Chris Amirault

You keep using the word "abuse," yet as someone who works at a restaurant, I can think of many reasons why a restaurant would be unable to honor a reservation. Sure, better that such failures not occur. But why abuse, which suggests intentional, malicious action? I still wanna eat there.

Sure there's a reason. The food is straight-up killer.

Nope. Just sent in the original item with the pock marks and kept the lid thinking that they wouldn't replace that, too. For the cost of postage and whatever electricity an email uses, I got the replacement without a warranty, receipt... nothing.

Found a good use for this Redemption rye: a Scofflaw. 1 1/2 oz Redemption rye 1 1/2 oz M&R extra dry vermouth 1/2 oz lemon dash grenadine (homemade) dash orange bitters (half Regan's, half Fee's) Shake; strain; fat lemon twist. The lightness of the vermouth and the flicks of flavor from the bitters and grenadine are a good foil for the Redemption. I'm not sure I'll buy bottle #2, but at least this is a workable use for the stuff. ETA: Dave the Cook just asked about this version, and I realized my receipt is from Paul Harrington's essential Cocktail: The Drinks Bible for the 21st Century. Checking Gary Regan's Joy of Mixology, I see a tweak that might redeem the Redemption further: 2 oz rye 1 oz dry vermouth 1/2 oz lemon 1/4 oz grenadine "orange bitters to taste"

Here's Nathan's response to a similar question in 2008, and Douglas's post from 2010 on the subject. You can find both entries and more in the food safety post in the index to the original SV topic here.

I squirted about 2 T of each ketchup into small glass bowls that I had labeled "He" or "Hu," while they were more or less blocked from view. Then I shuffled them around and couldn't remember which was which when I opened my eyes. The color of A was a brighter red than B, which looked more caramelized. The texture of A was slightly thinner; B was more gelatinous. A smelled more like a freshly cut, ripe tomato to me. B smelled like ketchup -- the first clue I had to my guess as to which was the iconic Heinz. The flavors of A and B mirrored these impressions. I ate a bit of each alone and a bit of each with a few Kettle Salt & Pepper Krinkle Cut chips. A was tarter and cleaner; there were few spice (clove, allspice, ...?) notes, just bright tomato. B was less tart and more spice, more tomato paste, and a definite, lingering trail of umami. B tasted like Ur-ketchup. And so it was: Heinz. A was Hunt's. Just to confirm that I wasn't loving all ketchup equally, I squeezed out a bit of Muir Glen organic ketchup, which was mealy, unbalanced, and lousy. Ended up in the trash. So I can't say which one won. Both were great, but quite different. There's no question that the Heinz touched some nostalgic taste center in my brain. Not quite Proust's madeleines, but close enough for our little experiment. Anyone else finally procure the duo?

Thanks. I've started trying to get through at Schwa. Oh, and I meant the Paris Club. Didn't know the name. Keep us posted on what's going on there.

What are the books like? I don't have any of them and I can't imagine how his personality translates to cookbook pages.

We pretty clearly debunked that concept a while ago. Is there more, and new, evidence to the contrary?

We complain a fair amount -- ok, perhaps an unfair amount -- when companies misstep, misinform, or otherwise screw up. I wanted to start a topic where we could give credit where credit is due. I'll start. Thanks, Le Creuset, for replacing the war-horse 9 qt dutch oven I had for twenty years when it busted the enamel in two spots a few months ago. No muss, no fuss, and I got the new behemoth just before the holiday cooking onslaught. Yep: they just gave me a new $400 one, lid and all. Same color, too. Surely you have a company you'd like to thank!

This a bit weird: Yeah, there's a lot of misinformation out there, and logic like this is part of it. The shift from health to taste is specious, and the claim that all salt tastes the same is just flat-out wrong.

Those of us in the united states are comparing the base products that are linked in the first post. I suppose it's quite likely that the products are different in other countries, But learning from that comparison would be helpful too. My results when I get to my computer. Posted from my handheld using the Tapatalk app. Want to use eG Forums on your iPhone, Android or Blackberry? Get started at http://egullet.org/tapatalk

Any updates here? We'll be there with friends in March and are looking for weekend meals. Interested to know if anyone has updates on the Joho joint or Schwa reservations. TIA.

Most of the stuff I see in my books seems sickly sweet: lots of cream, egg white, Maraschino, who knows what. At work, though, it's the new St. Germain; a few drops, prosecco over the top, lemon twist, and Bob's your uncle.

I dunno. Seems like a Ward Eight riff. Found out that RI is getting Ransom Old Tom gin last night, so to celebrate I made an Old Fashioned variation that is very tasty: 2 oz Ransom 1/2 oz smoked pineapple syrup 2 dashes Boker's bitters Stir; strain; lemon twist. Very tasty. This smoked pineapple syrup is a keeper....

Examples. Breaking down a chicken in 18 seconds (go to 1:40): Variety of knife skills:

I'll join the thanks. Behind the goofball bluster, he was a remarkable technician. I remember the first time I saw him wield his cleaver -- not doing that rhythm section shtick he sometimes did, but whacking garlic, julienning carrots, expert stuff. What with all the sloppy knife work on TV now, even from otherwise excellent chefs, that admirable technique sticks in my brain.

I do want to get you started! Who'd the ex give 'em to? Why?

A few months ago, Omaha Steaks opened a retail store near my house. I stopped in today and was unable to figure out what was going on in there. The place couldn't have felt less like a butcher shop. Everything is frozen, packaged, and sitting in carboard boxes in large glass-door freezers. If they're going for antiseptic banal, they nailed it. It took me a while to find the steaks themselves. As it turns out, Omaha Steaks offers a wide range of other products, from brats to sweet potato fries, from crème brulée to pet treats. The steaks were in the back of the store, next to high end TV dinners. And when I say "high end," I'm referring to the price. Four servings of crème brulée retail at $38; Fido's 3 ounces of steak scraps cost $9. Everything is jaw-droppingly expensive. Which brings us to the meat itself. In the same price range as top-shelf places like DeBragga & Spitler and Lobel's, both of whom ship their aged meat fresh, Omaha features frozen meat that's been aged for who knows how long. However, it is described like a vintage Rolls: "Elegant. Impressive. Unforgettable." So is it? Has anyone tried this stuff lately? What do you make of the entire Omaha shtick?

I am definitely going to bring my Sous Vide Supreme. Posted from my handheld using the Tapatalk app. Want to use eG Forums on your iPhone, Android or Blackberry? Get started at http://egullet.org/tapatalk

New cocktail workshop scheduled for Sunday, February 13, loosely linked to Valentine's Day. "Cocktails For Lovers" the working title. More soon!

I've got a few newbie questions for the HG vets. 1. I'm driving and will happily bring cooking equipment that people are interested in using or checking out. You can see quite a bit of it here in the foodblog, but I've got other stuff like a meat grinder, KA pasta roller attachments, ice crusher, and more. If listing stuff here would help, I'll do that. 2. If there's time and interest, I'd be very happy to do a cocktail workshop. The logistics are pretty easy if everyone interested brings shaker and strainer, and we could figure out the shape of the workshop here in the topic. I could also make some tinctures, bitters, and syrups for folks to try out. 3. If anyone lives on the Providence to Cleveland route (probably I-80, possibly I-90) and wants a ride, let me know. Ditto if you can get to Providence easily.

It's sort of like blanching: once you get into the habit of SVing root vegetables, icing them down, and then doing whatever you usually do, you get hooked, since it's so easy to do them well.

Steamed, not usually. But fried, I'll eat the whole thing, including head and tail. Only one in the family who does this, so I usually get a pile of extra tails.

We've been having a discussion of drink costs at the restaurant where I work, and we've had to find a middle ground. Our drink menu generates from a variety of sources, including "bartender's choice" and experiments with new ingredients served to regulars interested in cocktails. On a busy night, that's part of what keeps regulars coming: even when we're crushed we will take time to share something new. Trying to cost out those drinks to the penny on the fly, however, is a major pita. At one point, a manager added to the (unbelievably idiotic and slow) POS system every spirit, liqueur, etc. at a variety of measures, from 1/4 oz to 2 oz. As you can imagine, this didn't go over very well with the bartenders, who didn't want to take five minutes to hunt down and enter on the POS (to give an example from last night) 2 oz Redbreast, 1/2 oz Jura Superstition scotch, 1/2 oz Grand Marnier, and 1/4 oz Fernet Branca while figuring out, tasting, talking about and serving the drink itself. So we came up with a compromise that might be useful in your case. We said to the manager, "Look, we commit to estimating costs using your pricing guides for these new drinks as we develop recipes, and we commit to locking into accurate costs when we finalize the recipes and methods in a service setting. But you need to commit to providing us relative flexibility at the development stage, within a certain error percentage and only for a limited time." It affords both accountability, which the manager needs, and flexibility, which you need, and it demonstrates that you're not the knucklehead he had before.