< PreviousTHE CUT 20 DOWN TO EART H WI T H ZAC EFRON If you haven’t already binged season two of the travel series Down to Earth with Zac Efron on Netfl ix, you’re in for a treat! Actor Zac Efron along with author and wellness expert Darin Olien journey across Australia to connect with the land and the activists who help to replenish it. On their trip, Zac and Darin meet with people fi ghting climate change and working toward scalable sustainability to learn what it takes to make a difference. There’s a reason this show is back for a second season, so get the plant-based popcorn ready and get watching. For the budding baker NEW VEGAN BAKING by Ana Rusu Releasing on 17 January, 2023, Ana Rusu’s New Vegan Baking is jam-packed with 60 delicious, creative and fl avour-forward recipes. Using foolproof methods and unique ingredient pairings, pastry chef Ana Rusu will teach bakers how to make exceptional tarts, pies, cakes, cookies and more. You’ll fi nd contemporary takes on beloved staples like carrot cake with vanilla cream and carrot jam, lemon-lavender muffi ns and sesame chocolate chip cookies along with plenty of raw, gluten-free and refi ned sugar-free options. For the cultured cook PROVECHO by Edgar Castrejón Featuring 100 plant-based Mexican recipes transforming traditional dishes into vegan- friendly celebrations of Latin American culture, Provecho by Edgar Castrejón invites its readers to discover a whole new way of enjoying often meat-heavy classics. Showcasing Salvadoran and Colombian infl uences, many of the recipes take 30 minutes or less – perfect for busy cooks. Highlights include dishes such as sweet potato and kale tacos, no-bake enchiladas with jackfruit and oat milk horchata and apple empanadas. We are ready to have our minds blown by some vegan queso. For the vegan-curious THE VEGAN CHINESE KITCHEN by Hannah Che Looking to make Taiwanese and Chinese food? This is the book for you. You don’t have to be vegan to appreciate Hannah Che’s The Vegan Chinese Kitchen – through gorgeous photography, treasured stories and over 100 recipes, Hannah teaches readers about zhai cai – the plant-based Chinese cuisine that emphasises umami-rich ingredients and can be traced back over centuries to Buddhist temple kitchens. From fl aky scallion pancakes to pea shoots braised in a mushroom broth and much more, this cookbook will charm vegans, vegetarians and omnivores alike. FOOD FOR THOUGHT From light chit-chats to thought-provoking moral discussions, there’s no shortage of plant-based podcasts but one of our favourites has got to be Food for Thought by one of the UK’s leading nutritionists, Rhiannon Lambert. On a mission to simplify wellness, Rhiannon’s podcast will equip you with all the accessible and friendly advice you need to lead a healthy lifestyle. She’s often joined by special guests, all of whom are considered experts in the world of well-being so that together we can learn fact from fiction and empower the healthiest versions of ourselves with trusted, expert advice. Available on Spotify and Apple podcasts. COOKBOOK RECOMMENDATIONS The best new releases to add to your library wish list Wr it te n b y R e e m a R a h m a n ; P h o to g ra p h y Ne tf li x & Supp li ed pg20_Read watch listen_Jan-Feb_2023.indd 2012/21/2022 1:03:06 PMSoothe your body. Relax your mind. DrTealsUAEFood for thought Find out about the latest trends, Slow Food and UAE-based artist and culinary researcher Nahla Tabbaa 2323 Nahla working on Shamsa – artwork commissioned by Jameel Arts Centre Ph ot o g ra p h y b y A n a M a r ia N ie ls e n pg23_THOUGHT OPENER_JAN-FEB23.indd 2312/21/2022 1:03:40 PM24 FOOD FOR THOUGHT Future focused A look at the latest food trends, sought-after ingredients and gourmet pet food SWICY FOOD Umami, that formerly obscure ‘fi fth taste’, has been thoroughly demystifi ed after a few years of fashionable overexposure in modern Asian cuisine. If you’re looking for a newly popular fl avour profi le to broaden your palate, consider the sweet and spicy combination exemplifi ed by the likes of chocolate and honey infused with chilli fl akes or powders. South Korean cuisine specialised in ‘swicy’ long before this gimmicky hybrid term was ever coined for it, and optimal marinades for dishes like fi re chicken tend to blend a searingly peppery base sauce with a fruity, sugary glaze. DA TES Food trends can evidently turn in circles that go right back to the dawn of civilization. Having been fi rst cultivated in the “fertile crescent” circa 4000 BC, dates remain a versatile staple of Middle Eastern cooking even as they are now being rediscovered and repurposed around the world as a natural plant-based sweetener. Their caramel-like taste and chewy texture has made them a prime ingredient of many snacks and energy bars coming onto the wholefood market lately, as well as a healthier alternative to refi ned sugars in condiments like syrup and ketchup. TINNED FISH In much of the world, tinned seafood basically means supermarket tuna. The Spanish and Portuguese, however, have long since mastered the particular culinary artform of canning premium-grade fi sh as gourmet comestibles to be eaten at home or in taverns where they’re often served as enlataces (food in cans) straight from the tin. Only lately is this catching on beyond the Iberian Peninsula, as the trendier gastrobars, bistros and food trucks take to using canned anchovies, mackerel or sardines as pizza toppings, taco fi llings and core ingredients for pâté and terrine. Ube Also known as the African pear, the ube is a purple yam that actually originates in the Philippines, where it’s often mixed with meat hash but also makes a popular dessert ingredient. Bakers and pastry chefs far beyond those islands have been taking an active interest lately, using ube to make bread puddings, crème brûlées, ice-creams and cookies. The fruit is considered hypoallergenic and is packed with calcium, soluble fi bres and healthy fats, while that vivid purple colour tends to catch the eye when it comes to presenting recipes on Instagram and TikTok. 3 4 2 pg24-25_FOOD TRENDS_JAN-FEB_2023.indd 2412/21/2022 1:04:10 PM25 FOOD FOR THOUGHT Ph ot o g ra p h y Ka te ly n A ll e g r a , Sh ut ter s tock .co m a n d @ e n e rh ea lt h _ b o ta n ica ls BE T T E R pet foods Where human food leads, pet food often follows. It took a little longer for cat and dog owners to adopt some of the same principles that they now apply to their own habits, but they’re defi nitely getting there. Petfood Industry magazine reports that terms like ‘plant-based’ and ‘climate-conscious’ now have enough traction to make leading bands like Purina develop sustainable wet foods in recyclable pouches. Manufacturers can no longer dress up glorifi ed factory scrapings with vague nutritional verbiage, as owners also want foods that actively improve their pets’ immune systems, boost bone and muscle health, and help prevent disorders like diabetes. The word ‘gourmet’ has more weight in the industry now, too. Pet-friendly equivalents of human delicacies now range from frozen popsicles to meat and fi sh tacos, while British chef Simon Rimmer has developed a dish for cats called Chat Délices, which contains lobster sushi and beluga caviar. KELP At this point kelp has thoroughly displaced kale as the deep green superfood of the moment. While we begin to worry about climate-related failures of land-based vegetable crops, here comes this naturally abundant source of nutrition from the sea, which requires no fertiliser to cultivate or freshwater to process, actively absorbing carbon and removing the agents that cause algae blooms. Rich in fi bre, iodine and magnesium, it also contains much more calcium than milk and more vitamin C than orange juice. Kelp noodles are common across Asia and spreading to other markets, but this versatile seaweed is also becoming a viable snack when dried into crisps, and an alternative to wheat in making eco-friendly, gluten-free new forms of pasta. CONVENIENCE If sustainability has been the urgent concern behind recent changes in cooking and dining, convenience is also key these days, according to the Speciality Food Association (SFA). Denise Purcell of the SFA’s resource development team said recently: “Consumers are looking to make meal prep easy and exciting and that is driving many of this year’s trends.” Again, the shift to home cooking necessitated by the pandemic has lingered as something of a new paradigm. We are now deep into the era of meal kits, with top chefs, restaurants and recipe-writers assembling their own for easy use. This is also driving innovations in packaging designs that help make those take-home foods more portable, while cutting down the potential for mess and waste. AVOCADO OIL Cooking with traditional vegetable oils has become terribly uncool in recent years. Alternative contenders range from peanut to canola to coconut, but MarketWatch has identifi ed avocado oil as having the biggest growth potential in 2023. Its nourishing, moisturising and lubricating properties have made it increasingly essential to the cosmetics industry, but as an edible extra virgin oil it also makes a healthy substitute to heavier plant-derived extracts. It’s got a light, neutral fl avour when drizzled over salad and, critically for frying, a notably high smoke point. CURRY The American trend forecasters at WGSN recently issued a consumer report that identifi ed curry in particular as appealing to those looking for “warm, comforting fl avours, and yet demanding newness”. Which is to say, for every regional variety of curry that may well be familiar to culinary natives, there’s another to be discovered from some other culture and tradition. From Japan to Nepal and Delhi to Durban, many nations have their own recipes to throw in the increasingly globalised pot. The ongoing surge in interest has been partly ascribed to our post-pandemic era, where many tried this ideal takeout food for the fi rst time during lockdown conditions, and have since come to discover the pleasures of trying to make their own at home. DIST ASTER-PROOF DINING Chaotic instances of extreme weather through 2022, from polar vortexes to heat domes, will put additional onus for the coming year on foods that help consumers withstand those sudden temperature spikes and plunges. Consumer relations experts Mintel have identifi ed a growing market for emergency provisions that deliver energy-effi cient nutrition in the midst of fl oods or droughts, as well as more niche items like food and drink enriched with ingredients that help repair UV-damaged skin. At the hardcore end of the spectrum, brands like EnerHealth Botanicals and Legacy Premium now make survival kits with long shelf-lives that extend to organic, gluten-free dried pastas, fruits and desserts – dehydrated food has come a long way, taste-wise, since those early missions to the moon. 5 7 6 10 8 9 pg24-25_FOOD TRENDS_JAN-FEB_2023.indd 2512/21/2022 1:04:14 PM26 alc he m i s t We’ve always been drawn to individuals who think out of the box and forge their own paths. Meet UAE-based ar tist and culinar y researcher Nahla Tabbaa who is creating ar t through alchemy The 26 pg26-27_ The alchemist_JAN-FEB23.indd 2612/21/2022 1:04:45 PM27 L ast year, the Jameel Arts Centre commissioned Nahla Tabbaa to do something with their open-air space in summer. That season, in this part of the world, is “a challenging time to be outdoors,” as Nahla puts it. Her response to that assignment brought together various strands of her curiosity – food, culture, nature – for an installation in the form of a garden. She chopped fruits and vegetables by hand on-site to then place on sun-drying panels, where they slowly stained underlying silks with vivid colours and patterns, like signatures of heat and time. “I defi ne myself as an artist,” says Nahla, “but through that practice I’ve also been working for a long time in the culinary world. And most recently, another hat I put on is alchemy.” The end product of that project is Shamsa, a kind of almanac comprising prose pieces, photographs and poems alongside recipes that also read as “fi ctional stories, or memory stamps”. “The book really encompasses where I am today” she says. “So much went into it. I spent the entire summer, into winter, tending this garden. There were some areas where moulds would grow, and where birds would come to eat off it. Extracting the fruits of the labour was so diffi cult because I was climbing onto this roof, cutting for hours, placing and checking in on it. And because my work has always been focused on benevolence, sharing, being generous, it was important to me to translate that information into bits of recipes.” Half-Jordanian, half-Bangladeshi, Nahla has lived in Dubai for eight years, starting out here in community programming for various UAE art institutions, curating and customising client experiences. She worked as a guide with Frying Pan Adventures, running tasting tours to lesser-touristed corners of Dubai, deepening her own fascination for the “intersection between culture and food”, and developing a sense for how to “hone a story around certain food.” A recipe, she says, “is not just a set of instructions. It has a lot to do with your state of mind on that day. How are you feeling? What is happening with the phase of the moon?” This holistic approach is now embedded in her own recipe writing. “This is what I mean when I say alchemy. The body and soul, and how that translates into food.” Her culinary research has become progressively more infused with art, and especially dyeing, since she took a study break in London a few summers ago. Feeling “burned out” in Dubai, she retreated to the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts and took a short course on ‘sacred geometry’, which maps the movement of the planets according to the observations of Socrates and Plato. “Why, I don’t know. I’m terrible at mathematics, and it burns a lot of calories to work by the millimetre. It’s very intense. But there was something incredible about our professor, Doctor Daniel Doherty. He would start with a piece of music that would kind of speak about how planets were invoked. And he taught us to make our own colours.” Doherty would turn up with stones he had found by a stream on his commute, and the class would crush them, clean them, run them through a sieve to create a new palette. “His philosophy was that you can’t make something sacred without embodying what that means. The paper you use and the colour you make is all part of it. And it was really life changing for me to see this old-world practice still had relevance today.” Back in Dubai, she became a forager in that spirit. “Slowly I started to extract colours from anything, like dust on an AC duct, squid ink from the fi sh market, bits of bark spores from a tree.” This avenue of interest has led her to other work, with other artisans, in other landscapes – the small-batch jam-makers Namlieh, for example, who forage for fruit across Jordan. Nahla had featured them in her curated programme Rewilding the Kitchen for Al Serkal online. She has recently been accompanying friend and fellow artist Moza Al Matrooshi for a 421-commissioned project on agriculture in the UAE. Visiting botanists and honey foragers at mountain sites like Hatta and Jabalia Yanas, they’ve been discovering endangered native plants “and trying our best to create recipes and food experiences around them”. This includes an organised dinner that will highlight the benefi ts of indigenous knowledge, and the dangers now threatening food security. With another friend at fashion house Studio Meru, she has developed The Alchemy of Dyeing. It began as a research platform but grew to encompass online courses, research into colour mapping and a line of silk and cotton textiles with natural dyes derived from food scraps. They’re producing what they call “talismans that you can sleep on”. “We’re trying to work locally, and we just want to do something that teaches us to surrender, and also brings out its own magic.” OPPOSITE PAGE: The Alchemy of Dyeing – a line of textiles with patterns created from natural dyes derived from food scraps; Nahla preparing for a supperclub. THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Nahla Tabbaa; Mehru Khan and Nahla during their research residency at Irthi Crafts Council; The Dinner in the Mountains – Nahla and artist Moza Al Matrooshi have been working together on a project commissioned by 421. Wr it te n b y Ste p h en P h ela n ; Ph o to g ra p h y 42 1; K a th le e n H o a r e ; A n d r e a S a le r n o ; S e e in g T h in g s FOOD FOR THOUGHT pg26-27_ The alchemist_JAN-FEB23.indd 2712/21/2022 1:04:47 PMTHE CUT 28 I n the summer of 1986, a coterie of Italian gourmands gathered in the cellar of a restaurant called La Bella Rosin, in the small town of Fontanafredda. Led by the passionate, political food writer Carlo Petrini, they plotted a revolt against the planned opening of the fi rst McDonald’s in Rome, near the Spanish Steps. Their show of defi ance on that site turned out to be peaceful, communal, even joyous, with huge bowls of penne pasta shared out among the crowd. And their protest grew into a movement called Slow Food (as opposed to fast food), later ratifi ed with the signing of a manifesto in Paris in 1989. Co-written by Petrini with poet and scholar Folco Portinari, the text declared: “We are enslaved by speed … May suitable doses of guaranteed sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for effi ciency … ” More than 30 years later, that mission statement has given rise to an international grassroots network, ranging from Europe to the US to Asia and the Arabian Peninsula. “We started as a very regional Italian organisation, but we’re now in 150 countries,” says Shane Holland, executive chair of Slow Food in the UK. “And we are rooted in the pleasure of food, which is important. But if we only talk about that then it’s game over because climate change and loss of biodiversity could mean that there will be no food at all.” Which is to say that an effort to protect local food culture against the quickening of globalised, industrialised production and consumption has been folded into an existential struggle to save the planet. “It doesn’t matter where you are,” says Holland. “There is nowhere that is not experiencing a crisis in food systems because it’s too hot, too cold or too wet, or all three in the same place at different times of year.” Slow Food has duly grown to include chefs, nutritionists, farmers and ecologists among communities known as convivia. Specialised members are in turn dedicated to related projects such as the presidium, which is designed to help local food producers minimise their ecological impact on soil, water and animal welfare. The Ark of Taste is essential to the remit – a virtual catalogue of foods in danger of extinction. “It’s basically an edible ‘at risk’ register,” says Holland, explaining why variety matters. “For example, in the UK we have more than 4,000 varieties of apples, but we only eat three of those, 70% of which are actually imported. So, if we get a disease in those few crops, we’re going to lose them.” This is already happening with the Panama virus now killing the dominant Cavendish variety of banana, which in turn threatens the chocolate derived from cacao plants that we tend to grow in the shade of banana leaves. “There are many varieties of bananas, and of cacao, but because we’ve chosen to produce only these few, we are now losing them.” Among the 5,000-plus items archived in the Ark of Taste are also regional dishes that are fading from memory, as eating habits rely ever Returning to age-old cooking techniques, preserving traditional recipes and using local ingredients can all have an impact on the world around us. Find out why the Slow Food movement matters BAC K T O BA S I CS more heavily on processed ingredients and homogenous practices. “A particular cake or bread can express a sense of place, and a connection to the land,” says Holland. “In England we have things like fi dget pie and chimes. Beautiful names for wonderful things.” He cites a speciality of his native Cornwall – a Christmas-specifi c dish called stargazy pie, with fi sh-heads poking from the crust. “We need to hold on to these things because they are vital to our culture, but also because they tend to be made with locally-sourced ingredients. What may seem quaint or archaic may also help hold back climate change and biodiversity loss.” Every choice we make around food, in other words, can help us turn the tide. Holland and his peers are under no illusion that some people genuinely don’t have the time or money to prioritise such things, but many more can effect change with the smallest of daily decisions. “We can try to buy out food from people with names that we know, and know where the food is coming from, and pay a fair price for it. We can sit around a table and connect food with laughter and love, and take the time to enjoy it. We can do these things and have a happier, more delicious time.” To learn more about Slow Food, visit slowfood.com and @slowfood_international Wr it te n b y S te p h e n P h e la n ; P h o to g ra p h y Sh ut ter s tock .co m pg28_Slow Food_Jan-Feb_2023.indd 2812/21/2022 1:05:05 PM29 In season Make the most of our organic citrus, locally-grown berries, capsicums, aubergines and more 29 pg29_IN SEASON OPENER_Jan-Feb_2023.indd 2912/21/2022 1:05:20 PMNext >