soupnancy

Bits and Bites 2018

The 30 Most Influential Restaurants of the last 30 years - Great article! Perspective! https://robbreport.com/food-drink/dining/top-restaurants-influential-important-food-best-of-the-best-2803666/

Bread has been with with us longer than thought, predating agriculture (well of course! With the wild stuff..)  https://phys.org/news/2018-07-archaeologists-bread-predates-agriculture-years.html

Remembering Ruth Reichl’s Gourmet magazine, much missed.. https://popula.com/2018/07/15/gourmet-rip/

Are Instagram and the latest hottest trends killing the food part of the food scene? I agree with this to a certain degree, even in Montreal.. Although there is a lot of good cooking going  on with heart & soul and fresh ingredients, there is also a ton of hype, marketing BS and phoniness – often more show than substance.  As long as it sounds and looks ‘cool’, who cares if it’s really organic, artisanal,  local, wild or sustainable or whatever the claim or suggestion is.. Or even all that delicious (like lichen or a bad natural wine), or edible without making a mess (like whole heads of cauliflower, lettuce, pig or unshucked seafood in sauce) . Or this stands out in my mind: how about  a swish big budget rotisserie chicken restaurant that opens to much fanfare with a fancy Italian oven and designer decor, woohoohoo - but with cheap poor quality industrial chicken (because they can’t afford organic or local?) and no one finds this abnormal – that the chicken is an afterthought/ at the bottom of the budget list for a chicken restaurant? https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/opinion/article-as-a-society-weve-ruined-the-concept-of-food/

Shortlist for Taste Canada Canadian Cookbook Awards : http://tastecanada.org/2018-shortlist-revealed/

Connaissez vous le ‘Blob’? Ni plante, ni animal, ni champignon mais un peu de tout!? https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=tZ4TYZA1yeU

Deleting a Species by  Genetic Engineering, Should  We? Science & Technology speeds forward, can get scary. Food for thought! In our quest to kill pests, we could really wreak havoc.. https://psmag.com/.amp/magazine/deleting-a-species-genetically-engineering-an-extinction

Donabe, Cooking with smoke at home https://amp.foodandwine.com/cooking-techniques/ibushi-gin-donabe

Les plantes sont plus intelligentes que les animaux  https://www.letemps.ch/sciences/plantes-beaucoup-plus-intelligentes-animaux

Interview with Eric Ripert  and being kind  in the kitchen https://www.foodnewsfeed.com/fsr/chef-profiles/eric-ripert-being-kind-kitchen

A long read / perspective on the ubiquitous ‘Clean Eating’ trend https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/11/why-we-fell-for-clean-eating

The Impossible Burger a product of genetic engineering https://grist.org/article/the-impossible-burger-wouldnt-be-possible-without-genetic-engineering/

Great article on Anita Stewart’s Food Day Canada, local cooking across Canada in Forbes magazine (and Jardins Sauvages gets a mention!).. https://www.forbes.com/sites/everettpotter/2018/06/03/anita-stewart-food-day-canada/amp/

An oyster vending machine in France! http://amp.foodandwine.com/news/france-has-oyster-vending-machine

Personality salads – I’m all for salad in all forms, but the premise of this Mtl restaurant is ridiculous! https://montreal.eater.com/platform/amp/2018/1/19/16910280/hillarys-salads-plateau-montreal-enneagram-personality

A series of articles about Canadian Food in the New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/16/dining/canadian-food.html

The Great Molasses Flood A funny not so funny natural food disaster https://newengland.com/today/living/new-england-history/great-molasses-flood/

Baking bread at home More tips, never enough.. https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/how-to-make-bread-package

La Poule Chanteclair About our special bird that almost disappeared, still hard to find (Fr) http://plus.lapresse.ca/screens/853c93cb-5aec-4a1b-a93d-953b17ea4d80%7C_0.html

Poutine is Quebecois, not Canadian, period. And it’s more/NOT a bad decision at 4am. https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/world/canada/quebec-poutine.html

More of the original Joe Beef story thanks to the new Joe Beef http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mckiernan_charles_11E.html

The best food books of 2017 http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/best-books-food-2017-review-memoir-history-travel-a8110931.html

The five mother sauces every cook should know https://food52.com/blog/12209-the-five-mother-sauces-every-cook-should-know?

Bits and Bites June 2014

Organic farming is great but not easy – Hipster alert! And same with Foraging..  Lots of hard work while dancing with Mother Nature, super fun, but you cannot drink the coolaid without commitment, blood,sweat and tears. Forget about survival, let a lone making a living if you’re too zen and want to smoke joints while communing with nature.. Especially not in the wild where you need to know your shit in terms of identification and so as not to get lost.  And No you can’t take a one day or week class or rely on one book. You have to really love it and invest time and energy! To start, and then again, forever. Back to the land, be it organic farming, foraging, nose to tail and avoiding waste, it's all the old fashioned way rediscovered, logical yet labour intensive. Like you have to really scrub your pans without harsh chemicals, normal stuff that so many people seem to have forgotten.. Real life is work for all its beauty/rewards.  grist.org/food/organic-farming-is-so-much-harder-than-just-getting-stoned-and-picking-tomatoes/

35 courses of modernist cuisine with a feminine touch, sounded interesting.. And if Ruth Reichl (whom I respect) is enamoured, it must be worth checking out I figured even if I’m no longer into reading menus and viewing food photos so much, but still curious and wanting to stay somewhat in touch.. So very cool, however neat, hot or not, I guess I’m officially no longer that kind of foodie because I could barely read through it, let alone want to book a ticket. I couldn’t help but think I would be craving an actual vegetable and some crunch amidst the purees and froths perfectly executed. And seriously who wants 35 courses? unless you're a young foodie maybe or a journalist in need of material for an article.. http://www.ruthreichl.com/2014/06/my-dinner-with-nathan-and-tk-fabulous-women.html

Sugar in ‘nouveau’ red wines; is labelling in order? Bill thinks so.  Please, we don’t need bogus nutrition labels on everything, but ingredient information and transparency yes. If you’re buying coffee, you know it’s hot and are silly to sue the business for hot coffee, if you’re drinking wine, you know you’re consuming alcohol=sugar. But in this new global world of wine, I guess added sugar and preservatives should be noted, say in the ingredient list. Especially if the SAQ has the breakdown info, make it available! Unlike a small artisan who has no problem revealing what’s in their product but is reluctant to pay for all the analysis and costly labelling (organic/nutritional/etc) given volume/cost, the SAQ has the resources, so all marketing, just avoiding people knowing the truth. Not that most Quebeckers will care, even if they read the fine print, but a #g/L or something more specific than the current system will serve diabetics, dieters and people who dislike residual or hidden sugar in their wine. http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/food-wine/Bill+Zacharkiw+wine+much+sugar+your+wine/9958772/story.html

Montreal terasses – another of Mayssam’s great lists http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/blog/10-great-restaurant-terrasses-in-montreal/

Lessons from The French Laundry Former cooks reminisce about career ‘lightbulb’ moments which I love, only hints of the FL legacy /impact on a generation of cooks.. http://www.foodandwine.com/blogs/2014/6/12/15-lessons-from-cooking-at-the-french-laundry

Apparently, Gluten-Free is here to stay.. I’m not so sure, but if a trend to avoid gluten means that people choose less processed foods and a more varied diet, then fine. Any pressure on the food industry to produce less crap and more quality, not take the consumer for granted is positive. Less but better should be the way, like with meat. A good slice of artisanal bread a treat, a Sunday roast of natural meat - less but better, local & natural from small producers and healthy soil/agriculture.. Minus the Round Up and big ag industial practices (and toxic chemicals in house products, furniture, cosmetics etc), I’m sure many food ‘allergies’ and ‘intolerances’ would disappear. www.nytimes.com/2014/06/18/dining/gluten-free-eating-appears-to-be-here-to-stay.html?

 Interview with Jody Adams, vet female chef..  ‘Jody Adams remembers her first job as a 25-year-old cook, working directly on the hot line. “I cut myself. I burned myself. I was a mess; I cried,” she said. “But I survived.”’ Yup, ditto. http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/boss/2014/06/12/women-who-belong-in-the-kitchen-jody-adams/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Buying reservations  More of A NYC issue, but anyway. Don’t love the idea at all, but if there’s a market for it, who's to say.. And I sympathize with restaurateurs who just want their tables booked as simply as possible. So if people want to pay a premium and scalp tickets then whatever. I would personally prefer control of my reservation book, but that’s me, small-time.. A priority would be having customers pay for a reservation not honoured. mobile.nytimes.com/2014/06/14/dining/getting-a-good-table-by-flicking-an-app-not-greasing-a-palm.html?

What Chefs stress out about that no one really sees – and there’s much more than that, like staffing issues, say.. http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2014/06/09/55-chef-anxiety/

Chez Bocuse, then and now http://www.montrealgazette.com/touch/story.html?id=9914461

Restaurant life, not sexy, rarely profitable, but great somehow, for anyone cut from the cloth..  http://www.esquire.com/blogs/food-for-men/what-its-like-to-cook-for-a-living?src=soc_twtr

The 15 worst and best fruit & veg for pesticides, noteworthy for when to extra wash or make a point of buying organic http://nutritionnisteurbain.ca/infographiques/les-15-fruits-legumes-contenant-moins-residus-pesticides/?utm_source=http://chocolateandzucchini.com&utm_medium=e-mail&utm_campaign=2014-06-newsletter-vo