Tag: Chef

Chef for dogs, the gourmet trend for man's best friend – Italian Cuisine

What our pets eat must be "healthy" like what we eat. Dog chefs are born. Here are their stories, their tips and a recipe for making homemade cookies for our four-legged friend

The chef for dogs it's the last one gourmet trend, dedicated to man's best friend, who is slowly gaining ground all over the world. This is no longer a whimsical star in Paris Hilton or found advertising of the puppy influencer: We are talking about a real professional service (even affordable) to keep the beloved four-legged in health and in shape with special attention.

After the beer for dogs, the dog street food and the Candoro or the Canettone for Christmas, just take a ride on the web to find different offers of quality pet friendly and with just a few clicks you can receive straight home in the bowl of your dog so inviting a delicacy that would want to share … and sometimes it is also possible! We took a quick tour of the world to give you three examples of how the trend is not isolated or elitist. From the United States to Belgium, to Italy, discover with us 3 protagonists Pet Chef + one recipe all-Italian for your four-legged friend.

United States – The Dog Chef

Back in 2005, Kevyn Matthews he began the profession of chef specializing in pets. Through the creation of personalized food plans, he realizes he can also take care of high quality fresh food: «If it's not good for me to eat, then it's not even for my dog, is the philosophy of The Dog Chef. Between passion and competence, he then opened his own Dog Chef Café Baltimore which counts thousands of fans between bipeds and quadrupeds. For nearly fifteen years, chef Matthews has been providing balanced and healthy meals that can be purchased online. For example, there is a monthly subscription Fresh Meal Plan $ 35 that is built on the responses of the owner of the animal based on its characteristics and habits. Not missing the Froyo, frozen yogurt in four flavors (Bacon Molasses, Peanut Butter & Banana, Mixed Berry & Ice Cream Sundae) which is a delicious reward for the dog, also a source of calcium, potassium and magnesium, in addition to probiotics that help improve the health of the immune and digestive system. The highlight is the Anxiety Squares, four brownies for $ 40 that promise to reduce anxiety or arthritis pain thanks to100% organic cannabis oil. In collaboration with veterinary professionals, chef Matthews self-proclaims the original chef dog.

Balanced and delicious snack from The Dog Chef Café, Baltimore.

Belgium – Dog Chef

Name similar to the American chef Matthews, here it is a catering service founded in Brussels by Alex Cardon and two members: Dog Chef. Having noted the growing habit of feeding more pets with home-prepared food rather than packaged, Alex & co. choose to offer a healthy alternative by cooking only high quality products, so much so that they could be eaten by humans too! They started with a limited offer of two dishes, but high standards: chicken with rice and vegetables, or beef with pasta and vegetables. "There's not much choice, but it's better than what dogs eat every day!", Cardon jokes about The Bulletin. The recipes are then changed thanks to the continuous collaboration with the University of Liège. So now we find the cod / salmon combo with quinoa, beef with lentils, chicken with rice and vegetables; all carefully described in detail. Much attention is given to the portions, which are calibrated according to age, weight and physical conformation of the dog.

A satisfied customer of the Dog Chef service, Belgium.

Italy – Cheffa Dog

Cheffa Dog, a century Sonia Orlandi, of Rome, transforms his passion for cooking and love for animals into a real profession. Pushed by friends, she opens her blog to collect her recipes for 100% natural dogs, which she compiles following the guidelines of veterinary nutritionists. "Becoming a pet chef was not a choice made at a table, it was more a becoming, the logical consequence of what I was doing," says Sonia. «The first invitations to trade shows have begun with the request for show cooking … To show people that there is nothing complicated and reveal my tricks learned in years and years of cooking and testing has become a mission. The result is an illustrated recipe book published just over a year ago in collaboration with MondoFido: Dog recipes: Homemade cooking in bowl. From the Dog-Sushi up to Bau Pasticcini, Cheffa Dog makes it easy to make tasty and nutritionally balanced bowls for your dog. Among advice on nutrition and advice from the vet, Cheffa Dog becomes the reference point for those looking for practical and healthy solutions to pamper your four-legged friends. Here is a recipe that is easy to make.

Dog biscuits with apple and carrot of Cheffa Dog

Ingredients

200 g of wholemeal flour
100 g of 00 flour
1 small carrot
1 big apple or 2 small
2 teaspoons of honey
1 egg
a generous sprinkling of powdered cinnamon
grated lemon rind
1 tablespoon of sunflower oil

Preparation

Before starting to knead, turn the oven on at 180 ° so as to find it already at the temperature when baking.
Cut the apple into small pieces and cook in a saucepan with a cup of water until it is so soft that you can crush it well with a fork.
Add the cinnamon and mix well.
Finely grate the well washed raw carrot and set aside.
On the work surface, put the two flours together, form a fountain and carefully put all the ingredients in the center.
Start to knead starting from the center, slowly mixing everything together.
Form a soft dough like a short pastry, if too soft add another whole wheat flour, while if too hard, add a tablespoon of water.
Spread the dough half a centimeter thick and cut with a cookie cutter form.
Put the prepared biscuits in a baking sheet covered with baking paper and bake for about 15-20 minutes at 180 ° in the previously heated static oven.
When the biscuits appear browned, switch off and let them cool in the oven with the door open.
They are kept for about 15-20 days in a hermetically sealed jar.

Dog biscuits with apple and carrot of Cheffa Dog.

Organize the kitchen of the house like that of a restaurant in 6 moves, with the guide of the chef – Italian Cuisine

Working in your own home with the efficiency of a cook in a professional kitchen: it is not impossible, if you follow some simple instructions

Whether it's preparing dishes everyday or cooking for a great occasion, the organization of the kitchen is essential: if everything is clean, tidy, well prepared, the work becomes easier and faster. This is the approach that is followed in restaurants (in those that work well, of course), and that we want to try to "copy" and export to our homes. Of course, certain things are impossible: none of us has a brigade available to help them or professional equipment. However, there are no obvious precautions that can make the way we move in the kitchen more effective. Someone reveals it to us Flavio Forte, chef ofHostaria Quinto Quarto of Monza. Six tips that always refer to the concepts of order, cleanliness and attention to quality: very useful rules even in smaller kitchens and that allow you to eat quickly and well.

1) Check refrigerator and pantry before deciding what to prepare: knowing with certainty what you have available facilitates the work and allows you to avoid unpleasant hitches.

2) Store foods properly, in order to always have the possibility to control the product: everything must be well kept and tidy. Complete packages, foods divided by type, so as to find them without fail; in the refrigerator and in the freezer always separate the raw and cooked foods; frozen foods should always be labeled with the specification of what it is and the date of preparation.

3) Always work in the clean: clean and tidy worktops and work spaces allow you to move better, faster and more effectively. When you finish using an instrument, wash it and store it: we will then know where to find it without wasting time.

4) Organizing work to do more things together: prepare the sauce while the pasta is cooking; season the vegetables while the meat browns … synchronize the various actions increases efficiency. Especially if the preliminary operations are done before and you have available already cleaned and washed vegetables, already minced sauté and so on.

5) Use different tools to make less effort: oven, stove, microwave, blender … everything that is available plays an important role. And once again, making the various tools work together can shorten the preparation time.

6) Choose good quality products it facilitates work and enhances what is cooked. You avoid wasting time and raw material with scraps and you are sure to put something good on your plate.

Chef Miguel de la Fuente and the best brunch in Madrid – Italian Cuisine

Our interview with the executive chef of the Hotel InterContinental El Jardin restaurant in Madrid and the most interesting dishes of the event that he hosted cooking alongside colleagues from all over Europe

A Sunday stroll around Madrid is perfect for catching theessence of an elegant city, cosmopolitan, but at the same time simple and genuine. People crowd the streets stopping to make some purchases, talk on a bench or take some sunbeam that irradiates the tireless even in the middle of autumn.

And among many people who come and go, they move and meet, there are those who are ready to celebrate a ritual that entertains the Madrilenes, the brunch.
More and more people in Madrid choose the Sunday to wake up late, meet friends and relatives and sit around a table to stand on a bridge that swings nicely between breakfast and lunch. With the calm of great occasions, but also with the desire to feel citizens of the world and enjoy the best habits.
And among the landmarks of the city for brunch we find the proposal of El Jardin, the restaurant of the Intercontinental Hotel.
Located north-east of the historic center, it has won everyone thanks to the culinary proposals of its resident chef, Miguel de la Fuente. We met him on the occasion of Taste of the Intercontinental Life, an exclusive event that brings together all the chefs at the InterContinental Hotels & Resorts.

The kitchen for Miguel de la Fuente

I read about his academic past in the Fine Arts. When did the career of chefs come? And what link does it exist in its style between cuisine and art?
"But how do you know these things?" He asks, amused. "I've always liked art, so much so that I wanted to be a painter. But I also liked eating and being with my mom and my grandmother and watching them cook. Then I joined these passions and I was not mistaken: every day I go into the kitchen I do it with the same motivation of the first day. I live in contact with the stove, but the artistic dimension is present in the creation and decoration of each dish. Cooking is art .

Many dishes inspired by the Orient appear in the menu of the El Jardin restaurant. How were they born?
"The owners of the restaurant, which are Catalan, provide constant training for the chefs. The oriental dishes that we have in paper are born from a beautiful training dedicated to this theme that we did in Frankfurt with a chef from Tokyo. It is a wonderful way to break down every cultural frontier, grow and offer our customers, through international dishes, tastes that make them feel at home ".

Tell us something about the ajoblanco, your dish we tasted today in the Taste of the InterContinental Life lunch menu.
"It's a dish that speaks of our gastronomy. A cold, summer preparation that has a great history. It was born to reuse the bread of the day before, almonds and Andalusian oil. A combination of products from the south of Spain perfect to create a fresh, delicious cream. Today we have completed it with a raw shrimp and some flowers to represent the soul of the land and sea of Andalusia .

One of his most famous proposals is Sunday brunch. How was it born and how does it relate to the city of Madrid?
«He was born in 2011, when I arrived here after a work experience in the Basque Country. I proposed it to express my culinary personality. I liked the idea of creating a real gastronomic theater where the actors are the customers, but also all the hotel staff. To fill the scene the buffet, or a circular table with different islands, satellites where they find space chefs involved in the creation of sushi, sashimi and hot Japanese and Peruvian dishes, a corner dedicated to cutting the yamón, a table full of national cheeses and international and bocadillos in mini version, to taste as many dishes as possible. To wait for the guests there are in fact also salads, various types of rice, fish, meat, but also a buffet entirely dedicated to small pastries. To make brunch special, however, is also the fact that we have dedicated it to everyone. The little ones can in fact have fun at a table dedicated to them among mini laboratories, tastings and games .

And to return to the relationship between Madrid and the brunch created by Miguel de la Fuente, there is a detail to report. This great gastronomic theater goes on stage every Sunday from 13.30 to 16.30 about, a time well away from the Anglo-Saxon morning meal idea.

Taste of the InterContinental Life

The great occasion in which we met Miguel de la Fuente recalled all the colleagues of the other InterContinental Hotels & Resorts in the chef's kitchen. A special event able to tell the creativity and the gastronomic experience spread in all the restaurants of the hotels of the group, but also the character and style of each chef residents.
To open the menu a review of the French fish soup in milkshake version signed by Cédric Mery, the starred chef of the Alcyone restaurant in Marseille. Following the Vampire Ceviche enriched with a mango and sangria sorbet by Daniel Quiñones Espinosa, sous chef of Ella Canta, restaurant of the Intercontinental London Park Lane. You return to the Alcyone proposals with a crispy crab accompanied by caviar and smoked tea.
Follow theAjoblanco malagueño proposed by the resident chef of Madrid Miguel de la Fuente and the Foie gras with beetroot puree, raspberries and spices created by Miguel Laffan, the creative chef of the Atlantic in Estoril in Portugal. For the sixth dish of the Eddy Melo menu, the AKLA executive chef of Lisbon brought the Cod Lagareiro, one of the most authentic dishes of the Portuguese tradition. The tasting of the continues rabbit with truffle and cabbage of the chef Eberhart Lange of the Yugos of Berlin and of the veal cappelletti, the unexpected proposal by Luis Rendon Rodríguez, senior sous chef at Theo Randall at the InterContinental London Park Lane. To close, the wonderful raspberry meringue signed by Sophie De Bernardi, the pastry chef of Café de la Paix I at the InterContinental Paris Le Grand.

In the gallery below, the chefs and the dishes of the event.

Browse the gallery