Celebrity Life

Three years of breaking rules on Carpenter Street.

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Cafe culture has long been associated with life in France but in many countries, cafes are more than places to have a libation and socialise. They have been the birthplace of major iconic cultural works.

JK Rowling penned Harry Potter in Edinburgh’s Elephant House, Hemingway wrote A Movable Feast at Paris’ Closerie des Lilas, while inspiration for international hit Garota de Ipanema (The Girl From Ipanema) came from a Brazilian girl passing by a Rio de Janeiro bar leading to the beach.

Here, we gather 5 fascinating and iconic cafes and restaurants that inspired today’s most renowned works.

The Elephant House: Harry Potter, by JK Rowling

[caption id="attachment_211118" align="alignnone" width="960"] (Image: The Elephant House)[/caption]

Without the Elephant House pub in Edinburgh, Scotland, the Harry Potter saga may not have seen the light of day. Most of the early novels of the saga were penned in this Scottish pub with a red facade. JK Rowling sat in the back room overlooking the Edinburgh castle, drafting the characters and the whole universe that became an international blockbuster when first published in 1997.

Closerie des Lilas: A Movable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway

[caption id="attachment_211117" align="alignnone" width="1024"] (Image: Closerie des Lilas)[/caption]

This autobiographical tale by Ernest Hemingway came out after the writer’s death. The novel narrates the first few years that Hemingway spent in Paris during the 1920s. It offers readers a trip through the City of Lights and its most iconic neighborhoods from rue Mouffetard, to Brasserie Lipp and the Les Deux Magots café in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

But it’s in the Montparnasse neighborhood that Ernest Hemingway actually wrote A Movable Feast at Closerie des Lilas, a café-restaurant where painters like Renoir and Monet gathered in the mid 19th century. On a side note, Closerie des Lilas is also where F. Scott Fitzgerald asked Hemingway to read The Great Gatsby before publication.

Café de Flore: Being and Nothingness, by Jean-Paul Sartre

[caption id="attachment_211119" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] (Image: Café de Flore)[/caption]

If Parisian Café de Flore had been shut down, would French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre have produced all of his iconic texts? In an upper room of this historic Saint-Germain-des-Prés café, the French writer outlined drafts of Being and Nothingness, published in 1943. Not far from Sartre, at a table that faced him, his partner Simone de Beauvoir drafted what would go on to become her first hit novel, She Came to Stay.

Place du Forum: Café Terrace at night, by Vincent Van Gogh

[caption id="attachment_211121" align="aligncenter" width="768"] (Image: Bérangère Chatelain)[/caption]

It’s a must see for every tourist visiting Arles in the south of France. Located on the Place du Forum, just next to Nord Pinus hotel, Van Gogh made this cafe immortal in 1888. At the time, it was called “The Terrace.” The Dutch painter set his easel on the northeastern corner of the Place du Forum and depicted the warm end-of summer atmosphere of this welcoming French café.

Veloso: Garota de Ipanema, by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes

[caption id="attachment_211122" align="aligncenter" width="819"] (Image: Veloso)[/caption]

The most well-known bossa nova tune was written in 1962 in a Rio de Janeiro café called Veloso. Music composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and poet Vinicius de Moraes regularly met there. They both drew inspiration from a young Brazilian woman who used to pass by the bar’s terrace.

Garota de Ipanema became an international hit thanks to Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto’s adaptation in English two years later. The Girl from Ipanema, sung by Astrud Gilberto, is one of the most played songs worldwide, and the legend started in a carioca bar.

The post Iconic Cafés and Restaurants That Inspired Some of the World’s Most Renowned Works appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Chocolate might soon become a guilt-free indulgence.

From vegan to lactose-free and sugar free alternatives, a growing number of artisan chocolate-makers in France are crafting the chocolate of tomorrow when removing the very ingredients that usually satisfy our taste for sugar and fat. And they're replacing these with natural ingredients such as fruit, avocado oil and soy milk.

It took Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman in France), Nicolas Cloiseau, nine months to develop his 100 percent plant-based collection. That was back in 2018, when the head chocolatier of France's La Maison du Chocolat was the first big name to shake things up in the chocolate world. The starting idea was simple: To concoct a chocolate selection every bit as delicious as those usually hailing from La Maison du Chocolat, but without using even a hint of cream or butter in the ganaches.

[caption id="attachment_211086" align="alignnone" width="1024"] La Maison du Chocolat unveiled its first collection of plant-based chocolates in 2018. (Image: La Maison du Chocolat)[/caption]

Accompanied by a nutritionist, Nicolas Cloiseau developed recipes for five ganaches that only use natural ingredients to achieve the perfect taste and texture of a chocolate. As for sugar, Chef Cloiseau looked to honey and maple syrup to deliver just the right hit of sweetness.

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Fruit, plants, infusions

When crafting the chocolate of tomorrow, chefs above all draw on the rich flavours and aromas of nature to help them perfect the taste and texture of a ganache. Nicolas Cloiseau uses enough quantities to round out his creations to perfection, reaching up to 74 percent in treats such as his squash seed praline. Whether as pulp, juice or nectar, fruit is used in all kinds of ways and is often matched with spices. Turmeric, for example, is combined with mango to bring an acidic hint to a dark ganache, while aloe vera is twinned with green apple, and pomegranate is combined with raspberry and aronia berry juices. Perhaps the most unusual addition is propolis, a resinous substance produced by honeybees and used to build and maintain the hive.

At Paris-based Edwart Chocolatier, Edwin Yansané also works with fruit purées, as well as infusions. His debut vegan selection features hibiscus and pepper, as well as fresh, just-roasted coffee.

"The ganaches were a real challenge! With my team, we had to get really creative to find and work with a plant-based base capable of holding all the flavours, even the most subtle," explains the Edwart Chocolatier founder. His box of 25 chocolates costs €28 (HK$256).

[caption id="attachment_211088" align="alignnone" width="819"] The first vegan selection from Edwart Chocolatier. (Image: Edwart Chocolatier)[/caption]

From soy milk to avocado oil

To replace cream — since no butter was used in his creations — chocolate-maker Edwin Yansané decided to use soy milk to get a creamy and silky consistency. The young artisan carried out various tests with coconut milk, oat milk, almond milk and plant-based mascarpone.

For his part, Nicolas Cloiseau is working on another idea in the form an upcoming vegan chocolate selection. Unveiled back in January, the collection uses avocado oil to replace animal fats in the "La Vie en Vert" collection, due early 2021. The range includes concoctions featuring Burgundy blackcurrant, passion fruit and raspberry purée. The box is priced €27 for 16 chocolates (HK$247).

Playing with proportions

To make a lactose-free chocolate spread, Pierre Chauvet decided to increase the percentage of hazelnuts in his product to obtain sufficient oil and an adequate emulsion. The chocolatier, based in Aubenas in France's south-eastern Ardèche region, chose to use 60 percent hazelnuts compared to the usual 43 percent.

"The more you increase the proportion, the greater the creaminess," explains the chocolate-maker. Indeed, since the nut already contains fat, all you have to do is prepare a praline — i.e., caramelise the nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, pecans) then blend them up. Then, after a few seconds, an oil rises to the surface transforming the powder into a paste.

[caption id="attachment_211087" align="aligncenter" width="769"] 'Délices d'Arthur' chocolate spread by Pierre Chauvet. (Image: Pierre Chauet/ AFP)[/caption]

"Generally, we would use soy lecithin to make lactose-free options. But I didn't want to use that. And, in these recipes, you only use 10 to 25% nuts," explains Pierre Chauvet, who kept costs down by using hazelnuts from the Middle East rather than from Italy's Piedmont region. The spread costs €7.90 per 110g jar (HK$72).

La Maison du Chocolat also made use of the hazelnut and its oil content to perfect the texture of its first plant-based collection. Alongside this, Nicolas Cloiseau uses chicory fibre, also being put to use in the "La Vie en Vert" collection.

Pierre Chauvet isn't stopping at the lactose-fee spread, and is now working on a range of lactose-free ganaches. "Instead of milk, we add water, coconut milk, couverture chocolate, cocoa. Everything still needs to be gauged," explains the chocolate-maker.

Indeed, it seems that the chocolate of tomorrow still has plenty of surprises in store.

(Main image: La Maison du Chocolat; Featured image: Tetiana Bykovets/ Unsplash)

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Vegan eggs are all set to join the ever-growing ranks of plant-based foods.

With World Egg Day taking place on October 13, an Indian start-up is making headlines with a food innovation that may shock some purist fans of traditional omelettes. It has created a vegan egg, made exclusively from vegetable proteins. And to top it all off, this 'egg' is...liquid.

The egg is one of the most commonly consumed foods in the world. Internationally, 145 eggs are consumed per capita per year, according to the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations).

[caption id="attachment_211049" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Several innovators are looking to create vegan eggs. (Image: Guido Kirchner/ DPA/ AFP)[/caption]

With changes in eating habits and the growing success of the flexitarian diet, this staple food has not escaped notice from researchers and innovators looking to produce an alternative without animal protein. The worldwide success of meatless patties designed to imitate beef, made famous by American start-ups Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, has inevitably created interest in making versions of other foods without animal proteins. In India in particular, a young company has made a vegan egg its flagship product.

Evo Foods has developed a recipe based on vegetable protein to make an egg without animal protein. The start-up recognises that the texture of its innovation is softer than that of an ordinary egg. And a major difference: The 'egg' is totally liquid. The process involves the extraction of proteins from legumes, which are then fermented before being injected with texture agents. The 'egg' can be kept in the refrigerator for six months.

[caption id="attachment_211051" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] An omelette made with Evo Foods' vegan eggs. (Image: Evo Foods)[/caption]

The vegan eggs, which have already gathered American investment, are to be launched in the United States in April 2021.

Is it just another food innovation? Not necessarily. In France, where vegans represent only 0.5 percent of the population according to estimates by the firm Xerfi, there are also efforts underway to create eggs without any involvement of a chicken. Two female biology students have made 50 or so attempts to create an 'egg' from ingredients of vegetable and mineral origin. Code name for their project: The Merveilloeufs.

(Main image: Erol Ahmed/ Unsplash; Featured image: Joseph Gonzalez)

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We have come a long way from eggs Benedict and avocado toast – here are three restaurants are elevating the brunch experience.

The post New brunches in Singapore worth waking up for appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

We have come a long way from eggs Benedict and avocado toast – here are three restaurants are elevating the brunch experience.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.