Boris_A

In general, whites have more acidity. But it depends much of the making, especially when the wine didn't undergo malolactic fermentation. The most acid dry wine I know are whites from climatically cool regions: for example dry Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire region (Vouvray). They have so much acidity they can be stored for decades. But sweet late harvest wines (German Eiswein & Trockenbeereauslese) can have stratospheric acidity levels, but you will not notice because of the high sugar concentration. An excellent, acid white wine for cooking is Cote de Jura (Jurassiens, excusez moi), because it tastec a bit like sherry (oxidation). A common nonsense: "closing pores" of meat by applying heat. This guy This Herve wrote a lot about common myths in cookery. An excellent opportunity to brush up your French, Spain or German. He says after many experiments he found no evidence supporting the theory of "closed" pores. Regards

Prosecco di Valdobbiadene (Ruggeri is a good producer) offers off dry sparklers for uncomplicated squaffing. For more festive events I prefer Cremant de Limoux (for example Sieur d'Arques) from south of France (near Narbonne). Many of those are Brut, but in general not so bone dry like Champagne Brut. When Champagne is mandatory, I go with bottles by Lassalle. A nice alternative for sweet Moscato is Bracchetto d'Asti. The taste is similar, but it's a sparkler with a wonderful ruby colour. Have an eye for the kids when this stuff is around. It looks like raspberry syrup.

Machined interior? Is this something like forged pans? BTW, here you have German one peace pans forged by hand. At $140 for a 12" those are usable collector items, I guess.

That's why Gambero Rosso is more important than Michelin in Italy. E un minuto di silenzio per Peppino Cantarelli. Due stelle per una cucina Emigliana proprio tradizionalissimo. Nemmeno Michelin a potuto ignorare.

We took a similar to this one: This are wrist style levers. You can opertate them easily with the backside of your hand. Personally, I don't miss single valve. You can change the shape of the spout. $140. Here, you have a single valve "surgical/clinic" style lever: KWC Orcino Scroll to the bottom page 10 (in the pdf).: KWC ORCINO •Copper supply lines •With long lever •Swivel spout 160° with pull-out spray – TAC turn and clean aerator – automatic diverter reset – with lockable needle spray – pull-out length 27" •Conservation ceramic disc cartridge with adjustable temperature and flow rate limitation •Mounting hole size Ø =13⁄8" •Flow rate: 2.2 gpm@60 PSI The long lever is retrofitted and should match with different models. Pedal: Pedal valves Street prices are about 70% of the indicated price. Regards

Real Italian vs. adapted Italian: taste: I have friends from Parma. When I go to dine Italian here (northern Switzerland), dishes are always too salty for them. But people here tends to like more salt. And they love acidic salads with a lot of vinegar. So the Italian restaurant have to adapt. The lack of truly original ingredients adds here too. French cuisine: I agree with Samuel. FC (Escoffier, Nouvelle C, ...) is the only "traditional/national/regional" cuisine where innovation is a decisive factor. FC is truly international style. As soon as you consider FC like French "home" cooking regional style, I'd expect the same effect as with Italian adapted cuisine. I can't say anything about American quality standards. In an earlier post, I tried to make a point that chain food stores operating in both parts (Italian/German) of my country have to offer better product quality in the Italian region. This is true not only for Italian products, but interestingly for products originating of the German part as well. (Emmental cheese, f.e.)

We installed a huge stainless sink (24"x18") and pretty deep (12"). The sink is seamlessly integrated in a custom designed ss countertop. The sink is large enough to put all pans inside after cooking. After dinner, they can wait there until next morning (the kitchen is one large informal living room actually). And we can clean especially large baking tins very easy as well. The integrated worktop is about 32" deep which is useful for putting everything at hand (soap, mise en place, etc.). Same time, you get very deep drawers (full extendible a must). There's another double prep sink near the range. Very practical in a two person cooking kitchen. The doble sink is turned 90 degrees, so the smaller sink is placed behind the larger one. Most of the time the smaller sink serves for holding washed vegetables, more like a sieve. Nice gadget. We took commercial grade faucets and a pro pre-rinse spray (imported from the US, made by Chicago faucets, relatively cheap compared to the stuff produced here (KWC, Franke) and indestructable. The combination of a large sink, deep worktop and a prep sink is the most important piece in a generous private kitchen, I think. More important than anything else. Cleanup is an easy game, almost fun. Regards

I remember a manager (buying food for a widespread Swiss supermarket chain) telling that he needs always better quality (cheese, meat, vegetables ...) for the Italian speaking part of Switzerland than for the German speaking part. And my mother (who used to have a little Osteria in the Italian speaking part) said that her Swiss-Italian inhabitants visited significantly less often her restaurant than the Swiss-German inhabitants and have been far more demanding in terms of price/quality. Obviously, the different quality perception exists on a micro level as well. Regards, Boris

Things are more complicated (as always). In my "interpretation from a certain point of view" (sounds very harmless, doesn't it?) I've made reference to Carême and Escoffier. And I have to admit, I didn't eat their dishes. After a cooks dead, are we allowed to interpret his work without immediate experience? Immediately oder after a certain period? I tried to reflect El Bulli in a (very modest) sociohistoric context. I treated the implementation of its cuisine as a black box. I relied on the many, many reports here about its dishes being very creative, very innovative and changing frequently. Am I wrong here? Do I really need to go there to check this out? Is it possible to understand these aspects without visiting El Bulli? Another exmaple: I've seen pictures of apple caviar and heard of spagehttis made with parmigiano (right?). I think I've read once about a medieval practice to prepare food in disguise like presenting cooked animals with furs and feathers (pretendig they're still living) or to rearrange cooked chicken meat as a different animal. Do I need to go to ElBulli to see a similarity, meaningful or not? But admittedly this statement: "Progress is our religion and Adria is the priest." is polemic. Let's forget it.

No. The killer argument #1 so soon? Regards

Another interpretation: El Bulli may be very well regarded as "classical French cuisine" from a certain point of view. Change, cretitivity, innovation, progress and surprise is the hallmark of French (haute) cuisine since Carême and Escoffier and especially since the mediatisation of the Nouvelle Cuisine. I don't know of any other national/regional cuisine where "progress" is heralded like in "classical French cuisine". In this respect Adrias "reactionary strike" is a "Freudsch'er Versprecher" indeed. This would explain the enourmous attention Adria is gathering. Because he fully complies with the paradigm of "haute cuisine" in the French interpretation. In this sense "a strike against classical French cuisine" is just the label/brand to sell it to innovation hungry French cuisine adrorers . And it would explain that as long as you are prepared (better: asking) for (hopefully revolutionary) innovation on your plate and palate, you are completely satisfied with Adrias work. And El Bulli is the most appreciated restaurant in western culture. qed. The main underlying concept is that creativity and change are qualities per se and that they are so important that a higher rate of innovation is "better" than a lower rate anyway. From a Taoistic view I'd object that change is inevitable anyway (pantha rei) and that it's without merit to try to slow down othe change or to try to accelerate ist. What do you want more than simplicity combined with perfection, really? Well, comply to a well established paradigm is the logical answer. In this sense Adria interprets the classic believe of the 20th century world: that we are able to make progress by acting a lot or at a frenetic speed. Progress is our religion and Adria is the priest. Not less, but not more.

Off Topic. I can't resist. Hello Mongo Jones Now I have to tell you a little anecdote: There was a player with Barça (the Bulgarian Stoitchkov) which used to discuss with the refree all the time until he got a yellow or even red card. But he was maybe the most important attacker then. So everytime when he started to discuss and complain, the whole Nou Camp made a "shhhht" to make him silent. A roaring "shhhht" by 120'000 spectators"!. Must have been an incredible sound. Regards

My two cents: A compact desktop, professional combi-stamer (intended for front cooking): Electrolux Compact Steamer size 40x35x59, price ~ £1300, hot air temperature is limited to 220C, though Another professional device is Eloma. They have a compact model Eloma Joker for GN 2/3 molds. The whole installation is expensive, £3500 with water filtering device. And it's not for built in. But this machine should perform like a screamer steamer. I personally have none, because this combi appliances are the rising fashion for home kitchens. I guess there are a lot of apps. coming in the next years. I'd prefer a direct water input and, especially output, because cleaning of combis is not easy. So if you have an outflow, you can heat/steam with some detergent and then rinse the inside. The bigger pro models have always an integrated spray. As far as I know only Gaggenau is currently offering such a fixed water inflow/outflow steamer. But Gaggenau is the high end brand of Bosch/Siemens, so I expect this device to migrate the foodchain (litteraly) down to the normal priced levels (£800-1000)

"Far better perfomance" depends. (La Cornue and Lacanche are rather high end home cookers. With Aga I don't know whether they are used in restaurants..) With an entry level model of a Bonnet, Molteni and alike range you arer able to crank out up to 80 services. That's what they are intended for. The ovens are large (GN2/1), incredible heavy stuff (with huge iron cast inlays) and will keep the temperature very steady. This kind of ovens have so much heat capacity (inertia) they will simply not notice if you put something inside. As far as I've seen these kind of ovens are mainly used to finish dishes (for example lamb racks) an so on in sauté pans. The uniqe thing with this heavy truck style French ranges is the "plaque coup de feu", a large (50x80), massive iron cast cooktop like old wood ovens. They have a hot spot over the asysmmetrically placed burner and get down to simmer temperature at the edge. So you control heat by just shifting your (preferrably) copper pans. You don't need to regulate anything and can slow down or speed up the cooking process very elegantly. Which is very important for synchronization of the ingredients of complicated dishes. If you ever worked wit such a cooktop, you'll perfectly understand why the French call this kind of cooker "Le Piano du Chef". And it is a lot of work to clean these machines. OTOH, if your name happens to be Troisgros, Haeberlin, Ducasse or Bocuse, you'll have devoted casseroliers, plongeurs or practicants to it for you every eveneing. For a home, it's a complete overkill. But frankly I find this small locomotives a much more inspiring overkill than riding a Harley-Davidson or driving a Porsche Cayenne or a Humer to the next super market. I think ILVE is the producer. Regards

1) Gruyère Surchoix (matured) 2) Vacherin Mont d'Or (making a small hole in the middle, pouring white wine into it, seving it slightly warmed and eating it with a spoon. As seen many times in simple retaurants in the Vallée de Joux, where it comes from) 3) Sbrinz, the oldest Swiss Cheese and probably the ancestor of Parmigiano. Regards.

Of course it's useful to arrange wines in a restaurant list by hierarchic criterias as color followed by appellation. In this sense, listing wines by appellation first is "official". But for a private dinner or tasting with a fixed sequence, there's not much sense for example to list white wines first, so I'd still say wine lovers are interested in the producers name first. As for the classifications like Grand Cru, 2ieme Grand Cru Clasée, those are rather misleading and should be avoided, especially for people with less knowledge. Of course it's in the interest of heavy croppers and underachievers to pretend that his "Clos de la Roche Grand Cru" is better than a premier cru wine of Emanuel Rouget or that 2nd class Rauzan-Gassies is a better Margaux than 3rd class Palmer. Agree, agree, agree!

Objection: 1) I think among wine aficionados, the producers name is the most important thing. Prices indicate the same: its level (for the same appellation) depends much more on the producers name than on the wine classification. Examples: The Super Tuscans (formerly vini da tavola) ist a excellent example. The "appellation" was virtually without any merit. Another example: I remember that Leonetti produced serveral years ago (1996) a "Merlot America". But the interesting part (and price determining) is "Leonetti", not "American Red Wine". So there is good reason to list the producer first, even I can see your preference for listing the appellation first. 2) When wine nomenclature is considered as something like data modelling (as in database technique) you'll find: - a producer entity (producing wine in different regions and appelations (even countries) - serveral appellation entities (same producer making several wines in Sonoma and in Napa) - maybe several vineyard (climats) names from the same appellation wine - maybe one or more a fantasy names for the same appellation/vineyard - maybe several fuder(barrel) numbers for the same wine (in Germany, argh!) - several vintage entities for the same wine. In general, you get a logical, unfolding tree structure (with exceptions of course, as always when trying projection of the real world into a database) with producers name as a convenient root. This is based on my experiences when publishing every year a buying guide which encompasses as many as 110'000 offerings for 25'000 different wines and trying to find a convenient, uniform scheme. As for the actual wine names on the list: I found about 19 entries (Veronelli, Parker, Gambero Rosso, Wine Spectator) for the Prosecco, and all are listed as: "Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Rustico" NV (Rustico is an addition by the producer not belonging to the official appellation name: "Prosecco di Valdobbiadene"). All those publications list producer name first, BTW. As for: Mas Foulaquier – Pic Saint-Loup “Le Rollier” 2001, the official appellation name is "Coteaux du Languedoc Pic Saint-Loup", "Pic St-Loup" is an allowed though not enforced sub-appellation addition to the regular "Coteaux d. L." AOC name. The world seen as a Mandelbrot set: the closer you get, the more structures come up. Regards, Boris

Hello Sam Being a co-editor of a quite comprehensive wine buying guide (vinfox), I had to find a convenient solution for this problem. Our nomenclature is exactly the same as Katie Loeb proposes: Toscana sample page This scheme is the most used in wine publications as far as I know. The correct use of accents (^, ~, é, ...) looks always nice and helps to pretend knowledge in dubious cases . Unfortunately, the French and Italians usually dont' use them with capital letters and the bottle label can be misleading for this tiny detail. So you might change "Hudelot-Noellat" to "Hudelot-Noëllat". And maybe you like to add "NV" for non vintage wines to be topmost correct, as suggested already by Ted Cizma BTW, I share not only the same nomenclature preferences like Katie but her jealousy too. Santé et bon appétit, Boris

Nonsense, of course.

Maybe Patricia was sitting in the Montrachet vineyard when toggling this nice article into her notebook?

Wrt. Bang for the buck I ordered a Mauviel catalogue the other day and found the professional "Durminium" series: - pretty thick (4-5mm) polished aluminium outside - non-stick coating inside - massive iron handles like the copper sereis (indestructible but getting pretty hot, so you need a tochon (piece of textile) all the time like a "real" chef) Prices seem to be nice: 22 euro ($28) for a 11"inch fry pan or $50 for a 11" sateuse evasee. Here the complete series and prices: Mauviel Durminium Unfortunately, nobody seems to be willing to export/import this stuff for the US.

There's still a bit room at the top: Get a Molteni: Molteni G140 G160 G230 or a Bonnet: Bonnet Maestro Those cookers are going to set you back from a cool $15'000 upwards (wo. shipping @ 900 pounds or more) and consume more fuel than your heating. But at least you will not have to search an longer. Regards.

Thanks a lot, Chad Interesting links. > Could be a licensed product I guess so. F.Dick is more a machinery/tool maker in south of Germany than a "real" knife maker, I was told by some artisanal guys (Güde) from Solingen. My fisherman uses the polishing/smoothing device when fileting his fishes. So having this tool for quick, fool-proof polishing and an EdgePro for sharpening could be a dream team. (at $200+ though) Regards.

Hi Chad What do you think of this device called "Rapid Steel" by F.Dick? RapidSteel There's one for sahrpening (more abrasive) and one for polishing. After reading you excellent piece of work, I'm not so sure whether this devices are ok. OTOH, F. Dick is highly regarded not only for knives, but for their sharpeners and sharpener machinery. It's hard to imagine they use their good name to sell useless tools. Thanx.

I think you can apply the notion of terroir to many other products. Cheese is a great example. I think it's not possible to copy/imitate certain cheese with distinct aromatics and produce it at different places in the world. I believe that individuality (or terroir) is even more important than with wine. Another example: I regularly buy abricot marmalade by a famous Austrian producer. He offers two "vineyard" selection vintage marmalades from two different, but near places. One tends to a hedonistic profile (i.e. Californian Chardonnay), the other is rather lean (Chablis Chardonnay). It's always fun to compare those two styles.