Mike Pardus

The owners of Django on Lexington Ave. and Cedric Tovar, exec. chef of Django, get a lot of good press for their food an decor. Now I want to make a plug for their big hearted generosity and commitment to the future. Since October Cedric has been involved with Michael Huynh, Pichet Ong and me in composing a series of East/West fusion diners to benefit a travel scholarship for Culinary Institute Students to travel to Vietnam on a "chef's tour" in April. With the CIA so far from town our fund raising failed to meet our goals. Rather than scrap the project and leave the students behind Cedric and the owners of Django offered to let us bring the series to Manhattan. This past Sunday - Feb 27 - Django became an extension of the CIA and Cedric, his sous Jason, and Front manager Suzanna "adjunct faculty". I don't know of any other high profile New York restaurants that would turn their space over to a bunch of students (in some respect putting their reputation on the line) for an extra-curricular activity, nor very many restaurant pros who would give up their Sunday off to shepard a bunch of green kids for 17 hours. As a result of the Django group's largesse, we are with-in striking distance of our goal to bring 10 CIA students with us on the tour - all expenses paid. And Django has offered to push us over the top by allowing us to "do it again" on April 10th. If you haven't been to Django recently I recommend checking it out if only to demonstrate your support for generosity of this kind. If you are interested in this project/tour/dinner you can check out the details at www.cheftourvietnam.com or e-mail me directly at m_pardus@culinary.edu. Thanks alot - MP

Am I being baited?

I feel that I need to comment on your thoughts of Per Se. I cook and teach cooking for a living, I have done this for over 30 years. In that time I have had 3 meals which stand out as "special"- meaning that the details will remain with me forever and I will use the experience as a measure for other dining experiences and for my own cooking. One of these three dinners was at the French Laundry. I have not been to Per Se , but I think it's safe to assume that the experience would be similar. In trying to explain why it's such a big deal I have found myself using the analogy of Mozart and Salliarie(I know I'm butchering the guys name - can't find my encyclopdia of music history at the moment). Sallierie is the guy who wonders out loud why Mozart's music is SO GREAT and his own is so mediocre. The only explanation he can come up with is that God speaks to Mozart and not to Sallierie. This is how I feel after eating Kellers food. I may as well go out and be a janitor for all the skill I can show relative to Keller. Why is it that God speaks to him and not to me? Well, the fact is, Keller is THAT good. I can choose to hate him for being something I can only dream of being (pretty petty and lame way to go through life) or I can choose to feel lucky enough to have the experience and the backgrond with which to appreciate it. I might even be smart enough to walk away with a few tid bits of inspiration that will make me a better cook and a better teacher. I can't think of anyone less deserving of the slander "Over Rated".

who the f--- are you calling psycotic, Ruhlman? RRRRRRR!!!! Remember, I have a picture of you with a knife and a very dangerous look on you face...the caption says"......."....something like that... Seriously, I'm trying to push a dinner series that Michael Huynh and I have conspired on. If you guys want a GREAT meal at the CIA come to ST. Andrews Cafe on Saturday night October 2 when Micheal H and Cedric Tovar (from Django, NYC) do a French/Vietnamese dinner. The menu is theirs, the logistics mine and the cooking and table service all top notch students. The students will all be from the Global Culinary Society and will have volunteered to spend a Saturday night doing this, so you know it's a passion driven thing. We did one last spring and a great time was had by all - attendees and participants. For full details see the post in the food Adventues posting section. If this stirs up enough interest I'll post it here to.