Kitsch'n'Zinc

On the road again

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 13:16:00 +0000

We’ve moved

https://www.getrevue.co/profile/foodwizard/issues/kitsch-n-zinc-issue-28-130766?utm_campaign=Issue&utm_content=view_in_browser&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Kitsch+n+Zinc

We' moved

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 18:38:00 +0000

Kitsch n Zinc has now moved to being a weekly publication
https://paper.li/foodwiz/1407248397

There's a hair in my beer

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Mon, 04 Aug 2014 17:51:00 +0000

It’s taken a long time but finally the craft beer movement is taking off in South Africa and I am delighted. No longer the ice cold, tasteless industrial product of SAB, no longer Charles Glass being recognised as the only brewer in South Africa, now we can savour some really exciting aromas and flavours but as with all new trends people do sometimes get carried away, who can forget those terrible travesties of food created by the molecular gastronomy bozos. Experimental brewers are constantly chasing the next flavour sensation and like fellow artisan bakers who play around with sourdough they pursue the “wild yeast” found in the air and rotting fruit. However there is another source of “wild yeast” which some experimental brewers are trying to exploit and that is much closer to home, in fact it’s in their facial hair! Of course, there are thousands of wild yeast strains, but, save for their use by a few Belgian brewers to make “Lambic” beers, they tend to be ignored (mainly because of their ability to cause infections), while around 24 laboratory-grown varieties are considered useful for brewers. Rogue Ales, a brewery based in Oregon, has created a beer using yeast harvested from its brewmaster’s impressively bushy beard. Colleagues snipped nine hairs from the beard, which apparently hasn’t been shaved since 1978, and sent them off to a lab for testing. Amazingly, scientists were able to identify a strain of yeast that was perfect for making pale ale. A marketing gimmick? Oh, yes. But I do hope it stays that side of the Atlantic.

Sunday afternoon at the bioscope

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Sun, 03 Aug 2014 15:20:00 +0000

This week it's Ross Noble talking about the faces he finds in muffins.

Dilly Diner of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Sat, 02 Aug 2014 18:15:00 +0000

Sporting a unique interior is this week’s Dilly Diner, London's Bounce bar, the home of ping pong, where the game's tables are used for revellers to challenge one another in a cool and sophisticated atmosphere. Tables can be booked for groups of six or more, with some tables kept for 'walk ins' or smaller groups. There are 13 in total, all of which are Butterfly Ping Pong Tables, as well as two rather special tables, the Olympic 2012 table and World Championship table.Surrounding the competing grounds is the bar and restaurant. On the menu are sumptuous and exotic cocktails, from Margarita's to a Wiff Waff's or even a Winning Smash. The bar also serves snacks and lite bites. After a fast and furious game players can sit on long wooden tables enjoying pizzas from the woodfired oven and antipasti. There are hearty meals of wild boar stew and baked fresh fish or lighter sides of vegetables or new potatoes. Topping it off are the tantalizing desserts of red berry fool, eton mess, sorbet, ice cream or cheese.

That Was The Week That Was

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 19:48:00 +0000

It was a steaky kind of week. Those food nutters from the UK, Bompass and Parr,who made their name by making wobbling edifaces and showpieces out of jelly, were at it again, acting out boyhood dreams, this time with steak. Accepting the fact that what we all crave in a good steak is the tasty crust, formed by the Maillard reaction of a very hot heat source and the surface of the meat, they set out this week to create the perfect steak in a matter of seconds by cooking over molten lava. Of course molten lave is not readily available in the commercial kitchen so they popped off to New York where the duo worked with professor Robert Wysock at Syracuse University in New York. Wysock’s area of expertise is creating streams of man-made lava from a bronze melting furnace. The result they say is fantastic just don’t try this at home!

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But maybe we don’t need a better way to cook steak maybe we don’t need to eat steak at all! A new research study revealed this week that eating less red meat would be a better way for people to cut carbon emissions than giving up their cars. The popular red meat requires 28 times more land to produce than pork or chicken, 11 times more water and results in five times more climate-warming emissions. When compared with staples such as potatoes, wheat and rice, the impact of beef per calorie is even more extreme, requiring 160 times more land and producing 11 times more greenhouse gases. Agriculture is a significant driver of global warming and causes 15% of all emissions, half of which are from livestock. Furthermore, the huge amounts of grain and water needed to raise cattle is a concern to experts worried about feeding another two billion people by 2050. Oh I just don’t know?

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Meanwhile a steak that is causing a bit of a stir at the moment in the UK is zebra. The meat of the Burchall zebra, bred on farms in South Africa, is being sold aggressively in the UK as a new wonder meat, low in fat and cholesterol. It’s strange that the Brits should take to zebra when they were so stressed out about horsemeat a few years ago? It’s also strange that we don’t see so much zebra meat here in South Africa. Perhaps we feel more affinity with the animal in the wild or maybe we just can’t get our heads around paying about R300 per kg for zebra burgers in a supermarket!

Screaming at ice cream idiots

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Thu, 31 Jul 2014 17:56:00 +0000

I wonder what it is that requires the Spanish to bugger about with perfectly good food. Spanish chef and physicist (now there’s a mix if ever there was one) Manuel Linares has created an ice cream made completely with natural ingredients that changes colour when you lick it. It doesn’t change flavour like an everlasting gobstopper, just colour. It’s hard to imagine something like this doesn’t require an artificially-engineered additive or ingredient, but it doesn’t. Christened “Xamaleón,” the ice cream is no big deal in the flavour stakes tasting like nothing more than a blend of fruits. Starting out a baby blue colour, he dips it in a special liquor which makes the ice cream turn a dark purple colour in 10 to 15 seconds. Linares says the only thing behind the chameleon-like nature of the ice cream is chemistry. “Any food can change colour depending on temperature and oxidation,” he said. In the meantime, he’s keeping the recipe to himself since he’s looking to patent it. However, be on the lookout for two new inventions by Linares: one that will respond to ultraviolet lights in clubs, and one that will turn from pink to white all on its own. I can hardly contain myself.

Leave the bloody phone alone.....

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 17:54:00 +0000

The modern phenomenon of a group of friends sitting together while individually staring at their smartphones is one that leaves a bitter taste, especially in the mouths of restaurant owners who are finding the atmosphere in their venue is being killed. Canada’s Faraday Café uses a unique architectural design to create a space where all phone and wifi signals are naturally blocked. Located at the Chinatown Experiment pop-up space in Vancouver, the temporary coffeeshop was set up inside a smaller construction inside the building. The room was designed as a large Faraday cage, an enclosure made of a mesh of conducting material that is able to block any electric signals. Once visitors stepped into the café, their phones and laptops became unable to connect to outside cell, wireless internet or wifi coverage. The idea for the café was to encourage customers to take a break from their devices and maybe even talk to strangers sharing their table. Artist Julian Thomas, who designed the café said “I wanted to design a space where you don’t have to tell someone to stop. The arrangement of the room and the materials allow people to effortlessly walk in and decide their own limits.”

The café was open for a limited time at the beginning of this month, where a variety of events including meditation sessions and talks about digital technology were held.

(via Springwise)

Sniffing your way to an early grave

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Tue, 29 Jul 2014 18:02:00 +0000

OK we've got to establish a few parameters here first of all. Are you one of those people who believes in the "latest research" ? Are you the type of person who is convinced that clinical trials on animals are not only justified but can yield incredibly accurrate scientific information which can advance medical science and make all our lives that much richer and more healthy? Finally what are your thoughts on fruit flies? Do you feel any special bond or affinity to them? Whilst you're pondering on all those thoughts here's a little joke - time flies like an arrow......fruit flies like a banana.
Since the 1930s, scientists have been gathering evidence that by reducing the amount of food a creature eats you can extend its life span by 30 percent or more.In those studies, scientists figured out how much a creature wanted to eat naturally, then reduced its intake by about 40 percent. That's been a method that seems to work for most creatures from fruit flies to mice to monkeys. Now I accept that we're a bit further along the evolution scale from those pesky little fruit flies but a recent study indicates that even the smell of food can reduce the life span of creatures on reduced calorie diets.In the study, researchers at New Mexico State University, placed fruit flies on restricted diets and then exposed them to the smell of food - in the form of a yeast paste.Surprisingly, just smelling the paste shortened their expanded life spans, even though they didn't eat that food. Fruit flies generally live about 60 days.Those on the restricted diet that didn't smell food lived longer than 80 days. So what can we learn from this research? Don't go on strict diets which cut back your calorie intake by as much as 40 % because although you may think you're heading for a longer life all your good work could be undone by some inconsiderate neighbour firing up his braai and allowing the distinctive aroma of browning boeries to waft in your direction.

How do they get Teflon to stick to non stick pans?

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 17:49:00 +0000

I''ve no idea how they get Teflon to stick to non stick pans. To tell the truth I've never been particularily bothered.I don't know how the computer system on my car works either but I do know that when I put the key in and turn it, I can miraculously travel from A to B, so the mechanics of the system have no relevance as far as I'm concerned. There are many chefs who will tell you that to cook properly you need pans constructed from triple layers of XYZ with copper bottoms and reinforced riveted handles - they're almost as boring as wine snobs and beer snobs. They've obviously never tasted food from an open fire infused with the aroma of the wood and simply suspended gaucho style without any bloody pot. So back to the Teflon story. I bought a non stick frying pan a few years ago after seeing it demonstrated by one of those glib, sleight of hand, marketeers you see on daytime TV. He was an accomplished bullshitter who had never worked in a commercial kitchen but when he made crepes and managed to make them raise from the base of the pan simply by gently blowing, well then I was hooked. I think it's a brilliant pan although I reckon if I were to recommend it to any of my colleagues they would have a bloody good laugh, it's not CC (culinarily correct) you see. But here's the bit I like - everytime you think it's losing it's grip, well rather, everytime you think it's gaining it's grip on your food you simply return it to the agent and inside a few days it comes back with it's new layer of Teflon and at an incredibily reasonable fee. Now here's the rub. They say that the chemical perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, which is used to make Teflon and also the material used in microwave popcorn bags and pizza boxes to repel water and resist staining by oil and grease, is "likely" to cause cancer. "Likely" is the big news here -- the classification of this chemical Has been changed from "suggestive of" to "likely" causing cancer. But hold on. Opponents of this new recommendation say that PFOA is virtually eliminated before the final material comes off the production line. And, even if very small amounts of PFOA are contained in these various products, one would need to allow a nonstick pan on a hot burner above 600 degrees Fahrenheit for the material to decompose into toxic fumes. In addition, before a nonstick pan is found on store shelves, its entire coating has been heated to high temperatures during the manufacturing process, partly to get rid of any PFOA that might still be present.
I must admit that I am less concerned about this possible danger than I am about the possibility that some bozo somewhere will, in the interests of consumer safety, stop the annual retreading of my pan. I might even have to go out and invest in one of those fancy numbers so much favoured by the "professionals."

Sunday afternoon at the bioscope

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 15:32:00 +0000

The utterly fantastic Jan and Ray discussing mushroom soup with shitake mushrooms

Dilly Diner of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Sat, 26 Jul 2014 16:07:00 +0000

This week's Dilly Diner is more of a Bozo Boozer but pretty unusual none the less. From the outside it's just like a thousand other red brick British pubs but when you go inside, this unassuming West Midlands local, has a quirky interior which has attracted the attention of newspapers, radio stations and TV crews from all over the world.
Somerset House in Stourbridge has hit the headlines as the pub where you can park your pint, unsupported, on the wall. You literally place your full pint of beer up against the wall and it will stick there, unsupported, until you retrieve it. Naturally the locals in the pub see this as less than a party trick but actually a very useful marketing tool since they can simply park their pint against the wall while they toddle off to relieve themselves of some of the beer which they have just rented.
Sceptics, media people and scientists of course just can't accept things as they are and so they have spent hours and hours trying to figure out this phenomenon.Not content with the regular's perfectly logical explanation that the walls are magic and the pub is spooked, scientists have come up with the weird explanation that the wallpaper glue was responsible. They say that the glue combined with old tobacco smoke and grime was sufficient to suspend the pint of beer unaided. I'm not so sure after all how come it's only pints of beer sticking to the wall and not drunken locals caught like flies in a trap ?

That Was The Week That Was

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Fri, 25 Jul 2014 21:42:00 +0000

I’m not sure how big a thing it is in your life (I personally couldn’t give a toss) but this week the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK ruled that pyramid shaped teabags made a better cup of tea than round teabags. They didn’t pontificate on regular square teabags as the storm in a teacup was a spate between the Tetley tea folk, those bluff northerners who sing the benefits of their round teabags and PG Tips and their brand ambassadors, comedian Jonny Vegas and his monkey puppet, who suggested that their pyramid tea bags were better at letting the flavour flood out than round ones. Significantly the ASA accepted that the PG Tips pyramid bags really are better at releasing the flavour because the tea has more room to move so ‘freeing the great fresh taste’. I’m no great expert on tea but I don’t think you have to be a rocket scientist to perhaps venture the thought that it might be the tea that tastes better rather than the bloody bag it’s in!

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One man who clearly can tell a good cup of tea when he sees one is Vernon Charles Merriweather who instituted a lawsuit against Starbucks in Buffalo New York. All he wanted was a hot cup of Oprah Winfrey's signature Chai tea, a speciality on the menu, but this customer claims his came with a heavy dose of heroin and a barrage of racial slurs.He claims the staff added hallucinogenics, heroin and Ambien to his cuppa ... according to the Federal lawsuit.
Merriweather also says when he applied for a job (during a different visit) at the Starbucks -- he was told, "We don't hire n******" -- and the baristas called themselves an Aryan nation.Perhaps it all should be taken with a pinch of salt…..or sugar because the alleged incident with the tea took place 6 months BEFORE Oprah Chai tea even debuted!

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Meanwhile an opportunistic pollceman in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, China, wasn’t quite so savvy about his tea. He found 2,000 crates containing 30,000 bottles of herbal tea in an unguarded storage container. It occurred to Zhang that the bottles could be worth some money and he decided to make a small profit from them. When three people collecting recycling items passed by, Zhang told them that the crates were his and that he intended to recycle the bottles. The collectors took Zhang at his word and helped him pour out all the tea with a retail value of 170,000 yuan (US$27,500) in order to collect 115 yuan (US$18.57) from recycling the plastic bottles. It took the four men 12 hours to dispose of the stock. Zhang got a tidy 115 yuan (US$18.57) from his helpers in return for the bottles and the boxes. The three men spent another 12 hours taking the bottles to a recycling station, each getting 200 yuan (US$32.30) for their trouble.The owner returned to his now empty storage container and immediately called the police, who arrested Zhang on July 19 and also found the three unwitting accomplices.

Crocodile tears

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 17:32:00 +0000

I’ve never tasted alligator! I suppose it should taste like crocodile. I’ve eaten crocodile but I can’t honestly say that I have ever tasted it! I’ve tasted the cloying smoky flavour of a Hot Smoked Crocodile Tail and the mélange of heady Malay spices in a Curry of Crocodile but I can’t say that I’ve ever experienced the taste of crocodile. Some people, with more developed palates, tell me it tastes a little like chicken, a little like pork and a little like fish all at one time. I’m impressed that they can detect the delicate flavour through the mask of strong marinades, sweet and hot sauces and spice rubs.
So I wonder what exactly is crocodile? What tastes should my palate be attuned to? Is it meat, amphibian or game and just how closely related is it to the alligator. Who eats it? Do indigenous natives in Africa eat crocodile as part of their regular diet? I don’t think so – they go out of their way to avoid him. He’s only got to open that lazy eye of his and you’ll see 50 potential entrants for the All Africa 100 meter dash.
The local supermarket doesn’t stock crocodile meat either fresh or fresh frozen, as they are so fond of advertising. They harp on about the fresh fish, frozen at sea, which is nothing less than I would expect since the fishing boat is out often for weeks at a time - I mean they’re hardly going bring the fish back to be frozen at the processing plant are they? Anyway ”Frozen at sea” has that lovely romantic ring to it because you are instantly assured that the irregular ice cube which you have just purchased has “all the goodness sealed in” But I digress. All available evidence suggests that you and I don’t buy crocodile meat either.
So who does buy it since it appears on many local menus with an almost bragging innuendo – “Look what we’ve got, crocodile, does that shock you, amuse you, titillate your taste buds? We dare you to try it! ”I’m convinced that the only people who are tempted to taste the crocodile are tourists who want to go the whole hog or whole croc in this case and tick it off on their “When we were in Africa” list. So that being the case it doesn’t really matter what it tastes like, does it?

To steal or not to steal?

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 17:27:00 +0000

Some of the cheffing fraternity are getting onto their high horses about their precious recipes which I think is a load of bollocks. Of course it's not the guys who slave away day after day to ensure that your special celebration or night out, is particularily enjoyable, no it's the bloody prima donnas and celebrity chefs who are more concerned about how many column inches they get each day in the magazines or if the TV series is going to be recommissioned.
It's a bit like a tart being mortally offended if someone pinched her bum, but these bozos who spend their lives churning out instant recipes, instant cookbooks (with a not insubstantial amount of help from their lackeys) suddenly get upset if someone has the temerity to place one of their dishes on a restaurant menu.
" Stop thief, that's my idea, you must think up your own " What a load of cobblers! Why bother writing the book or making the programme - just to show how clever they are? Where the hell did they steal the idea from in the first place? Were they born with a vast reserve of culinary knowledge? There is really very little, new or original, in the food business, recipes and techniques from the past are researched, reworked and rehashed for a public constantly looking for "the latest thing". This is the hospitality business, it's all about sharing, sharing your table, sharing your knowledge. Jo Jo Vongerichten popularised a molten chocolate cake which has turned up on a thousand menus and is even produced nowadays in an instant format by Unilever so who the hell does the recipe belong to? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so for God's sake put some more rouge on your cheeks and get out there in front of the cameras to play - leave the cooking to people who can reproduce the dish perfectly, day after day, in realtime, without the help of home economists, food stylists, lighting experts and camp photographers.

Just a spot please

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 18:05:00 +0000

There was a time when they said that Mr Colman made his fortune not from the amount of mustard that anyone consumed but from the amount of mustard that they left on their plate. Perhaps they overindulged, realised that they really didn’t like mustard that much, found it too hot or simply thought the polite thing to do was to leave a fair amount on the side of the plate – I don’t know? Nowadays the new owners, some multinational conglomerate, are looking for new ideas to boost sales and have introduced a perfectly bastardised dish that ticks all the food boxes for the average Brit – The Sausage Macerole! Now the ultimate British comfort food dish has been unveiled containing the country's favourite ingredients. It has a macaroni and cheese topping coated with crispy cheese, layered over sausage casserole, complete with mushrooms and caramelised onion gravy. Oh, and of course that totally unnecessary mustard lurking in the cheese and macaroni topping. The creation was put together by the makers of Coleman's mustard after researching the nation's favourite comfort foods. Lola Danlos, Colman's brand manager, said: 'Colman's has been at the heart of British meal times for over 200 years. So there you go!

If you can't stand the heat....

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 17:32:00 +0000

A new restaurant opened in Dallas this week and received a bad review from the local paper. Nothing really unususal in that I suppose. The restaurant probably set themselves up for a fall with all sorts of pre-opening hype, the restaurant critic probably went too soon before things settled down a bit, it’s not really that unusual or newsworthy except that in this case the chef took to the Twittersphere to vent his spleen and a whole can of worms opened up. The chef, John Tesar, a graduate of the Top Chef tv programme, lashed out that the critic "didn’t really understand what his restaurant Knife was all about" and now she was banned from his other two restaurants in town. Seems strange to me that if a restaurant critic didn’t understand what his restaurant was about then the rest of us mere mortals might not have a clue either. The Ginger Whinger Mario Batali took to Twitter with “ Don’t chefs have as much right as a critic to air their point of view?” Sure they do Mario, they get the opportunity with every meal they sell and that’s the point that sometimes chef’s forget, I serve meals to friends in my house, they sell meals to customers, it’s a business that has to attract clientele by making them feel good, comfortable, well nourished, it’s not a bloody art gallery where you can hang your latest work of art on the wall and say f*ck the world you don’t understand what I’m doing!

Sunday afternoon at the bioscope

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Sun, 20 Jul 2014 14:46:00 +0000

Here's the wonderful David Mitchell on his Soapbox discussing the Brit's attitude to food.

Dilly Diner of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Sat, 19 Jul 2014 18:41:00 +0000

This week’s Dilly Diner is an Indian restaurant in Franfurt – so what’s so unusual about an Indian restaurant in Frankfurt? Well this one is a real Indian restaurant, Manitou is is a Native American Indian restaurant. Are your taste buds craving rattlesnake? How about insects or crocodile meat? Tucked away on a side street in Frankfurt’s bustling Sachsenhausen district is Manitou, a unique restaurant offering Native American cuisine. The inside curved walls resemble the inside of an earthen pueblo, the leather-decorated ceilings, Native American objects and artwork are scattered within the cozy interior, and the tribal music sounds in the background. Whether diners choose to eat at leather-covered tables with fur-coated wooden seats, inside a Native American canoe, or even cross-legged on pillows inside a teepee, the ambience of Manitou is unforgettable. Along with rattlesnake, the exotic menu features a mixed insect platter (locusts, mealworms and caterpillars), elk, caribou, crocodile and bison tenderloin filets. From the regular menu, guests can order entrees of vegetables, pheasant breast, turkey, lamb, deer, beef and salmon.

That Was The Week That Was

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 21:22:00 +0000

Chef Jacques Pépin, well-respected cookbook author and long-time television personality, in the US, had a pop at Gordo this week. In an article he expressed some very honest feelings about reality television-style cooking shows. Acknowledging that working in a restaurant is a stressful experience and can lead to flaring tempers, he said: "As an apprentice, I was kicked in the rear end a few times, but it was tough love more than nastiness. These are the conditions of the trade, and anyone who works in a restaurant is well aware of them." Pépin went on to point at television's recent spate of shows that aim to "humiliate" and "terrorize" young cooks and contestants rather than teach. As a Dean at the International Culinary Center, Pépin feels that portraying "the restaurant kitchen in a chaotic and negative light... is a disservice to our trade and to young people who want to go into this business." Though he didn't mention shouty chef Gordon Ramsay by name, Pépin did note that Hell's Kitchen is among the shows where "every other word [is] a bleeped expletive." Having declared reality TV "totally unreal," Pépin recommended that cameras walk into the orderly kitchens of Thomas Keller's Per Se in New York City or Alice Waters'Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif. While rivalry and cruelty "may be good for ratings," writes Pépin, "it is unjust to dedicated cooks and unfair to the trade." Hear hear.

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Meanwhile in the UK a Chinese chef who hacked his boss with a meat cleaver because she was “like a female Gordon Ramsay” has been jailed. Lianjun Sun lashed out when Ruo Jun Tian shouted at him for not preparing vegetables to her perfectionist demands. Sun told a court that Tian tapped him on the chest with a knife and told him: “I could easily kill you." He then lost his temper, picked up a cleaver from a nearby chopping board and delivered two sickening blows to her neck. Tian’s screams alerted fellow workers at the New China takeaway in Ipswich, Suffolk and paramedics rushed her to hospital for two life-saving operations. Sun hid the cleaver under a fridge before returning home to change his bloodstained clothing. He was later arrested and charged with attempted murder. Ms Tian’s ex-husband Michael Wan said she liked everything to be perfect in her kitchen and behaved like a female version of Gordon Ramsay. He told the court: “She’s a person who wants things done properly. It’s like ‘Hell’s Kitchen’. “If you watch Hell’s Kitchen Gordon Ramsay says ‘I want this. I want that to happen’.“She’s got a mouth like Gordon Ramsay but is a woman.” Wow!

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And hot off the press is the news that the the original enfant terrible of the food world, the man who reduced Gordo to tears, Marco Pierre White, is set to have his life played out on the big screen by director and producer Ridley Scott.

That’s according to Deadline Hollywood, which reports that White’s colourful life as a “chain-smoking, pot-throwing” Michelin-starred chef will be turned into a movie. The film will be based on White’s autobiography The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness and the Making of a Great Chef. Though today, White may be better known as the spokesperson behind Knorr stock cubes, in his former culinary life the British chef once boasted the title of being the youngest chef to hold all three Michelin star at the age of 33. Some of today’s hottest chefs also owe some of their success to the man, as he mentored the likes of Mario Batali and Gordon Ramsay.

Ugly ugli fruit

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Thu, 17 Jul 2014 18:23:00 +0000

Beauty is only skin deep even when that skin is orange, carrot or eggplant and I’m delighted to learn that one French supermarket is attempting to re-educate us that fruit and vegetables are just as nutritious even if they are a little misshapen. The third largest supermarket chain in France, Intermarché, launched a campaign earlier this year that sought to put an end to food waste. Inglorious Fruits and Vegetables celebrates the 'ugly' produce that is often thrown away by growers and considered unfit for consumption. The campaign follows the news that the European Union throws away 300 million tons of food away each year. Of course the truth of the matter is that it’s the taste that matters not the looks although consumers demand perfectly formed and coloured fruit and vegetables. As well as beautifully photographed posters depicting ugly fruit Intermarché gave the produce their own aisle in the supermarket, buying the fruit and veg that farmers would usually throw away and sold the produce for 30 per cent cheaper than others on offer. The result was a huge success: all stocks of the fruit and vegetables sold out in an initial rush and supermarket traffic overall increased by 24 per cent. Are you paying attention Mr A?

Works of fiction

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Wed, 16 Jul 2014 17:42:00 +0000

I often wonder how come there are so few decent restaurant reviewers in our newspapers nowadays. You still see the odd half hearted commentary from jack of all trade journos but nothing biting or hardhitting and more often than not you get the impression that they don’t know what they are talking about. Perhaps it is due to the rise of the blogger or internet Yelp or Trip Advisor reviewer? Let me make it perfectly clear lest I be accused of hypocrisy that I never, ever, do restaurant reviews in this blog. Of course I’ll sometimes relate bad service or poor food experiences but I never disclose the name of the restaurant involved. In some of our newspaper offices there must be drawers full of fake moustaches and dark glasses, long the tools of any self respecting reviewer. Nowadays of course they’re harder to spot. It’s seldom the gigglers taking photos with their Iphones to tweet or send off to Facebook or Instagram, it’s quiet ones silently fuming, perfectly well mannered, until they dash home and get onto their computer to vent their feelings under an assumed identity. Those reviews you can take with a pinch of salt but also beware of the glowing reports of excellent service and outstanding food because one thing that this new democratisation of restaurant reviewing has created is that the bloody restaurants doing their own write ups and if you think their menus are works of fiction……….!!

A large meths with a dash of chloroform please.

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 18:10:00 +0000

I’m not a vodka drinker, could never really see the sense in taking a colourless, tasteless, spirit and drowning it with something else but it seems to be the perfect drink for people who don’t like the taste of alcohol. I would have thought that people who didn’t like the taste of alcohol wouldn’t drink it, a bit like me and yak’s milk but that’s another story. However buying a bottle of Smirnoff you would expect to get a high-quality vodka. But in the UK what’s in the bottle could cost you your life. Britain’s shops are awash with counterfeit spirits made from lethal chemicals including chloroform and methylated spirits, an investigation has found. The concoction is putting thousands of drinkers at risk of blindness, organ failure and even death. And because it is perfectly packaged, consumers have no way of telling the bottles from genuine brands. One factory in east London is producing 7,000 fake bottles of Smirnoff vodka a day. The criminals use the latest machinery to repackage the bottles with perfect labels replicating leading brands that also include Grant’s whisky, Glen’s vodka and Russian Standard vodka. Now of course with our ever vigilant authorities that sort of thing could never happen here so we can continue getting sloshed. There was that story a few years ago about some antifreeze ending up in local wines but that went away very quickly so nothing can go wrong…go wrong…go wrong…go wrong!

Fin....ally

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 17:25:00 +0000

It always seems that it takes forever for a pot of water to come to the boil but it’s not rocket science….or is it?

According to an Oxford University engineering professor, the key to speedy cooking is a bit of rocket science.

Dr Thomas Povey is an expert on jet and rocket engines, particularly the techniques used to manage and transfer engine heat in the most effective way. Now he has brought the benefits of his knowledge to the nation’s kitchens, dreaming up a new saucepan design which knocks a minute off a boiled egg’s cooking time. From start to finish, it would normally take around six minutes to boil an egg – three minutes for the water to boil plus another three minutes of cooking time. But Dr Povey’s patented new design could reduce this by roughly a minute, which might prove useful for people who need to cook a quick meal in the morning. Called the Flare, the saucepan works best with gas hobs. It has a series of fins which direct flames quickly and evenly up the side of the pan, holding the heat far more effectively than traditional versions. The main body is aluminium but the handles are made of stainless steel, so will not reach the same searing temperatures as the base. Flare pans, which can also be used with electric, ceramic and halogen hobs, reach the right cooking temperature around 34 per cent faster – and use 28 per cent less energy than conventional pans. I’m not sure a minute’s worth of energy is really worth saving especially when you will use some much more energy bragging to your friends and demonstrating the new plaything.

Sunday afternoon at the bioscope

noreply@blogger.com (brian) — Sun, 13 Jul 2014 15:15:00 +0000

The late John Pinette ranting about food as usual and vegans in particular