Since yesterdays MasterChef Celebrity Chef challenged aired yesterday I have been very surprised by the impact!

For the most part I have been very humbled by the reaction, its not everyday that you get 900 messages in 1 day, plus my website came very close to crashing due to unprecedented amount of traffic in such a short space of time!

1 thing I would like to say which has surprised me a little is, if you spend your life looking backwards then you will miss the beauty of evolution and everything which is amazing in the future. There have been some people who have reacted badly to the dish I chose to present and have been making negative and baseless comments. The dish is not one which I am preparing today but actually an adaptation of one which I was doing 5 – 6 years ago. I chose this dish as it was going to be a good learning experience for both the contestant and also the viewing public, I was hoping to expose you to some new techniques and to give you an insight into what is happening at the moment outside of Australia. Please keep in mind that the dish was never supposed to be one which you could prepare at home, let’s leave those kinds of dishes to Jamie Oliver and let me show you what I as a fellow Australian do.

I love spirited conversation when food is concerned as I also study the Psychological and design side of food as well. But since when did people start thinking if it’s not to their taste then it is bad?

As I mentioned before, I have had an amazing amount of support from viewers and I hate to focus on the negative but I feel it’s my duty to explain the situation.

What I demonstrated was how 1 flavor (the pea soup) could be prepared in different textures and temperatures in a non confrontational setting by using 2 very humble products, Eggs and peas. If I was to come with a dish which was full of new techniques and also a radical flavor combination then this would alienate the consumer as they have nothing to reference this experience to. This is a rule I always follow without exception. It also demonstrates the importance of the base as if the soup wasn’t right then the whole dish would be wrong.

There were many comments on the combination of egg and peas………………… Was that really the hardest part of the dish to understand? How many people have actually tried Eggs, Peas and Fresh truffle? Normally I would smoke the egg for 24 hours using grape vines but I didn’t have this kind of time during the filming, how would you of reacted to a smoked egg? I can tell you first hand, this is a delicious combination and one which makes a lot of sense the moment it hits your palette.

My second is to address the people who thought Green was unappealing and artificial looking. I am not sure how to tell you this, there are a large majority of vegetables which are green and if cooked correctly they will also be bright green. So as we prepared the peas correctly they were a florescent green, if it was brown then this would be overcooked. I think thats enough said on that point.

In regards to the use of Chemicals, I didn’t use any chemical in what I prepared. All the food additives which were used are all extracted from natural products such as Sodium Alginate which comes from seaweed and Gellan which comes from another type of seaweed. Gelatin is widely used in the food industry and it is taken from the hoofs and cartilage of animals, which one sounds more natural the one which comes from animals or the one which comes from seaweed? How many of you have eaten Burger king onion rings? Did you know these are actually onion puree which gets formed back into perfect rings via the use of the same Alginate and calcium reaction which you saw on the show? Would this stop you eating them? Of course not!

I like to think as Chefs we have the responsibility to help our guests understand what we dedicate our lives to and make them more knowledgeable about what they are consuming and how it got to the state it is in, the consumer needs to have an open mind or else the most beautiful part of the dining experience will be missed.

Thank you for all the amazing feedback you have given through all types of social media and emails, I hope this post didn’t come across as negative, my aim was to take this as an opportunity to give you a little insight into why I did the dish I did and the thought process which goes into all creations

How boring would it be if we all spent our lives watching things on TV which we already knew how to do? Hollywood blockbusters would be a thing of the past as people would want to watch a movie which is full of characters just like themselves living ordinary lives. Food can be another form of escapism yet more emotional due to the sensory reaction which you have with every bite, thats if you are open enough to enjoy the journey.

If you are wondering what this title is all about I will not be able to fill in the blanks for another 2 months

Over the last 12 months I have been creating a concept for my own TV show in which I aim to educate people about a new way to look at food. I am pleased to say that after my recent trip to New York I now have an amazing developer on board who has a proven track record in the American Television industry and has been nominated for an Emmy Award as an Executive producer. We are now going to work together to bring this dream to reality.

Both the name of the series and the exact concept of the show will be announced once negotiations have come to a conclusion and a network has been confirmed.

What I can tell you is that it will be pretty much be a “Fly on the wall” account of what happens in my New York Lab everyday.

Stay tuned for more details……………………………………………….

I have just updated the page “Ikea Project” with all the latest developments. Just click on the above tab to see where the project is currently at.

Stay tuned for possible global developments which are currently being discussed.

Well kind of…………………

I am still having a technical difficulty on uploading pictures so you will have to bear with me until this is fixed very shortly, my apologies!

MANY things have been happening since I last wrote, this is part of the reason that I have not been able to get anything up on this site. Let me try to bring you up to speed.

• I have started consulting for a beautiful restaurant on the Adriatic coast in Croatia, this restaurant is set in a 700 year old building and has an immense amount of potential! I am working with the Chef/Owner to help develop dishes using only local products and products which have little or no environmental impact. There are some very bad fishing practices which exist in Croatia, one of my goals of this project is to help educate the Chefs, Diners and government about the alternatives and how to correct this error before it’s too late. I will bring you more up to date with this as I make some headway.
• I have finished shooting the first episode of a US TV show I have been planning for the past 12 months! The footage is now with my Producer in New York which we aim to have ready in the next 2 weeks to be able to pitch to some of the major networks who have shown interest. The concept is very new and sure to raise a few eyebrows! I cannot share the details with you at the moment, but you will be the first to know as soon as I can
• My Manhattan restaurant is still moving along nicely (contrary to media reports) but I have delayed it slightly due to some major projects I have here in Spain. I will make some more details available when I can make them public.
• I have now started my second company here in Spain which is Adam Melonas Consulting. I am now busy with projects all over Spain and I have also been asked to pitch for a project which would see my influence in 40 countries around the world, I can tell you a little more about this very soon………………………

Apart from this there are many more things happening! But I will try to space it out a little so I don’t overwhelm you.

I am out of Spain on a lot of trips in the next 2-3 months, So as always I will be posting stories from all of my trips while I am away. Also if you are in any of the countries which I will be please feel free to drop me a line so we can meet up and you can show me some good local cuisine. My calendar is as below:

• Venice (April 9 – 12)
• Slovenia (April 12)
• Croatia – Sibenik (April 13th – 18th)
• Istanbul (April 29th – May 5th)
• Australia – Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane (May 16th – June 9th)
• Denmark and Sweden (June 16th – 20th)

I now have many stories in reserve, so I will now be back to posting 4-5 stories per week. Stay Tuned!

Thanks for continuing to read!

Imagine going to the supermarket for 5 days in a row to buy all the stock they had (200 jars in total) of 1 particular type of Yogurt just for the glass jar. Well I did and it was all because I really liked the shape of the glass jar as it was a good quality glass and the absolute stereotype of what a tub of yogurt should look like. Symbolism is a very powerful thing to use when you want to guide the way people perceive something when eating your food, it allows you to be suggestive and build familiar expectations before they even open their mouths to taste what you have prepared. Although the Risotto was made only using the Whey from yogurt (then the solids at the end to add the fresh yogurt touch) it is still a hot risotto. The first shock that you get is the fact that it is hot whereas your mind tells you things that normally come from a yogurt jar are cold, the second shock you get is that it is savoury and not sweet and the 3rd is an obvious one but the fact that it is a risotto in a yogurt jar still surprises people.

I said I would not write about yogurt again (or at least for a period of time) But realistically this story is about using yogurt risotto as an example and not actually about yogurt itself……………………

Read the rest of this entry »

Click on the new page above titled “The Ikea project”, this page will tell you all about a major consulting and production contract which I have been awarded after 6 months of work.

While working on a corporate consultancy project I created an interesting little tapa. One of the most famous tapas in Spain is the Croquetta de Jámon, which is basically deep fried bechamel with Jamon. You can buy these in pretty much every tapas bar and quality is judged by how fluid it is on the inside without breaking the outer layer of bread crumbs.

So basically this started out as a joke, I was trying to combine the exact flavour of a hot-dog inside of a croquetta using proper hot dog sausages and all the trimmings (complete with ketchup and mustard). To finish the total hot-dog experience I used hot dog buns as the crumbs for the outside as they have such a particular taste and also some crispy Asian style fried onions. But of course an essential touch for the hot-dog is squeezing the ketchup and mustard on the top (which always touches your top lip first which you have to lick off), so for this I texturized both ketchup and Mustard to the exact same viscosity and put it in a tube so it can be squeezed out like toothpaste making a perfect line with half of each in the same line.

Success! The perfect hotdog inside of a croquetta, not be be eaten at a ball game as they are dangerously fluid

Today I finished the first part of a major project which will basically take an infinite amount of time. I have put together a team of key professionals (Michelin Star Chefs and world class scientists) from around the world to begin the profiling of individual flavors and pairing them with there perfect partners. I discovered a graph system developed by a very dynamic guy in New York (CT) which will suit the project perfectly and through discussions (like everything in my life) it has blossomed into something much larger which covers something for everybody. The primary aim of this system and the work we are doing is to become a reference point for Chefs all over the world who will be able to use our system which is in a quick and easy format while being extremely comprehensive and diverse. Obviously at this point I can’t give away too many details, but we are aiming to release this in January 2010 at Madrid Fusion. I will post updates in my website as we go along but for now we are standing at the base of a mountain and there is much rewarding work to be done. Keep reading for more details……………….

A topic very close to my heart is the one of Australian products, and what can be more Australian then “Bush Tucker”? Used by the Aboriginals long before the “White man” settled Australia, this food of the earth has only become popular in the last decade mainly due to one man, Vik Cherikoff (http://www.cherikoff.net/cherikoff/). I started using bush tucker firstly due to its relative novelty appeal in one of my restaurants 7 or 8 years ago, but once I started using them I understood that they are very special and go much further than novelty value. With every product you get a new food experience like no other, my personal favorites have to be the dry spices as they are so strong with aroma and very particular.

We immediately jumped at the chance to test this range of products to see if we can incorporate them in our food. So over the next few months we are going to be testing these products using new technique thanks to the generosity of Vik who was happy to have me fly the Australian flag here in Spain. The box contained all of my favorites: Alpine pepper, Lemon Myrtyl, forrest anise, wattyle seed powder and extract (which tastes like earthy coffee), Quandongs, Riberries and rosellas. I will keep posting updates as soon as we discover something new or interesting.