From far flung corners:
- Lots of Gelinaz reports flying around this week with some cracking dishes created around the globe.Noma met Nahm, while David Thompson flew to Paris, Mehmet Gurs was at Orana, Zonfrillo went to Manresa, Shewry ended up at In De Wulf while Yoshihiro Narisawa took over the kitchen at Attica. Zonfrillo said: "the whole idea of this was to go to our host restaurants in our host countries and be inspired by the people, the kitchen team and the produce that we found when we got there, not recreate our own food or create that [regular] food of the restaurant we were visiting." Mission accomplished.
- For more on transposing cuisine, Grantourismo spoke to David Thompson about the challenges of cooking Thai in Thailand. "I’m not one who is here to please customers - my loyalty is to the cuisine ... coming back to Thailand things changed completely. The recipes I had that I thought worked well didn’t anymore so everything had to be re-tested. There was a culinary spring-cleaning which as a 50 year-old cook was irksome at the time, but in retrospect was good ..." Skip the intro, read his responses.
- Also this week, Huckstep penned his piece on Peter Gunn at the San Pell young chef love-in in Milan. If France is more your thing read this compilation of interviews about where to eat in Paris: Peter Doyle for the classics, Hanz Gueco for the enthusiasm, Mike Eggert for the chuckles and little Loz for the insider's point of view.
- Finally, David Chang hates our burgers. Thinks they're the worst in the world (except Mary's, his only exception to the rule). Read his burger manifesto (yes, really) here.
From the soapbox:
- The Shenhua mine approval has been all over the papers this week. Here's NSW Mining's take on the reports. But I'm still perplexed. Why mine near prime agricultural land, when the Liverpool Plains are some of Australia's best? Why place the aquifer under ANY risk? In the short term there is concern over the region's reliance on groundwater over rainwater (the aquifer being breached is stated as a low to negligible risk), but, perhaps most importantly, there are no long-term studies to know what the implications may truly be. And all this for a cheeky $1.2 bill?? Let's put that into perspective: the Bureau of Statistics estimate an annual revenue of $320 mill in ag from the region, that's a turn over of $1.2 bill every four years. Every four years. Unlike coal, agriculture can be a renewable resource. When the coal is gone we will rely on ag to keep the country afloat. But only if the soil is looked after. Wake. Up.