I am Mikael Jonsson and I write about gastronomy in general, ingredients and cooking in particular. Now I am about to become a restaurant owner and a chef.
Gastroville was launched by Vedat Milor and me in 2005 with the aim to offer discriminating evaluations of restaurants in different categories/price points to maximize dining value for distinguishing and caring gourmets. Since last year, Vedat publishes his opinionated reviews on www.gastromondiale.
There will not be any restaurant reviews on Gastroville anymore. I will only on the odd occasion disclose good addresses that I come across. Instead this blog will focus on exploring the great ingredients this planet has to offer and understand how they are best selected, prepared from both a gastronomic/gustative perspective and a nutritious perspective and enjoyed. I am especially interested in ingredients that are overlooked.
I have always had an obsession in produce and produce quality and still never stop turning any stones in my search for understanding the various produce our planet has to offer and how to let them shine in different ways. According to my mother this obsessive food interest started about the same time as I could walk. I started cooking very early in life and cooked dinners in people’s homes when I was a young teenager. Obviously destined to become a chef, I did some basic training in professional kitchens but due to allergy I had to give up plans to work professionally as a chef. I was fortunate enough to at an early age be intoxicated by haute cuisine and have for a long time studied fine dining at various dining temples.
I thought some years ago that gastronomy – on not only the haute cuisine restaurant scene – was more or less dying mainly as a consequence of the molecular gastronomy movement coupled with the media and publicity hunger of today’s chefs. The realization of the detrimental health impacts of industrial refined foods packed with high glycemic index ingredients, industrially processed oils and chemical additives further cemented my beliefs that gastronomy in the restaurant environment will die unless a reversal takes place of recent years’ practices to add chemicals and using questionable cooking methods to add novelty in flavors and textural effects. Also worrying is the speed at which traditional preparation methods that have been used for very long times are falling to obscurity by today’s chefs.
At the same time, the importance of the quality of the produce has more or less lost interest amongst many starred chefs as has the importance of tastes. Fortunately, there are signs that the tide might be turning as there are some chefs who do put high emphasis on produce sourcing. These chefs will be highlighted in this blog.
My preferred hunting ground for ingredients is the Mediterranean Basin, currently mainly in Malta where I search for some of the best sea food that can be found in the Mediterranean sea due to the relatively clean Maltese waters.
I like to eat most great produce the planet has to offer but I am especially fond of gamberis from San Remo, tuna belly, sea urchins, Gaulois chicken, telinnes from Camargue, Chianina, Salers and Simmental beef, pré-salé lamb, Pauillac lamb, black and white truffles, courgettes nicois, asparagus from Vaucluse and Valbenga, morels and ceps. I like to drink wine from Burgundy and I will never say no to a well matured cheese.
About Gastroville
I am Mikael Jonsson and I write about gastronomy in general, ingredients and cooking in particular. Now I am about to become a restaurant owner and a chef.
Gastroville was launched by Vedat Milor and me in 2005 with the aim to offer discriminating evaluations of restaurants in different categories/price points to maximize dining value for distinguishing and caring gourmets. Since last year, Vedat publishes his opinionated reviews on www.gastromondiale.
There will not be any restaurant reviews on Gastroville anymore. I will only on the odd occasion disclose good addresses that I come across. Instead this blog will focus on exploring the great ingredients this planet has to offer and understand how they are best selected, prepared from both a gastronomic/gustative perspective and a nutritious perspective and enjoyed. I am especially interested in ingredients that are overlooked.
I have always had an obsession in produce and produce quality and still never stop turning any stones in my search for understanding the various produce our planet has to offer and how to let them shine in different ways. According to my mother this obsessive food interest started about the same time as I could walk. I started cooking very early in life and cooked dinners in people’s homes when I was a young teenager. Obviously destined to become a chef, I did some basic training in professional kitchens but due to allergy I had to give up plans to work professionally as a chef. I was fortunate enough to at an early age be intoxicated by haute cuisine and have for a long time studied fine dining at various dining temples.
I thought some years ago that gastronomy – on not only the haute cuisine restaurant scene – was more or less dying mainly as a consequence of the molecular gastronomy movement coupled with the media and publicity hunger of today’s chefs. The realization of the detrimental health impacts of industrial refined foods packed with high glycemic index ingredients, industrially processed oils and chemical additives further cemented my beliefs that gastronomy in the restaurant environment will die unless a reversal takes place of recent years’ practices to add chemicals and using questionable cooking methods to add novelty in flavors and textural effects. Also worrying is the speed at which traditional preparation methods that have been used for very long times are falling to obscurity by today’s chefs.
At the same time, the importance of the quality of the produce has more or less lost interest amongst many starred chefs as has the importance of tastes. Fortunately, there are signs that the tide might be turning as there are some chefs who do put high emphasis on produce sourcing. These chefs will be highlighted in this blog.
My preferred hunting ground for ingredients is the Mediterranean Basin, currently mainly in Malta where I search for some of the best sea food that can be found in the Mediterranean sea due to the relatively clean Maltese waters.
I like to eat most great produce the planet has to offer but I am especially fond of gamberis from San Remo, tuna belly, sea urchins, Gaulois chicken, telinnes from Camargue, Chianina, Salers and Simmental beef, pré-salé lamb, Pauillac lamb, black and white truffles, courgettes nicois, asparagus from Vaucluse and Valbenga, morels and ceps. I like to drink wine from Burgundy and I will never say no to a well matured cheese.
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