Jaymes

In my opinion, no. There should be a certain level of service at a restaurant, "celebrity" chef in place or not. Say the chef was unavoidably delayed that evening... car accident, illness, family emergency. If their policy was to always notify everyone who might be eating there just simply because that one particular chef was in attendance, not only would it create a logistical nightmare, but would set a precedence that might even result in legal action when the "status quo" was not adhered to. The restaurant did the right thing. "You are not happy; there will be no charge." That should have been end of story. To answer your question, I do believe that particularly when one is a friend of the owner of a business where you have received unsatisfactory service, you DO owe it to your friend to tell them about it. I owned a business and often said that I wished people who were unhappy would tell me and give me an opportunity to fix it, rather than complain to the whole town before giving me a chance to make things right. I don't believe the problem here is that Dr.R told Hans about the poor quality of the evening; I think the problem here is the manner in which he went about it. Rather than firing off a withering email leaving nothing for Han's pride, he should have brought it to his "friend" in a more pleasant and constructive manner. And as for the other issue: Anyone who wants to eat in a restaurant only when one particular chef is present should ask upon arrival, "Is Hans in the kitchen tonight." If told "No," that guest can leave.

Ah yes.... we are only getting ONE ego's side of the story.... But sounds to me like the main problem here was not the clashing of tastes at the restaurant; but rather, the clashing of egos afterwards ....his vs. the chef/owner's.

I think this thread should be renamed: "When Egos Collide!"

Yeah, that might be a very nice dessert.... To go with some chicken enchiladas!

Sourdough is probably the quintessential Alaskan food, other than the ubiquitous salmon and halibut of course. Lots of people up there have starter from some of the original brought North by the prospectors so long ago. When I moved there, the first day, along with the movers, a neighbor showed up. She brought me a welcome gift... sourdough starter. I kept it alive for years and years, moved it from Alaska to Calif and then Texas and cooked with it at least three or four times a week. When the last kid left home, let the sourdough die. Just don't cook that much for myself. Alaskans make many, many baked goods from their prized starter.... sourdough pancakes were the main thing (the memory of those Alaskan sourdough pancakes with fresh-picked blueberries brings tears to my eyes)..... But also breads, white and wheat, waffles, muffins, cookies, everything you can imagine. And even, at Christmas, sourdough fruitcake.

Don't know about Fat Guy, but I like the sound of it very much.... After all, artichokes and pecorino...what's not to like? Sounds fabulous! Thanks, Caped Wonder

Don't mean to pick on you, oh caped one, but the mispronounciation of this drives me nuts...the spelling is bruschetta, and "ch" is always pronounced like "k" in Italian, so you say brew-sketta. (my specialty is butchering French) Jim That's my pet peeve too. We Americans manage to get the correct pronunciation of "Chianti"... with the hard "ch" and "ciao" with the soft "c" so why is it so damn hard for us to say "bruschetta" correctly???

Suvir.... WOW. That looks fabulous! Does it taste as good as it sounds???

I haven't. Don't know why, but just haven't "fiddled around" with this recipe much. Like it so well as is. That's really why I started this topic. Wonder what other people do.

Ripe summer tomatoes are in the markets now, and the pots of basil are bursting with their fragrant green goodness. This is the time of year I make Tomato & Bread Salad. Do you? Mine: Four good-sized slices two-day-old Italian bread, cubed (about 4 cups) 2 C chopped tomatoes (either cherry tomato halves, or other flavorful tomato, seeded and chopped) 1/2 C chopped sweet salad onions (Maui, red, 1015's) Handful fresh basil leaves, chiffonade 3 T EVOO 1 T wine vinegar (or to taste) sea salt & black pepper to taste. Toss all.... let set at room temp about 5-10 minutes. Serves two as a main course luncheon salad.

It's good..... creamy I use lots of olive oil. Can go through even the expensive stuff like Morea too fast, so have to keep on hand lots of different grades: Always have EVOO, VOO, POO, and OO.

Jinmyo, Would this be the bagna cauda I talked about? Might be a good topic for a new thread. I am not the final authority for Bagna Cauda, but my recipe for the dip is: 1/2 cup butter 10 cloves garlic, minced 2 (2 ounce) cans anchovy fillets, drained 1 pint heavy cream Cooked for a while till creamy and served warm. I think this is fairly traditional... EDIT: Thought about it some more, and after SA's post, realized I've only been making it this way for about three years, and is probably not traditional. I actually got this recipe on the internet somewhere, thought it sounded interesting and tried it. It IS good... very rich and creamy.

I didn't know this was an American thing. When the New olive oil arrives/is produced in Chianti the Italians I know sit around a shallow bowl of the oil dip their bread in and sprinkle salt on top. They also pour the oil over a lot of other thinks, like steak, bean/chickpeas or fish, so I can't see them having in problem with bread. Obviously, Italy is a diverse country so who knows? Will extra special oil - just bread and salt or pasta. Second grade stuff gets used on almost every food item in our home. I have also seen Italians dipping bread when sampling that year's new production of olive oil. What I have never seen is Italians sitting around in restaurants in Italy dipping bread into saucers of oil, or oil with herbs, etc. And when I ask for it, they glare at me. I began trying this after being unable to have butter brought to the table for my bread. Some restaurants just told me they were sorry, but they didn't even HAVE any butter....which I found hard to believe, but okay, so then can I have a little olive oil in a saucer...I KNOW you have olive oil. I'm sorry, but I just don't like my bread dry. Of course, I will eat it that way, but prefer some sort of oil or fat or something. OH - they DO put olive oil on bread....witness bruschetta.... and you can order that, and I often do. It's the dipping thing I've never seen in restaurants there.

Mike - You are a man of uncommon courage to make such a post. I suggest you immediately turn your back and protect your soft underbelly.

Cooking for a party of one these days..... and am busy..... don't have time for complex cooking except on the weekends and often I don't want to spend all weekend standing around in the kitchen. When I finish work, late and tired, I'm thrilled to death to have a jar or two of Mom's in the pantry. I can make a quick eggplant casserole, for example, by thinly slicing eggplant, dipping it in beaten egg and seasoned flour, frying in olive oil, arranging in glass dish, dumping Mom's sauce and some P Reggiano over it and heating it in the MW. I'm eating in fifteen minutes. And eating good. Here's the list of ingredients for Mom's Puttanesca.... tomatoes, olives, fresh carrots, EVOO, fresh garlic, real butter, real cream, capers, sea salt, pepper, anchovy, herbs and soy. And that's it. Period. No sugar. So what's not to like? Soy??? It's easy to say, "I would never do this or I would never do that" but the fact of the matter is that different times, different circumstances call for different methods.

Ditto Mom's. Mom's Garlic & Basil Spaghetti Sauce - with fat cloves of whole garlic Mom's Special Marinara - with butter and cream Mom's Puttanesca - with black olives and capers Mom's Caponata - with Sicilian olives and capers It just doesn't taste a thing like any other bottled pasta sauce I've ever tried. Don't know who she is, but I love that "Mom" almost as much as my own!!

Yep, but it isn't about taking a plain piece of bread and swabbing it through plain olive oil. Or, for that matter, taking a plain piece of bread and smearing it with butter. Both of those things seem to me anyway to be darn difficult to do in Italian restaurants.

You might have done a "search" to locate other olive oil threads.... I use olive oil most often in just plain bruschetta... rough bread... toasted, rubbed with garlic, brushed with EVOO, sprinkled with sea salt. I usually use either Morea from Greece, or Nuñez de Prado from Spain. I also like Colavita... affordable and nice peppery finish. Also, make a simple salad: sliced tomatoes, sweet onions, few good olives, drizzle with Morea and balsamic vinegar, sprinkle with flat leaf parsley, sea salt, and generous handful Greek Feta. Good olive oil is sublime. Oh - also often do that American thing of dipping bread into olive oil, sometimes with a few herbs, sometimes not. I think the reasons Italians are so uppity about not doing this is just because they haven't tried it. And, of course, because the Americans started it.

Wonderful thread. Wonderful. I'm doing this very thing myself tomorrow.

I'd agree with that. Many wonderful recipes and good advice, as well as interesting stories. Robb Walsh is, according to the book jacket, "a two-time winner of the James Beard award." The book is a treasure.

Yes... and blueberies, apples, strawberries and so on. Salads are a good place for an unexpected ingredient. I am so not with you. I cannot stand sweet surprises in my salads. toasted pine nuts, seeds, crispy prosciutto etc... are all great and fine but as for fruit - keep it for the fruit salad as dessert. My only exception with fruit in salads is sliced pear tossed with rocket (arugula), parmigiano, crispy prosciutto, good balsamic and evoo. Simply delicious. Oh I lie - of course melon or balsamic strawbs are great with prosciutto but then that is hardly a salad. Actually, canteloupe is not all that sweet... not much sweeter than tomatoes and not as sweet, to me, as pears. I've served cantaloupe balls in salads (but only with some type of vinaigrette...not blue cheese or ranch or any other creamy dressing) for years and there are never any left on the salad plate. So someone else besides me must think they're tasty there. Thought of this thread when I read the following description in a recent rave review in the Austin Statesman of one of our top restaurants: "Executive chef John Maxwell's food is marked by extensive preparation that takes it beyond that of most restaurants in Austin. Maxwell, who has been at Zoot three years and who subtly manipulates flavors to produce his exceptional plates, used the same multistep technique in his Butter Lettuce Salad ($8.95). The greens were deveined and tossed with a dressing of crème frâiche, lightly whipped cream, lemon juice and lemon zest and were topped with blue-vein goat cheese, toasted pecans and fire-roasted peaches. Roasting the peaches, for example, added a dimension found in few salads."

Hey... Congratulations!!! What I had smuggled in was, unfortunately, a box of Godiva chocolates. That was when I gave birth to my first son and I was breastfeeding him in the hospital. About the third day, my baby had a terrible rash of some kind. I was horrified and rang for the nurse. "What could it be?" I said, expecting the worst. "Well," she said..."it looks to me like a chocolate rash. Have you been eating chocolate?" "Who.....ME?"

Like maybe shrimp cocktail Mexican style... Far and away my personal favorite.

PEACH SANGRIA.... 2 ripe peaches, peeled and sliced (in winter, I use frozen) 1 lemon, thinly sliced, seeds removed 1 orange, thinly sliced, seeds removed 3 T sugar (or to taste, depending on size of lemon) 1/4 Cup Peach Schnaaps 750 ml dry white wine Combine all and chill well, at least one hour. Serves two very jovial people. As is immediately apparent, there is no brandy, so this is a pleasant, light, fresh-tasting summertime drink. Particularly good variety of Sangria when entertaining guests upon pale-colored carpeting. And on occasion I have, at the end of the evening, fished out any remaining peaches (now wonderfully marinated) and served them for dessert with pound cake and either ice cream or whipped cream.

Zarela says that the recipe for Puerco con Calabasas in her cookbook, "Zarela's Veracruz" is one of her very favorite dishes of all time. You take a pork roast and boil it in water flavored with cloves, onions, salt and pepper. Then, boil acorn squash till tender. Puree in blender with tomatoes and some cooked serrano peppers; fry the puree in a little lard. You grind coriander, pumpkin and cumin seeds, then add it to the puree along with a little cider vinegar. Fry the pork in lard, top with squash sauce. I don't have the exact ingredients or amounts or methods. The book is next on my "must have" list. But it sounds fabulous to me.