caseyell

Heading to Phoenix the end of the month -- any updates to the suggestions here. Is See Saw still great? Other suggestions? Much appreciated.

I thought the pastry show this past saturday was absolutely terrific. Thank god for TIVO__I plan to keep this one on hand for regular reference.

A delightful read. The best h.d.s I've eaten have been at parties catered by Bay Area food genius Paula LeDuc. Her cocktail fare is not only creative and delicious, but each piece is *always* tiny enough to consume in one bite.

I had such a disappointing meal there last June. I'd looked forward to eating there for years--but only some of the dishes were interesting, others were mediocre, and a couple were downright bad.

I ate there once, years ago--the food was delicious. He was very famous for his roast duck, for which I had the recipe, but unfortuantely I no longer have it. I *do* remember that you braised the duck pieces ahead of time and the reheated thenm in a very hot oven--or, maybe under the broiler--just before serving.

Orangette's wonderful blog has a delightful post about making the cookies from the Gourmet recipe

damnit! I missed this; must see if there will be a repeat showing.

Mine just came. I've only read the first few pages, but I'm loving it.

I recently sliced radicchio leaves chiffonade-thin and used them to top mashed white beans (with some good olive oil and a bit of crushed garlic to facilitate the mashing) on bruschetta. An idea from London's Rver cafe --and Fabulous.

I had a sensational meal at Cav last Friday night. It was my second visit and even better than the first. Every single dish --from the hamachi crudo to the veal cheeks to the cinnamon beignets (and a bunch of others in-between) was absolutely first-rate. I sat at a table, but they also have bar seating.

I freeze small tomatoes (never Heirlooms) whole and love having them on hand. I don't make sauce ahead of time becasue sometimes I only want the equivalent of a tablespoon or two of tomato pulp to enrich a pan sauce.

I just bought -- and am dazzled by --"Demolition Desserts" by Elizabeth Faulkner, chef/owner of Citizen Cake in San Francisco. It's a dazzler of a book --crammed with great fotos and intriguing recipes (with lots of helpful tips) and entertaining commentary. If you can't get to San Francisco as often as you crave great cupcakes, for example, you now can create them in your own kitchen. A brief, personal review on my blog: http//:caseyellis.blogspot.com

That might be it. Tiny little space with a counter along the left side as you entered--then small, cherubs-and-flowers bedecked dining room beyond.

out there in blogland, dorie greenspan and "paris breakfasts" frequently discuss pastry shops

I'm still mourning the closing of the elegant little pastry shop that stood near the church at the end of the Tuileries Gardens. The name has escaped me, but their financiers were sublime. It is now a wheatgrass/yogurt/etc shop. <sob>

I just found this topic -- lots and lots of good reading. Looking forward to future culinary reports.

service at the tomato dinner was first-rate: absolutely spot on.

sorry: I didn't take any fotos other than the prawn dish and the rabbit--which on Tuesday were plated identically to your photos. As to the influence of Passard on KINCH: HUGE. They were both cooking at a conference the name of which has fled from my brain and stayed up half the night talking about the role of vegetables in a modern restaurant. Passard came to Los Gatos earlier this year, cooked with David for two nights and then spent the next day with David and Pim up at Love Apple Farm. The Chez Pim blog has lovely fotos about this. I was in Paris in June, had a fantastic lunch at Arpege and spoke briefly with Passard, who told me he's looking forward to coming back to cook at Manresa: (read with French accent) "I LOVE California. I LOVE San Francisco. And I really LOVE David."

that was, of course, supposed to be "improvement" sheesh

fascinating: this was wed night, right? because the "ratatouille" in your photo is much less deconstructed than the portion I had on tuesday--which looks like a definite inmorovement Otoh, I prefer the way the dessert plate was done on tues--with the ice cream alongside the brioche--rather than on top, where it might have interfered just a bit with the crunchiness of the brioche

wow, that was *beautifully* written. very interesting that you enjoyed that extra course of just tomatoes, sea salt and olive oil as much as all of us at our table did. I loved the dinner--blogged about it at http://caseyellis.blogspot.com and now promise to stop pimping my blog.

Agreeing here about the difficulty of night photos -- particularly if one is basing a blog on the text rather than the photos. (and consuming wine and lauging with friends) I found most of the pictures I took at manresa's tomato dinner unusable--even by my low standards, but in a post I'm putting up later today I'm going to include the least embarrasing shot, just as proof I really was there.

many thanks for the heads up about this book. I had no idea it was even in proocess. I'm off to see if I can find an advance copy anywhere.

You'd have an exquisite meal at either. I go to Manresa more often because it's much closer to my home and I almost always choose the 4-course menu over the tasting one. To give you an idea of how David is using the garden produce right now, you can check out a post I just made on my blog about a special "Tomato Modernista" dinner I went to on Tuesday. Two amuse-bouches, then 8 courses and nearly all ranged from splendid to sublime. http://caseyellis.blogspot.com Looking forward to your report. If you have the time, you really ought to go to both. Life is short.

Spanish smoked paprika. Love it on eggs, in soups, and a multitude of other dishes. Plus I go through a lot of za'atar, but mostly because Nigella's recipe for chicken za'atar is a huge favorite in my house.