ngatti

Just a couple of farthings worth: My wife and I split a Pizza Margherita at Andiamo's (Haworth?/Demarest?). Both perked up at its arrival and thought it quite good. I compared it to a 'refined' Brooklyn Coal (Hackensack). This was a large (18") pizza very thin crisp crust. Topped with a thin tomato sauce, thinly sliced plum tomatoes and slices of what looked and tasted like freshly pulled mozzarella. Try it for yourselves. I don't know if you'll find it the second coming, but I don't think you'll be disappointed. Nick

A quick cheat choron. Make hollandaise and bung some tomato paste into it. Nick

Fresh sturgeon tastes great. Make a mix of fine breadcrumbs, flour and a hint of Paprika (more for color as it helps the browning). Spanish will do. Dredge and shake off the filets. Sautee the steaks on each side on high heat until golden brown. Finish in a hot oven till cooked through (shoudn't take more than a few minutes at 350 degrees). We used to get fresh sturgeon as staff meal at the Four Seasons quite often. Customers would never order it, but Seppi like to have it on his menu. I find the farm raised 'bullets' that are prevelant today, to be quite acceptable. The meat is very firm with a texture not quite like any fish you may have eaten. I used to dump hollandaise on it. Recent preparations find me putting a variant of that suce (choron or bernaise) on the fish. For me the richness of such a sauce, compliments the steak like texture of the fish. good luck! Nick

Tommy, where'ed you get your new spanglish tag-line? edit: Yo voy a Puneta. Nick

Usually takes about 10 days to 2 weeks, jason. Who knows why? Nick

It's not often that so much good writing gets crammed into such a small space. I found myself able to read deeply. Perhaps cause I've been to Fink's? Perhaps 'cause I know MSP? Anyway, I usually gloss and skim over this weekly piece, this time I read it closely and thought the section much more than it usually is. Nick

Fascinatinger and fascinatinger. The conversation is certainly getting rarified. I never realized that diners approached their meals with such a hair-splitting sense of what was on their plates. Aside from Adria, Blumenthal et al; I didn't think many chefs did either. The discrete model as practiced by the aforementioned is new to me. I and many that I know have usually used more of a heuristic when it comes to matching flavors. Great ingredients and good craft= good food if you will. Even chefs that achieve truly great food (Keller, Ducasse among others), seemed to me to use a more 'touchy feely' model. I had assumed that their culinary greatness lay within their individual and unique talents (taste, 'foodview'), rather than the deconstuction of flavors to the -nth degree. Just an observation; From the Ripert Q&A, I get the feeling that his attitude is also a heuristic. Kind of "I know what to do with this" type of attitude. Carry on...Carry on. Nick

What a great point. Nick

Hank, I believe Claude opened the Ho-Ho-Kus Inn. Now it's run by Marcello Russodavito (Marcello's, Suffern and Ridgewood (?)). I think Claude may have been the Exec at the Four Season's B4 he opened Claude's (NYC). (just an FYI ) The flip side of the coin is that a *good* review can also kill a restaurant (Vienna 79, also Mimi, I think). However you raise an excellent point. How much faith should we put into reviewers? I suppose if the critic 'speaks to you' than you can put some faith. I think it's somewhere in the middle. I like david corcoran's writing, although I differ with him on a couple of fairly substantial restaurants. After being on eGullet and reading several of the people here; I'm going to give a fair amount of weight to their opinions also. Even if they differ from the critics whose opinions I respect. I suppose it depends on the "friends" that are doing the telling. I confess, when a reviewer that I respect, gives a differing opinion than my own; I'm inclined to give a restaurant another try. Nick

bring lots of money. the place can be as expensive as a good manhattan restaurant (but it's byob). If I recall the review, Tommy, I believe that was one of Corcoran's problems with the place. As long as it isn't in the Lespinasse range. Nick

Fat Guy said: Having said this (very true) statement. I think that all agree that cooking as discussed here is fundamentally ingredient driven. I may say that *all* good cooking is fundamentally ingredient driven. I guess to that degree we take off from there. To what extent does a dichotomy between ingedient and technique exist.? Not much IMO. I tend to view it as a bar graph. Ingredients alone will take flavor/dining pleasure so high on the graph. Ingredients + refined and ever more refined technique will extend the bar furthur up the graph. But it all starts with pristine raw materials (well, not always maybe, but it does lend an advantage). Matters of the same (ever more intense degree) rather than conflict driven. Just a coupla pennies. Fascinating read gentleman and ladies! Nick

Perhaps a *truer* flavor, Steve. Although that could be seen as new. Nick

"...it is, above all, necessary to have a sufficient quantity of the finest materials at one's disposal. Every cook knows this, and any master or mistress of a house who stints in this respect forfeits the right to make any remark whatsoever to the Chef concerning his work, for let the talents or merits of the latter be what they may, they are crippled by insufficient or inferior material. It is just as absurd to exact excellent cooking from a Chef whom one provides with defective or scanty goods, as to hope to obtain wine from a bottled dcoction of logwood." A. Escoffier FWIW Nick

Hi Hank, Yeah, a "Good" sounds about right. I recall a not very flattering write up where he ripped the place pretty good. I'll give it atry. cheers Nick

I guess I'll try Zarole (Hank AND Tommy). I've been hesitant since David Corcoran creamed it. Coupla good recs here on the gullet, tho'. Nick

This weeks restaurant criticism from The Record: Bacchus Wine Bar and Chop House by Rene Mack Pasta Pot by Jeffrey Schwarz (Gawd!, I like this guy) Read, Chew, Discuss Nick

Petite Auberge - Cresskill Nick

From another thread regarding truffle oil: "the canned 'new car smell' of high-end cooking." Eric Asimov Nick

I cook a lot of tenderloin and am going to do three for Xmas eve at my house. I clean them pretty thoroughly (for roasting, I leave the chain on[side muscle]). I make a cut towards the tail and tuck it under the roast. I have a habit of tying the things. This keeps the side muscle attached and holds the tail together. It also pulls in the butt so that the entire roast has a quasi-uniform thickness. These I sear and roast on racks in a 325-350 convection oven. About 25 minutes does for my 7-ups, so you may want to tweak down, or for a standard oven, increase the cook time. I pull at about 118-20 and let rest for twenty minutes. Not too much carry-up with these things, maybe 5-8 degrees. Good luck, Hope this helps a little. Nick

Sounds Smokin'!! Red wine lardoons...whoah! Nick

I'm sure it'll be great Varmint. Actually all you need is an oven and a good insta-read. You'll be fine. Season it well though. As an old Navy cook once told me..."It's a big hunk of meat, takes a lot of salt, pepper and garlic to make it taste like anything." Nick

Hey Dave . I just rarely deconstruct the process. These kinds of general instructions drive my wife crazy. 12.7% sounds way large for 4-5 days. Certainly so for a home fridge. Beware that because the humidity in a home fridge may not be regulated that the surface of your meat (the ends)become brown and develop an off odor. I might suggest giving it a loose wrap in butcher or parchment paper. But I can't dispute the figure now. My aging info is at home. Regular dry aged (3-4 weeks) shrinks a lot. Again my figures are at home. Sorry. I'll get back later when I have a little more accurate info. editfor Davethecook : Nick

I don't really subscribe to the "lower is Better" approach. I like the crusty fat that say a 325 or 350 oven gives to the beef. Years ago I saw a banquet chef ruin a lot of expensive meat in an alto-sham, using the long slow method. Time? I've only cooked whole beef ribs (not halves as in this case). They will take (whole ones) about 4-5 hours. We start at 450 for 1/2 hour, reduce to 350 and spin the pans after 2 hours. Start checking with an insta-read after 4 hours. Yank em at 120degrees and let em rest (1/2 hour-45 min). They should carry to at least 130 by serving time. At any rate, that's the target. I'd use the same general instruction for a 1/2 rib just adjust. Maybe follow davethe cook's advice (sounds good to me). Don't cook it as long. Maybe give it a spin and temp check after 90 min. Be careful as meat reaches a tipping point. It takes much less time to get from 110F to 120F than it does from say...80F to 90F. I hate to use the chef's cop out (cook it till it's cooked). But I don't really know cooking times except for the most approximate. Tenderloin(7 up) = 25-30 min at 350 convection for MR. Rack of American lamb = 20-25 min at the same for the same. I arm myself with a well calibrated insta-read thermometer and let'er go. Just some thoughts. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. When it comes to cooking at home I can be quite clueless. Everything is so...different. Nick

Refrigerator aging for 4 or 5 days isn't going to do much per se. Weight loss will be negligible. But it won't hurt. Dave is right. You don't need to brown this particular cut. Rub some butter or Olive oil on the meat. It'll brown fine. Season it, bung it in the oven and cook it. Good Luck and Happy Holidays Nick

TJ's Ribs on Forest Ave in Paramus. (used to be Grimstead's, same owner: Dave Grimstead) Just Alan's in Harrington Park (Now Marcello and Dino's Roman Cafe) Nick