Fat Guy

I live here, Nathan, and have since I was born. I have plenty of dining experience, probably a lot more than you. I don't find the possibility of an enforcement action against a high-end restaurant to be the slightest bit implausible, and when it happens -- which it surely will at some point (if it hasn't already) -- I hope you'll be here to eat crow.

I think if you went back to 1900 and tasted the food and wine anyplace in Europe where you've been in modern times, you'd find most of it quite different. The question is which has changed more, the wine or the food?

I think it is.

I definitely don't mean the scoring thing -- that's a whole different ballgame. But, yes, some cake squares are pretty much the same as traditional petits fours glacés. These two bakeries seem to make them that way, though I don't know what kinds of layering they have inside: http://www.mageesbakeryfarm.com/articles/p...?articleid=6668 http://www.mcentyresbakery.com/cakesquares.htm Others are more like individually frosted mini-cakes, and some (presumably those made by lazy bakers or those who have to mass produce under time constraints) are done in the sides-exposed manner.

(Does anybody know how to reach Vince Staten? I'd love to get his opinion on grape tomatoes!)

I think the situation is that they're not as uniformly good as when they first arrived. Certainly, when you get good ones, they're still as good as they used to be. I think the reason is simply that most new products that have some success will be imitated. The imitations are often not as good, so overall the product becomes less reliable. For this reason, I've started focusing on brands as I never did before. A box that says grape tomatoes is no longer a guarantee of a certain minimum standard. But recently I've found that the Splendido name on a box is a good assurance. They cost about 50 cents more per box than the other two brands available where I shop, and I'm happy to pay it.

Though this product seems incredibly stupid to me, it would have come in handy tonight. I was having dumplings from a local Chinese takeout joint. They came with a little plastic cup of dumpling sauce. I dipped a dumpling in the sauce, looked away for a moment to reflect upon some mystery of the universe or another, and looked back only to find that our toddler had toddled over to the table and knocked the little cup of sauce onto the floor. That wouldn't have happened had the sauce been safely inside a chopstick.

If "red with meat, white with fish" is the most common (and wrong) piece of conventional wisdom in the wine world, surely the "local food with local wine" pairing advice is the second most common. I can certainly understand why such a model would be comforting, but does it have any basis in fact? It seems to me the model assumes that the local food and wine of a region somehow evolved together in perfect harmony. But did this really happen anywhere? The "classic" dishes and wine styles of Europe are not, for the most part, centuries old. Most of them are decades old. Except in the case of a dish made with wine, for local food and wine to evolved together in any serious manner would require either that there be some physical reality of the local soil that causes different plants and animals to have common or complementary flavors, or that there be winemakers or cooks changing their approaches in order to make their products better match one another. I'm not sure how likely that seems. It also seems to me that the conventional wisdom assumes a narrowness of local food and wine that doesn't exist in most serious culinary and wine-producing regions. Even when you divide Europe into the tiniest culinary regions, you can find incredible variety of food and wine styles in that region. Even if there is some special affinity between local wine and food, it may be mostly just useful travelers advice -- it may not really apply to wine being sold retail outside the region. Because, even if the local jug wine pairs particularly well with the local peasant cuisine, there's no reason to assume that a bottle of wine selling for US$30 per bottle is going to fit the same profile -- or that an haute-cuisine meal selling for 150 Euros will. I'm basically of the opinion that examples of good wine and good food from anywhere in the world have tremendous potential for harmony -- that it's nearly inevitable that more wine choices and diversity will generate stronger marriages that are not regionally based. Once you've been through one of Daisuke Utagawa's tastings of sushi with red Burgundy, it gets quite a bit harder to take the "local food with local wine" proposition seriously.

Seinfeld is New York through a Hollywood lens, but Sex and the City is legit New York. Candace Bushnell, a New York-based writer, wrote her series of "Sex and the City" columns for the New York Observer. HBO, headquartered in New York, filmed Sex and the City on location here, with a compelling cast. Magnolia, for its part, is a died-in-the-wool retro New York institution to which Carrie Bradshaw brought overnight global attention. Exactly. Just look at the media coverage on this -- these are just a few examples: From Time magazine: "Cupcake Nation" Relevant quote: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...1229108,00.html From the Telegraph (London): "Cupcake wars (or: how 'Sex and the City' ruined my neighbourhood)" Relevant quote: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml...ftcupcake14.xml From the San Francisco Chronicle: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...LVG38LDUJ11.DTL

There are people out there who make it their mission in life to fight underage drinking. Plenty of these people are well-to-do and dine in restaurants like Eleven Madison Park. If one of them sees an obviously underage drinker, you can be sure that's getting reported to ABC, and once that report goes in it will most likely be followed up because ABC would like nothing more than to take down a super-high-profile restaurateur like Danny Meyer. There are also a lot of government officials, including people in law enforcement, dining in places like EMP. While most of them will turn a blind eye to a little underage drinking in a nice restaurant, all it takes is one who doesn't and then you have a disaster: fines, media embarrassment, insurance premiums raised, possible suspension of the liquor license -- no server should take that risk on a restaurant's behalf. I've even seen the NYPD commissioner at EMP. If you're pouring wine for an underage customer at the next table, you're putting the commissioner in an awkward position. I did my fair share of underage drinking, and I wholeheartedly concur that a law that says a 20-year-old can't enjoy a glass of wine at EMP is too stupid to deserve to be called a law. But that's not the point. That most servers at high-end restaurants are reckless enough to serve underage customers is equally beside the point.

Cupcakes already existed. Magnolia already existed. Many other elements were, surely, in place. But I wouldn't underestimate the ability of one episode of one show to tip the scales of popular culture.

1 cup = 8 fluid ounces

How about one company? If you made a wine list of only Louis Latour's wines, you'd have a significant wine list with quite a few matching opportunities and challenges. Louis Latour offers: Aloxe-Corton 1er Cru « Les Chaillots » Aloxe-Corton Vin du Bicentenaire Aloxe-Corton « Domaine Latour » Auxey-Duresses Blanc Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru Beaujolais-Lancié Beaujolais-Villages Beaujolais-Villages «Chameroy» Beaune 1er Cru "Aux Cras" Beaune 1er Cru "Cent Vignes" Beaune 1er Cru "Grèves" rouge Beaune 1er Cru 'Les Aigrots' Beaune 1er Cru Blanc Beaune 1er Cru Perrières Beaune 1er Cru « Domaine Latour » Beaune 1er Cru «Grèves» blanc Beaune 1er Cru «Vignes Franches» Beaune Blanc Beaune Rouge Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru Bonnes Mares Grand Cru Bourgogne Aligoté Bourgogne Blanc « Anniversaire » Bourgogne Blanc « Cuvée Latour » Bourgogne Passetoutgrain Bourgogne Rouge « Anniversaire » Bourgogne Rouge « Cuvée Latour » Bouzeron Brouilly « Les Saburins » Chablis Chablis 1er Cru Chablis 1er Cru 'Beauroy' Chablis 1er Cru « Fourchaume » Chablis 1er Cru « Montmains » Chablis Grand Cru 'Bougros' Chablis Grand Cru « Blanchots » Chablis Grand Cru « Vaudésir » Chablis «La Chanfleure» Chambertin 'Clos de Bèze' Grand Cru Chambertin Grand Cru « Cuvée Héritiers Latour » Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru "Les Charmes" Chambolle-Musigny Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru Chardonnay d'Ardèche Chardonnay « Bourgogne » Charmes-Chambertin Grand Cru Chassagne Montrachet 1er Cru "Morgeot" rouge Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru 'Les Caillerets' Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru blanc Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru « Les Chenevottes » Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru « Morgeot » blanc Chassagne-Montrachet blanc Chassagne-Montrachet Rouge Château Corton Grancey Grand Cru Chénas Chevalier-Montrachet Grand cru « Les Demoiselles » Clos de la Roche Grand Cru Clos Vougeot Grand Cru Corton Grand Cru « Clos de la Vigne au Saint » Corton Grand Cru « Domaine Latour » Corton-Charlemagne Grand Cru Côte de Beaune-Villages Côte-de-Nuits Villages Criots-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru Domaine de Valmoissine Duet Echézeaux Grand Cru Fixin Fleurie « Les Garans » Gevrey-Chambertin Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru « Cazetiers » Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru "Les Corbeaux" Givry Blanc Givry Rouge Grand Ardèche Grands Echézeaux Grand Cru Juliénas Latricières-Chambertin « Grand Cru » Le Bourgogne de Louis Latour Blanc Le Bourgogne de Louis Latour rouge Mâcon-Lugny Mâcon-Lugny « Les Genièvres » Mâcon-Villages Mâcon-Villages « Chameroy » Maranges Maranges 1er Cru "La Fussière" Marsannay Marsannay Blanc Mazis-Chambertin Grand Cru Mercurey Blanc Mercurey Rouge Meursault 1er Cru « Goutte d’Or » Meursault 1er Cru Blanc Meursault 1er Cru Château de Blagny Meursault 1er Cru « Charmes » Meursault 1er Cru « Genevrières » Meursault 1er Cru « Perrières » Meursault 1er Cru « Poruzots » Meursault Blanc Meursault Rouge Montagny Montagny 1er Cru « La Grande Roche » Monthélie Monthélie "Clos des Toisières" blanc Monthelie 'Clos des Toisières' rouge Montrachet Grand Cru Morey-Saint-Denis Morey-Saint-Denis 1er Cru Morgon « Les Charmes » Morgon « Les Corcelettes » Moulin-à-Vent « Les Michelons » Nuits-Saint-Georges Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru "Les Crots" Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru « Clos des Argillières » Pernand-Vergelesses 1er Cru « Ile des Vergelesses » Pernand-Vergelesses Blanc Pernand-Vergelesses Rouge Pinot Noir Pommard Pommard 1er Cru« Les Epenots » Pommard 1er Cru Pommard 1er Cru 'Les Rugiens' Pouilly-Fuissé Pouilly-Vinzelles 'En Paradis' Puligny-Montrachet Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru 'Hameau de Blagny' Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru « Les Truffières » Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru « Sous le Puits » Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru « La Garenne » Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru « Les Champgains » Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru « Les Folatières » Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru « Les Referts » Regnié « La Roche Thulon » Romanée-Saint-Vivant Grand Cru ' Les Quatre Journaux ' Rully Blanc Rully Rouge Saint-Aubin Saint-Romain Saint-Véran Saint-Véran « Les Deux Moulins » Santenay 1er Cru "La Comme" Santenay Blanc Santenay Rouge Santenay Rouge 1er Cru Savigny-lès-Beaune 1er Cru Savigny-lès-Beaune Blanc Savigny-lès-Beaune Rouge Volnay Volnay 1er Cru 'Clos des Chênes' Volnay 1er Cru 'En Chevret' Volnay 1er Cru 'Les Mitans' Volnay 1er Cru Rouge Volnay 1er Cru « Santenots » Vosne-Romanée Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru « Beaumonts » Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru « Les Suchots »

Magnolia neither invented the cupcake nor the practice of serving cupcakes at kids' parties, however it seems pretty clear that the Sex and the City-Magnolia axis marks a significant trend. I mean, I gave a talk at Johnson & Wales in Charlotte earlier this year. The talk was about my book. I assure you, nowhere in my book do I discuss cupcakes, at least not knowingly. Yet, one of the first questions I was asked during the discussion period was, "What do you think of the cupcake trend." It's for real, for sure. A side note: cupcakes are not the only individual cakes in America. In Texas and much of the South I know it has been common for ages to serve "cake squares" at parties. You cut a big layer cake into square or rectangular pieces, put each piece on a paper liner and frost the pieces individually.

Right. In general no critic thinks that way, and specifically Bruni is on record saying that he evaluates the experience as a whole and awards stars based on his level of enthusiasm for the place. We won't get far trying to make the stars fit a formula that the person awarding them doesn't use.

Stop picking on Canada, Jack. But seriously, I haven't found cakes in the US to be any sweeter than cakes in the UK, France, etc., unless we're talking about meat cakes, which tend not to be served at children's birthday parties. Cupcakes don't taste substantially different to me than regular cakes -- generally you make a cake batter and then you can decide whether you want to make one big cake or a few dozen cupcakes. It's more a question of format -- I do think there's an interesting metaphor there about individualism and community. (The original metaphor from Gloria Steinem had to do with world hunger, by the way.) "Don't spit on my cupcake and tell me it's frosting." -Judge Harm

The local wines of, say, France, are about as diverse as can be. You maybe get a small increment of diversity if you add in the wines of the whole world, but the wines of any single major wine nation are incredibly diverse, as can be the wines of many single regions. I mean, Spain produces everything from sherry to cava to Vega Sicilia; in France you can have a Banyuls, a Bordeaux or a Beaujolais and those are just reds; they make everything in these places. So it doesn't seem to me that there's appreciably less variety or complexity to an all French or all Spanish wine list than to an international one. With a few notable exceptions, the world's top wine restaurants tend to max out at 1,500 or so wine choices. For purposes of establishing breadth, depth, complexity or required knowledge it makes little difference if they're all from Spain or if there are 500 each from Spain, France and Italy.

Unless you've been living under a rock, or you don't have cable, you've no doubt noticed that one of the many unintended consequences of Sex and the City is that America is literally becoming what Gloria Steinem figuratively accused it of being: an enormous frosted cupcake. That wacky foursome just loved the cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery in the City, and America has returned the favor by sublimating itself into a nation of cupcake fanatics. Don't take my word for it. I saw it on TV. NBC News said: "From coast to coast, cupcakes have become the hottest thing since sliced cake." That's serious. Cupcakes do seem to be everywhere. At the new year's party I went to, there were three times as many cupcakes as people, not to mention each cupcake was large enough to scare the heck out of a European -- the Double Gulp of the cupcake kingdom. Friends report they are now de rigeur at kids' birthday parties. NBC says Buttercup Bakery in New York is selling 2,000 to 3,000 a day and Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills is selling 1,500. Of course, America will never be an enormous frosted cupcake. It will be 300 million enormous frosted cupcakes, because the whole idea of the cupcake is that it is a continent unto itself. And when we become the New Zealand of cupcakes, with more cupcakes than people, what will become of sliced cake? Or will the cupcakes have become so oversized as to require slicing? When is a cupcake no longer a cupcake? How do we feel about the cupcake trend? I'm tempted to say, I like cupcakes when they're good and don't like them when they're bad. But I won't. There must be more to it. Share your feelings.

The frappe (as in the foamy Greek coffee beverage) is becoming more popular, and there was even been a book, Frappe Nation, published recently. We were introduced to the frappe by a Greek Cypriot friend several years ago, but the beverage seemed to have no traction outside the Greek community until very recently. There are a lot of folks claiming that Greek cuisine is a major up-and-coming restaurant trend, so I imagine the frappe could be poised to ride that wave.

It's also entirely possible to make your own curds from, you know, milk.

As far as I know, most of the places in New York that sell so-called made-on-premises mozz use Polly-O curds.

Sadly, I didn't have a camera with me at the competition -- not that I'd have had the ability to use it under those circumstances. The photo that accompanied the article is from a later latke-making exhibition in my kitchen.

A burner like that is specifically designed for indoor catering use. Not a problem. Just be aware that you'll probably have to change the canister at least once and possibly twice in a two-hour period.

I'm arguing that if anybody says avant-garde cuisine can only be enjoyed with micro pairings, we can just point to the counter-example of El Bulli and laugh that person out of the room.

The press release the restaurant sent around today said: