Breakfast with Rene Redzepi

“He couldn’t eat toast because the bread was not rye. Pastries produced such an involuntary shudder that he might have been witness to a particularly gruesome crime scene. He would only consent to the yogurt on the strict condition he could add berries. And the (perfectly fine) hotel coffee was rejected, so after much research an assistant was dispatched to a coffee house as “Rene only allows himself caffeine once a day and it has to be the best”. If this is breakfast, lunch must be like the hundred year war. This, remember, is the chef who opened Noma not with a menu but a manifesto.”

The guy who left Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal biting dust? Yeah, I think he’s allowed to be as pretentious about food as he wants. 

Click here for the full article.

What’s making me smile right now

When I was a kid, we would record movies onto VHS tapes – I think everyone did that.  You could fit two, maybe even three movies onto one tape, but the only annoyance about that was rewinding and fast-forwarding the tape so that you get to the movie you wanted to watch.  

Whenever there was a movie I wanted to watch, before heading off to work my dad would set up the tape in the VCR player, rewinded and fast-forwarded to the right spot, so all I had to do was press play. 

I think it’s the little things parents do that kids remember for the rest of their lives.

I’m not feeling especially democratic today.

Interview in the Globe and Mail today with University of Toronto sociology professors Josée Johnston and Shyon Baumann, authors of a new book, Foodies: Democracy and Distinction in the Gourmet Landscape.  The book “…explores the world of the food-obsessed – and finds that status-hungry authenticity seekers can put bragging rights before ethics.” 

I am conflicted by the statements made in this interview.  

I agree with the fact that foodie know-how “end[s] up constituting a kind of cultural capital people use to display their sophistication” and that “there is status and prestige implicated in all of our food choices”.  Yes, to be able to make choices about your food – from organic or local, to fine-dining or street meat – implies a sense of privilege and flexibility.  But stating that foodie culture is dominated by the white and affluent?  Based on the observation that this is what is portrayed in the mass media, and that whites dominate control of the media? Oh no they di-dn’t. Haven’t we learned by now that what’s depicted on the television, especially because of the people in control, is not representative of reality? 

Dessert Chem 101

Tipped from Shut Up Foodie: 

The Periodic Table of Dessert.

Absolutely brilliant! I’m amused by its incredibly legitimate structure.

Trabajillruple Stuf Oreo

I’m a big fan of Double Stuf Oreos, and my favourite part of Oreos has got to be the creamy centre.  But this is taking it too far. 

David Chang on Bitching in his Restaurant

“I always want to rate restaurants, like movies get rated – PG-13; NC-17.  We’d get an adult rating – an R, which means no babies, no one who’s going to complain about the music, no special requests.” 

Momofuku Cereal Milk

As much as I am an admirer of Momofuku Milk Bar and its concept, the idea of cereal milk repulses me.  

Cereal milk at Momofuku is made by toasting corn flakes and steeping them in milk, then draining the concoction.  It’s supposed to bring back memories of eating cereal as a kid then drinking the milk left in your bowl afterwards.  

I didn’t know kids like to do this.  I think I was in shock, with my chin dropped down to the floor when I read about cereal milk. Is this for real? People like this?  This was probably my least favourite thing about eating cereal. Leftover milk.  Too much milk with last bites of cereal.  Even eating a spoonful of cereal that has an unbalanced milk to cereal ratio is barely tolerated. 

When I was little, my waste-not-want-not mother demanded that I drink the milk leftover in my cereal bowl.  I was always incredibly grossed out by this; warm, weirdly tangy sweet milk, unwillingly sliding down my throat from the bowl held to my mouth.  

Apparently now a huge corporation has snatched this idea up, and has begun to make it in cans too. 

When I eat cereal today, I put the minimal amount of milk in my bowl as possible.  I like my last bite of cereal to coincide with my last spoonful of milk.  If this doesn’t happen, last bites of cereal and last splashes of milk go down the drain.  Sorry, mom.  Banished are the days of having to drink cereal milk – I’d never voluntarily do that. 

Another example of how memories associated with foods strongly shape your taste perceptions.  And your gag reflex.

2010 Food Trends

Emerging (Canadian) food trends in 2010 according to The Globe and Mail, based on a survey by the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association. 

Not. Exciting. At all. 

Quinoa? Vegan mains? Gluten-free?  Sweeping Canadian restaurants from coast to coast?

For real?  

The Sun

This is what the sun looks like from close.

Gail Simmons > Simon Cowell

Gail Simmons has officially trumped Simon Cowell as the best reality show judge according to the NY Post. 

I have a massive lady-crush on Gail Simmons. I find her incredibly beautiful – though more respected for her knowledge than for her looks (ahem, Kara DioGuardi) – and super eloquent.  Being a graduate from the NY Institute of Culinary Education, she actually does know her stuff.  She’s not silly and full of fluff.  She is a projects manager and contributor for Food and Wine, a judge for Top Chef and get this – she is a Torontonian who graduated with a BA from McGill.  Sounds familiar?  My hero. 

Some other highlights from the article:

Worst judges include none other than Mr Toby Young on Top Chef.  If you’ve ever seen or heard of “How to Lose Friends and Alienate People” (book and movie), well, that’s Toby.  Slammed for his hilarious, long-winded metaphors – which I admit, are not helpful to contestants at all, but are sure as hell entertaining in painting an accurate picture.  Most memorable Toby line: when he called overcooked pork “bloodless and anemic”, adding “when I’m faced with a beautiful, well-reared piece of meat, I don’t want to stand back and admire it.  I want to have full blown, unprotected sex.  And I didn’t even get to first base with the pork.” 

One of the judges on the best list: Lil Mama on America’s Best Dance Crew.  Huh?