Michelin dining for Parkinson’s patients
Coming down with Parkinson’s Disease doesn’t always mean you have to give up the pleasure of dining out at Michelin-starred restaurants. Two Italian chefs, Alessandro Negrini and Fabio Pisani, have specially adapted recipes from their two-Michelin-starred restaurant Il Luogo Aimo e Nadia in Milan to inspire Parkinson’s patients and their carers to cook nutritious and tasty dishes.
The recipes were developed together with a nutritionist who specialises in Parkinson’s for My Perfect Dish, a newly launched online resource endorsed by the European Parkinson’s Disease Association (EPDA). Besides watching video demos and obtaining scientifically backed recipes and advice on the best time to eat, key food categories, and recommended food intake, website users can also download and print personalised dietary plans and tailored shopping lists.
Durian, durian, everywhere
Durian season is back again. Whether you belong in the love-it or hate-it camp, ingenious chefs across Singapore have given the “king of fruits” 1,001 creative spins - from the Korean bingsu-style chilled durian puree shaved ice from Blue Lotus Eating House, to the classic durian-encased cheong fun from House of Rice Roll and Porridge on Killiney Road, and Candlenut Kitchen's deluxe “durian soup” - really a melange of durian ice cream and purée, with a sprinkle of crispy feuilletine flakes.
Not to be outdone, a crop of innovative chefs in Hong Kong and mainland China are also upping the ante with unthinkable combos such as durian curry crabs, durian pizza and even a highly divisive durian hot pot. Fusion, confusion - or odour pollution?
Top Michelin chefs head back to school
When the world’s top Michelin-rated chefs Rene Redzepi, Alex Atala, Michel Troisgros and friends got together a week ago, it wasn’t in the heat of a shared kitchen but - would you have guessed it - rifling through 17th century recipes in the Yale University library. The chefs were on the US university campus for the inaugural MAD Yale Leadership Summit, a week-long gathering organised by Yale and MAD, Redzepi's international culinary symposium and non-profit think tank. The yearly MAD symposiums have been organised by the acclaimed Danish chef behind two-Michelin-starred Noma in Copenhagen since 2011.
Through seminars, lectures, field trips, and - of course - tasty cook-outs, leading chefs from over six countries and Yale College's students and research assistants discussed ideas and principles that would help them think “creatively and critically” about systemic issues that affect the food industry. According to Redzepi, the program will be extended to two weeks in 2017 and expanded to host 15 to 18 chefs every two years.
