Fat Guy

I guess I'm not sure why it matters whether these restaurants are accidental or premeditated. We're not talking about McDonald's here. Any good restaurant is the result of many influences, and the evolution of most restaurants starts before they even open -- just look at any preliminary artist's rendering, draft menu, etc., and compare it to the end result. Not that there can ever be said to be an end result. Places change. All you can have is a snapshot. If anything, the accidental (perhaps reactive would be a better term) nature of some elements of some of these places probably demonstrates that they're subject to similar meta-influences, which argues for rather than against a larger trend.

I'm not sure I agree that the wine program at Momo-Ssam sucks. For one thing, I'm not sure a good wine program is a requirement at such a restaurant -- wine is not really part of the culinary traditions it references. For another thing, small is not the same as bad. There are several good sparkling choices on the list, which is as it should be, and the reds and whites (four each) are well chosen. And for still another thing, Hitachino Red Ale is one of the best beers I've had -- it would be just fine with me if Momo-Ssam served no other beverage. I can't imagine I'll ever order wine there, with that cuisine, given the availability of Hitachino. Also, I don't agree that Upstairs is akin to Nougatine or any of the lounge restaurants. The chef is right there in the dining room, for crying out loud. Yes, it's a subsidiary of a larger restaurant, but it's very much its own thing.

I'm not sure what's meant by "makes a difference" but the fact that Bruni is gay is certainly relevant to the review in several ways. He introduces several elements of gay code, so he certainly seems to think it's relevant that he's gay. Also, you have at least one clueless blogger railing against Bruni's misogynism, which of course becomes a ludicrous claim when placed in context. Most interesting to me personally was that, as a straight guy (I think -- my wife accused me of being "so gay" just this morning), I've had nearly the same reactions as Bruni to "gentlemen's clubs." I find them more fascinating than titillating, more deserving of ridicule than awe. I have no idea how I'd have approached such a review, but I wish, if I'd have been the critic, that I'd have written almost exactly what Bruni wrote, minus the references that I didn't even understand until they were explained to me by a guy who owns an antique shop.

The recent topic on Kampuchea Noodle Bar and the opening (either impending or recent -- I have to check again) of Cambodian Cuisine (formerly the city's only Cambodian restaurant, in Fort Greene, Brooklyn) got me thinking about Southeast Asian restaurants in New York City that fall outside the Thai-Vietnamese core that really defines how New Yorkers view Southeast Asian cuisine. I thought we might get together a list (with comments) of the rest.

It will be interesting to compare LES Cambodian to UES Cambodian. I guess I should walk by the Cambodian Cuisine (the restaurant formerly in Fort Greene, Brooklyn) site on Third Avenue between 93rd and 94th to see if their long-delayed opening has actually happened.

I wonder if there are any restaurants in the outer boroughs that fit in here. Or are they all too conservative?

To try to get a better feel for "the paradigm" I decided to go to Momofuku Ssam Bar, Degustation and Room4Dessert this evening. They're close enough to one another for it to be a walkable situation, and I figured that if we started early on a Wednesday night we could avoid major waits. At Momo-Ssam, the plan for gaining entry worked flawlessly. We walked in a little before 7pm and waited about five minutes for seats. We lucked into the best table in the place, or at least the most peaceful and secluded table: the one nestled in the corner formed by the window and the service station. Man is the food there good. We had the hamachi, scallops and uni dishes to start, then the mushroom salad, the mackerel, a tofu ssam and, finally, the rice cakes with pork sausage. The rice cakes were rustic (totally delicious, but not haute), and the tofu ssam was updated street food (also delicious), but all the other dishes were seriously haute. The uni in particular was at a higher level than most dishes being served in the four-star restaurants right now -- a real showstopper of a composition of bright uni, black tapioca and whipped tofu. And the vibe was exactly what we've been talking about on this topic. A flaw in the plan became evident when we rolled out of Momo-Ssam totally stuffed. But we pressed on. Degustation seemed much older and stuffier, and to my surprise we were asked if we had a reservation. We didn't, there are only 16 seats, and we were told we wouldn't be able to get one until 10pm. However, that did present the opportunity to check out the relocated Oyster Bar (nee Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar, I believe the name is now technically New Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar) around the corner, I think where Jewel Bako Makimono used to be before it was absorbed by the Fifth Street operation. Not part of "the paradigm" (too conventional), but excellent and sort of a kindred spirit -- it deserves to be doing bigger business. The lobster-knuckle chowder (I'm a firm believer in the theory that the knuckle is the best part of the lobster) with corn and Serrano ham is worth a trip, as are the salmon tartare and tuna carpaccio (I think they called it paillard, because the place is ostensibly French). Note to self: now and for all time, always give potato chips 90 seconds in the toaster oven before eating. At Room4Dessert we were joined by a friend celebrating a birthday, and we were relieved that there were seats available without a wait -- we were back on track. R4D is squarely in "the paradigm," and is particularly focused on avant-garde technique. We ordered every dessert -- four in glasses, four tasting compositions and one set of petits fours -- and the flavor and texture combinations were pretty amazing. I wouldn't say all the desserts were winners, but the ideas were all totally cutting edge. If you told someone that Momo-Ssam and R4D were part of a mini-chain of restaurants, it would come across as a totally believable statement. They have very strong visual, attitudinal and stylistic ties. I was just at Upstairs a couple of weeks ago, and now feel confident that it fits in with Momo-Ssam and R4D. It might not pass for being part of the same chain as the others, but it's damn close. I'll have to hit Degustation another night, with a reservation, but from what I saw peeking in and reading the menu it looked borderline. Perhaps the phenomenon has and inner and an outer circle, and Degustation lies on the outer circle along with the Bar Room at the Modern?

Over the past couple of years, I've become a huge fan of Chef Jeff. I've been following his book since it was just an idea, having heard about it from my agent, who also represents Jeff. And I've read the book so closely and carefully that I've found typos that the book's real editors missed. What impresses me most of all is that the book is brutally frank. It could have been totally self-serving -- after all, the people with the other side of the story would mostly be in lockdown. But he makes no excuses for his past, and he tells all. If Jeff holds anything back, I can't imagine what it is. I mean, once you've covered the gump (prison talk, I now know, for effeminate gay man) who trades for oral sex (as in, if you owe him you have to let him perform oral sex on you!), once you've explained how to have sex in the prison visitor's lounge, once you lay bare your masturbation habits -- there's not much left to hide. There are many scandalous portions of Chef Jeff's book, but the real scandal is that the mainstream food media have given him the cold shoulder. Jeff has had no trouble getting on Oprah and in various general interest publications like USA Today, but in the food media world you have to come to the Daily Gullet to learn about him. He can't get any play in the food glossies and newspaper food sections. That's pathetic. Jeff is the real deal. Sure, his story is 180 degrees from the typical piece of food lit out there, but that's the worst possible reason to shy away from it. There's no greater testament to the transformative power of food. Most any chef who's out there talking tough is, by comparison to Jeff, a poseur. Once the word is out and Jeff's book is embraced by the mainstream, just watch the food press come crawling back for interviews.

I think in the post-modern culinary era it's difficult to define the term "haute cuisine" with precision, but I agree we should try. Back in the day, one could define haute cuisine by enumerating all the examples of haute cuisine dishes, since that was pretty much a set and finite universe. Nouvelle cuisine broke down the original system but was still recognizable as haute cuisine. But once various contemporary, modern, minimalist, fusion, etc., schools came on the scene, definitions became murky. Haute cuisine had to be viewed more generally as "high" cuisine contrasted with "low" cuisine, in other words the cuisine served in fancy restaurants, by the best chefs, or derived from the older, more easily defined schools of haute cuisine. And then there's the Asian question -- those cultures have had their own high cuisines, which have filtered through various mechanisms. Also, haute cuisine has historically been very much influenced by peasant and other regional non-haute cuisine. I don't think "the inclusion of named sources either geographic or producer, emphasis on garnishes, and the use of trendy and/or luxe ingredients" really defines haute cuisine today, though I do think each of those factors can be an indicator that what one is looking at may possibly be haute cuisine. Creativity is certainly a factor -- there's no way to make well-priced haute cuisine without being creative! "Chef-driven" is another term that has come up a lot, though a sandwich shop can be chef-driven too. Utilizing contemporary technique as practiced at the top contemporary restaurants, that might be a factor to include.

I also think he did a good job -- it's one of his best-written pieces, because Bruni is an excellent writer, just not about food. I also think there was some extra humor and grace in his handling of the fact that he's gay (not relevant to reviewing in general, but germane here):

Right, he said:

I have no issue with you being irked -- lots of things irk me that irk nobody else -- however if everyone from Time to the UN to the Italian Government Tourist Board to more than 10,000 other Google results is using this construction, it can hardly be said to be an indictment of any particular journalist, editor or story.

Whether I'm serious or reputable is an open question, but I'm a journalist and none of what you're saying is at all obvious to me. It's so un-obvious that I believe the exact opposite to be true. You can't judge a newspaper in 2007 by the standards of 1954.

The New York Times reported today in "Off the Menu" that the Bouley fine-dining restaurant will be moving to 161 Duane Street, and that: It will be interesting to see how this affects Upstairs (will the new room be "Upstairs, Downstairs"?).

I don't understand the objection to the Penthouse Club review. Can somebody explain it? I thought Bruni did just about everything right. Should he have ignored the restaurant because some people are offended by operations like the Penthouse Club? No, I think he made the journalistically correct choice: he covered a restaurant that has food worthy of coverage, and he ridiculed its ridiculous non-food aspects.

Dave, I think a system with a dozen categories makes sense for a niche publication targeted at a savvy audience, however it's too unwieldy for a general-audience newspaper. One of the main virtues of the star system is that it's simple -- that's part of what makes it so powerful. Ratings like "Two and a half stars in the New York Upper Middle Dining category!" just aren't going to appeal to a general audience, or even mean very much. So, while I agree with your characterization of the problem, I don't think a system even more baroque than Michelin's symbolic language is the solution. Moreover, what you characterize as a three-category solution is really a two-category solution: starred restaurants and non-starred restaurants. The point of running a third review each week is not to create a new category of ratings. It is, rather, to account for the increased number of restaurants and to make sure both cheap eats and the middle range get sufficient coverage (also in pursuit of this goal there should be occasional group reviews of steakhouses and other genre restaurants, so as to free up space for more thorough reviewing of fine-dining restaurants). This introduces no complexity; it simplifies. And while it's not as exhaustive (or exhausting) as a dozen-category system, it addresses 90+ percent of the problem.

From the Italian Government Tourist Board: "The Italian mountains are for everyone - a marvelous place in all the seasons of the year." http://www.italiantourism.com/alps.html From a UN Food and Agriculture Organization report titled "The Italian mountains" "The fauna of the Italian mountains is characterized by a large component of endemic species." http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/y3549e/y3549e16.htm From a USA Today article titled "Car of Pope John Paul II up for auction in Las Vegas" "Kruse likes to imagine Cardinal Karol Wojtyla driving around Poland before he became pope in 1978, and later dressing in commoners' clothing to head into the Italian mountains for rest, relaxation and reflection." http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2005...ar_x.htm?csp=34 From a CNN story, "Three die in Italy earthquake" "At least three tourists were injured by falling rocks in the Italian mountains, ANSA reported." http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/...uake/index.html Time magazine, "Eye on the Oval Office" "He joked so much then that people did not think he was serious, as if anyone scorched by the Dust Bowl and shattered by an explosive shell in the Italian mountains in World War II could be truly frivolous." http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...1074734,00.html From a New York Times article titled "A Grandchild of Italy Cracks the Spaghetti Code" "I had driven through the Italian mountains with an interpreter to find Ateleta, the village where my grandmother Floriana Ranallo Zappa grew up." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/dining/21sauce.html

I agree that star ratings are bad, and have been arguing it for at least a decade. Probably the best thing ever written on the subject is James Poniewozik's 1998 essay in Salon: "The St*r Report" (which references something I wrote earlier). Here's the thing, though: the star ratings aren't going anywhere. You'll likely see stars added to opera and art criticism before you'll see them removed from restaurant criticism. So there's only so much that can be accomplished by endlessly repeating the claim that they're a bad idea, and by answering every objection to specific star ratings with, "Well, there shouldn't be star ratings." The best we can do, as people concerned with the quality of dining criticism, is fight to have the stars applied in a rational manner. This is a place where the voices of commentators and readers can have some actual influence. Not a lot, but some.

Boy I'm really hoping, since I'm in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with Bruni, that I at least said it first. Oakapple, I think I am (along with Sneakeater and Nathan and others) guilty of not articulating the trend well enough. At the same time, the fact that Sneakeater and Nathan are triangulating in on the same conclusions I am, at an uncanny level of accuracy, gives me extra confidence that we're talking about something reality-based here. On the subject of Atelier, it's worth noting that when Robuchon and Ducasse developed, respectively, the Atelier and Spoon concepts, they were looking towards the New World for ideas, which they then processed through their French filters. Atelier and Spoon do serve haute cuisine in technically informal settings, but they are neither inexpensive nor effortlessly casual in the way that Upstairs and Momo-ssam are. Consider that when I said on the Atelier topic that it would be fine to go in and order just one small plate, several people thought I was insane. I would consider Atelier and Spoon to be transitional restaurants on the way to a new trend in dining. And the French have had similar experiences with young chefs opening restaurants, because a decade or so ago the young sous-chefs from various haute-cuisine restaurants went out and opened haute bistros, which became quite popular. They're different from what we're seeing here, but they're kindred spirits.

The uni dish, on the Momo-ssam website, is "Santa Barbara uni, whipped tofu, black tapioca." Of course you can get uni at lots of sushi bars, but again the place designation plus the unusual garnishes is more haute than low (how do you say the opposite of haute in French?), and that's not taking account of any actual technical cooking expertise at play. Even the bread and butter follows trends that are coming from places like Per Se and Ducasse -- you get "St. Helen's Farm goat's butter (England); Burro da Tavola (Italy)."

I see the posts here are focusing on the recirculating-water-bath aspect of sous vide cookery, but the benchmark for quotidian sous vide is surely the boil-in-bag meal. Or should we say quotidien?

When I speak of haute cheap, I'm thinking of main courses in the teens -- most or all of them, not just one pasta dish at $19, though a place with most mains in the teens can have a $30 lobster or other splurge item without being disqualified (I hasten to add that at Upstairs the lobster dish is $21). Whether you go to such a place and spend $17 on a plate of food with a glass of tap water, or you put together a more elaborate menu with wine that costs $150 per person, the restaurant still offers entrees in the teens. The haute sensibility is evident in many ways on Momofuku Ssam's menu, for example listing several different country hams by producer ("Col. Bill Newsom's Country Ham, Princeton, Kentucky," "Finchville Farms Country Ham, Finchville, Kentucky," "Edwards Wigwam Smoked Ham, Surry, Virginia," "Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Ham, Madisonville, Tennessee.") The concept of haute applies neatly to Asian cuisine because many Asian cuisines really do have, just as French cuisine does, long and distinct traditions of "high" and "low" cooking.

Okay but let's not equate good food with haute food. I don't think anybody would contend that the food at Gramercy Tavern's front room is haute. Or the Bread Bar at Tabla. While delicious, the food at those places is much more in the rustic camp. I think the Bar Room at the Modern is the only Union Square group front room that serves a significant number of dishes I'd consider to be haute cuisine.

There's definitely an article in this. Thanks for helping me write it.

Quite a few restaurants that do put salt and pepper grinders/shakers on the table clear them when they clear the table for dessert. This cuts down on theft opportunities, though not completely. Theft loss is a cost of doing business at any restaurant, though, just as hotels know they're going to lose some towels, etc., every day. You just have to factor it in to your menu pricing. There are also some good solutions that don't require expensive tabletop items. For example, small salt and pepper dishes are easy enough to put on the table. Eleven Madison Park in New York has a nice implementation of this system: when they bring the bread and butter, they fill a small dish with salt and pepper from larger containers and put it on the table. That way you don't have to sit there imagining that the previous occupants of the table had their grubby paws in the salt dish. For me, the most annoying thing about not having salt on the table is that most restaurants seem to be using unsalted butter for the bread service. A few top places serve both salted and unsalted butter, but it's unusual. So once I ascertain that the butter isn't salted, I almost always sprinkle a little salt on my buttered bread. I rarely add salt to my other food (unless it's steak, but that's usually a different kind of restaurant and every steakhouse has salt on the table anyway), but would like it at least for the bread service. Then again, I don't mind asking, so long as they bring it promptly. Also, on the other side of this issue, it really bugs me when people salt their food without tasting it first.