Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2015 i SAVEUR

One of the tastiest things I’ve ever nibbled on was a tiny pineapple, carved for me by a nice lady near a beach somewhere on Easter Island. The day was hot; the fruit was cold and sweet, its miniature leaves pulled back and held like a popsicle stick. There were, in fact, two ladies on the beach (sisters, I was told) operating identical, competing baby-pineapple stands in an otherwise utterly deserted corner of this most remote Pacific island. Under an unrelenting sun, I ate my fruit and stared in slack-jawed wonderment at the ancient moai. The famous stone heads stared impassively back at me, perched at the edge of the vast, endless sea. Everything was amazing. Because taste has as much to do with where you are as what you’re…

You would be forgiven for being unable to find the little, unassuming Italian village of San Vito di Cadore on a map, but AGA (Via Trieste 6; agaristorante.it), a new restaurant from husband-and-wife team Oliver Piras and Alessandra Del Favero, is about to change that. Located in the Dolomites, next to the couple’s larger, less formal trattoria, AGA is small—that would be only-fourtables small—and is the epitome of the zero-kilometer movement that’s all the rage. All veggies are grown on the couple’s farm, game is shot in the fields nearby, and herbs and salads are sourced from the woods above the restaurant. Yes, Piras worked at René Redzepi’s Noma before bringing his mentor’s emphasis on foraging alpine-side, but folks in this region have been gathering wild food since long before…

It’s great to see the food of the Middle East finally get its due here in the States. Back when I started cooking, chefs looked to the big names in San Sebastian, Spain, for inspiration. Those guys had super expensive kitchens and hundred-dollar cookbooks, and we wanted to emulate their brands of exquisite cooking. Now, people aren’t looking to star chefs as much for inspiration—instead, they’re attracted by the flavors, dishes, and techniques of simple Middle Eastern cooking. Let’s give props to some early adopters: Before it was even cool, Mourad Lahlou in San Francisco was making couscous by hand, and Ana Sortun of Oleana in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had been expertly using Turkish flavors for years. Thanks to trendsetters like them, every line cook in every restaurant now knows what…

Once upon a time, there was white flour and whole-wheat flour, and that was about it. In California, I’d watch my chef friends return from the markets with diverse hauls of amazing produce and think, Wait, what about us bakers? At Tartine, I’ve always tried to use as many interesting grains as possible, including lesser-known varieties like kamut. (It makes a melt-in-your-mouth chamomile shortbread that puts white-flour shortbreads to shame.) But the alternative grain movement has been really taking off in recent years, thanks to The Bread Lab, run by Dr. Stephen Jones in affiliation with Washington State University. He and his team work with thousands of unique strains of wheat, and over the years have created many new varieties. They select and breed grains that are sustainable and affordable…

S o amiably and briskly was Will Guidara recounting his eventful career in the restaurant business that it took a moment to catch up with the discordance of something he had said a few sentences earlier: “Fine dining and hospitality don’t necessarily go together.” Wait, how’s that again? Isn’t fine dining supposed to represent the apotheosis of hospitality? More claret, madame? May I debone the turbot for you, monsieur? Guidara clarified: He was speaking of the many circumstances that can make a fancy-restaurant experience feel “cold”—stiffly formal service; an unnavigable wine list; a highfalutin cult-ofchef ethos to the point where the customers feel like they’re doing the kitchen’s bidding rather than the other way around. And, indeed, there are many reasons, in theory, to be totally intimidated by the prospect…

C ollard greens are growing in Milan. Collards and Clemson okra and red Tabasco chile peppers. They and dozens of distinctly American vegetables and herbs are sprouting out of the quarter-acre “vertical farm” growing along the length of the USA Pavilion at Expo Milano (usapavilion2015.net), the vast world’s fair under way through October 31 some six miles northwest of the Piazza del Duomo as the pigeon flies. This year’s theme: How to feed a rapidly growing world population. Number of countries participating: 145. Official mascots: a gaggle of smiling, anthropomorphized fruits and veggies (including Guagliò the Garlic and Rodolfo the Fig). What’s cool about America’s involvement at the expo? Well, there’s the giant vertical farm—plus the fact that they’re selling New England–style lobster rolls at the pavilion’s food truck court…

The Veteran ERIC ALPERIN Craft cocktails were rare in L.A. in 2007 when New York City barkeep Eric Alperin went West to open The Varnish in the back of Cole’s, a classic downtown French Dip joint. The pioneering speakeasy turned out to be the training ground for future star bartenders like Chris Bostick, Marcos Tello, and Chris Ojeda, who have gone on to open their own cocktail operations. Alperin also set the standard for impeccably made drinks at The Varnish (118 E 6th Street; thevarnishbar.com), which it maintains today with riffs like the crisp John Collins (pictured above; $13), featuring malty genever instead of gin. The Innovator DEVON TARBY A partner at cocktail consulting company Proprietors LLC, Devon Tarby got her start at The Varnish before linking up with David…

EDWARD LEE: I had this hairbrained idea to do a pop-up restaurant entirely staff ed by underprivileged kids. They will all do rotations in every job, from serving to cooking to office management to answering phones. I don’t know if you remember this, John, but you invited me to a dinner to celebrate your Chefs Move scholarships and the kids were just beaming with happiness and pride. After that, I decided I didn’t want to do a charity where you just write a check. JOHN BESH: I remember that! I think what it really comes down to is creating a mentorship process that never ends. We set them up, so once they come to New York they have guidance from chefs like Michael Anthony at Gramercy Tavern. Kids from underprivileged…

Creating stunning works that are impressive both for their geographic range and diversity of style, the London-based Michaelis Boyd Associates is the hospitality-focused design firm to watch. In the past year or so, partners Alex Michaelis and Tim Boyd have trotted the globe turning out impressive projects: the solar-powered Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge made of local materials in Botswana; cleaver-accented restaurant Pots, Pans, and Boards in Dubai for Michelin-starred British chef Tom Aikens; and a glam redo of London’s famed members-only Groucho Club. (They’ve also found time for pro-bono work, creating a housing complex for military pensioners in Nepal.) In a few months, they’ll debut the modernist Soho Farmhouse in England’s Oxfordshire as well as the industrial-chic Williamsburg Hotel, with a rooftop bar, in a former water tower factory in…

Calvey’s Achill Mountain Lamb The sheep of Achill Island, which is connected by bridge to the mainland, roam over 20,000 acres of “commanage,” pasture shared by the island’s residents. They graze on samphire, seaweed, and calcium-rich grasses along the shore, and heather and wild herbs in the mountains. The result: meat that is “ocean-salty and heather-sweet,” says Martina Calvey, one of the ten children of Martin Calvey, who founded the business 50 years ago. The operation has grown to include Top Drawer and Pantry, a shop where you can take away dishes like honey-glazed, oven-roasted rack of lamb, or stock up on local products like sea-salted oil and homemade lamb sausage rolls. Keel, Achill Island, Co. Mayo; calveysachillmountainlamb.ie Ireland has always been known more for its natural beauty and spirited…

I love Japan so much that I’ve spent my whole life studying the country, language, and culture. There are these two misconceptions people have about Tokyo: that it’s one of the most expensive cities in the world (which hasn’t been the case for 25 years) and that the food most worth seeking out is high-end sushi. Certainly, if you have the money, you can go to a super fancy $500 sushi place. But you can eat delicious, thoughtfully made food here very cheaply—more so than in other industrialized countries. More important, there’s an amazing consistency of quality here at all levels. Almost every major train station and department store has great restaurants. And well-made soba can be had for just ten bucks a plate . Another thing most people don’t…

Among a growing class of hotels that are themselves dining destinations, The Old Clare Hotel, which opened in August in Sydney, may have one of the highest restaurant-to-room ratios, with three full restaurants and just 62 rooms. It will eventually house the tasting-menu-only restaurant Silvereye with Sam Miller, former executive sous chef of Noma; Automata, featuring Asian-inflected plates from Clayton Wells, former sous chef of Momofuku Seiobo; and British chef Jason Atherton’s refined all-day diner Kensington Street Social. Halfway around the world, the 169-room Faena Hotel Miami Beach, a redevelopment of the historic Art Deco–style Saxony Hotel, will have a blockbuster culinary lineup for its November opening. In addition to the hotel’s executive chef Gabriel Ask, Argentinian grill maestro Francis Mallmann will helm the open-fire kitchen Los Fuegos in view…

The first time I had lunch in the eastern Chinese city of Shaoxing, I couldn’t believe what I was eating. I’d gone there with some friends to investigate shaoxing wine, the mellow brew of fermented glutinous rice whose historical roots date back some 2,500 years. After a tour of a wine factory, we dropped in for lunch at the Xianheng Tavern, a restaurant specializing in traditional Shaoxing cooking that is run by chef and food-culture maven Mao Tianyao. Given the rich diversity of China’s food traditions, I was expecting Shaoxing to have its fair share of local delicacies. But nothing had prepared me for the sensory assault of the city’s chou mei—“stinky and fermented”—flavors. I’ll skirt over the relatively run-of-themill “stinking tofu” (chou dou fu) and plunge right into those…

In the lab above the dining room of his renowned restaurant, Boragó, Rodolfo Guzmán wants to show me his latest science experiment: carrot sticks injected with penicillin. They’ve grown furry and turned white. “Their insides will become creamy and take on a cheesy flavor,” he assures me. “Like Camembert.” The lab, in the upscale Vitacura district of Santiago, Chile, is outfitted with a galley kitchen, microscopes, piles of books—some on Patagonian cooking, others on alpine flowers of the Andes. “Menos es Más” is scrawled on a blackboard charting the decomposition of vegetables. Less is more. This wiry, blue-eyed chef, who labored in obscurity until recently, may best personify Santiago’s new culinary scene. A botany enthusiast, he conducts epic foraging expeditions with his staff to source rare ingredients. The lab is…