Taste

Christine Schauflinger's Strudel

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 14:16:00 GMT

A moment of paper-thin, doughy zen from strudel queen Christine Schauflinger, chef and owner of Gasthaus Theuerwang.

S1E2 - Harold McGee & Flavor Illusions

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Redzepi sits down with Harold McGee, the writer who has done more than anyone else to explain the science of flavor to the world, and the author of On Food and Cooking—a book we can pretty much guarantee all chefs have on their shelf. They discuss pleasure, the flavors that have stuck with them since childhood, and what’s really going on in your brain when you put something in your mouth.

On Food, Authenticity, and Culture

Fri, 12 Oct 2018 00:00:00 GMT

Romy Gill is the self-taught chef and owner of Romy’s Kitchen, a Punjabi/Bengali Indian restaurant in Bristol where she combines ingredients and techniques from her Indian heritage with those of her home country, the United Kingdom. Gill has been awarded with the title Member of the Most Excellent Order by the British Queen for her outstanding service to British and Indian food.

Side by side on stage with the MAD Dispatches Editor, Chris Ying, Romy introduces us to her story. Romy and Chris break down what authenticity means, and discuss what it means to take a cultural artifact out of its original locality, or in other words: the significance of exploring Indian cuisine in a British context.

Vivre la Cuisine

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Michel Bras is one of the most iconic chefs that have ever lived.

He was born to a blacksmith–father and chef–mother in Gabriac in 1946. He schooled in a nearby town and from an early age started helping his mother tend her pots at the family’s hotel/restaurant, Lou Mazuc. Bras credits his mother with introducing him to the cuisine of Aubrac — the region of his birth and upbringing.

Michel never left the Lou Mazuc kitchen to train elsewhere, he studied culinary literature, philosophy and photography in his spare time and cooked from intuition – as he continues to do today. At thirty-three, he took over the inn from his parents and his innovative cooking led to Lou Mazuc winning two Michelin stars.

He continued here until 1992 when he opened the hotel/restaurant Michel Bras. It is an ultra-modern structure nearly all of glass with slate and granite, which sits on a plateau overlooking the landscape of Aubrac. In 1999, he was awarded three Michelin stars.

Michel has published several books under his name, including the seminal 2002 cookbook Essential Cuisine (which he took all the photos for himself). He also opened an eponymous restaurant in the Windsor Hotel Toya in Hokkaido, Japan in 2002.

Insects & Plants Together for Life

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:00:00 GMT

Alex Atala began his career at 19 in Belgium, at the École Hôtelière de Namur. He went on to work at Jean-Pierre Bruneau’s 3-star Michelin restaurant there before moving to France and the Hotel de la Cote d'Or with Bernard Loiseau. Stints in Montpellier and Milan followed before returning to São Paulo in 1994.

His work at several restaurants around the city immediately attracted the attention of media and customers. By the end of 1999, he opened D.O.M.restaurant, where he was one of the first to use indigenous and Amazonian produce in a fine-dining setting.

Alex went on to publish Por uma Gastronomia Brasileira, a two-volume cookbook of recipes and documentary photographs featuring native Brazilian ingredients.

In April 2011, D.O.M. was rated the 7th best restaurant in the world in the S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best list whilst also winning the title of ‘Aqua Panna Best Restaurant In South America.’ In 2009, Alex opened his second restaurant, Dalva e Dito, to critical acclaim.

Fäviken: How We Do Things

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Magnus Nilsson is the chef of Fäviken Magasinet in northern Sweden and one of the world’s most exciting young chefs.

Raised not far from the restaurant, the young Magnus loved marine biology and cooking. Eventually choosing to pursue the latter, he attended a local cooking school before joining Pontus in the Greenhouse as a pastry chef. At twenty however, he left Sweden for France and an internship at the then-new l’Astrance. After this, he spent a short time at l’Arpege before returning to Sweden. By Christmas 2003, he was in Paris again and back at l’Astrance, where he went on to spend three years.

Once back in Stockholm, he had begun to lose interest in cooking and enrolled in an oenology course. In 2006, Magnus actually arrived at Fäviken, aged twenty-four, not having cooked in two years and intending to be the restaurant’s sommelier.

When the incumbent chef left in 2008, Magnus was left the sole employee and therefore decided to run both kitchen and front of house. He hasn’t looked back since.

Food Microbiology: An Overlooked Frontier

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

David Chang is chef/owner of the Momofuku restaurant group, which includes Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, Má Pêche, Milk Bar, Momofuku Ko all in NYC and Momofuku Seiōbo in Sydney, Australia. Since 2009, Ko has held two Michelin stars.

After graduating from Trinity College, where he majored in religious studies, David pursued a variety of jobs, including teaching English in Japan, bussing tables and finance positions. He worked at Mercer Kitchen then at Tom Colicchio's Craft for two years before returning to Japan and a small soba shop, followed by a restaurant in Tokyo's Park Hyatt. Once back in America, he joined Café Boulud.

In 2004, he opened his first Momofuku restaurant, Noodle Bar, in the East Village and Momofuku has been growing ever since.

A Short History of the Beet

Tue, 07 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Daniel Patterson is an American chef, restaurateur and food writer; he is also considered a leading proponent of California cuisine.

A self-taught chef, hee began working as a restaurant dishwasher at age fourteen and attended Duke University before dropping out. In 1989 he moved to Sonoma, California with his then-partner, with whom he opened Babette's, a French-inspired restaurant in 1994. It closed in 1999 when the lease expired. The pair then launched Elisabeth Daniel together in 2000, before he moved to become head chef at Frission.

In 2006, Daniel opened Coi and went on to win two Michelin stars two years later. Two more critically-acclaimed restaurants have followed, across the Bay: Plum and Haven.

Daniel is also an avid writer about food, contributing to New York Times Magazine, Food & Wine Magazine and San Francisco Magazine.

Fulvio in Exile

Mon, 23 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Fulvio Pierangelini is an Italian chef who began cooking professionally in 1977. In 1980, he took over the dilapidated seafood restaurant Gambero Rosso, in San Vincenzo, Tuscany and turned it into one of the best restaurants in the country. He closed the business in 2008.

About MAD:

MAD is a non-profit transforming our food system by giving chefs and restaurateurs the skills, community, time, and space to create real and sustainable change.

Delineating the Edible and Inedible | Nordic Food Lab

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Nordic Food Lab was a non-profit, self-governed gastronomic research institution, established in 2008 by the head chef of Noma Rene Redzepi and gastronomic entrepreneur Claus Meyer. Its purpose was to explore the building blocks of Nordic cuisine through traditional and modern gastronomies, and to share these results with chefs, academics, industry, and the public. From a houseboat in Copenhagen harbour, a group of professionals investigates old and new raw materials and techniques, developing knowledge and ideas for the Nordic region and the world.

After four years of joint operation of the Nordic Food Lab (NFL), the

NFL’s Board of Directors will transfer the entire NFL to the Department

of Food Science at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH FOOD). The

self-governing NFL will close down, while its activities will continue

as part of the Future Consumer Lab

About MAD:

MAD is a non-profit transforming our food system by giving chefs and restaurateurs the skills, community, time, and space to create real and sustainable change.