I am away on a consulting trip for the next 10 days in Venice, Slovenia and Croatia.

During my trip I will write about any new discoveries and local products I find along the way.

Stay Tuned!

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!

I am currently in Croatia on a consulting trip in Sibenik,

My apologies for the lack of stories at the moment, great news is Madridlab has just moved into a new headquarters!

I will be in Croatia until Monday, but I will be posting stories during my trip to keep you up to date on the Project I am working on here.

Thanks for continuing to read!

Have a great week!

When will some people learn? This is the question I am constantly asking myself…………………………..

We all know the problems we are facing in the world with some of the oceans and rivers being close to fished out, but why does it take so long to really sink in to some peoples heads?

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On my recent consulting trip to Croatia I was lucky enough to be able to visit Bibich Winery which have some exceptional wines!

First I must admit something very bad on my behalf……………………..

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I will be away in Croatia on a consultancy trip until Thursday…………………

I am sure to come back with a lot of stories!

How could I be anything but happy when preparing my Octopops while looking down over all of Sydney on a beautiful summers day!

As you may be (should be) aware, I just returned from a long overdue return to Australia. While in Australia I was invited to prepare a dinner in what seemed like the top of the world. The setting was an amazing penthouse which belongs to a good friend of mine. The mission was to prepare a dinner which represented the food I have been creating in Spain, showing my fellow Australian what I have done since I have been away was a very personal mission for me as these are my people!

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After an amazing 16 day trip back to Australia for the first time in 2 years, I am finally back and full of energy and inspiration!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you were kept entertained by the stories which I post dated so 5 stories per week would be put on the site. You see, This is how much I respect and care for my readers!

2010 Is going to be one to remember! Everything in my professional and personal life is going to have a 100% change.

As and when details are available I am going to post them on this site, this should interest everyone as I am constructing a restaurant and bar in Midtown Manhattan. I will be posting all the trials and tribulations which I encounter plus an insight into the new concepts which I will be introducing to the dining Scene.

I have many great things to post and stories to tell after my trip to Oz, Stay Tuned!

Last week we were in Barcelona doing a Cocktail function with Ferran Adria at the nH hotel Constanza. The event was for 500 people and we served more than 37 different items, preparing 20,000 tapas can make you a little hungry! So we went for dinner probably the best Japanese restaurant I have tried outside of Japan. The name of the restaurant is Koy Shunka (http://www.koyshunka.com/Koy_Shunka/intro.html).

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There are a breed of Chefs who operate in a catagory all of there own and who seem to have immunity to the rules of the kitchen. The people I speak about are the “Temp Chefs”!

I had forgotten about them for a long time as I have not required there services for many years. Don’t get me wrong, they have there place and can really help you out of a bind when needed. And before I get on my soapbox I would like to say that I have also come accross some good ones in my career, I am only speaking of the typical stereotype temp Chef.

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As you know (and if you don’t, shame on you for not reading) we were doing a collaboration dinner with Carlo Cracco in Milan 3 weeks ago. During our time in Milan we ate a wonderful dinner in 2 star Michelin Ristorante Cracco (http://www.ristorantecracco.it/)  which we were lucky enough to be there in a time when they were changing the menu.

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Please be patient with me and forgive the lack of new stories for the next 8 days. I am leaving for New York tomorrow with Paco to do a collaboration dinner for the New York Marathon.

For sure I will have many stories to tell when I return next week!

I thought I really understood the world of risotto until my recent trip to Milan! After listening to the Italians speak about risotto and how many cultural elements there are to risotto that they all seem to know, I now know I am just a beginner in this topic!

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Since when did water become the latest fashion accesory? There have been some very good examples of a ridiculous wastes of money throughout time but this one has to take the all-time stupidest award!

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What is it that makes us return to places frequently?

Well it can sometimes be a combination of many things and other times it can be for 1 thing in particular. For Example; A great view, 1 or many particular dishes which are amazing, the ambiance of the restaurant, the chemistry between the staff, the energy of the place, etc, etc.

The reason I am writing this story is because I have been studying the psychology of the whole dining and eating experience.

This time I am writing about personalized service and the love of what you do.

How special do you feel when you walk into a place and the owner or manager stops whatever he is doing or his conversation to personally welcome you? It sounds a little sad but we all like to be recognized. In this case as pictured above, it was in Santorini during my holidays in Greece. On my first trip to Greece 7 years ago I found the best place in town for Gyros (Greek Kebabs), so of course I was there pretty much every lunch time during my stay and I built quite a funny re-pore with the owner Lacky. So this time of course I wanted to bring my brother there, amazingly enough after all of this time the owner still recognized me. So we repeated the same tradition of lunches there again almost everyday.

We could of bought pretty much the same Gyro in 100 different places on the island but we would travel to Lucky’s Gyros everytime. The difference is that he hired people that love there job and took pride in what they were doing even down to how they folded the paper so the sauce did not leak and remembering our exact preferences.

HervéThis strongly believes ”The most important ingredient in cooking is Love” and when we cook it is important to love the food and when we share this with people we are expressing our love for the people.

It’s a bit of a dis-jointed story, but what I am trying to say I guess is: If you are hiring people for the front of house, make sure they love what they are doing and they are focused on making every guest happy, because remember that people come to restaurants to have a good time and we the service industry need to make sure this happens each and every time. And as for us Chefs in the kitchen remember we all started this career because we love food, don’t be miss-led into thinking that the more senior you become in your role that this is the time to stop cooking and start carrying a clip-board.