Steve Klc

Hi Randall--would you share a little about how you go about "getting" good distinctive grapes? At the quality level and volume you do, it must be a complex juggling act to either grow what you need or source grapes grown by others. Is part of your success the fact that you developed, perhaps even encouraged, a network of growers who know they can sell interesting--less overtly commercial--grapes to you? If so, was that a part of your strategy way back when or did your method evolve serendipitously?

If true, probably a smart move. That far out in the burbs is a killer. There have been nights I wanted that ridiculously bargain-priced 3 course + a glass of wine in the bar at Le Relais but just couldn't stomach the drive or the traffic. And I live in Arlington.

"The reason I ask is because I am interested to know what a baker would use a mold for" Michael--I think your best approach is that this would offer the ultimate in customization to a baker or pastry chef. Say you were a pastry chef at a Disneyworld Resort and were known for your little round tea cakes. Using this skill--assuming you could bring production and materials in cost-effectively--would allow that pastry chef to create his own teacake mold with the logo of his resort set into the shape--so when he turned out the cake it had the logo "embossed." Kind of cool, don't you think? And no more difficult to make than a simple chocolate-silicone mold say of a one-sided medal or coin. The challenge technically would be to produce a half sheet mold or a full sheet mold of them. You offer them infinite unique shapes versus the limited sizes and shapes produced by Demarle, Gastroflex, whatever. How about we create and market a "flexipan" of the alphabet and numbers 1 through 9? That way in the same mold you could mold off tempered chocolate letters, poured sugar letters, even bake letters off of some type of cake or tuile batter. Thanks by the way for joining in here--you're helping make this a more special place.

Not for long!

"Tasted like Fall" in a good way or in a musty decaying leaf way? I know, sorry for the quip Ed. How about a word or two on pricing and portion size?

Tom--you know you're welcome here and elsewhere on the site, but we also realize you're busy enough. However, I think eGullet affords you an opportunity to explore an issue or flesh something out that you aren't able to online--given the time limit imposed on your Post chat--and the column inches imposed on your reviews. My main reaction to this specific post Mark--aside from the general question of anonymity on the internet which is really a much larger discussion--is that Tom and the Post did do right by you because they printed your reply. And if you weren't online at the time, I bet it would have been printed the following week. And for me, that real-world accountability reassures--on their part and on your part! Then we can convene here--the only place where you're going to find diners plus industry pros, chefs, sommeliers, editors, writers and critics like Tom hanging around free to say what they want.

blh--do you recall anything of the nature of the foam in the squid tree cavities? Warm? What was its flavor? Were the squid bodies small enough to eat in one bite? Any presentation notes about the desserts which you can remember and care to share?

"rather PR driven" Simone is PR driven, she's the very highly regarded publicist of DC Coast and Ten Penh and Ceiba, married to David Guas, the pastry chef of same, read about her here: http://www.simonesez.com/about_simone_ink.shtml Kind of a cool site, no? I'm glad you posted that link, it was an "interesting" read and I can't wait to try it out. I also hope this proves yet another boost to an increasingly happening food scene here. (What's an "other board?")

Bruce--if I could go back to any one, but only one, of the 3 higher end places I visited last time, and as you can tell from my post above all three were excellent, I'd pick Cafe W over Roppongi, for the more interesting, more challenging food. Plus, it's on a smaller, more charming scale which I personally like in restaurants. Roppongi is on a whole other scale, and has much more of the glitz and glamour you might be seeking in a high end meal. Wherever you decide to go, good luck! Also, thanks to everyone else for providing suggestions for next time. Cheftoad--do you have a website up yet about your place? Have you eaten at Cafe W?

Interesting. I heard immediate grumblings and rumblings from insiders when it was announced Berasategui got his third Michelin star--was that 2001?--that now the pressure was really on and that we'd see if he could deliver the goods a la Adria and Arzak and Santi Santamaria. As an outsider looking in--I'm more fascinated by and envious of what's happening here--in Spain--but also what energy is happening within this eGullet forum--all the new voices we have here and others on the "Help in Donostia" thread. Victor, pedro, two stagiaires working there joined by Gerry Dawes, Bux, Robert Brown, LML and a lot of others whose names escape me at the moment. Thank you all for some vicarious joy--your efforts are appreciated.

That's what I thought. I'm wary of anything "adapted" because it isn't Ferran doing the adapting. I suspect there's lecithin in there.

Where were you when you had the original and thought you had pure carrot? (with no added gelatin, stabilizer or an emulsifier, like lecithin.)

Heather--last I heard it was still "Winter 2004" for Sterling, nothing more specific. Wegmans recently announced the Woodbridge, NJ location will open November 9th--and Woodbridge broke ground sooner than Sterling. Can't wait, personally. I'll be so glad never to shop at Whole Foods VA again.

Erica--I agree completely that there is no defense if the sandwich actually is terrible!

Do you think over on eGulletFashion they're dissin' Isaac Mizrahi for taking the Target dollars? Let's try to approach this from another angle--and this is purely speculative, but all this respect being shown to Bayless on this thread might just mean he's a pretty good judge of what's capable at a given price point and scale. Maybe this endorsement means nothing more than BK is doing it just about the best that it can be done given its customer base, price and volume--and surely real reductions in fat in popular BK sandwiches will have more actual influence in more people's lives than any Alice Waters piece in Saveur. What if part of his agreement is that he'll continue to consult, continue to effect positive change? What if the BK support includes charitable contributions for some of these other Bayless interests like Chef's Collaborative? Can't smart talented people multi-task and succeed on several levels simultaneously? So he's going to appear in a few print ads in magazines such as Cooking Light and Shape and Parenting endorsing the Santa Fe Chicken sandwich--it might actually be a good sandwich. Why not publicly support a fast food chain trying to improve the status quo? Why would this in any way compromise any dish his staff serves in his restaurants? Does it undue his books or his writing? They will still either be every bit as good, every bit as consistent, every bit as "authentic" or they won't. It might be that what he says in the ad is nothing more than he supports BK trying to change, trying to improve, but that change has to happen slowly. Funny, but that might be the very same message he sends at the Chefs Collaborative meetings. Actually, BK is playing catchup--McDonalds has already rolled rolled out good salads with frisee and mache and baby lettuces.

Yes, Steve's been on the Board of Advisors for the Show for the past 5 years, so he better be demonstrating something! More here as the Show gets finalized: http://www.chocolateshow.com/ Clay--I think we're going to discover that the real challenge of raising awareness is on the professional side as well as, if not more so, than the consumer side, and that's where the chocolate and wine comparison fails just a bit. You have to convince pros to buy more expensive chocolate. Granted wine in the bottle will change, but that's how it is judged, right out of the bottle--so in one sense chocolate right out of the wrapper can be judged this way. But how many people are likely to gather in the study to unwrap a few precious ingots of chocolate? Chocolate I suspect will more likely parallel the evolution of premium coffee in this country--which has to be transformed: processed, roasted, packaged then manipulated again by the consumer in order to drink it. Most of the sensory enjoyment and likely appreciation of chocolate--in desserts and in bon bons and in the mouths of the consumers--involves much further transformation and much more skill on the part of the chocolatier or pastry chef who then has to take this fine finished product and transform it even further. And that adds so many other layers of complication--and expense--in essence NOT to muck it up--so that it becomes a very expensive ingredient again and not just an expensive end product in an of itself. I hope that was clear enough and I apologize if it wasn't. For the notion of vintage chocolate to become much more than quaint hype and quick money gleaned from a few pockets of the affluent, for the requisite "super-premium" pricing to gain any momentum, the public first has to be able to discern--and then willingly embrace--the notion that pastry chefs and chocolatiers shouldn't be using dreck but instead using "premium" chocolate varieties which cost say $4 per pound wholesale. And that is nowhere near happening yet. In fact, I'm seeing the reverse--I'm seeing more chocolatiers and pastry chefs use stronger fruit and herb flavors and greater intensity of spices to hide the natural perfumes and intricacies of the chocolate they use--so they can get away with using cheaper chocolate. There's another vintage problem as well--there's no cult of personality around unwrapping a vintage bar whereas there are visible personae, say a Jacques Torres or Francois Payard, behind their lines of truffles and bon bons. And we can never underestimate the role the cult of personality plays in our consumer culture--especially at the haute couture high end. Also, before we get anywhere meaningful with vintage we still have to deal adequately with terms like organic and fair trade--neither of which actually means the end product will taste good!

Darren--thanks for chronicling this--it had to take away from your enjoyment of the event. I'm also glad to see some of the actual dishes--we were working so hard plating up the two desserts for the crowd I wasn't able to wander around. And the only chef to send food over to the pastry chef's table was Cliff of Ten Penh--who I had not met before last night--and I have to say his red curry shrimp was fantastic. For me, the only other food I had was at Signatures afterward and I was very impressed with what Morou passed around and the bubbly that Todd Thrasher, the Signatures gm and sommelier, poured. We started off with wasabi-crusted watermelon skewers--imagine a 4" long dowel rod of watermelon on a skewer, with the watermelon being about 1/4" in diameter. Cool, stylishly arresting and a tingly surprise. Then kobe beef about 4 different ways, my favorites being the kobe beef steak and cheese sandwich, the kobe fritter and a sweetish kobe kebob glazed with barbecue sauce served with a funky but good cabbage slaw. Morou's sous chef--Jerry? Jeff? worked hard all night churning out several eclectic strongly seasoned sushi-style tuna and salmon rolls and tiny cornets of salmon roe resting atop a light wasabi foam. Morou's food isn't for the meek--but all his accents last night were in the right place and it made me want to come back to try more. As for the chocolate, yes, that's the E. Guittard "vintage" label and I use different E. Guittard chocolate varieties and blends in all the restaurants. I believe all the chef's recipes from this event are up on the starchefs website, too, so you can put recipe to photo if you're so inclined.

Tan--I think you have your answer with Bux saying there is a difference between good and great--in order to move forward, to be taken even more seriously as a restaurant team, an elite pastry chef in Pierre Reboul had to be hired. Dan and Mike were doing a good job--as good a job as I've seen chefs do with dessert. But then this was in the most competitive restaurant market. In other situations, a chef-driven restaurant might only be able to afford the services of a creative pastry chef as a consultant--and that's a move many chefs and restaurants should consider. Likewise, these dessert only/dessert tasting menu experiments are just that--experiments. The Boston concept failed as it was intended and quickly morphed into an average full-service restaurant in order to keep the doors open. Let's hope this year's Chikalicious and Sugar experiments, which have a different scope, fare better. Otherwise, pastry chefs and desserts remain imperiled nationally for a whole host of reasons.

That was a nice bit of hedging and qualification Joe. As chefs, to a certain degree we're all rooted in our past, rooted in tradition, where we've worked, who we've worked with. As we get more experienced, our inspiration and creativity is a much more complex thing, though, so too can it become harder to appreciate what dish is before you. I always think it's best to go in without expectation and to assess and evaluate what is set before you on its own terms. To a certain extent we as chefs accept simplistic labels, categories and limits from media and publicists--we accept a kind of dumbing down of what we do and who we are because it makes it easier for the public to get a handle on our food--which can be much more complex and personal than a label like "Italian" or "American" might suggest. Clearly, some chefs are their labels--and make a lot of money wearing their labels. Where I think some diners (and writers) miss out is they too readily accept labels or pre-conceived notions going in. Sometimes, they too readily speculate about things they don't have personal knowledge of or experience with--in each case re-inforcing those labels and limits which aren't necessarily correct in the first place. Your last post might be a case in point. Cutting through it, which was full of praise for Maestro which I'm not going to disagree with, you describe your last meal at Maestro where only 6 of 22 dishes had "clear Italian heritage" and this coming from someone well-versed in the "Italian" scene trying to make the case Maestro is an Italian restaurant...hmm...well, thanks for unintentionally helping support my point that Fabio as a chef is more global and rightly transcends the "Italian" label. That means, I assume, 16 dishes can't have the dots so easily and/or neatly connected--16 dishes don't fit neatly into some unhelpful categorization as "Italian." That supports me saying that his cooking is more personal--the cooking is more Fabio and less "Italian"--and diners not knowing Fabio's background would probably view his cooking as modern, creative and personal FIRST, which is my point. We're increasingly at a point in this country where labels don't apply to high end cooking, Joe--or where labels at least aren't helpful. I don't see this as a bad thing and re-reading your last post leads me to believe you might actually agree with me. Take the label "fusion." Well, not too long ago that was a slur--something derogatory trotted out to demean a creative chef--because only a few geniuses annointed by the media power brokers could be trusted to do fusion right. Thankfully, we're getting past the fusion label. That's because we're getting past fusion itself. By the way, I didn't say this but there were as many French "techniques" on display in my meal at Maestro than Italian. How do I know? Well, I'm a chef and I cook with French techniques every day. That doesn't make my opinion more correct--but it might mean I'm coming from a different place because I cook and create myself. It's unsurprising, really, because the French have influenced us globally for so long. That doesn't make me or Fabio any more a "French" chef, does it? It doesn't make his cooking "French" does it? No. It's Fabio Trabocchi being Fabio Trabocchi. This is simplistic, but it might help show you why I see things the way I do: when I do a dessert at Jaleo with all American ingredients is it still necessarily a "Spanish" dessert? I'm clearly not Spanish myself. How about a dessert which uses the great Spanish dessert wine Casta Diva--I make a gelee of the wine and vanilla and pour it into a bowl in a shallow layer and build a simple but creative dessert of berries and granite on top of it--does that make it a "Spanish" dessert? No, that's a Steve Klc dessert, modern, clean and personal which just happens to "fit" in a traditional Spanish restaurant of Jose Andres. The gelee "technique" itself is not "Spanish" nor is pouring it out a thin flat layer. Let's get back to the Maestro restaurant "experience" itself--the nuts and bolts of the meal unfolding--things like menu composition, plating, service, sommelier, decor, pacing: it was not "Italian" at least in any frame of reference that would distinguish it for the vast majority of high-end diners and tasting menus. It was the consummate gracious attentive high-end "global" dining experience--and could have been received in SF or NYC or Chicago or Portland etc. at Michel Richard, Trotter, FL, ADNY, Blue Hill, Clio, Trio, Tribute, Hugo's etc. or Paris or Spain or Italy and on and on. That Vincent poured a higher percentage of Italian wines with our meal than I might have received elsewhere doesn't make Maestro "Italian" either--it means he poured wines appropriate for the dish compositions--but those wines could easily have been poured for French, Spanish, American or global dishes. Of course, anyone could read Fabio's bio and the restaurant website blurbs--he's Italian, grew up and cooked in Italy and opened "Italian" restaurants like Bice previously. I realize it seems crazy to say what I've said. Fabio himself might disagree with my assessment. But I wouldn't say the same thing about Babbo, Galileo or Tosca for instance--the cooking there and those dishes are more recognizably, more comfortably Italian--or at least what passes for creative Italian in food media circles--and even with some personal cooking and interpretations those dishes--and meals there--do not transcend the label in my book as Maestro does. That's not to say those chefs aren't capable of individual transcendent dishes--individual dishes which defy category or defy a label; that's just saying that overall labelling these restaurants Italian, the cooking Italian, is warranted up to a point--if you even have to apply labels to them. That's because you aren't going to get an "only 6 Italian dishes out of 22" at a Babbo, Galileo or Tosca, are you--nor will you get a "no risotto/one pasta dish only but avant garde at that" as in my recent 15 course tasting menu? Similarly, does it make what Jose Andres is doing at the Cafe Atlantico minibar "Spanish" because Jose "is" Spanish? It's clear what Jose is doing at Jaleo is his take on traditional Spanish tapas--that's a label which applies--but the minibar is so much an expression of "Jose" it is not "Spanish." What Fabio is doing at Maestro--based on what I know and what I observed last week--similarly transcends labels. It's much more modern, creative, eclectic, interesting and personal--like what Jose is doing at the minibar or like what an increasing number of elite "French" or "Spanish" or "American" chefs are doing--than any "label" can do justice to. You say "Still, it is an Italian restaurant. One that represents the same cutting edge style found in a few restaurants in Italy today. Fabio is just educating many in this country that Italian can take on many guises and tastes" I just wish you'd demonstrate it because you're evidence seems to support my take on this--and though I've never been to this restaurant in Italy which you have been to, I wonder if I did dine there if I wouldn't feel the same way about it as I do Maestro--that it is more global and the cooking more personal and transcendent than anything else, than any label can do adequate justice to? How much product does Le Calandre fly in from around the world--as much as Fabio? How many of their dishes could just as easily have been presented at Trotter or FL or a Spanish Michelin three star as many of Fabio's could? Up to that point, I think we can agree to disagree about Fabio and Maestro: summarized essentially as my "personal, creative, global" vs. your "cutting edge Italian"--and let others weigh in to either agree or disagree--as Vengroff has already done. I think that will just depend on one's perspective on labels and one's appreciation of food and chefs. To me, the best chefs don't have limits and they defy labels. Also, sometimes in your posts you include a few comments which over-reach just a bit and are worth calling you on, this was no exception: "I personally believe it is an embarrassment that he did not receive the James Beard Award this year." Why? There are many James Beard awards to be had in a career--Rising star, Best Chef-Mid-Atlantic, Best Chef nationally. Fabio has an incredible future ahead of him. This year he "lost"--if you could call being one of only 5 chefs nominated nationally "losing" or embarrassing in any way. I can't. How many meals have you had at the hands of Grant Achatz--the young chef who did get the Beard in Fabio's category this year? Both young guys doing serious work--one got it, one didn't--in an admittedly political, somewhat mysterious process inherently difficult because it is conducted on a national scale. Rest assured, both will garner further Beard nominations and win awards. But in order to feel so embarrassed you'd surely have had numerous meals at Trio in Grant's hands, right? Have you written up those meals somewhere and been non-plussed? If so, I'd like to read how and why Grant let you down. You also lose me a bit when you use terms like "real" food and "fantasy" as if they have some meaning--some agreed upon significance--and when you try to talk about El Bulli not having been there yourself, I wonder if you've at least read through the El Bulli books, cooked with the recipes, played the CD-ROM and digested what they have to offer. From what I have read it seems you're still unaware how Ferran and El Bulli inspire and influence all sorts of chefs both here and abroad. But that's OK--we both do agree on at least this much--that Fabio is a great chef already, doing great work now and that Maestro is a great restaurant.

"while I was looking for the Food Arts issue, I came across your caramel article for them and the awesome caramel sushi dessert you and Jose developed. I remember when that came out and how blown away I was!" Thank you for remembering, Ted. Thanks to the freedom Michael Batterberry and Food Arts gave me, we got the word out about agar-agar a little ahead of the curve.

I empathize completely. One dining companion the other night was in the same boat--and I used that comment specifically here because that was something he said the next day recounting the experience to his business colleagues--and it was relayed back to me. There are hundreds of Maestro diners that will be in that position--initially intimidated. That's where trust has to come in. And if more diners see chefs giving themselves over to the creativity of another chef--as we always try to do--maybe they'll feel a little more confident to do the same. And all of sudden you just might find yourself at the point where reading fennel pollen, scallop roe, bottarga, uni, whatever, doesn't faze you, doesn't scare you toward something more familiar. Hopefully you trust, you order, and you appreciate a dish on the chef's terms. Our companion is affluent and cultured, flies and sails all over the world, yet was a bit intimidated by the Maestro menu. His business dealings usually take him to conservative power places like the Palm for a steak. Yesterday he said our dinner at Maestro was the second most amazing meal he's ever experienced--topped only by the 21 course wedding reception Jose Andres cooked for us when Colleen and I got married. He still talks about that experience--how the idea of so many very little dishes seemed so foreign, how he never heard of cuttlefish before but just dived in because the preceeding dishes were so good, etc. Both of them were exceptional in part because he trusted and he gave up control.

One thing I think is interesting is that I had read all these reports that Maestro is an Italian restaurant and Fabio cooks Italian. It's not necessarily and he doesn't necessarily. His cooking is every bit as modern, contemporary and interesting as the very best French or Spanish or American chefs who are globally influenced and inspired. What Fabio does is global in scope and with the skills he demonstrated, his sphere of influence in coming years will be global as well. Like other elite chefs around the country he flies in some fresh things--sourcing wild King salmon, the sea bass from Brittany, the fresh anchovies from Florida, etc. AND buys locally. It's very personal, very sophisticated yet very delicious food: it transcends labels like "Italian." And even though we were there on a "slow" night--only 50 or 55 covers--Fabio runs an impeccably quiet, serious kitchen that has to stay amazingly focused due to its mutli-course tasting menu approach even on a slow night. And you get this level of sophisticated achievement and sourcing night in and night out: 9 thin quiet focused young guys, heads down, communicating via lapel microphone and walkie-talkie just efficiently getting the job done all in plain view--another 9 guys in groups runnning food to the floor on silver trays--and Vincent pouring the juice passionately to every table in the room. Our main server was Fernando and he was assured, friendly and young. We were there for 4 hours--Fabio came out of his "open" kitchen once--for about three minutes total--to say a brief hello to our table and to another table. That's it. Then it was back to quiet focused hands-on work. "Fabio is fabulous"--I think chefette crystallized that well. I can't add anything to that. His is an oasis of delicacy, intensity and refinement amidst what all too often is a predictably arid and conservatively bland desert. Allow him to cook for you, as we did. Don't be put off by terms on the menu that you do not understand--take a chance and order dishes even when the only word you fully understand in the menu description might be "with." Allow Vincent to choose wines, as we did. I tried less-than-discreetly to keep track of all the wines in my Palm and fortunately when we were about to leave, Vincent slipped me a handwritten list of the wines--he said he had noticed me trying to keep track and he appreciated our interest. Here's what Vincent chose for the meal Fabio chose and what few mental notes I remember: Ca'del Bosco Franciacorta, a sparkler which was incredibly flavorful, the equal of any $50-70 retail bottle of champagne I've had; Etude carneros pinot gris--served with the anchovy and mosaic salmon courses, exotic and adventurous enough to stand up to the food--and it had to be because of the pleasingly salty mullet roe ("bottarga di Maggine" on the menu) Fabio presented this as a thin shaved slice curled into a circle stacked atop a curled anchovy filet--like two wedding rings. It was a perfect marriage with the lemon balanced by the brininess of mullet roe. Sauvignon blanc, Venica (ronco cero? I'm not so Italian vino-literate) this was the very herbal white Colleen mentioned--green, grassy, herbal with strong aroma of summer savory or purple basil--a wine probably hard to appreciate if drunk in isolation--but perfect, perfect with this scallop and chanterelle dish. One of the little treats of this meal was that Fabio included the mottled orange roe, which I hadn't had in a while. I'm grateful to Colleen in that I got to have her little fava-bean-shaped piece of roe as well. Vincent poured a Tocai ronco, Venica from Friuli with the pasta and sea urchin dish and what I have to say about that is it didn't get in the way of the dish, which was my favorite overall dish of the night. Unexpected culinary muscle-flexing is what this simple, quietly avant-garde dish was. (Fabio and his pastry chef could build a dessert amuse around the very delicate crispy celery, maybe candy it slightly and serve it with green apple sorbet and a green herb.) The wine also enhanced the sea bass-fennel pollen-crisped skin which was my favorite individual element of the night. Then our first of a series of very food-friendly reds, Les hauts de Gramenon, Vinsobres 2000 (a Cote du rhones villages from Bobby Kacher) with the rustic foie gras lentil dish. A very tough dish to pick a wine for because Fabio broke the "foie always with sweet and fruity stuff" rule with this dish. It wasn't overtly sweet at all except in a vague seared caramelized way. When Vincent poured this he whispered "I make no promises with this wine" but we all enjoyed it. Then I took the next wine quickly off the label: Robins Rietini (Reatini is the region, right?) 1997 Chianti RSV with the pigeon followed by a Valpolicella Ripassa by Zenato, from Veneto with Fabio's take on tournedos of beef Rossini, which were like thin little sushi rolls of kobe beef filet wrapped around a foie gras center. The wine was a very approachable yet still gutsy ruby red, with just enough power and intensity to hold up to the dish. It's a nice touch that the basil grappa is poured tableside onto the panna cotta. I didn't care too much for the peppermint souffle (I don't like souffles) but the chocolate sorbet and the chocolate hiding in the bottom of the souffle dish were great. We concluded with a dessert wine I had had many times before and is all around town, the Maculan torcolato, and it was a fine liquid dessert in a glass. It didn't go with any of the desserts but it wasn't meant to; it went well with the darling madeleines. Oh, and one of the dishes Fabio is doing at the Starchefs event next week is the panna cotta with grappa, so those of you going to that can try it there.

Makes one wonder what Firefly would be like with a patio? Answer: a charming addition to the neighborhood that I'd encourage if I lived in that neighborhood. Too bad the people who live there don't realize what they are missing.

Do you mean the Art of Eating? Food Arts is always ahead of curve.

Ted--the Blumenthal fondant is good but fussy and not what Philippe does. It's a different animal. Track down the Food Arts July/August 2000 issue for a charming, well-written piece on Philippe with a few recipes. Then there was that NY Times six part series which you probably saw. But by far the best source of info and current recipes by Philippe is the Thuries magazine issue #132 from September 2001--14 big full color pages, incredible photographs, with his real recipes. By real recipes I mean if his typical dessert has 11 components--in Thuries he gives you all 11 recipes and methods. His chocolate moelleux is in there: 125 g 70% chocolate 120 g butter 1 yolk 2 eggs 90 g sugar 120 g flour You have to vary the amounts depending on which specific ingredients you use. He used this little moelleux in a NYC demo at the IHM&RS in 2000 pairing it with salt, passionfruit seeds, mango jus, milk froth and a praline emulsion done in a PacoJet, serving it up in a glass--he was still working out that dessert but that season I think he called it "Amadeus." This Thuries piece is much, much, much better than the PA&D piece on Philippe, which was incomplete. Compare the recipes in PA&D with the recipes in Thuries and you will see what I mean. His reworked version of a millefeuille with a vanilla espuma is there, which Philippe demoed and served in a wineglass at the NY Chocolate Show two years ago, so is his blinchik, aracaju, and pain perdu banane, which we were lucky to have when we visited Paris. Every pastry chef should contact Thuries and buy this back issue. fresh_a--my question for you is this: what was your reaction when you read this Hinman article? You're based in Paris--did it surprise you to read something like this, even given the fact that it seems written for non-natives?