Detours. A French expat’s insider's guide to exclusive food, chocolate and travel experiences in Sydney, Australia.

Save the date for our 'Seven Wonders of Basque Cuisine' event on Feb 5!

Do you want to know more about the wonderful flavours of Basque gastronomy?

Do you want to find out why some of the most talked-about chefs in the world right now are coming from the Basque Country, from Juan Mari and Elena Arzac and Martin Berasategui (3 Michelin stars each) to Andoni Luis Aduriz of Mugaritz in San Sebastian (2 Michelin stars)?

Look no further! Join our "Seven Wonders of Basque Cuisine" in Sydney on Saturday 5th February 2011, at 12:30pm (to secure your booking, visit our event page here).

The famous 'Gateau Basque', with 'xapata' black cherries

After our successful '13 Desserts of Provence" Christmas event in December, we'll embark on a culinary journey like no other, from Bayonne and Biarritz in France to Bilbao, San Sebastian and Pamplona across the border.

We'll explore the fascinating stories and traditions behind iconic dishes and ingredients such as Espelette pepper, pintxos (the Basque tapas), the famous jambon de Bayonne (cured ham), salt cod a la Vizcaina, txipirones (baby squids) in their ink, the Basque macarons, the Gateau Basque with xapata black cherries, and so much more. 

Chocolate with street cred in Barcelona, Spain

"Rajoles" chocolates by Enric Rovira in Barcelona. Image courtesy of TrendsLab.

Barcelona is becoming to chocolate lovers what Paris and Milan are to fashionistas. The Holy Grail, the place to shop.

Of course, it's hard to beat cities like Paris, Brussels or New York when you're talking serious chocolate. But Barcelona (and Spain for that matter) is home to extremely talented, creative and innovative chocolate artisans too - with people such as Oriol Balaguer (ex-El Bulli, great interview in the New York Times earlier this month), Enric Rovia (see another post here), Cacao Sampaka, Paco Torreblanca, Bubo's Carles Mampel and Yann Duytsche producing some of the very best chocolate in the world right now.

Anyway, one of the chocolates I liked best when I last visited Barcelona were these square "Rajoles" chocolate bars created by Enric Rovira and inspired by the famous street tiles of Barcelona.

“Rajoles” is a Catalan word that means “tiles”. These tiles were designed by famous Spanish architect Josep Puig i Cadalfalch and since the beginning of the last century were used to pave the sidewalks of Barcelona. Nowadays they're a symbol of Modernism or "Art Nouveau" in Barcelona.

Jean and I in Barcelona, checking out the famous "Rajoles" tiles

Really love this idea of 'architecture meets chocolate". Enric Rovira has a whole range of tiles-inspired chocolates - including some inspired by Gaudi's famous architecture - and the chocolate is delicious too. I mean, could you imagine chocolates designed after the tiles on the roof of the Sydney Opera House, or cobblestones in old Paris?!

So tell me dear reader, if you could design your chocolate bar after your favourite monuments or architecture icon, which one would you pick?

Art meets food at Art Month Sydney 2010

I'm a colour junkie. 

And I love food. Now when both combine in a visual feast, I'm in heaven!

Which is why I LOVED LOVED LOVED the new John Olsen "Culinaria: Cuisine of the Sun" exhibition I saw this weekend at the Tim Olsen Gallery in Woollahra, as part of Art Month Sydney. I loved the warm, flamboyant colours on display as well as the fact that the paintings were named after John Olsen's favourite dishes, such as paella, coq au vin, squid ink risotto and duck a l'orange. I understand this sort of painting is not to everyone's taste, but I find it utterly energizing...

"The Bouillabaisse", or how Olsen turns his favourite recipes into stunning landscapes

Viva Espana! close-up of "The Suckling Pig"

 

John Olsen, Australia's greatest living artist, has nursed a lifelong passion for food. As a young artist, he travelled through Spain and Europe with a copy of Elizabeth David's Mediterranean cookbook under his arm, meeting with Cubist masters such as Picasso and Braque. While visiting the famous Boqueria food market off Las Ramblas in Barcelona, John said he had an epiphany.

"I loved the surrealist scene of saffron-coloured chickens and ducks, Catalan pimento sausages, black and white studded blood sausages, vegetables of vivid green and red, zucchinis, onions and eggplants," he recalls.

He later got to work in a restaurant in Mallorca as as a cooking hand and fell in love with Spanish cuisine.

"John became fascinated by how elements melded together, onions, tomatoes, splashes of golden olive oil, wine, chorizo... he thought it was alchemy," John Olsen's son and gallery owner Tim Olsen explains. "These sensations, these visions have never left him."

Chocolate blues

Was feeling kind of blue this afternoon (what's with all that rain in Sydney, enough already!!) so decided to opt for a nice chocolate pick-me-up.

These beautiful chocolates (fresh violet blooms coated in single origin dark cocoa) were brought back from my recent trip to Barcelona. They're from chocolatier-extraordinaire Enric Rovira. This guy is to chocolate what El Bulli's Ferran Adria is to haute cuisine - just amazing... 

Here's his website: guaranteed eye candy, but it's in Spanish: www.enricrovira.com