Latest news with #culinary
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'The laziest ingredient of all': Renowned chef thinks luxury item should be wiped off menus
Every week, we interview top chefs from around the UK, hearing about their cheap food hacks, views on the industry and more. This week, we speak to Doug McMaster, owner of the world's first zero waste restaurant Silo and former winner of Britain's best young chef award... I wasn't the best young chef in the UK... There are young chefs at Silo who are far superior in the kitchen than I was at any stage of my culinary career. Maybe I was the most daring, or the most creative chef back then at the time, but I was by no means the most talented chef. Soon we're going to be producing "zero-soy sauce"... made from 50% bread waste (given to us as bread discard from local bakeries) and 50% lupin, which is a regenerative grain. Using that to make our zero-soy sauce means we'll be able to harness this astonishing British product that will save us from importing tens of thousands of litres of soy sauce from China. We'll be saving on a huge carbon footprint, so the more we can make ourselves, the better. Read all the latest money news The best city in the world to eat is... Copenhagen. For me, "the Noma effect" has had this seismic ripple creating a wave of excellence in so many parts of the hospitality sector, from bakeries and coffee shops, to breweries and avant-garde restaurants. Excluding Tokyo, as its excellence is untouchable, also excluding London... New York deserves a mention, but since COVID, it seems to have lost its sparkle. When attending a dinner party, you should bring something you've made yourself... Anyone can buy a £15 bottle of wine from a local deli and bring it along to dinner, but it's so much more special when someone can make something and offer that as a gift instead. We're living in an AI-generated robot world; there just aren't enough things that are actually handmade by people any more. From a zero-material-waste point of view, ordering tap water is great as it avoids single-use glass, but... the quality of London tap water is abominable. If you care about the quality of your ingredients, why would you not do the same with water? One thing I'd never want to see in a restaurant again is... caviar. It's the least creative of all the ingredients. Arguably, it's the laziest ingredient of all. I would be infinitely more impressed by a chef who can turn a humble carrot into something extraordinary, than one who can put caviar on top of a dish. That's the kind of creativity and artistic flair that deserves credit, not the ability to put caviar on something. It has this weird currency in hospitality where it has some kind of authority in restaurant spaces where it shouldn't. More Cheap Eats: Stop creating generic restaurant roundups, like the "best restaurant in London"... "The best" is an infinitely subjective measuring stick that makes no sense in such a colourful, diverse and heterogeneous restaurant industry. It's a reductive and diminishing way of looking at our industry. When you go to a new city, it might be a useful tool to help you narrow down a search, but overall it's not a helpful way of grading things. There are lots of interesting lists that could be written that would be genuinely useful and valuable, but they should be more specific, diverse and not just full of sensationalised jargon. You could, for example, have an interesting list of the restaurants where you can eat koji fermented foods, or a list of bars working with low-packaging suppliers. We should celebrate nuance and ingenuity in this world, rather than trying to categorise everything under one broad and unspecific umbrella. Restaurateurs should stop buying from soulless supply chains... By that, I mean a supply chain where there is no connection to the people and planet that produce our food. Using those supply chains does a disservice to all the food systems and farmers who are working overtime to save the planet, and they encourage the sort of industrial agriculture that we're trying to combat. Any supply chain that is disassociated from nature is one that we should avoid. You asked who I think is the best chef in the UK is... but it's a question that's drenched in absurdity. What's best in one person's eyes is personal, subjective. Let's not homogenise our industry with one opinion or one way of doing things. When we do, we unconsciously all start cooking the same, and that's boring. We should be celebrating what makes us different, not valorising someone as "the best". I could be persuaded to name someone who cooks the best seafood in Brighton, or someone making the best pasta in Hackney Wick…but to name "the best chef in the UK" is too reductive.
Sky News
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sky News
'The laziest ingredient of all': Renowned chef thinks luxury item should be wiped off menus
Every week, we interview top chefs from around the UK, hearing about their cheap food hacks, views on the industry and more. This week, we speak to Doug McMaster, owner of the world's first zero waste restaurant Silo and former winner of Britain's best young chef award... I wasn't the best young chef in the UK... There are young chefs at Silo who are far superior in the kitchen than I was at any stage of my culinary career. Maybe I was the most daring, or the most creative chef back then at the time, but I was by no means the most talented chef. Soon we're going to be producing "zero-soy sauce"... made from 50% bread waste (given to us as bread discard from local bakeries) and 50% lupin, which is a regenerative grain. Using that to make our zero-soy sauce means we'll be able to harness this astonishing British product that will save us from importing tens of thousands of litres of soy sauce from China. We'll be saving on a huge carbon footprint, so the more we can make ourselves, the better. The best city in the world to eat is... Copenhagen. For me, "the Noma effect" has had this seismic ripple creating a wave of excellence in so many parts of the hospitality sector, from bakeries and coffee shops, to breweries and avant-garde restaurants. Excluding Tokyo, as its excellence is untouchable, also excluding London... New York deserves a mention, but since COVID, it seems to have lost its sparkle. When attending a dinner party, you should bring something you've made yourself... Anyone can buy a £15 bottle of wine from a local deli and bring it along to dinner, but it's so much more special when someone can make something and offer that as a gift instead. We're living in an AI-generated robot world; there just aren't enough things that are actually handmade by people any more. From a zero-material-waste point of view, ordering tap water is great as it avoids single-use glass, but... the quality of London tap water is abominable. If you care about the quality of your ingredients, why would you not do the same with water? One thing I'd never want to see in a restaurant again is... caviar. It's the least creative of all the ingredients. Arguably, it's the laziest ingredient of all. I would be infinitely more impressed by a chef who can turn a humble carrot into something extraordinary, than one who can put caviar on top of a dish. That's the kind of creativity and artistic flair that deserves credit, not the ability to put caviar on something. It has this weird currency in hospitality where it has some kind of authority in restaurant spaces where it shouldn't. Stop creating generic restaurant roundups, like the "best restaurant in London"... "The best" is an infinitely subjective measuring stick that makes no sense in such a colourful, diverse and heterogeneous restaurant industry. It's a reductive and diminishing way of looking at our industry. When you go to a new city, it might be a useful tool to help you narrow down a search, but overall it's not a helpful way of grading things. There are lots of interesting lists that could be written that would be genuinely useful and valuable, but they should be more specific, diverse and not just full of sensationalised jargon. You could, for example, have an interesting list of the restaurants where you can eat koji fermented foods, or a list of bars working with low-packaging suppliers. We should celebrate nuance and ingenuity in this world, rather than trying to categorise everything under one broad and unspecific umbrella. Restaurateurs should stop buying from soulless supply chains... By that, I mean a supply chain where there is no connection to the people and planet that produce our food. Using those supply chains does a disservice to all the food systems and farmers who are working overtime to save the planet, and they encourage the sort of industrial agriculture that we're trying to combat. Any supply chain that is disassociated from nature is one that we should avoid. You asked who I think is the best chef in the UK is... but it's a question that's drenched in absurdity. What's best in one person's eyes is personal, subjective. Let's not homogenise our industry with one opinion or one way of doing things. When we do, we unconsciously all start cooking the same, and that's boring. We should be celebrating what makes us different, not valorising someone as "the best". I could be persuaded to name someone who cooks the best seafood in Brighton, or someone making the best pasta in Hackney Wick…but to name "the best chef in the UK" is too reductive.
CNA
15 hours ago
- Business
- CNA
Why a Michelin star isn't enough for top restaurants to thrive in Singapore's tough F&B scene
SINGAPORE: Earning a coveted Michelin star can place an eatery firmly on the culinary map, but it is not always enough for them to thrive and survive in Singapore's tough food and beverage scene, said some top restaurants. The new list of Michelin-starred restaurants in Singapore will be unveiled on Thursday (Jul 24). With rising operational costs and intense competition in the dining scene, chefs are under increasing pressure to not just impress critics - but also to stay financially afloat. STAYING RELEVANT For many chefs, receiving a Michelin star is often a dream come true. Yet in Singapore's ever-evolving F&B landscape, some restaurant owners say that having a star alone is not enough to ensure long-term success. 'Having a Michelin star brings prestige to the restaurant. It helps people come through the front door for the first time, and it also shows that you're consistently good,' said Mr Nicolas Tam, executive chef and owner of Willow, a one Michelin-star restaurant serving contemporary Asian cuisine. 'But we still face the challenges that any other F&B outlet in Singapore does. We have to do a lot to bring people back,' he told CNA. 'We have to do a lot to face those expectations that people expect in the restaurant, and we also have our rising costs like manpower as well as ingredients and rental.' Mr Tam noted that as the novelty of being a new restaurant fades, his three-year-old establishment - located in the Boat Quay area - must continuously reinvent itself to stay relevant. 'That's difficult to do because in Singapore, there's so many choices,' he added. PERSONAL TOUCHES From refreshing the menu to incorporating interactive table-side service, every effort at these restaurants is aimed at keeping diners engaged and coming back for more. At Korean fine-dining restaurant NAE:UM, chef founder Louis Han said he believes this means continually redefining the dining experience beyond the food itself. 'I really try to talk to every customer who comes to my restaurant, so I try to show my appreciation,' he said, adding that the eatery also tries to refresh its menu to offer something interesting. 'NAE:UM has been around for four years, so there's a reason why we're doing major renovation. We really try to refresh our restaurant to look different,' he noted. 'So, my regular customers also feel that something is different. These are all the things that we try to keep up ourselves, to stay in the market.' Mr Han noted that there are many perennial challenges that restaurateurs like himself struggle with, including high rental, rising ingredient costs and manpower constraints. RISING COSTS, INTENSE COMPETITION Market watchers noted that while accolades like Michelin stars attract crowds, they offer little protection against soaring operating costs and fierce competition. Just last year, more than 3,000 food establishments closed down - the highest number in nearly two decades. Analysts highlighted the strength of the Singapore dollar, which is prompting more Singaporeans to spend overseas. Meanwhile, it is dampening tourism demand as the city-state becomes more expensive. Economist Song Seng Wun said the level of competition and the overall outlook are closely tied to the performance of Singapore's economy. Key factors include whether the country can sustain job creation, attract ongoing investment, and remain a desirable place for people to live and work. The economic adviser at CGS International Securities Singapore added that success in Singapore's F&B scene hinges on understanding diners' preferences and adapting swiftly.
The Guardian
17 hours ago
- General
- The Guardian
Rachel Roddy's rice salad with red peppers, celery, herbs and egg
A few weeks ago, when the weather turned boiling and the tarmac became soft, I made a bad rice salad. The principal reason for this was the overcooked rice, which was my fault for three reasons: I was using a brand I have never used before and didn't read the packet; I forgot to set the kitchen timer; and I ignored my instinct to tip it out (dog? Cake? Compost? Bin?) and start again. To my overcooked rice I added not-tasty tomatoes, tough minced parsley, extra-virgin olive oil, a bit too much vinegar, olives, capers and hard-boiled eggs; I also added an expensive tin of tuna, which did a brilliant job of making the whole thing taste better, although still not good. Everyone agreed that it was a depressing dinner, then we went out for ice-cream. The good thing about making a bad rice salad is the need to redeem and reassure myself that I am capable of making not only a good one, but a great one, though I do appreciate that today's first paragraph might make you doubt this. A good rice salad begins with well-cooked long-grain rice and involves a good balance of four vegetable elements: raw (tomatoes, red pepper, cucumber, celery, say), cooked (beans, courgettes, peas, sweetcorn), vegetables preserved in oil (peppers, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, aubergine), and pickled or salted vegetables (dill pickles, olives, capers, caper berries). There should also be some form of protein, whether that's tuna, cheese, tofu, salami or wurstel; possibly involve (tender) herbs; be dressed with oil and a little vinegar; and always be finished with egg (slices, wedges or chopped – you decide). Just as important as the balance of ingredients is the balance of temperatures. Many people like their rice salad fridge-cold – in fact, another name for insalata di riso in Italy is riso freddo (cold rice). I prefer the rice, cooked vegetables and tomatoes to be at room temperature, and the raw and picked vegetable elements to be fridge-cold. Celery and dill pickles are particularly good chilled additions when added just before serving, then the room-temperature hard-boiled eggs can be arranged on top. A note about the herbs: I think the clean, slightly black pepper taste of parsley is great here (although taste if it has been sitting in the fridge for a while), along with a few aniseed fronds of dill, plus fresh marjoram, with its gentle pine taste and sweetness. My mother-in-law believes that a transparent bowl (plastic or glass) plays a key role in the flavour of rice salad, and I think I agree. Of course, the most important advice for rice salad is to make it in exactly the way you like it, and serve it at a temperature you like, and to ensure that there is plenty of ice-cream (cold but at scooping temperature) for afters. Serves 4 Salt and black pepper 300g long-grain rice Extra-virgin olive oil Finely grated zest of 1 lemonRed-wine or sherry vinegar (optional)1 very big handful minced herbs (parsley, marjoram, chives, mint, dill)1 350g jar preserved red peppers, drained and chopped into bits300g cooked green beans, chopped into short lengths145g (1 tin) tuna in olive oil (optional)2 celery sticks, strings pulled away and discarded, flesh finely diced A few dill pickles, diced 4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and each cut into 8 wedges or finely chopped Bring a large pan of water to a boil and season with salt. Add the rice, cook for 10 minutes, then drain into a sieve, shake well and leave to cool for 15 minutes. In a large bowl, mix six tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt, a few grinds of black pepper, the lemon zest, a dash of vinegar and the minced herbs. Add the rice, toss gently so that all the grains are coated, then add the peppers, beans, tuna, if using, and mix again to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning. The salad can now sit until you are ready to eat, in or out of the fridge – you decide. Just before serving, add the celery and dill pickles, toss again, and top with the hard-boiled egg. Zigzag with little more olive oil and serve.
CNA
a day ago
- Business
- CNA
Winning Michelin stars does not guarantee survival for Singapore restaurants
The new list of Michelin-star restaurants in Singapore will be out on Jul 24. But while winning the accolade puts the eateries on the culinary map, it is not always enough for them to thrive and survive. Rising costs and a competitive dining scene mean that chefs have to work harder than ever to stay above profit margins. Kate Low reports.
