Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Gothenburg Culinary Team Leader, Johan, pointing out the finer details of the chocolate sculpture and desserts.
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

In preparation of the upcoming Culinary World Cup held in Luxembourg in November 2010, the Gothenburg Culinary Team was doing a ‘dry run’ of the competition dishes. As luck would have it I was invited to take a sneak preview of their efforts if I could make it to Uddevalla, just north of Gothenburg, Sweden and of course I’d love to.

Meeting with the whole team.

At this point in time, the team is already in the later stages in their preparation for the international competition and had set up a complete display table that resembled the one to be judged in Luxembourg. This entire exhibition was a team exercise that acted as a show-case plus brainstorm session for the team members, showing in detail how things right now would look like when put together.

Even if their food display already looked thoroughly breathtaking and appetizing, the fact was that all dishes would still be improved upon before the final design that would go into the competition was set.

This event was rather nondescript for their efforts, a showing mainly for themselves, friends and colleagues. It was hysterical to observe that all visitors to the display table were frustrated that entire set meals, plus breads and desserts were strictly for display only. There would be no touching, no tasting, no licking, no eating of any crumb on the table as the crumbs would most likely be part of the dish display and most carefully placed where they should be.
Continue reading “Sneak preview of the Gothenburg table, before the Luxembourg Culinary World Cup 2010” →

An Italian hard cheese that is washed in Recioto, perfect with Acacia honey or caramelized almonds. Tried just for fun with a drop of Port.
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

It was only in Sweden that I came to realize that cheese and coffee were more synonymous with dessert than a slice of chocolate cake or a scoop of ice-cream.

On the plate above is an Italian hard cheese whose rind was washed in a sweet Italian red wine Recioto della Valpolicella that is a variation to the rich dry red wine of Amarone della Valpolicella.

Pié d’ Angloys, an award winning French rind washed soft cheese that has a rich, creamy texture that is a variation to the taste of brie.

Rind washed cheeses are typically bathed in a wash of salted water, wine, brandy or local spirits, according to the traditions of each region. Besides adding a distinct and local flavour to the cheese the washing process helps to soften the rind and encourage this to become a part of the cheese rather than just a skin.

The washing also helps cheeses to retain its moisture. Through this process, the cheese becomes soft, thick and brilliant and sometimes showing some coloring from the wine. Washed rind cheeses typically present a paradox, in that their colorful, often pungent rinds contrast with beautifully smooth and creamy interior.
Continue reading “A caseinic tour of Europe” →

English Morello Cherries is a fantastic cherry for pie making and cooking. This dark red to nearly black fruit can be used when making liqueurs and brandies, and its tart, dark juice lends itself to be made into a most fantastic syrup!
Photo: JE Nilsson for CMC © 2010

Admittedly early August can’t really be called autumn, not even in Sweden, in northern Europe. But still, at this time of the year it is harvest time and all nice things come in such abundances it is difficult to find ways of taking care of it all.

A cherry tree in the garden offered an easy enough target for our efforts and for the first time in many years, the berries made it all the way into the kitchen without being all eaten by the pickers straight from the branches.

Making home made syrup was highest on the wishing list about these strong flavored cherries whose name is skuggmoreller in Swedish.
Continue reading “The pleasures of autumn harvest” →

Homemade Rum Raisin ice-cream.
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

Clearly you’ve never been to Singapore.

~ Captain Jack Sparrow,
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).

While rummingly proud that Singapore was once a notorious pirate cove that helped wreck havoc on sea trade, that quote is sadly enough inaccurate, since Singapore would not have been founded for more than a century after the period in which the movie was set.

Still, rum and raisin is indeed a fantasy encouraging concept, with rum itself hailing from the Caribbean, where it was just as popular with the British Royal Navy after their colonization of Jamaica during the 1600s, as with the English privateers (some turned bucaneers / pirates) that traded (stole) it as a popular commodity. Rum soon became a favourite drink of seamen, Naval officers and pirates alike, straight or in a variation of rum made cocktails. The trade of commodity calls to mind Singapore as a free port of trade since the early 1800s, where therein intertwine the stories of rum, pirates and the continuing evolution of global trade.

Rum Raisin ice-cream, coffee, a newspaper – for that late afternoon wind down.

My first taste of Rum Raisin ice-cream was when growing up in Singapore, on one of the occasions visiting the American ice-cream parlour chain, Baskin Robbins 31 during the 1980s. Together with Rum Raisin ice-cream, I also recall a certain bubble gum ice-cream, the latter being a strange combination of ice-cream and gum so that that you can’t entirely swallow what you ate. But as a kid, you enjoyed almost all food tasting adventures, especially the sweeter ones, thinking little of the inconvenience of having to chew gum and swallow ice-cream at the same time!
Continue reading “Rum and raisin” →

Being a great fan of both the durian, the royal fruit of fruits or the stinky fruit (depending on how you view it) and ice-cream, what would be more natural than combining the two to make durian ice-cream?

Durian ice-cream made with gula Melaka and coconut milk, an old Nonya recipe from Singapore. Served in a Straits Chinese porcelain bowl from the 1920s. This bowl is decorated with peony flowers, a ‘feng’ bird (phoenix) and Buddhist emblems. All very traditional, the emblems also reflected in the textiles they produce.
Photo © J E Nilsson and C M Cordeiro-Nilsson for CMC 2010

Moving between countries as I do, I often reflect upon the differences and similarities between Singapore and Sweden where I find Sweden a solid structure that is not likely to change very much, ever, and where everyone is “pretty much ok” or lagom, while Singapore is a nation whose wealth has come more recently, where education really pays in terms of income, and the large proportion of citizens who are well off, are bathing in new money in a way we cannot imagine in Sweden. And I am perpetually convinced that both nations would have a lot to learn from each other, their histories afterall intertwined by the Swedish East-India trade from even before Singapore was officially founded by the British.
Continue reading “Reflections on durian ice-cream” →