Chris Amirault

Hmmm.... Now that you mention it, I've definitely noticed a drop-off in the quality of their pork bellies the last few years.

So many interesting things going on in this article: beef vs. pork; "founder's syndrome" (seen that plenty of times); etc. I'm interested in this brand question. This was a compelling quote from the article: I think that this balance of profit and brand expansion is behind the answer to the question Chris posed above: Thanks to that quality-first, profit-second approach that doomed Niman himself, Niman Ranch became that most prized of business objects, a gold-standard brand, and this during the "death of brands" era. The article suggests that new management are fiddling with the same profitability/brand balance that Niman himself couldn't negotiate, if in an inverse relation: instead of how high can quality go before profitability destroys the business, they're seeing how low they can bring the quality down before consumers say enough is enough. (As you can see, I agree that you can't wave a wand and gain $17K in profits per month without affecting the proteins.) Back to beef vs. pork. I learned a bit about the current state of quality beef last fall at the Food TV NYC Food & Wine Festival, and at that event everyone spoke in glowing tones about Bill Niman (and Orville Schell, his original partner). However, I also learned that one of the ways that pork and beef differ is that cattle are much more susceptible to infectious disease than many other animals, especially in CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations); 70% of all antibiotics used in the US to treat animals like us get pumped into beef cattle. That makes me want to know what these anti-microbials are all about....

Just wanted to give a shout-out to good ol' 1:1 simple syrup. I usually have simple, demerara, ginger, lavender honey, and cane syrups in the fridge, but I let the simple run out the other day and decided to see if I could sub in one of the others. For obvious reasons, the flavored syrups are temperamental, but I was surprised at how inappropriate the demerara and cane syrups were no matter what else I tried. I know that this is obvious to many on this topic, but it seemed worth saying that simple ain't so simple. It delivers a clean, round sweetness that you just don't find in other stuff and it's the perfect compliment to lots of drinks that are ruined without it.

The joke was that calling Alinea a fad restaurant is like calling Colicchio a steak-house king. Jeez.

The day that Colicchio's restaurants become BYOB and start serving food on unfolded newspaper with plastic forks, I'll believe that he really thinks that you "don't need anything else."

I've seen it and find it baffling. I'm no longer prone to criticize chefs who grab the brass ring as "selling out," but the crack at Alinea seems misplaced. Most Diet Coke drinkers wouldn't know Alinea from Craft, and they certainly wouldn't recognize the shrimp nest doohickies as a reference to Alinea's tableware. Rest assured that taste is a critical element of the Alinea experience -- which doesn't include tableside flambé. What market share are they going for here -- and is it worth coming off as a snide jerk for dissing one of the best restaurants in the U.S.? As for Alinea being a "fad restaurant" (which I'd argue it most certainly is not), methinks steak-house king Colicchio lives in a glass house. And speaking of fads, last time I checked, Colicchio, not Achatz, was the TV reality judge. Getting into a smackdown with Achatz about taste seems like a dicey proposition for him...

Sam, in that one minute did you heat the broth or just liquefy it?

I think that the psychological effects are going to be very interesting. When I looked at my pantry and freezer, I realized that I have a "back of the X" problem: stuff migrates to the back and then I basically forget about until it's got freezer burn or has expired by a few years. When I get started, I think I'm going to invert the typical order and see what I can make with those out-of-the-rotation back benchers.

Fair enough -- though I haven't seen anything from anyone that makes me think they're brilliant chefs either.

They had serious limitations: warm ice, the need to bottle everything beforehand, lousy plastic cups. But clearly no one knew anything about the storied history of New Orleans cocktails, or about balance (as daisy17 said), or about aromatic garnishes as simple as twists.

I'm basing them on the chefs' descriptions of their drinks, the ingredients, and the utter incompatibility of those things with the foods they prepared.

Agreed. Why would Fabio want a sweet drink with his maque choux or pasta? And don't get me started on cucumber mojitos with Jeff's food....

Say (much) more! What's the general menu design? Price points? Staff experience? And what do you want to do with it?

I just went downstairs to see what we have in the pantry and freezer, and I'm feeling Atkins, I must say. However, the entire family -- wife, 11-year-old, 4-year-old -- are all game for the challenge. We're having a dinner party Sunday night, and that's the end, or the beginning, depending on your perspective. I've already started thinking about breads....

I'm rewatching the episode with my daughter, and I have to say that the cocktails appear to be dump-on-the-floor wretched, and not just Carla's "cocktail." It really shows that recent, fundamental innovations in mixology, not to mention classic principles, are still foreign to chefs that know about sous vide, hydrocolloids, and foams.

All right, I'm in. Kicking and screaming, but I'm game to try it. I confess that I've already started thinking about whether I can justify the need for citrus fruit to address my scurvy problem. The fact that most citrus in the house makes its way into my evening cocktail is coincidental. I need some clarification regarding rules flexibility. We're talking about not having that one big shop for the main meals and sides, yes? With two kids and an adult addicted to morning cappuccino, it's impossible for my house to operate without 2% milk, for example, and I'm not going to do without dishwasher detergent if we run out. But I'm willing to promise not to buy any proteins, produce, or prepared foods for the week. That pass muster?

Very good white grapefruit from Florida in the stores here right now, so I've been using them for cocktails. Tonight I broke out the Carson City Cocktail I mentioned above, but with darker rums, which made for a tastier play with the big yellows: 1 amber rum (Cruzan) 1/2 blackstrap rum (Cruzan) 3/4 white grapefruit 3/4 lime 1/2 1:1 demerara syrup (adjust after tasting if needed) 1 hefty dash Angostura bitters

As far as I'm concerned, any tale that solves the egg temperature dilemma with the easy to remember query, "Who needs an armpit when you've got two pricks?" is a big sensation. Speaking of which, wouldn't "My Generation" make the egg cook more quickly? I seem to remember something about the heat of the devil's beat from seventh-grade Civics class.

As soon as I saw the word "wok" in Jason's post, I realized how often I use mine (and thus would need gas or a dedicated wok burner). Jason, which Blue model do you have? The RBCT304BSS? Steven, do you have any particular rangetop models that you'd recommend these days? Know anything about the BlueStar RGTNB304BSS?

Any updates on Bisbee? Sierra Vista? The nearby area?

Bumping this up in preparation for a trip in March. Janos: check. Cafe Poca Cosa: check. El Guero Canelo, which no one has mentioned here yet: check. (Click here for a quick post about that hot dog mecca.) What else can't be missed?

It's a porky book, to be sure, and nearly all of the curing is with red meat (including hog). There are poultry and fish recipes in there as well, but mostly for fresh sausages, smoking, and the like.

Half a decade ago, give or take, there were a few discussions about rangetops and cooktops in eG Forums, one of which included this statement: There's a possibility that I will be researching cooktops and rangetops in the coming months, and I'm hoping that the last few years have brought us advances that allow a serious home cook the ability to install something that does the job and doesn't require four mortgage payments. Anyone out there have experience with newer rangetops and cooktops? Gas, electric, induction... you name it.

Our own Alan McClure and his Patric Chocolates got a mention in the February issue of Food and Wine Magazine as one of five "New American chocolate companies ... creating exceptional small-batch bars." Nice job, Alan!

What's your transportation situation?