London Chef Conference 2008

[FDE]

Here is a quick report on the 2008 London Chef Conference. It was a full day of talks, interviews, demos, plus breakfast, lunch, and a gala dinner created by a stellar line-up of chefs.

Speakers included Marco Pierre White talking about his career and dining trends in general:

Marcus Waring was there to sign his books:

One of the most talked about 2-star chef in Denmark, René Redzepi. He showed us more than 30 wild herbs and demonstrated a few of his signature dishes:

After lunch, an interview with two female chefs: Ramsay’s Angela Hartnett and French Laundry’s head pastry chef Claire Clark talking about their experience aboard:

Also, a demo by Arbutus and Wild Honey’s Antony Demetre:

One of the mini-masterclass was a demo of making a water-based chocolate mousse by Damian Allsop. He worked in both Can Roca and El Bulli before.

Gala dinner:

René Redzepi – Noma (2-star), Copenhagen:

Sat Bains - Restaurant Sat Bains (1-star), Nottingham:

Jason Atherton - Maze (1-star), London:

Claude Bosi - Hibiscus (rising 2-star), London:

Claire Clark - French Laundry (3-star), California:

Damian Allsop’s water-based ganaches:

More details here:

www.finediningexplorer.com/Other

[petrus]

Here is a quick report on the 2008 London Chef Conference. It was a full day of talks, interviews, demos, plus breakfast, lunch, and a gala dinner created by a stellar line-up of chefs.

Speakers included Marco Pierre White talking about his career and dining trends in general:

http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1208981487/gallery_57364_5986_47449.j

Thanks for this. I almost went, but couldn't get to the venue in time

Petrus

[Corinna Dunne]

Speakers included Marco Pierre White talking about his career and dining trends in general

Thanks for the post and great pics. What did MPW have to say about dining trends?

[FDE]

Thanks for the post and great pics. What did MPW have to say about dining trends?

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MPW was a bit weird... He said a lot of stuff not related to the original question. There were times that after a few minutes into his answer, he suddenly stopped and said, "oh, I forgot what I was trying to say, and I forgot your original question. Please repeat your question again."

Anyway, here are a few points that I remember when he was answering about dining trends.

- He thinks many young chefs nowadays use a lot of fancy strategies to cover up the their lack of technical skills in cooking.

- He doesn't understand why restaurants need to do 12, 24, or even 30+ course meals. He was in a Chicago restaurant last month and the waiter said he got a choice of 12 or 24 courses. Obviously he went for the less, 12 courses. But then the dish kept coming one after another and he had about 20 courses at the end. So he confirmed again with the waiter that he ordered 12, not 24 courses. But the waiter said that the chef created a few extra courses just for him. MPW got upset.

- He doesn't understand why Heston needs to use blow torch when roasting meat. He hopes this won't start a trend that chefs will start to blow torch on everything.

- He said these kind of molecular trends will last for a bit longer and people will soon (many of them have already) go back to the basics: fresh ingredients with simple cooking techniques.

Other stuff that he said:

- young chefs back in his time was just focused on learning skills; nowadays, the first question they ask is how much per hour and how many hours per week. Many young chefs go into this industry to get famous instead of to learn skills. He emphasized skill is your passport, once you have it, you can go anywhere. Don't try to run before you can walk.

- MPW participated in the Hell's Kitchen because he thinks the previous chefs gave a wrong impression about restaurants to the public. He wants to change the image. He still thinks that Adele should be the winner. He doesn't understand how the public voted. But he said the truth is that none of them know how to cook even though they think they do, but Adele is the best of the worst.

Other pics:

www.finediningexplorer.com/Other

[adey73]

great post, really appreciate it.

[Mark Lewis]

Glad our conference sparked some interest and debate. Check out this video of my interview with marco if you want to see what he had to say.

Marco video

Mark

Edited May 23, 2008 by Mark Lewis (log)