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Here is the 2011 list http://www.nola.com/dining-guide/index.ssf/2011/10/new_orleans_top_10_restaurants.html Bayona Clancy's Cochon Domenica Emeril's Gautreau's Herbsaint La Petite Grocery Patois Restaurant August Now let's say I only had one night I was sure to be able to commit to a long, leisurely dining event. What would I choose? Something not on this list, even?

Thanks for the kind offer and auggestions! We are back in waikiki with my daughter (6) sister and her 18 month old. So we need close, specific and family friendly (thanks for the above!!!) I'll do at least on serious meal without sis and baby (my daughter is restaraunt trained) and we'll definately hit morimotos. As well, breakfast is a chore.. We are up at six! Any additional advice?

If you spend all day at the beach, you have to eat sometime. I got lucky and thought I'd share. Furusato sushi just off kuhio state park in the hyatt was just perfect. Lucious nigiri and even my daughters California roll was good enough for me to steal.

Any recent advice? I'm staying in kihei for a week, and I keep heating that's where the restaurants are... But any good? I can also cook so advice on farmers markets etc welcome.

Am I the only one rooting for chef tio? With her braids, Midwestern sincerity and cooking chops, I do hope she is the first female winner and keeps cat Cora from embarrassing me so often.

Alan Wong's was the ticket. I think he could go on next Iron Chef-- his food was innovative and technique flawless. 7-COURSE MENU TASTING wine pairings also available (menu subject to change) Ahi Tartare with Coconut Ceviche Coconut Yuzu-Kosho, Caviar "Soup and Sandwich" Chilled Vine Ripened Hamakua Springs Tomato Soup with Grilled Mozzarella Cheese, Foie Gras, Kalua Pig Sandwich Kabayaki Unagi Foie Gras Pork Hash Terrine Steamed Opakapaka, Short-Tail Pink Snapper Shrimp & Pork Hash, Truffle Nage Butter Poached Lobster Micro Green Onion Maui Cattle Company Beef Tenderloin Okinawan Sweet Potato Kabocha Flan, Hamakua Springs Tomato Chutney, Bone Marrow Butter Kula "Strawberries Romanoff" Big Island Dairy Goat Cheese Panna Cotta, Kula Strawberry-Hibiscus Soup, Goat Cheese Sorbet, Hawaiian Vanilla Sabayon The service was unpolished, but warm and eager. They might have sung happy birthday if I hadn't stopped them (my daughter fell asleep by course 5, as we were on California time, so no point). The printed a special menu which the chefs all signed. It was a perfect event meal for a food enthusiast.

Any advice? I'd like to walk from my hotel if possible, but a taxi to somewhere great is fine. I've heard Town is good... but anything else where I could courses?

I am in LA wed-friday, and eat out always. Caveat-- I eat in the Beverly Hills/West Holy wood area, because that's where I stay. My top three (from most to least expensive) Bazaar in SLS Mozza Osteria (Mario Batali) Sunsan Feniger's Street Also ran's (damn good) Gonpachi (unearthy Edamame, and I usually skip it) Comme Ca (great bistro food) AOC (tapas modern) Maestro's steakhouse STK Bouchon (strangely better than the ones in Las Vegas and Yountville. ) My so-so list I've eaten at Jar, and been disappointed. Lucque's is going down hill I think. Bistro LQ's food is ok, but their cheese platter rivals any in France. If you are feeling homesick for Paris, go. To Do List XVI Red O Katsuya (tonight) The drive form SF to LA is awesome. Stop at Nepenthe and have their homemade soup with bread. In Monterey area eat at Fifi's, in Pacific Grove. Stay at Asilomar.

I was furious about the kaya toast! I have eaten at susan feniger's street twice now and had Kaya Toast both times because it is brilliant and fabulous. I'm annoyed by the narrow mindedness of the chef's expecting nothing but classic cuisine. It only has to delight, surprise and taste and look awesome. If you can do it with a sandwich, than rock it. It's possible she didn't execute as well as she did in the restaurant, but that's not the message I got. I actually prefer this season to last; I like the narrowing down bit by bit and I like to see master chef's pushed hard. The way they rise to the challenge shows what professionalism can be.

I don't think person looking for a Bouche recipe got his answer pepin's recipe with my comments When ever doing anything difficult, i turn to m.pepin. he seems to know the fastest, easiest most trustworthy way to do anything. We are doing a pork crown roast with dirty rice stuffing. We had a terrific crown roast before and it looks so proud coming out of the oven, but the stuffing was disappointing so we're trying this creole twist. We have a fishitarian in the crowd so I'm considering a etouffee as a alternative/complement. But we're on the west coast, so shrimp and crawdads are not really the best option, and I'm afraid dungeness (even though it's high season) might fall apart. The rest of the meal is pretty proscribed-- green bean casserole, oyster casserole, some potato dish, and such.

Maybe I'd watch a streaming version of it on the website, sponsored by glad... which answers the question of how long it goes. in the reunion, we saw the contestants making glad beds to nap in, vollyball sets to play... suggests a LOT of time on their hands while they wait.

Apologies; I'm not usually that didactic. Period doesn't need spelling out. Still, I do think they edit to create the most suspense... when the material is there to do so. In this case they may have swung a little too far, creating a misleading impression. Ideally we'd be excited, uncertain, then satisfied with the result. They edited in too much "ropey" commentary and not enough "salty" commentary...

from Tom's blog "We always try to comment both on what we like about a dish and what we don’t like, and the editors used what we liked about the duck dish (and the ensuing conversation about ducks of that region) to keep from revealing half-way through the program who would be going home. " That about sums that question up. The program is edited to provide teh most suspense, period. I was surprised to see Bryan pull it out this episode. He's tripped over his own feet several times, not as badly as Jen, but certainly badly enough for me to rate him 3rd/4th... this is a pleasant way to up the suspense for the finale. I am glad it's not a simplisitc old school cooking vs. new. Speaking of, Micheal V's comment about cooking with fresh ingredients in this challenge would change how he cooks knocked me over. Where has he been cooking, the frozen arctic tundra? Never eaten a tomato warm off the vine, snacked on english peas in the farmer's market, grilled up some corn in august? jeez louise. Dude, produce always trump agar. And I'm a molecular gastronomy fanboy... er, girl.

Having French inlaws and French friends and having eaten many meals there, I've had it driven into me that you can bring wine as a gift to a dinner, but it may well not be opened, as the hosts match the wine to the food. How this woman can expect to be psychic enough to select a good wine for the meal is beyond me. "My friend Mark is a frequent houseguest who always brings wine. Mark doesn't care if the hosts share the wine with him or not; in fact, he prefers that they save the wine for later. Assuming they will, he encloses a clever little note with the bottle describing the wine in detail and suggesting when to drink it and what to eat with it. As a strategy, this sounded like a lot of work." Sounds like a class act who understands what it means to give a gift to me. Here you have people who have spend money on ingredients, and most likely the entire day cleaning and cooking, and it's too much work to write up how to use the wine? I'm really shocked by this article, which is teaching bad manners. I read it, hoping it was a joke, but it was really a revealing tale of selfishness that grew worse with every paragraph. A gift is about the giving, not about being appreciated or getting to share. Something Lettie needs to learn. Here is what I wish she's written: A good strategy is to call the hosts a few days ahead and ask if you can bring anything. If they suggest wine, ask what they are serving, and if they have any favorites. Then you can select a couple wines that match mood and meal (and skill-level). If they say, just bring yourself, flowers are acceptable. Doing dishes after is even better (in my world, anyhow.

I personally prefer Duck to goose. We've done it a lot of ways, the best easily being separating the breast, and searing it rare, and confiting the legs-- Duck two ways, which is a lot of work, yet it is both delicious and impressive. Roasting the whole bird tends to be difficult to get right. I highly recommend Jachque Pepin Celebrates for a very good braised duck recipe, plus many other impressive dishes. Finally the most impressive and christmasy non-turkey thing I've ever had was a crown roast. When that puppy comes to the table, you have no doubt something special is occurring. It just screams dickensian christmas. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Crown-Roast-of-Pork-with-Onion-and-Bread-Crumb-Stuffing-233258

I'm not sure Mehta's grabbing all of an ingrediant was strategic, at the fish market he was also teased for having bought the entire market. I suspect the excess he shows in his cooking is present in his shopping. Perhaps the producers wouldn't want him for food cost reasons? I'm a bit disappointed, and I wonder if the judges are just too homogeneous. I really like Garces, and I'd love to eat his food, but I'd rather watch Mehta battle week over week because I wouldn't know what to expect from him, just as Morimoto is such a nutcase I love watching him. Garces is just like watching Flay or Symon, great chefs but lacking magic. I find Morimoto and Batali way more fun to watch in action; Morimoto the mad genius and Batali the laughing elf in all-too human flesh, dancing through the kitchen stadium like Baryshnikov. Flay provides an earthy element, reproduced in both Symon and Garces, and Cat Cora was for the weaker chefs to take on (sorry). The biggest downside to this contest approach is that it doesn't create a well-rounded selection of representative chefs. I'd rather they had created slots: french, indian, latin, italian, american, and had competitions to fill that. Admittedly I'm bummed over Freitag still, as it would be nice to have an female iron chef who really was an iron chef and not an iron PR machine.

I was really happy with Jen's recovery this show. Not only did she cook, and not shake, but she was smiling, and laughing and joking about turducken. And then she was gracious enough to use that extra 30 minutes she needed to help out where she could. I don't buy the whole "all she does is fish thing"--- it's not like she's scallop girl, fish vary widely, it's like saying Kevin only cooks chunks of red meat. Mike is clearly being edited to be a villain, and some of the things he said was pretty villainous, but he can cook. I suspect he might be stronger than Bryan. The only "downer" from Kevin's win is how inevitable it's looking like he will be top chef, which takes some suspense out of it. Then again, who predicted Richard Blais to choke...

I ate at Lupa friday. If Mario is full of it, I want to eat it. It was an insanely beautiful dinner. On screen he dances through the kitchen, big man that he is. I like him best on iron chef, where he's mostly just cooking, and happy. I like to watch him in action, but now that I've eaten his food, it may never be enough again. [Host's note: To avoid an excessive load on our servers this topic has been split. The discussion continues here]

sure looks like it. just watched the whole thing on NBC.com... see what happens when top chef skips a week? I go crazy! Its not good but it could be. Marco came off as a sententious idiot tho.

sure looks like it. just watched the whole thing on NBC... see what happens when top chef skips a week? I go crazy! Its not good but it could be. Marco came off as a sententious idiot tho.

That renion was useless and confusing. I'd prefer an all-star reunion charity challenge, or something with a little bite to it-- the dinner was a non-challenge with no inners and one loser. sigh. a real waste of an hour. As for the four favorites, my money is on Bryan too-- he's been napping lately and that's worse than Jen's jumpiness. In the past when she went down, she compensated so I hope she'll turn it around. Maybe they'll let them sleep for a day and that'll do the trick.

I'm pretty sure confit just means preserved, and I know it's applied to more than duck-- you can have fruit confited in sugar in france. As for sashimi-- isn't nice that their are so many fancy ways to say I didn't cook it? crudo, carpaccio, ceviche... It does seem to show an inconsistency (or growth?) in the judges... I recall them harping on someone who was playing with the idea of coq a vin, but used a hen, yet these kind of nouveau terms aren't fazing them much. I guess once you've whipped out the agar and the nitrogen, all bets are off.

It's funny how the contest clearly changes some people. Jen is getting worn out, while Mike V actually seems to be improving under the pressure. Brother Bryan seems to be weakening a little bit, and Eli improving. Only Kevin seems the same, except every episode he seems more and more clear he's the winner. Thomas Keller judging might give Bryan V a shot, since I think he'd get the humor and play in his dishes. But even if he loses, it's clear this show has given Mike V a good platform from which to launch a restaurant. Too many people have called him Picasso. I think in many ways, even if he went home next episode he's won. I also agree about the strange lack of grains. I think they are mostly what keeps my sister alive. Then again, we'd all be more healthy if we ate what was served last episode. It looked fabulous and I'm a cow eater.

One Hundred Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do (Part 1) Very interesting list, took me back to my fine dining days... I'm wondering what gulleters think. I knew all of these except #27, though I'm in favor of it. I've had waiters clearly overfilling glasses in order to get the second bottle sell in.

it's funny to read this thread, as I am sitting in a VERY nice restaurant in Thailand, and having finished my meal, the waiter just brought me a tiny cake as a thank you, and then when explaining it he referred to it as "seafood cake." I said "seafood cake?" he said "Yes, orange and the lamb" Ah well. It was a perfectly nice white cake that might have orange in the frosting.