iFoods on Verizon Voyager

We are very happy to announce that our videos will now be appearing on the very sexy new voyager phone in the USA with thanks to verizon who have 62 million users! It is a competitior to the iPhone and all it's lucky users will be able to watch and cookalong to free iFoods videos! Look out for iFoods.tv on a phone near you soon!

Dylan McGrath Mint Restaurant

I've never had a huge temper in the kitchen and could always laugh things off but I always remember one guy who could get under my skin and now I am not surprised to see he has just been awarded a prestigious Michelin Star for his restaurant Mint in Ranelagh, Dublin. Dylan McGrath was a lowly chef de partie when I knew him but you could see in his eyes he was going places. The thing with great chefs is that it is extremly rare for them to have a personality and Dylan is falls comfortably into that category! Now I havn't seen him in 6 years but my guess is that when you watch RTE tonight and see him in action you will see exactly what I mean! Don't get me wrong, all the great chefs are driven and care little for what other people think and I think that is exactly what you need to suceed in the hard world of gaining Michelin stars. I havn't eaten Dylan's food since the Peacock Alley days but my guess is that it is outstanding and that he is still a grumpy arrogant young man!

Mint restaurant
Ranelagh Dublin
Website

The Future of Chinese Food continued

On January 23rd the San Francisco Professional Food Society presented an insightful panel discussion on the future of Chinese cuisine in the US, along with The Asia Society and the Chinese Cultural Center. The panelists were (seated from left to right) Martin Yan, TV host and master chef author of 26 cookbooks, Alex Ong, Betelnut partner and executive chef, Albert Cheng, former three-term president of the Chinese Culture Center; Nicole Mones, author of the novels Lost in Translation, A Cup of Light, and The Last Chinese Chef, and moderator Olivia Wu, currently chef at Google and a former writer for the San Francisco Chronicle.

One of the hurdles to great Chinese food in the US has been immigration policies. In a discussion about Chinese immigration to the US, it was mentioned that opening a Chinese restaurant was often the only opportunity for Chinese immigrants. Often those restaurateurs were not professional chefs, and as a result did not have the same passion for the cuisine as you might expect. According to Yan, immigrants who open Chinese restaurants rarely have been trained as chefs and usually don't want their children following in their footsteps. Ong agreed, saying his parents were terribly disappointed when he told them he was becoming a chef.

Wu also pointed out that Chinese chefs are often unable to communicate with their customers so they stay in the kitchen. They don't understand branding, marketing and promotion and this holds their restaurants back.

Most of the panel spoke wistfully about the diversity of the cuisine in China and Mones complained about the sauce-driven style of cooking here that relies on heavy sauces as opposed to the subtle flavors one finds in China, where there are estimated to be between 5,000 and 10,000 different dishes. In China, she explained, there is barely enough sauce to cover the dish. Here long menus often obscure the fact that only a handful of sauces are being used.

Ong questioned the American taste level and waxed poetic about the joy of eating "the bones" something echoed by most of the panel. He complained about his customers only wanting the velveted style of chicken breast meat.

Favorite dishes among the panelists that they rarely find in the US included Beggar's chicken, red braised pork belly and broad beans with toon leaves.

A question arose as to whether we as diners are willing to pay for great Chinese food, since we have come to regard it almost as "exotic fast food" that is always cheap. On the flip side, Ong complained most Chinese restaurants choose to compete only on price disregarding elements such as service, decor and having a bar.

So what advice did the panel have for American eaters?
• Keep trying new places
• Always try one or two dishes you are unfamiliar with, when you eat out
• Ask about the specialties of the house

To read the first part of this story posted last week, click here

Chris Walken Cooking Video

What do movie stars do when they are bored in between getting $10 Million per movie? Simple they put their pinnie on and do a little bit of home cooking! This video shows well known actor Christopher Walken(Batman Returns, Pulp Fiction etc)cooking a lovely looking roast chicken with simple instructions! What was he thinking and what is the cat doing at the end? All very strange!

Home delivered food review.

The biggest problem that many people like me how live on their own is what to eat at night. Now you would assume that being a chef I would be cooking up a storm every night but the reality is that takeaway food is often the most realistic option. The biggest problem I have with takeaway options here in Ireland is that the choice is limited to Pizza, Indian or Chinese, it really doesn't stretch any further than that! The Irish food scene has come a long way in the last ten years but sadly the standard of food delivered to your door has lagged way behind the standard of other modern cities. Takeaway is a way of life in many big cities but unlike Ireland there is a huge variety and particular emphasis being placed on healthy options. There really is a massive gap in the market here in Ireland which I hope entrepreneurs start to exploit but until then here are my thoughts on some of the options we currently have...

The Bombay pantry has been around for some time and its reputation along with the number of stores are growing rapidly. Very good standard of food with only drawback being often slow delivery. Head and shoulders above the rest of Indian Food in Ireland.


Le Diep has long been a famous restaurant in Dublin but their big success has come with the opening of their takeaway and delivery service from Ranelagh. Mostly Thai food with nice packaging and wonderful choice. Only drawback is the popularity of the place and extremly high prices!

Four star have been around for some time and the only reason they are on this list is because I like them when I am pigging out and drinking beer! So different from the real traditional pizza you would find in Italy and not exactly a gourmet meal but it is always cheap, always on time and never lets you down!



The sad thing is that in a city of over a million people I have had to think really hard to find 2 examples to review here. We deserve better here in Ireland and should be able to order fresh, healthy and interesting food from the comfort of our homes! It's a very sad reflection on the Irish food industry and one that I hope will change over the next couple of years.

The Future of Chinese Food

On January 23rd the San Francisco Professional Food Society presented an insightful panel discussion on the future of Chinese cuisine in the US, along with The Asia Society and the Chinese Cultural Center. The panelists were (seated from left to right) Martin Yan, TV host and master chef author of 26 cookbooks, Alex Ong, Betelnut partner and executive chef, Albert Cheng, former three-term president of the Chinese Culture Center; Nicole Mones, author of the novels Lost in Translation, A Cup of Light, and The Last Chinese Chef, and moderator Olivia Wu, currently chef at Google and a former writer for the San Francisco Chronicle.

The discussion focused mostly on the challenges of finding great Chinese food in the US. While a few panelists did not mind American-style Chinese food, having traveled extensively in China, they all agreed there are many hurdles to finding truly authentic Chinese food in America. From the outset, Wu mentioned the following:

• Limits on Chinese immigration
• Lack of availability of ingredients
• The predominance of "American style" Chinese food
• Perception of Chinese food as exotic fast food--cheap and familiar
• Not knowing where to go and what to order

Wu began her comments by saying that understanding the language and food are equally important to "living" the culture of China, something Mones agreed with. She also wanted the audience to know that traditional ways of eating in China are healthful, something echoed later by Martin Yan who observed if eating Chinese food was so bad for you, how come there are 1.3 billion people in China?

Alex Ong talked about Chinese food being a "never-ending artichoke" where the more layers you peel back, the more you find. Ong explained that the problem is not unique to America. He grew up in a Chinese family in Malaysia and after visiting China for the first time in 1999 he threw away all his recipes for Chinese food, amazed at how different it was from what he had eaten his whole life.

Cheng gave a brief run down of the history of Chinese immigration and the exclusion acts that kept Chinese out of America. It was pointed out that Chinese immigrants from just a few regions end up cooking dishes from all over China, rather than specializing in regional cuisine. Cheng also recited a famous quote in Chinese that "eating is the greatest pleasure under heaven." Very true for many of us!

Ong and Wu shared a perspective about good places getting overrun, and how sometimes Chinese people don't want their favorite places becoming too popular for legitimate fear the quality will decline.

Martin Yan who recently opened a Chinese cooking academy in China said the supply of labor force was a limiting factor. In China cooking schools are more vocational than professional and they turn out good technicians, but not mature chefs. Also, culturally speaking, both Yan and Ong commiserated that becoming a chef is not well-regarded by most Chinese families who would rather their children become doctors or lawyers.

Next week read more about Chinese food in the US including the panelists tips for how to get a great Chinese meal

Town Bar and Grill Restaurant Kildare Street

There is nothing that gets me more excited or tells me more about a chef's ability that a menu. Seems like an obivious thing to say but the art of writing a great menu is not a simple one and many great chefs have fallen at this first hurdle. In my humble opinion the key is simplicity and any understating on a menu is good thing as there is nothing worse than reading a menu with 100s of ingredients per dish. There is nothing worse than becoming dizzy as you stare at a billboard size piece of card with the chef's life story spread out in front of you. All I want is 5 starters, 5 mains and a few desserts thrown in to keep everybody happy but you will find that it is only chefs with the utmost confidence in their ability that can pull this off!

It was business that brought me to Town bar and Grill on Kildare street this week and not being a huge fan of basement restaurants I wasn't expecting much. Turns out my doubts were misplaced as the atmosphere and ambience in the room were excellent and i suppose one shouldn't expect anything less from a premises that used to house Mitchell's wine merchants.

After walking through the door four things happened in succession which are remarkably simple but are often neglected by restaurants thus setting a bad precendent for the rest of the meal; First my jacket was removed and taken for safekeeping in the cloak room, we were then swiftly brought to the table, offered drinks, brought a menu and served warm bread. Now you can leave me sitting for 20 minutes after you have done that without even looking in my direction and I would be perfectly happy but as it happens the efficient staff were back topping up water and taking orders as soon as we looked ready.

The menu was faultless with simple choices at at 22.95 excellent value for lunch. The chef had kept everything simple and without creating any fuss had designed an apetizing and elegant menu. I went for the Carpaccio of Tuna to start which was perfectly acceptable without being outstanding and followed it with a "10oz Ribe eye steak with mash, greens and herb butter" which did exaclty what it said on the tin.

The only other blemish on an otherwise enjoyable lunch was one waitress pouring me flat water followed by fizzy water, followed by flat water into my fizzy water! That just took the service level from a 10/10 to a still (or fizzy) respectable 8/10.



All in all a decent meal



Town Bar and Grill
Kildare Street
Dublin
Ireland