robyn

I'm an Instructor at Le Cordon Bleu as well. At the campus I'm at sometimes there are classes especially designed for the public. Mostly demo, a few basics and there is usually a theme. It's a safe guess to say that your classes will be like this. ← Well - I hope there'll be some "hand's on". If there isn't - it won't be for lack of a work station (16 work stations for 16 people). This trip isn't until September - but I'll report back when we get home. Robyn

I don't know why everyone is picking on Naples. Naples (the city) has a population of 20,000 people. The county it's in (and it's a big county) has a population of 286,000 (much of it seasonal - December to April). How many places in the world with populations this large have a wealth of excellent restaurants? One thing about Florida. There are a lot of people here - but they're all spread out. We in Jacksonville have a population about 1/10 the size of New York in an area about 10 times as big. And most of the state has bad ---> terrible traffic - which doesn't encourage people to drive 30 miles round trip to go to dinner. As for food shopping - I think it's really good. A lot of good chains. Perhaps people looking for "artisan vegetables" aren't going to find them (because - for the most part - they're not grown here) - but you can't beat the fresh local shrimp this time of year (16-20 Mayport shrimp for $11/pound). Or local citrus (especially the "not for export" stuff that's blemished - and cheap - but every bit as flavorful as the "export" stuff). I've lived in Florida for over 30 years now - and there's not one part of the state I haven't been to/through (many many times). Before anyone criticizes what one can/can't get here - one ought to familiarize oneself with the local food industries (especially since food is the second largest industry in the state - after tourism). Get out of Miami - or Naples - or whereever - and go see what grows in all that black muck around Lake Okeechobee (hint - it's not artisan vegetables). Robyn

Well I think everyone who lives here is trying to put down a little red carpet . If for no other reason than to counteract the trash talk. I used to live in Philadelphia many years ago - the Frank Rizzo days - and - if you've been there for a while - I'm sure you know what's it like to live in a city that doesn't get any respect . Robyn

OK - a few more minutes to write. I'll note that my husband's dad died 3 weeks ago - and then my mom got really sick and was hospitalized. Between dealing with the death - and trips to the hospital in south Florida - I haven't had time to blow my nose - much less read the hundreds of eGullet messages piled up in my mail box. But since this inquiry is time-sensitive - and I'd like people to have a good trip here - I'll do my best. Not too far from downtown is Riverside/Avondale. You should definitely get there at least once to 1) go to the Cummer Museum (don't miss the garden out back); and 2) look at the architecture (it's got one of the best collections of historically interesting houses in Florida). While there - I recommend a lunch/snack at Biscotti's (sister restaurant to bb's). They have great desserts. There's a new restaurant in this general area that's been recommended to me - Crush - but I haven't tried it yet. As for "local flavor" - I assume you'll be looking for some BBQ. Jenkins near downtown is old and locally famous. I've eaten there - and don't think it's worth a journey from the Beaches (when I get near downtown - there are places I like better - and I have good BBQ close to where I live). But it's fine (although better suited for take-out than eat-in). And fairly close to you. There's a new cafe at JMOMA (Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art) downtown. OK for a quick lunch. If you go for steak houses (not my cup of tea) - there's both a Morton's and a Ruth's Chris downtown. If I were going to take just one drive to eat someplace nice - the place I'd go would be the Ritz Carlton up at Amelia Island (either for a formal dinner or a less formal lunch). Assuming I could get a reservation. It's about 45 minutes from downtown. And a pretty drive. If you'll be in other areas of town - and want recommendations in those areas - just ask. If you don't have a car (you should - everything is spead out here - but if you don't) - Carey Transportation is bringing in about 150 extra drivers/cars for the week. It's a dependable outfit in my experience. Don't know how long you'll be here - or what you want to do. Unless you're heavy into the Super Bowl festivities (whatever they are - lots of heavy drinking?) - you'll run out of things to do in/near downtown pretty quickly. Downtown Jacksonville is like most Florida downtowns. Not much there. Anyway - when that happens - hit the road. Especially if the weather is nice. I'd recommend an afternoon at the beach (there's a new pier at Jacksonville Beach - and the Guana Preserve is very pretty); some time in St. Augustine (it really is the oldest city ); an afternoon at the zoo (it's a good zoo). Things like that. If you're a Baptist (I'm not) - you can take in a Sunday service at one of the largest (if not the largest) Baptist church in the country (First Baptist downtown). If you kayak - there's some great kayaking here. Etc. In other words - if you come to Jacksonville expecting a New Orleans style Super Bowl - you'll probably be disappointed. But if you explore a bit and find out what the Jacksonville area has to offer in terms of things you like to do - you'll have a good time. I'll try to answer any other questions you have best I can. Finally - note for anyone who's reading this thread who's coming to Jacksonville and wants to play golf. I play at the TPC at Sawgrass - and there were tee times available Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Sunday/Monday last time I looked. Both on the Stadium and Valley courses. If anyone wants to play either of these courses - I'd be glad to try to arrange a tee time for you. Robyn

They aren't. I was in a hurry when I was writing. And made a mistake. River City is independent of A1A/Ragtime/Seven Bridges (the last 3 are related). Robyn

I think we'll be at the Radisson. Thanks for all the suggestions so far. ← I assume you're talking about the Radisson downtown. That's a good central location for dining. Closest places I like in San Marco (very near downtown) are bb's and Bistro Aix. Last time I was at bb's (maybe a month ago) - it hadn't booked any private parties. Don't know about Bistro Aix. Both are "bistro type" places. Not cheap - but far from expensive. Matthew's in San Marco is fancier. It's good (although inconsistent) - but I prefer its sister restaurant - Restaurant Medure - in Ponte Vedra 1) because I live in Ponte Vedra; and 2) Mattthew's doesn't have a full liquor license (only wine and beer). River City Brewing Company has a great location right across from downtown. Good microbrews. It has at least one big deal party booked - maybe more. I am sure it will be slammed. If it's serving Sunday brunch on Super Sunday - well that's my favorite meal there (home cold smoked salmon is excellent). Don't know how far you'll be driving - or where - but it has 3 sister restaurants - Ragtime in Atlantic Beach - Seven Bridges on the southside (Tinseltown) - and A1A Aleworks in St. Augustine. Slightly different brews. Your basic middle of the road restaurant fare with a southern accent at Ragtime and Seven Bridges and a Floribean accent at A1A. These places will likely be slammed too (they're popular with people who live here). Have to run now. More later. Robyn

I live in Jacksonville - and a lot of restaurants are booked solid (individual reservations and tons of private parties). Where do you think you'll be staying (this is a very large geographical area)? Robyn

Robyn, I don't know what business you're in. In some fields, an expensive dinner would be unseemly; in many other fields, it's de rigeur. ← These days I'm in the business of being a client. I retain brokers - lawyers - accountants - people like that. But I've been in and seen other businesses as well. And - although I know that what you describe goes on a lot of the time - it goes on less and less. E.g., my father-in-law used to be in sales for a company (long since gone) - selling fiber drums. It was normal for him to take his clients and prospective clients out to play golf - for steaks at the country club - etc. - etc. That's how he got business. His son is now in chemical sales (in the midwest). The company the son works for not only won't do things like this - the companies he deals with wouldn't accept them if it did. When I represented insurance companies (I'm a lawyer) - it wasn't unusual for lawyers trying to drum up business to arrange for meals - with female escorts - at conventions - for people from the insurance companies who were in a position to hand out business. These lawyers tended to charge rock bottom hourly rates. Of course - they billed 2 or 3 times the reasonable number of hours on any particular case. And where did these entertainment charges and inflated bills wind up? In your auto insurance premium - that's where. Of course - old habits die hard. Even a discount brokerage firm like X gives out freebies to people like me (box seat tickets to the Nasdaq 100 when I used to live in Miami). And my broker at Y gets free trips all the time for selling certain things to clients (sell a certain number of shares of this new closed end fund - get a free trip to Hawaii). And then there are the dozens of "hospitality tents" at the The Players Championship (down the block from where I live) every year. But these things aren't free. They're built into the cost of goods and services. I find it refreshing that a lot of these practices are now being dragged out from under rocks into the light of day by people like Spitzer so people can ask - how much are these "freebies" actually costing us? By the way - in terms of my high end dining in the last year - I saw relatively few tables in London occupied by obvious expense account parties. But in New York - I'd estimate that at least half the tables were in that category. Can't be sure (although many times the tables in New York are so close together that you can be sure - because you can hear the conversation!) - but when it's a table of 4 to 10 middle-aged guys - or 3-5 couples drinking $200 bottles of wine - particularly if at least some of the people are from one country - and the others aren't - well I think it's a reasonable guess on my part. As for Masa - don't know. Have never been there. Robyn i don't think diamonds lose half their value, or much value at all, after being bought/worn... It's not that they lose value after being worn - it's that the wholesale/retail spread is very significant - perhaps 25% to 50% depending on circumstances. Ditto with things like works of art. Robyn I'm curious how old these people were? There is certainly a definite "depression mentality" among people of a certain age (my parents' age). Apart from understanding it (which I do) - I also find it kind of difficult to fault. When someone like my father-in-law - who never earned more than $25,000/year in his whole life - could afford at the end of his life to spend almost $7,000/month for a skilled nursing facility for 3 years and never dip into capital - well I find that kind of admirable. More admirable than the 40 year old people who don't have a dime saved for their kid's college educations or their retirement. It's nice to be in the middle - but - over the years - I haven't met too many people in the middle. People who've found the proper balance. Robyn

This cruise is called a "repositioning cruise". Although there are stops - the main goal of the cruise is to get the ship from its summer cruising area (Alaska) to another venue for the winter (in the case - Asia and Australia - the entire cruise takes 93 days - we're only taking one segment). Therefore - there is a reasonable amount of time at sea (6 out of 12 days) - and the weather isn't what you'd normally associate with a cruise (it will be fall in the north Pacific - don't think we'll be spending huge amounts of time by the pool in bathing suits with drinks with little umbrellas). This cruise line has various kinds of programs to fill the hours during the days at sea - particularly during these repositioning cruises. And a lot of them are "education" oriented - everything from improving your bridge game to learning digital photography. You could be right that the cooking course will be more demo than hands-on - but at least I verified that every student will have a cooking station. So it won't be like some cooking classes we've been to at stores where the teacher is up front "in the kitchen" and the students are seated in chairs just watching the teacher cook. By the way - we're taking this particular cruise because I am totally awful with jet lag - and I want to get to Asia without any (and - since we'll be taking so long to get there - I should be fine). I got the idea after talking with a woman from Australia in a pub in London this year. She says she loves cruises to get from here to there - because they eliminate the jet lag factor. We'll see how it works out. Robyn

Working with those basic skills would actually be terrific for us. My husband has developed into a decent "prep chef" (he's good with knives) - and he does sandwiches and salads - but he is totally confused about the concept of using heat (on a stove or in an oven). I would love for him to get some hands on experience with a stove. And although I know how to cook things - I am really terrible with knives. It would be nice to have some time to practice in a situation where - even if we mess everything up 100% - we'll still wind up with dinner on the table . Robyn

Apart from what I've read here - it never occurred to me that the station was pandering to allegedly moronic mid-westerners. So perhaps you're confusing what the station is actually doing with what people say it's doing. And I'm not sure what people here are looking for in terms of ethnic diversity. Does it have to be X number of African Americans and Y number of Latinos? Some kind of quota system? Don't people like Jacques Torres, Wolfgang Puck and Jamie Oliver count as "non whitebread"? By the way - they sure didn't pick someone like Torres to do a show because his stuff is easy to make - or because his English is easy to understand. Robyn

Problem is she sometimes misinforms or doesn't inform at all. Example: When she was making her "beef with Burgundy" she said you could use "any Burgundy at all" as she was opening a bottle of wine from California?!! Not only did she not explain what a Burgundy wine is, but she used a wine that is NOT a Burgundy. ← Are you complaining about her not using a burgundy - or implying that she was using a burgundy when she wasn't? If the former - I'll note that she has plenty of good company in not using burgundy in a beef bourguignon. E.g., Julia Child in "The Way to Cook" uses a zinfandel but says that if you're out of zinfandel you can use another good young red wine. In the French Chef cookbook - she says to use a full bodied young red wine like a Macon, Burgundy or Mountain Red (whatever that is!). The New Professional Chef (CIA cookbook) doesn't call for wine per se - but a wine marinade which contains "red wine". Etc. Frankly - I never realized that a burgundy wine (i.e., a red wine from a specific part of France) was essential to a beef bourguignon (on my part - I like to cook with young reds from Chile). Robyn

I did that - and it didn't have detailed information. So I talked with the cruise line - and my travel agent. The course is 3 2 hour sessions - hands on for everyone (there are 16 cooking stations - enrollment is limited). That's about all the information I got. Figure that no matter what they're teaching - I probably don't know how to do it . So I signed up. Robyn

Auch is fabulous. Possibly the best meal of my life was at the Hotel de France before Andre Daguin retired. But being in the heart of the Dordogne (truffle and foie gras country) - I'll bet even that nameless bistro was terrific. Robyn

My only point was small producer doesn't always equal good - and big producer doesn't always equal bad. As for what you wrote about the Epoisses incident - I've read a lot of messages like that here before. E.g., "everything in life is a risk - I'm willing to take a risk to get a great cheese, great oyster, great [fill in the blank]". As a lawyer - I've found that people - at least in the US - don't generally put their money where their mouth is when it comes to risk. Everything is fine until they get hurt - and - when they get hurt - even if they've signed all kinds of releases ahead of time - they sue (or try to sue - some industries - like the skiing industry in Colorado - have made it very difficult). And the fault isn't in the legal system - it's in the nature of the people who live in the US. If we get hurt - someone else has to be at fault - so someone has to pay. If I were a small outfit in France making great cheese - why would I want to sell something that's even a little risky over the internet to people in the US (especially if I had a lawyer telling me that if I sold over the internet to someone in the US - I'd be subject to a lawsuit in the US - the last probably being the truth if you sell to someone in Florida). And I'm sure there'd be a lawyer somewhere willing to sue the government under the Tort Claims Act (think this is the right statute) if someone brought a "risky" cheese through customs and got sick after eating it. Wouldn't be willing to predict the outcome of such a case though. Robyn

You're not far off the mark. My housekeeper's eldest son is now attending the University of Florida medical school (she and her husband were teachers in Peru - but they started a house cleaning service when they immigrated to the US). As for bagels in Florida - a very good dependable local chain which makes its own is Too Jays. Many locations throughout most of the state - except for extreme north Florida <sigh> and the Panhandle. Not the best delis/bagels in the world (although probably the best in Ocala ) - but consistently very very good. Owners are - to the best of my knowledge - Jewish. It's a really good operation - and I recommend it to those of you who live in/travel to Florida. Robyn

That's a new one on me. What's a semi-upper middle class international tourist? By the way - I thought my husband was the only person in the world who uses the word risible . Robyn

Holy moles, when did this become a clichéd attack on New Yorkers? ← I was making a joke - kind of. I'm not sure when shows that purport to appeal to people who live in the midwest became an object of vilification. By the way - I don't live in the midwest - and I have no idea what appeals to people in the midwest - except dreaming about places like Hawaii in January . Anyway - my main point was let's leave cultural stereotypes about people who live in various places out of this discussion. The KKK too (only time I ever saw a KKK rally was in Lake City, Florida - and the people participating in the rally were all from Pennsylvania - presumably on their way to their winter vacation destination - the Florida locals just sat there rolling their eyes - and counting the money they were spending on overtime for the local police). Robyn

I think the one valid point in the NYT letters was made by the person who didn't approve of all the business people who paid huge sums of money for meals (and presumably other things) as a way of impressing clients. He (or she) figured that if someone was spending $500 on dinner to impress him - it would wind up in his bill one way or the other. I agree with this point. When I buy services from professionals (other people buy both goods and services) - I don't want to pay for expensive dinners - or wenge wood paneling on the walls - or Superbowl tickets - or free trips that the person who's selling something earns for selling it to me. I want to pay for the best services money can buy without that garbage. And I'll go one step further. If a professional - like a broker - ever gave me anything that expensive - I'd figure that I was paying at least 5 times that amount in markups that I wouldn't be paying if I were diligent in monitoring things. One year - a broker sent me a bottle of "Champagne" - and I started to worry. But I was relieved when I looked up the wholesale price and found out it was about $15. There's a point that's related to this. If most of the people who buy something (like a dinner at Masa) can deduct it on their tax returns - and they are in high tax brackets - they're willing to pay more for it - and people who can't deduct the cost are probably overpaying. Robyn

Hi Katie - I'm getting down to actually planning travel for 2005. No reason you can't do Philly and Japan in the same year . I was looking at the Book and Cook website - and - although everything was supposed to be up by the first of the year - it isn't. Do you have a schedule yet? Robyn

My husband and I are decent home cooks with no formal training. We have never taken a cooking course before. We're taking a cruise which offers a Cordon Bleu cooking course at sea. What are Cordon Bleu cooking courses? What are we likely to learn in a short course? If you could do it - would you do it? Robyn

Any place where I thought I might have eaten contaminated food wouldn't be high on my list. But that is my personal point of view. If you're going back to Spain - on a budget (and who isn't on at least some kind of budget) - take a look at the Paradores (government run hotels - frequently attractive and historic - although not luxurious). My husband and I traveled in Spain before Spain was a place to go for food (we had good food - but in those days everything good was "asado") - and some of the Paradores we stayed in were among the highlights of our trip. In terms of "reasonably close to the northeast Canada" - I prefer Toronto to Montreal for just about everything - including food. We try to get to Canada at least once every year or two to recycle some of the money Canadians dump in Florida every year . Robyn

I agree. And people from places like New York City don't have any right to complain. Most of them don't have anything that resembles a real kitchen - and their idea of cooking at home is reheating takeout Chinese food. An overblown cliche? Perhaps. But no more overblown than a New Yorker's cliched view of the rest of the US. Robyn

Bux - I disagree with the implication that artisan products made with "love" are somehow immune to listeriosis or similar problems. The biggest listeria problem I can recall in the US in recent years is the one with D'Artagnan (which is an excellent company in my opinion). It's in the nature of the foodstuff. Some things are more susceptible to problems than others. Robyn

I'm not a yuppie (too old) - but - like some people here - I've traveled a fair amount over the last 30+ years or so. And you can't criticize the work that's done in advance of a trip. One doesn't just meander around in the French countryside and pop into a 3 star Michelin restaurant for dinner/rooms without a reservation (well one can do it - but one shouldn't have a realistic expectation of getting a meal and a place to sleep ). When we dined in London last year - we had to reserve the big deal places well in advance. But there should be a balance. You have some reservations at big deal restaurants - and you have "free days" - where you leave time to explore and stumble into things. Still - there has to be some structure to a trip once you get past the backpack stage. I'm planning 3 trips for 2005 now (one of the things I usually do in January is plan our travel for the year) - and I won't arrive anywhere without transportation/hotel/big deal restaurant reservations. The world is a crowded place these days - and the last thing you want to do when you're thousands of miles away from home is spend half the day on the phone trying to find a place to sleep for the next couple of days. But - after rereading the article - I still really don't understand how people can do 4 or 5 big deal restaurants in as many or fewer days. It's just too much food - and frequently too much rich food. On my part - my normal rule of thumb (subject to exceptions) is I usually can't take a world class restaurant more than once every 3 days or so. Robyn P.S. I agree about the walking. Not to work up an appetite - but to work off the calories .