World Wide Food

The latest fashion coming from Europe's chefs is to serve your food in

The latest fashion coming from Europe's great chefs and Europe's great restaurants is to serve your food in a tin!

The two tins photographed here are, above, a tin of cuttlefish with peas, produced by Italian chef Moreno Cidroni, who runs three restaurants in The Marches, and below, a tin of ­ no, not Iranian caviar ­ but tiny drops of mango, as conceived and "cooked"(we use the inverted commas deliberately) by Spain's superstar chef, Ferran Adria, of El Bulli.

These guys are pushing the envelope, or, at least, they are opening the tin on a new way of thinking about convenience food, and restaurant food. Adria has long ago left the conventional concepts of cookery and restaurant service behind, but it was thrilling, recently, on a trip to northern Spain for the San Sebastian food congress, to see how other European chefs are taking his ideas and creating new, radical concepts for eating. It's all a long way from Fray Bentos Steak & Kidney pie.

Congreso "Lo Mejor de la Gastronomia"

Ferran Adria demonstrates how to make fluorescent green foam

Many strange and wonderful creations were chewed over during the important new food congress in Northern Spain - Congreso "Lo Mejor de la Gastronomía" in San Sebastian. This was a Congress of leading European chefs, some lucky food media and members of the public, where a brigade of the best demo-ed some of their techniques and recipes, including Ferran Adria, Moreno Cidroni, and Andoni Luis Aduriz (see menu of the month). Ferran Adria's demos of caviar made from mango, ravioli made from bubbles, and spaghetti made from water, were especially memorable. The chef received a film star's reception (or perhaps a footballer's reception might be a better analogy ­ at least one person in the week compared the genius of this amiable chef to Real Madrid's David Beckham). Appropriate for a restaurant that received over 25,000 requests for bookings in its 2003 gastronomic year - the restaurant can annually only seat 5,000 at full capacity.

Moreno Cedroni with his wife Mariella promoting their tins at the Omnivore stand at Lo Mejor de la Gastronomía

Away on a Cloud. Bubble bath food

'La Broche', a new form of tapas, by Spanish Chef Sergi Arola

Mr Fray and Mr Bentos would twirl in their graves if they could see the other latest hotshot food stealing it's way into European restaurants. Sit down, order up, and here comes a plate with what looks like a pile of eh, foam, actually. And it is a foam, but scented, flavourful, and quite delicious. Candyfloss cooking, anyone? Spanish chefs take their foams very seriously indeed, we discovered, and with Spain being the engine of food creativity in Europe, you can be certain that foams will be here very shortly. Mind you, does anyone recall that Cork's brilliant Mercy Fenton, of the sublime Jacob's on the Mall, won a Roux brothers scholarship years ago with a dish of lovage scented clouds?! Ms Fenton was there ahead of Adria and the rest of the guys. More on all this in the New Year when we will have a travel special on Megabytes.

Good news from Slow Food

Local = Good

Congratulations to Dr Myrtle Allen, who was awarded a very rare Mention of Honour at the recent Slow Food Congress in Naples. What does a Mention of Honour mean? Well, it's the equivalent of winning the Nobel Prize, that's what, a truly signal honour that has only been awarded by the Slow Food movement on only two previous occasions. The Slow Food movement awards the Mention of Honour to the "career work of a person whose job has been totally dedicated to the safeguard of biodiversity, in a dedicated and explicit way".

The official citation of the Honorary Mention praised Mrs Allen "For her commitment to promoting Irish food culture and the passion with which she has supported and continues to support local food resources, struggling to compete with imported products". The citation further praised Mrs Allen: "For her campaign in defence of biodiversity and support for local producers, whose viability is often threatened by food safety regulations designed for large-scale food production. For her awareness of the high quality of Irish food and her devotion to traditional recipes, whose protection she has championed for decades".

Giana Ferguson, cheese maker of Gubbeen Cheese, was also recently honoured with her appointment as International Guarantor of Slow Food. Along with Todd Wickham of Zingerman's in Ann Arbor, Mrs Ferguson was chosen to act as an ombudsman for International Slow Food. Speaking at her appointment Renato Sardo explained that in making these two appointments, Slow were looking for cultures that have continued the Slow Food philosophies, and they found that culture in Ireland and US, which was why these choices have been made. It is fitting that Giana Ferguson should have been so honoured, for she has been tireless in establishing Slow Food as a force in this country.

www.slowfoodireland.com

Allons enfants de la patrie!

Omnivore is a splendid French restaurant newsletter written and published by Luc Dubanchet, a young food journalist based in Paris. Written especially for the restaurant trade, it is stirring stuff: "Jeune cuisine Francaise: ca commence aujourd'hui"is how issue 1 signals itself, and Dubanchet and his contributors jump right into the heart of the question tearing at the heart of French gastronomy: tradition, or innovation?

Articles by European experts such as Andrea Petrini focus on the outstanding talents of European cookery, people like Moreno Cidroni (see above), Judith Baumann, Jacques Decoret, Pascal Barbot, all the young turks who are making waves right now with innovative and personal cooking.

Get more information on Omnivore from M. Dubanchet: Email: luc.dubanchet@omnivore-éditions.com

The Art of It All

And speaking of splendid, opinionated food writing, we have fallen under the spell of The Art of Eating, a quarterly by the American food writer Edward Behr. Beautifully designed, wise and without a trace of hype or fashion-following, The Art is a serious but never stuffy glimpse into the lives and work of the best food producers, winemakers and destinations for food lovers. A one year subscription costs €39, excellent value.

Check them out at: www.ArtofEating.com