Food & Beer, the heritage of Daniel Burns

The news has been circulating for a few days now: Canadian Daniel Burns left the kitchen at Luksus, a few tables inside beer bar Tørst in Brooklyn, New York. This restaurant, in its own small way, has made history: it was the first, in the history of the Michelin Guide, to get a Michelin star without having a single bottle of wine in its list. Only craft beers, from all around the world.

«Tørst», writes Burns via email, «will remain open and expand the food program. I am very interested in developing this further - and collaborating with like-minded people on it. I want to pursue my dream of opening a gelato shop and continue to collaborate with other chefs around the world». “Gelato shop”, he uses these words exactly, in Italian, because «A merican-style ice cream is high in fat content and completely different texturally».

He’s been passionate about it since the days when he worked at Fat Duck with Heston Blumenthal, in 2004: «We were often experimenting with gelato flavours and textures. It opened my eyes to an unexplored universe. I would now like to take my experience as a restaurateur inside a gelato shop and work on classic and seasonal flavours. There’s still plenty of work to do in terms of savoury flavours, formats (bars, ice cream sandwich …), collaborations with pastry chefs from around the world. I can’t wait». Burns will soon be in Italy and we at Identità will try to help him in his mission, together with the best Italian gelato makers.

Meanwhile, we must recommend a book collecting all that Daniel Burns, together with Tørst’s brewer Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø, have written on the topic of food and beer pairing. “Food & Beer” is a book written with the help of food critic Joshua David Stein, from the New York Observer, a pioneering book published by Phaidon. It investigates the most unconventional pairing, a match so unpopular for so long that in 2003, a guy called Rene Redzepi recalls in the introduction, «on the first month when we offered a pairing with craft beer at Noma, only two people chose this. The “wine cartel” was so powerful we decided to get rid of the beer option». Yet the time is right for new experiments.

The book is divided into two parts: the first, Tørst, explains theory and practice in the pairing of the various beer flavours with recipes that are rather easy and rustic and with a tendency to Nordic-style flavours. The flavours are not the usual ones: bitter, funky, sweet, earthy, sour, smoky, tart, spicy, fruity, tasty.

In the second part, called Luksus, Burns’ tasting menu gets on stage: the Canadian chef deals with the world of snacks («Flavours raised to the power of three, a powerful initiation ritual to our kitchen», he explains), of the first servings («The following dishes, a single ingredients touched as little as possible»), broth («Soup in its purest form, a technical style of a chef») and desserts («which, in Noma’s tradition, I learnt are a continuation of the previous dishes»).

The photos are beautiful (Phaidon school), the recipes are measured in detail and the topic is at the beginning of an infinite, we can bet, journey.

See also
The Burns phenomenon