Easy as Sliced Bread!

This week, 85 years ago, in 1928 O.F. Rohwedder delivered his newly invented slicing machine to the Missouri’s Chillicothe Baking Company and bread has never been the same since.

The uniform slices not only delighted many a weary housewives and legions of fatigued chefs, it also brought cheers from the companies that produced toasters. The standardized slices produced by Rohwedder’s marvelous new machine insured that irregular slices would never get stuck again (and horror-of-horrors never burn) in the toaster.  

As a result, toaster sales soared, resulting in a nearly endless variety of designs. Today collectors rejoice when they can locate these unique units. But the impact of sliced bread didn’t stop there.

The production of lunch boxes, especially those designed to catch the eye of school children, equally exploded and standardized to match the size of the newly standardized commercially produced sliced loafs of white bread.

Soon breads such as Wonder Bread constituted the key component of the “wonderful” sandwich Jack and Jane ate in their school lunch room – with few noticing at the time the vitamins missing from the bread.

Today school lunch programs are far more aware of nutrition – or at least should be.  From Michele Obama’s White House Garden to chef led programs such as those proposed by Jamie Oliver and Charlie Trotter, insightful school cooks are shifting from a commercially baked bread centered diet to one of locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables.

Yet old habits (good or bad) die hard and America STILL has an ongoing love affair with sliced bread, even including such phrases as “the easiest thing since sliced bread “ and  “as easy as sliced bread” in everyday speech.

So what’s the latest expression of affection for the grand ol’ loaf? It’s a birthday cake shaped like a beloved peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

A special novelty baking pan, entitled the "Cakewich Pan", shapes the cake into sliced bread shapes and fruit frosting mimics the traditional sandwich jelly.

Only in America!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013

Amazing New Ferran Video Shows Creative Plans for elBulli Foundation

Only a few days after Ferran Adria presented plans for his BulliPedia to members of the Hospitality Industry and the waiting press corp at the University of Barcelona, he released this stunning video documenting the concepts for his elBulli Foundation, set to open in early 2015. 

To see the future of creative cuisine as envisioned by Ferran and his remarkable staff, take a few moments and view this film in which he lays out his very thoughtful plans for the Center. 

All the components included are designed to preserve the original culinary discoveries of the historic elBulli Restaurant, create new culinary concepts, share them with everyone every where and finally, provide a mentoring environment for inquiry and innovation.

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013

Javier Bardem Might Play Ferran in New Food Film

Producer Philippe Rousselet wants Javier Bardem to play Ferran Adrià in the long-awaited elBulli film. Rousselet told the Hollywood Reporter that the actor is his "obvious first choice." 

The film is based on the book The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which chronicles life behind the scenes in the avant-garde elBulli kitchen. 

Adrià is involved with the production as "an on-set advisor." He has described the film as The Social Network meets Ratatouille. 

Rousselet is now calling it "The Breakfast Club meets Dead Poets Society meets The Social Network", i.e., less rats, more angst and lots of self-discovery for hard working young chefs. 

Should be good - very good! What would your casting choices be?

 Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013

Shackleton’s Rare Whisky Returns Home to Antarctica

Reflecting the modern awareness of archeology to respect and preserve, three bottles of Mackinlay’s Rare Old Malt Whisky, that once belonged to the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, have been returned to their original home beneath the dusty floorboards of the Shackleton’s hut on chilly Ross Island in Antarctica.

The three unopened bottles, first sealed shut in 1898, were flow from Scotland, where in 2011 a small sample of their content was carefully drawn out via a syringe and analyzed.

Mackinlay’s Master Blender Richard Paterson, after long months of painstaking work in Scotland, recreated the forgotten whisky.

The initial 50,000 boxed offering of his reproduction sold out almost immediately at $150 per bottle. Five percent of the purchase price benefited the Antarctic Heritage Trust, generating over$400,000!

Hearing the cry of whisky lovers worldwide, who were unable to obtain a bottle, Whyte & Mackay has now released a second whisky inspired by the rare Shackleton find.

Labeled The Journey, it, too, is a blend of different malts that replicates the original. And once again, a percentage of the profits will be donated to the Antarctic Heritage Trust.

But the story doesn’t end there. Random House New Zealand is now publishing a new eBook that documents the whisky’s amazing travels from the Highlands to the Arctic ice and back again.

Entitled Shackleton's Whisky: A Spirit of Discovery: Ernest Shackleton's 1907 Antarctic Expedition, and the Rare Malt Whisky He Left Behind, it is easily available to readers everywhere via Kindle.

So sit back and enjoy. For where else can you hold a historic whisky in one hand and a modern digital reader in the other and know they truly belong together. 

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013 

Switzerland Welcomes a New and Amazing Wine Museum

The famed Lavaux Vineyard Terraces on the shores of Switzerland’s Lake Geneva will soon have an addition.

Mauro Turin, one of the world's leading architects, is currently building a stunning new wine museum that soars out from the mountainside into open space.  This innovative project was initially only an imaginary architectural submission for a Swiss design magazine.

But now it is becoming a reality that will soon give visitors not only a breath-taking view of the beautiful wine terraces below but also Lake Geneva and the Alps in a unique panorama.

And why not – grapes have been grown here since Roman times with the present vines dating back to the skilled Benedictine and Cistercian monks who planted them there in the 11^th century.

This fine vine heritage will continue as the museum would be a part of a new World Heritage Site when completed. Fantastic – it will be a must-see destination!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012