Why We All Want to Go to The Grand Budapest Hotel

Well, Wes Anderson has done it again. For those who were charmed by the movie Moonrise Kingdom, there is now another film that equally delights while urging one to think just a little more deeply about what life is all about. 

Wes Anderson's THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. Starring Ralph Fiennes, F.

All one has to do to achieve such wisdom (besides seeing the film) is check into The Grand Budapest Hotel and embrace the wisdom of Monsieur Gustave, concierge extraordinaire.

The film reveals through flashbacks the story of Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy (played by the newcomer Tony Revolori) as he learns about hotel protocol, poetry, courage and how one lives a life of meaning – all taught, of course, by Monsieur Gustave.

Go behind the scenes with the cast and crew of Wes Anderson's adventure comedy THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL and learn about the rich story behind one of the most anticipated films of the year. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL hit select theaters March 7, 2014!

Ralph Fiennes plays the central character, Monsieur Gustave, with humor, style and a view of life crafted by years of perceptively watching the rich and famous come and go. It is an overview so accurately presented that anyone within the Hospitality Industry will adore the humorous but honest insights on life and service that this film presents in scene after scene.

In this featurette, learn how the magic of THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL was created by Wes Anderson and production designer Adam Stockhausen! THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL is now in theaters!

The famed set designer, Adam Stockhausen, skillfully caught the feel what a legendary hotel must be when he converted the cavernous former Görlitzer Warenhaus Department Store building in Görlitz, Germany into the Grand Budapest Hotel during its grand (and not so grand days). In keeping with the storybook-feel of years gone by, he also created a miniature model of the exterior at the Studio Babelsberg, near Berlin. 

The staff at Mendl's, Zubrowka's premiere patisserie, show you how to make their legendary "courtesan au chocolat", as enjoyed my M. Gustave and all those at THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL is in theaters now! Get tickets here: http://www.movietickets.com/movie/mid/173757

There’s death, romance, jeweled guests, theft, running up and down the stairs, fabulous pastries, keys, cocktails - in short just another day at a grand hotel, all handled with a clarity of style that defines the very heart of our Industry.  

Your Culinary World Copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2014

El Somni Is Truly a Culinary Opera Dream Come True

For over a year now the famed Roca Brothers of Spain have been crafting a unique culinary presentation, El Somni, a culinary opera.

Their truly amazing creation is a stunning collaboration of cuisine, form, music and wonder – worthy of the esteemed name, ‘Opera’.

The universality of this 'great work' (for that is what the word ‘opera’ actually means), is reflected in the diversity of the first 12 individuals invited to experience the work.

The premiere guest list included an HIV researcher, a fellow chef, an anthropologist, an actress, a theoretical physicist, a poet, an artist, a film director, a research biologist, a conductor, a food writer and a robotics researcher.

The composition of the work is divided into 12 concepts or courses that wrap the viewing diner in The Dream that is the experience’s title translated.

The courses pay homage to the great French chef François Vatel, who killed himself in 1671 when his concept for a vital banquet that was to be served to the French King Louis XIV was destroyed by the late delivery of fresh fish from the coast.

Such was the temperament of a dedicated artist when art was an expected part of the 'noble' life.

EL SOMNI MENU

• Prelude: Water Nymph (Vegetable soup at low temperature, sprouts, flowers and light)
• The Dream Begins (Moon)
• Space (Foams frost Indian figue) 
• Ophiucus (Electric eel)
• Under the Sea (Shrimps, plankton, and anemones, sea urchins, cockles, seawater, crustaceans)
• Garden of the Hesperides (Anarkia)
• The Courtship (Ying yang Palo Cortado oysters with garlic and white all black)
• The Carnality (Pueblano pigeon breast with mole, grilled strawberries and roses)
• Apple/Brittle (Golden apple)
• War (Royal hare roial with blood orange and beet)
• Mercy/Death (Parmentier potatoes with purple bone marrow,caviar, purple flowers and incense smoke)
• Glory (Dessert mass mother, mother dough ice cream)
• Awakening (Sweet spring)

Yet the wonder of the evening does not rest solely on the event's innovation cuisine. Expanding on the talents developed in the three brothers’ world famous restaurant,El Celler de Can Roca, these three creative chefs also collaborated with a diverse group of visual artists, includingFranc Aleu, Daniel Molina, Pere Grife,andPeret, to create an experience that defies the limits of culinary classification.

After its initial premiere in Barcelona, this unique work will be hosted at 12 different locations around the world, followed by a documentary book, exhibit and finallya filmby Mediapro.

If possible, do all you can to attend.  Like listening to great opera performed well for the first time, afterwards you will never view the world in quite that same way as before. And that is, truly, the definition of great art. 

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013