peteswanson

What were the techniques like in the 70's with which they were successfully able to use pine? I am not in the least bit surprised by the Adria's in the 90's. I know Bras is one of the earler Molecular Gastronomists as well, but I wonder how they manipulated things then before the real advent of the molecular gastronomy movement. Bras' dish "licked by the embers" I believe it is called...is salmon perfumed with smoking pine needles..this is also something which is quite common in France...I recall being told by a customer at a restaurant I worked at years ago, that she and her family used to cook mussels on pine on top of a fire when she was a child...apparantly something commonplace, which I was quite surprised about.

I recently got my reservation for Sep 14th for my honeymoon, which was wonderful news..in other wonderful news, I just opened an email from El Bulli being accepted to work the 2006 season at the restaurant...although I had to turn it down b/c of the beginning of my marriage, it was a huge honor to be accepted into the kitchen team. What a week of wonderful surprises!!

The hefty pricetag is for the cut of meat itself....sous vide isn't a miraculous method that makes a crappy piece of meat taste like heaven..it is simply a vessel for which this already expensive cut be perfectly cooked (which for chefs allows less waste when something is not cooked properly) I agree, that there certainly are,have been, and always will be chefs and cooks who can achieve a tenderness without the help of such technological advances, but it certainly doesn't dismiss this cooking medium. I also agree that it perplexes me why a number of restaurants feel the need to put the term "sous vide" in front of an item, as it generates a feeling of "this will taste different than the last time I had lamb"...in fact, many great restaurants have been using this method for years, yet have never felt the need to state it to the general public. It seems as if many American chefs feel the need to flaunt this cooking medium to the general public, rather than simply utilize it in the kitchen and not on the menu.