Ferran Adrià

Ferran Adria has been called the world's greatest chef. He is certainly one of the most creative. Gourmet magazine referred to Adria  as "the Salvador Dali  of the kitchen". His restaurant, El Bulli, was named best restaurant in the world by the prestigious Restaurant magazine. Without a doubt, Ferran Adria  will hold a prominent place in culinary history

Before the arrival of Adria, El Bulli was relatively unknown. Despite its remote location (El Bulli is located in the small town of Roses on the coast of Catalonia, about two hours north of Barcelona at the end of a narrow, winding mountain road.), it has 3 Michelin stars and is ranked the best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine.

El Bulli was known as a traditional French restaurant. When Adria  joined the staff, the restaurant's manager Juli Soler recommended he travel to find fresh ideas to use at El Bulli. Adria  went to some of France's top restaurants where he acquired a massive collection of techniques from many of the great culinary masters.

In the late 1980's, Adria  began performing cooking experiments which would forever change El Bulli's place in culinary history. Adria's experiments are often associated with Molecular Gastronomy, the application of science to culinary practices and cooking phenomena. His creations are designed to surprise and enchant his guests but the importance of taste is always the ultimate goal.

He is best known for creating "culinary foam", which is now used by chefs around the world. Culinary foam consists of natural flavors (sweet or savory) mixed with a natural gelling agent. The mixture is placed in a whipped cream canister where the foam is then forced out with the help of nitrous oxide.

In keeping with the creative goals of El Bulli, the restaurant closes for six month each year during which time Adria  travels for inspiration and performs experiments and perfects recipes in his culinary lab, El Taller.

Adrià denounced his fellow 3-star Michelin cook who described his "molecular gastronomy" as pretentious. Traditionalist Santi Santamaria attacked Adrià's dishes in El Bulli as unhealthy, alleging "Adrià's dishes were designed to impress rather than satisfy and used chemicals that actually put diners' health at risk". Top chefs, however, accused Santamaria, who runs the 3-star Can Fabes near El Bulli, of envy and contempt of Spanish kitchens' honour. The criticism has split top Spanish chefs into pro- and anti-Adrià camps.

Brazilian Vongole

From the depths of Florianópolis bay to São Paulo tables. In Florianópolis it’s known for at least 250 years as “Berbigão”, a popular food among the poor crowd, eaten during the starving times. Meanwhile, the Neapolitans were arriving in São Paulo, Brazil, missing their typical food such as Spaghetti alle Vongole – made with a shellfish very similar to the brazilian one – They didn’t find their vongole in the new seas, but they liked the "Berbigão" flavour, which keeping its shell on and placed on a plate of spaghetti plus a foreign name stepped up to higher levels, it became a very refined dish.  The Brazilian vongole is very easy to catch and its extraction is made by small fishers' families. Recently it joined the Ark of Taste, a Slow Food project that was launched to rediscover, catalog and promote foods which are at risk of extinction, but have productive and commercial potential and are closely linked to specific communities and cultures. Today the Ark lists more than 900 unique foods from 50 countries around the world that are threatened by industrial standardization.

Pics @ Slow Food Brasil

Skull Clutery

I must confess my passion for skull/skeleton stuff. The esthetic, symbolism and atmosphere that surround it always had a strong appeal to me. These days I found out a beautiful collection of skull spoons made by an artist called Pink Diablo (Tom Sale) and just started to search for kitchen utensils in that shape, there's a great deal of funny ones!

45 $ each at www.pinkydiablo.com

Egg cup: $38 at http://www.pushindaisies.com

Serving forks: $50 at http://www.whatonearthcatalog.com

Fluted glass: $9.99 at http://creepedout.ca

Mug: $12.49 at http://shop.advanceweb.com 

Basic Spherification

Mango Caviar by Sebastian Baquero 

Nouvelle Cuisine is Japanese

In 1960 Shizuo Tsujui opened the first school of French cuisine in Japan, which multiplied the cultural exchanges between the two countries. So much so that in 2000, Alain Senderens remarked "the nouvelle cuisine is now Japanese."

When "Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art" first came out 30 years ago, sushi was exotic, teriyaki was the sauce, and miso soup was for the macrobiotic crowd. No one who frequented the few Japanese restaurants in western world could have predicted what would happen in over three decades.

The late Shizuo Tsuji mastered Japanese cuisine, then French. He started the Tsuji Culinary Institute in Osaka in 1960 to train chefs, and it remains one of the well-respected cooking schools in Japan. He wrote this encyclopedic book to share the "essence and spirit" of his native cuisine. In this 25th anniversary edition, the content is the same as the original. There is a foreword by the late food writer M.F.K. Fisher and a preface by Tsuji, both of which are from the first volume, as well as a new foreword by Gourmet magazine's Ruth Reichl, and a preface by Tsuji's son, Yoshiki.

The 25th Anniversary edition celebrates Tsuji's classic work. Beautifully illustrated with eight pages of new color photos and over 500 drawings, and containing 230 traditional recipes as well as detailed explanations of ingredients, kitchen utensils, techniques and cultural aspects of Japanese cuisine, this edition continues the Tsuji legacy of bringing the Japanese kitchen within the reach of Western cooks.

The Hungry Girls' Cookbook

The Hungry Girls' Cookbooks are more like works of art than regular recipe books. Each edition is lined with cloth and hand-sewn, and inside you’ll find exciting dishes for the home cook. A crisp green bean, breadcrumb and pistachio salad, a soba noodle soup for a simple and satisfying weeknight meal, a delicious lemon poppy seed cake, and plenty more. These unique books are the work of three friends – Rachel Pitts, Leah Holscher and Katherine Bird – who have combined their love of food to create the recipes, photography and illustrations.

Trusty, healthy comfort food recipes, also tips for those days when your fridge is only offering sparse odds and ends, vegetarian and non-vegetarian recipes and lots of useful pieces of culinary advice. Many of the recipes are inspired by the season and by produce from the house garden.

www.hungrygirls.com.au