D.O.M.: Rediscovering Brazilian Ingredients

Alex Atala’s cookbook is out. This year, the brazilian chef was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people, spoke at events like MAD3 in a controversial performance killing a chicken on stage and now he comes showing his discoveries, creations and some of Brazil’s widely diverse food traditions.

D.O.M.: Rediscovering Brazilian Ingredients is an exclusive look at one of the world’s most exciting chefs, his unique relationship with the produce of his native Brazil and the food he creates from it.

Recently voted as number 4 in the San Pellegrino 50 Best Restaurant Awards, Alex Atala’s restaurant D.O.M has built its unique style of cuisine on the discovery and exploration of Brazilian ingredients combined with a commitment to finding sustainable solutions to sourcing them to the benefit of the Amazon and its people.

A former punk DJ who was classically trained as a chef in Europe, Atala refuses to import ingredients such as caviar, truffles and fois gras, staples in many high-end restaurant kitchens, into Brazil and instead scours the Amazon for indigenous produce to fuse with classical techniques in his cooking. He then works with the Amazon’s native communities and small-scale producers to extend the availability of these native products around Brazil.

This commitment to not only producing delicious food, but also using his kitchen as a tool for social responsibility and conservation has led to the introduction of many new and unknown ingredients onto his menu, such as a new variety of palm heart that can be farmed and harvested sustainably; the first of its kind.

This book will tell the individual stories of 65 of the unique ingredients that are used in the kitchens at D.O.M. and Alex’s relationship with them. Each ingredient will be accompanied by a recipe for one of the dishes that it is utilized in and a beautiful image of both the ingredient and the finished dish.

The fascinating texts, stunning photographs and inspiring recipes will combine to create a beautiful cookbook that is fully accessible to the general reader.

Photo: Mario Rodrigues

About Alex Atala

A creative chef, Alex Atala is known in Brazil and throughout the world for exploring, through classical techniques, the gastronomical possibilities of Brazilian ingredients. Atala began his career when he was 19 in Belgium, at the École Hôtelière de Namur. In France he worked at Jean Pierre Bruneau’s Michelin 3-star restaurant, and staged at Hotel de la Cote D’Or with Chef Bernard Loiseau. In 1994 he returned to São Paulo, where his performance in several establishments around the city attracted the attention of journalists and gourmands. He opened D.O.M. restaurant in 1999. In 2009 Atala opened his second restaurant, Dalva e Dito, to critical acclaim.

Book photos via R2 Design

Book description via Phaidon

Edible Selby Book Sneak Peak

Todd Selby have been portraying creative people and their lifestyle by some beautiful photography work on The Selby. He is careful with details focusing unusually interesting musicians, artists, designers, and actors in their places. After Todd’s first book, The Selby is In Your Place, he launches  Edible Selby.

“Todd recently launched Edible Selby, in collaboration with NYTimes T Magazine in which he photographs the most creative and interesting people in food around the world.”

“Photographer Todd Selby is back, this time focusing his lens on the kitchens, gardens, homes, and restaurants of more than 40 of the most creative and dynamic figures working in the culinary world today. He takes us behind the scenes with Noma chef René Redzepi in Copenhagen; to Tokyo to have a slice with pizza maker Susumu Kakinuma; and up a hilltop to dine at an inn without an innkeeper in Valdobbiadene. Each profile is accompanied by watercolor illustrations and a handwritten questionnaire, which includes a signature recipe. Reveling in the pleasures of a taco at the beach, foraging for wild herbs, and the art of the perfectly cured olive, Selby captures the food we love to eat and the people who passionately grow, cook, pour, and serve these incredible edibles every day. Plus it comes with magnets for your fridge.”

 

Get to see more on The Selby.

The Plant brands new Jamie Oliver Trattoria venture

 

Jamie Oliver is launching new restaurant Trattoria, with branding by The Plant.

The first Trattoria branch will open next week in Richmond, west London, with interiors designed by Blacksheep. Work began on the Trattoria project around November last year.

Trattoria will be loosely based on the Jamie’s Italian brand, though with a more ‘local Italian’ feel, according to The Plant.

 

Matt Utber, The Plant founder, says, ‘It’s a Jamie’s Italian sub-brand in a sense, but what they’re offering is a more direct, stripped-down menu. It’s a very simple offer but with all the quality you’d expect from a Jamie’s Italian.

‘[The Jamie Oliver brand] wanted to build an offering that’s more appropriate to take into the suburbs and smaller towns.’

The branding uses a black and red colour palette, with interiors aiming to give a ‘simple, stripped-back’ feel, according to Utber.

He says, ‘From a brand perspective we wanted to create a sense of a much more local restaurant. It’s a more intimate experience – the food and visual aspects look more family–owned. The approach we’ve taken to the design is very honest.’

 

The Plant used traditional-looking gold-leaf script typography for the signage and shop front, and a menu featuring ‘very simple’ typographic and design elements.

 

As brand guardian for Jamie Oliver, The Plant has worked on other projects including Jamie Oliver at Gatwick, which also features interiors by Blacksheep, British restaurant Union Jacks and a number of Jamie’s Italian restaurants.

There are currently no firm plans to open further branches of Trattoria.

Via Design Week

A look at restaurant Frantzén (VIDEO)

Fresh off the heels of announcing the split from partner Daniel Lindeberg, chef Bjorn Frantzén is promiting his Restaurant Frantzén with this new video.

The video is chock-full of food porn and highlights the exquisitely delicate cuisine that made Frantzen Lindeberg famous and number 12 on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants lists sponsored by S.Pellegrinoand Acqua Panna.

You’ll feel your mouth water as you watch the team at Restaurant Frantzén prepare dishes like a canapé of pomegranate-galangal root macaron with creamy chicken liver, King crab poached in beer and dill, and lobster with algae and herb emulsion.

The video sums up two hours of work in just three minutes. Enjoy!

via Fine Dinning Lovers