Tomorrows Food

Food from Singapore

2011-05-03T11:27:00.002+01:00

Look out for a pop up restaurant that is on a world tour. Originating in Singapore, stopping off in cities around the world including London. Top chefs from Singapore will offer authentic dishes from the country as well as cooking dishes with local chefs.
Here's the link www.yoursingapore.com/content/traveller/en/browse/whats-on/festivals-and-events/spice/singapore-takeout.html

Top 50

2011-04-21T13:42:00.004+01:00

Every year the good and the great get together to announce the S Pellegrino top 50 restaurants. Here's a link to find out who are this years winners ;
http//www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-18/noma-beats-competition-for-world-s-best-restaurant-as-el-bulli-rivals-grow.html

Enjoy

2011-04-13T11:36:00.003+01:00

Tomorrow's Food wrote back in May 2010 about Grant Achatz restaurant called NEXT that was due to open this year. Well it's open. People are bidding $3000 for a chef's table. The menu is going to change every three months to a different era and different type. Currently the menu is based on Paris circa 1906.

2011-03-25T09:23:00.002Z

I read a recent article with great interest the other day. It happened to be discussing the virtues of New York v London as cities to head to for food inspiration. Well that one can run and run. All I know is that you can seriously eat your way around the world in London these days. It never fails to inspire me when I am there.
Just look what's been going on recently in terms of food openings.
Sputino, sister restaurant to Polpo and Polpetto, Nopi, Ottolenghi's first venture into a high end Brasserie,Vinoteca, sister restaurant to the original Vinoteca in Farringdon, serves rustic British, European food. Jason Atherton's Pollen Street Social, Peter Goden's Kopapa. Heston's Dinner.
London is in a rich vein of form.

2011-02-11T11:55:00.002Z

On a recent food trip to Greece, Tomorrowsfood was blown away by the quality of the food there. It is so on trend in the UK at the moment, a few simple ingredients, cooked, in this instance, slowly over a charcoal fire, seasoned with natural ingredients like olive oil and lemon juice. This dish, Lamb Kleftiko, the lamb is cooked with some herbs and peppers in a paper parcel that traps in all the natural flavour. It was a stunning dish. This was served in a small family run cafe-bar.

2011-02-11T11:45:00.004Z

Tomorrowsfood has recently heard Hotel du Vin are opening a number of stand alone Bistro's in London. The Bistro du Vin will be serving the same food as the hotels. Perhaps a Gallic trend beginning to emerge.

Ramsey keeps on going

2011-01-13T12:12:00.002Z

Must admit this one flew under the radar. Ramsey has taken over Montreal's Rotisserie Laurier. He intends to revamp the menu, to offer salads, ribs and burgers. Feels like a chain coming on. Wonder if we will see an outlet in the UK anytime soon.

Another day another chef

2011-01-13T12:05:00.002Z

Jean - Georges Vongerichten is planning on opening a London based version of his famous and successful Spice Market NYC restaurant in 2011. The NYC restaurant is famous for delivering authentic versions of Asian Street Food.
Can't wait.

What Recession ? WOW

2011-01-06T10:13:00.004Z

I recently read that Andrew LLoyd Webber the Theatre owner, Composer and Film Producer is selling, at Southeby's, some 748 bottles of rare wine, all from his private collection. Cases to include Lafite and Mouton Rothschild. The sale is expected to raise £ 2.6 million pounds.

This has nothing to do with what I normally blog about. It just made me go WOW.

The Real Cheese

2010-10-18T08:59:00.003+01:00

Androuet, the famous Parisian fromagerie has opened a small shop/ tiny restaurant in Old Spitalfield Market, London. How long before we all become seduced by these sort of artisan retailers, who offer REAL CHEESE, with colleagues who really know their subject matter?

I'd be willing to give up another day on this planet to eat at a place like this. Who's for a piece of sweaty, artificial looking yellow plasticine, propososing to be real cheese. Not me.

Surely makes sense for supermarkets and people involved in NPD to look and learn.

Grant Achatz

2010-05-07T10:57:00.003+01:00

Award winning Chicago chef of Alinea fame Grant Achatz is opening another restaurant and bar in the city.

The restaurant called Next will reinvent itself and the menu every three months. The intention is to allow the food offer to reflect the cuisine of a particular time and place in history or indeed the future. They begin with Paris 1912.

They plan to sell tickets for seats instead of the normal reservation system. The prices will vary depending on the time of day. In a quirky sort of way they intend to sell season tickets too.

Could this be the future.

Back to the Future

2010-04-22T11:42:00.002+01:00

So the God that is Pierre Koffmann is moving into Gordon Ramsey's old Boxwood Cafe site to open his own restaurant. Bruno Loubet is going down a storm again with his own place in Clerkenwell.

Great to see top, top, top chefs cooking again in London.

Now off to make a reservation.

Swim against the tide.

2010-04-14T10:23:00.002+01:00

As Roy Choi is lauded with bringing this whole street food trend to life with his Kogi Korean Taco truck in LA, he has recently been named "Best New Chef" by Food and Wine Magazine in the US, apparently he serves between 300 and 800 people a night as he tours around LA.

Well as other chefs have copied his format, he is now doing the opposite and opened a sit down restaurant. The menu is short and simple based around rice bowls topped with a choice meats all served in his familiar biodegradable bowls.

Sure to be a winner.

El Bulli

2010-03-02T11:15:00.002Z

So El Bulli is closing and not now re-opening. maybe I wasn't too far away when I blogged about this in 2008.
However Nuno Mendes, ex El Bulli, who I blogged about about a year ago, has now turned his supper club venue into The Loft Project. It has developed from a personal test kitchen for Nuno Mendes into a fully fledged private restaurant. Their mission is as follows, "Our mission now is to give a platform to a new generation of chefs to showcase their food. We have created a relaxing, informal environment where both our guests and our chefs can enjoy themselves." Can't wait, due to open in Feb 2010.

Chef Daniel Boulud

2010-02-10T14:08:00.007Z

So Daniel Boulud is opening May 15th at Mandarin Oriental in London. French menu with a good selection of Charcuterie, NPD teams should be crawling all over it.
Gilles Verot's Pates and Terrines will be made under his direction, famous in his own right. He owns Verot the famous Parisian Charcuterie.

Adam Perry-Laing

2010-01-20T13:37:00.007Z

At TomorrowsFood we blogged last year about Jamie Oliver opening a BBQ joint in London with the genius that is Adam Perry-Lang the renowned NYC chef. Well it is going to be around the St Pauls Cathedral area and is to open October time 2010. Great source for NPD and inspiration, trend days no doubt.
See you there!!!!

Grocery Store Of The Future...hmmm

2010-01-04T10:07:00.002Z

You often hear complaints that buying local costs more than supermarket equivalents. Well Tomorrowsfood has learnt that Basis Good Food Market, which opens later this year in NYC, is the retail arm of Farm to Chef, a distributor that links small producers to some of the top restaurants in NYC.
The idea is to tap into these suppliers and sell directly to local consumers. They claim the prices will be less than their supermarket equivalents.
Watch this space.

Food Trucks

2009-09-30T09:27:00.004+01:00

Surely we have all now heard about these food trucks touring the streets of LA, N'York and San Fran. Think Korean BBQ et al. Well it had to happen. "Skewers on Wheels has hit the streets in Los Angeles, taking skewered meats to the streets. Follow them on twitter or their on http://www.skewersonwheels.com/ Now Tomorrowsfood is on the look out for the first real Foodtruck to hit the UK.

How New is New

2009-09-22T12:48:00.003+01:00

Tomorrow's Food has just learned that Coca Cola is trying out a new version of the drink called The Coca Cola Super Chill. The consumer twists the lid as normal, this releases a gas that begins to form ice crystals in the drink. At the moment it is on trial in Hong Kong. Watch this space. Look for yourself, follow this link. http://tinyurl.com/moj8u6

Simplicity is the Key.

2009-09-10T11:41:00.005+01:00

Food development continues to be all about simplicity. Tomorrow's Food just returned from a visit to Crete. Came across a restaurant called Cave of Dragons. OK not the most original name, but it had been recommended. I had a fantastic meal. The husband and wife team operate a restaurant that is based wholly on simple, fresh, local ingredients. The herbs are local and wild, the meat comes from local farmers, fish straight from the day boats, the olive oil from the owners own olive groves and if that's not enough, dammit they make their own honey. All the food is cooked over a huge grill that uses the wood from old olive trees. Well worth the visit.

Jamie's New Series

2009-07-21T10:02:00.003+01:00

Look out for Jamie Oliver's new cookery series called Jamie's American Roadtrip due in the autumn. It's a six parter on Channel 4. No doubt a book to follow as well.

Heston hits London

2009-06-30T11:45:00.003+01:00

So the rumours are true. Heston Blumenthal is opening in London early next year, 2010. He is opening at the Mandarin Oriental. the restaurant is a biggy, 140 seater. The chef has been a busy boy, what with numerous books, TV deals etc. Just hope he doesn't spread himself too thinly.

Opening Coming

2009-05-27T13:31:00.004+01:00

Tomorrowsfood has just learned that Nuno Mendes, ex Head Chef of Bacchus in Hoxton London, is opening his own restaurant in early 2010. It's to be called Viajante. Currently he is running a supper club at his apartment, trying out new dishes and ideas for the new restaurants' menu.

Only one table, so it's a hot ticket.

Great Deli in West Wales

2009-04-21T16:31:00.003+01:00

Eventually got around to trying out Ultracomida delicatessen in Narberth, West Wales. They specialise in Spanish and French produce with a little Welsh along the way. If you are ever in the area you should check it out.
They were in The Independent on Sunday's list of the Top 50 deli's in the UK.
www.ultracomida.com

Not Happening in 2009

2009-02-02T12:04:00.005Z

I read with interest 10 Food Trends a certain food critic doesn't want to see in 2009.
They are- Dessert only restaurants, Foams, Nutritional information on menus, Steak restaurants, Waiterless restaurants, Super Size Me wine by the glass, Unbookable restaurants, The World's Most Expensive Anything, Big Name Chefs Consulting on restaurants for big companies. Late-Night cookie home delivery. Oh yes New York's Insomnia Cookies are coming to the UK in 2009.

TomorrowsFood says Beware!!

Also if you want to know what you should be doing in 2009, just get in touch. We would love to hear from you.

Fat Burning Lemonade

2009-01-14T12:13:00.000Z

Here at TomorrowsFood, we won't lead you astray with wacky ideas like Fat Burning Lemonade. However we will continue to inform you and remind you how important it in to innovate even in uncertain times. Read the report below from The NY Times.

1) Fat Burning Lemonade: The Master Cleanse seems to be back and more popular than ever and not just because of holiday gluttony. The desire to "cleanse" and/or "detox" is becoming more common even among those not necessarily looking to lose weight. Essentially a packaged version of the diet, Fat Burning Lemonade is an instant drink mix that's supposed to convert fat into energy. But unlike the cleanse that made lemonade such a hot diet product, practitioners of this diet can also eat actual food.

2) A recent article in the New York Times gives some insight into how companies take their eye off the ball and slow down their innovation. In this piece Micheline Maynard argues that the Chrysler automotive company decided to listen more to the accountants than the staff who were tasked to drive the company into the future:
G.M.’s biggest failing, reflected in a clear pattern over recent decades, has been its inability to strike a balance between those inside the company who pushed for innovation ahead of the curve, and the finance executives who worried more about returns on investment.
The two views were rarely in sync — in effect, fighting over the steering wheel that controlled G.M.’s direction — and the internal battles distracted G.M. from spotting shifts in the marketplace.
Time and again over the last 30 years, G.M. has spent billions of dollars on innovative ideas like its Saturn small-car company in the 1980s and the EV1 electric vehicle in the 1990s, only to then deprive those projects of further financing because money was needed elsewhere or because they were not delivering enough profit.
…For those willing to gamble and to follow through on their bets — like Chrysler did with minivans, like Toyota did with Prius and as Honda has done with its focus on fuel efficiency even when gas was cheap — the payoff in sales and reputation can be enormous.
But G.M., despite its tradition of fostering innovation, has often been impatient for profits to emerge.
At G.M., Innovation Often Suffers for Profits - NYTimes.com

Told you so.

2008-12-12T10:06:00.000Z

Europe's restaurant-guide bible has blasted the overuse of chemical additives in German restaurant fare and has threatened to lower the ratings of top chefs if they use too many additives in doing "molecular gastronomy".
The editor-in-chief of Gault Millau's German edition, Manfred Kohnke, launched his attack before his magazine chose Germany's "Chef of the Year".
The 69-year-old critic, who is known as Germany's "food pope", also called for food-additive labeling requirements to be extended to restaurant menus.
The additives in question are mainly gelling and thickening agents, which used to be limited to the food industry.
In molecular cuisine, these additives are used to stabilize airy foams, convert vegetables into a less perishable jelly or paste and form caviar-like bubbles from juices or oil.
"It's a shot across the bows," Kohnke says of his warning. "The chefs now have time until the next examination period. Then we'll mete out punishment to them."
Feared for his harsh criticism, Kohnke made an example of French chef Jean-Claude Bourgueil several years ago by downgrading him for using the flavor enhancer glutamate in his Dusseldorf restaurant.
Kohnke does not object to creative cooking and the invention of new dishes, but to the uncritical and excessive application of molecular gastronomy techniques.
One additive that Kohnke rejects is transglutaminase, a food adhesive used in the food industry to reconstitute pieces of ham into pressed ham.
German chef Joachim Wissler, who works in Bergisch Gladbach, near Cologne, uses it to stick overly thin trout filets on top of each other.
The use of artificial fragrance sprays is also a questionable practice, he says, adding, "Even in top restaurants they try to make dishes more seductive with artificial truffle fragrance."
It is strange how much money is earned with cheap chemicals when star chefs promote them, Kohnke remarks, adding: "And it's even stranger that the food industry now wants to steer them away from using chemicals in food or at least claims it does, but chefs are reaching for them greedily."
Kohnke says it is almost tragic that many chefs in Germany use additives because it is trendy, but do not improve the taste of their dishes as if the "future salvation lay in molecular cuisine".

From A US Blogger RE Ferran Adria

2008-10-28T12:57:00.001Z

TomorrowsFood was interested to read this recently........ENJOY

Give Us a Break With Ferran Adria Already!
Posted: 27 Oct 2008 10:02 AM CDT

Jay Rayner, Britain’s most famous restaurant critic, wrote a rapturous panegyric to Spanish superchef Ferran Adria last week, but for some reason it’s only making it around to the New York blogs today, and is being conveyed without the slightest bit of skepticism. Rayner, in both video and literary formats, describes his 17-year path to getting a seat at the legendary temple of molecular gastronomy that is Adria’s restaurant, El Bulli; he then submits to a slavish colloquium with the great man that resembles a beardless catechumen sitting at the feet of a stern abbot. The whole thing made me want to throw up, and confirms a feeling I’ve had for a very long time. I am sick of Ferran Adria and don’t want to hear about him any more. Here are the reasons.
1. Nobody has even eaten this guy’s food! If you took all the foodies, gastronauts, bloggers, and fellow-travelers who kvell over this guy’s genius meals, and asked them if they had ever tasted one, not one in a hundred would say yes. As Rayner points out, there are 8000 seats available for two million requests; how many of those are going to be Williamsburg-based bloggers who work at low-rent design shops during the day? None.
2. More to the point, nobody who goes around praising this guy has any experience of or love for the style of food which he represents. Nathan Myrvhold, the Microsoft billionaire and molecular gastronomy whiz, spends a lot of his time eating out at Alinea and Moto and wd-50, so if he wants to tell me he knows all about that style and Adria is the messianic figure he’s made out to be, fine. But don’t eat one meal a year at wd-50 and present yourself as a devotee of pipette cooking and the joys of spheroids. Because I just don’t buy it. You’d rather eat spaghetti. I know it, and you know it.
3. Adria is an incredibly imperious, self-important figure; that pisses me off. It would be one thing if he were earnestly promoting his kind of cooking, but all he does is complain that people don’t understand it, and blah blah blah. His favorite complaint seems to be that it’s overly associated with science. Then he goes around talking about how he figured out a new way to extract the flavor of dirt, or use liquid nitrogen to make olive oil into a gas!
4. Adria worship runs down the achievements of real chefs. I often wonder why so many chefs worship this guy. Don’t you think they could make amazing things if they could take six months off every year to putter around the kitchen? Or if they could sit you down and serve you seventy courses of exactly what they felt like, knowing that you were going to explode with fulsome ecstasy, whether it was good or not? And who’s to say if it even is good? If you haven’t eat at El Bulli, you can’t really say this guy is for real. I’ve never eaten his food. And as King Osric says of Thulsa Doom in Conan The Barbarian, “for years I’ve chafed under this demigod!” When you read The Feedbag in the coming years, expect to hear about Marco Canora, Gavin Kaysen, even Wylie Dufresne: chefs who cook food I can actually eat, and who have to produce every day to stay in business. That’s what a real chef is. Jay Rayner can have his precious seat at El Bulli.
social scientists, educators, food safety activists, grinning figurines, insect-faced anesthesiologists, consumer advocates, evil clowns, and unearthly, disembodied voices are said to be looking into the matter.

New Kid On The Block

2008-08-20T14:21:00.000+01:00

So there's a new Celebrity Chef on the way. Valentine Warner discovered by Pat Llewellyn, the TV producer with the golden touch, who brought us Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey to name a few. Warner has a TV series starting on the BBC2 in the autumn along with the book to boot. Series is called What To Eat Know as is the book...wonder what trends will follow.....watch this space.

Alan Yau

2008-08-12T14:20:00.000+01:00

As previously mentioned in Tomorrowsfood blog Alan Yau is pushing ahead with his plans for world domination.

Despite having made around £50m from the sale of various business's he still ploughs on. He see's a big trend in the rise of luxury food brands similar to those that happened with luxury fashion brands.

At the other end of the spectrum Yau is still pushing ahead with a concept that he claims will take on Mc Donald's, due to launch in two years time in London, then rolling out in China. plans are already under way.

Watch this space !!!!

Innovate Now

2008-08-07T11:41:00.000+01:00

Everybody involved in the food business from manufacturers to retailers are feeling the impact of the credit crunch. It is now, in my opinion that the switched on companies need to drive their Development and Innovation teams hardest.
It's too easy to sit back and wait for the upturn.
Companies must rethink their strategies for NPD and select the winners and focus on these and these alone. With the length of time retailers are allowing products to be on shelf to deliver "the numbers" before considering de-lists, getting ever shorter, it is crucial that NPD teams focus and don't spray their ideas and resource.

Healthy Fast Food

2008-01-23T08:56:00.000Z

TomorrowsFood reads with interest the ever expanding empire of Alan Yau. He is the man who founded Wagamama, the Japanese noodle chain with a single outlet in 1992, going on to sell it to investors in 1998.
Since then he has gone on to own some of Londons most influencial restaurants, Hakkasan became the first Chinese restaurant in the country to gain a Michelin star, Busaba Eathai for Thai, Sake No Hana doing Japanese, while Yauatcha has a Michelin star and goes from strengh to strengh.
Well now he has anounced that he is about to launch a chain of fast food restaurants as well as a bakery in London. The restaurant food is described as Healthy Asian, he intends to develop this into a global fast food operation. The bakery is due to open on Wardour Street in June and finally an upmarket restaurant called Hakka Berkley specialising in Northern Chinese cooking.
Definitely a trend setter to watch!!

British Food

2007-12-13T14:43:00.000Z

I've been reading an article about British Food which made me think, "What is British Food." It's difficult to put a finger on it. We have lots of regional dishes but no real culture of shopping for fresh ingredients and cooking every day. You just have to see how many Prepared Meals are on offer in supermarkets to see that.
There are some really good British Chefs working out there now and it's never been easier to try their different styles and interpretations of British Food.
I suggest if you cook with fresh, seasonal ingredients, put together simply you won't go far wrong.
If you get tired of trying to discover what British Food really is, you can always try Thai, Vietnamese,Moroccan,Mexican,French,Spanish,Italian and Indian that's on every high street.

Whole Foods Market

2007-07-05T10:49:00.000+01:00

So it's finally arrived. Whole Foods Market is here. All 80,000 sq ft of it spread over 3 huge floors in Kensington High St. TomorrowsFood visited the new store in June and what a fab place it is too. Having visited Wholefoods in the USA I was keen to see what this one was like.
Any one involved in recipe development should spend a couple of hours wandering the floors and sampling the food.
Other retailers must be looking at the store and questioning things like food waste,number of colleagues and hours given to the store. Like the food there are colleagues everywhere. Maybe overtime things will change but for now people should just lap up the experience.
Admire Wholefoods ability and desire to;
Deliver food that doesn't look overly packaged.
Counters that grown with food
Have great availability
Create an ambiance that is totally different to any other retailer.
Ranges that are pay by weight and hot to go.
Tomorrowsfood thinks this is a real step change in food retailing in the UK. At the moment it is only one store in one city, but lets wait and see.

It's All Gone Organic

2007-05-08T12:47:00.000+01:00

Tomorrowsfood ventured further west into Wales and found Wendy Brandon Handmade Preserves. Now there are preserves and there are preserves!! These are excellent. There are a wide range of preserves as well as flavoured vinegars,dressings and fruit sauces. Supplying top hotels as well as Harrods in London. All made in a small kitchen alongside the shop. It's well worth making the trek down to Boncath in Pembrokeshire and see for yourself or try them online at http://www.wendybrandon.co.uk/

Also Tomorrowsfood has tried out Bordeaux Quay in Bristol http://www.bordeaux-quay.co.uk/ described as the most environmentally aware restaurant in Britain. It features a brasserie, restaurant, cookery school and deli all run on sustainable lines. On my recent visit it was crammed to the rafters. the food in the brasserie was of a good standard and I managed to buy the last of the freshly baked sour dough in the deli. If you are in the Bristol area give it a go.

Deepest Devon

2007-04-03T10:23:00.000+01:00

Tomorrows Food visited Riverford Farm Shop near Staverton Devon in March. There is a wide range of products from produce to meat, bakery and much more. All organic and sourced from near and far. If the weather is right you can eat what you have purchased on the benches outside. Since visiting the farm shop I noticed that it has been awarded Best Shop in the Observer Food Monthly Annual Awards for this year. Well deserved too.

Indian Food But Not as We Know It.

2007-02-08T11:46:00.000Z

Where can you find good Keralan food in this country? Well Tomorrowsfood enjoyed an authentic Keralan meal in of all places Cambridge. It's called the Rice Boat I can recommend the Masala Dosa, Mushroom Thoren and the Red Fish Curry with Appam. As far removed from the 'normal' Northern Indian/Bangladesh cuisine most British people consume.

Conferences and Food Trips

2007-01-03T09:40:00.000Z

In December TomorrowsFood was invited to give a presentation at the Food Development Association conference held in Birmingham. The conference theme was food provenance and TomorrowsFood presentation focused on how this affects retailers in particular Supermarkets.

Also in December TomorrowsFood visited Southern Thailand looking at regional food in that area this provided lots of interesting ingredients and stimulating food.

Great food around Brecon

2006-11-14T10:29:00.000Z

Anyone heading for Brecon needs to try out the Felyn Fach Griffyn. Excellent pub serving restaurant quality food. All locally sourced and cooked with great skill and care. If you have the time stay over as it has a limited number of bedrooms available.

2006-09-06T14:26:00.000+01:00

tomorrowsfood visited the Lake District in Cumbria recently and was impressed by the quality of local food in the area not least junction 37 of the M6 is no ordinary motorway service station. The one at Westmorland boasts a local farmshop that would put many local delis to shame. There is a wide choice of meat,dairy and good selection of baked goods. If you are passing it is well worth a visit.

Great Food

2006-08-07T11:29:00.000+01:00

Had a fantastic dinner Saturday night at the Foxhunter in Nantyderry which lies between Abergavenny and Usk. Chef is Matt Tebbut who trained with Marco Pierre White,Alistair Little and Sally Clarke.
Goujon Sole and Black Pudding followed by Roast Suckling Pig finishing with Light Strawberry Mousse all excellent.
Just wish they would move a little closer to Cardiff I could go more often.
I'm intending to keep an eye on his cooking and will post some more details on my blog at Tomorrowsfood.co.uk
Happy Cooking!!

New team building days planned

2006-08-04T11:19:00.000+01:00

Tomorrows Food is planning a series of food building team days at Harrogate in September 2006.

While Tomorrows Food is well known for its food innovation and consultancy work, it also provides people with the chance to team build within a food developement environment.