Kevin72

So I watched the French Laundry episode and it was amazing how de rigeur alot of aspects of that meal have become in the 7 years since it aired. Many of the things they were in awe over are everywhere now . . . salmon "chops", witty reimaginings of traditional dishes or sentimental favorites (coffe and donuts). There was one point where they were all crowding around to look at the artisan salts the waiter brought out to them. Now our local gourmet chain here in Dallas has its own salt bar!

I strongly recommend making some room for Stephen Pyles. Our dinner there a couple months ago was one of the very best we've had in DFW in a very long time. Even if you don't do a full dinner, go for a great housemade cocktail and a sample of one of their ceviches. Plus it's also a very unique style and approach to food that you may not see elsewhere. I've never had experience with Fearing's food, I think his old haunt the Mansion on Turtle creek has done and exceptional job of crafting a new identity for themselves after he left. The service is the best I've ever experienced (though I haven't had a depth of experience with 4 star places) anywhere. The food is maybe a pace behind service if you order from the menu though there seems to be a noticeable jump in offerings if you do one of their chef's tastings. It is steep, however. They have a bar menu as well that offers different choices from the restaurant (foie gras sliders?!) so that might be a nice candidate for lunch and then a leisurely afternoon on their patio. ETA: I'd lock up Tasting Room reservations pretty quick. And I'm sure they'd be happy to sub in salumi at your request for one of the apps, or charge a supplemental or whatever. But they are so proud of their salumi I have a hard time believing you won't encounter it at some point in your meal. In fact I've done tasting room once and the main dining room twice and all three meals had a salumi component in one course or another. Sorry, UE, I know this didn't help your scheduling much to throw those curveballs in there. ETA2: And I just remembered you don't drink, do you? Apologies.

Total speculation but I suspect that's all been "coached" by an FTV handler. They've dissected Rachel Ray's tics and secrets and mold their other stars after her. But I think and hope it will eventually become more natural for her.

She's definitely of a different breed than the FTV stars lately. Some rough delivery but I think she'll calm down nicely and get used to things. I'll keep watching. I was about to get all uptight about the deviations from traditional Ragu Bolognese, but then decided it's been so long since FTV had someone on talking about taking the time to caramelize and build flavor and to even take the full four hours to make a sauce . . .

Crud. So you don't think it'd work even if I used the inner nut?

I saw a version on the Cucina Italia cooking show on PBS a few years back. I don't remember tomatoes being in their version, but loads of garlic seems to be a commonality. Also their version had anchovies as well. I wonder if this is one of those dishes that's much more popular among Sicilian immigrants in the US than it is back in the native country. Also I suspect it's evolved into its own thing on these shores.

I found these at my local Asian market recently and bought some. My thinking is to try to make a flavored liquor out of them: is that traditional? I know the Italians make a walnut liquor from green walnuts; would the same principle apply to almonds? And do you use the whole thing or just the inner pod?

Well, yes, I know that they're used extensively elsewhere, and I certainly wouldn't have batted an eye if Batali used them. But it just seemed weird and random that both contestants did it.

I guess FN's "identity crisis" is yielding some good stuff: Iron Chef America's really come into its own, Jamie Oliver's cooking on Saturdays is the best cooking show I've come across in years. This show sounds very promising. But, ah, if they're willing to give Mario Batali's sous chef a turn at a cooking show, why not give a show back to the man himself again?

I want to know how it is both came up with the idea to do pork cheeks for a dish. Such a random ingredient. Or is that a new hip cut of meat that the kids these days are digging on?

They may be at the CM deli counter itself; our CM used to have them in the olive section and then moved them to the deli case.

The whole episode seemed rushed and anticlimatic. I don't understand the pacing this year; they rushed it along without a reunion, didn't give a long finale, etc. Which is too bad because I thought that they really improved the scale and progression of challenges: last year they were still futzing around with that ridiculous airline challenge in the Top 5. Also, I didn't like how they set up this year's final challenge. There seemed to be many more restictions on them than the previous season finales I've seen. As I recall in other years you pretty much had a table of food laid out for you and then you chose how many courses, whether or not to make dessert, etc. Good Lord, is Richard okay? He looked clinically depressed throughout the whole episode. In fact, despite his win last week, he wasn't really himself for these last two episodes. I guess maybe he got distracted (understandably so) with the baby and new restaurant in Atlanta and didn't get the time and space to focus on where he was going. So that tempered Stephanie's win a little. I'm thrilled she made it all the way, but I would have liked to have seen Richard make it a little closer with her. I never would've thought he'd be the one who wound up like Casey last year. I think they edited Lisa's comments. It seemed like during the meal she got docked alot more than she did at the Judges' Table.

You'll find a few "stuffed clam" type recipes here and there that have pecorino in the stuffing. But for most pasta recipes that have shellfish, you won't have grating chesses as pointed out above, with parmigiano in particular being a real no-no.

Feast is rapidly climbing up my "I have to find a way to get here" list for next time I'm in Houston. I was reading the FoodinHouston blog and he's devoted two entries to it so far. From everything I'm reading it certainly sounds worth a 2nd chance. Hope they make it.

I loved Antonia's little goodbye mutter to Steph when they hugged: "Kick. Their. Ass!". Antonia being eliminated does make who to root for a little easier. Now I'll just be wishy-washy over two instead of all three.

If I were a regular judge there's just no way, rules or not, that I wouldn't take into consideration the totality of Lisa's performance vs. Antonia's. One of Lisa's many running criticisms all season has been that her flavors are out of whack: "too bland" "too sweet" "too salty" . . . knowing that and knowing next week's the big show, who would you most want to see cook their fantasy meal? Lisa who's been on the chopping block for 50% of the season, or Antonia who had an off night but has consistently wowed the latter half of the season? I just don't see how that can't creep into their consciousness at some point and bias decisions one way or another. I can understand spectacular screw ups sending a normally star performer home (Tre ), but according to Tom they both gave B+ dishes, so SOMEthing has to break that tie. Tony's write up on the Dale controversy a few weeks ago made the point of the value of guest judges, who can judge based only on that night with no idea of what previous performance has been. But then wouldn't that make a better case for the established judges who can offer that other part of the picture? But yeah, it's only TV . . . Anyways, they sure seem to be downplaying the finale next week(?). Again, no clip show to make us wait a week? Is it live? Or do they pull a fast one and bring it down to two competitors this year?

From my limited observations when we were there, this approach is actually more the norm, or at least it is during the week. We were the turiste doing the full sweep (antipasti, primi, secondi, contorni, dolce) while the locals would get soup or pasta and then fruit for dessert. Trastevere is such a wonderland of trattorie serving good, honest, straightforward food that it may be better to just lock in one or two "must haves" and then wing it the other nights. Most place post a menu and just go in where it looks good.

See, I hated Fiumicino when we were there. Cab drivers refused to take us into the town since they wanted the more lucrative Rome fares. Then the one who did "got lost" and drove us in circles around town until dropping us off at our hotel which was literally in visible distance of the airport. So I wouldn't risk it and fill up instead maybe in Rome before hitting the airport.

I was thinking he should've put finger quotes around everything he was saying when he was talking about it. Hmmm, yeah Jamie, you just happened to find this thing just yesterday and decided to try it on camera for the first time . . . Cool contraption though.

How funny. I just made some a week ago also.

It's a gamble for sure, but it worked out great for Antonia. She was just emerging from the pack and now she's firmly in the top three. I love, love, love Stephanie. She is killer cute and very professional at the same time. ← But it's a lot of gamble for very little gain. Antonia didn't win the Big Daddy prize after all (was she team lead?). As I've read elsewhere, Dale should've let Lisa take the lead role if they were both butting heads about it and then let her go down in flames. He knew he was on a scrub team, so why not get out of the way and just be a grunt. Agree on Steph! It would just kill me if she (or even Richard or Antonia) gets cut with Spike and Lisa still around.

Definitely missing Tony's blogging after last night. More random observations: Ever naive, I started worrying about Team Antonia doing a "gastropub" since Tony's so down on the concept. Steph doesn't even need to win the grand prize now. Her prize last night was pretty sweet on its own. Why oh why would you want to be calling the shots on restaurant wars? If you're team lead there's basically a 50% shot of you going home. I'd rather have seen Lisa sent packing (when's the last time she WASN'T on the bottom?), but after the Tre Incident last season it made sense for Dale to go. Better still, they should have sent the whole losing team home and saved the budget. Then for next week's ep, the final three just go eat at Alinea. Also, I think that they need to do a Quickfire of Who Can Sleep In the Latest next. This is what, their third or fourth sleep deprived day after Wedding Wars? I read this elsewhere, but this seems to have been the best executed Restaurant Wars episode: usually they're disastrous for both teams. Previews make it seem like next week is one of those infamous "nobody wins" episodes. Finally, a compliment to Bravo: last season's top chef couldn't seem to go three episodes without having to do a retrospective or a clip show. Have they even done one this season?

Caught the soups episode. It sure feels good having her on TV again; I didn't realize how much I'd missed her. She's such a good, down-to-earth teacher.

My Stephanie crush makes me want her to win still, but I think it's become more clear lately that Richard has the natural leadership and confidence that Stephanie lacks. When in team formats Richard rises to the lead every time and it's unquestioned. Stephanie soldiers through and lets someone else handle the politics. She certainly not as averse to it in the way Nikki is, but I think that ultimately that's what could feasibly give Richard the win over her.

Certainly Team Groom suffered from a lack of leadership, and SOME one should have stepped up when it became clear that Niki was running from that duty. Spike actually made a pretty astute observation, though that even removing Niki's expertise from the situation, she was the best fit to lead since Lisa and Dale never would've let the other lead and he seemed to put himself in that lot as well. I think the judges were right to point out that in that situation Niki was probably the best suited one to do it, however. She leant none of her supposed expertise to the team and showed poor judgment in what was offered, and apparently her ravioli sucked to boot. So, they surprise them with a restaurant wars after all later on? Kinda lame. I always hate when they pull a fast one on them like that. One good thing about this season is that there have been no season retrosespective eps so far. It seems like in season three they couldn't go more than three eps without one of those.