Ultimate Speck

fx

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 15:16:32 GMT

Grazie per la visita Francesca aka FoodyTeller!

fx

Sat, 19 Mar 2016 18:47:55 GMT

Hello Mugurel, thanks a lot! For Asia cooking I think the books by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid on rice is a good start, for Indian Maddhur Jaffrey has excellent general books. Good luck to you!

Mugurel

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:03:17 GMT

Hello Francois,

i am looking at your site for the past 3 hours (from the point I discovered it)....it is breathtaking...i mean everything...the photos and all...i will visit this place...it is not far from where I live in Kufstein-Austria..my dream is to visit Japan...do you have some recomendations for a beginner in the adventure of asian/indian cooking?

Thank you very much for your kind reply

Francesca

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:30:57 GMT

Amazing post and pictures! It remembers me my holidays in Trentino Alto Adige. Great place to visit and to experience gastronomy.

Greetings and congrats from TheFoodyTeller ;)

Stacey D'Amico

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 01:22:22 GMT

I love speck. I have it when I was in Italy last. It"s almost impossible to find here in the US.
I have an awesome recipe I was taught how to cook at a Tuscan cooking school.
You are so lucky to live in such a gastronomically rich area with access to such great food ingredients

Wm Patrick Cranley

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 07:59:04 GMT

Just discovered your website, FX, and am mightily inspired. It"s already on my bookmark toolbar, and I look forward to "digesting" your full archive. Come visit us in Shanghai if you get a chance!
Regards,
Patrick Cranley
P.S. Though, since it is nearly impossible to taste "real speck," that whole article was just a big tease...

Scott

Mon, 1 Feb 2010 00:31:05 GMT

I made speck from pork belly. You can see the post in my blog.

felicity

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 12:11:58 GMT

Love this post! I live in Tirol (this is the proper way to spell it) and i am sure i have never tasted speck as good as the ones you picture! i was in K�rnten (another state of Austria) on the weekend and my K�rntener friends insisted that their speck was much better than the Tirolean speck! i don"t want to get involved in these types of battles! You should make some Speckkn�del (or Tirolerkn�del), with melted butter and parmesan. Yum!!!

fx

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:05:35 GMT

Thanks for your kind words! Yes I will try to continue posting photo articles although my focus is now on video. Haven"t found a way to take good still pictures of whatever we shoot on video, the lighting is different. But as I test my recipes before shooting, maybe we"ll have a chance. Otherwise it will be mostly about food experiences rather than recipes, which will be filmed!

Anand

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:45:54 GMT

Hi Fran�ois,

The reasons I have been drawn to your blog for a long time now are : 1. Amazing Food 2. Photographs accompanying the food 3. Your writing style. It truly transports the reader to the place you describe.

A a request from an avid reader, could you kindly continue to post your regular blog along with videos? This is most useful for office reading :).

We will definitely enjoy the more live presentation in video, but a good photograph cannot be substituted with anything else. A lot of things can be really enjoyed and felt within the mind/imagination.

Looking forward to a lot more reading in the future.

Cheers,
Anand
(India)

fx

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:52:40 GMT

And the consumers who often can"t tell crap from good food, even here in Switzerland where it"s made many people don"t understand what is a fromage d"alpage!

Donna Barr

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:11:02 GMT

Those responsible for bad food are the distributors and industrial producers. Not the farmers. Once again, the actual original workers are paying for the sins of the large -- kind of like the average American is paying for Wall Street. Enough of this already! Control the supermarkets and sales crews -- but let alone those of us who are adults and will take the responsibility for what we put in our mouths.

fx

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:32:59 GMT

Thanks a lot for dropping by, Tea! Said boy works at the butcher"s shop whose address you"ll find in the article. A very nice village too!

Tea

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 04:35:34 GMT

Ok, I have been following this blog for SO long and I finally decided to drop you a line. The articles and topics are so interesting, not the mention the photography. As a lover of speck, I was very pleased with this post...Can I only ask you to please give me the contact info of that boy that is cutting that piece of meat?! :))

fx

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:50:02 GMT

Shu, it"s a great idea to make some photo articles for experiences, I have 4 ready to publish now (one is already up) plus 2 more possibly, so you"ll have something to read!

Shu

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:49:22 GMT

like many here, I"ll miss your beautiful pictures accompanied by wonderfully humorous writeup.
I"m already missing the twice a week regularity of your previous articles.
Maybe you could do photos for experiences and video for receipes?
But don"t let me stand in the way of progress! I"m sure there"s plenty of excitement to look out for in your videos. I still get a smile recalling your 1st ever video with swear words and bloopers!

fx

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:32:12 GMT

Yes, I"ll try the line "And now for some old-fashioned food porn ..."

fx

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:31:33 GMT

Judith, glad you had a fine time in Verbier, quite not part of the EU!

fx

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:29:33 GMT

Yeah I don"t know how much drying would this particular uncle need to be cured, not much I guess. OK, I"ll post some more pictures then!

fx

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:26:48 GMT

Jon, the travails with Premiere Pro on PC with Matrox Axio seems to work now - somewhat. Too late to go to Mac now. We use a Sony EX3 with Letus Ultimate and softboxes with honeycombs. No problems to import the footage, some issues with mixing sound and the like, but I am slowly catching on. I think video fits the way I tell stories - one picture at a time with some comments!

fx

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:21:23 GMT

A few picture articles are on the way!

fx

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:20:52 GMT

Beatrice, how fast you picked up my little allusion, now I feel embarassed! Have fun in Dubai, apparently great food over there too!

Beatrice

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:01:35 GMT

Oh,now you make me feel guilty! Much water under the bridge...working on a solar project in Dubai. Once I get the investor literature under control, I promise to start editing! Salute!

fx

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 11:24:28 GMT

Thanks for the correction, I miss having Trice edit my articles and it shows!

jmz

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 09:06:22 GMT

I like the videos, too but miss the photography articles. What a great article! I really need to go back to Tyrolia (where my ancestors are from- Austria!) I loved the images of rustic kitchens and gorgeous rolling hills!

celso

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 16:53:59 GMT

Hi, Fran�ois, I partly agree with my fellow readers. I like your videos too, but I don"t think you may give up with the photo articles...

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 16:13:22 GMT

Patricia, from a professional gourmet shop buyer this is praise from Caesar, glad you like it! Yes the future videos should be rather fun to watch once I get over the technical hurdles.

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 16:12:19 GMT

Thanks a lot Bruce, ah Vermeer, you know how to speak to me! In the future you"ll get the sounds and movements as well in films, that should be even better!

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 16:11:33 GMT

Well, not always, cinema does capture landscapes pretty well I think, and there are ways to shoot digital and get similar results. And they will keep loading faster and bandwidth improves...

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 16:10:03 GMT

Yes Nigel, indeed Chinese-made knives are not quite the same, but still very useful!

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 16:07:18 GMT

Jo, in fact I read tons of books about the regions I visit, then speak to many people and go visit whenever I can such traditional producers. Serendipity if you will!

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 16:06:26 GMT

Stephen, I"d have to become a monk and transform FXcuisine in a charity to be able to do this! But I"m sure you"ll get to enjoy the vids in the future...

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 16:05:16 GMT

Thanks Shreela, the spices are only used in the initial stage to flavor the meat. The smoke is that which is generated inside the kitchen when the man cooks.

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 16:04:29 GMT

Thanks, glad you enjoyed the article!

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 16:04:04 GMT

Yes, if you go and visit try to see the pasture where the pigs live during the summer, I couldn"t make it this trip!

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 16:03:34 GMT

James, from now on I"ll take pictures while we shoot (video) so that everybody will be happy - hopefully!

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 15:47:20 GMT

Don, I knew you"d like this article! The kitchen is a place where the gentleman lives year round, so I don"t think it ever gets below freezing. Let"s hope not!

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 15:27:32 GMT

Ben, I think my videos will, eventually, look as personal as my pictures, not like celebrity-chef-TV-crap.

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 15:25:00 GMT

Mingus, I don"t strive to make instructional videos like you"d find on Youtube, if these are the only food films you know about, then mine will be different, no doubt. Famous photographers work with scores of assistant. Tim Walker travels with something like 12 assistants to take one picture, for instance the lady in the tree ferns.

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 15:23:28 GMT

Ah Michael this one is not for vegetarians but thanks for dropping by nonetheless. I will include cheese and pastry in a little while, highly vegetarians those!

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 15:22:34 GMT

Beatrice, was this what your chalet in Tyrol that you nearly bought looked like?

fx

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 15:21:16 GMT

Alys, perhaps I can arrange for black ribbons to be worn on the hat, with a fit insription such as "The inconsolable readers of Mr FX"?

Jon

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 13:39:12 GMT

Hi Francois

I do a lot of short promotional videos and some documentary stuff as well, usually with a small production team but I"m mostly doing all the parts of the process.
If you"re having problems with your drivers I"m suspecting your using a windows-based PC. With all the video-cards out there the software unfortunately doesn"t always play nice with the hardware.
What kind of equipment are you using to record the video? Are you having any problems importing the footage or exporting the videos?

AlysM

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 04:33:14 GMT

Again, very good and informative. Thank you.

I"m with Manda.
I don"t sit through your videos and will mourn the loss of your information if you do this way.

best

Beatrice

Sun, 8 Mar 2009 14:16:46 GMT

Bonjour Francois, a couple of years ago the (now probably broke) wonderful European health insurance sent my husband to stay for a two-week "cure" after knee surgery, to castel Fragsbourg, an old hunting lodge high above Merano. Of course I tagged along, lol. It"s one of the most interesting places we"ve stayed, and we had real speck every day.

michael

Sun, 8 Mar 2009 12:22:59 GMT

I"m always interested to read your articles, and have recommended your web site to many people! - Having said that "Speck" isn"t my thing as I no longer eat Dead Animals! - Les Animaux sont mes amis et je ne mange pas mes amis! - What do you think of my French? - a few articles for fellow Vegetarians please. (if there are any among your 150,000 viewers!)

Mingus

Sun, 8 Mar 2009 12:14:32 GMT

Dear Francois,

Your videos are very well-made instructional videos -- but that"s all they are and there are plenty of those out there. A talking head shot is just a talking head shot no matter how good the production quality is.

Your photography is where it"s at. This is where you are contributing with something unique: storytelling, research and -- yes, really -- a poetic dimension.

I realize this is not your job, it"s something you do in your spare time. You have to steer it in whatever direction you can in order to keep yourself interested in the project. You may be bored with the photo articles, you may be doing video simply because you want to learn how to do it -- which is fine. But as a reader, I can only hope you don"t let the heart of FX drown in the bottomless time sink that is video production.

There is a reason why movie-making is a team effort, whereas most photographers work alone.

Keep up the good work, Francois -- I love your site!

Ben

Sun, 8 Mar 2009 05:53:30 GMT

Francois, as usual, your photography is excellent and the story you write is great as well. All of us enjoy your hard work in creating these photo stories as well as your videos. But I will also say that I prefer the photo stories to the video. It"s always possible to turn on the tv and see all the latest celebrity chefs showing us things. What I enjoy most is lingering over your beautiful photos as I read the story. I"m not going to stop visiting your site but I just wanted to let you know that your photo stories are much appreciated. Thanks.

don siranni

Sun, 8 Mar 2009 02:05:36 GMT

Francois,this one is really worth waiting for.I will use my cold smoker system,but the "Val" pasture will need to be substituted.I assume that the winter temp goes below freezing during the year cure time,or do they do something about that. I too,kinda hope the video takes a wee bit tooo long to replace the "real" pictures,that was a bit of a nasty break,sorta"

James (powerplantop)

Sat, 7 Mar 2009 15:29:46 GMT

What a treasure to be able to visit this location.

I am looking forward to the new videos ( I am subsribed on you tube) but do please keep including a few pictures. You have the eye to see greatness that others will miss.