vengroff

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Thank you, Steve. And your post reminded me that I misplaced a couple of images along the way. Here is your Turkish Coffee Chocolate and Cliff's Red Thai Curry Shrimp.

Hey, Fat Guy promised an eagle. That's it, I'm cancelling my trip to Mongolia and going to Vermont again. Or maybe I'll just wait for episode V.

If you think about it, the serving sizes of the burger, fries, and soft drink in today's kids-size happy meal are about the same as what was considered a standard adult meal in the early days of McDonalds. Supersizing has long since taken care of that.

E. Guittard L'Harmonie Dark 64%. Steve can probably tell you more, though. I'm just reading the label.

A couple of the aforementioned Signatures party boys--pastry chef Leon Baker and chef Morou Ouattara:

And now, back to the food. Here is Jay Comfort's rabbit-fennel sausage with sweet potato puree and apple choucroute. Next up, Cliff Wharton's macadamia crusted halibut. And Fabio's lobster ravioli. Thanks again to all the chefs and the organizers. It was a great event.

I passed by Rosa Mexicano. It's at the corner of 7th and F. There is paper in the windows and an application for a liquor license, but from what I was able to see the interior looks a several solid months away from being ready to open.

Seriously, John, you may have felt stupid, but what landed on those plates was silly (in the best HFS Junkies sense of the word).

Welcome to the there's-more-where-those-came-from department. In this installment, I'll show you a little bit about the setup of the event and how the chefs adapted. It's always a challenge to cook away from your own kitchen. In this case, the chefs were working in booths around the perimeter of a large ballroom in the Hotel Monaco. Host chef Jay Comfort was kind enough to offer refrigeration and other equipment from his restaurant Poste on the ground floor of the hotel. In the main ballroom, each chef had two banquet tables to work on. One in front was for buffet service, and one in back was for preperation and plating. Here's Koji and an assistant in their booth, with an eager customer going for his salmon confit. In such a small space, with limited room for equipment, most of the chefs did as much of their prep work in their own kitchens and then did final assembly and plating on site. Jamie Leeds' short ribs braised in molasses were an ideal dish for this sort of approach. At the other end of the spectrum, John brought in portable gas burners to sear his scallops a la minute. He was a brave man to attempt this, but he did a phenomenal job of pulling it off. Others chefs decorated their booths with signature items of their own. Steve Klc put his ISI Profi Whips on display front and center. They were used to foam his Arroz con Leche. He also displayed some of the raw flavorings that went into his Arroz Con Leche and Turkish Coffee Chocolate desserts At Fabio's booth, there were his signature sculptures of a fish and a lobster, from the dining room at Maestro. He also had on-hand iced grappa basilico for finishing the panna cotta. In the center of the ballroom, guests were able to peruse the offerings around them and move from station to station as the mood struck them. Although the dishes were primarily non-Asian, I found the best way to graze was to hold onto a pair of chopsticks from Koji's booth and ignore the silverware available at the other stations. In between stations, wine selected to be paired with each of the dishes was available. My personal favorite was the Arele vin santo Steve Klc chose to pair with his dessert courses.

I hear obsetricians up and down the east coast are already cancelling their June 2004 vacation plans.

I just got an email from a local restaurant announcing that they are going to be closed for dinner tomorrow due to the weather. I assume they are not alone in making this decision. Quick survey: how seriously are you taking this? Are you stocking up on bottled water and canned food at home? I admit I bought some tuna, canned pineapple, pop-tarts and bottled water yesterday. I think it's enough to survive a few days without any problem.

I have to agree with that. Cheap oysters are right up there with all-you-can-eat sushi on my list of restaurant experiences best avoided.

Rember John's tomatoes from the post above. Well, here they are being prepped by his two assistants: And here is the final dish dressed and plated:

In addition to preparing and serving their dishes, the chefs spent time earlier in the day doing a panel discussion for local culinary students. They discussed their careers, their decisions, their management styles, staging abroad, and many other topics of interest to students eager to one day be in their clogs. Here are the chefs on the panel:

Try City Hall in Tribeca. They have a good selection on the half shell and also do a really nice pan-roast. Unlike the Oyster Bar in Grand Central, you can do well with the rest of the menu too, injcluding some killer burgers.

I just got back from the event. I'll write more tomorrow, but here are some initial photographs to whet your appetite. Please note that I am not going to post pictures of every dish. This is entirely a reflection on the limitiations of my photographic skills, not on those of the chefs. Each of the eight chefs presented two dishes. John W. from Firefly brought some lovely heirloom tomatoes. More about what he made with them later: Here is John's scallop dish: Koji Terano from Sushi-Ko put together this flounder carpaccio with black truffle vinaigrette. Fabio Trabocchi from Maestro did a lychee panna cotta with house-made grappa and basil. Morou from Signatures presented Caramelized Maine Lobster with Madagascar Vanilla, Truffled Tapioca Risotto, Fennel Confit and Olive Oil Foam. Here are Jamie Leeds from 15ria and her two assitants with duck confit salad wrapped in watermelon radishes. And not forgetting the lone pastry chef, our own Steve Klc prepared his modern take on Arroz con Leche. I'll be back tomorrow with more pictures and more detailed descriptions of the food and the event around it. Thanks to the StarChefs organization and all the participating chefs and their culinary student assistants for making this a great event.

I hope you've all been advising Mr. Clooney and his entourage to read and join eGullet.

I can't wait. Bring it on, Ellen!

Your rejects, no less...

Well it is only a block from K Street isn't it?

Thanks, Bruce. The more first-person reports I hear, the more I am convinced that I have to give the Lab a try.

They had one eagle in Vermont. The rest were falcons and hawks. Visitors were only allowed to handle Harris hawks, as the others tend to bond with only a single handler.

I hope you finally found Eagle Hunter the next day. I can't wait to hear about him and his bird. I once took a half-day course at the British School of Falconry in Vermont and found it absolutely fascinating. What sort of game do they hunt in Mongolia? I guess I'll have to wait for the next installment and see.