Tag Archives: Noma

Unique international top restaurant chef shuffle kept top secret!

hufflA unique culinary event, or rather 37 of them, took place almost simultaneously around the world last Thursday, whereby 37 of the world’s best chefs swapped their kitchens with those of another chef. The Grand Gelinaz! Shuffle dinners were sold out, reports Fine Dining Lovers. Unfortunately Africa was excluded from the global culinary event.

On its website Gelinaz! is described as a collective of international chefs, which pushes boundaries, performing food, and takes risks. They are hungry to discover new cultures, and to exchange knowledge. Rather than repeat themselves and their dishes, they explore the unknown. They zoom into ‘the beauty of nature, its elegant chaos and unending recreation‘. It is the fifth such event to have been held in the past two years. Each chef had to arrive in the swap city three days prior to the dinner, and was not allowed to bring ingredients from his/her home country. An 8-course menu was to be prepared, with the assistance of the staff of the restaurant,

Guests booked for the Shuffle dinners at identified restaurants, but the identity of the chef cooking for them on the

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World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards 2015: The Test Kitchen ranked 28th, El Celler de Can Roca number 1 restaurant in the world again!

World's 50 Best Restaurants logoChef Luke Dale-Roberts’ The Test Kitchen was named the 28th best restaurant in the world and Best in Africa, at the 14th The World’s 50 Best Restaurants ceremony in London last night, a 20 place climb from his 48th position last year, and 61st position in 2013.  El Celler de Can Roca was World's 50 Best Test Kitchenranked as the Best Restaurant in the World, the second time it has received this honour.  Regular winner Noma dropped to third place. Spain received the most 50 Best Restaurant Awards (7), followed by the USA (6), and France (5).  Both The Test Kitchen and World’s 50 Best Restaurants trended on Twitter last night.

El Celler de Can Roca is based in Giron in Spain, and is run by the three Roca brothers Josep, Joan,and Jordi, who opened their restaurant in 1986. They pioneered sous-vide cooking, and are described as creating ‘magic without undue theatrics’. Brother Joan is the head chef, Jordi is the Pastry Chef, and Josep is the Sommelier and Front of House.   In 2013 they were also named the best restaurant in the world. Continue reading →

South African restaurants reflect (most) international food trends!

Food Trends BreadHow are food trends made?  Is it chefs inspired by other chefs, especially award-winning ones? Is it chefs doing stages in the top restaurants of the world, and returning to create dishes inspired by what they have seen and learnt, as has happened in our country with Noma clones!?  Is it chefs looking at photographs of food bloggers and restaurant reviewers, or their photographs on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook?

The six following food trends are hot right now:

1.   Bread and Butter: something many restaurants have done away with appears to be making a come-back, in being created as something so special that it is a serious dish on a menu.  Breads are now self-baked, Banting-approved butter is not only served salted or unsalted, but also with additives like cheese, salts, bone marrow, burnt onion, sun-dried tomatoes, or Marmite, or as I experienced at Boschendal’s new The Werf Restaurant with lamb and beef added, or with Shiraz added at Equus at Cavalli.  Serving whipped butter is particularly trendy.

2.  Since Banting took off last year, the price of cauliflower has soared in Cape Town, a staple element of Banting menus, including cauli-mash, making bases for pizzas, and as a ‘safe‘ vegetable. Internationally Noma has revived this vegetable, by serving it pot-roasted whole, topped with pine and yoghurt whey. It is served puréed, barbecued, pickled, and even as a ‘steak’.

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Restaurant service: the best service is silent and invisible!

Silver serviceA doyen of restaurant service, maître d’ Silvano Giraldin, long with 3 Michelin star La Gavroche in London, gave an amusing yet honest talk at the recent MAD4  Symposium in Copenhagen about restaurant service.

He described the transition of service, waiters initially being the chef’s representative in the restaurant, doing the carving of big meat joints, filleting the fish, and flambéeing Crepe Suzette.  In those days one never saw chefs inside the restaurant. The Maître d’ was the front of house hero, and also plated the food after doing the carving.   This led to the concept of ‘silver service‘, disjointing chicken and deboning fish in front of the customer, also referred to as ‘Les Arts de la Table‘.

As chefs became visible in the ‘Seventies, Nouvelle Cuisine was introduced, the Chef Patron taking over the cutting and plating of food in his/her kitchen, which reduced waiters to ‘plate carriers‘.  The highpoint of service today is that of the world’s number one Continue reading →