Steve Martin
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I can second that recommendation. There was a young chef producing great food when we were there and it sounds like he still is.
Steve Martin.
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Here is my list of the great tables of Beaune.
Le Benaton. Not a friendly place, but a fantastically gifted chef makes it our favourite in Burgundy.
Lervernois has a new starred chef and we have recently had two excellent lunches there. Very friendly proprietor.
Jardin des Remparts has confused but friendly service and a chef who likes unusual, even wild, combinations. Generous, but not for the staid palate.
Loiseau des Vignes is quite formal, yet pleasant and the food is quite classic. Our two lunches have each featured at least one truly exceptional dish.
Via Mokis, from David Zuddas, is brand new and very informal. Atelier style with a surprise tasting menu.
Tontons has very basic service, but an excellent kitchen. Big flavours here.
L'Ecusson has very good chef, with particularly good desserts. The place seemed a bit dead, but we will go back soon.
For us foodies, there was not much happening on the plate at Ma Cuisine. Too ordinary for us to go back.
Further out, the starred Charlemagne has a Japanese fusion approach. We didn't like the service, but found the food very interesting.
Lameloise had slightly inept service, but excellent and very generous cooking.
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It is a method from Michel Bras that works very well. It allows a good searing without excessive meltdown.
Why brief freezing though? Do your prep and slicing well before and keep the slices individually wrapped in the freezer.
The best foie I have had was at Marc Veyrat and I've heard he uses liquid nitrogen to freeze it right down.
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Edited to add : Does anyone know of anywhere else that uses the tableware shown in Duncan's first photo? I first saw these plates in MPW's 'White Heat' and I think they're beautiful. I've never been a fan of coloured rims but these ones seem to act as a focus for the food on the middle of the plate rather than distracting attention away from it.
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Rolly was picked over in this thread.
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But when it came to the taste, he said that the only glass that made any difference at all was the Sommelier Reidel, which actually tasted better than the others. He was obviously very surprised by that, and had no explanation.
It is my opinion that the fineness of the glass makes the difference. The thin edge makes the wine taste better, either by presenting it to the tongue differently or introducing more air. It's why tea tastes better in bone china and why rolled edged glasses are a bad choice.
Why is the "psychological effect" always regarded as somehow spurious and that people with less horse sense than our august selves are being hoodwinked. Here heightened expectation is a "placebo" for fools.
We throw the food on the plate and drink out of cheap glasses. No fooling us.
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Oh, and a jar of fishy goose fat as well.
What's that?
The goose fat that I confit salmon in.
Sometimes tuna or swordfish. Just a few minutes at 80C.
Not to get too far off course, but --
I use olive oil for tuna confit. Nothing fancy in the way of oil, in fact I re-used some in which I had slow-poached spiced shrimp (aka Mosca's barbecue shrimp).
How long does yours keep? I've got more than I can finish up this week (made it about 2 weeks ago) and hope it will still be good for another couple of weeks (fully immersed in oil).
Olive oil is excellent for confit. I started with goose fat because it is a classic combination with salmon, like trout and lard.
Although confit does mean preserved, I have never kept fish under the fat. Just a few minutes cooking and onto the plate. The fat itself keeps for many months in the fridge. If heated up and strained occasionally, it could keep forever.
I have kept goose legs confit in the fridge for 6 weeks.
The salting and long, long cooking leaves little scope for the water activity that will lead to spoiling. This probably isn't true for fish, cooked rare in a home environment. The freezer beckons
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Oh, and a jar of fishy goose fat as well.
What's that?
The goose fat that I confit salmon in.
Sometimes tuna or swordfish. Just a few minutes at 80C.
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It doesn't have to be rock salt, but it absolutely has to be coarse.
Maldon's is very good for this, but pricey. Sea salt is better for every use actually, because it has the natural crystaline structure. This allows it to absorb water very well, without dissolving into the meat.
Rock salt has an amorphous structure, due to grinding, and is not so efficient. Won't do any harm though, as long as it is coarse.
A good rinse under the tap is best, or take it in the shower.
I have more fat than anything else in my fridge. Duck, goose, beef, lard and a block of lardo. Oh, and a jar of fishy goose fat as well.
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That said, I can send you a long list of chefs in Spain who make terrific desserts, and not one of them is French.
I don't agree that Santi's desserts are a letdown compared with the rest. I've tasted a number of them, like his blood orange crumble with bitter chocolate ice cream, that were terrific.
It would be a useful list for everyone. I find that desserts are very rarely up to the standard of the preceding courses and very seldom a strong point.
The French have the most interest in dessert and make the most effort to get it right.
Most chefs have very little interest and the pastry chefs seem to have little imagination. The word pastry about sums it up.
It's time they were called dessert chefs and stepped out the shadows.
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When it came time for dessert, the server brought out the petit fours FIRST, then dessert, and then the pre-dessert all within 60 seconds. When they placed the petit fours down, I thought to myself, this is it? We are already done the meal and are not getting any dessert (it was the surprise menu, so we were not sure at any given time how many courses were left). Then they brought out the dessert, and then the pre-dessert (which was simply a cup filled with whipped cream and caramel sauce). So there we were, sitting there surrounded by all 3 courses of dessert at the same time. I doubt this is how it is usually done, but at am a loss to explain why they served us like this.
I have found that many French restaurants will place the petit fours (mignardise) in the middle of the table before dessert is served. It harks back to the old banquet piece montée and is not unusual.
The toffee and cream isn't a pre-dessert, it is one of the desserts. Some chefs are putting 4 or 5 desserts in front of us at once, sometimes 10 in two services.
Desserts are not Santi's strong point, you need a Frenchman for that.
Bringing the bill sounds like a misunderstanding...or a hint.
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The 'wood is best' credo is purely the result of research conducted by Dean Cliver; in California, no less.
http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra...ttingboard.shtm
All later research, including the FDA, refutes his claims.
http://www.securityworld.com/library/healt...oardsafety.html
http://outreach.missouri.edu/extensioninfo...ting_board.html
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He had his blue dress short out under his blazer.
Sounds like an electrical fault while cross dressing.
A TV, perhaps.
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I've mentioned on my website that Marlin is a tricky fish. We prefer it cooked longer than tuna, but it toughens dreadfully if you go too far. Grilling on a high heat is fine but you must leave it rare.
If you can't bear it rare, try cooking it on in oil or fat at 80C, or resting it in a hot oven for a little while.
Really, if you don't like it rare, choose swordfish instead.
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My wife keeps going back to Livebait, in the centre. Good seafood.
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At times like this phone 01275 475252
http://www.chefclubdirect.co.uk/
They might be able to source it for you.
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It would be really pretty damn cool if you could get a deeply flavored stock in like an hour from this method, although with all the developments in cooking in the last 500 years, I'm surprised no one has tried it--or to take it a step further, if it works and is significantly quicker, that it's not common practice in the industry.
Or maybe it is! who knows? Keep us posted; I'm interested.
Well, Heston has been blitzing quail for his famous consomme.
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Ahh. I thought chefwoody's warning about condensation was branching out into pods.
Condensation will affect pods in the same way as it will coffee beans.
Anyway, you can keep the whole pods in sugar, as well as the deseeded ones.
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Nobody else keep them in a jar of sugar?
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I also have an interesting stock-making hypothesis I am going to test the next time I make stock (soon, because I am running out).
I am going to run all the meat, bones and vegetables through my industrial-strength meat grinder. My thought is that it will lead to faster and more complete extraction of both flavors and gelatin. My general stock-making process, FWIW, is to leave it on the stove overnight substantially below the simmer (~180F/82C).
You could also try just grinding the meat and bones, not the veg.
The other extreme is that some chefs leave the veg whole in a bunch and remove as soon as they are cooked through. This ensures a clearer stock.
I have heard that simmering the bones for too long can lead to bitter flavours as the bones break down.
Also, maximum gelatin extraction is obtained at a higher temperature, hence Heston's pressure cooker stock idea.
By the way, I'm a great fan of a bit of trotter in the stock.
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I did a stage in a starred kitchen where the head chef insisted his chicken stocks were made with white bones, no roasting, and simmered for one hour only after the stock came to the boil.
After reduction the resulting jus was fresh tsting but so concentrated; really astonishing flavour.
Any tomatoes in that?
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It's a variation on a theme, like those potato gratins made w/ stock instead of milk/ cream-are they still called gratins?
They are indeed. The Gratin Savoyarde is, perhaps, the original and it is potato and stock.
A gratin is any dish finished under a salamander or broiler, in a shallow dish.
Gratin original referred to scratchings or gratings from the dried remains of a previous dish. This is more likely to be breadcrumbs these days, but is often just the natural burning of the surface.
Nothing to do with milk. Gratin Dauphinoise just happens to be the most famous.
Nothing to with cheese either, though the Savoyarde does have it.
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Dreadfully infuriating, isn't it.
And what about those people who use their mobile phone so quietly that you can't overhear what they are saying. Drives me bonkers.
If only we could all behave like foreigners, or young professionals at least.
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I must say, I didn't even know that double cream had to made from special cows; I assumed it just came from whatever dairy breed is normally used in the UK.
The average dairy herd is mostly Friesian because they give a very high yield. However, their milk is low in butterfat. Double cream could be made, but it is more effective to have a proportion of high butterfat cows in the herd. As I have said, these include Jersey and Red Devon (South Devon) breeds. You will also see Guernsey.
The herd could also include a small proportion of French beef breeds, that milk reasonably well and ensure that the male calves will fetch a better price at market.
York
in United Kingdom & Ireland: Dining
Posted · Edited by Steve Martin (log)
York isn't great for food actually, except for J Baker's Bistro. A great culinary experience at a good price.
http://www.jbakers.co.uk/
A good place for lunch is Le Langhe Italian deli.
http://www.lelanghe.co.uk/
You might like L'Antica Locanda, in the Shambles.
There is a good view of the Minster from M&S
You can eat indifferent food, but in the amazing Assembly Rooms at Ask.