A true temple of French cuisine that puts garden produce centre-stage

Alain Passard has cooked at L’Arpège for nearly 30 years. In that time he has achieved living-legend status as one of France’s greatest and most influential chefs, but this giant of Gallic gastronomy has a surprisingly light touch. The cooking at this Parisian superstar revolves around a 2.5 hectare biodynamic garden just outside the city where a team of gardeners grow produce to exacting briefs.

All meals here feature a simple salad named after his head gardener, a tangle of esoteric herbs and leaves dressed with oil, a little Parmesan and chopped hazelnut praline. Such is his dedication to garden produce that a decade or so ago Passard removed red meat from his menu. At the time it represented a controversial though forward-thinking comment about the top-end of the restaurant industry’s obsession with flesh. But carnivores shouldn’t despair, as the Brittany-born chef has now reinstated red meat (if in very small measure) to a menu that also features exceptional game, poultry and seafood options.

The chef, who began his career back in 1971, has a complete grasp of classic French techniques; having worked with some of the nation’s most esteemed chefs in his formative years, including Alain Senderens, from whom Passard purchased L’Arpège in 1986. It is these well-honed skills along with a healthy dose of playful creativity that set him apart from the crowd.

Source: http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/l-arpege

Minimalist, high impact plates in Alicante

Valencian food gets the techno-emotional treatment at Quique Dacosta’s eponymous restaurant on the Costa Blanca. While Alicante might be more usually associated with package holidays than cutting-edge gastronomy, the tiny city of Dénia is far removed from the all-day breakfasts and mainstream lager of the area’s numerous tourist resorts. Formerly El Poblet, the super-sleek restaurant makes a fine and suitable backdrop for the team’s striking plates and also houses some first-rate contemporary art.

Part-chef, part-botanist, Dacosta occupies the same culinary perch as Ferran Adrià and the Roca brothers and is a big name in Spain. His plates are minimalist and always memorable, featuring two or three ingredients, making for great clarity of flavour. A meal here may begin with a single rose supplied with a pair of Quique Dacosta-branded tweezers. On closer inspection, the middle of the flower has been painstakingly constructed from pickled apple. Another dish shows the chef’s willingness to reference other cuisines – his black truffle mochi is an extraordinary little cake stuffed with a creamy cheese filling and dusted with black truffles.

Although there are other references, his tasting menu is billed as an edible landscape of the Costa Blanca, seeking to evoke the aroma and texture of the environment as well as the taste. As such, his restaurant is a hub for food research as well as unashamedly top-end dining. Dacosta is an expert on the local vegetation in addition to the cuisine, and is an authority on the use of rice in Spanish cooking as well as being an expert on aloe vera, micro-greens and sprouts.

Source: http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/quique-dacosta

Restaurant magazine’s annual “San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants” rankings have been announced and there are some notable developments from 2009′s list:

Noma, in Copenhagen, Denmark, previously #3 on the list, now sits atop the rankings. For more about Noma, including photos, go here.
El Bulli is no longer #1 after four consecutive years atop this set of rankings, perhaps not surprising as Ferran Adria recently announced he would be shuttering El Bulli for two years. El Bulli is now ranked #2.

Alinea, previously #10, is now #7, but more interestingly garnered the top American spot overall. This just two weeks after being named the best restaurant in Chicago, ever. To see photos of Alinea’s signature courses from Chef Grant Achatz, go here.
Alinea overtook Per Se as the country’s best restaurant. Per Se is now #10, and the third best American restaurant on the list behind Daniel, new to the top 10, at #8. Thomas Keller’s other restaurant, The French Laundry, in Napa, fell a whole 20 spots from last year’s list to #32.
Four of the top ten restaurants in the world are in Spain: El Bulli in Rosas, Girona, El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Mugaritz in Rentería, Guipúzcoa, and Arzak, in San Sebastián, Guipúzcoa.
Danny Meyer-run Eleven Madison Park, with Chef Daniel Humm at the helm, rounded out the top 50 in its first appearance on the list.
Here are the top ten restaurants (from #1-#10) from the 2010 San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants rankings:

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/26/alinea-top-us-restaurant_n_552379.html

Mario Batali’s thanksgiving will involve a turkey porchetta, ravioli, and a whole lot of ’97 brunello.

Thanksgiving is a time to spend with family and loved ones, and even some of the country’s busiest chefs know that. It’s a chance for them to take a step back from the everyday hustle and bustle and relax. But while you might think that this is a good opportunity to let someone else do the cooking, it’s pretty hard to pull a chef away from their stove, especially when their family is depending on them to whip up something amazing. These chefs might not have had a day off in quite a while (more than one is in the middle of opening a new restaurant), yet they’re taking the time to do Thanksgiving right. “I love the process of cooking Thanksgiving with my family every year,” Tyler Florence told us. “We can really get into the ceremony of it, and it’s a lot of fun.” Chef Jeff McInnis, who’s hard at work on a new restaurant in New York, will be heading down to Florida to be with family, including his daughter Bryce, before moving her up to New York.
And while many chefs brine their turkeys, two very notable ones — Bobby Flay and Tom Colicchio — don’t, and rely on basting instead.

Source: http://www.thedailymeal.com/what-famous-chefs-eat-thanksgiving/111913

(Reuters) – In an unfashionable part of Oslo, head chef Esben Holmboe Bang’s minimalist creations are stirring up food culture in a country where, a generation ago, the height of fine dining was boiled cod and potatoes.

At Maaemo, a restaurant squeezed between the city’s bus terminal and railway station, Bang uses exclusively local ingredients to rustle up the likes of langoustines with spruce, mackerel with wild garlic, and butter ice cream with brown butter caramel,

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The starred chef “signature” card at the new restaurant in Manhattan, Meregalli of “Mulino a Vino.”
The simplicity of Italian conquest of the Americans, already reviewed in the NYT GIGI PADOVANI

Some flat door the words “Courtesy Combal.Zero”, and are the great classics of David Scabin as the “King of Savoy’s Veal with tuna sauce” or the famous “Skyline salad” or “Street-Style Spaghettoni.” Other courses are designed to raise awareness of the true Italian cuisine to New Yorkers, more and more fascinated by everything that comes from Italy, as far as the kitchen: “Octopus Luciana”, “Soup & Green green soup”, “Rack of Lamb the Romanas.

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Private and personal dining at the landmark Marina Bay Sands

Tetsuya Wakuda’s Marina Bay Sands restaurant Waku Ghin is derived from two Japanese words: waku (to arise), and ghin (silver) in honour of Wakuda’s favourite colour, found throughout his plush 25-cover restaurant.

The Japanese-born chef was based in Australia for many years, building a stellar reputation at the much-loved Tetsuya’s in Sydney – a former regular on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. But his attention has largely turned to this newer, more intimate restaurant in Singapore. Here the dining area is split into four private rooms of differing styles, varying from a muted grey-and-white walled room with carpets to a warmer, wooden-floored bar-style seating area. Each has a private chef preparing a seasonal dégustation menu of delights including whole abalone with aonori (seaweed) and fillet of Tasmanian grass-fed beef with wasabi mustard. Eight courses are served in situ before diners are led to a separate dessert room in which to round off the meal with two sweet courses while pondering the spectacular Singapore skyline and the views over Marina Bay.

For a more informal experience diners can head to The Bar at Waku Ghin, which features traditional Japanese-style cocktail-making and has an extensive list of premium whiskies and sakes – Wakuda was the first person to be appointed a sake ambassador outside of Japan, helping to make his selection the best in the world. Here a tight menu of nibbles is served, including caviar, oysters, cheese and meat platters.

Source: http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/waku-ghin

André Chiang brings philosophical food to life

‘Octaphilosophy’ might sound like something dreamt up for an underwater sci-fi movie but it is, in fact, a well-considered approach to cooking undertaken by forward-thinking chef André Chiang.
Art and philosophy are guiding principles for Taiwan-born, French-trained Chiang. Octaphilosophy is his way of describing the key characteristics of his gastronomy: Unique, Texture, Memory, Pure, Terroir, Salt, South, and Artisan. Through his dishes Chiang explores the role these characteristics play in his food, and in gastronomy as a whole, whether it be grilled Taiwanese baby corn for Artisan; lobster, potato gnocchi and caviar for Texture; or foie gras jelly with truffles for Memory. Each dish could equally come under the name ‘simple’, with none containing more than a handful of ingredients in order not to drown each other out. But the cooking is also highly nuanced and champions food in unfamiliar formats and textures; the work of a chef at the very top of his game.

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Can’t leave this one out. A fellow Successful Belgian.

Belgian’s food champion continues to inspire

Chef Peter Goossens has been flying the flag for Belgian fine dining for more than 25 years at his beautiful farmhouse set among the fields of Flanders. The rustic exterior belies the sleek elegance of the dining rooms within, which are adorned with modern art by some of the country’s leading painters and hand-made Belgian glassware, furniture and crockery.

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Switzerland’s star chef holds court in a breathtaking location

An 18th century castle in the Swiss Alps is the fairytale setting for one of Europe’s most enchanting restaurants, where diners are taken on ‘a journey of the senses’. Suave chef-patron Andreas Caminada weaves culinary magic behind the stove, creating perfectly balanced dishes that explore aromas, textures and flavours with great aplomb.

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