‘Brèves de comptoir’ are authentic quotations collected from everyday life and particularly gossips at the bistrot. Absurd borders on humour or poetry, news and sometimes philosophy. Mine are of course food oriented, a concentrate of what feed my life, what I swallow every day, what I read, hear, try, taste… In London and the world…

• The new ‘tendance’ is the raspberry ketone (aroma compound of raspberry, cranberry and blackberry) Marketed for weight loss, the slogan is ‘eat this and never be on diet ever again’… Apparentely it’s not proven yet so one advice, eat raspberry and if you add crème fraiche to it, go running or cycling, that’s the best kept secret that everybody knows.
• Joël Robuchon launched his sushi collection 2014 for the sushi shop.
• Found across Africa, Brazil and Asia, the jack fruit and its strange smell (smell of decay, yes) can provide so many nutrients and calories that could be a wheat and corn replacement. It survive pests, high temperature and drought and it’s underexploited compared to what it can bring. That makes the subject of a study for the fight against world hunger.
• Finished the wasabi paste, let’s buy some fresh one made in UK ! The wasabi company is the first of that kind in Europe. Chefs are mad about it. http://www.thewasabicompany.co.uk/
• Boiling, baking or mashing a truffle would make every chef and myself burst in tears as we respect that treasure so much. Not in Namibia… In Namibia, the Kalahari truffle or truffle of the dessert is smooth like a potato and cheap. Distant from its French kin, it was also used by the Bedouin as remedies and is now a delicacy for chefs and considered as the best thing that earth can make by locals.
• Soylent is the new food substitute created by an American engineer. Avoid the cost and the time spent on cooking everyday was the aim, skipping over everything enjoyable food can bring to our life. With all the nutriments the body needs to live, the powder is to mix with water and would have a cake taste. A journalist made the experience, spent one week on Soylent only. After verifications, he didn’t put on weight at all but said that he felt miserable, stressed and depressed for the whole week.
• After the cronuts and doffins (crossbreeding between muffin, croissant and doughnuts) the waffogato is born. From the Italian ‘affogato’ (flooded) the waffogato is a mini waffle, dropped in coffee and covered with maple syrup.
• Both celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver and Marco-Pierre White have been given a very bad food hygiene rating in their restaurant. 1 for Jamie and 0 for Marco, O this is unheard of !
• What a surprise for me when I heard that ‘Nutella’ had been created by a man and furthermore Italian ! I’ve always thought it was by a woman….French. Nutella celebrates its 5O’ this year and makes Mr Michele Ferrero (yes the one from the Rocher as well) the Italy’s richest man. One jar of Nutella is sold every 2.5 second worldwide.
• A Cambridge firm has created a device that uses a culinary technique known as spherification to build pieces of fruit using flavoured gel. Droplets of gel are dropped into a dish of solution, pictured, and positioned in such a way to mimic the shape and colour of various fruits Intended to enhance our dinner party and also to make what God Ferran Adria is already making by hand for years.