noambenami

Ok. So, this is a little crazy but I've just made a reservation for Wednesday of next week at Manresa. There is a little catch though, and it is that I live in Portland. So, plan is to drive down on Tuesday, sleep at a hostel in San Francisco, hang out in the city Wednesday morning, go to Manresa at 6pm, and drive back up Thursday morning. If by some chance any other egullet members are going to be in the restaurant at that time, come by my table and say hello!

Agreed, but if she brings in people with no experience, I find it rather ludicrous that she doesn't like them asking questions. I've done hiring interviews for over ten years, and the only thing that pisses me off is when people who are inexperienced try to cover that inexperience. Ask me questions, show me that you are interested and want to learn. Anyone can crack eggs. I'd like an employee to ask me how to do it - in the right context, it shows that they want to be as efficient and clean as possible. In my first serious job, everyone who came in got paired up with someone senior who introduced them around and made sure they settled in well. Invariably, the person I was paired with became my most important mentor. Frankly, I'd bet that one reason Mel is working so hard is because she hasn't mentored and managed her people appropriately, and has hired the wrong folks. Hopefully for her, she'll figure out her HR problems before she runs herself into the ground!

How long do you work with them before you decide that they'll need babysitting rather than some initial mentoring? There's a huge difference between the two.

I absolutely guarantee that the question was on the lines of an inquiry of how Mel would like the person to most efficiently and cleanly crack eggs.

There are no stupid questions - a real chef would understand that. For example, some folks want me to crack eggs on a flat surface so that there is less of a chance for the shell pieces to come off. Others want me to crack it on a sharp surface for speed. The corollary is that the eggshells drop to the bottom of the container into which they are put and so, when breaking a lot of eggs, the trick is to simply be careful at the end not to pour the pieces. (And then there's the trick of flipping the cake over to look for remaining pieces.) When an employee asks you a question, that is your chance to tell them not only how you want things done, but how to do things right. Even cracking an egg, in a production environment, requires some knowledge and involves any number of tricks. Mentorship not only improves your employees, it keeps them around longer, and is one of the things that separates "chefs" from "cooks."

Some random thoughts... Fried zuchinni blossoms. stuffed with huitlacoche, havarti cheese and anchovy. Plated with a horseradish cream sauce. -- You have a lot of aggressive flavors here. You'll need to mellow things down a bit. You also have some potentially heavy components here, cream; cheese, fried food. With something as rich as that blossom will be, I'd like to see a lighter sauce with perhaps a little acidity. Something like frisee with fried capers in a simple lemon vinaigrette. Grilled squab (or quail??) marinated in a citrus marinade. With parmesan risotto, arugula and a parsley brown butter emulsion. -- Again you have both cheese and a fat component here. My personal preference would be for a lighter sauce to go with the heavy risotto. Something like a squab stock reduction spiked with a little yuzu or blood orange. Roast rack of lamb. Coated in a hybiscus/panko/garlic/parsley crust (persillade with hybiscus powder) over mashed roast cauliflower with red pepper flakes rhubarb / aged balsamic reduction on the plate -- This sounds lovely. The look of this dish could be a little tricky, since your cauliflower puree is going to look a little "dirty." I'd poach the cauliflower sous-vide, poach the rhubarb, brunoise it, and sprinkle it on top and around the cauliflower. Lose the pepper flakes or add to the persillade. petit fours for dessert. (the almond cake- fondant kind) -- A palate cleanser would work well at this point. Almond cake would be a bit heavy. After all the cream and cheese, I'd want a sorbet or an acidic souffle. After which I'd be ready for some chocolate. :-). My comments aside, this menu sounds promising. Good luck!

So, Jardin is back down to two stars, eh? Does this mean I don't have to pay 170 euros for my upcoming dinner? Somehow, I think not. Seriously, though, the most exciting, enjoyable meals I've had have been at 1 and 2 star restaurants, so this doesn't change my plans. That said, we'll also be eating at vieux puits, and I'm very eager to see how the two compare. The notion of value at these restaurants is interesting to me. For example, the best value I've ever had at a 2-star place was at Regis Marcon, where a 120 euro meal involves about thirty different items, all good to exquisite. I've paid the same at Clos de la Violettes and got a wonderful meal, but nothing even close to the complexity and ambition at Marcon. Of course, that may be why he just scored his third star. At any rate, my hat is off to all the dedicated folks working at the back of the house at these restaurants, for their commitment and hard work. But to the chefs too - they all always invariably deserve their success.

No, the Jardin des Sens has three stars. Thanks for posting the info about your meal! I'm heading to the Jardin myself in a few months.

Well, I feel vindicated - I didn't like Charlie Trotter, the restaurant, and now I have good reason to dislike the man, as well. What a schmuck. But what I really wanted to do was compliment Bux on his postings. Clearly written and well thought out. In this world of hypocrisy and hysteria, I delight in hearing a reasonable voice. If you ever come out to Portland Oregon, drop by Hurley's for dinner and tell them who you are - there's a good bottle of wine with your name on it. Noam

I had lunch at Le Cinq a couple of years ago. Very expensive and very refined. An amuse of white bean puree with black truffles was wonderful - the chef really understands what truffles are for. A tuna steak of absolutely stellar quality was served raw on the inside, on extremely soft fennel slices and a wonderful eggplant caviar. A touch of real caviar and a simple nage finished it off. Great dish. Pigeon was uninspired and dessert was average. Petit fours were traditional and excellent. Service was astounding, very very slick. The sommelier set me up with a Vaqueyras that I thought was a good, reasonably priced choice. The room is gorgeous and the courtyard near it is even better. Overall, I had a good time blowing 120 euros on lunch there. For dinner, I'd rather go to Gagnaire/Le Meurice/L'Astrance/Arpege, or some other more cutting edge place. When I go back and do lunch again, I'd like to see if Le Meurice is open for lunch. Bon Degustation

Sauteed Scallops on a ragout of leeks, shitakes, and hen of the woods mushrooms, parsnip puree, rosemary-port reduction. The parsnips were cooked in skim milk, to keep the calories down. But I couldn't resist and sauteed them beforehand with just a bit of butter. I should not have thrown away the liquid the parsnips cooked in - it was amazing stuff. Should have added it back to the puree (which was blended and then pushed through a sieve and ended up a little dry.) Would also have made an interesting base for a panna-cotta, served up with, lets say, a fennel tuile and blood orange.

Well, we ate at the restaurant last night. Here, for those who care, are my impressions: Entryway is beautiful - bowls of pomegranates, cinammon, red peppercorn...and the staff is friendly, albeit too numerous. Is Charlie trying to reduce Illinois' unemployment single handedly? Do I need to be greeted by four different people in a foyer/bar that is all of two hundred square feet? The actual dining room is claustrophobic. No windows. Narrow. Not unattractive, but...oy. They misspelled my mother's name on her birthday card, a disappointing thing, they should have double checked. At any rate, my mother and I ordered the grand menu, my sister the vegetable one, which we explicitly asked to be completely meat free as she is vegetarian. We were asked about allergies and other food issues, of which we had none, aside from my sister's limitations. The sommelier worked with us to choose a half bottle of big red wine - we got a california Syrah that we enjoyed tremendously throughout the meal. Big and fruity and a little smoke with wonderful structure. Yes, we love wine, but we're lightweights when it comes to alcohol. An amuse of a seared tombo tuna (I believe) with a vegetable brunoise and some exotic cypress tree seeds came out. It was beautiful and the taste was very complex, delicate, and satisfying. My sister got an amuse of nori "sushi" filled with parsnip. There seemed to be a peach vinaigrette in there somewhere. Seaweed and microgreens decorated the plate. Also lovely, and very very good. At this point I'll put in another complaint - servers either forgot to describe the food or the descriptions were quite cursory. Their knowledge of the food, as well, was unimpressive. Disappointing. On the other hand, they were friendly and their demeanor good, but overall, they are attempting to provide high level european style service, the kind you get at Le Cinq, for example, but simply do not have the chops to pull it off. One of our servers did notice that my sister did not have a drink and offered her one - a charming move. They also noted that we had parked our car ourselves in a parking lot across the street, and someone put a parking voucher on our car while we were dining. Very nice. After the amuse, a tasmanian trout, probably done sous-vide, came out, on a wide line of pale yellow curry sauce, with what looked like trout roe, barnacles, oysters, cucumber gelee and more microgreens. It was gorgeous and tasted wonderful. Following this, a barramundi fillet, a couple of small scallops, and a sunchoke puree with caviar. Not bad but not amazing. An intermezzo of black truffle with various vegetal purees was insipid. A rabbit loin, expertly cooked, served with polenta, a light boudin flan, and what looked to me like black trumpet mushrooms, was well made, but didn't excite me. My mom loved it. The waitress forgot to describe the next dish, but I'm going to call it rosemary crusted antelope tenderloin, the tenderloin done sous-vide, with a cocoa foam, braised porcini and a mushroom puree. Fragrant and good, but again, not terribly exciting. The flavors and textures here were a little heavy. I kept going back to the memory of the wonderful goose we had at Trio, with its little slice of foie gras and blood orange fillet. A palate cleanser of cactus pear sorbet on top of nopales brunoise was wonderful if you ate around the nopales. I get the intellectual idea, but nopales just don't taste good with cactus pear, sorry. My sister's sorbet of pink grapefruit with candied orange and grapefruit brunoise was terrific. The desserts were, frankly, losers. A truffle semifreddo was expertly made but the flavor was just wierd for wierd's sake. Nice try though. The other two dishes (there were three desserts) were all too heavy on rich textures and very light on balancing acid. Coconut sorbet tasted like almost nothing, and a meyer lemon sorbet as well was refined to the point of being insipid. Another misstep - my sister disliked her raw course of passionfruit and squash ravioli with coconut foam and cashew cheese. We asked them to bring her something different. They took the plate and didn't give her anything in its place. Inexcusable. Another misstep - they brought her a dish containing both squid ink and ham. Ham folks. What the hell. The brough it back, substituting truffles for all the unacceptable ingredients. Good thing my sister likes truffles, but still, too much truffle everywhere, and inexpertly used, at that. We were served a free tasting of a merlot that a former master sommelier from the restaurant makes. Wonderful strawberry character and interesting tannins. I liked it a lot. And thats it folks. This is an ambitious restaurant that serves complex, delicate food. The service is overly attentive and a lot of missteps are made. Its very, very expensive. It is, in my honest opinion, not worth it. Considering the kind of meals I've had in france for the same price or less, which included superior numbers of revelatory dishes, this restaurant does not compare, plus its location and atmosphere fall far far short. Compared to Trio, Charlie's is a big step down. Not as creative, balanced, or interesting. I got the strong feeling that this restaurant, while still very skilled, is tired, and is coasting. My mother, it should be noted, enjoyed the food much more than I did, but she's not quite the tough cookie that I am. That said, she's got an excellent palate. My sister, who does as well, was unexcited by much of her food - this is not a retaurant to take a real vegetarian to. Incidentally, some time ago we went to Zealous, which is helmed by a Trotter's alum. The food was much bolder and more exciting. Much more up my alley than all this ultra-refined food with no balls. I look forward to Alinea and The French Laundry, and to my upcoming trip to Le Jardin de Sens. I hope these rekindle my excitement and love of fine dining.

I'm going to CT on Friday. Any tips on getting the most out of the experience? I'm taking my mother for her birthday and my sister is coming as well. Planning on two grand tastings and a veggie for my sister. Incidentally, Trio may be my favorite restaurant of all times. I'm a little bummed that Alinea isn't opened yet or I wouldn't hesitate to go there instead. Charlie's cuisine doesn't excite me as much as Grant's. That said, I am quite curious to see what the experience is like and how it will compare to the various Michelin places that I've been to. Trio, for example, was somewhere between two and three stars, food wise. Service, though, was decidedly informal.

Incidentally - I apologize if I've come across as rude above - I've got a bit of frustration built up from having too many ludicrous discussions with engineers. e.g. Over whether one should actually talk to one's customers to see if what is being built is what they want ("We don't have time!")

Frankly, I've worked with folks like yourself for years and find that almost no software engineer actually understands the business of making software. If ability to code and design superb software guaranteed success then I'd be a millionaire right now. Interestingly, in this is the closest parallel to the food industry that I've seen: If simple quality of food was at all related to success, than there'd be a lot more rich chefs. Frankly, just like in sofware, those who make mediocre and unreliable systems and market them well often do the best. Look at Microsoft, Siebel, Oracle...all firms much of whose sofware is fairly uniformly despised. Likewise, in the food industry, its firms that produce borderline-toxic products, like General Mills, McDonalds, and the like who have the biggest footprint. Sorry to take this discussion so far afield.

I have to say that I have never worked at a startup where our main identified risk was a "backlash" due to overexposure. If thats your big concern, then I'd trade positions with you any time. Ah, I'd like to be a fly on your wall... "Ok folks, our main risk is that the slavering hordes of foodies will injure our maitre d' in the mad rush for the tables. Make sure we get another on standby."

As a veteran of numerous startups in high technology, I thought I'd add my thoughts to this. Not at all. Anyone investing in Alinea would do so because of Trio. Similarly, most investors will invest in people with a successful track record. The lengths of business plans vary widely and wildly. Alinea is in no way a research institution, it is a production environment. All gastronomic restaurants create new recipes. If anything, Alinea is very much like a high tech startup in that before the product is released there is an intense product development effort that builds on both original thinking and existing technology. Frankly, the R&D budget for most serious high tech startup represents a much higher fraction of expenditures than at Alinea. Not at all. Any tech company that does not engage in continuous product improvement quickly finds itself out of business. Version two follows version one, and there is furious competition between companies on the basis of features. Much more so than at most restaurants. Ever hear of the term "due diligence?" You have no idea how intensively most startups are studied when serious investors come in. High tech startups are often started by a partnership between technical specialists and management specialists. Look at a company like Google, that was started by a number of technical wizards, or Juniper Networks, or Amazon. All these companies depend on the expertise and vision of a very small core number of highly specialized people. This is not the opinion of anyone who actually understands software. It is understood that creating and maintaining software is an incredibly expensive and tricky proposition. Consulting is, in fact, looked upon as a much safer business proposition due to the lack of development time and quick time to cash. Such innovation incubators as you speak of have never proven themselves in the real world. Innovation is way to erratic and dependent on bright individuals to be put under such controlled conditions. Frankly, Alinea as a business is a nearly risk-free venture and displays a business profile that looks a lot like a straightforward acquistion: 1. An already proven business is purchased - usually for its existing product line or customer list. 2. It is cleaned up and rebranded. 3. The business is relaunched under a different name. All Alinea is is a rebranding of Trio under chef Achatz - the product is the chef's creativity and style. The business builds upon the success of, and presumably financial data from, the previous business, and upon the buzz generated by having such an incredible and proven team. Just my opinion.

When I ate at Trio, the food was actually skewered on. I think the skewers have a clever little elbow bend on them to prevent the food from sliding down, although I could be wrong. My skewer was green apple, toro and soy foam, with some crunchy bits on top.

As would I.

You may find this article interesting - its from our good friend Heston Blumenthal. http://shopping.guardian.co.uk/electrical/...1067129,00.html

I went to cooking school in Lyon for three months. My favorite restaurant there was a little place called L'Etage, which is relatively inexpensive, modern french with a strong lyonnaise influence. Across the river, Notre Maison is an absolutely fantastic bouchon. Don't miss either place. A bit farther out are a couple of good michelin starred places. Chateau de Bagnols has one star, and two star ambiance. Just a beautiful place to eat, especially on the moat bridge on a nice day. Everyone recommended Gil Lausausie (the spelling may be wrong) which is a one/two star place a bit out of town. I never did get to go there, opting instead to go to Chateau de Bagnols.