Holly Moore

Brought to mind the Mary Tyler Moore episode where Mary talked back to Lou Grant. He replied, "You know what, you've got spunk. I hate spunk." I'm wondering if Jen decided that Top Chef wasn't for her and opted for the reality TV equivalent of "suicide by cop." It's going to be a long season for the judges, if the judging table hostilities continue throughout the season.

Good natured fallibility. The blunders and her haphazard recoveries were often the highlights of the episode.

Differing opinions make eGullet threads lively. When constrained by civility, the stronger and more challenging the dialogue, the more interesting the thread. Two similar statements. "Drip coffee brewing is superior to French press." "I think drip coffee brewing is superior to French press." High school English and my first editor taught me to omit "I think" as, since I am doing the writing, "I think" is superfluous. Yet without those two works, a statement of opinion runs the risk of being considered bullying by those who shall eventually inherit the earth. An assertion is only bullying if it continues, "... superior to French press, you blithering idiot." The idiot part is almost always best left implied. Imagine discussions at the Algonquin Round Table if bullying, as often defined in this thread, had been banned.

It is not bullying when I am right and you are obviously wrong.

For some reason, in Grant's thread, no one picked up on my suggestion of a commis de camera.

Today, in a busy restaurant, I used a SLR with flash and large wide angle zoom lens, interrupted diners from their food so I could get pics, and took pics of people eating. Lots of smiles. A few jokes. Nobody seemed upset. They rarely are. Not much pretension in a grease stain worthy restaurant.

While I'll always abide by a restaurant's wishes, does a restaurant have the right to ban photography? What if the person taking pics has a blog? What if the person is a food columnist?

That's a legal question I'm not qualified to answer. But my sense is that your health insurance would be secondary to workman's comp - that if the accident was traced back to your working at the restaurant, the restaurant would still be in trouble for not having you covered and you might not be insured.

My concern, as a former restaurant owner, would be workman's comp, especially in the case of an inexperienced person working in my kitchen. In Pennsylvania, along with medical and disability costs, there are major cash penalties if a person working in a kitchen is injured and not covered by workman's comp. I'd want an apprentice on payroll at minimum rate.

More than the plagiarism or copyright infringement, either of which is sufficient cause for writers being pissed off, it is the magazine's reaction to the writer that has probably poured the gas on the fire. Haughty and dumb is not a good mix in an editor.

Sam Sifton tweets in on restaurant web sites

I have amended the HollyEats.com copyright to specifically include Cooks Source.

Thinking someone has to start a "Fantasy Top Chef league."

And I was thinking, "Tragic."

Most clever product placement concept ever - only able to use one pot so Dawn was "essential" to clean said pot. What didn't make sense is that deep frying Zac's panko coated whoppie pies turned them a golden brown. That should have eliminated him from winning a black/white competition. I was hoping someone would do settable type reproductions - black or white cubes with the raised type in the contrasting color. Curious what else could have been used, other than chocolate, for black. I was thinking licorice, but combined with what?

For the last ten years I've used a program from a now defunct company to compress pics before uploading to my web site. I process the pics the Photoshop and then run them through the compression process to get them really small, byte-wise. Alas, my laptop died, and I can't find the cd to load my old software for pic compression onto my new laptop. A couple of questions, 1. When I adjust image size in Photoshop the pics are still fairly large. Is there a way to ultra-compress in Photoshop? 2. What is a good software compression program to use in lieu of the one I have been using? Freeware would be nice. Thanks.

Ahem. but nice recipe. The day after writing the above I was at Pub and Kitchen in Philadelphia and welsh rarebit is indeed on the menu. Hooray.

You produce a reality tv show, you get to set the rules. Until then, be glad it was Bryer's and not some supermarket brand. Sometimes the craft is doing one's best with what is at hand. Most professional kitchens, given the choice, would prefer a chef who puts forth his best effort under stress to one who freaks out and disrupts the entire operation. Drama plays best in the theater.

Butter never gets in the way.

Grilled cheese - need the butter melted into the toasted bread slices. Unless - toasted means welsh rarebit or a welsh buck - pretty much a lost art hereabouts.

Pub and Kitchen's new Churchill burger. Dry aged beef from La Frieda. Bone marrow butter. Sauteed onions. That's all. Perfection. When the meat is this good there is no need to gunk it up with fois gras, Roquefort cheese, wild mushrooms, et al a la gastropub.

Questions I regularly ask at my bar: "How would you like your Old Fashioned? Do you prefer a lighter, wheated bourbon or something with a more pronounced rye character? Sweeter or drier? Standard Fee's or Angostura bitters, or would you like to try one of the orange bitters? Standard or improved?" Etc. Statement at Aviary: "Here's your Old Fashioned" -- which really means "Our Old Fashioned." Maybe I'm old fashioned, but my answer would be to give me your best old fashioned. What you suggest would be akin to a chef inquiring whether I wanted white or green shrimp in my scampi, should he prepare it with butter or olive oil, should the garlic be minced or diced or would I prefer he used a shallot? Some people will appreciate an old fashioned crafted to minute specifications, others simply want the bartender's best effort. I suspect that is what Aviary will be offering.

Chris - wouldn't Haven Brothers be the most successful food cart (truck)? <G> One consideration for a food cart, in Philadelphia at least, is that it must have a home base approved by the health department. Otherwise it will not be licensed.

Drinkies

Probably depends on how Aviary's Old Fashion comes together during service along with how guests buy into the Aviary experience.. In any event I'd suggest that if preparing the old fashion at the bar, in front of the guest, improves the quality of the drink, that is the way it should be done. If there is no discernible difference in quality, then it is simply exchanging one approach to showmanship for another.