Sunday Snapshot

How many scoops of stewed beef can you pile onto a bowl of rice? Two video-savvy cooks who tried to find out could find themselves out of jobs after the Japanese beef bowl chain Yoshinoya D&C Co. suspended them for posting a clip of their experiment on YouTube. It shows a man in a Yoshinoya uniform heap ladle after ladle of steaming stewed beef onto a bowl of rice. By the sixth scoop, the mound of stewed beef is twice as high as the porcelain bowl, with bits tumbling off the sides
“It’s just a disgrace to treat food this way,” said Yoshinoya official Haruhiko Kizu.Company cooks are trained to top beef bowls with just one scoop of beef, he said. The company tracked the culprits down by scrutinizing the clip for clues, eventually identifying the restaurant and the employees.

Whisky is a strong drink and usually considered something to enjoy after a meal. But Italian and French restaurants in Tokyo are planning a new way to enjoy the drink–malt whisky in particular–with seasonal menus designed to match the character of the beverage.
“As malt whisky has a high alcohol content and a distinctive flavor, I created a menu that can stand up to those characteristics. I believe grilled or smoked dishes particularly suit the flavor,” Ma Chambre chef Masaharu Manaka said, explaining a five-course set menu the French restaurant in Roppongi, Tokyo, will offer in January along with Glenlivet whiskies.
Among the dishes, Manaka especially recommends akaza shrimp and foie gras cooked in savoy cabbage and served in sauce americaine as well as char-grilled Iberico pork shoulder served with Madeira wine sauce. They will be served with Glenlivet Nadurra and 18-year-old whisky, respectively. “We recommend that you enjoy Nadurra with just one rock and the 18-year-old straight or with a little water.”
Ma Chambre also will serve a cocktail prepared with 12-year-old Glenlivet, orange juice and grenadine syrup as an appetizer for the 12,000 yen set menu.

Jean Georges isn’t a restaurant known for its attachment to experimental cuisine; if anything, J-G Vongerichten’s highly formal flagship is considered a bastion of old-school tablecloth dining. But Vongerichten has always been in the gastronomic vanguard, and he and chef de cuisine Mark Lapico are among the city’s most ardent admirers of the CVap oven, a controlled-humidity technology they use so much that there’s three of them in the kitchen.
First invented (and still used) as a way to keep Kentucky Fried Chicken fresh, the CVap has moved on to finer establishments. By cooking with moist heat at extremely low temperatures, the CVap can cook delicate fishes, beef tenderloins, and even custards in short periods without losing any moisture whatsoever — the hallmark of sous-vide cooking, but without all the hassle of bags and warm-water baths. “It’s so good,” Vongerichten tells us. “Like sous-vide, but without all the troubles. It’s so much better than the bag.”

Gordon Ramsay is aiming to create the world’s first Michelin-starred airport restaurant with his new Heathrow venture.
The celebrity chef has spent £2 million on the latest branch of his culinary empire inside Terminal Five, which opens to the public next year, and is hoping it will become a must-visit destination for first and business class travellers. The 180-seater restaurant’s menu is to be modelled on his award-winning Boxwood Cafe; at the Berkeley Hotel, which offers “fine dining with a New York twist”.
Ramsay secured special terms with the 10-year lease. Airport operator BAA has given Ramsay preferential terms with a 10-year lease instead of the usual five years because it is hoping the restaurant will become a major attraction, alongside Prada and Tiffany, in the £4.3billion terminal. Named Plane Food, the establishment will become Ramsay’s ninth restaurant in the capital. He also has recently opened two gastropubs – The Narrow in Limehouse and The Devonshire in Chiswick.