513 replies to this topic

[greensNbeans]

anybody know anything about this project?

[tan319]

saw the ads on starchefs.com' jobchefs.
Looks very interesting.

[akwa]

i went by the kitchen to say hello to paul
the tentative menu is very strong
the space and kitchen are incredible
it has the bones to be the best restaurant in nyc
interesting to see how the affair bruni works its magic

[tan319]

akwa,
Is Liebrandt going to be following the same kind of path as before?
Is there a pastry chef yet?

[foodexile]

i went by the kitchen to say hello to paul
the tentative menu is very strong
the space and kitchen are incredible
it has the bones to be the best restaurant in nyc
interesting to see how the affair bruni works its magic

What type of menu?
Prix Fixe?

[akwa]

more gagnaire in direction
menu is express lunch prix fixe and dinner (i think)
as well tasting of course
the pastry department is manned

[xdrixn]

who is the pastry chef?

[Bux]

paul's new place?

Paul's new place? Has Liebrandt become a one name chef? My first thought was Prudhomme. Actually "who was Paul?" was my first thought. I never made it to Atlas, but I caught a brief apperance at a little restaurant in the West Village some year's back. I have to say, I was unconvinced by my meal. I recall a dish with chocolate and scallops that left me puzzled in a way even the occassional unconvincing dish at elBulli did not. Nor was it so shockingly unpalatable as a series of acrid desserts at Gagnaire once. It was just that no combination of the the tastes in any order gave me a clue as to how the whole might be as good as the sum of the parts. For what it's worth, the scallops were exquisitely cooked and I was a little sorry I doggedly tried to find some reward in the combination. I will, nevertheless, look forward to another chance.

[greensNbeans]

I assumed that if people new what "gilt" was - they would know who paul was. You have an interesting statement about the chocolate and scallops because "we" pair cod with white chocolate.

[Fat Guy]

Gilt was written up in the New York Times a couple of months ago. There was a really bad photo of "Paul," even. The restaurant is in the space formerly known as Le Cirque 2000, in the New York Palace hotel. Patrick Jouin redesigned the space.

There are some nice photos of Paul's work on his website: http://www.paulliebrandt.com/

I really enjoyed Paul's food at Atlas. At that time, New York City had a respectable claim to being part of the culinary avant garde. Now the center of gravity is in Chicago (Grant, Homaro) and Washington, DC (Jose). We have Wylie (we're doing first names, right?) but that's about it. I'd like to see more -- it can't be that the economics of doing business in New York make avant-garde cuisine impossible.

[tan319]

Thanks for the website link, F.G..
I dig the bloody, psuedo Greenaway vibe of some of the pix.
Very the Cook,the Thief, the Wife and the Lover, 'inint?
To my mind, Liebrandt or Paul, however you wish, deserves a bit of iconic one name status.

[greensNbeans]

i am having trouble with the website - it doesn't go anywhere after i click enter, any suggestions?

[tetsujustin]

i am having trouble with the website - it doesn't go anywhere after i click enter, any suggestions?

download flash7

[greensNbeans]

got it! where did you run off to today? you just disappeared!

[philadining]

i am having trouble with the website - it doesn't go anywhere after i click enter, any suggestions?

download flash7

or if you did get the PL logo, click it....

[greensNbeans]

i am having trouble with the website - it doesn't go anywhere after i click enter, any suggestions?

download flash7

or if you did get the PL logo, click it....

right - thats what i needed to do! interesting photos of the pig slaughter!

[docsconz]

paul's new place?

I have to say, I was unconvinced by my meal. I recall a dish with chocolate and scallops that left me puzzled in a way even the occassional unconvincing dish at elBulli did not. Nor was it so shockingly unpalatable as a series of acrid desserts at Gagnaire once. It was just that no combination of the the tastes in any order gave me a clue as to how the whole might be as good as the sum of the parts. For what it's worth, the scallops were exquisitely cooked and I was a little sorry I doggedly tried to find some reward in the combination.

I love avant-garde that is creative and daring so long that it tastes good or at least interesting. I was very disappointed with Gagnaire. I am not into culinary nihilism. I have yet to try Paul's work, however, I will keep an eye out and a mouth open for it. The photos are interesting, although the pig slaughter is just a tad on the macabre side. Whatever.

[Bux]

Gilt was written up in the New York Times a couple of months ago. There was a really bad photo of "Paul," even. The restaurant is in the space formerly known as Le Cirque 2000, in the New York Palace hotel. Patrick Jouin redesigned the space.

There are some nice photos of Paul's work on his website: http://www.paulliebrandt.com/

I really enjoyed Paul's food at Atlas. At that time, New York City had a respectable claim to being part of the culinary avant garde. Now the center of gravity is in Chicago (Grant, Homaro) and Washington, DC (Jose). We have Wylie (we're doing first names, right?) but that's about it. I'd like to see more -- it can't be that the economics of doing business in New York make avant-garde cuisine impossible.

It turns out that Florence Fabricant had an article on Gilt in the NY Times on October 5. I was in Venice.

I also suspect it's also more than just the economics of doing business in New York. I wonder if mind set and establishment have anything to do with it. New Yorkers know good food when they see it, and I don't mean that as a compliment. I mean it in the sense that New Yorkers may be cocky about knowing good food and seeing it as the food they already know here, as well as in Paris. A number of situations may be in play that allow gastronomes in DC and Chicago to be more receptive to new ideas in food. I can think of parallels in art movements where those with the greatest stock in the current schools seem to be the most sophisticated connoisseurs of art, but are unable to embrace or recognize the new. There would be no new art (or cooking, or fashion) were it not for the creators, but in order for them to flourish they need a receptive audience. Then again, even in Chicago there are but a few who are in this avant garde and perhaps fewer still in D.C. New York is hardly out of the running yet.

[docsconz]

There would be no new art (or cooking, or fashion) were it not for the creators, but in order for them to flourish they need a receptive audience. Then again, even in Chicago there are but a few who are in this avant garde and perhaps fewer still in D.C. New York is hardly out of the running yet.

Bux, I would agree with this statement. I admire Jose Andres very much, but one 8 seat restaurant does not make a major center of the avant-garde no matter how good it is. Minibar may be one of the best restaurants in the US, avant-garde or otherwise, but its presence in DC says nothing about DC's willingness to embrace the avant-garde aesthetic. The lack of a more receptive audience in NY surprises and disappoints me. For all his faults, Rocco when at his peak at Union pacific was a very exciting chef. Other than Wylie where has that gone? This is why I am curious about Gilt.

[Bux]

I assumed that if people new what "gilt" was - they would know who paul was.  You have an interesting statement about the chocolate and scallops because "we" pair cod with white chocolate.

"White chocolate" is a misnomer. It's not really chocolate, but a component of chocolate, not that everyone seems to agree on what can be called chocolate by law. Cocoa butter, being the fat of the chocolate liquor, is very rich, while the intense chocolate flavor is in the cocoa powder. One is more about the taste while the other is more about mouth feel, though of course there is family resemblance and there is some interchangeability. Analogies usually suck, but I might say the two are as different as duck fat and duck stock.

I don't know that dark chocolate couldn't successfully be used with fish or seafood, but it would probably be used quite differently from white chocolate or cocoa butter. That I didn't find the brittle dark chocolate a compliment to the scallops is not a general condemnation of the use of even dark chocolate with seafood. Even where I've loved chocolate in meat dishes, it's been blended into the sauce or in some other way integrated into the dish. I can think of some rillettes de lièvre I had in Paris that had chocolate in the recipe, but I don't recall bits of hard chocolate. Then again, I thought some bonbons Steven Klc made with foie gras and aspic of dessert wine all coated in a thin chocolate shell were absolutely successful. Foie gras, of course, isn't seafood.

[tan319]

I'm really liking the PL website!
Full tilt, mucho style and content.
Liebrandt & Mason ( at least one of the guys is going to hate the next statement) are bringing back some style and flamboyance to being a chef, IMO.
Not far from a music stance, rock star ish, if you will.
With chops to back it up.
PL especially with his UK background, may realize the importance of the press, not unlike an Oasis playing around with the music weeklies like NME or the monthlies like Q magazine.
I hope Gilt does well.
Can't wait to see a menu.

[Pan]

There sure has been a buzz created on this forum. I hope the place lives up to it.

[greensNbeans]

There sure has been a buzz created on this forum. I hope the place lives up to it.

buzz is good ... Im sure that Paul will deliver!

[Pan]

You may be sure, but we have yet to get a single dining report, so at this point, it's all hype. I look forward to some dining reports.

[greensNbeans]

I don't believe it is open yet, but I look forward to the reports, too.

[Bux]

I have mixed feelings about the web site. Much of what I have to say about restaurant web sites I've said in threads devoted to the subject. I want information and I want to get to what I want to see as directly as possible. I'm not much of a fan of flash driven sites that exploit the technology to the point where communication suffers. Liebrandt, however, doesn't have a restaurant up and running at the moment. Thus perhaps he can be excused for having more noise than signal on the site. Still, I spent too much time wondering where to click next. That the photographs are excellent and well worth seeing, doesn't change things for me, but they were the best part of the site and quite rewarding. What I didn't like was the page with the moving targets. Sorry, it I'm to click or read, I shouldn't have to chase text or images.

[docsconz]

A description of the decor and work arrangements from today's NY Times

Adam Tihany's vibrant, dazzlingly colorful décor has been removed from the rooms, which are in the landmark Villard Mansion, part of the hotel. Instead, the original woodwork and plaster work and the other late-19th-century decorations in the rooms are now the most prominent decorative elements in both Gilt and the Madison Room.

Patrick Jouin, who designed Gilt, spent $4.5 million adding modern, somewhat modular caramel leather seats with white fiberglass backing, a little suggestive of the seating he created for the ill-fated Mix in New York. The floor is caramel rubber with a slightly canted fiberglass entryway.

The most striking touch is a soaring faceted podlike structure that embraces part of the bar area and changes color. The bar is a free-standing oval of white Corian, surrounded by chairs in chocolate leather and silver leather at low tables.

[Sneakeater]

Note that that article was written by reporter Florence Fabricant, NOT by principal reviewer Frank Bruni.

[Sneakeater]

At least she didn't refer to the chef solely as "Paul".

Edited by Sneakeater, 14 December 2005 - 02:41 PM.

[Megan Blocker]

Gilt had a mention in the New York Magazine food section this week as well...looks like there will be a variety of prix fixe menus, going up to $110 for dinner and $60 for lunch.