On Tuesday June 18th Mirazur in Menton (2 Michelin Stars), resident chef Mauro Colagreco will set a very special dinner: he will cook together with Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana in Modena and Quique Dacosta of the namesake restaurant in Denia, Spain, both 3 Michelin stars. The dinner will cost 250 euro per person, plus 80 euro for the wine pairing. Info and bookings: info@mirazur.fr and +33.(0)4.92418686
Gennaro Esposito - chef of Torre del Saracino in Vico Equense - is ready to go ashore on Capri Island, with a new adventure named Mammà: it will open next mid-June on the famous Piazzetta, proposing a Mediterranean/Caprese cuisine for 60 seats maximum. In the kitchen with Gennaro, his long-time sous-chef of Vico Salvatore La Ragione. Plus, in a place nearby Mammà, Esposito will run a pizzeria with a wood oven and 50 seats: pizza napoletana and fritti
5 July–29 September 2013, The Somerset House in London will host "Ferran Adrià and the art of food", a major retrospective exhibition on chef Ferran Adrià and the restaurant he built to become the world’s best. Charting the evolution of elBulli, the exhibition will feature an in-depth, multimedia display of each of the essential ingredients that make up the culinary creative mastermind of Adrià and his team: research, preparations, presentations
The fourth floor of Eataly, on the Ostiense neighborhood, hosts today the first edition of Roma Food & Wine Festival, a format following in Milan event's footsteps: from May 17th to 19th, Identità Golose and Merano Wine Festival will join forces to put together 15 chefs' dishes and hundreds of wines from 60 Italian winemakers, a three day event marked by gourmet food and wine. Click here to get all the informations you need
On Tuesday May 28th, 2.30 pm, at the Terme di Montecatini (Pistoia), Gualtiero Marchesi and Paul Bocuse, founders and honorary presidents of Euro Toques association, will award Sirio Maccioni, the New York Le Cirque's restaurant owner, with the first international prize Euro Toques Italia, created by new president Enrico Derflingher. "I'm happy to celebrate Maccioni, a maestro, un real, great maitre", already commented Marchesi himself
Arcangelo Dandini, chef/owner of L'Arcangelo restaurant in Rome, neighborhood Prati, will replace Enrico and Roberto Cerea in the Roma Food&Wine Festival, on Friday May 17th from 7 to 10 pm. Dandini will prepaire Pollo alla romana, Chicken Roman style
La Plage Resort in Taormina (Messina) is going to host five dinners signed by important Italian chefs: first appointment, May 21th with Pietro D'Agostino of Taormina's Capinera; June 18th with Angelo Sabatelli of Masseria Spina in Monopoli (Bari), July 16th with Paolo Barrale of Marennà in Sorbo Serpico (Avellino), August 6th with Marco Sacco of Piccolo Lago in Verbania and September 2nd with Roy Caceres of Metamorfosi in Rome
Massimo Bottura and Marta Pulini's dishes in Milan. You might taste them from May 17th to 25th at Caffè Carlyle in corso Garibaldi 84, Brera neighborhood. The Cafè will host the special temporary restaurant of Franceschetta 58, Modena's more easy-going restaurant of the notorious chef. Every dish in the menu will cost 15 euro; 45 euro for 3 dishes. Booking at +39.02.29003888 at ristorazione@brerahotels.it
Carlo Petrini, the founder of the Slow Food movement and of Università degli Studi di Scienze Gastronomiche in Pollenzo, and also a columnist of Repubblica newspaper, has just been awarded with the Birra Moretti award for spreading food culture, an important award that is part of Il Premiolino, promoted by Birra Moretti itself. Together with Petrini, other journalists were awarded: read who here
The name is Winter Garden by Caino and it's the new fine dining restaurant of The St. Regis Florence: the menu was conceived by Valeria Piccini, chef of notorious Da Caino in Montemerano, near Grosseto, while Michele Griglio is the executive chef. The wine menu is signed by maitre and sommelier Mirko Eutizi, together with Maurizio Menichetti. There's the intention to offer an authentic resume of gastronomic culture of Tuscany
A good news for Bergamo restaurant scene: M1lle Storie e Sapori, address viale Papa Giovanni XXIII 18, is the new place of Giampaolo Stefanetti, a chef who has worked for more than 30 years beside Cerea family, between Bergamo and Brusaporto. The cuisine, marked by affordable prices, is mainly fish-oriented, there's a wine-cellar rich with champagne and a little shop selling great products. Lighter menu at lunch, phone +39.035.4220121
Libera Terra, an association born to value properties that were confiscated to organized criminality, directed by Don Luigi Ciotti, just won the first edition of the premio Francesco Arrigoni, an award bearing the name of the journalist from Bergamo prematurely passed away. The prize will be given by wife Antonella and sons Dante and Gregorio next Saturday 4th, Francesco's birthday, in the San Pietro in Lamosa monastery, Provaglio, Franciacorta region
El Celler de Can Roca in Girona is the best restaurant in the world according to the World's 50Best 2013. Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca climbed over Renè Redzepi's Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark, that ranked first on the last 3 editions. The podium is completed with Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana. Mugaritz of Andoni Luiz Aduriz in Errenteria, Bask Ccountries, ranked fourth. Fifth, Eleven Madison Park of Daniel Humm in New York
Massimo Bottura is the first chef in the history of World's 50Best Restaurant (12 editions) to climb up to the podium: Osteria Francescana ranked third. Behind, great news for 4 Italian colleagues: brothers Massimiliano and Raffaele Alajmo of Le Calandre ranked 27 (+5 on 2012), Umberto Bombana of Otto e Mezzo in Shanghai, China, ranked 39° (new entry), DavideScabin of Combal.Zero is 40th (re-entry), Enrico Crippa of Piazza Duomo, 41th (new entry)
Brothers Jordi, Joan and Josep Roca from restaurant El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, revealed in London all the details of El Somni, "The dream", a long-awaited culinary opera, a multi-sensorial gastronomic experience that will involve also videos, robots and music. It will be centered around number 12, inpired by XVII century French chef François Vatel and release together with audiovisual artist Franc Aleu. All the informations coming soon
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The sign of the school founded twenty years ago by Wandee Na-Songkhla in Bangkok, the first acknowledged by the Ministry of Education. Over the past two decades, 30 thousand students have graduated from this school and are committed to preserving, strengthening and spreading Thai cuisine.
As Italians who keep on praising the superiority of our cuisine, despite the gaffes of our vice-secretary to Culture who brutally tears it to shreds, we should learn from the example given by the Thai government. The visit to two cooking schools in Bangkok, especially to the first one, opened my eyes on a unique project which I’m about to describe. But before that I must make a premise. When talking with the local managers of the people we’ve met during this trip, on the occasion of Thaifex 2013, one of us happened to ask why a certain lady was holding an important position. This is one of those questions which, should you ask it in Italy, is because you suspect there’s something fishy about it. Here, instead, the answer was prompt and lapidary: “Because she’s good”.


Wandee Na-songkhla
The objective was not to train generations of housekeepers – indeed, with all the street food available, one wonders if there are any – but to put Thai cuisine back on the right track. With a strong Chinese minority (Thai people are 50 million, while the total population is about 70 million) and a lively popularity of Thai food worldwide, during the Eighties far too many people began to act as interpreters of a tradition that wasn’t their own. As a consequence, together with public authorities Wandee decided to give a certificate to those who completed their studies and passed the exams, a diploma which was acknowledged by the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs and by many embassies in Bangkok. Today there are about 15 schools that can give this certificate, most of them in the capital. Moreover, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Labour are now involved too.
Over two decades, some 30 thousand students, equally divided between men and women, graduated from Mrs Wandee’s school. They were taught to preserve, strengthen and spread Thai cuisine. All this had an economic and touristic element, inside and outside the country. Of course, anyone could get up one morning and decide to cook Thai food, whether he’s from Thailand or not (as for myself, I’ve just had an excellent dinner in a restaurant called Bo.lan in which one of the chefs is Australian). After all, many improvise themselves as Italian chefs, a bit everywhere. This is however the reason why this programme exists: so as to create some serious and sound alternatives. The administration office, for instance, has just received a request for a Thai chef from a large hotel in Poland. Among those who have replied, 5 graduates were chosen and one of them will soon move to Warsaw. A restaurant with a chef who comes from Thailand is more credible. Same goes for a Russian chain of hotels, in this case the request was for two chefs.

On top of this, the Ministry of Industry sponsors the Best Thai Restaurant award. The prize goes to those who excel with reference to the taste of the food, the general governance, the skill from the nutritional point of view, and, fourth point, good administration and business skills. The very revenue, which some forget, is the objective of a restaurant enterprise.
2. to be continued
Paolo Marchi
| published on 24-05-2013 in AFFARI DI GOLA DI PAOLO MARCHI




















