Latest news with #culinaryInnovation
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Yum Cha's SG60 menu features $6 SG-inspired dim sum like bak kut teh xiao long bao, laksa chee cheong fun & more
Dim sum lovers, you're gonna want to read on. From now till 31 Aug, Yum Cha is rolling out 8 limited-edition dishes — all priced at just S$6 each in honour of SG60 — at both its Chinatown and Changi Business Park outlets. Founded in 2000, Yum Cha is a nostalgic dim sum restaurant that serves a unique mix of traditional recipes and modern creations. This time around, their special SG60 menu features inventive combos that take inspiration from iconic local flavours, like bak kut teh and laksa. With that, the top of the must-try list is their (3 pcs) — morsels of labour and love featuring a robust, 16-hour slow-steamed herbal broth turned into soupy dumpling gold, complete with goji berries and a side of dark soy sauce and chilli. A staple Singaporean and dim sum favourite in one; this one's an icon indeed! Another standout is the Handmade (3 pcs), where fragrant, coconut-rich otak is lovingly wrapped in a jade-hued spinach-infused wrapper, and topped with black tobiko for some bite and flair. Chee cheong fun is a must-order for me whenever I eat dim sum, and Yum Cha's Rice Flour Roll is a decadent reinterpretation of this classic. Think triple texture from the crispy rice net and silky skin, stuffed to the brim with crabmeat, shrimp, chicken and tau pok, and then bathed in a rich, 13-spice laksa gravy. Can't end a meal without a sweet treat? The Kopi Gao Bao (2 pcs), created in partnership with Singaporean brand Coffee Hock, pays homage to our bold and smooth kopitiam brew in the form of an oozy paste encased in fluffy steamed buns. Other dishes on the menu include the Crusty Chilli Crab (2 pcs), Fried Rice, Pork Pancake and (2 pcs). To round off your feast, spend a minimum of S$60 in a single receipt and you can purchase a handmade Five Stones set at just S$6 (U.P. S$12.80). These nostalgic beanbags reminiscent of Singapore's kampung days are sewn by artisans with special needs, through Yum Cha's collaboration with SG Enable and Re:store to support inclusivity. (p.s. Challenge against Yum Cha's in-house Five Stones Champions for a shot at winning a S$20 dining voucher!) At Yum Cha this SG60, celebrate by enjoying good food, all while giving back and reminiscing the good ol' days of sunny Singapore. For a list of locations, opening hours and phone numbers, click here. Neptune Hong Kong Dim Sum: 20 types of steamy treats worth waking up extra early for The post Yum Cha's SG60 menu features $6 SG-inspired dim sum like bak kut teh xiao long bao, laksa chee cheong fun & more appeared first on
Condé Nast Traveler
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Condé Nast Traveler
The Supper Clubs and Pop-Ups Revitalizing Cairo's Food Scene
It's a weekday night in May in downtown Cairo and chef Dina Hosny is pulling together a seven-course meal in a makeshift kitchen. The Kodak Passageway, once a warehouse, garage, and Kodak store, has been transformed into The Corner Shop, a two-week pop-up celebrating Egypt's culinary culture. Hosny, who has a diploma from Le Cordon Bleu London, is serving up duck with kumquat doum jus, smoked aubergine areesh ravioli with roumy cream, and a dessert of date paste kahk pie with shay be laban (tea with milk) gelato and hibiscus syrup. Innovation is the order of the day, with local ingredients at the fore whenever possible. Cairo's food scene has seen a surge in such events, from pop-ups and farm-to-table lunches to fine-dining supper clubs, offering diverse and innovative alternatives to the capital's more mainstream restaurants. The chefs span from self-taught to culinary school alumni, and the food is Egyptian, international or a blend of both, while the venues are similarly varied, encompassing homes, restaurants, and outdoor spaces, to art galleries and, even, clothing shops. 'It's going wild. Everyone's doing it,' Hosny says. 'I think it's great that people are looking for new experiences.' Kodak Passageway is an initiative by Flavour Republic, the mastermind behind the annual Cairo Food Week, which will take place for the third time in September. Hoda El Sherif, the founder of the event, says the post-COVID era has fundamentally reshaped the city's dining landscape. Diners 'craved more intimate and immersive experiences,' she says, while 'a new generation of chefs—eager to carve out their identity and bypass the traditional barriers of the industry— embraced the model as a launch pad for their careers.' This sense of experimentation is exciting, especially for Cairo, where the culinary scene is not known for eagerly embracing the new. Another pop-up chef, Kareem El Nagdy, who hosts his 12-person Comida by Ken supper club in his Maadi apartment goes so far as to call the trend a 'kind of food revolution in Egypt.' If you're hungry for something new, here are Cairo's best new culinary experiences to have on your radar. On the table at NatureWorks, the decor incorporates local flora. Courtesy NatureWorks NatureWorks, a hydroponic farm in the Sheikh Zayed suburb, offers lunches. Courtesy NatureWorks NatureWorks NatureWorks, a hydroponic farm in the Sheikh Zayed suburb, offers a true farm-to-table experience using its homegrown products such as leafy greens and edible flowers. Founded in 2017, the farm has been putting on its pop-up lunches and dinners for the past four years. The first event with New Zealand-born Egyptian-Chinese celebrity chef Bobby Chinn was hugely popular. Since then, NatureWorks has collaborated with Italian chef Giorgio Diana, Peruvian Martin Rodriguez of Izakaya Cairo, physician-turned-chef Wesam Masoud and Khufu's executive chef Mostafa Seif, among others.
Zawya
09-06-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Leadership Announcement: Tarun Jewalikar joins Novotel and Adagio Premium Dubai Al Barsha as Cluster F&B Director
Dubai, United Arab Emirates — Accor is proud to announce the appointment of Tarun Jewalikar as Cluster Director of Food and Beverage for Novotel Dubai Al Barsha and Adagio Premium Dubai Al Barsha. Tarun steps into this new leadership role with an invested motive to redefine the F&B offering as a destination-led experience, championing culinary innovation, commercial excellence, and sustainability. Tarun previously served as Cluster F&B Manager for Accor's Deira Waterfront cluster, overseeing operations across Ibis Styles, Mercure Hotel, and Adagio Dubai Deira. Under his guidance, the cluster achieved significant milestones like strong profitability metrics across all properties, a highly motivated team and industry-recognized sustainability initiatives. He led the successful launch of restaurant and bar concepts, high-profile regional events, and established impactful partnerships with local and international brands. In his new role, Tarun will spearhead a transformative vision for Novotel and Adagio Premium Dubai Al Barsha, positioning the hotels' F&B offerings as standalone lifestyle destinations. His leadership is anchored in a people-first culture, where team development, inclusion, and performance optimization take center stage. He will be responsible for leading F&B strategy, innovation, and commercial performance, while delivering curated and mystical guest experiences designed to elevate brand perception and customer loyalty. Speaking on his appointment, Tarun Jewalikar commented: 'I'm honoured to take on this new challenge with Accor. My vision is to evolve hotel dining into destination-led experiences that resonate emotionally and culturally with our guests, while driving meaningful value for our teams, owners, and the community.' A known pioneer in ESG-forward hospitality, Tarun has led impactful sustainability programs including zero-waste initiatives, hydroponic partnerships, and local sourcing collaborations aligned with Accor's brand and ownership values. Tarun holds an MBA in Global Hospitality Management from Les Roches Global Hospitality School, Switzerland, and a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Hotel and Restaurant Management from Oxford Brookes University, UK. Accor congratulates Tarun on his new role and looks forward to his continued impact in elevating hospitality experiences across the region. About Novotel Dubai Al Barsha Situated in the heart of Dubai, Novotel Dubai Al Barsha is designed to meet the requirements of travellers and residents alike. The property offers a relaxed yet lively atmosphere, inviting guests to make everyday moments matter. With an intuitive design and a range of rewarding experiences, the property promises a sharp urban-style living coupled with a comfortable atmosphere. Novotel Dubai Al Barsha offers the perfect destination to connect with family, friends and colleagues. Novotel Dubai Al Barsha won TripAdvisor's Travellers Choice Award and is rated Fabulous by guests on for its lively ambiance and a team of passionate Heartists. The Novotel Dubai Al Barsha offers to guests' exclusive savings and rewards as part of its lifestyle loyalty programme – ALL: Accor Live Limitless. Members can earn and redeem points and enjoy savings for every stay while discovering a world of unique benefits such as room upgrades and exclusive discounts in participating restaurants and more.
New York Times
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Jonnie Boer, Dutch Chef With 3 Michelin Stars, Is Dead at 60
Jonnie Boer, a Dutch chef who started as a cook at De Librije in Zwolle, the Netherlands, four decades ago and never left, steering the restaurant to wide acclaim with humble ingredients plucked from nearby streams and fields, died on April 23 on the Caribbean island of Bonaire. He was 60. The cause of his death, in a hospital, was a pulmonary embolism, according to a representative from his restaurant. Mr. Boer was foraging, fishing, fermenting and flying in the face of received notions about fine dining years before those things became pillars of the New Nordic movement. He didn't give up entirely on foie gras and caviar, but they shared the menu, and sometimes the plate, with pikeperch, tulip bulbs and chickweed. 'His belief was, 'Everything that grows here is just as good as something that grows somewhere else,'' Nico Bouter, a Brooklyn chef who worked under Mr. Boer for 10 years, said. 'Beetroot was his favorite ingredient. He liked the challenge of this almost boring, cheap vegetable.' If critics and food guide inspectors did not necessarily look forward to eating eels and weeds when they first walked into De Librije, they soon got used to it, and even learned to like it. The restaurant steadily climbed in the Michelin Guide's estimation, until it was given three stars in 2004. It has stayed at that peak every year since, an unbroken streak that few restaurants in the world have matched and that, after Mr. Boer's death, inspired Dutch social media users to call him 'the Roger Federer of chefs.' De Librije took its name from its original site, the library of a 15th-century Dominican abbey. Ten years ago, Mr. Boer and his wife, Thérèse Boer-Tausch, moved their restaurant into the covered courtyard of an 18th-century building where they had amassed a small colony of businesses, including a wine bar, a cooking school, a second restaurant and a boutique hotel. As the Boers renovated the structure, they retained some remnants of its past life as a women's prison. As they put it on their website, 'The cell doors, bars on the windows, and the 'cachot' (dungeon) create a unique look and atmosphere.' The Boers' establishments moved to their own rhythms, which often had a rock backbeat rarely heard in restaurants that hope to impress Michelin inspectors. Desserts at De Librije were assembled tableside, on a rolling cart inspired by Mr. Boer's favorite record, Van Halen's cover of the blues song 'Ice Cream Man,' with the band's winged logo painted on the side, below the song's title. Mr. Boer wasn't afraid of a carefully timed drug reference, either. De Librije sent diners off into the night with edible herbal joints inside glass pre-roll tubes, and the restaurant was placing small morsels of beef tartare on the back of diners' hands, like bumps of cocaine, years before Manhattan was swamped by caviar bumps. The dining-room playlists Mr. Boer collaborated on with Hans Stroeve, a local D.J., would progress from deep house music early in the evening to 'Livin' on a Prayer' and other raised-lighter stadium anthems as it got later. 'If Jonnie felt like guitars in the restaurant, you heard guitars in the restaurant,' Mr. Stroeve said. Jan Boer was born on Jan. 9, 1965, in the village of Giethoorn, about 70 miles northeast of Amsterdam. His parents, Lebbertus and Hennie Boer, owned a cafe called De Harmonie, and young Jan would sometimes wander into the kitchen to fry duck eggs or eels he had turned up while exploring the waterways. His education and training as a cook took place entirely in the Netherlands. After attending culinary school in Groningen, Mr. Boer spent three years working at a fine-dining restaurant in Amsterdam. In 1986, he answered a help-wanted ad and was hired by the owner of De Librije, who promoted him to chef soon after. The dining room was rarely full, he later recalled, which gave him time to experiment at the stove and gave the owner, who was in his 60s, time to contemplate retirement. Mr. Boer met Thérèse Tausch, a hotel-school student, at a disco, twice. The second meeting took. After she began working as a server in De Librije's dining room, he would pick her up at the bus stop in his Opel Kadett sedan. She appreciated the ride, but the car often seemed noisy to her. After a few weeks, she discovered that the banging she heard coming from the luggage compartment in the back seat was made by young lambs that Mr. Boer was driving from the farm to the slaughterhouse. The couple offered to buy De Librije in 1993, applying to a local bank for a loan — 'the only time in my life that I wore a tie,' Mr. Boer said in a 2017 interview. They married three years later. With his wife overseeing the wine cellar and the service in the restaurant they now owned, Mr. Boer overhauled the kitchen to revolve around local oddities that few Dutch chefs bothered with: pimpernel, pine tips, meadowsweet, birch sap, bog myrtle. What he wasn't able to serve right away was salted, fermented or made into vinegar. Eventually, what he gathered in the wild, often during weekend excursions on his black Harley-Davidson motorcycle, was planted in De Librije's greenhouse and kitchen garden. 'He was always looking for products from the neighborhood,' said Arjan Bisschop, a Dutch chef who went to work for Mr. Boer in 1998. 'In the 1990s, that was very unusual.' Mr. Boer's preference for homegrown flavors extended to the dishes he served, which drew from Dutch tradition at a time when many ambitious chefs in the Netherlands still defaulted to French ideas. One of his signature desserts was a disassembled apple pie based on his grandmother's recipe, with pan-fried apple cubes and whipped-cream rosettes laid out alongside sleight-of-hand components like trompe l'oeil vanilla beans made from vanilla gel and chocolates in the shape of star-anise pods. As Mr. Boer's reputation grew, he masterminded in-flight meals for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and 'Taste of De Librije' menus for Holland America cruise ships. The Boers never cloned De Librije, but they opened two more-relaxed restaurants in Zwolle, Brass Boer and Senang. Brass Boer also has outposts on the Dutch-speaking islands of Curaçao and Bonaire, where the couple owned a beachside brasserie, Club Tropicana. And in 2022, the Boers' company bought Brasserie Jansen, a 10-year-old restaurant in Zwolle. Recently, Mr. Boer began enacting an orderly succession plan for the empire he owned with his wife, giving a stake in the company to De Librije's head chef. He also gave stakes to the couple's daughter, Isabelle, and their son, Jimmie, who both survive him, along with his wife and two brothers, Roelie and Berrie Boer. After a memorial service at De Librije, Mr. Boer left the restaurant for the last time in a blue-and-purple coffin his friends had painted with his name and an image of a skull and crossbones. The coffin was placed on the sidecar of his Harley and driven to the cemetery, escorted by a dozen motorcycles and two of Mr. Boer's Porsche convertibles.
South China Morning Post
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
This week in PostMag: HK's underground ballroom scene and Chinese fine dining
Over the decade I lived in mainland China, one of the most exciting things was witnessing the rise of a new generation of Chinese chefs. In 2013 Beijing, contemporary fine dining meant course after course generously showered in black truffle, accompanied by thick medallions of foie gras or, should the kitchen be quite forward-thinking, perhaps there would be hints of molecular gastronomy present on the plate. It was almost definitely Western or perhaps it was Dong Zhenxiang at Da Dong – most known for his roast duck but also one of the first Chinese chefs to weave in Western culinary influence. Advertisement Chinese cooking, as delicious, fascinating and boundless as I found it, seemed frozen in time. Masterful in its technique, complexity and artistry? Yes. 'Authentic'? Yes. But where was the young energy looking to innovate, evolve and push the limits, especially in the world of high-end dining? This changed over the years – and at 'China speed', no less. By 2017 and 2018, up-and-coming talent across the country was beginning to experiment with what a new way of Chinese cooking might look like. I found this thrilling. So for me, it was exciting to read about Lin Zihan at Wild Yeast in Hangzhou, where Hei Kiu Au discovers his ever-evolving, nuanced approach to what it means to be a young Chinese chef in the fine-dining world. It's a restaurant for the bucket list. I'll tell you, the ginger brown sugar soufflé inspired by a snack from his hometown of Taizhou looks absolutely scrumptious. Exploration of identity courses through this issue. In our cover feature, Hsiuwen Liu experiences Hong Kong's underground ballroom scene. It's a subculture I knew little about – a platform for queer self-expression grown out of 1970s New York – and I'm glad to see it blossoming in its own way here. The photos of the evening capture a fearlessness and pride that are inspiring. Advertisement In some way – though a very different time, place and context – I was reminded of this same level of fearlessness in physicist Wu Chien-shiung, whose story Samuel Porteous tells. Facing all odds in mid-century America, she changed our understanding of a fundamental rule of modern physics.
