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Michelin Guide

Michelin Guide hits Toronto

Michelin Guide hits Toronto After year and months of waiting and preparing for this event, Michelin Guide finally arrives in Toronto. And Toronto is just the start for Canada. Later on this year Michelin stars will be give out to more restaurants, this time in Vancouver. This year 13 restaurants in Toronto got lucky. 12 got 1 star each, and only 1 got 2 stars. Also 17 restaurants were noted in the Michelin Guide with Bid Gourmand destination.  What is Michelin Guide? In short, ”The Michelin Guides” are the travel guides for foodies released by the French tyre manufacturer Michelin since 1900. It is worth noting that initially they were created to boost the tyre sales by encouraging people to take longer trips and travel around the country. Traditionally only the finest and most noteworthy restaurants had been listed in the Michelin Guide. Each year their position is reviewed by anonymous critics. And each year new restaurants have a chance to be awarded with 1 to a max of 3 Michelin Stars by the guide.  What do Michelin Stars mean? Historically, the exact position of a restaurant in the Michelin rating means how far does Michelin recommend a person to travel to dine in this particular restaurant, i.e. if it’s worth the wearing off of tyres or not. A restaurant with one Michelin star is considered to be “very good restaurant in its category” and one with two stars is considered to be “excellent cooking, that’s worth a detour” because of its great food. The highest honour, however, is three stars, which is only given to establishments that provide “exceptional cuisine” that is “worth a special journey”. What about Bib Gourmand? There’s also another, lesser known award category in the Michelin Guide – Bid Gourmand. The Bib Gourmand award has been used to identify “good quality, good value restaurants” since 1997. Of course, the understanding of the value for money price point always varies country by country, depending on the cost of living. However, the quality of the food must always be taken into account as well alongside the cost. Another criteria for restaurants to be considered for a Bib Gourmand award is that have to have a more straightforward culinary style that is recognisable and approachable. Customer experience at a Bib restaurant should also be the one that leaves them feeling satisfied because they paid such a low sum for such excellent food. And there’s more… “The MICHELIN Green Star is an annual award which highlights restaurants at the forefront of the industry when it comes to their sustainable practices”. Michelin Guide Toronto, Canada Finally, let’s talk about the Canadian restaurants that had been awarded with stars and other Michelin awards in 2022. The only restaurant with 2 Michelin Stars Sushi Masaki Saito was the only 1 restaurant in Toronto, Canada, awarded with 2 Michelin Stars in 2022. In fact, no other restaurant in Toronto had received more stars this year. 1 Michelin Star restaurants in Toronto Alo A truly exceptional restaurant by the fellow George Brown College graduate, Chef Patrick Kriss. A restaurant with and impeccable and always consistent customer service, that I’m surprised didn’t receive more stars.  By the way, we even wrote a review on Alo a few years ago. If you’re curious, give it a read. Alobar Yorkville Another creation of Chef Patrick Kriss. More casual and more approachable, yet just as perfect in terms of food and customer service standards. Quetzal Modern, yet authentic Mexican restaurant with a wood-fired hot station. If you decide to visit Quetzal, we definitely recommend to have a sit at the bar area for the best wood fire views and most unique experience.  All the rest of the restaurants we personally haven’t been to, so below is the rest of the Toronto Michelin Guide list (1 Michelin Star restaurants) in no order of personal preference Edulis An absolute classic of Canadian French cuisine. Frilu Canadian farm to table experience.  Shoushin Traditional Sushi bar. Osteria Giulia Modern Italian. ABURI Hana Modern Japanese Kyō-Kaiseki. ENIGMA Yorkville Modern European cuisine. Kaiseki Yu-zen Hashimoto Traditional, authentic Kaiseki.  Don Alfonso 1890 What about Bib Gourmand restaurants? There were 17 restaurants in total, that had been awarded Bib Gourmand distinction in Toronto, Canada in 2022. Find the whole list HERE. Our take: The whole concept of professional Chefs embracing and building all their careers on the desire to be recognized by a tyre manufacturer company had always raised a lot of questions for us. In fact, a general idea of all these non food related companies creating food awards with debatable criteria and voting systems, had never settled well with many people. Most disturbing is the fact, that so many Chefs get obsessed and literally mentally ill with such awards chase, to the point of committing subside when they suddenly lose a star.  Nevertheless, these are the industry standards nowadays, although slowly changing. And all those restaurants that do make it to the award lists, do indeed deserve it and are worth to be celebrated. Want to learn how to cook like a Michelin Star Chef? Join my Online Culinary Academy TODAY, get your Chef’s training at your own time and speed, and start cooking note-worthy dishes Once enrolled, you’ll get a LIFETIME ACCESS to the academy, incl. all the new upcoming cooking lectures and modules.   https://youtu.be/a7XW5XodRE0 ENROLL Other blog posts you might like How to use cheesecloth in cooking – 6 ways (at least) Read HERE>> MrBeast Burger vs Kevin Hart House burger Read HERE>> All dumplings of the world origin Read HERE>>

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Cheesecloth

How to use cheesecloth in cooking – 6 ways (at least)

How to use cheesecloth in cooking – 6 ways (at least) It’s this time of the year again, when cheesecloth becomes an increasingly interesting topic. Don’t know what I am talking about? How could a cheesecloth even be interesting, you may ask.  Well… cheesecloth is so much more than just a piece of thin transparent cloth used primarily in medicine to cover wounds. It is actually very useful in cooking and a must have item in any kitchen. Ask any Chef if they have cheesecloth in their kitchen drawer, and 99% will reply – absolutely.  But, first things first. What is cheesecloth? It is a highly absorbent cotton cloth, traditionally used in cheesemaking. The number of threads running in each direction per inch determines its grade. There’re 6 cheesecloth weave grades available for purchase. The majority, however, that’s sold for home cooking doesn’t necessarily indicate the grade label, but usually it’s #10, a loose weave grade cheesecloth. The fun part is that you can control how loose or tight it is by simply layering several cheesecloth layers on top of each other, i.e. doubling the thickness of it. Great! Now we all are on the same page as to what cheesecloth really is. But how would one use it in cooking? Ways to use cheesecloth in cooking 1. Cheesemaking As the name suggests, the primary use in cooking is cheesemaking. The exact process would vary on the type of cheese you are making. To illustrate in general terms, let’s have a look at ricotta preparation as an example. First, you would separate cheese curds from the milk whey by adding an acidic liquid to your milk and brining to boil. Once we have a clear separation, second step would be to set up a deep bowl (or a wide jar) with a strainer on top, lined with a piece of cheese cloth, and pour all the liquids inside. It will stop the cheese solids from passing through the strainer and the whey will easily strain through. Add a little salt and put this set up in the fridge overnight. Salt will remove some more liquids from the milk solids in the cheesecloth. Remaining solids are ricotta cheese. 2. Straining (soups, sauces, cheeses, yogurt etc.) Liquids and solids can be easily separated using cheesecloth. It can be used by cooks to make make plant based milks and strain sauces to make them velvety and smooth, a la nape consistency. 3. Binding herbs There’re pretty much just 2 ways to bind aromatic herbs for further use in cooking stocks, broths, soups and sauces. These to ways are “bouquet garni” and “sachet”. In case of bouquet garni you’d need to use herbs that could be tied up together with a piece of baker’s twine, i.e. stems of herbs, that would work a little bouquet of herbs. Meanwhile, in sachet method, since you’re creating a small bag of herbs, you have much more options for what herbs and spices to use. The benefit of binding herbs with a cheesecloth in a sachet is that you can use loose herbs and spices, e.g. peppercorns, cloves, etc. Want to learn more about these technique and master the art of French Sauce making? Check out my online CULINARY ACADEMY with an in-depth module of making of each of the 5 Mother sauces of French Cuisine.   https://youtu.be/a7XW5XodRE0 LEARN MORE What else is cheesecloth is good for? 4. “Feeding” cakes and basting poultry If you remember, cheese cloth is a highly absorbable type of cloth. So logically, if one soaks cheesecloth in some kind of flavourful rum, wine and some type of fat, and then wraps the food in it, cheesecloth will transfer these flavours to this food items, while preserving them. That’s the principle that cooks use to soak fruit cakes in rum, and baste the Thanksgiving Turkey in wine and fat, making it moist and flavourful. 5. Dusting This one is new for me. I’ve never actually used it, but it seems kinda genius. Instead of using an ultra-fine small strainer or a special dusting cup for dusting cooking and pies with icing sugar to finish, one can simply put a pc of cheesecloth on top of a container with icing sugar and tie it with an elastic. Et voila! You’ve just DIYed a dusting cup. 6. Wrapping citrus That’s another cook way to use cheesecloth not so much in cooking itself, but rather in food plating. Many restaurants do this all the time. Just wrap half of your lemon in a piece of cheesecloth, tie nicely, and serve to your guests along side a filet of fish. While squeezing the lemon, cheesecloth will strain the juices through, preventing splashing and seeds from passing through. Very convenient and also adds a nice touch to your plate. Other uses of cheesecloth in & around the kitchen Protecting foods from flies etc. Polishing plateware and cutlery. Covering wounds. Wet Wet the cheesecloth in some water before straining a sauce. Since it’s highly absorbable cloth, making it wet before using will ensure that it doesn’t absorb any of that pressures sauce while straining.  Control Control how fine your cheesecloth is by simply layering several layers on top of each other. E.g. if you need to strain your sauce to ultra-fine consistency, use more than 1 layer of cheesecloth. Don’t try to force Ideally, do not try to force whatever you are straining through the cheesecloth. This may damage the cloth and letting undesirable larger solid particles passing through. Instead, take your time and simply let the liquid strain itself though under the gravitation force. Set up a bowl with a strainer & lined cheesecloth on top (strainer should not touch the bottom of the bowl), pour the liquid inside the cheesecloth, put the set up in the fridge and check back in a couple of hours or a day (like in Ricotta making example). You should have perfectly smooth and velvety liquid be strained though in the bowl and

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MrBeast Burger vs Kevin Hart House burger

MrBeast Burger vs Kevin Hart House

MrBeast Burger vs Kevin Hart House The undisputed victory of MrBeast Burger over Kevin Hart House showcase absolutely clearly the power of YouTube and Social Media in general. Last week one of the biggest YouTubers in the world, MrBeast opened his first physical burger restaurant. To be clear, MrBeast is not a food YouTuber, he’s not a YouTube Chef, and in as a matter of fact his videos rarely have anything to do with food. Nevertheless, a 24 year old YouTuber / entrepreneur had managed to attract a crowd of more than ten thousand people for a relatively small burger joint opening in New Jersey mall and sell an unprecedented amount of burgers on the opening day. To paint an even more colorful picture of MrBeast Burger opening: people had camped out throughout the entire mall the day before, building a line for the MrBeast Burger. Check out this video Twit from MrBeast on the grand opening day of MrBeast Burger. Who is MrBeast? If you’re living under a rock and don’t know who MrBeast is, he is an entertainment YouTuber, known for giving out money to regular people, crazy challenges and changing peoples lives. MrBeast’s total audience on YouTube as of this date is close to two hundred thousand million of subscribers over several YouTube Channels. While as his total views over time are already over twenty five billion, i.e. his videos had been watched over 25b times.  Meanwhile, around the same time, at the end of August this year, one of the biggest comedians of our days, a popular movie star, best-selling book author, Kevin Hart had also opened his first burger joint, Hart House, in the city of stars, the place where all the celebrities traditionally flock, in Los Angeles.  How popular is Kevin Hart? Kevin Hart’s popularity is a bit more difficult to calculate than MrBeast’s. There’s no direct viewership, readership or followership numbers for his movies, stand-up shows, or books. However, let’s put some numbers here to have an idea of how popular Kevin Hart is and if we can even compare him with MrBeast. If we look at Social Media only, Kevin Hart’s instagram account alone has more than hundred fifty million followers and TikTok – thirty million followers. But wait, you might say, Kevin Hart isn’t known for his social media, he’s not really a SM content creator. True, so let’s have a look at the figures that he’s actually known for. Movies. Kevin Hart’s highest grossing movie alone, Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, had made $962,542,945 in world-wide sales. Which means that at least fifty million people had watched Jumanji. And that’s just one movie featuring Kevin Hart, he played in about 90 movies and TV series.  Shows. Year after year Kevin Hart proofs to be the most successful comedian in the world, selling over one millions tickets world-wide for his shows. Forbes even named him “the king of comedy”. Books. Book sales are harder to calculate, no publisher really releases this info, but let’s just note that his “I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons” memoir had been listed among the best-sellers on Audible for years in a row ever since 2017, when it was originally published.  Simply put, if we were to compare Kevin Hart’s fame to MrBeast’s fame based just on numbers, it might be reasonably comparable. Are MrBeast and Kevin Hart famous foodies? Just like MrBeast, Kevin Hart has little to do with food. To put it in other words, neither of them are commonly associated with the culinary world.  Nevertheless, despite all the comparability in fame, when it comes to customer loyalty, general influence and the actual physical product launch, Kevin Hart does not seem to stand even close to MrBeast. Let’s just say, no-one is talking numbers and record sales when it comes to Kevin Hart’s Hart House burger place grand opening.   Our take: This blog post is not about who’s food offering is better, it’s more of an observation over how powerful YouTube community could be for physical products and services sales, and how much digital marketing and presence can win over the traditional media brand marketing. Playing an active part in the restaurant industry in North America, I personally cannot get tired of being shocked and astounded by how much the industry underestimates the importance of Social Media, especially YouTube. The industry that continuously barely survives by tiny margins, suffers the most from any kind of inflation and crisis. The industry that generally cannot afford to pay people fair wages. This same industry choses to ignore Social Media or at most not take it very seriously, consequently completely disregarding the power of a brand building and loosing in direct sales each and single day.  My online CULINARY ACADEMY Join TODAY and get an EARLY BIRD discount Once enrolled, you’ll get a LIFETIME ACCESS to the academy, incl. all the new upcoming cooking lectures and modules.   https://youtu.be/a7XW5XodRE0 ENROLL Other blog posts you might like All dumplings of the world origin Read HERE>> EASY guide to creating recipes like a Chef Read HERE>> Modern Paella Amuse Bouche recipe Read HERE>>

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Dumplings origin

All dumplings of the world origin

All dumplings of the world origin What’s the dumplings origin? What do ravioli, pierogi and gyoza have in-common? Are they all a kind of a dumpling? Is there one OG dumpling, the Ancient Dumpling that birthed all the variety of dumplings that we enjoy in present times? If you’re unfamiliar with any of the above, here’s a quick explanation for each: Indian samosas A type of a fried of baked dumplings, stuffed with spiced potatoes, peas and typically onions. Ukrainian vareniki A very close sibling of Polish pierogi. Vareniki can be stuffed with a big variety of fillings, both savoury and sweet. The most popular varies, however, except for potato one, is cottage cheese. Italian tortellini Typically an egg based pasta dough, stuffed with a mix of regional cheeses, meat, egg and regional spices. Noticeably, tortellini are often cooked and served in a broth. Chinese wontons A dumpling that is fried as often as steamed or boiled. Typically wontons are made of a very thing wheat dough and filled with a mix of vegetables and meat. Russian pelmeni Boiled dumplings, filled with a mix of minced pork, beef and onions, and often fresh herbs. Served with sour cream. Japanese gyoza A dumpling of very thin unleavened dough, filled with a mix of minced pork, cabbage and mushrooms. Typically fried on one side to create a combination of various textures. Served with either sweet and savoury sauce, or a highly acidic savoury sauce. Polish pierogi Probably the most recognizable Polish food. Pierogi is a type of dumpling, that could be stuffed with both sweet and savoury fillings. Most popular filling though is potato and cheese. Greek Ravioli A type of ravioli typically filled with feta, halloumi, dry Greek regional cheese, eggs and Mediterranean spices (cumin, oregano, thyme, etc), served with Greek yogurt. ORIGINS Now let’s talk about dumplings origin There is a food history research that suggests that there’s actually no way that OG Dumpling of all dumplings had come from China itself, since Chinese “didn’t have good flour milling technology till the Han dynasty [202BC-220AD]” – Eugene Anderson, food and nutrition scholar, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of California. In fact, food researches have no clue what’s the dumplings origin, based on the presently available archaeological and historical food research.  There’s one area of food research that might help in finding the origins of dumplings: language. Miranda Brown, professor of Chinese studies in the department of Asian languages and cultures at the University of Michigan, suggests that language plays a fundamental role and possibly is our only help in determining what was first: the ravioli or the Chinese dumplings. To summarize all the leads from one language to another, it may seem like that the dumplings origin lay in Turkish language. Who would have guessed that? … but not in Turkey itself. The migration of the Turkic peoples from Central Asia is where food scientists believe the origins of stuffed dumplings can be found. The Turks were a tribe related with the Xianbei people, who were in turn related to the Mongols, who began invading China in the early fourth century. They originated in the Altai region, where Mongolia, China, and Russia converge. The migration of the Turkic name for stuffed dumplings: “mantu”, gave rise to the Korean “mandu”, Greek “manti”, and Chinese “mantou”. This direct language correlation and similarity supports this theory of their dumpling evolution. The words for stuffed dough / pastry in Russian “pelmeni”, Ukrainian “vareniki” and Polish “pierogi” also have Turkic roots. When the dumplings had reached China, they were certainly widely adopted across various provinces, giving them various shapes, stuffings and cooking methods. Later on with the rise of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the Chinese-Turkic dumplings gained popularity in Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and other parts of Southeast Asia.  What about European dumplings origin? In Europe certainly the most dumpling-loving nation is Italy, who has tones of varieties for stuffed pasta: tortellini, tortelloni, tortelli, cappelletti, culugionnes, medaglioni, anolini and many more.  Anderson asserts that it is likely that the Arab conquistadors and traders who brought stuffed dough with them from the Middle East though the eastern Mediterranean are the ones who gave the Italians the idea of stuffed dough packets. While as Spanish and Portuguese got their dumpling varieties: empanadas and empadas, the same way.  Would you agree with these dumplings origin theories? And what’s your favourite type of dumpling? Check out this cool Map of Spread of Dumplings across Eurasia My online CULINARY ACADEMY ENROLL Other Blog Posts You Might Like EASY guide to creating recipes like a Chef Read HERE>> Modern Paella Amuse Bouche recipe Read HERE>> Apple Fett puff pastry pie recipe Read HERE>>

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creating recipes like a Chef

EASY guide to creating recipes like a Chef

Easy guide to creating recipes like a Chef Creating recipes might be one of the most challenging tasks when it comes to cooking, culinary arts and being a Chef in general. You might find yourself sometimes looking at these amazing fine-dining dishes that Michelin Star Chefs post on Instagram, TikTok or Youtube, and you tell yourself… wow! How did she come up with this?… It looks incredible, but also unachievable!  What’s the though process here? Where to start from? Well, if that you, you’re in luck! Because that’s exactly what we’ll be breaking down in this blog post, on the example of creating recipes that are a fusion of cuisines.  Hopefully, after reading this blog post on creating recipes, you’ll get from the point of someone who silently admires the works of famous Chefs, to a position of a person who can create your own unique, beautiful and most importantly delicious dishes! Dishes that tell your culinary stories. Case study: Creating fusion recipes Sit down and think, is there a specific cuisine that feels close to your heart and your want to address in your dish? For example, let’s say your family heritage comes from Asia, but you live in the US now, and you’d love to share some true Asian flavors with your American friends. If that’s the case for you, here we go! You got yourself a theme for your first independent dish: American classics with Asian flavors, a.k.a. Asian-American fusion. Let’s take this example and use it for our first case study. Make 2 Lists First of all, creating fusion dishes is A LOT of fun! It’s one of my favorite things to do in cooking. When I need to create a dish that’s a fusion of certain cuisines,  I’d usually take my notepad out and make 2 lists. 1 list for each cuisine, and include in each things like staple dish, iconic flavours, ingredients of each cuisine, and so on. Whatever comes to your mind when you think of the food of that particular country. So for example, in the list of American cuisine I’m writing: Burgers, pizza, soda drinks, high sugar levels, BBQ, ketchup, smoke, hot dogs, fast-food themes, steaks, corn, pumpkins, ranch… sorry my American friends, if what comes to my mind is too unhealthy sounding… you might have totally different things on your list, depending on where exactly you come from in the US, and your family traditions. So just do you, do your own list. And the same goes for Asian list: I have here: rice, sushi, miso, soy sauce, tofu, spice (like … Asia is also a very broad generalization, I’m just giving you an example here… you maybe narrow yourself down a bit more to a specific country or region). Is there anything in-common? Step 2, once you get 2 lists. Look for things that both of this cuisines have in common. For example, American burger has ketchup in it, and in Asian cuisine you find sweetness is also a beloved flavour. So why not, substitute Ketchup for an Asian style sauce? Or in classic burger you’d use these milk buns, why not substitute those with Asian steamed buns with a touch of sesame seeds and sweet umami sauce? You see where I’m going with this? Now it’s your time to brain storm your lists. Once you get this 1st idea, all the other ones would usually start flowing your way, you’ll need to keep up with them to note everything down. I’d recommend to write as many ideas, as you can come up with. It’s always better to have a choice at the end. If you find this blog post useful and would like to learn more about cooking like a Chef and scale UP your overall culinary game, check out my online Culinary Academy. My online CULINARY ACADEMY Start today for just $50

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