News for the Hospitality Executive |
Bangkok – July 2012 -- Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok
announces the
13th annual World
Gourmet Festival, set to take place at the
Hotel from September 3 to
9, 2012. Since
its
inception, the Festival has grown in prominence to feature an
extraordinary
line-up of some of the best chefs, winemakers and food experts from
across the
globe, all under one roof for a week-long celebration of outstanding
food and
superb wines. Chefs
currently confirmed to participate are:
PROFILES: Shiqin Chen, La Rei, Il
Boscareto, Piedmont, Italy Shiqin
Chen set out on his
career as chef as a boy. Born in 1980 in
Shanghai, his desire to travel spurred him to visit Europe where, by
mere
chance, he attended a course for foreigners at the Italian Culinary
Insitute
for Foreigners. The course introduced
him to France and Spain. Various
internships followed, allowing Chen to come of age in some of Italy’s
best
Michelin-starred restaurants, from Il Pescatore in Canneto sull’Oglio
to the
Antica Corona Reale in Cervere, where he acquired ten years’ experience
working
alongside Chef Gianpiero Vivalda. After proving his worth in
the
kitchens as a highly skilled chef, he joined La Rei, the gourmet
restaurant of
Il Boscareto Resort & Spa. Chen
is now an expert in
Piedmontese cuisine, but gives it a new twist with his own unique brand
of
cuisine. Diego Irrera, 1884
Restaurante, Mendoza, Argentina The
beloved Francis Mallman
restaurant in Argentina’s Mendoza Valley, where Diego Irrera is head
chef, is a
tribute to the wines of the region paired with Andean cuisine,
employing Incan
clay oven cooking and grilling techniques for their exquisite meats.
Italian-born Diego has worked his way up the ranks at Francis Mallman
establishments in Buenos Aires, Patagonia and Mendoza, coming to embody
over
time the wood fire and cast iron cooking style behind the earthy good
food of
Argentina’s Indians and gauchos. Galvin Lim, Les Amis,
Singapore Igor Macchia, La Credenza,
Piedmont, Italy Igor
Macchia’s passion for
food and creative signature cuisine started many years ago. After many years spent experimenting and
creating his personal style, both as a chef and pastry chef, he finally
began a
co-ownership with La Credenza in 2005, and was awarded one Michelin
Star the
following year. Igor
also managed to find the
time to nourish another great passion of his: the Eastern world and
culture. He travelled through China and
Japan, India and Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Maldives, not
only to promote
his culinary art, but also to learn more about Eastern cultures. The result is his original blend of colours
and tastes, textures and shapes in the form of his most creative and
ambitious
recipes. Michael Mina, MICHAEL MINA,
San Francisco, USA Born
in Cairo, Egypt and
raised in Ellensburg, Washington, Michael Mina has had a long love
affair with
the kitchen, creating memorable dining experiences for guests from a
very early
age. Michael’s epicurean journey began in 1987 at the Culinary
Institute of
America in Hyde Park. At
the start of his career,
Michael was presented with the opportunity of a lifetime with then
Executive
Chef of the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles, George Morrone. The two were
asked to
develop a concept and create a menu for an upscale seafood restaurant
in San
Francisco – the city Michael had dreamed of calling home one day. Michael’s
culinary and
business vision led to the founding of his company, Mina Group, with
partner
Andre Agassi in 2002. Under the auspices of Mina Group, he has opened
18
concept restaurants and a lounge concept including MICHAEL MINA, CLOCK
BAR, RN74,
BOURBON STEAK, ARCADIA,
STONEHILL TAVERN, SEABLUE, NOBHILL TAVERN, STRIPSTEAK, and AMERICAN
FISH. Michael
has been honored with
numerous accolades, including the Michelin two-star award and San
Francisco
Chronicle’s four-star award for the original MICHAEL MINA at San
Francisco’s
Westin St. Francis on Union Square, Michelin’s one-star award for
MICHAEL MINA
in Las Vegas, and induction into the American Gaming Association’s Hall
of Fame
in 2007. Additionally, he is an esteemed
member of Bocuse d’Or USA and the CIA Society of Fellows.
He has been a featured guest chef at the
James Beard House numerous times; cooked for three U.S. presidents:
Bill
Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama; and has been a guest speaker
at
C.I.A. in Hyde Park and at other culinary institutes in California. Víctor Quintillà Imbernón,
Lluerna, Barcelona, Spain A
true Barcelona native,
Víctor Quintillà Imbernón began his culinary
journey at the Escola d’Hosteleria
I Restauració de Barcelona, after which he apprenticed and
worked at some of
the most important restaurants in the region, including the
Michelin-starred El
Reno and famed temple of modern gastronomy, El Bulli. His own
restaurant,
Lluerna, in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, which he runs with his sommelier
wife,
Mar, specialises in seasonal, Mediterranean-influenced degustation
menus with
dishes like beef entrecôte with white eggplant; and dry aged ox
with mustard
parmentier and endives. Masa Shimakawa, ONYX,
California, USA Hakodate,
Japan may be an
ocean away from Los Angeles, but it’s just a dinner seating away at
ONYX at
Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village, California, where Chef de Cuisine
Masa
Shimakawa holds sway. Born, raised and schooled in the port city noted
for
“perhaps the world’s greatest seafood!” by Chowhound.com, “Chef Masa”
has
created Asian-style beauty with the pick of the Pacific since opening
the
restaurant in 2006. Unlike
many bitten by the
culinary bug, Shimakawa had no intention of becoming a chef when he
started as
a dishwasher in his teens. Soon there was no stopping him, including
study at
the Hakodate Professional Cooking School and his first job as a sushi
chef in
Tokyo. It took him five years to get comfortable with the discipline,
he says,
at which point he landed at the first of two sushi restaurants in
Montreal in
1991. Positions in Chicago and New York followed before he found his
way to
Four Seasons. The
freshest ingredients,
healthy preparation and enticing Asian flavours make ONYX a natural fit
for the
health-conscious focus of the Westlake Village Hotel. Shimakawa leads
five
highly skilled cooks preparing sushi as well as hot and cold dishes in
classical style in the restaurant’s exhibition kitchen. Ever
cognisant of the
importance of innovation, Shimakawa creates thoroughly original dishes
using
western ingredients in eastern style, such as Maguro “Tataki” with
seared Ahi
tuna, spicy corn salsa and sweet sesame soy, and Miso Gin-Dara with
Saikyo
miso-marinated black cod and sweet soy drizzle. Frédéric
Vardon, Le 39V, Paris, France Frederic
Vardon was born in
Normandy into a family of charcutiers and farmers. His passion for
cuisine was
passed down to him from his grandmother, who instilled in him a passion
for
cuisine made with love and made for sharing. After
completing an
apprenticeship with Jean-Pierre Morot-Gaudry and training with Alain
Dutournier, in 1988 Frédéric Vardon joined Alain Chapel’s
culinary team at
Mionnay. This experience confirmed all that his grandmother had taught
him, and
cemented his deep attachment to French cuisine and his love of great
products.
In 1994, he left to team up with Alain Ducasse, where he spent 14 years
working
at Ducasse’s renowned restaurants around the world including Spoon,
Benoit
Tokyo, and Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester. Frédéric
Vardon now heads the
team at Le 39V, a peaceful haven built on the rooftops of 39, Avenue
George V
in Paris. Awarded its first Michelin star in February 2012, Le 39V
offers
guests a cuisine that is tasty and honest, bringing them the best
flavours of
the best products available. Also
confirmed to participate in World Gourmet Festival events are Master of
Wine Jeannie
Cho
Lee, who will be
conducting a wine masterclass, Eleveur de Fromage Jean-Francois Antony, who will be
hosting cheese-tasting events and Robert Schinkel, award-winning bartender and mixologist and
Dilmah’s ambassador
on tea mixology. PROFILES: Jean-François Antony Alsace-based
master
affineurs (or cheese-agers) Jean-François Antony and his
father Bernard are
avid proponents of France’s AOC system, and aim to preserve regional
cheese-making techniques in the face of industrial homogenization.
Their
operation supplies cheeses to some of the most lauded Michelin-pedigree
restaurants around the world, including the establishments of Alain
Ducasse,
Alain Passard, and Pierre Gagnaire. Their small-scale, cold-temperature
storage
caves hold and age raw milk cheeses such as Perail
de Brebis and Beaufort d’Alpage, and some more
familiar, pasteurized cheeses such as Bleu
d’Auvergne, Comté and Mimolette. At the World Gourmet Festival,
Jean- François
Antony will present the family’s famed cérémonie des
fromages, where
five cheeses are exquisitely paired with wines from the Alsace region. Jeannie
Cho Lee Robert Schinkel Award-winning
bartender and mixologist and Dilmah’s
ambassador on tea mixology for the last five years, Robert Schinkel has
been
presenting this new trend in the world of cocktails throughout the
world with
innovative recipes, both with and without alcohol, and his skill to
create
signature drinks for persons, occasions or properties. For Dilmah Tea,
he has created
three recipe books full of new tea based drinks and he’s one of the
speakers at
the Dilmah International School of Tea, inspiring attendants from all
over the
world to look at tea from a different angle. About his concoctions,
Schinkel
says, “The first two ingredients in my drinks are passion and a warm
welcome.” Once
again
this year, the World Gourmet Festival is proud to support HRH Princess
Soamsawali’s Save A Child’s Life from AIDS Project under the auspices
of the Thai Red Cross Society. A portion
of every ticket price, as well as
proceeds from an auction, will be donated to this charity. The latest updates
and further information about
this year's festival will be available at www.worldgourmetfestivalbangkok.com
as well as Facebook
and Twitter
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For further
information,
please contact: Nicola Chilton or Annabelle S. Daokaew or Thitimon Khieowan Public Relations Department Tel: (66 2) 126 8866 / Fax: (66 2) 254 5390 E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected]
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