Three of my favourite traditional French tarts by Richard Wilkins, the head chef of 104 Restaurant in London. Ingredients below. Apricot Tarte Fine Puff pastry:560g bread flour150g milk140g water10g salt56g melted butter in dough456g butter to laminate To finish:Apricot jam Fresh apricots Bake for 30 min in 180 C oven.…

First day of the opening of CASA JONDAL, the new restaurant by one of my favourite chefs in Spain Rafa Zafra known for the exquisite seafood and its minimal preparation. The beach-restaurant is located on the picturesque Cala Jondal and is open daily for lunch.

by Pablo Alomar Salvioni Sake, locally known as Nihonshu, is drenched in myth and mystery. The Japanese seem to have a complex code in their DNA that defines the exclusive rules surrounding sake tasting…and their exceptions, in a deep and difficult balance. What for Europeans is black or white, for…

Curated by Aiste Miseviciute, in alphabetical order From London to Logroño- my list of the best and up-and-coming sushi masters in Europe.For some of these chefs it’s not only a job, but a lifetime quest to achieve perfection. Carl Ishizaki Sushi Sho (1 Michelin star)Upplandsgatan 45, 113 28 Stockholm, Swedensushisho.se+46…

Matt Goulding doesn’t do things by halves, and his recent James Beard award for Dining and Travel writing—specifically for his piece dubbed “Slice of Tokyo: How Japan Became a Pizza Hotspot”, for Airbnb Magazine—attests to this. Before writing about pizza, he learned how to make it, by becoming a certified…

Learning the joys of living local during the lockdown. The first days of lockdown in London already feel like another age. Maybe it’s because they were marked by never-ending queuing for food. For someone born in Lithuania duringthe last years of the Soviet Union, long queues for grocery shopping felt…

When Tea Ceremony first came to Japan, it was elaborate and “Chinese Oriented”, but everything changed with the introduction of “Wabi” by Zen monk Murata Juko, who introduced simple and rustic aesthetics vs the richness and elegance of the Chinese arts. Like Alex Kerr writes in his brilliant book “Another…

The magical world of the Japanese ceramics, which encompasses wide range of styles and aesthetics from earthin-like Bizen ware to glazed stoneware pieces and porcelain by ‘Living National Treasures” or phantasmagorical creations by young generation artists such as Takuro Kuwata. Some objects that have caught my eye recently- mainly by…

Sukiyabashi Jiro is a ten-seat sushi counter in Ginza, opened in 1965 by Jiro Ono. Long before it became known outside Japan, it was already regarded domestically as a point of reference and its reputation was based on focus and consistency. Its global fame, however, is largely tied to David…

Some of my favourite, mainly Provençal dishes and tarts, prepared by Richard, the head chef of 104 restaurant in Notting Hill (who used to work at Anne Sophie Pic 3* in Valence), and who does take away now.