Fat Guy

Like night and day.

I think the "wine" component of vinegar has more to do with derivation than with literal meaning. According to the Vinegar Institute: http://www.versatilevinegar.org/vinegarlore.html According to multiple Google results, they've been calling it vinegar ("laudatum acentum") since 1046.

It costs nothing to credit a source.

The eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters is very pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s eG Scholarships awards. Four scholarships, with a total value of $20,000, have been awarded. Martha Torres of San Antonio, Texas, USA, will receive the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters Humanitarian Award, a $5,000 cash scholarship for a displaced victim of Hurricane Katrina, to be used toward any culinary degree or certificate program at any accredited culinary school in the world. Marolyn Charpentier of Mouleydier, France, will receive the Day/eGullet Society Culinary Journalist Independent Study Scholarship, a $5,000 cash scholarship for a career journalist to conduct independent study and research designed to further the writing of an original and innovative culinary topic. (Primary funding provided by Jonathan Day and Melissa Taylor, as well as the eGullet Society general fund.) Nancy Peckenpaugh of Ithaca, New York, USA, will receive the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters Culinary Study Scholarship, a $5,000 cash scholarship for a pre-enrolled student, currently enrolled student or career professional toward any culinary degree or certificate program at any accredited culinary school in the world. Jonathan Wu of New York, New York, USA, will receive the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters Professional Chef Independent Study Scholarship, a $5,000 cash scholarship for a professional chef (culinary or pastry) to conduct independent study worldwide. This year’s eG Scholarships awards were made possible by the generous support of the eGullet Society’s donors and sponsors. The overwhelming majority of the funding for this year’s eG Scholarships program came from individual Society donor member contributions of $50, $100 and $250. The eGullet Society is now raising funds for next year’s eG Scholarships program. Maintaining and expanding the eG Scholarships program will only be possible, however, if those who gave last year give again and if many new donors give as well. To support the eGullet Society at the $50, $100 or $250 per year level, please sign up for a Society donor membership (note: you must already be an eGullet Society member in order to upgrade to a Society donor membership; if you are not a member please join). Society donor members receive, depending on which package they select, increased personal messenger storage allotments; increased ImageGullet storage; additional features, including personal messenger with carbon copy and attachments, unlimited searching without flood control, and priority access to new features upon release; exclusive gift items; and most importantly the knowledge that they are supporting the eG Scholarships and other program services of the eGullet Society. For higher levels of support, please contact the eGullet Society fundraising team: giving@eGullet.org or 212.828.0133 The eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters is a 501c3 not-for-profit public charity, dedicated to increasing awareness and knowledge of the arts of cooking, eating and drinking, as well as the literature of food and drink. To administer the eG Scholarships program, the eGullet Society has partnered with the Culinary Trust, also a culinary nonprofit. The Culinary Trust processes all eG Scholarships applications, assembles a panel of independent judges (no eGullet Society staff participate in the judging, nor are they eligible for eG Scholarships awards) and handles payment of the awards. eG Scholarships. Learn. Chew. Discuss.

In my opinion, you would be doing absolutely nothing wrong. Indeed, you would be an upstanding global citizen of recipe attribution.

The important distinction, which tends to get lost in discussions such as this one, is between a copyright violation and an act of plagiarism. Plagiarism is an issue of ethics. It's primarily about attribution. Copyright is an issue of property. It's primarily about ownership. When you claim somebody else's words or ideas as your own, you've committed an act of plagiarism. It doesn't matter if you paraphrase or take other not-so-clever action to disguise what you're doing. It's still plagiarism. When you reproduce somebody else's words extensively without permission (or subject to other legal exceptions such as fair use in journalistic coverage), you've likely committed a copyright violation. You can cite and attribute all you want, but you're still committing a copyright violation. You can of course commit both acts together: you can reproduce someone else's work extensively without permission (copyright violation) and fail to attribute it (plagiarism). And you can commit plagiarism where no copyright exists, such as with words in the public domain (e.g., the plays of Shakespeare).

I agree with all of what you've said except this point. You could not, for example, rewrite all of the text in an entire cookbook without changing any of the recipes and claim the entire work as your own. Obviously you've just copied the book and paraphrased in that case. ← That's because a unique collection of otherwise non-copyrightable material can become copyrightable by virtue of the uniqueness of the collection. The individual elements, however, are still not copyrightable.

I'm not sure real balsamic vinegar (Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena or di Reggio Emilia) or even traditional fake balsamic vinegar (the various condimento products sold in Italy) is substantially more popular than it was back in the day. It was a luxury item then and remains a luxury item now. What has become popular is an invented supermarket product made from concentrated grape juice, strong vinegar and caramel coloring. I imagine few purchasers of supermarket balsamic vinegar know or care what real balsamic vinegar is. As for why the invented supermarket product is popular, there are probably a few reasons, the foremost being that it's sweet.

Sherry vinegar with grapeseed oil makes for a terrific vinaigrette.

I've bought it there twice. They had several brands. I've also seen it at Foodmart International on Route 9. In Queens, Titan Foods has it. And you can get this sort of thing from ethnicgrocer.com.

We can't be acquired, because we're a not-for-profit corporation. A couple of years ago, when we were still acquirable, we were approached by venture capitalists and other investors -- never CNet, but other media and technology companies that have bought up web operations -- but our analyses indicated that selling to them would kill the goose that laid the golden egg. I don't know what Chowhound got, but we were hearing a few million dollars in cash and stock, although when you start splitting it up and factoring in that the stock will probably be worthless before it vests it winds up being maybe enough money to buy a nice new car. Our numbers in terms of web traffic are probably a bit lower than Chowhound's, but from a corporate acquisitions standpoint we have a more demographically appealing (as in wealthier) community. They probably got about what we would have. But we didn't want to go that way. We wanted to pursue our own vision and have our organization outlive the founding generation, so we became a not-for-profit public charity. I could use a new car, though.

Arne Salvesen ("Daddy-A") interviews Chef Brian Fowke ("Chef Fowke") in the latest eG Radio foodcast. Please follow this link to listen. Please note: eG Forums discussion of the Chef Fowke eG Radio foodcast should be limited to substantive discussion of the content of the foodcast. Suggestions, comments or questions about foodcasting in general should be submitted to me or Arne via the personal messenger (PM) system. Many thanks.

The latest eG Radio foodcast is now online.<BR><BR> Click here for the 13 March 2006 eG Radio foodcast.<BR><BR> (Clicking the above link should initiate a download of an .mp3 file, which is a recording of the foodcast; you can then play it on most any media player such as Windows Media Player, or you can transfer the file to an iPod or portable device).<BR><BR> In the latest eG Radio foodcast, recorded on location at RARE restaurant in Vancouver, we talk to Chef Brian Fowke about his new venture. Arne Salvesen ("Daddy-A"), conducts the interview.<BR><BR> The discussion topic for eG Radio foodcast 002 is already in progress here. Join us.<BR> <BR>To subscribe to our foodcast feed, just click the appropriate button...<BR> <A HREF="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=134732732"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with iTunes" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/itunespodcastbadge.gif"></A> <A HREF="http://yahoo.com"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with Yahoo! Podcasts" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/yahoopodcastbadge.gif"></A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.podnova.com/add.srf?url=http://feeds.feedburner.com/egsociety"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with PodNova" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/podnovapodcastbadge.gif"></A> <A HREF="http://odeo.com/channel/79696/subscribe/"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with Odeo" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/odeopodcastbadge.gif"></A> <BR>Or subscribe to our foodcast news feed with any of the following services...<BR> <A HREF="http://www.bloglines.com/sub/http://feeds.feedburner.com/egsociety"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with Bloglines" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/bloglinesnewsreaderbadge.gif"></A> <A HREF="http://add.my.yahoo.com/rss?url=http://feeds.feedburner.com/egsociety"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with My Yahoo!" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/yahoonewsreaderbadge.gif"></A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.newsgator.com/ngs/subscriber/subext.aspx?url=http://feeds.feedburner.com/egsociety"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with NewsGator" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/newsgatornewsreaderbadge.gif"></A> <A HREF="http://client.pluck.com/pluckit/prompt.aspx?GCID=C12286x053&a=http://feeds.feedburner.com/egsociety&t=eGullet%20Society"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with Pluck" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/plucknewsreaderbadge.gif"></A><BR> <A HREF="http://www.rojo.com/add-subscription?resource=http://feeds.feedburner.com/egsociety"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with Rojo" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/rojonewsreaderbadge.gif"></A> <A HREF="http://fusion.google.com/add?feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/egsociety"><IMG BORDER="0" ALT="Subscribe with Google" SRC="http://www.egullet.com/egradio/images/googlenewsreaderbadge.gif"></A><br> Members can also click "Track this topic" at the top right of the topic view page in order to get automatic email notifications when new foodcast announcements are added to this topic.

"Operators can capitalize on a time-honored favorite by menuing profitable Lamb"

I think a lot of the repetition is on account of the lack of survivable threaded discussions like we see on most modern message board software. That's going to be pretty easy to fix, though the import of the old database will be challenging -- I imagine the first creative conflict will arise when CNet says "Let's just put all the old posts in an archive and start fresh with a new system." I don't think it's accurate to say there's no useful information in Chowhound's discussions. Some of the content is excellent. I wish we had that level of coverage of the "cheap ethnic eats" scenes in various cities. Also, in some places the local Chowhound communities do pretty well with content beyond cheap eats. California is particularly strong. I do think the whole enterprise is woefully limited and flawed, but maybe CNet can fix that. I'm wondering how that can happen without killing the goose that laid the golden egg, though.

Putting something on a menu.

Todd, you're referring to the "Citysearch Editorial Profiles." I'm sure Kent is referring to the "User Reviews." The editorial profiles are not bad. I've done some writing for CitySearch in New York. They pay for two visits and they fact check and edit. There are problems with the editorial profiles -- they're so abbreviated that it doesn't matter if they're written by Herman Melville they're still going to be pretty useless -- but they're not the undifferentiated crap represented by the user reviews. I think the notion of buying and selling web communities is flawed. You can sell a database, you can sell a brand name, you can sell a mailing list, but you can't sell a community. While there's some inertia in anything, the reality is that if people wake up one day and don't like what they see, they'll leave or, worse, they'll become hostile and cause no end of trouble. There's no real cost to switching communities. What I've noticed about the various Chowhound announcements and interviews is that nobody is articulating a vision for anything. They're just saying they're going to redesign the site and change nothing. But they're also saying Chowhound has been a failure as a business venture. Surely they don't think it's going to become a success just because it gets a redesign and a search engine, and surely CNet isn't buying it because they want it to continue to be a failed venture. So somebody, somewhere is planning to change something in a big way. Once we learn what that is -- maybe it will become more like CitySearch, or maybe it will become more like MySpace or whatever -- we'll have a better idea of the direction of this thing.

In an industry magazine today, I read the word "menuing." I think this is a losing battle. When I went to find this topic, I typed "sourcing" into our search engine and got 18 pages of results. This topic, just a month later, is on page 3. That's a lot of sourcing.

The awful Arman sculptures aren't the issue. They're standard operating procedure in Michelin three-star restaurants, and they're only entry level on the ugly scale. The problem is that it's a low-ceilinged room with little to recommend it: no view, no special character or characteristics, no nothing. The kitchen, too, is no loger state of the art. They need to get in someplace where they can get some space and some gas.

There's been talk of it for ages. They should move. With the opening of Per Se and the construction of several recent multimillion dollar restaurants, Alain Ducasse at the Essex House is no longer anywhere near the nicest dining room in town (it never was, but it's dropping way down in the rankings). At this level of the game, you've got to be the very best in food, service, wine and ambience if you're going to keep your accolades. I can't see any way to improve the Essex House space without three years of construction, so that's that. A couple of years ago, I was actually surprised they didn't just move into the Mix space instead of opening Mix there.

Professional publicists don't parse the New York Times restaurant reviews with nearly as much precision as the eGullet Society membership.

It's open to the public.

You may be overestimating what it is that most restaurateurs aspire to. To the extent someone is saying "Let's open a restaurant serving cuisine in X style and that's as good as the four-star French restaurants," that's a plan that has been pursued more than a few times. I remember the New York Magazine pre-opening story on Gramercy Tavern and it was much the same.

I think something may be getting lost in translation here. No restaurateur who listens to a good publicist is ever going to say anything like "We're going to get four stars!" Publicists are there exactly to help restaurateurs avoid saying stupid things like that. Being a restaurateur of a certain caliber in New York City is a high-profile, very public endeavor. People in such positions, whether they be politicians or captains of industry, hire advisors to help them manage public and media perception of them and their ventures.

Jennifer Baum, who is the daughter-in-law of legendary restaurateur Joe Baum, is certainly one of the top restaurant publicists. She's great at what she does and is handling high profile clients not only in New York but also in Las Vegas and elsewhere. There is no Bullfrog, by the way -- it's just a made-up name for fun. It's her firm, though I believe her husband has involvement as a silent partner of sorts. There are perhaps seven publicists working for Jennifer Baum. For routine journalistic inquiries, I almost never deal with her -- I deal with Helen Baldus, Susan Hosmer or one of the other people on that team. Bullfrog & Baum handles a lot of good clients -- it's one of the go-to firms for serious restaurant startups -- but I've got to say the coincidence is just a coincidence this time around. There are several other top publicists who could just as easily have a bunch of restaurants hit big at any given time. It goes in cycles. Steve Hall often has several significant balls in the air, and Susan Magrino is a serious power broker. K.B. Network News is always popping up. There are others as well. When hotel restaurants are in vogue, Lou Hammond holds a lot of sway. There are also some excellent individual publicists or very small firms (Diaz-Scholss, Robin Insley) and some of the top restaurants and restaurant groups do their own PR.