The secrets from the Chef & Sommelier

 I had the most pleasant and unbelievable surprise on my last visit to Serbia, my dear friend Nicola presented a Icon especially made for me in gold of the saint Euphrosynus the patron of chefs in the Greek orthodox beliefs, what a amazing gift and i will cherish this for ever, hvala drug! Efrosin had many spellings but he was from very poor background in Palestine and enter a perish as cook and made sacrifices and a revaluation that found him a place in heaven, read more here  He is celebrated every year on September 24 and read about the 3 apples here https://azbyka.ru/days/sv-evfrosin-palestinskij 

 Mr Munir Makkar is a magician, let me explain few people have a interesting life like his, journalist, finance guy, musician, vegetable farm owner and in general a really amazing and super interesting person who you can sit and enjoy conversation with for hours, I took my brother there to meet him and to check out his gardens and green houses, absolutely fantastic this time a year and all the crops are fist class and super fresh, so unusual to all the supermarket tiered veggies of 3 class quality (the prime is all exported) As a chef this kind of excursions are very important and it gives me better understanding of seasonal variety and also it gives me so much inspiration how to use much more veggies in my cooking awesome! Out of the blue Munir told me that he have released a album in French where he plays all the guitars on, how cool is that, great mix of bossa and Latino rhythms with a cool voice, I love it and I hope to catch up with him very soon again, thank you Munir for you...

 Most undereducated Egyptians think that they are the ancestors of the great pyramid builders, this is what they learn and read about without understanding that this is absolutely not true and many genetic tests are proving this, the current Egyptians are a mix from the ottoman empire, Syria and Iran who mixed in with Arabs to create what today is consider Egyptian, this under educated people are so far away for the truth but one thing remains, the beauty and splendor of the remains of ancient history for the world to visit and admire. Egypt is a beautiful country with so many diverse places and recourses but they are not able to attend or to develop, this is still very mush a 3 world country that will never develop witch is a shame, but laziness, ignorance and unfriendliness will never succeed. Of course there is some amazing people here that i have meet but they are a minority and the ones who use the others to make wealth and richness, well I am ok with that, this is what happen...

 I just got back from another trip to Nairobi to help the team there with extra hands during a new customer startup and also to show some new menu proposals for another yet customer, bloody hard 9 days and my back is desperately begging me for some rest, my new kitchen Crocs helped a little!! To meet chefs from other units and to share experience, hands on tricks and exchange laughter and some beers is awesome and this is what makes our industry so much stronger, diverse background, culture and knowledge is remarkable and true to the power of the chef jacket. I salute you guys for making my time in Nairobi memorable and I cant wait to see the Dar es Salaam team in May Mvungi, Shajji, Wayas, Victor, VJ, John, Simon, Nick and Florian, you are on my top list

 There is Formula 1 in the sport and there is Bocuse dOr in gastronomy, bot are of the same caliber when it comes to training and setup and sacrificing everything while training and execution. The Bocuse dOr 2025 just finished in Lyon France with Sweden as bronze, Denmark as silver and the gold went to the home nation of France, correct or not is for others to judge but I am sure that politics and sponsor requirements have some to do with it as always, nothing is for free guys! In my opinion its harder and harder every time and to achieve podium is a miracle so well done to everyone and especially my friends from Latvia who managed to take the 14 spot, good on you considering the size of this small country and the financial situation needed to set up a team like this, its hard to fight with the big countries with endless wallet and all the support needed so yeas some team will never reach the podium but in my opinion all the chefs are brilliant and some of the best around. here are...

 La Dolce Vita, the word is beautiful and full of excitement, lust and happiness, this 1960 famous film by Fellini staring the Swedish model Anita Ekberg and the Italian stallion Marcello Mastroianni is memorized by her bath in Fontana di Trevi, cheesy film but fun to watch but even more interesting for me is that my first restaurant was La Dolce Vita in Helsingborg Sweden after I came home from my adventure in the US, how I became the owner of this Italian establishment will be another story but let me tell you that the 3 years I had this place formed me as a chef and a culinarian in a way that forever live with me. the photo of the actual original movie poster showed here) are still in my possession well kept and cherished, who knows maybe there will be another La Dolce Vita restaurant somewhere in the world.