ASM NY

In a recent Wired Magazine article, they tested and "picked" the Black and Decker Infrawave Speed Oven. Has anyone had any good/bad experiences with it? I am considering getting one, but competition for my counter space is fierce, and I only want to get it if it's really worth it in terms of quality of results vs a normal gas oven.

Thanks for joining us Chef. I found your comments regarding the importance of planning very interesting. I remember you had mentioned in some article that th PR/launch for Gilt had not been planned properly. Now that you are working on your new project, and hopefully have more time to plan properly, how do you envision your new place compared to Gilt, both in terms of food, service and ambience? (basically elaborate a little bit on how do you plan on positioning your new restaurant so it will be comercially/financially succesful)

Allright, let's go! Chef, will you look at the questions that were posted a couple of days ago or should we re-post now?

Thanks for joining us Chef. I found your comments regarding the importance of planning very interesting. I remember you had mentioned in some article that th PR/launch for Gilt had not been planned properly. Now that you are working on your new project, and hopefully have more time to plan properly, how do you envision your new place compared to Gilt, both in terms of food, service and ambience? Best of luck with your new project. I hope it comes to fruition soon.

I had a similar reaction on my second visit to Per Se. I was fascinated the first time, but not as impressed the second. I got the feeling that even though the food was perfectly executed, it lacked some of the creativity that some of the FL dishes they originally brought over had.

ADNY still there no? Don't see it in the list. Am a little surprised by Devi, as I don't think much of the place. I also see that Sugiyama is still not making the cut.

Making my way down to Santiago for the first time ever in a week. Mercado Central, Astrid & Gaston and Agua are all in the program. Is there any new place that is worth visiting since the last post on this thread?

If I'm not mistaken, I believe Adria mentioned that there are techniques, not necessarily specific chemicals, that can be used to sperify anything - be it basic sperification, reverse spherification, oil spherification, etc. ← He did mention another ingredient, which they started using this year. He demonstrated its use by making mussel spheres in the kitchen, which he said can't be made with the sodium alginate/calcium chloride combo. He mentioned the name of the ingredient, but I really couldn't get it, and when I asked my wife who was listening to the translators, they apparently didn't get it either. Hopefully someone can ask at the upcoming demonstrations that doc mentioned. Otherwise we'll have to wait for the book to come out next year!

can you elaborate on this please, what 'chemical'? ← I can't remember the name, they said it about 4 times, but I was unable to catch it, never heard of it before. I understand that "chemical" might not be the best word to use, as it is not the best word to describe calcium chloride, but that's the only thing that came to mind.

I thought that for the most part, the presentations were very entertaining, although I was somewhat disappointed to see so much use of pre recorded video instead of preparing many of the items there. Many of them were complicated, which made it difficult to really do in either the place or the time allowed. Berasategui, for example, made very interesting dishes in his video, but in the demonstration he prepared this relatively "traditional" dish that seemed based on the cod "pil-pil" which is common in Basque cuisine. With that said, I the highlights for me were: 1) Arzak - in his first preparation he put apple juice in a home cappuccino machine and used the steam produced in the machine (usually used to froth the milk) to cook a shrimp and some vegetables, giving them an apple "flavor" from the steam. Very simple, but very original in my opinion. 2) The Roca Brothers: Their focus was the role that smell places in cuisine. The highlight was in some of their desserts which they name after well known perfumes. They study the essences and their percentages in perfumes, and they construct a dessert based on the ingredients and in the same proportions. And while the food doesn't have any perfume in it (thankfully), the diner is given a strip with the perfume after the dessert and apparently the effect is pretty remarkable. (I know I am not doing the best job at explaining this one). 3) Adria - I thought that the whole sphere thing has been out there for a while now, but it was interesting to see how he explained the process and the new materials they are using. Yes, there is a machine that they are using to "capsulate" things like olive oil, but there is another chemical that can be used to make spheres out of practically anything. The coolest thing was the coconut egg shell (shown only on video). They dunk a spoon in liquid nitrogen and then dunk the back of the spoon into coconut milk. After a little while, they peel it off and it has the shape of half and egg shell, they later remove the water from via freeze drying, and they are left with a brittle shell made entirely of coconut.

I also think that there is a serious lack of good Mexican food in NY. The other two cuisines that I think are very poorly represented in NY are Peruvian and Spanish. But going back to Mexican. For the most part, Mexican food is just seen as a mix of the various regional foods in Mexico. I would love to see one restaurant that was semi-profficient in producing good food from any of the major culinary regions in Mexico (Yucatan, Oaxaca, Regia). I just don't know how profitable it would be, which is why most places will be happy to stick to tacos, tostadas, mole, etc.

I will be there... I know of a good number of guys that will attend. Going back to the Arzak/Adria point. Each chef will be doing demonstrations, so my guess is that they will indeed cook something. More likely they will be describing how some of their dishes are assembled, while their staff puts it together.

That was an awesome post Chinorlz, thx. How difficult is it to score a reservation for the Minibar?

Interesting Jeffrey Steingarten article on sous-vide cooking in October's Vogue. nathanm prominently featured. Mentions nathanm will be coming out with a book on sous-vide soon. Looking forward to it Nathan!

I think that they are very different restaurants, and my choice would be squarely on Tabla. I found the food at Devi to be in some cases "ok" in some cases downright mediocre. I didn't find it particularly creative. I felt that food was well presented, but as far as taste, not much different than an average neighborhood Indian meal. Tabla on the other hand, is not exactly Indian food, but food that is well executed with the use of Indian ingredients. And given that you are looking for something more special occasion, I think that in terms of food, service and decor, Tabla is a better choice hands-down.

September issue of Food Arts has a nice little spread on R4D. How Will gets time to actually make any desserts with so many reporters/photo shoots is a mystery to me... Congrats!

Applebee's is typical food from Chihuahua? Who knew............. ← That is hysterical...

How often are you hosting these dinners? Is the menu different for every one of them? When do we get to see more?

Bryan, First of all, the stuff looks awesome! And while I think that everyone so far has made very good points (all of them in the interest of you not getting into trouble), I think that you should figure out the way to keep pushing forward. I am pretty sure that it's not illegal to have people over for dinner! Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think you are doing this for the money. So if you have people buying the groceries (or at least just covering the cost of the groceries), I think you could argue that it's not a business... I would be very cautious about charging a "fee" or "cover". More importantly, I had some questions for you: How are you going about putting together your "menu" and how much prep time is this taking you (I am assuming you are doing this alone)? What has been the reception so far? Do people like the food? Is NC ready for this type of avant-garde cooking you are so fond of? I wish you the best of luck!

It is very common to steam or boil them, cut them into cubes and throw them into a salad. Similarly they are also had cubed with oil, vinegar and salt. I have seen them pureed and served with fish, but I don't believe that is a traditional preparation.

I agree. I am still wondering if Robuchon can get away with $300 pp tasting menus, it's hard to picture Savoy having that same following.

Thanks for the great report Sneakeater. While it appears many of the a la carte items are the same as the ones I had in Las Vegas, the tasting menu looks completely different, and I imagine, changes more often. With that said, I agree with you that this place is all about the food, not at al pretentious. (BTW: The langoustine fritter at $15 is a steal).

Sneakeater, I am very curious to hear what you had. I have not yet been to L'Atelier here in NY, but I did visit the one in Las Vegas, and from my understanding, the menu is not very different from one place to another. With that said, I found the food at L'Atelier in LV to be very fresh, perfectly executed, and for the most part, pretty good. I did not however find it to be particularly creative or audacious. We ordered a la carte and spent more money there than I have spent in any restaurant in NY. It's very hard to explain, but I was expecting "more" for what we spent, and not necessarily because of the ambience. We loved sitting at the bar, seeing how everything was made, and we chatted with Robuchon and his head chef there. We are not rushing to try the one in NY just yet.

Interestingly, there is an article in September's W Magazine on Liebrandt and Gilt. I can't seem to find the article online, but it basically says that in spite of a very taltented chef, the restaurant is struggling, questioning if people are really ready to embrace this kind of food. Liebrandt blames their PR, no pre-opening, and an unfair review by NY Times' Grimes. I imagine given their lack of success and with Liebrandt gone, the restaurant will be drastically changing its direction.

That blows... was also planning on taking my parents there soon... very curious to find out what happened, as it has only been open for 9 months or so.