BryanZ

I miss cheap Jap lunches. Keep posting. I need to go back to Japan.

Explain please....... ? ← I would like to read more on this as well. ← I think it's very easy to have a merely very good, as opposed to excellent, meal at Jean-Georges, especially at lunch. With JG's emphasis on spice and, especially, acid, it's easy to select a meal that's out of balance from the wide variety of options on the lunch menu. There was recently a trip report where a diner selected dishes that nearly all had an overtly acidic component, making the entire meal seem just a bit off. I personally think that if you order one of JG's signature sashimi-style dishes, then perhaps a cooked seafood dish with one of his signature vinaigrettes you run that risk. I'm sure the meal will overall be very good, but if you order well it can be sooooooooo good for so cheap. I suppose what I'm saying is that quality of the meal at JG can vary quite widely based on what you order, more so than at comprable restaurants. Changing gears, I think that this dude should be exposed to modern cooking early on, he obviously wants to enjoy new experiences. With that said, eat as much Four Story Hills chicken as you possibly can, enjoy simple pastas, simple sushi dishes, etc.

Not going to find South American fine-dining that I know of. You might be better off taking a trip down to DC to study the Andres mini-empire and see how Spanish, Asian, and Latin American all play nice. Anywho, if you want to learn (and think) about food you need to eat at: -Eleven Madison Park -wd~50 -Room 4 Dessert -Ssam Bar -High-end sushi (Yasuda or something) -Jean-Georges (but you have to order intelligently or risk being underwhelmed) -Babbo for pastas if you've never had real pasta before -Gilt (wait....) -Desserts at Varietal (wait...) At the risk of sounding crass, I'm going to give you some popular places that I think are not the best use of your time or money if you're looking at this from a professional development standpoint -Country - boring -Cru - less boring -Bouley - somewhat passe -Per Se (I just went there, like, not literally, but in that "Oh snap, you did not just go there!" sense) - probably the best restaurant in the city but not really worth the time given your context; there's MUCH more exciting, eye-opening food to be had -Le Bernardin - meh unless you're into the Asian ingredients with French thing Of course take that in context. All of the above are very solid to absolutely excellent, you just won't learn something there that you won't for less money at other establishments. This is not a list for a visitor to the city, but rather for someone who cares about taking something valuable and new from each meal. Obviously tasting menus are the way to go. And start reading Ideas in Food just for your own betterment.

Always a good thing to remember, as many recent events have shown us.

That's the logical next step that I haven't tried yet. I'm generally not a big fan of the brown before and after technique, but for duck breast it seems to be worth the extra effort. I also figure it's worth getting the breasts really cold before the first pan treatment. And yes, I do score heavily.

Yeah, I usually do around four hours for strip steaks. I think eight is pushing it, but probably fine. I've been doing a lot of experimentation with duck breast cooked sous vide, with the skin. So far, I'm really liking long cooks of 6-12 hours at 53-54C because the texture is really unique and quite pleasant. This isn't a replacement for a more typical pan roast, but an interest application. Anyway, I'm trying to figure how best to render out the fat. I'm a big time stickler for perfectly executed duck breast and can't stand a layer of chew fat and skin. I've usually refrained from cooking duck with the skin sous vide because of this concern. Now, however, I've found the the long cook, while not explicitly rendering out as much fat as I would like, does make the skin/fat entity much more tender such that a few minutes in the pan to crisp up the outer skin is sufficient in creating a tasty, not-chewy final product. Aesthetically, a wider-than-I'd-like fat band remains where one wouldn't exist via a more traditional cooking method. This sufficient result, however, is not exactly what I'm looking for. I want a duck breast that has the texture of a long cook with thin, crisp skin. I've found that going straight from bath to pan leads to overcooking by the time enough fat has rendered out. If I chill the breasts out of the bag then cook on the stove--probably the best compromise thus far--the overall rendering process seems to take longer (than if I was cooking in a pan from the raw state). Anyone have any ideas for a minimum water temp that will allow for more rendering during the bathing process while still maintaining med-rare, med meat? Other suggestions?

Then again, there are signature dishes at Perry St. like the tuna with sriracha, burger, etc that don't leave the menu all that often, if ever.

It is, it is. That's what makes it a particularly good deal, though I must admit the dessert offerings are rather simplistic. If you're going for lunch though, I'd consider JG, which I don't think you visited last time.

Their English is very good, so try calling back another time. Make sure you're taking the time difference into account. Also, if you have an Amex card (I think platinum or higher) you can use that conceirge service. Although my experience with the service is mixed to say the least, it's good for major Paris restaurants. Pierre Gagnaire is a totally sweet restaurant.

Unfortunately, the death of the modern-minded Venue in Hoboken, NJ suggests that this isn't always the case. I think the Blais will need to remained relatively grounded (oh man, I crack myself up) within this relatively unique context. Are there any other restaurants like this? By "this" I'm not sure what I mean exactly. Perhaps modern-with-an-emphasis-on-LN2, Southern, located-in-an-airport? Am I missing anything?

I want your kitchen. I'd say definitely go for it.

They need to pick up the Cluck high school and college crowd if they want to be successful late-night.

Domino's is awful. Fight the system. With that said, there may be food safety liability issues to consider. Generally, however, schools will let bake sales and picnics slide. Also, make sure your lemonade and tea don't suck. Too many picnics and outdoor banquets are ruined with shitty powdered beverages.

Totally sweet cooking show. He's a cool dude. Interesting to read what he said about Jordan Kahn at Varietal, too.

I definitely see your points Doc, and I pretty much agree with you. The best way for me to respond would simply be to eat more broadly and get back to you. Give me some time and I'll do my best to get on that. I guess what I was speaking about was the amount of intellectual engagement that each chef/restaurant warrants. It was unfair of me to make such a blanket statement based on such a limited sample size, but while much of the food in Europe perhaps tasted "better" it just seemed to demand less thought (than that of the chefs I previously mentioned). I would rather not get into the qualifications for "paradigm breaking" chefs and restaurants (as was debated at length in the NY forum), but it seemed to me, again based on my limited experiences, that there is more boundary pushing by the handful of American chefs than those European ones whose cuisine I was recently able to sample. Often times this doesn't always meet with stellar results--a meal at Can Roca would seem to be more consistently delicious than at meal at wd~50--but it still remains the general trend I noticed. El Bulli and Michel Bras are, perhaps naturally, among an elite crowd that I want to visit most on my next trip to Europe.

Looks really cool. But it's in an airport? Anyone from the area or more familiar with the project care to explain?

Yeah, the volume issue was my concern. It seems kind of pointless to just use a lot of ice.

Difficult without a chamber unit, no? So kind of out of the reach of most of us home sous vide cooks.

Caught the Flay/Andres battle tonight and thought it was a good one with an interesting ingredient. To a certain extent the young and likely farm-raised goat they were using isn't bound to be all that assertive in flavor. It seemed like a relatively tough challenge in allowing the ingredient to really shine through. Nice to see someone using modern techniques finally beat, actually demolish, the competition.

Finally, I would just like to take a little bit of time reflect on some of the differences surrounding food, and particularly fine dining, between the US and Europe. After this one trip I am by no means an expert, but I do think I've had sufficient experiences to get an idea of what "matters" on both sides of the pond. The level of meals I enjoyed in Europe was unquestionably excellent. We did not have a single meal that was less than "good" and that spans all three countries. Then again, this doesn't mean that the quality of experience is necessarily explicitly better than what one can get in New York. I would venture to say that the highs are probably higher in Paris, but with the price discrepancy between Paris and New York I would've been disappointed otherwise. Barcelona actually represents a pretty good "value," even with the exchange rate, but does not really have the same big city feel, as London, Paris, and New York. I would also suggest that the "average" restaurant is better in Paris and Barcelona than in the New York, but this is more likely a result of the more prominent role food plays in France and Spain's respective cultures. I've said the same about Japan in comparison to the United States and might even find Japan's "average" eating to be even better than Europe's. That debate, however, warrants a thread all its own. To make just one blanket statement, the Japanese are among the most obsessive people in the world, and despite their ethnic homogeneity they eagerly latch onto foreign cultural imports; food clearly falls under this category. Although I did not get the opportunity to sample much, non-Western European cuisines, save for Eastern Mediterranean, seemed underrepresented in Paris and Barelona. Tokyo, on the other hand, has absolutely excellent restaurants across arguably more major cuisines. The most striking thing about the French three-star restaurants was their ability to blend nearly perfect technical execution with a distinct soul or vision. One of my favorite NY fine-dining restaurants is Eleven Madison Park, and while its cuisine is filled with soul, it does not fit the space and lacks consistent execution. Per Se, on the other hand, is a beautifully conceived restaurant with excellent service whose food is expertly prepared but could easily be served anywhere in any "fancy" setting (and is at The French Laundry). Pierre Gagnaire and l'Astrance just seem to fit through and through. Gagnaire's room is sparsely modern yet luxuriously refined and acts as a perfect introduction to his food. Astrance, the menuless three-star upstart, feels exactly that way. The food was undeniably excellent and filled just enough character to make it distinctive, but the restaurant also defies what most people think of when they think of three-star dining. The same idea can be extended to Abac and Can Roca, if only to a somewhat lesser degree. The overarching theme in Spain was clearly that of a country with a vibrant culinary scene unafraid to branch out into the new but with less formality than in France. I can't say if one is superior to the other; I suppose it's a matter of preference. With all this said, based on the European restaurants I visited there was less of the extreme creativity I find very appealing. By extreme creativity I'm not talking about recycling the brilliant ideas of other chefs and using them as one's own. I'm also not talking about gimmicky uses of modern techniques. I felt like Les Magnolias did this from time to time but was saved by the fact that majority of each dish was in fact tasty. At some "modern" restaurants in the US, this is unfotunately not the case. Nevertheless, there was no work as thought provoking as Wylie's, Goldfarb's, or Jordan Kahn's. There was also not a dining concept that challenged my notions of fine-dining as Alinea does. In this way, America is less bound to tradition and stands to benefit. Unfortunately, the general eating populace is less open to this type of experimentation, I think. It's kind of a conundrum of sorts. Obviously if I was able to eat at El Bulli, that meal alone could have nullified the entire above paragraph. I really wish I knew French and Spanish better so that I could've conversed more with the servers, something I usually do in restaurants in the States. Generally service was very good and pacing was very even. Everyone we met in hotels, restaurants, and in shops was very friendly and helpful. If I had to pick a "worst," it actually would've been London, but that's really splitting hairs. There were only a couple times when servers seemed impatient or impolite. All in all, a fantastic trip. Although Europe did not have the mystique I thought it would have, the food lived up to expectations. I can't wait until I can go back. The south of France and northern Italy are beckoning. Thank you everyone who read along and added your questions and comments. Please let me know if you have any others. If you've got any questions about the restaurants in particular, feel free to PM, too.

Apologies for the lack of context. And yes, he is pretty ridiculous. No one cares what Cuozo thinks, and it's a pretty shitty thing to take credit for a restaurant's misfortunes.

Cuozo really can't let the whole dessert thing go, especially the damn tonka beans: I really hate this guy.

Kind of like I refuse to ask for the "nook" tables at JG, I would NEVER ask for a tented table at Daniel, unless like I was terminally ill and it was to be one of my last meals. I feel like it's something you should have bestowed upon you, almost as a right of passage. When I hear about "normal" people getting these tables, a bit of the romance dies.

I guess I still wonder if the restaurant is in fact still worthy of two stars.

Nice philosophy. Even nicer usage of the word "plump."