Mad, the food knowledge project of Noma’s René Redzepi, is travelling through Japan at the moment, meeting sake enthusiasts and miso-making grandmothers, and blogging about all manner of culinary discoveries along the way: it’s bound to be a gripping ride.
As a taster of the above, watch soba master Tatsuru Rai’s performance from Mad4, last year’s instalment of Mad’s annual conference (the TED of the food world). Rai prepares, on a subtly lit stage, four bowls of buckwheat noodles from scratch, which his kimono-clad wife, Midori, then serves to members of the audience. It’s mesmerising.
Cook has found a keeper, a true can’t-put-it-downer: The Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler (Scribner, 2011), a beautifully written ode to cooking and the time it takes to do it well. A Chez Panisse alumnus and New York Times magazine columnist, Adler wields words as she does saucepans: with poise, reverence and delight. A few pages in and your breathing has slowed, your tastebuds awakened, she’s got you pulling up a chair and dreaming about dinners to make and share.
If you, like Cook – and Audrey Tautou in Amélie – love the prospect of burying your fists into a sack of grains and nuts and seeds, online muesli purveyors Alara are about to make your day. Scroll through the list of 50-plus ingredients (Alara, if you’re listening, we choose puffed amaranth, rye flakes, freeze-dried blueberries, coconut powder, brazil nut slices and a dusting of cinnamon) and 1kg of bespoke breakfast mix wings its way to your postbox.
Spotted on at least two Cook contributors (blogger Rachel Roddy and food stylist Rosie Reynolds), the Muji apron – knee-length and capacious, with shoulder straps and a front pocket – is currently on sale for £24.95. If Cook had a team uniform, this would be it.
“What have you discovered in the world of food this week? Share your finds with us in the comments below.”
