IT’S TIME FOR THE CULINARY EVOLUTION AND REVOLUTION…AND POP UP ROCK STAR CHEFS!
It’s about making up for lost time and opportunities and there needing a paradigm shift where music can continue to be happily streamed, but what about the entertainment value of food, glorious, food and those who create this?
What I have seen happening over the past few years has been the rise and rise and rise in the popularity of the culinary world where there’s a growing interest in the creation and preparation of new dishes and how and where these are being presented, but with the creators of what is very much an art form remaining fairly unknown and anonymous.
There’s Mary and Stella McCartney, of course, who I love, and they are very special as was their mother Linda, who was so ahead of the curve and is the plant based Mother of Culinary Reinvention.
Though the world might know about television Masterchef competitions, “celebrity chefs” like the fabulous Nigella Lawson, going back to Martin Yan and his “Yan Can Cook” television series, the over-the-top rants of the always entertaining Gordon Ramsay and the guy next door charm of Jamie Oliver, we’re now in 2026.
Times change, tastes change and the world is very probably in the middle of what could be termed The Culinary Revolution- without even knowing it.
Here is something that should be creatively packaged and be part of the makeup and rolling pin of every great city- and those cities wanting to be noticed- and evolve.
If there’s ANYTHING that might be considered even remotely unique and radically chic and interesting in a city like Hong Kong, it is the exciting culinary world and its artistes.
And like music has always needed those with the A&R skills to know a hit when they heard one, so does this world of food and wine and who are its Greatest Hits and those travelling under the radar.
When with Universal Music, the loveable off the wall Wolf Urban was brought in by my boss Max Hole to head up um3, a new division to market different music for different audiences, and we made some headway by making available CDs that catered to different dining occasions- romantic dinners, Brazilian themed parties, dinners for pregnant dogs etc.
It was about food, glorious food for everyone and every occasion punctuated and set to music with the emphasis being on the music because, well, we were a music company.
The one BIG problem here was that the stylus never moved as there was no real “fusion” with the culinary arts except for what was known as “chill out music”, and which one might have also heard in an elevator or while sitting in the dentist chair waiting for the Novocain to hit.
Today, we have lost the only streetwise rebel and bona fide adventurer of the white label food world in Anthony Bourdain.
Here was someone who was wild at heart like a character out of a David Lynch movie and who I got to know pretty well during his many visits to Hong Kong.
We talked about which music worked best with different foods from different countries. We had different thoughts about this and, well, all this was great food for thought, because, well, Vive le difference.
Inspired by these and other conversations, I have been getting to know those who have zero interest in being Michelin anything, but have that indie spirit about food that some of us might have heard in the music of Talking Heads, The Velvet Underground…well, you get the drift.
I will always remember my girlfriend at the time- an adventurous and free spirited Danish girl who was a brilliant cook and learned to make a typical Sri Lankan meal for me in a couple of hours when we were holidaying in Galle- taking me to a provisions store in Hong Kong.
This was where she bought the condiments needed to prepare Thai food for us. We ended up having a homemade Thai dinner with the owners at the back of their place of business. We should have filmed this!
If a gambler or just a savvy marketing guy wanting to break with tradition and break some new ground and also break some eggs in the process and enter a new world with no rules, because creativity has no rules, take a walk on the wild side of the gastronomic world with me over the next few days and months.
Be part of pop up foodie everything, a Monkberry Moon Delight, a Savoy Truffle and a Glass Onion inside an Onion Cake Pol Sambal city.
This is an ongoing magical mystery culinary adventure of Remixes where we have no idea where anything is heading other than it’s somewhere tasty and creative and Indie and could take us somewhere and everywhere that we need to discover and turn this pretty bland and predictable place f***ing upside down.
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