and—most of all—its cuisine, San Sebastián which also goes by its Basque name, Donostia—is the area’s culinary capital and counts two of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, in addition to one of the highest concentrations of Michelin stars anywhere. But when in town, the best plates aren’t found on white tablecloths. Heston Blumenthal interview: the Fat Duck flies again: Memories are important to Heston Blumenthal. They are the raw material of his wildly imaginative creations at the Fat Duck, and the experience of eating there is designed to stir up powerful feelings of nostalgia, right down to the name of each dish. Current examples include, “Can I have some money for the … [Read more...]
A future for Amatrice – how you can help
When the hilltop medieval town of Amatrice was recently devastated by the recent earthquake that rocked central Italy, the founder and president of Slow Food Carlo Petrini launched an appeal aimed at all restaurants around the world to help rebuild the town. "Through this iconic dish that is the gastronomic symbol of Amatrice we hope to share the values of solidarity and sharing," Carlo Petrini, president of Terra Madre and Slow Food said when launching a solidarity scheme to help the people hard hit by the earthquake and give them hope for the future by helping in the rebuilding of the town. Amatrice is known for a pasta sauce called 'amatriciana' which is made with 'guanciale', and pecorino which come from the same town, San Marzano tomatoes, white wine, pepper and chilli peppers. Slow Food launched an initiative called 'A future for Amatrice' using #unfuturoperamatrice as the hashtag and have asked restauranteurs around the world to include the iconic dish from Amatrice in … [Read more...]
Fourth Flemish food bash taking place on 28 August
The fourth edition of the Flemish Food Bash, an event organised by chef Vincent Florizoone, returns at the end of this month at the Belgian beach resort of Koksijde. The event, in its fourth edition, will be more Belgian than the previous event which attracted chefs from around Europe. Florizoone, the organiser said the event promises to be an explosion of creativity where foodies are immersed in an amazing world of music, street art, tattoo culture and barber art. The line up of chefs and cocktail masters have now been completed and includes some of the rising stars of Belgian cuisine including Brussels based Yannick Van Aeken and Alex Joseph, Matthias Speybrouk of Va e Vient. Two Michelin star chef Bart de Pooter has also confirmed his presence together with Dennis Broeckx and Laurent Smallegange among others. Some 2,500 attendees are expected to take part in the event that starts at 12 noon. The chefs that have confirmed their participation are: Dennis Broeckx - … [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...]
Book review: Grill, Smoke, BBQ by Ben Tish of Ember Yard
Summer and long days are still with us for a few more weeks and therefore the barbecue season remains in full swing even though personally, I love to fire up the barbecue even when it gets colder. There is nothing more satisfying that spending time outdoors, starting the fire and waiting for the charcoal to be ready to start the cooking. While cooking directly with fire is a very old technique that has been with us since many years and is the bedrock of our civilisation, memories of barbecue are not always necessarily optimal. Yes, there was the pleasure of starting the fire, people gathering around the grill but most of the food was far from memorable. There used to be overcooked meat, sausages of dubious quality (which still exist and are still popular with children), hamburgers and overcooked steak. If you might be lucky you could get tuna steaks grilled but these would also be dry as the tendency was to overcook things. But there are some that have taken cooking with fire to … [Read more...]
Black Pig Restaurant (Valletta): Where innovation meets seasonality
Time passes and with it some say also comes nostalgia. While there are certain things which take you on a trip down memory lane, there are some memories which are best forgotten. Go back to the 1980s and early 1990s and my memory of most restaurants in Malta is of them serving the same thing. With friends we remember the ubiquitous tortellini with fresh cream, ham and mushrooms or the shrimp or prawn cocktail from those retro years or a steak diane. Everyone seemed to serve the same things. There were few speciality restaurants which were really worth the detour because they were doing something completely different. Maybe they specialised in fish or were serving French classics. At the time, these restaurants were doing something different to what was the norm. Maybe it was hard at the time to go against the current but with the benefit of time, they managed to not only survive but to be successfully copied. What used to be specialised those days is now mainstream. That … [Read more...]
A different way to use sea urchins
When I was young the way to eat sea urchins (rizzi in Maltese or ricci in Italian) was to break them open at the beach, rinse them with sea water and then scoop out the custard-like orange gland and enjoy the sweet and briny flavour either on fresh bread or else just scooping them out with a spoon and eating them. They used to be abundant and we would have them for lunch. They were served soon after they were picked and needless to say, freshness here is of the essence. In recent years, spaghetti ai ricci has become ubiquitous in Maltese restaurants. At first you could find it only in fish restaurants but it has now become considerably more common. Every chef has his own version though in my view, the simplest method is the best. For a recipe you can take a look here. While this is a dish that I continue to crave everytime I am in the Mediterranean and in particular my home country, Malta, I still think that the freshness of the sea urchin is somehow ruined by the hot pasta … [Read more...]
Dierendonck, one of Belgium’s best butchers to open in Brussels
Hendrik Dierendonck, one of the most well known butchers in Belgium with shops and a restaurant in the Belgian coast has announced this morning on his Facebook page that he will be opening an Atelier in Brussels. He wrote it is the start of a new adventure, a dream come true. "The artisanal approach, terroir and passion are the focal points of our butcher shops and these are the values that I have picked up from my father Raymond Dierendonck," Hendrik said. The new atelier in Brussels will follow on this approach and will be open in autumn. It will replace the Jack O'Shea shop close to Place St Catherine that closed abruptly in the past weeks. He thanked his entire team because he said he would not be able to do this without their support. Just before summer this year, Hendrik Dierendonck was in Brussels collaborating on a number of one off pop-up events. Dierendonck raises the Belgian Red breed in their own farm. This is an extremely rare breed of cattle and a … [Read more...]