BryanZ

Desserts look like a lot of fun.

I think Luckylies was referring to Degustation. At least that's how I'd describe it. If you're willing to trade scene for a more intimate dining experience, I'd say between those two Degustation is the way to go. All the other recommendations are good, too.

Those two episodes are the only ones that have aired thus far. While I don't hate this show, the chef's arms kind of freak me out. They're creepily big. Overall, he seems like a poor man's Gordon Ramsay, but I must admit the tailgate challenge was pretty cool. Although the food was far from awe-inspiring it was interesting to see what he could pull out of nowhere. It's amazing how much help a camera crew can buy you.

Yeah, don't have much to say about that other than it tasted good. As I've said here many times before, you can't win 'em all.

Actually the different facets of sweet are what I was going for in this menu (at least the first three courses). The menu orginated because I wanted to figure out how to make a candied olive condiment that was crunchy but not totally dry like breadcrumbs. From there, everything just built on itself. So, there was banana in the first couse for a tropical sweetness and the lemongrass for subtle acid. The lemongrass was also there to aromatically cut through the richness of the sunchokes. Then there were the bitter-sweet olives, the licorice-sweet fennel, and a passion fruit vinegar that I love with the fish. The coke and beet component harkens to "syrupy" sweet via the cola syrup and and beet syrup association and works really well with the soft, fatty pork. As for the steak dish, well...it was tasty.

Cooked dinner tonight for a friend and his parents in town for the weekend. Menu

Simon Cowell.

My impressions, from today's Chronicle. Full review. This is one of my favorite places in the Triangle right now.

Not exactly. One problem restaurants have is that demand isn't constant. Many places go through initial "hot" periods and then normalize. If they raised their prices to accord with demand in the "hot" period, they'd then be faced with the prospect of being overpriced when they start to cool down. And it would be embarrassing for them to lower their prices then. ← Keynes would be proud.

This makes me laugh. Cooking for people indeed. Nice meal. I wish I had your access to ingredients.

For ease of reference, Bruni gave Waverly one star.

If you pay hundreds of dollars for dinner at a fine restaurant, was your reservation still free? A reservation is similar to an option. When saying that reservations are currently free, what we mean is that right now restaurants give customers free options on meals. A third party has now come along and said that option has value. Undeniably, it does. So either somebody will make money from it, or there has to be rationing. ← Lovely analogy. Gotta arbitrage that excess away. This isn't a direct answer, but I guess they have to maintain a pool due to their business model. Not many of us have access to conceirges who can get ANY table at ANY time a day or two in advance. This service serves to democratize this process, to the extent that they accept new members. In this democratization process, I think that they have (purposely) created a demand that outweights their theoretical capabilities to function as a uber-concerige service that books tables on a case-by-case basis (the owner of PTT also owns a private a conceirge service). It's something like a trade-off for convenience for PTT members that comes with the somewhat unethical friction that may result in more no-shows (if the PTT tables aren't booked) in the short run. As others have mentioned, restaurants could easily just raise their prices across the board until demand equals supply. Awesome. I'd rather deal with this present inefficiency and rely on yield-pricing and services like PTT to equilibrate the market.

I'm now an active member at PrimeTime Tables. Since memberships are scarce, I'll sell you the service of my going onto the site and booking a table through PTT for you. I'll charge, say, $50 for this service. I've set up my PayPal account accordingly, so PM away. Hell, I'll take requests right here. Joking. Or am I?

I think they're delicious. I go 62-63ish C for at least 45 minutes.

Bryan, I've had success with the Blue Cheese foam from Tramonto's Amuse-Bouche. The cream is boiled, removed from heat, and crumbled blue cheese is added and the mixture is pureed with an immersion blender or in a food processor. It is then strained through a chinois and seasoned. Allow to cool and pour into a the chilled ThermoWhip. Chill for 2 hours. Before dispensing, I shake vigorously, but this may be an altitude thing. Outstanding with his port wine reduction sauce. You've probably tried this method, but I've never had a problem with this foam holding air. Bill/SFNM ← The problem is making it hot. Which makes it difficult for cream to hold air and for the use of gelatin as a thickener. Experiments with xanthan have been less than successful; I need to use something stronger.

This place is good. And a really cool space, too. More to follow next week.

People actually are happier when faced with less choice but they think they would be happier faced with more. So if asked people to choose between 2 restaurants, all elese being equal, they'll choose the one with the larger menu. So if you want to bring people into your restaurant, then you need to expand your menu beyond what's actually good for making them happy once they're there. ← While I've found that this is generally true in the literature I've read, I've yet to read what is the better overall business decision. I was talking about this seeming disconnect with a professor of mine and she suggested that it's still better to offer fewer choices. Although the perceived difference in the experience is perhaps marginal, hold food quality constant, and you may get fewer customers "in the door," if the restaurant's aim is in fact to cultivate great dining experiences and long-term relationships with its clientele, few options are still better.

So the benefit of buying these is that they're likely fresher (if you're in the SE) with only a marginal decline in overall flavor.

Here's an unexciting update. After yesterday's Eater/Urbandaddy release, I still haven't heard back to have my registration confirmed. I'm guessing they're overloaded with requests and might be screening potential members (they did ask who I was referred by in the registration form). It seems that one needs to invest a significant amount of time to be able to pay for a reservation. How ironic.

There's a wealth on info. on this topic throughout eG. Xanthan, gelatin. By lower gelling Methocel I'm guessing you mean lower viscosity vs. lower gelling temperature.

Indeed every ingredient is different. As long as you've got a relatively loose puree of root veg, roasted veg, greens, etc you'll be fine, even for hot foams. Where you run into problems is in the hot foaming of things that don't really hold as purees that well. I've been playing with a blue cheese foam that I can't quite get right. By heating, even with a hefty dose of heavy cream, the mixture does not want to hold air. That's where you need to get into gelling agents that will create a loose fluid gel that will pour but still be viscous hold air. You can use some of the same stalbilizers in smaller amounts to help "normal" foams hold air for longer periods of time.

At some place whose reputation I know nothing about, I would rather order the cheapest and/or simplest (which it this case COULD be steak, but given MY preferences wouldn't) thing of the menu. If the restaurant is in fact good you'll derive some excess satisfaction/utility out of the item with minimal financial risk/investment. If the restaurant is known to be "good" then I still side with the original post. I've also been doing some reading that, given equal quality (an important assumption), it's still better to offer fewer choices than more on a restaurant's menu. Obviously we're talking about some optimum between 1 and, say, a rational 20, but that optimum will be closer to the minimum than the max. With fewer choices the process of choosing becomes easier for the consumer; this leads to a more enjoyable, less frustrating experience. Additionally, there is less chance of the consumer experiencing post-purchase feelings of regret if there are fewer items.

Thank you for those photos. I've lurked on the TWoP Top Chef forum before and there's almost too much info to sort out most of the time. With that said, there's some pretty good analysis of the situation over there that goes into much more detail than what we discuss on eG. While it is true Marcel's storming off could have been edited in from another incident, that seems to be making another assumption in what is already a very puzzling incident. If indeed those stills are directly from the same incident, it is quite clear that Elia had her hair when Marcel was accosted. I think it goes back to what we were discussing before in that they decided to shave Marcel first and only shaved themselves afterwards so it would seem as if it was all in good fun. Very interesting. ETA: What really puzzles me, if in fact Illan and Elia did shave their heads after Cliff attacked Marcel, is why the production team wants to perpetuate this bizzare timeline. Are they trying to preserve the (perceived) integrity of the other cheftestants to some degree?

Eater brought this decidedly shady operation to my attention today, and I think it's worth discussing. They're offering tables at popular restaurants at, here's the important part, prime dining hours. The downside is that each reservation costs between $25-$45 depending on your membership type and how far in advance you've booked. I know people sell reservations to El Bulli and the like on eBay, but this is slightly more organized. Is this a smart business move, ethical, legal? What are the reprecussions if this practice catches on? Personally I think that it will require more restaurants requiring a credit card to hold a reservation, a very annoying policy. The Eater post. I'm not sure if the Per Se thing is true, but it would make sense. Per Se typically requires confirmations 2-3 days in advance and charges a massive no-show fee. The risk and timeline Per Se imposes makes it nearly impossible for this servce to be of use. PrimeTime Tables Registration is required and is not instantaneous. I registered tonight just to see what it's like and I guess will hear back to see if my registration was accepted tomorrow.

I'd also like to see pictures of the interior to judge quality and know the exact species.