Fat Guy

Here's the latest information, from the event organizers:

Note: these chickens are available fresh, not frozen, from DeBragga.com. http://www.debragga.com/shopexd.asp?id=26

I'm going to let you in on a secret, Paul: Toasters don't make good toast. Toasters make toast quickly, but they don't make it well. Even the very expensive toasters, like Dualit, don't do a very good job. Toasters produce browned bread, not toast. Good toast is gently crunchy throughout, not just browned on the exterior with a bready center. And it's not so easy to do that quickly. That's why toaster ovens are good for making toast -- as long as you don't make the toast on the toast setting. Instead, set your toaster oven for about 350 degrees and let it go until the toast is ready. That could take 10 minutes, but so what? It will be real toast, not browned bread.

Okay I see what you mean when you say no electronics. Internally, there are probably some electronics, such as the thermostat for the oven, but there are no digital readouts or controls. Yes, I prefer old-fashioned mechanical controls and I favor simplicity too. As you say, less to go wrong. Me, I'd do 4 burners and a griddle, plus a second oven. Remember you can always use the griddle to simmer a stockpot or whatever on the rare occasion that you need more than 4 burners in a home-cooking situation. Whereas, a second oven is tremendously useful just about any time you do a holiday meal. You can also make the second oven electric. Another option is a range with 4 burners, a griddle and a grill. I know DCS makes something in that configuration. I've cooked some big meals and I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I've thought maybe I'd have found a 5th burner convenient. There are, by the way, some DCS ranges that put 5 burners into the space typically used for 4. I think that makes a lot of sense. Incidentally, I have been very happy with my DCS for several years now.

My personal feeling is that the step-up burner configuration is a bad idea. It means you can't, for example, put a long roasting pan back-to-front over two burners. Oversize pots (like a 20-quart stockpot) that hang over the footprint of one burner become problematic. And it's really no big deal to use the back burners when they're on the same level as the front ones. Zillions of professional cooks do it every day. Griddle v. grill comes down, I think, to which type of cooking you do more often. Me, I'd get a griddle. Also don't get a grill unless you have excellent ventilation. When you say there are no electronics, which models specifically are you looking at?

I don't think the question of the invention of molten-center chocolate cake is settled, and as AEK implies there are various ways to make it. Florence Fabricant did a story on this in 1991 in the New York Times. It includes the claim: "Mr. Payard of Le Bernadin said it's really not any chef's recipe at all, but something everyone's mother makes at home in France."

Most fish used for sushi is frozen, making the delivery date unimportant. And most restaurants (sushi or otherwise) that serve fresh fish use the FIFO (first in, first out) system, so it's not like the fish delivered on Tuesday is served on Tuesday -- it could easily be the fish that's still left from the previous Thursday. The most effective strategy for getting good fish is to choose a good restaurant, in which case the restaurant will serve good fish every day.

There are a number of small farms in North Carolina raising these chickens using label rouge standards. Momofuku Noodle Bar here in New York City does a fried poulet rouge from Ashley Farms that is amazing. I assume they get the birds unfrozen, so I bet a resourceful consumer could tap into the same supply line.

I believe two paragraphs of the review touch indirectly on the question of stars, while the rest is just a restaurant review without an apparent agenda. The key language on the rating is: The notion of transcendence/rapture/thrill is Bruni's standard for a four-star restaurant. Ko doesn't consistently meet that standard. Therefore no fourth star. Not because the stools have no backs. Because, overall, the food isn't good enough.

I agree. The egg doesn't integrate into the dish as well as a runny egg, or at least an egg with a runny yolk, would.

If that's what he meant, he could have said that. Instead, he said servers are "greedy bastards." I'm not sure how anybody can interpret that comment to be respectful of servers. And that's not a one-off comment either. Chang also told GQ: Given that servers are "greedy bastards," perhaps it's about money. The Momofuku restaurants have been very successful. They turn tables like crazy and customers spend a ton of money. So the servers are most likely raking it in. That's at Ssam Bar and Noodle Bar, where the service is good (I'd say despite Chang's rotten attitude) but, at least in the case of Ssam Bar, slipping now that Cory is no longer on the floor regularly. But at ko, the proffer is basically "Screw the greedy bastard servers; we cooks don't need them; we cooks can do it without them." And so far ko has not delivered on that. The service provided by the cooks is weak. Perhaps it will improve, but there's no indication that anybody is trying to make that happen.

David Chang has broadcast his contempt for servers, for example "Servers are such greedy bastards." (From the New Yorker.) Yes, there have been so many examples of excellent service in the Momofuku organization. But I suspect that's despite the attitude of the organization's chief executive. Near the logical extreme of the anti-server position is a setup as at ko, where the cooks serve the food. But that system only delivers great service if the cooks are skilled at service. To be skilled, they need to be trained. But if the governing principles of your organization include "Servers are such greedy bastards," how can you expect service to be a priority. You can't, which is why so many people are saying the food is world-class but the service is lame. It's not a question of the chairs, the ambiance or anything else. The same people who were happy to overlook all that at Ssam Bar and Noodle Bar are saying the service at ko is weak. And, as Marc says, courteous"is the bare minimum -- it doesn't constitute good service. Basic competence is, again, the bare minimum. When your per-cover rate is similar to that at, say, Gramercy Tavern, you need to do a bit more.

As my Noodle Bar renaissance continues I'm working my way through the whole menu. Tonight I had a few new (to me) things that I thought were superb. I don't think nearly enough has been said about the fried chicken. Just to be clear, this is not batter-dipped, Southern-fried chicken. This is more along the lines of the Korean fried chicken at a place like Bon Chon -- the crispy skin is the actual skin of the chicken not a layer of batter -- but it's so much better than any Korean (or Thai) fried chicken I've had. For one thing, the chicken itself -- poulet rouge from Ashley Farms in North Carolina -- is an outstanding product. For another thing, because Noodle Bar is preparing small quantities to order the cooking is spot-on. And for still another thing there's no sweet-sticky glaze. Rather, the chicken pieces come in a bowl with just a little vinegary sauce at the bottom. The sauce is a tease. You really have to go after it if you want it, and there's just enough left at the end to sop up with the included bowl of rice. Nearly the equal of the chicken is the steak. It's a grilled Niman Ranch tri-tip sirloin, sliced and drizzled with kimchi butter and served over greens done in the style of creamed spinach -- but the creaminess comes from tofu. While this piece of meat may not be the equal of a Peter Luger porterhouse, it's a very high-level product and is surely the best piece of beef I've had at a restaurant for $23. Plus Peter Luger doesn't offer kimchi butter. The Barron Point oysters garnished with pickled shallots and horseradish are simple and effective: first-rate oysters with a garnish that enhances without overwhelming. Ami, the manager, brought us a dish to taste. He said it was new in previews today. It's roasted asparagus served over a pool of thick mustard-mayo-ham (I think) sauce, topped with crispy shallots and a soft-cooked egg. This dish is a winner; a worthy departure from asparagus-and-egg normalcy. He also poured us some of the South African dry mead, which went well with this dish but better (as he said it would) with the fried chicken. Also had some things I've had before: pickles, pork buns, shiitake buns, char, kimchi stew. All up to standard. And, the soft-serve ice cream. The peanut butter ice cream is so dense, with such pure and intense peanut flavor, it puts every other example I've had to shame. The Cracker Jack flavor is great too, though it tastes more like Butterfinger to me. Monday night at 6pm is a good time to visit Noodle Bar. No wait, nice relaxed pace, nobody waiting for your table, didn't really start filling up until we were leaving.

Gael Greene also commented on the lameness of the service at ko:

Just doing a little reading in the IMPS guidelines, and I believe what we're talking about is number 180, "Strip Loin, Boneless."

What's the official, correct pronunciation of Benoit?

I routinely keep supermarket mushrooms in my refrigerator for up to two weeks. I do my main shopping once a week and typically buy two boxes of mushrooms. Sometimes I use them that week, in which case I buy more the next week. But sometimes the dining-out schedule, cravings, etc., intervene and one or both boxes don't get used. For the first 7-10 days of their lives, I'll use them for just about anything. After that, when they start to brown out and get questionable, I just slice them up, give them a hard saute and add them to tomato sauce, a mixed-vegetable frittata, etc. I find that as they get older it becomes useful to trim the stems more aggressively (the ends of the stems seem to go bad first) before cooking, and it's certainly possible that some of the mushrooms will need to be discarded -- but in most cases a little trimming is all that's needed and it's certainly not necessary to throw out a whole box just because of a couple of bad ones (you wouldn't do that with, say, grapes).

This happened to me as well in the other direction of the temperature gradient: rinsing out a hot Pyrex dish in cold water. I could feel it pulling apart in my hand in the instant before it shattered. No cuts, just surprise! (And those fragments fly an awfully long way.) ← Last night I roasted some potatoes in a Pyrex baking dish. I left the dish (after the potatoes were eaten) in the oven overnight and forgot about it. Tonight I was preheating the oven for something else and noticed a funny smell. There was the Pyrex dish, complete with a layer of charred potato residue. So, without thinking about it for a second, I took the Pyrex dish out of the oven, put it in the sink and ran some water over it. Next thing I knew, my sink was full of tiny bits of the former baking dish. No injuries, but it was a bitch to clean out the sink.

Sort of a review in the Wall Street Journal today by a reporter who snagged a reservation at Ko. She had pretty much the same take on the service situation that I did:

This cut is technically called a boneless shell roast or, alternatively, a strip-loin roast. New York strip only refers, as far as I know, to individual steaks cut from the strip loin. When I was trailing in the kitchen at Gramercy Tavern, we cooked a shell roast for a private party. Just seared it in a shallow rondeau-type pot and then roasted it in the oven. It was great.

Yes, Cory is the FOH poster boy for the new paradigm. I do not, however, hold all other FOH managers up to the Cory standard. That would be like holding all carpenters up to the Jesus standard. But I do think there are other good Gen-X (and younger) FOH people out there who can represent. Like the dude at Noodle Bar now. The thing is, there's just nobody at Ssam Bar even playing that role as far as I can tell.

Well, I can only speak for myself, but a few weeks ago I ordered the chawan mushi and they brought the mushrooms. "Mushi" and "mushrooms," easily confused in a loud restaurant. But when I said it was the wrong dish, the server stonewalled me. Short of escalating to a more serious conflict, which I didn't have the emotional resources for that night (the purpose of the night out was to console and distract a friend whose mother had just passed away), I was stuck with the mushrooms (which were delicious). So when I read Asimov's account, it didn't seem like an anomaly to me. It seemed like a trend. Meanwhile, over at Noodle Bar, I see a clear trend in the other direction. There's a guy named Ami (sp.) who seems to be playing the role Cory once played at Ssam Bar. He's really on top of the dining room, and has that ability to make every customer feel loved in that low-key Momofuku way. The servers, at least the three I dealt with, were very engaging and didn't seem harried (even though the place does a heck of a lot of covers), and even the cooks are upbeat and personable (more so than at Ko, I'll say) especially the woman (I didn't quite catch her name; Jo?) who seems to be in charge. I especially like that, if you're at the counter, you get to interact a bit with the chefs -- whereas at Ssam Bar if you're at the counter you get to interact with the wall.

I have noticed a falling-off in service ever since Cory stopped being a constant presence in the Ssam Bar dining room, whereas I have noticed improved service at Noodle Bar especially under the direction of this guy Ami (not sure if that's the right spelling). At Ssam Bar they have made mistakes with my orders, there have been some crazy-long delays getting servers to take action on everything from taking an order to bringing the bill, and the flow of information -- the detailed, loving description of every dish -- is not as generous as it once was. I'm not the only person who has been noticing things like this of late. Check out Eric Asimov's blog entry titled "Salty and Unpleasant, And That Was the Chef." He describes a pretty lame service experience at Ssam Bar (read the whole thing for more context): Foodwise, well, I think the Momofukus still have some of if not the most delicious food in the city. But Ssam Bar is not as consistently amazing to me as it used to be. There seems to be less care taken with some platings, and like I said I think some of the newer dishes are steps backwards. I'm not of the opinion that every new dish has to be an improvement -- there's always risk in change -- but at some point there are too many misses for comfort. Whereas, at Noodle Bar, it feels like just about every new dish is a winner and an improvement over whatever came before.

$4.75 plus sales tax should be about $5.15, I think.

I'm not sure I agree with either proposition, Kent. Beef ground in-house is fairly common at good burger places. Once you subtract out the places that totally don't care about quality (the majority, of course) and use frozen preformed patties, even at the chain level, you can go into any Fuddruckers and there will be a glass wall looking on to the room where they grind their beef. However, I'm not sure in-house grinding is specifically the point that differentiates a great burger. The bigger issue is, I think, the time lag between grinding and cooking. If a restaurant grinds its beef at 8am and cooks a burger with that beef at 8pm, that's no better than ordering the beef from a distributor that grinds beef in the morning and delivers it to restaurants throughout the day. It's no better than buying it at a supermarket that grinds once a day, and indeed many supermarkets grind several times a day (even the Food Lion where I was just staying at the beach in North Carolina had that grinder going all day). What really makes a difference, as I learned when performing this experiment a few years ago with a friend, is grinding the meat within a few minutes of cooking. That's what no restaurant seems to do, but I can see the difficulty of pulling that off from a labor perspective. Also, most burger places -- even the best ones -- use pre-formed patties, again in part because of labor but also probably in part because they don't want to be working with raw ground beef at the same time hot food preparation is occurring. That's not likely to survive a health inspection, unless you really build your facility with totally separate spaces for those functions the way Fuddruckers does (Fuddruckers burgers, while not world class, are probably the best chain burgers -- though they do use pre-formed patties). Also, all this matters mostly for thick, rare or medium-rare burgers. Thinner burgers that are cooked through aren't going to differ as much when using beef that's a few hours older. In terms of cooking, charcoal grills are overrated for hamburger cookery. Or, rather, they only help with certain kinds of hamburgers. If you're making a big, thick, 10-ounce steakhouse-style burger, then I think a burger like that comes out better when cooked on a grill than on a griddle, although I don't think charcoal is any better than gas for this purpose and, indeed, a professional upright broiler may be the best tool. But smaller, thinner burgers come out better, I think, on a flat griddle. Ultimately, though, the answer to your underlying question is probably that not enough customers give a crap. Using your US$2 estimate as a hypothetical example, the point would be that more customers want to pay $2 less for a burger than care about having a burger that's $2 better. So what's the incentive for a place to do everything right? It would have to be personal motivation and vision, or a burger place would have to be smack in the middle of an educated foodie community.