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russ parsons

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Everything posted by russ parsons

  1. quirky little bit of history: Back in the day before the James Beard Awards, there was a cookbook competition called the IACP/Seagrams awards that was judged by an independent panel. At one point, the IACP wanted to bring the panel under the control of the organization. The Panel refused and, as they say in Variety, "ankled" en masse. IIRC, for a couple of years, the Seagram awards were presented independent of a sponsoring organization, before they were picked up by the Beards. The IACP started its own awards program, but as a dependent part of the organization. (some of this is hazy ... and in full disclosure, when IACP re-started its awards committee, I was on it and served for the better part of 10 years ... and in fuller disclosure, I've won several Beard Awards, but only one IACP award).
  2. hmmm, i did take the train there once. it's a little station, short walk to the hotel margot, which seems to be the only place in the area. then you have to hire a cab to get to the restaurant. this can easily run $40 each way ... negotiate in advance. actually, they don't have cabs, but people who will drive you out there.
  3. 1) yes, the wine pairings are greatly improved. They've always had a nice white list, with lots of good values, but putting them together with the right dishes was another matter. the new sommelier is really terrific at choosing wines that complement the specific dishes. 2) I had the chef's tasting menu. I don't remember much of what I ate anymore (except tehse amazing salt-roasted spot prawns), but the pacing and the variety were much improved. at least judging by our menu, they tend to send out a flurry of dishes at the beginning and then gradually increase the time between courses as the meal wears on. works quite well.
  4. my method is similar to the Corriher method, but not as fussy. Eggs in single layer. Water to cover. Bring to boil. Cook for a minute. Cover and turn off heat. You can leave them as long as you want. Because of the heating curve, the eggs won't overcook (after 15 minutes or so, the water will be cooler than the eggs and so cooking will stop). Not only do you avoid that hated green ring and sulfur smell, the yolks are golden orange and moist rather than light yellow and dry.
  5. i'll chip in here, too (though i feel like i ought to note that this is my personal opinion only and doesn't necessarily reflect that of the la times or our restaurant critic). Michael is an old friend and one of my seafood mentors. When the restaurant first opened, I thought it was good, but that at times he might have been trying too hard. I ate there again last month and was completely blown away. it was certainly one of the best meals i've had in los angeles and among the best i've had anywhere. that initial exuberance of his has died down a little and he's editing the dishes much more closely. the result is great ingredients treated in inventive ways but with very pure, natural flavors. and if you go, be sure to have the sommelier pair the wines. he's doing a terrific job.
  6. i read the book a month or so ago. i found the parts about the behind-the-scenes at Per Se to be really interesting, but not at all in a salacious way. Just the idea that a restaurant would put the front-of-the-house through what amounted to a training camp and regular drills before opening was reflective of Thomas and Laura's madness (meant in a good way). And she kind of reflects the way you get seduced into their world view (read: drink the kool-aid). on the other hand, I found her second-half digressions into her affair with another staff member to be at first distracting and then downright annoying. problem is, in the book she doesn't seem that interesting as a person and neither does he ... at least not enough that i would care about what comes off as essentially just another office romance. eta: and i found it more than a little cringe-worthy that they apparently call each other "chef" in bed. that's taking work too far.
  7. my favorite "roma" are the ones from teh san marzano family. i can spot them because they are kind of squared off at the stem end. these aren't for eating raw, but cook them and the texture is really silky. good flavor, too.
  8. that's odd. I've never put my vinegar in the refrigerator and i've never noticed any problem with it (and i'm pretty particular--i make my own). on the other hand, i do keep my nut oils in the refrigerator. they are especially prone to going rancid and the chill does help them.
  9. this trick actually applies to many different kinds of fruit. a study at ucdavis found that withholding water for the last 2 weeks before harvest did more to improve peach flavor than an extra 2 days on the tree. eta: By the way, I've started a weekly live chat every Thursday at 1 p.m. on the Times website. Come on by if you get a chance.Find the chat here
  10. i wouldn't even buy a banana from any produce section that still refrigerated tomatoes. but many still do. just turn around and walk out. so-called "mature greens" are a disaster no matter where they're grown. it's just that Florida grows most of them because they can supply in winter when nobody else can. a mature green is really an industrial product, designed to provide color and height on a hamburger. no flavor. and, sadly, most commercial "vine-ripes" aren't that much better. vine-ripe color is just beginning to break pink--nothing we'd recognize as vine-ripe. problem is: tomatoes are just so damned fragile. and many of those heirloom varieties are especially so. as a non-tomato illustration of the problem: just got back from the farmers market with 3 perfectly ripe suncrest peaches from Art Lange in my bag. by the time I got them home, 2 of them were half jam.
  11. it is by me. what else would you call it? and actually, i just measured it and it's 7 1/4 inches long--although 4 1/4 inches of that is handle. it's very thin, about 3/8 at the widest.
  12. personally, i'm much more a fan of the grower than the grow-ee, or specific variety. a good farmer can make an early girl taste like one of the best tomatoes you've ever eaten. a mediocre farmer can make a Brandywine taste like cardboard. it's all about getting the right tomato for the growing conditions and then paying attention (something I'll readily admit i'm horrible at).
  13. hmm, i use a paring knife and a chef's knife almost equally. i use the paring knife for a lot of vegetable work and, of course, mincing garlic and shallots. the one i've got is about 6 inches long, carbon steel, an old French knife that seems to fit my hand better than any other knife i own.
  14. uh, Samantha, you've got to get better at this whole promotion thing. what's the URL? eta: there's a very good cookbook store in Los Angeles called Cook's Library. Lots of hard-to-find stuff, including European imports. They've got a website, but I don't think that's a big part of their business. Cook's Library
  15. russ parsons

    Grilling Corn

    couldn't be simpler. soak the whole ears (husks, silk and all) in a pot of water for about 30 minutes. Grill over medium-high heat, turning every 5 minutes or so. it'll take about 20-25 minutes--the kernels will darken and the husk will start to blacken. don't worry if it chars in places, that tastes good, too. When the corn is done, pull the husks and most of the silk will come with it.
  16. it seems to me that there really isn't any such thing as "a" two-buck-chuck chardonnay. there simply isn't a vineyard big enough to produce all of that. rather, you're getting fairly neutral varietal juice and then doctoring it to fit a profile. and the blend can change. on the one hand, that means you get a consistent cheap product. on the other, it's not necessarily the same blend that was entered in the competition.
  17. especially at this time of year, there are fabulous berries all over the country. strawberries are one of the fruits that are most worth searching out at farmers markets (because most of the commercial berries are so lacking). they're like tomatoes and peaches that way ... so fragile the only way to get great ones is the FM or growing them yourself.
  18. i use a small-batch preserving method that uses less sugar and no added pectin. it's explained more fully in "how to pick a peach", but essentially, you macerate the sugar and fruit overnight, then cook the mixture only 2-3 cups at a time in a skillet. Because you're cooking so little, it heats very quickly, so you get a fresher flavor. the set is a little soft (almost like a spoon sweet), but i like it that way.
  19. i know (or at least think i know ... from burton anderson's book) that carla latini prefers to serve her pasta slightly crunchy. she says it preserves the flavor of the wheat. they are absolutely nuts about wheat ... they make single-varietal pastas.
  20. 1) it's easy to tell pasta made in America from Italian--check the ingredient labels. In Italy, dried pasta is made only from wheat and water. 2) not only the extruding, but the drying are important with artisanal pastas--slow drying makes a better texture. 3) i agree whole-heartedly about latini. great product. i did a blind pasta tasting of my own several years ago and that was my favorite. We replicated it last year and it repeated. 4) i think the cooks results are the result of setting up faulty parameters. notice they taste the pastas by themselves. So what they're really judging is wheat flavor. But you never eat pasta by itself, it's a vehicle for other ingredients. That's where the texture comes in. the first time i did a blind pasta tasting (sauced only with a little olive oil), i found it really hard to differentiate, aside from the ones with obvious flaws (cardboardy flavor). but on the second pass i noticed that on some of hte pastas the olive oil flavor was much stronger. I tried it again, using a tablespoon of bottled tomato sauce and it was the same thing. i compare it to the riedel wineglass phenomenon: you're not really tasting the pasta, but the pasta as a delivery mechanism.
  21. smithy, i'm curious: were those dole berries sold in pints or in clamshells (the sturdier clear plastic boxes)? i think clamshells hold a lot of promise for shipping fragile fruit, but so far, most packers use them for exactly the same fruit that goes into the pints. one exception is fresh figs, which would be all but unshippable without them.
  22. tri-stars are a fairly modern variety (they are day-neutral, meaning they'll bear for a long time), but they aren't used much "commercially" because they're soft. They're real popular with farmers market growers, particularly in the east and midwest because they come on fairly quickly. local strawberries are always the best bet (i'd bet your tri-stars were grown locally, too). as for earthbound organics ... that is hardly surprising. once more: follow flavor, not ideology.
  23. oh ... that's just soooo not nice. actually, at the santa monica farmers market this morning one of my favorite growers had "wild" strawberries, though i'm sure that's not the same as picking them yourself. they have such an amazing candied flavor, like essence of strawberry.
  24. for anyone interested, here's a link to my appearance on Fresh Air with Terry Gross last week. Funnily enough, the interview starts out with strawberries. fresh strawberries
  25. mundane vegetables? MUNDANE VEGETABLES? YOU TALKIN' TO ME?
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