Honkman

If you like seafood than Passionfish in Pacific Grove is a very good option. You should give a few more hints for what type of food, price, ambience etc. you are looking for as there are many, many different options at all three locations.

New reality shows/whatever competitions are as interesting and important as

Perfect timing for this thread as I have the same kind of question. I would be also interested to get opinions on Cookshake electric smokers.

For us life is too short not constantly playing around with any dish. Yes, mac and cheese in a classical way is good but why not playing around with it. One interesting variation was duckaroni with duck confit, arugula and small amounts in blue cheese. It's always nice eat the classical version but only using it ? That would be boring. Same with any dish you could imagine.

Full review and photos: Restaurant at Rancho Valencia Resort (San Diego) Several years ago when we were planning to get married in San Diego we were searching for a good location for the reception dinner with our families coming from Germany. We were looking for a quiet place with very good food and a certain “California” feel. We had compiled a list of several places which looked promising and as part of our “survey” of all these places we also decided to visit the different restaurants to get a general feeling of the quality of the food and the capabilities of the kitchens. One of the possible locations was the Rancho Valencia Resort. The resort is situated in a beautiful part of Rancho Santa Fe and has a relaxed feeling and was overall close to something we were looking for. Unfortunately when we visited the Restaurant at Rancho Valencia Resort the experience and food was very underwhelming and perhaps one of the most overpriced dinners we yet had in San Diego. Obviously we decided to have our reception somewhere else and tried to forget about our restaurant experience. Fast-forward several years to 2011 – you always hear that a new chef can have a tremendous effect on the quality of a restaurant kitchen but that didn’t originally impress us when we heard that the Restaurant at Rancho Valencia Resort had hired Chef Eric Bauer as new executive chef. But over the last few weeks we read on several occasions very encouraging reports that he had completely overhauled the menu and really stepped up game to bring the quality of the kitchen to something you would expect for such a well respected resort. Chef Bauer was born in Chicago and finished his culinary training in 2000 at the School of Culinary Arts at Kendall College in Chicago before he started working at the city’s Ritz-Carlton. He then joined the Four Season hotel chain and worked at different locations, including Carlsbad, Westlake Village and Costa Rica moving up the ranks. He left the hotel chain in 2007 for his first executive chef position as opening chef at the Morel French Steakhouse in Las Vegas. In May 2009 he moved to San Diego to become chef at Anthology were he stayed for a year before finding his current position. Executive Chef Bauer works together at the kitchen with Chef de Cuisine Aaron Martinez. Chef Martinez completed his culinary education in 2003 at the Arizona Culinary Institute in Scottsdale, worked as sous chef at the Addison in San Diego, at In de Wulf in Belgium and staged at famous Martin Berasategui in San Sebastian before coming to Rancho Valencia last year. All these indicators of significant changes at the Restaurant at Rancho Valencia Resort gave us hope that it might be worth changing our mind and giving it a second chance. As usual, a tasting menu would give us the best chance to really experience a “new” restaurant and kitchen team by giving them all creative freedom. Together with a few other San Diego foodies we contacted the restaurant and found out that even though there is currently no tasting menu on the official menu they are willing to create one for everybody who is interested, and so we finally settled on an 11-course tasting menu at Restaurant at Rancho Valencia Resort. After a few cocktails outside on the patio we went into the rustic and old looking but still comfortable dinner room to be greeted by some snacks to start the night. Snack 1: Cheese & Crackers An interesting mix of a cheese cracker and krupuk – dehydrated cheese wafers with a consistency of krupuk but the taste of a mild cheese cracker. Snack 2: Chicken skin, fava beans, herbs What again looked like a regular cracker was compressed chicken skin which had an addictive salty flavor and was supported by the earthiness of the fava bean puree. Really outstanding finger food and we could have easily eaten a large bowl of such “crackers” Amuse Bouche: Veggies We recently have seen in several upscale restaurants in San Diego very interesting takes on some of the best ingredients one can get in this city – fresh produce - and this amuse bouche was no exception. Showcasing the pure and fresh taste of vegetables as romesco, peas, broccoli, cauliflower and adding a surprising twists with some lettuce granite. A good palate cleanser which also set the right tone for the tasting menu – clean, natural flavors accentuated by unexpected, modern twists. The bread service showed a wide variety of different breads but most of them lacking the quality of really good bread, often too soft and more reminding us of sandwich bread. This was particular disappointing as the bread was accompanied by outstanding ramp and horseradish butter which would have deserved better bread. 1st Course: Cucumber, mackerel, verbena, borage A very popular dish in the northern part of Germany is Soused Herring, and this dish with its strong, oily flavor of the mackerel reminded us of it. The cucumber sauce and the borage with its cucumber-like flavor added some freshness, and together with the slight bitterness of the verbena helped to balance the richness of the mackerel. A very strong dish and it was good to see that the kitchen didn’t shy away to use bold flavors. 2nd Course: Carrots & radish, flowers, herb infusion The roasted carrots and radishes had a very good balance between the “grilled” flavor and the inherent sweetness of vegetables at their peak of ripeness. But what really put the dish together was the use of ham flavored foam. Foam is often seen as a useless gimmick but here it was cleverly used to bring some saltiness and additional layers of flavors to the dish. 3rd Course: Coriander, RV escargot, seaweed, zucchini Escargots are one of these ingredients one unfortunately doesn’t see often on a menu and if they are part of it they tend to be rubbery because they came out of a can or are completely covered in garlic flavor. These fresh local snails actually showed nicely the natural flavor of escargots and were perfectly cooked. Unfortunately the kitchen tried to add too many other different flavors to the dish with the seaweed, coriander flowers etc. which didn’t cover the flavor of the snails but tried to pull the whole dish in many different directions so that it appeared unfocused. 4th Course: Potato, lovage, peas, marrow This seemingly simple dish of potatoes turned out to be another highlight of the tasting menu. Perfectly roasted young potatoes with some pieces of fried potato skin highlighted the simple but satisfying taste of a potato. Potatoes are often eaten together with butter which was here substituted by bone marrow crème. Lovage is in Germany also known as “Maggi” spice as it has a similar flavor profile and added some depth to this dish with its umami-like flavor. 5th Course: Halibut, mussel, salsify Perfectly cooked halibut had a mild taste but the “sea” flavor was accentuated by the slightly smoked mussels. The salsify and the pickled shallots added some freshness to this simple but satisfying dish. 6th Course: Veal tongue, asparagus, rocket, mustard It was a good idea to serve green and white asparagus next to each other – both tender with the white having a mellower and less bitter taste. The perfectly cooked veal tongue was classically accompanied by some mustard and the rocket brought a second, different level of spicyness to the dish. A well composed dish even though the tongue could have been cut thicker as the subtle flavor was nearly covered by the other ingredients. 7th Course: Foie gras, red onion, beet, eel mousse, sorrel Foie gras is normally either served with savory or sweet fixings but this dish went into both directions. Both the red onion and the beets are normally savory components but by their preparation showed also some sweetness. The eel flavor of the mousse was hardly noticeable and didn’t add anything to the dish. Chef Bauer seemed to incorporate too many different ideas in this dish without any of them really thought through and so the dish appeared aimless and was perhaps the weakest of the night. 8th Course: Morels, ramps, lamb, barley Lamb in restaurants is often unfortunately served in such a way that its characteristic slight gaminess which makes it unique isn’t too pronounced as chefs seem to fear it would otherwise not be ordered by guests. So it was refreshing to see that this tasting menu included not the ubiquitous lamb rack or filet but lamb neck which especially if not all fat is cut away like it was the case here has a wonderful “natural” lamb flavor. This rather rustic cut of lamb was fittingly served with barley ramp risotto and morels to underline bold flavor - One of the highlights of the night. 9th Course: Apple foam, celery We had recently several examples of palate cleansers which use combinations of vegetables and fruits and this was another successful one – Refreshing celery granite was well balanced with some slightly tart apple foam. 10th Course: Fennel meringues, chocolate, licorice The strong licorice flavor of the ice cream and the related anise flavor of the fennel meringues were successfully balanced by the chocolate ganache. This was a nice example of a chef taking some risks by using strong and unusual flavors like licorice and at the same time counterbalancing them enough so that they are subdued enough to not overshadow the dish but still clearly noticeable. These kind of dishes are a prime examples why we prefer tasting menus in restaurants to give chefs the possibility to successfully experiment with dishes they can’t serve a la carte – very strong dessert. 11th Course: Goat cheese, rhubarb, rose geranium Another dessert with rather bold flavors – On one side a tart goat cheese flan and on the other side refreshing, sweet rose geranium sorbet. The rhubarb with its combination of tart- and sweetness connected these opposing flavors. Mignardise: Pistachio macarons A rather classical ending to a tasting menu with some macarons Before going home everybody was presented with a small box for some sweets at home – Salted caramel and orange truffles. Based on our history with the Restaurant at Rancho Valencia Resort we were initially skeptical what we could expect with this tasting menu but already starting with the amuse bouche and the first few courses it became very quickly clear that this was cooking on a completely different level than several years ago. Chef Bauer and his team showed throughout the tasting menu creativity with nearly flawless execution. Even though one might argue that the techniques used here might be founded in French cuisine the influences throughout the night were diverse and added up to an own style. Chef Bauer showed his strength when his dishes honed in on a few key ingredients, e.g mackerel and carrot dishes, potato and lamb courses but sometimes tended to lose focus and tried to add to many ideas to one dish, e.g. foie gras course and escargot dish. The service throughout the night on par with the kitchen was professional and attentive. It won’t be difficult to convince foodies with such kinds of tasting menus to visit the restaurant but the real challenge for Chef Bauer will be to overhaul and modernize the regular a la carte menu in such way that he is still adding his own ideas and style without driving away the regular customers which tend to be not overly adventurous eaters. Some of the night’s dishes like the lamb could be good starting points with some small modifications. At the same time it would help if such a tasting menu or at least a shorter version, perhaps a 5-course menu, would be regularly available on their menu to make this place better known for its high quality food beyond just the resort guests. It will be interesting to see if the team at Restaurant at Rancho Valencia is able to master the balance between cooking interesting but not too complex food for their regular clientele and at the same time attracting new customers interested in high end food with unusal and creative dishes.

We haven't dined at Quince but went to Coi two weeks ago and it was one of the best and unusual (creative) meals in a long time with outstanding service. Highly recommended if you want a tasting menu which is not just following the "standard" tasting menus.

Only the Cheesecake Factory will be open ?

I know I just wrote a disappointed comment about Benu and I don't want to bash restaurants in SF but we visited many restaurants in SF on our last two trips and had many outstanding meals but the two big disappointments were Benu and Dining Room at the Ritz (with Benu the bigger one). The cuisine/tasting menu at the Dining Room felt "old" and boring and was missing any creativity. The most interesting "dish" was the palate cleanser

Just went last week and one of the most disappointing meals overall anywhere in the last several years. Service unbelieveable bad, food was good and some dishes very interesting but also several average/underwhelming ones. For excellent tasting menus are many better places in SF (covering a wide variety of cuisines, e.g Coi, Commonwealth, La Folie, Aziza etc.)

I would skip Bouchon as it is OK but nothing special for the price you are paying and if you want to do a Keller restaurant I would choose Ad Hoc.

I think you can't generalize it without taking into where the farmers market is and the qualitu of the product. Here in SD we have one of the highest numbers of farms (including organic) anywhere in the US and so there is quite a lot of competion. As long as you buy reasonable "in season" (and isn't it one of the purposes of such a market) a lot of produce will be cheaper at the farmers market than in the supermarket and especially (but not only) if you look at organic produce. In addition the quality of the produce will be better, e. g. strawberries picked that morning and the variety is iften better. Meat is often much more expansive but difference in quality is dramatically different. In supermarket you will get your standard industrial meat whereas on the farmers market I can buy for example pork from a farm where I can visit the animals and see how different they are grown compared to industrial meat and you can easily taste the difference. Overall I think the location of the market plays an important role if it is cheaper than supermarkets and difference in quality can't be ignored.

All these observations might be possible but I was wondering how many of them would be "real" under a blind test ? It would be really interesting to see if some people here could ask friends to do some blind test, e.g canned soda vs. bottle soda, Muir Glen tomatoes with and without lining etc.

I don't think that the influence of the US on the "food world" is disproportionately large, more the opposite. Actually, I think you made my point by naming Ronald McDonald. If the vast majority of the world's population is familiar with mass-produced burgers, pizza and fried chicken, cola beverages, etc. it's through USA's influence. This isn't limited to fast food, either. Go to a sushi restaurant in South America and you'll see California rolls on the menu. Ask someone to suggest a French cookbook and if they're able to name one, I'd wager you'd get Julia Child's Mastering the Art 8 times out of 10. In other words, even Japanese, French and etc. cuisines are mediated through USA. If you see the main influence on the food world in fast food I agree with you that the US has a major influence. But I doubt that most people outside of the US (even those interested in food) will known who Julia Child is and any of her books. There are many other cookbook authors and books people would name when asked for a French cookbook, often depending from which country they are.

I don't think that the influence of the US on the "food world" is disproportionately large, more the opposite.

The topic of the discussion was World's most controversial food figure. Americans tend to forget that the US is just a very small part of the world and that somebody like Alice Waters might be reasonable well known in the US (and even this is debatable) but nearly unknown outside of the US. So she's not eligible because she's an American? It didn't say anywhere that she is not eligible because she's an American but I would pick somebody who is well known throughout the world. I actually liked the comment from karlos and agree with him that it is "Ronald McDonald". I don't hardly know a country where the McDonald's fast food chain isn't controversial and their impact on food, culture, obesity etc. isn't frequently discussed.

The topic of the discussion was World's most controversial food figure. Americans tend to forget that the US is just a very small part of the world and that somebody like Alice Waters might be reasonable well known in the US (and even this is debatable) but nearly unknown outside of the US.

I don't see the healthcare business being more trustworthy than the new business or politics etc. But I think we should in general stop this off-topic discussion as it is not really food related and nobody will convince anybody else. We have just agree to disagree.

Full review and photos: Black Truffle Menus at Cavaillon Cavaillon (San Diego) – Two Black Truffles Tasting Menus When we started our food blog about a year ago we hoped that we would be able to write quite frequently new posts every few days. We rather quickly found out that we really enjoyed to document our culinary adventures, might it be cooking at home or visiting a restaurant by photographing everything and writing about it, but at the same time we also started to realize that each post takes much longer time than we expected. As a consequence we have a continuously growing list of to-do-posts which we slowly work off. There is nothing wrong with writing about a restaurant some time after the actual visit since it still provides all the information but we always tried to post immediately after visiting special seasonal restaurant events. Unfortunately sometimes the best intentions don’t turn out to be accomplishable and somehow some special dinners fall through the cracks as it happened last year with one very enjoyable visit to Cavaillon. One advantage of special seasonal dinners are that they most of the time return after a year. Since we always want to highlight the progression and evolution of restaurants and its dishes we felt that writing about the two Black Truffles Tasting Menus at Cavaillon last and this year would be a good start. Fine dining restaurants have of course hardly any limits on what kinds of ingredients they use but there are few which are often directly associated with haute cuisine – foie gras, caviar and truffles. We had many tasting menus where foie gras played a special role or tasting menus which heavily focused on caviar like at Petrossian under Chef Ben Bailly, but even though we often had single dishes which involved truffles we never had a full tasting menu solely build around them which really got us interested in the tasting menu at Cavaillon. Truffles were called “diamonds of the kitchen” by Brillat-Savarin and are in a simplified way underground mushrooms. Since truffle mainly exist in a symbiosis with plant roots they are commonly found in close association of trees. Pigs and dogs can easily recognize their characteristic odor and therefore are predestined for the truffle “hunt”. Even though there are hundreds of species of truffle only two are really of culinary interest – white truffles mainly from Piedmont and black truffles which predominantly come from France, Spain and Italy. Black truffles are harvested and used in many different cuisines but they are still often closely associated with French cuisine. So what would be better than having a truffle menu prepared by one of the most talented French chefs in San Diego – Philippe Verpiand at Cavaillon. He was born in Cavaillon in the Vaucluse region in the South-East of France. Quite typical for the European system he started already at the age of 16 at the culinary school in Avignon and graduated after two years. He then honed his skills by working at numerous Michelin starred restaurants throughout France for the next ten years often only staying for one year. Some of his stations included Café de Paris in Biarritz, La Poulard near Lyon and Hotel Juana in Juan Les Pins. With the help of his friend Patrick Ponsaty, now at Mistral in Coronado, he was able to start in the US as Chef de Cuisine of Tapenade in La Jolla. After working for more than seven years under Jean-Michel Diot he finally was able to fulfill his dream of his own restaurant in 2005 named after his place of birth. Cavaillon is in a quiet unusual location for a restaurant – several miles north of I-56 in the upscale community of Santa Luz. You have to drive on Camino del Sur for some time passing several residential communities until you see the restaurant sign which is the only thing distinguishing it from the surrounding residential houses. The restaurant consists of one big room which even though the tables are quite close and it is often well attended is actually not too loud to have a nice conversation. The restaurant might not resemble something you would find in Chef Verpiand’s hometown but it still has its charm and we like the ambience. First black truffle tasting menu 1st Course: Celery root risotto with black truffles Even though Chef Verpiand is French one of his signature dishes are his risottos. The risottos at Cavaillon are perfect examples of this dish – the rice cooked to the right creaminess but still with some bite, not to saucy, not too dry, the appropriate amount of parmesan cheese to give the desired saltiness. This variation had the unusual inclusion of celery root which gave some slight sweetness and earthiness which worked particularly well with the shaved truffle. 2nd Course: Seared scallops, roasted caulifowers & fingerling potatoes, black truffles, watercress. Wonderful roasted cauliflower and fingerling potatoes in a cream-based sauce form a strong foundation in this dish which helped to accentuate the truffle flavor without overpowering the dish. The watercress added some slight spicyness whereas the perfectly seared scallops showed some of their characteristical sweetness. This dish was a good example for a composition where the whole dish is stronger than the sum of its parts. Bread service at Cavaillon consists of one type of bread roll which is freshly made in-house and comes still warm to your table. It’s perfect to eat with the butter but even better to soap up the delicious sauces of the different dishes. There is hardly ever a visit at Cavaillon where we don’t have at least a second round of bread rolls. 3rd Course: Petrale sole, white bean ragout, tomatoes, olives, oyster mushrooms, black truffles When this dish arrived at the table we were first surprised that hardly any black truffles were included in the dish. Once we cut and tried a piece of the fish we realized where all the truffles were – the fish was cut into two halves and had a thick layer of black truffles in between. But even though this was a fish preparation we would like to see more often in restaurants, the star of the dish was the bean ragout. Perfectly cooked white beans in a very rich broth with olives and tomatoes which added a nice acidity and balanced the dish. We could have easily eaten a large bowl of the white bean ragout alone. 4th Course: Filet Mignon, black truffles, asparagus, potato cake The focus of this dish was clearly on the filet and black truffles. The asparagus and the potato cake were nice additions and completed the dish but taking a bite of the melting tender filet mignon together with some black truffle shavings convinced us that these both were a perfect match. 5th Course: Truffle short bread, vanilla ice cream, truffle honey, shaved truffle Reading this dish on the menu we suspected some truffle overkill but as with all dishes Chef Verpiand understood how to balance all ingredients, especially the black truffles, but was at the same time also able to showcase its distinctiveness. The ice cream with its strong vanilla flavor worked hand in hand with the sweetness of the honey and the earthiness of the black truffle. The short bread which only had a faint truffle taste added some textural variety. Second black truffle tasting menu 1st Course: Truffle “torchon” foie gras, cherry mousse. One highlight at Cavaillon is always the foie gras course and this one was no exception. Chef Verpiand is specifically known for his foie gras au torchon which has an outstanding creaminess without diminishing the livery taste like so many other variations. Foie gras and truffles are always a great pair and here the chef decided to add some cherry mousse which had the right amount of sweetness to cut through the richness of the foie gras without being overly sweet. The dish was accompanied appropriately by some toasted brioche. 2nd Course: Black truffle risotto. No black truffle tasting menu without risotto – and risotto is something Cavaillon is always delivering perfectly. This time Chef Verpiand decided to use a risotto bianco to really focus on the interplay of the truffle, rice and cheese. There is a reason why risotto al tartufo is a dish in Italy reserved for only special celebratory occasions. 3nd Course: Scallops carpaccio, chestnut and celery root velouté, black truffles Velouté means velvety in French and best describes this dish. Velouté is made out of stock and a blond roux to give its creaminess which was in this dish combined with chestnut and celery root. Both components worked perfectly together with the black truffle stripes to give the velouté a luxurious feeling. What really put this dish over the top was the inclusion of scallop carpaccio – slightly warmed from the heat of the velouté this completed the dish by adding some sweetness and texture. The best dish of both tasting menus. 4th Course: Duck breast Rossini, squash puree, port wine demi-glace. Perhaps one of the most famous preparation including truffles is tournedos Rossini – seared foie gras, truffles and filet mignon. Chef Verpiand used here tender duck breast instead of the filet but the interplay of the foie gras, truffles and meat was as good as you would expect from such a classic. We also liked his use of the sweet squash puree to cut through the richness of the dish. 5th Course: Truffle cheesecake We ended this truffle tasting menu with a deconstructed cheesecake consisting of some shortbread, scoops of the filling, truffle honey and shavings of truffles. Somehow this dish didn’t really work for us and we didn’t feel that it came together. The honey made the cheesecake too sweet, the shortbread didn’t complement the fillings and this was the one dish for us where the truffle flavor didn’t add much to the dish. We don’t really have a favorite neighborhood restaurant in the area we are , but Cavaillon is as close as it gets for us to have such a restaurant. We come here fairly regular, enjoy the relaxed atmosphere, and the cooking style from Chef Verpiand reminds us of French bistro and comfort food but often with an interesting twist towards more upscale French cuisine. Even though we also sometimes pick from the regular menu we often enjoy just letting Chef Verpiand choose for us with one of his tasting menus. Based on these many positive experiences here we were really looking forward to have our first black truffle tasting menus in this setting and the restaurant didn’t let us down. Tasting menus focused around a certain ingredient are difficult for chefs as the guests can easily get bored from having the same component over and over again in every dish. It might be even more challenging if this ingredient is truffle with its very characteristic, dominant taste. Initially we were wondering if we would get a truffle overkill after a few dishes but the chef creatively was able to incorporate truffles in every dish in such a way that it was always present but never overpowering. Many of these dishes would have been interesting without any truffles but the addition of the black truffle really put every dish on a completely different and elevated level. Black truffles were the key ingredients in these dishes and the focus of the tasting menu but never the lone reason any of the dishes worked. It was also beneficial that Chef Verpiand only used real truffles in all of his dishes and forbear from using any truffle oil which is an easy way many chefs use to have a dominant, often overpowering, truffle flavor in their dishes but it also gives these dishes a distinct artificial truffle taste. A few years ago Cavaillon had service issues with some inattentive and unprofessional servers but after some significant changes at the front of the house some time ago the restaurant has now one of the better waiting staffs in San Diego. The servers are friendly, attentive and knowledgeable enough to provide an enjoyable dinner experience. The outstanding food with the good service would make Cavaillon one of the most notable restaurants in San Diego and so it was quite a disappointment for us when Chef Verpiand recently announced that he is unhappy with his situation in San Diego and that he is planning to sell Cavaillon soon to move to Texas. Not only will San Diego lose one of the most talented chefs but also a unique restaurant which covered a niche with its mix of French bistro and haute cuisine not seen anywhere else in San Diego on that level. Cavaillon was perhaps one of the most underrated restaurants in San Diego due to its location and the chef not being involved in one of the chef organizations like Cooks Confab important for far-reaching publicity. We can only hope that the new owner and chef will either continue with Cavaillon on such high quality level or find their own unique niche to adequately replace Cavaillon.

We are regulars in San Diego (where we live) at a few restaurants (Cafe Chloe, Alchemy, Linkery, Starlite, Urban Solace) and the staff recognizes us and we sometime get an extra dish or something for free. It also helps that some of the restaurants don't take reservations or reservations are hard to get and they often help us to get still a table. We also always like to have a very slow paced dinner anywhere we go and it is often necessary to explain this to new restaurants but at these places everybody knows our preferences and we can have a relaxed night. It also happens from time to time that a servers "warns" us that a particular special is not realy good if we are planning to order it. We are also making a lot of short weekend trips to LA (much better restaurant scene than SD) and several restaurants there are starting to recognize us also and some of them call us some of their best customers (Animal, Bistro LQ (which hopefully will reopen soon), Providence, Hatfields, Tar Pit)

Agreed that my response was perhaps too much of an generalization but based on my work experience a large majority of small molecules drugs tend to have lower absorption when taken with "full" stomach. But as you mentioned there are drugs with increased AUC. As I mentioned before one other key reason why you often prefer human taking drugs on empty stomach (and we using fastened animals) is the more consistent behavior of the drug exposure.

It usually means to take the dose at least one hour before or two to three hours after eating. This will help to have a relative consistent oral exposure of the drug. If you would take your drug with your food most likely the oral exposure of your drug will be lower and therefore the drug much less efficacious

These were just two examples. In California are many restaurants where you can get excellent tasting menus for $8-14 /course. If you go on my blog there are a few reviews of such restaurants as Bistro LQ, Blanca, Hatfields

It's always good to see new restaurants opening with different ideas. But I have some problems with the idea that serving interesting or "amazing" food is only possible in high-end/high-cost restaurants. There are today many exceptional restaurants everywhere which serve very creative food on a high quality level for reasonable prices. Just two examples for two cities where I eat often - San Diego and Los Angeles. In San Diego one of the more popular restaurants, Wine Vault, serves creative food often as a 5-course tasting menu for $30 or 10-course tasting menu for $40-60. One of the most talked about restaurants in LA for very unusual flavor combination and creative cooking at the highest level is Bistro LQ which again serves everything at very reasonable prices including a 10-course tasting mneu for $90 which might be the best deal in town. And there are many more examples everywhere. I like your idea to serve creative food for reasonable prices but it is far from a novel concept

Chard Quiche with Pine Nuts. The dough was made with whole spelt flour to have a more robust and nuttier flavor. The quiche filling included cream, eggs, sage and ricotta and was topped with provolone.

Full review and photos: French Laundry Special Extended 18-Course Tasting Menu In today’s media-driven world you constantly hear and read about new interesting restaurants opening or closing somewhere. If you are interested in food it is really hard not to get continuously bombarded by news on discussion boards, blogs or magazines about new restaurant trends emerging or new chefs making an impact in the culinary scene. And so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that like many foodies we also have many different lists of interesting restaurants we want to visit all over the US and the world. At the same time every foodie seems to have the one special restaurant which fascinated them early on, which they always wanted to visit and which is their ultimate destination. Similar to explaining why a certain music band is so special or a why a painting has this particular fascination it is often hard to explain why one restaurant sticks out to all the others. Of course the food and cuisine is a major factor in the interest for a restaurant but real fascination goes far beyond and includes also the mindset and philosophy of the chef, the focus on ingredients and techniques and even the location. Since moving to California about ten years ago and getting highly interested in high-end restaurants this special restaurant for us was always Thomas Keller’s French Laundry in Yountville. Thomas Keller was born in California but lived most of his youth in Palm Beach, Florida. During this time he started to work during summers or after school first as a dishwasher at the Palm Beach Yacht Club but also soon as a line cook which ignited his interest in cooking. During summers he also started working at the Dunes Club in Rhode Island where he met his key mentor – Chef Roland Henin. Henin was important in exposing to and teaching him French cuisine but also to start developing his own philosophy of cooking. After working several cooking positions in Florida Thomas Keller started working at La Rive in the Hudson Valley River valley where he had for the first time larger responsibilities but also the possibility to work more with local and seasonal produce and farmers. Unable to buy La Rive Keller decided to hone his skills by working in several Michelin starred restaurants in France like Guy Savoy and Taillevent. After returning to New York he worked at La Reserve and Restaurant Raphael before opening in 1986 his first own restaurant – Rakel. Rakel got good reviews but due to the hard financial times the restaurant didn’t survive for a long time. He then had a period of time where he worked at different restaurants in New York and Los Angeles before he finally found in 1992 the French Laundry at that time owned by Don and Sally Schmidt. After raising money for quite some time Thomas Keller could finally purchase the French Laundry and open it in 1994. Even though since then Thomas Keller opened several other successful restaurants for us the biggest fascination always focused on the French Laundry. Not unlike with music albums of rock bands the earliest releases often represent the purest and most honest approaches and tend to give the best chances to experience the original work and philosophy. Even though we visited many high-end restaurants over the last years and the French Laundry was for a long time high on our restaurant list we somehow never really started seriously tackling getting a reservation at the restaurant. But recently we decided to go on a three week culinary trip to the Bay area and felt that it was finally time to experience the French Laundry. After some preparation we were able to get a reservation on our preferred day for the last seating – what better day to choose for our first visit than a special birthday celebration. Like we have done with many restaurants before we contacted the French Laundry and we wanted to give the chef absolute creative freedom and asked for an earlier seating to have a chance for a special tasting menu without any limitations. After some extended phone discussions over a few weeks we finally got a table for the first seating and a promise to have a special menu on our visit which turned out to be a memorable extended 18-course tasting menu at the French Laundry highlighting why this restaurant had and still has such an impact on the culinary scene. The French Laundry is located in the small village of Yountville a few miles north of Napa. Yountville seems to be existing mainly to host a large number of restaurants and hotels for its small size. Yountville is also the epicenter of the Thomas Keller culinary empire with French Laundry, Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery and Ad Hoc within walking distance. Whereas all other three restaurants are closer to the center of the village French Laundry is a little bit more outside. Across from the French Laundry are the restaurant’s vegetable gardens which should play an important role for many of the ingredients on our visit. These gardens are quite impressive with their large variety of often unusual produce. The French Laundry restaurant is in a historic building which was built more than one hundred years ago as a saloon before it was converted in the 1920s into a French steam laundry. The building was renovated in 1978 before it was used as a restaurant. If one wouldn’t know that the building was used as restaurant it would easily go through as a residential building. Only a smaller sign reveals the true purpose of the building. The restaurant is spread out over two floors with the main dining room on the lower floor. The maitre’d knew of our long tasting menu and gave as a nice four top in the corner of the main room. We were once asked if we were interested to see the menu before or if we trust the chef and just want to be surprised. Obviously we just wanted to sit back and start the journey into the culinary world of Thomas Keller and the French Laundry. 1st Amuse Bouche: Gougères Pâte à choux filled with warm aged Gruyère mornay sauce. Very light pillows filled with a slightly salty crème which still showed the typical aged Gruyère flavor. A rather classic French start to the dinner and for us a kind of palate cleanser for the coming dishes. 2nd Amuse Bouche: Scottish Salmon Coronets One of the signature amuse bouche’s of the French Laundry. The cone had a buttery and soft texture with some sesame seeds. The salmon was almost pate-like with a delicate taste. The bottom tip of the cone was filled with some crème fraiche to give it a slightly tangy finish. 1st Course: Nantes carrot velouté, medjool date, marcona almonds and cilantro As the next course the server put small bowls of an orange soup in front of us and informed us that the carrots for this velouté were harvested just a few hours ago in the gardens across the street. This carrot soup was unlike any other carrot soup we had before. It had a very intense carrot flavor like it was made out of carrot extracts but at the same time a velvety and light texture. The dates gave the soup just the right sweetness to balance the flavors and almond added some nice textural change. We could have easily eaten a large bowl of the velouté. 2nd Course: “Oysters and pearls” - “Sabayon” of pearl tapioca with island creek oysters and white sturgeon caviar. Perhaps the most written about savory course at the French Laundry and one of the few courses which are part of nearly all tasting menus. Even though we wanted to experience the French Laundry as a whole event we were looking forward to finally try this dish – and it didn’t disappoint. The creamy and rich sabayon laid the foundation for the dish and the tapioca supported this richness with its texture. The perfectly cooked oysters had a wonderful sweetness whereas the quenelle of caviar provided the right balance of saltiness. It’s easy to understand why this dish has such a reputation as being a showcase for Thomas Keller’s cooking as it is a perfect combination of texture, flavor and creativity. The use of a mother-of-pearl spoon to serve the dish fits perfectly into the picture. 3rd Course: Salad of Dungeness crab, apple gelée and “fines herbes” Another course which demonstrated Thomas Keller’s cooking philosophy – on one side high quality ingredients like cooked Dungeness crab which was presented in a way that its natural flavors speak for itself. At the same time he uses every kind of technique necessary to add components to the dish which complements and enhance this flavor and brings it to a new and often unexpected level. Here the slightly sweet and tangy apple gelée was key to the success of the dish. 4th Course: Hokkaido coast “uni” with sake granité Over the years we really have learned to love uni and its unique flavor reminding us of ocean, salt and sea air. Normally we had Santa Barbara uni which has a light yellow color whereas the Hokkaido uni had a much darker orange color. The flavor of the Hokkaido uni was similar to one from Santa Barbara perhaps a bit more pronounced and stronger. The sake granite was a good addition as itself had similar to the uni first a slight sweetness which changed after melting in the mouth to some bitterness without overpowering the delicate flavor of the uni. 5th Course: “Ris de veau en croûte” with “pruneaux d’Agen” We had to smile when the server brought this dish to the table as its shape reminded us of a caterpillar. The flaky, light puff pastry shell broke easily to reveal its tasty inside – perfectly seared veal sweetbreads. Sweetbreads can easily be overcooked but this version had the right consistency – not too soft without being too dry. The dish got some refreshing fruitiness from the prune sauce made out of the famous prunes from the region of Agen in France. 6th Course: Hen egg custard, ragout of Périgord truffles This plain looking egg had some amazing content – at the bottom was white truffle custard which was topped with a ragout of black truffles made out of veal stock. This creation was crowned by a chive potato chip perfect for mixing the tasty mixture. Not only could you smell this course long before it reached our table but was an impressive flavor explosion when eaten from the different truffles and the veal stock. 7th Course: Salad of French Laundry new crop potatoes, baby beets, broccoli and horseradish mousseline. Another dish in which the garden of the French Laundry across the street played a major role. A few new potatoes were slightly roasted so that the roasting flavor didn’t overwhelm the tastes of the different vegetables. Especially the baby beets added some nice earthy component to the dish. The horseradish mousseline helped to add some mild spicyness. All these courses so far really didn’t need any bread but now we were presented with the pain au lait from the Bouchon Bakery down the street. This warm and buttery role had a wonderful soft texture and was accompanied by two different butters - an unsalted goat’s milk butter from Andante Diary in Petaluma and a whipped salted cow’s milk butter from Animal Farm in Vermont. Before bringing the next course our server came to our table and presented this – white truffles from Alba. The smell was so strong that people at other tables turned around to look at our table. 8th Course: Castelmagno cheese “lasagna” with white truffles from Alba The lasagna was a good vehicle for the white truffles. Many layers of perfectly al dente pasta where covered in noisette sauce which helped to bring out some of the truffle flavor. We were a little bit surprised that despite the very strong aroma of the truffle and the generous slices the actual truffle taste was quite subdued. For the first part of the menu we decided on a Gruener Veltliner – Hirsch, Heiligenstein, 2008 – which was a light-bodied wine with some acidity and some green apple and lemon aroma. The second part of the dinner was accompanied by a Burgundy – Denis Mortet, Gevrey Chambertin 2007 – which had some quite strong berry flavors, some earthiness and a long aftertaste. 9th Course: Sautéed fillet of striped bass, razor clams, butter beans “en persillade”, San Marzano tomato compote, petite lettuces and extra virgin olive oil emulsion. Perfectly cooked striped bass filet was tender and flaky, the razor clams were also tender but still had some “bite” whereas butter beans remained, as you would expect by their name, soft and buttery without being mushy. The “en persillade” coating, bread crumbs and parsley, was a nice textural change as were the “al dente” haricot verts. Key component of this dish was the tomato compote which brought the dish together with its acidity and slight sweetness. 10th Course: Sweet butter-poached Maine lobster tail, piperade, young fennel and “sauce Noilly Prat” A large piece of succulent lobster tail which had the wonderful slight sweetness of perfectly poached lobster. The soft piece of young fennel added unexpected slight anise flavor which worked nicely with the Noilly Prat based sauce. Similar to the tomato compote in the course before here the piperade helped to bring the dish together with its more subdued acidity. 11th Course: Moulard duck “foie gras au torchon”, Gros Michel banana, celery, cashew, oxalis and honey-banyuls “gastrique” Thomas Keller is well known for his great dishes including foie gras, and this classic foie gras au torchon was no exception. Wonderful buttery foie gras smeared on the warm brioche showed its characteristic melt-in-your-mouth livery flavor. The foie gras was outstanding but what really elevated the dish were the “condiments”. Foie gras is often accompanied by some sweet and savory components but it was first surprising to see bananas and celery with this foie gras and we were initially skeptical if it would work. After just a few bites it was clear that this was a fantastic combination. The banana puree and the celery provided just the right amount of sweetness with some savory undertones without being cloying and worked nicely with the foie gras. The roasted cashews added some textural variety. After we had eaten about half of our brioche the server brought us new warm pieces of brioche to ensure the best foundation for the foie gras. For this and the next few courses we were provided with an array of different salts. It was really fun to taste these and it was astonishing how such small amounts of “impurities” have not only such an effect on the color of the salt but also the flavor. 12th Course: “Aiguillette” of Liberty Farm pekin duck, melted cabbage, Satsuma mandarin, chestnut purée and ginger”jus” An interesting “asian” take on duck – very tender sous-vide cooked duck breast where especially the ginger-infused jus gave the dish an “asian” touch which was intensified by the chestnut puree. The sweetness of the Satsuma mandarin helped to cut through the fat of the duck. 13th Course: Broken Arrow Ranch venison, Hobbs’ bacon, arrowleaf spinach, flowering quince, white pearl onion and juniper-scented “soubise” Very tender vension wrapped in bacon was rather classical accompanied, as game often does, by a juniper-scented sauce. The small ball of arrowleaf spinach was not only a nice visual variety in this dish but also helped to lighten up the dish. 14th Course: “Sweet potato pie”, “Cavatina”, marshmellow, pickled huckleberries, watercress and black winter truffle Instead of an “official” cheese course we were served this combination of a dessert and a cheese course. This was a cheese cake made out of cavatina goat cheese from Andante Diary and had a pronounced, slightly salty, typical goat cheese flavor. The pickled huckleberries and the black truffle sauce were similar to what you expect as condiments for a cheese course. An interesting and well executed course but we felt that a regular cheese course would have been a better progression between savory and sweet courses and that this course didn’t really fit in at this point of the tasting menu. 15th Course: Feijoa sorbet, “tres leches”, coconut and pineapple This was the first time for us that we had feijoa which is also known as pineapple guava or guavasteen and it had an interesting flavor combination of kiwi and papaya with some slight banana flavors in the background. It matched perfectly to the light tres leches cake. The coconut powder and the lightly roasted pineapple completed this very refreshing and light dessert which was an outstanding start for the sweet part of the tasting menu. 16th Course: “Coffee and doughnuts”, cinnamon-sugared doughnuts and “cappuccino semifreddo” The most famous dessert of the French Laundry – wonderful light freshly made and still warm doughnut and doughnut hole with a light cinnamon flavor which was perfectly matched with the espresso semifreddo. The popularity of this dessert is not surprising and fully justified. 17th Course: Gianduja chocolate “ganache”, Guiness “génoise”, sour cherry, hazelnut and malt ice cream As the last dessert we were presented a plate with a “collection” of different “classic” desserts like sponge cake, ganache and malt ice cream which all by itself were already great but eaten together really showed a nice variety of complementing flavors. 18th Course: Granny Smith cake with streusel When we thought that we were finished with our tasting menu one of our servers came, presented us with these cakes and mentioned that the kitchen thought we would like to have another dessert. How can you not like such a classic approach to an apple cake – light, fruity and with a good balance between sweetness and sourness of the apple – a perfect ending to the dinner. The espresso was brought in unique cups which according to our server are nicknamed “flying saucers” by everybody and it’s easy to see why. The espresso was surprisingly good for restaurant espresso with a good crema. Mignardies: And the night ended with some tasty treats Before we left the French Laundry we were given several bags of shortbread cookies and chocolate which we would enjoy over the next few days We were really looking forward over several years to visit the French Laundry but at the same time once we scored a reservation we were also a bit anxious if we would be expecting too much and ultimately be disappointed. It was similar to liking a rock band for many years and then finally meeting the musicians in person, and quite often you might find out that the imagination is better than the reality (except when we met the Scorpions last year). But we were very happy to find out that the reputation of the French Laundry is more than justified and the restaurant lives up to the hype, yet it even exceeded our already high expectations. One of the criticisms you hear sometimes about Thomas Keller and the French Laundry is that the cooking is soulless and just focuses on techniques. After our visit to the restaurant these accusations are hard to understand as we felt that the cooking and the dishes at the French Laundry not only showed an extremely high level of technical sophistication but also true dedication to creativity and food and ingredients in itself. It was impressive to see how much the produce grown in their own garden across the street had an impact on different dishes throughout the tasting menu. At the same time the restaurant is looking to also use the best ingredients available anywhere for all their dishes – it’s a symbiosis of cooking locally and globally driven by such a high interest of the culinary team in the quality of their dishes. We also liked that even though the dishes showed such a high level of creativity and often unexpected twists the chef always made sure to use all the techniques to still let the natural flavors of the ingredients speak and not muddle them unnecessarily. For us the French Laundry is an ingredient-driven restaurant which just uses all available techniques in a very creative way to get the most out of the flavors of all ingredients. The service at the French Laundry is, as you would expect for a three-star Michelin restaurant, very good and professional, even though they made a few small mistakes like forgetting to ask if we wanted coffee before bringing the bill, and formal but also a bit impersonal. We have seen at other high-end restaurants like Providence in LA that professional and formal service can be at the same time warm and personal. An outstanding service team is able to adapt their service style throughout a dinner according to the style of the customers. The exception was the sommelier who clearly was able to judge fast what kind and style of service each customer wanted and adapted his style accordingly so that everybody felt comfortable with him. It was very nice from the maitre’d that he invited us to the kitchen after our dinner so that we had a chance to see inside, including the famous video screen to Per Se and the “Sense of Urgency” sign under the clock, and exchange a few words with chef de cuisine Timothy Hollingsworth. Overall our first visit to the French Laundry was an outstanding night and even though we hesitate to name any restaurant visit as the best we ever had, since this can often change depending on our mood, there is no doubt that this visit was and will always be one of the highlights in our culinary journey. Over the last few years we regularly visited many favorite high-end restaurants like Providence and Bistro LQ in LA which deliver outstanding food and service and were wondering before our visit to the French Laundry if a restaurant can really be better than those. The visit made us realize two things – restaurants like Providence and Bistro LQ perform indeed on a very high level but it also showed us that the French Laundry is a class of its own. It’s very rare that there is not a single course in a long tasting menu which disappoints but even more each course was always a new and unexpected culinary exploration. The French Laundry is not a restaurant you put on your regular rotation list but when we left the restaurant after more than six hours we already discussed how and when we will return to the French Laundry.