Category Archives: Everything Else

Molecular gastronomy for the home

Posted on January 14, 2011 by Food Network UK| Leave a comment

The molecular gastronomy starter kit

Every era has its food fads. Today’s culinary sophistication is a tomorrow’s cringing embarrassment. Prawn cocktails, fondue and profiteroles – I’m looking at you. I’m obsessed with trying to spot today’s equivalents. Halloumi cheese? Tortilla wraps? Cupcakes? It’s so hard to know. It’s like when you see photographs of the eighties: everyone has bad haircuts, but they just have no idea.

I do however have a strong hunch that I have spotted the culprit and the culprit’s name is ‘molecular gastronomy’. Don’t get me wrong, I love Heston Blumenthal – he’s a wonderful, original, crackpot creative and part of a great tradition of mad British inventors. I’m really talking about the naff version that is inevitably trickling down to the lesser restaurants. No chef seems to feel fulfilled if they’re not messing around with aubergine foam or  crab ice cream. Molecular gastronomy is partly about making unlikely things work, but when it’s done badly – they just don’t work.

It won’t stop there either. MSK Ingredients have now launched a kit “to help chefs and adventurous home cooks to enter the world of molecular gastronomy and bring a little culinary wizardry to their dishes”. The kit enables cooks to make such MG standards as caviar pearls, hot jellies, hot and cold foams and a flaming sorbet. Calcium chloride,  sodium alginate and xanthan gum are among the goodies listed.

I don’t know, I’m unconvinced it’ll take off in the home. I’ve seen enough disused tagines and fondue sets – and those are easy to use. I think this may be a popular gift but yet another milestone in the slow naffing up of molecular gastronomy.

By M Cosworth

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Everything Else, Other

Tagged , ,

Stolen: London's most famous burger van

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Food Network UK| 2 Comments

Have you seen this meatwagon?

London’s most celebrated burger van has been stolen. The Meatwagon, whose patties are a legend among burger-eating circles, Tweeted at around midday that their trademark steel trailer (pictured) had been taken from a private property in Peckham.

“The Meatwagon’s been stolen,” they informed. “Keep your eyes peeled for a big steel box driving around London.” Then, “no joke guys. It’s gone.”

This year The Meatwagon was named one of London’s ten best burgers by Daniel Young, founder of Burger Mondays. It was the only burger van to make his list.

This correspondent had his first taste at the Towpath Festival in Islington last month and fell completely in love with the unctuous juicy beef, pitch-perfect cheese and bacon that had been made perfectly crispy by cunning use of cast iron weights.

Please keep your eyes open for the vehicle. They’re offering free burgers for life for any information leading to its recovery.

By M. Cosworth

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Everything Else

Tagged , ,

The reindeer controversy

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Food Network UK| 1 Comment

Swap reindeer for venison, if your conscience allows it

“Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! Comet! Cupid! Dinner and Blitzen!”  A cheap, satisfying pun, but our favourite yuletide forest creatures have indeed hit the press in the UK over the last few weeks. Lidl, super-bargain purveyor of cheap cheese and unicycles came under fire from furry-lovers Viva! (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals) for stocking reindeer meat in their chiller cabinets. 350g steaks of Siberian reindeer to be precise, and at a very festive £5.99.

This comes as no surprise to my Finnish flatmate, who tells me Äiti Mäenpää cooks a mean reindeer stew and that it’s just standard, winter warming grub.  Sort of like venison, I’m told, which of course makes perfect sense as reindeer are, after all, just deer with great headgear and a famous mate.

Back to the breaking news; appalled by the ruining of Christmas magic and slaughtering of the very magical creatures responsible for delivering Scalextric sets and Bratz dolls the world over, Viva! claim that Lidl’s reindeer stock are herded aggressively by snowbikes, “and perhaps even by helicopters”. Lidl deny all claims, counter-claiming the reindeer in question graze on their native soil, feed on “local aromatic herbs and grass”, and practice their flying in a free-range, natural environment.

If you can manage to look past the Rudolph factor, the benefits of high-protein, high-mineral and low-fat reindeer meat are clear.  All of the fat is on the outside of the animal, making it one of the most tender meats available, and it has a sweet taste, rather than gamey.  So, the unsentimental among you may wish to try substituting reindeer steaks for something similar in taste like any of these venison recipes on Food Network UK.  Just don’t tell Santa.

By Rose Enright

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Everything Else

Tagged , , ,

Give Thanks Day

Posted on November 25, 2010 by Food Network UK| Leave a comment

I don’t know about you but I’ve always been a little jealous of Thanksgiving Day. Perhaps I’m just impatient for a large family meal now that Christmas dinner is so close I can almost smell it… but on the two or three occasions I’ve been invited to a proper Thanksgiving meal, the food has been wonderful and the atmosphere warmer than a hot water bottle in, erm, a fireplace. It’s a lovely tradition.

Anyway, Food Network has today launched Give Thanks Day, to bring a little of that spirit over to this side of the pond. The idea is simple: we all have people in our lives to whom we should say a simple, out-of-the-blue ‘thank you’. Here’s a chance to do just that. The day is backed by two celebrity ambassadors, namely Ainsley Harriot and Andrea McLean and we’ve made some customisable ecards to help you on the way. Just click here to see what it’s all about.

In the meantime make a start and let us know who you want to thank and why.

By M. Cosworth

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Everything Else

Tagged , ,