Joe Ray
Food & Travel / Words & Photos
Published Work
ARCHIVE OF THE YEAR 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010 - The Boston Globe - Travel
Nostalgia and Mash Hot on The Menu
A friend recently told me of the upswing in London cuisine and the mind-numbing goodness of the city’s ethnic offerings. I was leery. Historically, food from the United Kingdom has an awful reputation and a hefty price tag. I couldn’t imagine coming here just to eat.
Sunday, March 21, 2010 - The Boston Globe - Travel
Making The Taste of This End of The Earth
Turning onto the dirt road to Bodega Noemía de Patagonia, the car’s wheels lose contact with the ground. With one hand on the phone and the other on the gearshift, Vinding-Diers is doing what my father calls “fancy knee driving’’ and cackling like a madman.
It sounds like he’s homogenizing wines around the world but instead, we pull into the winery and he continues the conversation with his assistant Jesse Katz face to face.
It’s all part of harvest time at the end of the world.
Sunday, March 7, 2010 - The Boston Globe - Travel
At the nexus of food, art, and soul
Standing in the kitchen of what may be the best restaurant in the world, I shake hands with Ferran Adrià, the chef behind it all. Every year, it’s said that millions try for the few thousand seats at his restaurant, El Bulli, for the six months it’s open. The odds are not in their favor.
If, like me, they are lucky enough to be invited by a friend, they drop everything and hop on a plane.
Spring 2010 - Centurion Magazine
The Art of The Blend
Using three eaux de vie ranging in age from six to thirty years, a group of people in an antiseptic tasting room try their hand at creating emotion in a bottle.
Rémy Martin cellar master Pierrette Trichet watches over the group, pokes her nose in a student’s glass and frowns.
“Smells a little old and a little expensive,” she says. Translation? Back to the drawing board.
The Boston Globe - Food & Travel - Wednesday March 3, 2010
Rioja region’s dish mixes potatoes, chorizo, and care
Discovering one of the Rioja region’s signature dishes in a restaurant and in the home of winemaker Juan Carlos Lopez de Lacalle
Sunday, February 21, 2010 - The Boston Globe - Travel - RAVE
A fresh take on Scottish cuisine? Haggis and more
Traditional Scottish cuisine might not have the best reputation, but Sandy Smart’s take on it should…
The Boston Globe - January 10, 2010
A Place, Distilled
Good Scotch whisky is a road trip in a bottle.
Pour a glass, close your eyes, breathe in, and be reminded of the place where waves turn the seaside into a rough and craggy path for the strolling thinker.
Another glass may contain a wall of smoke that overwhelms the senses, or a delicate wisp that transports you to a bog where heather becomes peat.
A whisky tour through Scotland is a firsthand taste of the rocks and wind, fire and sea, mud and flowers that are a distillation of this thornily self-reliant part of the United Kingdom…
Winter 2010 - Centurion Magazine
The Other Side of Fine Dining
Just when things were about to boil over with the future of superchef Ferran Adria’s restaurant, I spoke with El Bulli manager Juli Soler, who can be a very fickle fish - a mix of businessman and artist. His responses can be cheeky, or just need time before you realize they’re not glib.
Winter 2010 - Platinum Magazine
Savoire Faire
We visit France’s Savoy region to meet a chef doing exactly the right thing…