Interview: Robin Koda of Koda Farms : We get the history behind Kokuho Rose heirloom brown rice from California’s Central Valley

Interview: Robin Koda of Koda Farms

Located in tiny town of South Dos Palos in the heart of California’s Central Valley, Koda Farms grows Kokuho Rose, one of the only heirloom rice strains grown in California. Now helmed by siblings Robin Koda and Ross Koda, the century-old rice farm was originally founded by their grandfather…

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Pantone Food

Voici une série d’images rappelant le travail de la française Emilie Guelpa pour Fricote Magazine. En effet, Alison Anselot s’est inspirée de la couleur de certains plats pour s’amuser à composer des clichés représentant des couleurs Pantone. Une déclinaison à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

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Interview: CJ Jacobson : Favorite dishes and lessons learned with the enterprising chef

Interview: CJ Jacobson

by Vivianne Lapointe A former volleyball player, cancer survivor and Top Chef alum, Chef CJ Jacobson has been around the world twice and lived many lives. Shortly after coming back from an apprenticeship at Denmark’s Noma—owner of two Michelin stars and three “best restaurant in the world” titles—he now embarks…

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Been by D’Heygere: Digital food photos turned flashy leggings

Been by D'Heygere

by Laila Gohar During the day Stephanie D’Heygere can be spotted around the Maison Martin Margiela headquarters in Paris, where she works as part of the fashion house’s extensive collaborative of designers. By night she runs Been by D’Heygere (“been” means “leg” in Flemish), a line of leggings featuring hyperrealistic…

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Best of CH 2012: Booze + Snacks: Futuristic food cells, yerba matte beer and a 50-year-old whiskey in our look back at the year in food and drink

Best of CH 2012: Booze + Snacks

We ate and drank the best of 2012 and plan to do the same in 2013. This is the heyday of the gourmand, with everyone everywhere experimenting with ingredients and looking to explore the final reaches of the food-obsessed revolution. Below you’ll find pairings of our favorite food and drink…

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"India doesn’t value its traditions" – Shamil Thakrar at Dezeen Live

Shamil Thakrar, owner and founder of London restaurant Dishoom, laments the disappearance of traditional Irani cafes in Bombay and explains why he’s setting them up in London in this movie filmed at Dezeen Live during 100% Design.

Shamil Thakrar at Dezeen Live

Above: Miles Davis and musicians recording Kind of Blue

“India doesn’t value it’s traditions much,” says Thakrar, “[in Britain] we do look backwards a bit more for meaning. I think for us to rescue the tradition of these cafes is pretty precious.”

Cafes started by Iranian immigrants in the 1920s, which are solely based around the food and are “undesigned”, are vanishing as India “rushes towards modernity” and Thakrar says that where there used to be 400, only about 30 are left. “The children of the cafe owners don’t want to be cafe owners, they want to be bankers or accountants, so there is an adverse trend there,” he says.

Thakrar set up Dishoom in Covent Garden and more recently Shoredtich to bring the food and atmosphere of these cafes to London. “Being in a place that feels undesigned, which takes you to Bombay, we try and create that here,” he explains.

The first of five images Thakrar talks about is of Miles Davis and his musicians recording the Kind of Blue album in just one take. “This is an incredible example of art,” says Thakrar. “Miles Davis once said ‘it’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t’, which of course resonates with design and food as well, and we think about that a lot.”

Shamil Thakrar at Dezeen Live

Above: Dishoom’s pop-up restaurant on London’s South Bank last summer

Next he shows Dishoom’s pop-up restaurant on London’s South Bank last summer, made from recycled materials. “The whole idea of the pop-up was that if you take one of these cafes and walk it down to Bombay’s Chaupati Beach in 1965 and it were to take a mild acid trip, what would happen?”

Next up is a set of Tintin canvas prints. “He goes through life naive, he’s wonderfully innocent and I think we all should do that,” Thakrar says, “particularly when you’re thinking about design and food, you should come at it fresh, with a wide-eyed attitude.”

Shamil Thakrar at Dezeen Live

Above: Tintin canvas prints

A Caravaggio painting follows and Thakrar describes the similarity between the Italian artist’s depiction of flaws and the approach to designing their latest Dishoom branch.”We spent a week with our designers recently looking for those Caravaggio-esque bits, finding the parts of these old cafes we could bring alive in a different venue,” he explains.

Thakrar ends with a picture of an elderly man in his traditional restaurant in Bombay. “When you take a bite of their food, you’re tasting the century of tradition and heritage, which makes the food more than just food,” says Thakrar.

Shamil Thakrar at Dezeen Live

Above: Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus painting

Dezeen Live was a series of discussions between Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs and a number of designers and critics that took place at design exhibition 100% Design during London Design Festival this September.

Each of the four one-hour shows, recorded live in front of an audience, included three interviews plus music from Dezeen Music Project featuring a new act each day. We’ve been posting all the movies we filmed over the past few days, and you can watch all the movies we’ve featured so far here.

Shamil Thakrar at Dezeen Live

Above: a Bombay cafe owner speaking to his customer

The music featured in the movie is a track called Business Class Refugees by Indian record label EarthSyncListen to more of their songs on Dezeen Music Project.

See all our stories about food »
See all our stories about Dezeen Live »
See all our stories about London Design Festival 2012 »

The post “India doesn’t value its traditions”
– Shamil Thakrar at Dezeen Live
appeared first on Dezeen.

Best of CH 2012: Five Travel Pairings: Our most memorable destinations and a proper piece of luggage to complement the trip

Best of CH 2012: Five Travel Pairings

This year, like many before it, travel played a central role in the stories we found and the people we met. Not to mention the equipment we had the pleasure of traveling with. Knowing very well that the perfect piece of luggage can make or break a travel experience we’ve…

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a little bit more inspiration just for the weekend to start

SWEETS

Hope you didn't miss these two posts last week on Bloesem Kids…  Sweets for Christmas … AND a Chalkboard Christmas …    

Chalboard

..Bloesem Kids 

 

And Now, a Chinese Cotton Candy Craftsman

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This video is interesting on a couple levels, but I won’t ruin it:

According to the sign in the closing shot of the video, the cotton candy flower costs five yuan, or about 80 cents at the current exchange rate. Upon a bit of research, I was interested to learn that the treat debuted at the 1904 World’s Fair for the hefty sum of 25 cents a box—the equivalent of about $6.00 today. Confectioner John C. Wharton filed a patent for the first cotton candy machine in 1899 with the help of dentist William J. Morrison (irony aside, there is at least one research paper dedicated to the life and times of the sometime lawyer, author and inventor). In any case, the Nashville-based team sold nearly 70,000 boxes of “Fairy Floss,” as it was called back then—a second dentist, Joseph Lascaux of New Orleans, LA, devised a similar machine in 1921, when he coined the term ‘cotton candy’ (no word on whether infringement was an issue back then).

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As for the gauzy treat itself, cotton candy is essentially melted sugar that is rapidly cooled in a centrifuge as gossamer strands are collected along the edges of the bowl. Here’s a short and sweet vid of the ‘traditional’ way of making it:

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You Are What You Eat

Dans la lignée de la série In your Fridge par Stéphanie de Rougé, voici ce projet et cette série « You Are What You Eat » réalisée par le photographe Mark Menjivar. Un travail autour de la nourriture consommée par les américains et du reflet sur les modes de vie, grâce au shooting de différents réfrigérateurs.

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