Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have recently been tucking into some leafy greens, making history in the process. For many of us, lettuce may be an afterthought; a food items that we expect to find tucked into our salads and placed in our sandwiches. But in space it’s a different matter. Everything is highly regimented and well, lettuce is a little bit superfluous isn’t it? Not anymore.
“The astronauts have a pretty amazing diet, with a lot of different foods,” Gioia Massa, a NASA researcher said. “But they don’t get fresh vegetables often.”
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You may remember that earlier this year the World’s Best Restaurant for 2015 was announced and that the famed Spanish eatery El Celler de Can Roca walked away with the coveted prize.
Other noteworthy talking points from the list included perennial winner Noma dropped down to third; the charming Osteria Francescana Modena claimed a deserved second place; Lima, the Peruvian capital, is something of a culinary hotspot these days; and that the French were unhappy with the omission of a Gallic restaurant in the top ten.
The last point isn’t that surprising….
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Today is National Tequila Day. Did you know that? Okay, neither did we until earlier this week, but whilst this drink day is primarily reserved for our friends in the United States we aren’t going to let a little think like geography get in the way of writing about this devilish alcoholic concoction.
Nearly everybody above drinking age will be able to recount a story that somehow involves tequila, and we’d wager a fair few pounds that a number of these won’t paint the traditional North American spirit in a good light.
However forget what you know about tequila because this drink is becoming more and more prevalent on both sides of the Atlantic as something which is to be enjoyed; less lime and salt, more natural flavour and thought.
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If you want to serve the best food possible, then you need to relocate your restaurant as high up as possible. And we don’t mean up a floor or two, or to move into a snazzy new space in a brand new multi-storey construction: We mean up a mountain.
Yes, that’s a crazy proposition. But so was sending a man to walk on the moon or sending a tiny robotic device to land on a moving comet. Impossible is just a word!
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Could the Bocuse d’Or, the World Cup of cooking, be heading to our nation’s capital in 2018?
The United Kingdom’s team has put forward an application to host the European heats of the prestigious competition in London. The formal announcement was made at a private function, sponsored by the catering manufacturer Manitowoc, at Quaglino’s earlier this month.
If successful, the continent wide event would be hosted at the famous ExCeL Centre in London which has hosted a number of high profile trade shows, expositions and was turned into a sporting auditorium for the 2012 Olympics.
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As the calendar flipped from May to June, some of the world’s greatest chefs and restaurant owners gathered at London’s Guildhall for the unveiling of The World’s 50 Best Restaurant list for 2015.
The awards ceremony, now in its fourteenth year, brings together the supposed brightest and best in the culinary world. And following a slap up dinner at Fera at Claridge’s the great and the good, sponsors and members of the press headed off to the big event where they saw the Catalan restaurant of El Celler de Can Roca claim top spot.
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“Food is something people have to buy every day, so it generates income every day,” says David Bispo, the owner of a boteco (a small café bar) in the Chapeu Mangueira area of Rio de Janeiro. “You probably haven’t bought any clothes today, but you’ve probably bought food.” And of course, he’s correct.
Bispo opened his café a couple of years ago when his work as a fisherman dried up and it’s one of a number, possibly thousands, which are found in Brazil’s most famous city. It’s not particularly flashy by all accounts, but there’s a steady trade that takes advantage of the cold beer and petiscos, small snacks which are often deep fried.
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The Scottish government has announced that food exports topped £1bn last year, reaching an impressive total of £1.1bn. This increase – a rise of about 3.5% – was largely driven by the addition of extra sales of fish and fresh seafood which account of £613m of the total.
But add drink exports to the mix and that number skyrockets to in excess of £5.1bn, which just goes to show how popular whisky is around the world.
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Mead, the drink from the age of dragons*, conquests and war is about to be reinvented for the modern market.
The fermented honey drink is alleged to be one of the oldest alcoholic beverages in existence and there’s a good claim that it could be one of the most popular too. Back when Kings and Queens ruled with an iron fist and waged war on neighbouring nations, mead was commonplace in the taverns of Great Britain.
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When it comes to creating a delicately tailored drinks menu to compliment your array of finely chosen mains, where do you typically look to source your wine from?
Normally, we’d expect that the vast majority of options in high street restaurants and fine dining establishments originate from the traditional wine-growing powerhouses of Spain and France, backed up with a couple of options from different nations such as Chile and Australia.
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Author
Damien Wilde