tetsujustin

I'll be heading to SF and then up to Sonoma to Santa Rosa with my school this coming week. During my off time a couple of friends and I hope to get both some good fine dining/casual dining in both areas. In San Francisco, we're very interested in going to A16, Quince, and AME. Can someone give me updates on those restaurants or give me some good suggestions? Money really isn't a big deal, though we really have our hearts set on Quince for sure. As for other things, I want to find something something like Avec in Chicago. Good, hearty food that is well prepared, and a well priced and interesting wine list. We also want to go to Chinatown and Japantown. I think I'll take them to R&G Lounge because I enjoyed it there last time (unless someone has a better option) but I know nothing about Japan town though I'd like to find something like a good Yakitori or something like Yakitori Totto in NYC. Knowing the good quality of fish in SF too, I was wondering if you could give me suggestions on sushi (it doesn't have to be in japantown). Given that we won't have a car, we're going to be taking the BART around, so places that are walking distance would be appreciated from BART stops. Though we will consider a cab if need be. We will be going all up and down Napa and Sonoma visiting wineries most of the week, but we'll be staying in Santa Rosa. I think we're going to make stop offs at Taylor's Refresher in Helena and also I know we have a trip to Sonoma Square planned which I'm not too excited about so if there's anygood restaraurants there, I could just spend the entire time there eating. Anywhere in Santa Rosa worth going to would also be appreciated. I know this is asking a lot, but I figured this would be the best place to ask it. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me!

Yes, unfortunately. But adding on to my last post. Dale Levitski, the chef who took over Trio after Grant Achatz left is also on the show as a contestant. Though not as revered as the previous Trio chefs, he had a lot of very favorable reviews. This is probably the most talented cast yet.

That could be a bit of an understatement There's the executive sous of guy savoy, the executive sous of Jean Georges, a James Beard Nominated chef, a sous at one of Michelle Bernstein's restaurants. Though again, management doesn't always translate to great cooks. I'm actually excited about this season though. There's a lot of recognizable resumes out there. Maybe it finally won't be about the drama.

you know I might have to go to kc just to go to bluestem now. sigh. there goes the paychecks.

maybe they put david burke's butter "fragrance" on it.

I second Bittersweet, my favorite bakery when I was in Chicago. It's just a very comfortable spot. Modern and homey at the same time. I can't especially vouch for their pastries as I only had a couple. The few that I had were good, a couple were exceptional, but from what I remember the selection was a bit limited. The root beer floats are huge/good, and I always normally got a vanilla iced tea and one of the items on the lunch board. Sometimes its hard to find a seat, however.

My school and I are taking a trip up to SF and the wine country. I've heard a lot about Quince and was wondering if it would be a good place to hit up when we're up there. I looked the menu and it fits some of the style that a couple of us are looking for to eat. Can anyone comment on their current quality or if it's a still a good place to go to? We're also looking to go to AME, Cyrus when we're up in the sonoma/napa area, The Girl and the Fig. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

I think the answer to that question is pretty obvious. I'm not sure exactly how obvious, because I can't come up with an answer myself. What IS exactly wrong with bologna and meatloaf? You point at cafeterias to find these couple of items, but haven't you ever thought where these "high end, hoity toity" items originated from? Isn't meatloaf just a warm pate? Isn't bologna just another version of salumi/charcuterie? I know for fun after experimenting from brian polcyn's book, I've made serveral bolognas just because some of my friends have no idea what porchetta, prosciutto, or mortadella is, but can relate to bologna. And hey, I bet if I put it on a charcuterie plate, made up a fancy name, slapped some whole grain mustard, cornichons, and some crusty bread on it, I could sell it for 15 bucks at some overlavish dining room. My point is maybe you should look outside of the box for something to label "special." Some of the best meals you'll have in your life have nothing to do with kobe, foie, sweetbreads, and truffles. They'll also have nothing to do with immersion circulators and NO2. Have you eaten at any of these places that he's suggested? If you have, then please be my guest to tell me I'm wrong, but if not then maybe just think that hey, this place could be good. Yeah, I could get a bologna sandwich or a meatloaf down the street, but exactly is so good about that bologna sandwich and meatloaf that made that guy recommend it. Maybe you should understand this guy's background before you go off and start judging him. I for one trust his tastes. And if you don't believe me, maybe you can drive down to Findlay, Ohio and eat at The Revolver.

That's true, but I think it means that the chef has to be in the region for three years, not just the restaurant. Either way, I don't think Robuchon himself will ever garner the nomination, though his chef de cuisine probably will. So there's people like Mark LoRusso (who's at one of the Mina restaurants, I forget which) or Jeremy Lieb at Le Cirque who probably could've gotten a nomination. The same happened for Corey Lee at The French Laundry last year for best chef california, not discounting his talent at all, but I'm sure the name of the restaurant had something to do with it. Either way I'm glad Texas gets a nod. Especially after the Wynn turns 3 years old and most of their chefs I'm guessing will get nominations.

The best chef southwest region had four out of the five nominees from Texas, each from a different Texas city no less. David Bull (formerly) of The Driskill Grill in Austin, Sharon Hage of York Street in Dallas, Monica Pope of T'afia in Houston, and Andrew Weisman of Le Reve in San Antonio. The fifth nominee is Nobuo Fukada of Sea Saw in Arizona. I'm not completely sure, but I'd think the consensus winner of the four would be Andrew Weisman, though if I had to bet, I'd put money on Sharon Hage just because of the fact the Beards seem to like to reward chefs who have been nominated several times and less on chefs who are making their first appearances on the ballot. Fukada also might could win cause he's been on there a previous time and I've heard from a friend who frequents there that the food in excellent. I find the amount of Texas chefs surprising just because Nevada is also in the region and quality aside, the chefs in Vegas would seem more likely to earn recognition because of the big names. But I guess it's the Beards. Weird stuff goes around in there.

... yes but am I alone here in feeling that she's probably one of the worst judges that they have ever had?

I wonder how he'll deal with not having foie gras

In case anyone missed it, the DMN did their review of the "new" restaurant. It retains it's 5 stars. It only missed out a half star for atmosphere. http://www.guidelive.com/portal/page?_page...AL&item_id=2542 ← Not that I have eaten there, but one has to wonder if the Mansion's longstanding reputation affects the review. Maybe the DMN doesn't want it's biggest name to lose face? Again, just a musing.

Tell that to Grant Achatz.

Lots of CIA grads on here, and as one of them I will say that I did learn more than just knife skills and basic cooking techniques at the place. If I didn't it would have been one big crock because I'd learned all that stuff in a high school vocational program that I had taken. Again, there's a lot of pros and cons to going to culinary school, whichever one you choose, but I will say going there A) taught me a lot of book knowledge B) put me around a lot of like-minded individuals (those who loved to cook, but was just starting out) in which I grew with and was really able to relate to both during my time there and now after I've graduated. and C) gave me the necessary skills for me to start my culinary career and point me in the right direction of where I want to go. Going to culinary school will give you a lot of knowledge you need to know and probably also a lot of knowledge you'll never use in your life again, but either way going to culinary school will give you a great base that you may or may not get from working in restaurants (some places just don't have the time for you to feel your way through trying to get all the terms/techniques down) If you have a restaurant with a chef that's will you teach you from the ground up, then by all means, go for it. If you think that having a school education would be better where you can go as slow or fast as you want to go (in a block at least, haha), then do that. either way, best of luck And Chef Johnny: I know at least six people that had externed at TFL from CIA, one of which left a few months ago and one who is still currently there, so maybe the time you were there, there was just a dry spell, eh? I've worked for chefs who did come from CIA, and chefs that haven't and I have respected them all. None of them are what you would call "cut-rate" Either way we can all get a good education and good skills from any school as long as long as you put the work in. And can't we all just get along?

where on Blalock? Near the I-10/Memorial Area hopefully? I'd like to try something new

Do you know of any that serve a good langua taco? Gotta try the sweetbread taco though.

That's like asking to Tom Colicchio to start using foams and powders and sous-viding everything. He works at Casa Mono. I'd rather him cook something he knows than to try to cook things that he knows nothing about. Variation aside, I think the judges would rather eat something that the cook knows is good rather than him trying to do something he knows nothing about and have it taste like crap. Either way, he seems to always have solid dishes that make sense and potentially really taste good.

I'm not sure if we went on the same night, but the pizza special was the same as when you had it. Me and four other friends went this past Saturday and had a great time. For the Antipasti we had the selection of the Pesce appetizers which included the marinated whitefish, salmon which I believe had arugula, calamari with oranges and mint, and octopus with rapini. Each was good, though nothing was really outstanding, with the salmon being the best of the bunch. They were out of the anchovies which FM raved about so my girlfriend who is vegetarian got to pick out the brussels sprouts with the pecorino which was really good. For our entrees we got two pastas, the special bucatini with sausage, onions, and capers, and the gnocchi with ragu, and also the melenzanne pizza which I thought was very, very good. I had to push for it, but my friends let me get the egg on top of it which I recommend for any pizza. We had a bottle of Vermentino "La Cala" from the Sella & Mosca producers, which is one of my favorite bottles just because it goes so well with food. It's light, with nice touches of minerals. For dessert we had the Dolce Latte Cake which was very nice, but I preferred the Dark Chocolate Torte with Cherries because it tasted like a denser version of a Black Forest Cake (not the traditional kind with the buttercream, the kind you can get in Chinatown) I really did not experience that in my two visits to DV. Both the times we had exceptional service with the waiter being able to explain in length what was to be served. They even went as far to explain why the pizza wasn't cut and why the pesce was served at room temperature to my friends, which I thought was a nice touch. I found both that I've had to be pretty professional, but I guess sometimes it's just the luck of the draw. Maybe next time you'll get someone better, hopefully you do because the food really warrants it.

No chance. The very concept of a pan-Mediterranean restaurant is deeply flawed. And as much as I think Asti is second-rate, I find Fino even worse. One nice thing I'll say about the Foxes' restaurants is that the graphic design used for Asti and Fino are terrific. Really hip, colorful, clean. I say go just to check out their menu covers -- if that sort of thing excites you. ← Have you had the lardo pizza at vespaio enoteca, if so, how was it? I was seriously considering that on my last visit, but because of the people around me, ended up with the proscuitto pizza with a fried egg on top, which was pretty damn good. Better than the version here in Houston at Dolce Vita (no, not a gelato place.) Most everything I had that night was pretty good, but I was really intrigued with the lardo pizza, and I haven't had the chance to get back to Austin to try it.

just to note, I believe the Houston one also closed a while back. Guess the swing wasn't enough to bring in the customers.

Interesting. He was my fellow (sorta like a TA) in one of the restaurants when I was working the restaurants at CIA. All I can remember was that he was always really intense sounding. That and he didn't have the hair back then.

Hi Mr. Bottisn. I'm sad I didn't make it to your restaurant when I was in Chicago last. So many other chefs highly commended it. At the risk of drawing attention to something that's nothing (or will get you in trouble - which I highly doubt), I'm curious to know how the sale and use of "raw milk" - if I'm not mistaken, is unpasteurized milk - is legal? I assume that the ice cream is a traditional custard, so it has to be heated anyway. Thanks u.e. ← It's only illegal if you get caught. But yeah, you're not supposed to be able to buy or sell unpasteurized milk which is also why many of our good cheese here are so different (and I would say not as good) as a lot of the cheeses from Europe. I've used it previously in a restaurant and even uncooked, the probablity of someone getting sick off of it is pretty low. The use of it is so nice though, unlike any milk you'll ever get because of it's creamier texture and also because you can actually almost taste the terroir of the animal it came from from the milk. Great looking preparation though, I needa get back to Chicago.

I agree, but the dumpling soup (which is actually dumplings in soup) there isn't the same as soup dumplings that I believe dangerpirate is referring to which is actually dumplings with meat and soup in them not unlike and more rustic version of grant achatz's black truffle explosion. haha. Watch out there, though, there's been two robberies in that complex over the last month and car hijacking at hong kong 4 market. The whole community up around there I've heard is getting really nervous.

Well to tell you the truth, there isn't really a great place in Houston that has it. Either the inside isn't soupy or the skin is really tough. Some places that have it though are North China which has an okay version. That's on Kingsride near Memorial City Mall. Or Lai Lai's on Bellaire in the Diho complex.