robyn

Speechless with pleasure. Hmmmmm. Are you sure all you did was have lunch ? Robyn

That's a really good point, Robyn. Thanks for mentioning that. I'm far from an expert on the dietary laws - but ever since my father-in-law went to live in a skilled nursing facility that is "glatt kosher" - I've been learning. I was trying to make some sense of the stuff about birds - and all I could think of was that birds that eat berries and seeds and other vegetable matter are ok - birds that eat animals that may or may not be ok aren't ok (you are what you eat ). Robyn

Passover starts sundown April 5 - ends sundown April 13. It's not the best time to try to be a creative cook. I don't have any problems for the rest of April. By the way - I've found that the least crowded time at Costco is about 4:30 in the afternoon on weekdays (the day people are gone - and the people stopping by on their way home from work haven't arrived yet). Robyn

that *is* an interesting start. thanks. so would i be right in saying that the interpretation of what is "not treyf yet not eaten" is a little arbitrary? thanks for other historical info in this post too. and i am profoundly sorry they didn't eat Rabbi Ribeye's rib roast rare... Most of what is or isn't kosher isn't arbitrary. You'll find the original rules in the Old Testament - especially in Deuteronomy. You can see how specific they are in the first passage below. As for the lack of rare roast - it comes from the proscription against consuming blood - which is found in Leviticus. That's the second passage below. Robyn 3 Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. 4 These are the beasts which ye may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat, 5 the hart, and the gazelle, and the roebuck, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the antelope, and the mountain-sheep. 6 And every beast that parteth the hoof, and hath the hoof wholly cloven in two, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that ye may eat. 7 Nevertheless these ye shall not eat of them that only chew the cud, or of them that only have the hoof cloven: the camel, and the hare, and the rock-badger, because they chew the cud but part not the hoof, they are unclean unto you; 8 and the swine, because he parteth the hoof but cheweth not the cud, he is unclean unto you; of their flesh ye shall not eat, and their carcasses ye shall not touch. {S} 9 These ye may eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales may ye eat; 10 and whatsoever hath not fins and scales ye shall not eat; it is unclean unto you. {S} 11 Of all clean birds ye may eat. 12 But these are they of which ye shall not eat: the great vulture, and the bearded vulture, and the ospray; 13 and the glede, and the falcon, and the kite after its kinds; 14 and every raven after its kinds; 15 and the ostrich, and the night-hawk, and the sea-mew, and the hawk after its kinds; 16 the little owl, and the great owl, and the horned owl; 17 and the pelican, and the carrion-vulture, and the cormorant; 18 and the stork, and the heron after its kinds, and the hoopoe, and the bat. 19 And all winged swarming things are unclean unto you; they shall not be eaten. 20 Of all clean winged things ye may eat. 21 Ye shall not eat of any thing that dieth of itself; thou mayest give it unto the stranger that is within thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto a foreigner; for thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk. {P} 10 And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, that eateth any manner of blood, I will set My face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life. 12 Therefore I said unto the children of Israel: No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood. 13 And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, that taketh in hunting any beast or fowl that may be eaten, he shall pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. 14 For as to the life of all flesh, the blood thereof is all one with the life thereof; therefore I said unto the children of Israel: Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh; for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof; whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.

That just reminded me of the funny scene in Woody Allen's movie Hannah and her sisters, when Woody is considering converting to catholicism and brings home a bag of groceries with a loaf of Wonder Bread and mayonnaise. Clearly, the stereotypes (Jews eat rye and mustard, gentiles eat white with mayo) exist or the joke wouldn't work. And then there is Annie Hall - where Diane Keaton orders a pastrami on white bread with mayo. And the stereotypes really do exist. There's a lunch place near me that serves pastrami cold on white bread with mayo unless you order your sandwich some other way . Robyn

We learned about the great water rip-off the hard way - at a family dinner at an upscale restaurant in south Florida. It had been a long hot day - and a lot of us had been outside doing various things (including playing tennis). The water bill for a party of 8 was over $150. So it's tap water for me now - except if I'm at the Georgia Pig in south Georgia (where there's so much sulfur in the tap water they don't even make iced tea). By the way - the valet at this restaurant also parked our car in a handicap space. The car got a ticket - which we didn't learn about until we received a letter in the mail that a warrant had been issued for my arrest due to non-failure to pay the ticket. The whole evening makes me mad whenever I think about it. Robyn

Where? I read one little blurb in a magazine (don't know if it was Gourmet - Food and Wine - Town & Country - Bazaar - I get a lot of magazines). Haven't seen anything anywhere else - and the line has already been out for 4 months (there was no pre-release PR). Nothing in the NYT best I can remember - Met Home - Elle Decor - Dwell - etc. Besides - not to put too fine a point on it - more people who buy fine china have heard of Raynaud/Limoges than Thomas Keller. It is their job to sell him - not the other way around. FWIW - this line is being put out under the Raynaud line of Raynaud/Limoges. Robyn

Generations of my forefathers fished until they fell over dead, or until their boat didn't come back one day. My father decided he didn't want that, and broke the cycle. In times past, it was a rare chef who could count on more than a local reputation. Today, people from all corners of the globe can get together in a forum like this to debate, praise, or condemn a chef who is thousands of miles away from any of us. Chefs today benefit from the communications and transportation revolutions which have made "franchises" (in the literal or metaphorical sense) possible for them, as for other businesses. More to the point, though, people in our generation expect more and want more from life. Keller sees a need on some level to either "extend his brand", or to seek out new challenges, or to build a legacy, or whatever. I say more power to him...he's earned our respect by his commitment to excellence, and until that commitment is visibly tarnished I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. As an aside - I don't think that the number of chefs with national or worldwide reputations has expanded dramatically over the years. And although talking with others about them has perhaps become a bit easier due to things like the internet - many people somehow managed to dine at these types of establishments before you or I were born. The first time I ever went to a 3 star restaurant in France was almost 30 years ago - and I was introduced to that restaurant by someone who had been to his first 3 star restaurant 30 years before that. Remember that a 3 star restaurant or attraction in the Michelin guides meant "Worth a Journey" - and people have indeed been traveling for a long time to eat and drink and sightsee. If you want to get a good sense about how the more things change - the more they stay the same in terms of world travel - read Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad. Robyn

I'm not saying that Gump's is low end (it's the opposite). It's just fairly traditional (you can get the flavor by looking at the cutesy stuff that's usually at the entrance to its web site (note that this changes many times a day - so I don't know exactly what you'll see). I get the Gump's catalogue a few times a year - and I just toss it. Most of the stuff looks like things my grandmother would have put in her house if she had had any money. The place isn't edgy at all - and I don't think it projects the right image for a chef who's supposed to be revolutionizing American cuisine. As for San Francisco being small - it's not Des Moines - but it's not New York or LA either. This is just my two cents - but if I'm not in the target audience for these dishes - I'm not sure who is - some dowager in a San Francisco townhouse? People who are into design trends (and that group overlaps to a large degree with foodies who are into food trends) - and those groups include people like me - have a lot of stores all over the world on our radar screens. But Gump's simply isn't one of them. Robyn

Sounds like it comes from someone who doesn't quite get the whole Keller dynamic. I don't think commercial success is that important to the guy. He's on some cosmic all-encompassing search for the elusive muse, or at least that's what he puts out there via interviews, television and on paper. I mean read Soul of a Chef. He ain't huntin' the cash cow. Keller, as passe as it sounds, is on a different kind of trip. And as Tony pointed out, he's got to be realizing he's nearing his twilight years and he wants his legacy to be "institutions" that are recognized for their full devotion to the culinary ideals set forth by Point in Ma Gastronome, a gastronomic shrine to perfect food. Great coach analogy. I just can't see Thomas being a jet chef however. Man. I've read The Soul of a Chef and the Making of a Chef - and I still don't see the point. We're not talking about some vanity venture here - or making some dishes for his restaurant. We're talking about a commercial line of dishware that is being made by a commercial for-profit corporation - to be distributed in a commercial for-profit department store. I'm sure if Chef Keller had gone to Raynaud and Gump's and said - I'm not interested in making any money on this - I'm just doing it for posterity - both would have walked/run in the other direction - fast. Robyn

Narrow is putting it mildly. Besides - restaurant people aren't going to deal with a bunch of part time salespeople at Gump's in San Francisco. If they're high end enough - they design their own stuff - and get someone to make it for them. If they're not at that very high end - they'll deal with commercial distributors. And china that will probably wind up costing maybe $200-300 for a place setting isn't exactly a bottle of olive oil (no matter how high the quality of the oil). There are definite ways to market the stuff - and I don't think this is one of them. By the way - the "boutique" side of the high end china business - as I see it - is from high end modern designers - who do stuff for outfits like Alessi - which are then sold in places like Moss in New York and similar stores throughout the world. I don't know that someone who's a chef - as opposed as to a designer - could break into this niche. But we're still not talking about selling through a single non-trendy store in a relatively small city. Perhaps Keller has thought it out - but not necessarily in a way that's calculated to try to maximize commercial success (commercial success being no crime in my book). And if I had 2 knees that wouldn't hold me up on the line - I'd be thinking about funding my retirement - about getting the dollars that would allow me to become "an elder statesman" of my craft. Robyn

Perhaps I can add something. I saw a writeup for the Keller Raynaud china in some food magazine - and I was interested in it (not only do I eat at high end restaurants when I get out of town - I buy high end tableware too). Had to dig to find out that the only place you could buy the stuff was at Gump's in San Francisco. I live in Florida. So I looked at the Gump's website. There's nothing there about it (although there is a small conceptual piece on the French Laundry website). I called the Gump's general number - and they didn't know beans either. So finally I called the china department at Gump's in San Francisco and - after the phone rang a million times - I spoke with a salesperson. Said I was interested in the stuff. Please send me a brochure - plus a "china schematic" (it's the kind of thing china salespeople keep in a big fat book - a photocopied page showing the different things you can buy - place settings - individual pieces - services for 4 - whatever - and the prices). Today I got in the mail a vey nice arty little brochure. But it doesn't tell me diddly about what I can actually buy - and how much it costs. Plus all the sizes are in centimeters only (I buy a lot of European stuff so I can work with the metric system - but it's not exactly a US friendly kind of brochure). Perhaps this isn't supposed to be a money making operation - but selling china is a little different than taking care of small numbers of diners in a small restaurant - especially when there are many more people interested in eating in the restaurant than there are tables to seat them. I think the decision to go with a single store in a single rather small city is a mistake. If I were going to go with a single store - I'd probably do Bloomingdales for china - it does a nice job with Raynaud. It has just introduced the new Kate Spade line - a first at Bloomingdales. Kate Spade is getting a front page promo on the Bloomingdale's wedding web site - and it will probably sell more of that stuff in a day than Gump's will sell of Keller's stuff in a year. Maybe I might use Neiman Marcus if I didn't want to sell as much as Bloomingdales would sell. But Gump's? I don't think so. When someone like me wants to buy a set of china (and I have 4 sets now) - you want to see the stuff. Even take home a couple of plates on spec and see how they look on your table with your flatware and glassware. And that single store doesn't seem to be all that interested in selling the stuff even when someone like me is interested in it. This isn't the first time I've seen this recently. When Oneida reissued the Russel Wright line (famous midcentury modern line) a couple of years ago - it did such a lousy job of marketing that most of the stuff wound up remaindered in Oneida factory outlet stores. It was a shame. Because it was a well priced reissue of a truly classic series. Anyway - some of you seem to know Chef Keller. You might pass this along. He may be a great chef - but I'm not convinced he knows anything about marketing fine china. If he's interested in making a profit on this venture - maybe funding his retirement account (and that is certainly a worthy goal in my opinion) - he might consult with the promotional people who put out the Vera Wang line for Wedgewood. Robyn

So, what deli was it? It was the Carnegie Deli. Robyn

OK - I was just picturing this apartment full of bees and you in a beekeeper's bonnet . Robyn

I can only hope that while on property they also inspect the spice cabinet for those pesky peppercorns. PJ I can't believe this story wasn't in the local papers. Someone must have been asleep at the switch. Thanks for the link. Robyn

You're producing edible fruit in an apartment? That's unusual. Robyn

We were at Costco today (in Jacksonville Florida) - and the mango salsa is there. You might ask your local manager why you can't find it in your store. Robyn

There is a long weekend coming up, a possible opportunity to schedule the virtual "club" dinner. This would give folks plenty of time to do their shopping and stuff like brine their chicken. PS: I'm still watching that space and nothing is happening If you're talking about this weekend (Presidents' Day weekend) - I think you're cutting it too close - especially considering Valentine's Day. Robyn

I may also be unusual in that I shop at 4 markets on a regular basis - including Costco - because I can't find everything I like to buy at any one of them. As far as Costco is concerned - I save many times my membership fee there in terms of buying just a few items: liquor, wine, cigarettes, pine nuts, non-green peppers, crab meat, andouille sausages and PR cheese (plus I can't get these some of these items anywhere else). I only go there perhaps once every couple of weeks or so - but it's worth it - especially since the store isn't very far away. I guess this kind of calculus is very individual. You have to decide whether it's worth it for you. By the way - the mango salsa was still in my store next week. I like it too and hope it doesn't disappear. Robyn

You're right that I meant population - not size. And you're right about the top 5 states. Robyn

Think we've taken this one about as far as we can go. You'll have to come over for dinner at my place one night . As for Peter and the Wolf - it was pretty dumb in my opinion. "...Sergei Prokofiev's musical fairy tale Peter and the Wolf is popular with children but not with wolf lovers, and two former world leaders -- Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev -- aim to put that right in a new recording. They have teamed up in a new recording that couples the tale with a contemporary version featuring the same two protagonists but a very different ending. Prokofiev's version ends with Peter capturing the wolf and leading a triumphant procession to the zoo, paining music-loving environmentalists with romantic visions of wolves in the wild. In the new version, narrated by former U.S. president Clinton and called Wolf Tracks, Peter again captures the wolf, but this time repents of his act and releases the animal, who howls a grateful goodbye. "Forgetting his triumph, Peter thought instead of fallen trees, parched meadows, choked streams, and of each and every wolf struggling for survival," Clinton narrates. "The time has come to leave wolves in peace," he adds. French composer Jean-Pascal Beintus wrote the score for the new wolf-friendly version while former Soviet leader Gorbachev provides an introduction and epilogue..."

Just curious what you don't like about Vosges. I ran across the company for the first time in a boutique store in the Peninsula Hotel in Chicago (I was on vacation) - and I thought they were quite good - very interesting. When I had them for the first time - the featured collections were the St. Patrick's Day collection (for March) and the Green collection (for April). I've tried a couple of the other collections too - but the Green remains my favorite. Robyn

Like I said - this weekend in Miami is a total bear - particularly for high end restaurants. The Miami Beach boat show is the largest boat show in the country - and everyone in the world who feels like spending a bunch of money on a boat will be in town. Will you be in Dade County proper? If you're staying/dining with friends/family - you could do a lot worse than take-out from Joe's. Same meal - same prices - no need to wait on line for 2 hours. There are other places with great stone crabs - like King's in Boca (a gourmet market) - but they're not cracked. So unless you feel like learning how to crack stone crabs.... Monty's Stone Crabs in Coconut Grove is ok. Not on the same level as Joe's in terms of crabs - but it's a nice laid back place with a large patio on the water. They have lots of things besides stone crabs too. My accountant's office is across the street - and our lunch there is an annual affair. Robyn

Norman's got a bad writeup a month or two ago (think it was in the New York Times). I haven't been there for about 8 years - so I don't know if the review was accurate. Wouldn't surprise me. I used to eat in Louie's Backyard in Key West when Van Aiken was there. It was new - it was fresh - it was terrific (think he was the first person in Florida to put aged balsamic on just-picked strawberries). From the day Norman's opened - it always seemed a bit tired to me. Was never my favorite. That was the heyday of Mark Militello (whom I preferred). I read this week that Norman Van Aiken is opening a new more bistro type restaurant in Coral Gables. And Doug Rodriguez is returning with a new restaurant around 50th and Biscayne Blvd. - strange neighborhood IMO - near but not quite in the Design District (I always liked his stuff - from the day he opened YUCA - so perhaps this new restaurant will be really good). I'm going down to Miami for a few days in March. Will dine again at the Bizcaya Grill - but I'd like to try some new places. Robyn

I just realized you said *this* Sunday. Terrible weekend in Miami. Most crowded weekend of the year. Coconut Grove art show. Boat show on Miami Beach. Plus it's Presidents' Day weekend. I would forget about any high end place anywhere without a solid reservation. And art show roadblocks will be a problem in Coconut Grove. I do hope you have a hotel reservation. Robyn