Joe Ray
Food & Travel / Words & Photos
Published Work
ARCHIVE OF THE YEAR 2009
Spring 2009 - Platinum Magazine
Raise Your Glass - Barcelona’s Cocktail Mixer Javier de Las Muelas
A man on a quest to build the perfect ice cube might be the best way to describe Javier de las Muelas. A worldwide mixed drinks legend and the head of Barcelona’s Dry Martini and Gimlet cocktail bars, he’s constantly straddling the line between innovation and class.
For his mixed drinks, ice is as important as liquor. The cube should make a drink cold, not wet; most important, it should not affect the drink’s flavour. Barcelona was the logical birthplace of his killer cube; the city’s tap water is so chlorinated it can taste like a pool, and so calcified it renders the steam function of an iron useless after about three shirts.
“Without good ice,†says de las Muelas simply, “your drink is a disaster.â€
Spring 2009 - Centurion Magazine
Ring Road
A traditional jeweler typically works in confined circumstances – engulfed by a crowded workbench, they create objects that, at their crudest, have limited creative potential; an engagement ring is a metal circle, a mount and a stone.
For French jeweller Philippe Tournaire (above), the idea of being confined doesn’t hold much truck and it’s rather doubtful that it ever did.
Spring 2009 - Centurion Magazine
Chef Mauro Uliassi - Going global
It was a big year for the maestro of fish. Mauro Uliassi, head chef and owner at Ristorante Uliassi in the Italian town of Senigallia, won a seafood award, a fish soup award, a best dinner of the year award and second star in the Michelin Red Guide.
“We won everything!†says the smiling chef with an English and humour that are uncannily similar to Roberto Benigni circa his 1999 best actor Oscar speech. “We should close and stop while we’re perfect!†Fat chance. Along with the second star and a year’s worth of different accolades, Uliassi capped 2008 by opening Hong Kong’s Domani restaurant in November…
April 26, 2009 - The Boston Globe - Travel
Big on ‘bistronomics’ in Barcelona
For a while, it looked like every chef in Spain wanted to be the next Ferran Adrià , creating his or her own gels and spherifications. Instead, the lasting effect has been to give Spanish cuisine a long-lasting adrenaline boost. Instead of burn and fade, eating here has been like watching a slowly building fireworks finale that, just when you think it’s got to end, gets better…
April 12, 2009 - The Boston Globe - Travel
Call of the wild - Belle Ile, France
“We live and work in the part of the world where the sea meets the land,” says Patrick Tanguy, a former resident who returns to the cliffs dozens of times a year to fish for gooseneck barnacles, stubby mollusks that look like dinosaur toes at the end of a rubbery black neck.
This wildness is at the heart of what Belle-ÃŽle offers its 5,000 residents and thousands of their countrymen who regularly flock here to be soothed by its power. This is where, guided by nature, they come to grieve or heal, to be alone or fall in love…
March 2009 - BBC’s Olive Magazine
Class Economy
Olive magazine’s guide to great-value spots around the world - including Michelin-starred food in London, tapas in Barcelona, cool hotels in NYC and a lead photograph (cheese, of course) by yours truly.
March 8, 2009 - The Boston Globe - Travel
In Paris, like eating at grand-mere’s
...Luckily, a handful of these places, perfect in their ability to make you feel as if you’re eating at Grandma’s, are still here. Combine fantastic comfort food with a gentle price tag - and the feeling that you are both being cared for and part of something greater - and you have got something incredibly well-timed for a sagging economy…
Winter 2009 - Platinum Magazine
Alice Waters - Taste Maker
In the land of the free and the home of the Big Mac, the reigning grande dame of American cuisine talks about her ‘delicious revolution.’
February 15, 2009 - The Boston Globe - Travel
Desert Rules - Trekking in the Sahara
On a timeless trek under a harsh sun and radiant stars, the beauty of the Sahara and its people is revealed.
January 25, 2009 - The Boston Globe - Travel
Loving Lisbon
I knew for years before I arrived that I would fall in love with this city. What I hadn’t counted on was falling for the sardine lady.
January 2009 - Centurion Magazine
Alain Passard - Accelerate The Pig!
The Changing Man
Maverick French chef Alain Passard reveals his ever-evolving culinary style, ‘grand cru’ vegetables and continuing his mother’s legacy.
January 19, 2009 - Agence France Presse / AFP
Spain’s canny chefs cook for credit crunch
With the economic brakes on worldwide, many chefs are reeling as diners scale back. But while French chefs turn in their Michelin stars, some of Spain’s best are staying a step ahead with “prêt-à -manger” dining.
January 12, 2009 - brandchannel.com
Portuguese brands: Why the past is the future
Downtown Lisbon is a funny place to find the rare air of branding. Here, the street vendors who sell hot chestnuts in paper cones along with tiny hat and glove shops still outnumber the chain stores. For the time being, the total number of Starbucks in the whole country is exactly one.