Mimi Sheraton

Of course, Russ, this would not have been posted except for the book. But the book exists and like so many other nonentities striving for fame, at least one of the Psaltis twins realized that to do so, all he had to do was knock the biggest names in the business. I fear for Zakarian, a wonderful guy and an absolutely first-rate chef, for if Country fails, Psaltis may try to make him the fall guy.

I was a judge at that latke contest and almost suffocated from frying fumes and lack of ventilation. I know it is a difficult venue and I have had many meals there -a few very good, most mediocre. Psaltis's was the worst and the flaws were caused more by the chef's conception of the dishes than by the poor facilities at the House. They didn't even read well on the menu and who would put hard, whole chestnuts on a tough, dry, sandy pastry base or leave pumpkin seeds in the pumpkin or serve a savvy food group boneless breast of cheicke even if it is rouge, fermier and from Piedmont, whatever that means in this conext. Tough, dry apple slices in the dessert, a poached egg on shrimp and all of us searching for the cauliflower said to be part of the creation, and let's not forget the deliberately Greek diner appetizers..There's nothing funny or cute about a canape that is a tuna melt..hot canned tuna fish topped with American cheese... more disgusting than funny and so-called latkes that were limp, fluffly fried mashed potatoes..To call those latkes should be to invoke the ire of the Anti-Defamation League. I have spoken to about half-a-dozen others at the dinner, besides those at my table, and have not heard a kind word about that meal. But I will not out them..let them speak for themselves.

Was anyone reading this present at the dinner Psaltis cooked at the Beard House on Tuesday night? It honored Pat Adrian, editor in chief of BMOC's Good Cookbook Club. That means the place was full of food writers, editors, publishers and agents and so, one assumes, the seasoned chef put his best foot forward. That's the horrifying thought. Hate to think what he might have done if he didn't want to impress his audience. It was a completely insipid meal showing no understanding of ingredients and their flavor or textural relationships to each other - almost a DADA cuisine but without the wit or intellect. If it had been prepared by an 8-year-old for Mommy on Mother's Day, it might have been considered cute. But even a 8-year-old would have known enough to remove the unshelled pumpkin seeds from the so-called pumpkin gratin that underlined a totally banal, a dry roasted boneless chicken breast. Would love to hear opinions from anyone else who was there.

I have long thought that Thanksgiving should be a fast day. As it stands now, it is a holiday of gorging to mark a year of gorging - at least for the more fortunate among us. Why not mark it with a 24-hour fast so many of us will come to know what hunger feels like? Not a popular idea with newspapers and magazines, of course what with all that food store and restaurant advertising, but still....

Am I alone in thinking that any day now the public will be fed up with all of the writings, talkings, TV, gossip columns and books dealing with restaurants, food, and the celebrity chefs and their, lives and loves, back-stabbings, goals and philosophies and personality blips? I'd love to know how you all feel about this?

What's to wonder and guess about? Buy and brew both and compare side by side. If there is a difference in flavor, aroma, strength, etc. then it is time to ask what the difference in beans may be and if this is merely a marketing device. My guess would be that the NY roast is a bit lighter than regular. Now you;ve got me wondering.

Psaltis may have something interesting to say, but he obviously chose not to say it so in this book. It is a badly written bore by a churl who has to have a co-author to sound churlish on his behalf. Let's see if his self-lauded talents are apparent at the forthcoming Country. He certainly has invited tough criticism with his book. Wonder whose fault it will be if this one fails...

Steven, I have to give you a standing ovation for that comment. In fact, I think it is one of the most important things happening here at eGullet, where there is serious discourse as well as light-hearted exploration. This forum is a celebration of the culinary mind -- long may it prosper, because it just may be the ideal foundation from which to effect change over the long-term. ← I give no points for taking risks. Only for good results. Chefs these days want to be judged by their goals, not by their achievments...Their prices say they are playing hardball and therefore so should critics.

I'm seriously trying to find out who did it first..my recollection is that it was late 70s -early 80s and that it was here...I remember reading about it in a review...maybe Claiborne or Gael Greene..sort of nouvelle time...salt was conspicuous by its absence. In such places, when you did ask for salt, you were handed some miserable little tacky salt cellar, maybe even with greasy fingerprints to show the kitchen's contempt...The great master chef, Andre Soltner, told me he regards not having salt on the table as ridiculous...We should mount a salt brigade, diners carrying their own mills just as some people I know carry Tabasco. Ismail Merchant always carried hot crushed chili peppers.

Thing is, Fat Guy, that virtually no two people taste alike - especially salt - something that increases with age. So a dish that needs salt may not be "defective" . I agree diners should taste first but, in the end, whose dinner is it anyway?

Perhaps the cure is to take a big box of Diamond Kosher Salt into such restaurants, put it on the table, then salt away to your palate's contentment.

The balance of poeer shifted when chefs stopped putting salt on the table...Sometime in the late 70s, early 80s. I am trying to find out who the first such poseur was. Time to wrest control by demanding salt. The omission is pretentious.

Thanks Marmish for letting me know I made the big time...

Wholte-wheat doughnuts with powdered sugar at Chock Full O'Nuts and Chow Mein sandwiches on hamburger buns served with frosties, the drink you eat with a spoon, both at Woolworth's

The real, basic question is whether any working food critic or journalist should write a book or be connected in any way with a chef, purveyor, producer or restaurateur, not the issue with Hesser, but certainly with Wells.

To true egullet food lovers longing for something great to read about their favorite subject, I suspect the word is not "hostility" toward Gourmet, but "disappointment."

Perhaps the word is "disappointment", not "hostility"

Could it be about egalitarianism? Beauty is snobbish?

Then glance at Pages 146-147...uninspired plateful of dessert and all those knobby barefeet and bony knees....a long way from yummy, don't you think?

To say nothing of the scorched zucchini, wrinkled tomatoes and what is the white mush on the bottom of the plae? Say it isn't cottage cheese....

One thing in favor of old Gourmet was the gorgeous artwork...No longer. judging by the June issue with a cover photo of charbroiled steak that looks cold, greasy, burnt, acrid with charcoal, altogether woebegone..like something forgotten on the picnic table..ditto the klutzy food shots of San Sebastian story with the really stupid conjecture that the city may have more great chefs per square mile than anywhere..or maybe not.

The only real difference between paczki, jelly doughnuts, sufganyiot and, for that matter, Berliner pfannkuchen, is the name. Maybe there are slight variations in dough and flavors of jam fillings, but that's about all. The best paczki are made in the bakery, A. Bliekle in Warsaw, Poland. Most Lenten special cakes are fried, a throwback, I have been told, to times when cooking fats were saved throughout winter and used up at this season, before fresh ones became available. Maybe that's even true....

[] How about Ono..already existing in NYC and Hawaii...as in "O No! Not that place again."

What I have always wanted to know is, what do they mean by Whole Foods...certainly not whole steers and lambs...whole loaves of bread? Whole grains (unrefined and unpolished) only? Nothing is cxut up? or What?

It has been my great pleasure, and an informative one too..great audience, great support team..I'll be watching and keeping in touch.