09/06/2014
Zen garden to eat

In Japan, Zen gardens are the symbol of serenity, and are often composed of rock, moss and gravel that can be crossed on small wooden bridges. You know that the Japanese are also very keen on sweets, which is why art directors Tomonori Saito and Shohei Sawada worked with Motohiro Inaba, artisan of wagashi (traditional Japanese sweets) to create this delicate sweet garden made of black sesame cubes and a bed of sugar.

Source : Spoon & Tamago

02/06/2014
Preserving

Director Oscar Hudson (i-D, Dazed, GQ, Kinfolk) just released three portraits of Skye Gyngell (head chef of Petersham Nurseries Café), Angela Hartnett (Gordon Ramsay protégé and Chef at Murano) and Thomasina Miers (MasterChef winner and founder of Wahaca) in an aesthetical and inspiring serie of short films for Nowness. He takes us into the biography of each acclaimed chef via their gastronomical and affective memories, showing us their recipes of preserved food in jars.

Preserving with Skye Gyngell on Nowness.com

Preserving Chilies with Thomasina Miers on Nowness.com

Preserving Lemons with Angela Hartnett on Nowness.com

25/05/2014
Gelatology

Italian graphic studio Fludd released a cool illustrated books, a mix of gelato and geological landscapes! This book is part of a research on these subjects, and the studio even organized a geological banquet!

21/05/2014
Deviled Eggs Shoyu Tamago

I tested this recipe at Mary Celeste and I wanted to do it again as I love it! It is a kind of deviled eggs or with Asian notes, fresh ginger and crispy black rice (not yet mastered !), marinated in soy sauce (in Japanese they’re called “shoyu tamago”). They can be more or less dark cooked differently. Unfortunately, it’s not the season of watercress with which the eggs are usually served…

Ingredients (for 6 people)

– 6 eggs

– 3 tbsp black rice

– 1 piece of fresh ginger

– 2 tbsp sesame oil

– 1 tbsp soy sauce

– 1 tbsp mustard 1 tsp wasabi

– a few leaves of watercress

For the marinade:

– 15 l soy sauce

– 15cl water

– 2 tbsp rice vinegar

– some Sichuan peppercorns

Recipe

Cook the eggs 10 minutes in water .
Mix the soy sauce, water, rice vinegar and pepper. Simmer, dip in the eggs, turn them around. Then let them marinate for a few hours in the fridge.
Prepare your black rice (usually it cooks for 45 minutes). Let it dry on a plate several hours, then fry it with oil.
Cut the eggs in half, take the yolks out. In a bowl, mix them with mustard, soy sauce, sesame oil (you can adapt the recipe according to your desires, I even added a little lemongrass ).
Arrange watercress, the egg whites in which you place the mixture, grate fresh ginger on top and sprinkle the crispy black rice.

01/05/2014
Perfume and pastry

When perfume rhymes with pastry… Taste and smell are two senses that inspire pastry chefs as well as perfumers, and collaborations between the two worlds continue to flourish.

Philippe Conticini declined the fragrance Flower Bomb from Viktor and Rolf in a rose jasmine vanilla chou (October 2013) ; whereas Pierre Hermé created a peaches and cumin pie for Rochas (2012).

More recently, Nina Ricci and Ladurée’s pastry chef Vincent Lemains launched pink and gold macaroons (raspberry, almond, lemon), for the release of La Tentation de Nina, a fragrance created by the talented Olivier Cresp.

In 2011, I already told you about the collaboration between Thierry Mugler and chef Hélène Darroze, and this year, the famous perfume brand collaborates with Fauchon, creating a vanilla eclair with a blue dome made of white chocolate, inspired by their Angel icon. The dessert will be on sale from 19 May to 7 June in the Fauchon shop, Place de la Madeleine. The bottle was designed by Thierry Mugler himself in 1992 and took two years to be developed in view of its complex star shape. Its fragrane was also invented by Olivier Cresp!

29/04/2014
Rice And Fish

After my Japanese trip, I have to confess that I find it hard to eat good sushi in Paris (except for a few – generally expensive – places), as they struggle to match the freshness and delicacy of those in Japan…

Rice and Fish has reconciled me with the kind! You can have a lunch menu between 10 and 15 euros, with miso soup (a real one), a salad, and choice of maki, sushi and nigiri sushi with an original taste. And if you’re still hungry, the green tea cheesecake is delicious.

Rice & Fish

16, rue Greneta

75002 Paris