Steve Klc

Thanks much alacarte--remind me--"correspondents" are freelancers and not staff writers or reporters?

Yes--and another thing to keep in mind is it's tough to cut very irregular or intricate shapes into the neoprene--for those--and depending on the thickness you want--plastilina can be the better way to go. It will be interesting to see how your carrot-shapes come out Sinclair--and after the kind of volume you're doing--which method you feel might have ended up being more efficient and more cost effective once you start doing "x" at one time and factor in labor. Please report back after you start cranking these out with what you discover--ok?

Plastilina--different degrees of firmness, different colors--we usually use "white" which is really a kind of manilla file folder color. $4 for a block that looks like a pound of butter. Try Pearl or other art and craft stores. If you can afford it, I'd recommend you use the black rubber neoprene mats and cut your own forms instead of the plastilina--much cleaner, much easier than plastilina--especially if you want to reproduce your poured sugar pieces--like if you were going to make seasonal showpieces each year or multiple table centerpieces for an event.

Here's one thing I've always wondered about--is there any performance or taste advantage to using file which you grind yourself from whole leaves versus the powdered stuff you can buy? Is this discussed in any of the sources or been observed in practice? This speaks to the "grind your own from whole spice" for much fresher fragrant effect that seems to apply to many other spices.

There's alot here, I want to thank all for contributing and prompting me to read the Heartland. I'll try to take the other side--the side not seemingly so sympathetic on this thread. You raise one interesting point Indiagirl when you try to link social responsibility to "restaurant corporations" and the effect on the local scene. You say you refuse to contribute to their profit base--why? By doing so you are failing to reward companies who usually--usually--provide a little more security, better pay, better benefits and insurance, vacation time, cleaner safer work environments to their employees--than what I assume you classify as the other local restaurants--the mom and pop individually-owned small businesses. Where do think the abuses, the failure to pay taxes, the failure to adhere to reporting and INS standards are more likely to occur as far as employees--in a restaurant group and larger RC or in the small business? Answer--small business, at least from my limited personal experience. Who is more likely to be strapped for cash? Again, not the group or corporation. Who is more likely not to know what they are doing? Again, not the corporation or group. One of the ways restaurants get to be "restaurant management groups" is they learn how to do it right for their customer base, with sustained interest over a period of time, and sustained sound financial accountability. Isn't this a good thing locally--virtually anywhere? Aren't all the employees "local" anyway? Wouldn't the very first line of socially responsible thinking be the welfare and outlook of the labor pool and the jobs created as a result of this industry? And to get a better picture of that you'd have to get into things like employee loyalty, pay raises, promotion from within, etc. But then this would involve looking beyond the food on the plate and behind the kitchen door as Rail Paul says. I'm game if you are--I've seen immigrants treated as veritable indentured servants in local/individually-owned fine dining restaurants, with pay witheld and resident alien status used against them, with no SS or tax witheld, no respect for hours worked--why? Because the owner "could." I think everyone of these employees--all quite skilled, quite energetic and grateful for the opportunity to work--would have been better off in a restaurant group or an RC like Lettuce or in my area large restaurant groups like the Lebanese Taverna, Rio Grande, Austin Grill, etc. I'm also really glad there are restaurant groups offering safe affordable consistent somewhat interesting food--at a better level--than was once available. Where systems and recipes and standards have stringently been worked out. Why is this necessarily seen in opposition to local individually owned restaurants? I've had excellent food in chains and inedible food in fine dining restaurants. I guess I just hesitate to equate or link the two in any way in terms of social responsibility. I think we also have to be careful about even linking RC's with "fine dining." Most operate below the level of what most eGulleteers consider fine dining. But since no one has said it I will say it--as I've written elsewhere on the site: I think many restaurant groups, chains, franchises, corporations are doing a good job, a better job than most people think. Foodservice has been getting better, there is something to be said for corporate accountability which translates--sometimes--into better customer service and better treatment, better valuation of the guest experience. Call me a sucker but rather than indifference, pretension or attitude, I really prefer having my water glass and iced tea refilled when it is empty. Guess where that happens more often to me? In chains and restaurant groups similar to Lettuce. There's something positive to be said for getting basic things right more consistently--and therein lies broad appeal.

I don't have any problem either with single meal reports--snapshots in time which can be conveyed in a more timely fashion and can often be more accurate than what is on the books. There's nothing as depressing for someone in the biz as out-of-date opinions on chefs or restaurants. The big problem is when critic or reader tries to extend or extrapolate from that one report into something more universal. It just can't be done. In an ideal world I'd agree completely with Suzanne--lunch should be every bit as consistent and representative as dinner, it should be evaluated as part of a whole and on its own standards, covered with equal emphasis and I'd love to read more about brunch service--I'm an equal opportunity omnivore and consumer. However, let's get real. Only relatively recently have critics started to realize hey, maybe I should learn something about wine and mention the helpfulness of a sommelier in a review, maybe I should devote more than a perfunctory mention of the creme brulee, chocolate brownie and vanilla ice cream in a review, maybe I should mention the names of pastry chefs doing good work. And if by ignoring lunch/brunch/afternoon tea/happy hour snacks, leaving little updates about these to features and stories by other writers--a reviewer could do better justice to more timely dinner reportage--I'd be very happy and I'd think we gain as consumers. Here's why it might be unrealistic to expect more, as Suzanne does, at given current levels of support: how many of the elite 4 star Reichl restaurants in NYC have yet to be reviewed by Grimes? If the Times can't prioritize to have something more current than from 1998 on the books for a few of these warhorses, how can anyone realistically expect anything else? Turn the question around--how would most people be better served--with more timely reviews, turned around sooner than 5 years, of the most significant restaurants in a given city or with expanded coverage to include lunch/brunch but in an even less timely more "stuck in time" feel to them? Which would be more fair to the reader or visitor to a city? While my heart is with you Suzanne--and while from a consumer perspective I'd like to know if what's offered at lunch has any/some/all of the panache offered at dinner--I think I'd still opt for finding out if the current reviewer in a given city still feels if the Jean-Georges/Lespinasse/Kinkeads etc of the worlds are still all that, still as culinarily relevant and still deserving of the top billing as the scene around them has evolved. Are they still making the grade or mailing it in?

Probably Callebaut. I've seen those bars for at least a year if not longer. Usually, though, places like Whole Foods and Trader Joes do not reveal who actually makes their private label stuff for them. What Guittard you been using lately? Not the "E. Guittard" 61% or 72% I suspect, which right now are the best chocolates for the money in the US.

Thanks for the current report Vengroff--I haven't been in a long while. But the bar, oysters and lunch would not be judged on the "dinner" scale would it, which is where reputations would be made and on which laurels a restaurant might be resting? Can you assess it with some context of price--power lunch pricing or something more value-oriented? I think it's tough and possibly unfair to ask someone to extrapolate from lunch to dinner--so you'll have to go for dinner as well! Also, I'm intrigued by your "Is the food bold, forward-thinking, surprising, challenging or avant-garde" versus "well executed and genuinely tasty"--because to me there is a middle ground of well executed tasty food which also happens to be "interesting" or "creative" but that is not what I believe you mean when you say "bold, forward-thinking, surprising, challenging and avant-garde." Agree? If so, then push yourself to classify the Kinkead lunch as you observed it--was it leaning more toward the "well-executed but not that interesting"--on the safe, perfunctory or boring side or "well executed, simple yet interesting?" Was the food itself--apart from service issues--in terms of conception, quality of ingredients, execution and price-point--worthy of a place alongside whichever chefs and restaurateurs would make your "highest level" list?

Joe--at one point, one of the French Market guys was butcher for the Dean & Deluca in Georgetown--he was completely willing to talk shop, do some special trimming, cutting etc.--do you know if they are one and the same and he has moved on? I think we agree about Wegmans except for your conclusion: "But don't expect Wegman's to take the place of stores that many of us still go out of our way for specialty foods. They'll have a lot. But there will still be a place for others" I think you might be wrong. I mean, you're not wrong in that certain stores will always have certain special people in place with a passion or knowledge unrivalled elsewhere even within the same chain and as a result you'll find cult Belgian beers here, special cheeses there, special rice there, as you note. But the number of places and the incentives will continue to shrink and Wegmans will take the place of going to these special stores--at least as soon as they open a location just a little closer to the city. There just won't be as many of these places surviving unless they do a better job locking into distribution and delivery channels--at Wegmans for instance--and keep recruiting and nurturing customers--as more people become comfortable ordering over the net from artisinal sources and as our area continues to get more and more congested we will be making fewer trips for specialty goods. Even for unique or tightly allocated products--as word spreads, so will the availability. Take your Bread Line example--it's a fantastic lunch place. If I had an office job near GW I'd eat there five times a week. I'd buy his bread every day. But I'm not driving 45 mins there just to get the best bread going--and it is by far the best bread. If I'm in the area, sure. He's got the most interesting food as well for the area and price point and I buy fresh yeast there--nice tip for DC bakers--Mark will sell you a one pound block of fresh compressed yeast right out of the walkin for $2.50. And it's very good yeast. But if you live in Reston and eat at all those chain or imported concept restaurants you ain't driving very far to get Breadline bread. If you live in Arlington you aren't crossing the bridge to buy bread at Breadline. You're more likely to eat Brealine bread at restaurants. The difference is if we lived in SF and shopped at the Whole Foods SF store--Mark's bread would be featured along with Acme and about 3 or 4 other specialists in addition to their own in-house line. Their audience was aware and they demanded it--and when WF stocked it their customers bought it. Win-win. I've already mentioned how WF-Mid Atlantic seems incapable of thinking like this--their plan is to force you to buy their shitty bread as if no other bread exists and as if you didn't have any better options. Wegmans does things like open a Kosher kitchen and catering division to serve their customers--in essence, opening up their options; hire a real pastry chef and empower him to use real ingredients with finesse and taste; like sell irradiated beef alongside regular beef--opening up options; they sell (or sold, last time I was in there) like 6 different varieties of salmon including several wild line caught varieties. And on and on and on in ways you never thought possible. On this we agree. Of the two--Wegmans might be smart enough to feature items from all of these special sources you still seek out if there is demand or awareness within a particular region for these things. You'd think their buyers might be aware that the level of arborio sophistication here just might be a little higher than in Allentown--with D&D and Sutton and WF and several elite Italian restaurants and chefs here? I do. We may have more farmers markets than all those other cities you mentioned as well--I'd expect the Sterling Wegmans to deal more aggresively with this and with the faux-organic mantra provided by WF. In fact, now that you've made me think more about it I'd expect this Wegmans to be even superior to the Princeton store. (Have you tasted the Wegmans full Herme pastry and chocolate line at any of the stores you visited? I can't remember which ones outside of NJ have them.) And for many who are working harder and longer--do you think you will see fewer people going out of their way? I do. Do you have any doubt the Sterling Wegmans will outsell the Georgetown Pizzeria Paradiso in terms of pies? I don't and I'd never have considered just stopping off for a wood-burned pizza before crossing Key Bridge--but I'll probably buy 50 from Wegmans in the first year if they are any good. I was buying those Vermont frozen flatbreads from Whole Foods because that was the best alternative within a half hour's drive. Now I'll probably buy a fresh one from Wegmans because Whole Foods Mid Atlantic doesn't care enough to offer me this service which is in their other stores outside our region--and is even in places like the NW DC Marvelous Market. From some recent reports the Wegmans pie just might be a better pie than Pizzeria Paradiso anyway! And I'm sure we'll talk about it when it does open.

I haven't been back since then Heather but would if I ever had a reason to be out there. I'd be interested in hearing your report of the place. A micro-coffee roaster opened up in that same strip, didn't it? I seem to recall a Sietsema chat or a Foraging column which mentioned it. Even if I weren't situated where I am, I'd go to Bistro Lepic and Le Relais instead, each of which offer lower-priced better value alternatives to their regular dining rooms--and both which operate at a higher, more interesting level than Mannequin Pis--but that's based on just one visit to Pis. If you rave we might just go back!

Here's some more poop on Peeps from the Washington Post Food section: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2003Mar18.html

Not in my book. I didn't consider the Oval Room very high-profile or significant. But otherwise another strong weekly Food section: gotta like Wolke, a very nice piece by Judith Weinraub (our Marian Burros) on politics and organic standards, Sietsema wraps up the Beard award nominations with a generous 200 words, a very good interview/writeup of Jay Comfort and a few other local chefs, a Peep alert--yet again demonstrating that the Food section does a good job serving the conflicting needs of all of their million or so readers--star chef hangers-on, foodies, home cooks, suburbanite den mothers. Jeanne McManus also noticed something we did as well--these early decidely not local strawberries now in the supermarkets taste really really good. My wife Colleen thought it was odd Carole Greenwood would be photographed clutching beets in a Taste of Spring piece, though. But perhaps the most thought-provoking element of the entire section is this: what does it say about our area--that of the talented husband and wife team behind the now-closed but much loved Rupperts--described by Candy Sagon as serving "simple, innovative American cooking"--one has now 1) left food and is studying art and the other is 2) consulting on the side and running a flower-arranging business? Maybe nothing at all--maybe they just wanted to raise their kid and lead a more normal life. But I wonder...

Fairly good is subjective. The Princeton Wegmans has a very nice selection of "ethnic" ingredients, for lack of a better word. It just can't compete with the great variety of culturally specific markets we have here at our disposal, though--so if you shop at places like El Chapparral on Wilson Blvd. for your panela or cajeta or buy your Asian pears by the flat at that huge Korean/Japanese/Chinese market out Lee Highway/Gallows Road--you will be disappointed by what's offerred at the Princeton Wegmans. It just might be, though, that the stores will reflect the needs and the competition of each location--so the new Wegmans opening up in Woodbridge, NJ--my hometown--perhaps might have a tremendous Indian section since Iselin is nearby. Then again, they might decide that that community won't shop there anyway--I have no idea how those marketing people figure that stuff out. Wegmans just does all the other things so uncommonly well--so well, in fact, that you'll have a hard time going back into your local Whole Foods again. If the Woodbridge store opens up soon that would be an easy off/easy on for anyone on the Turnpike--exit 11--easier than getting to the Princeton store. As far as price goes--it's like restaurants--you have to figure out your own price to value to quality ratio. I think that depends on how you shop and what you buy--but I've found Wegmans price-competitive with regular supermarkets except much higher quality, much more depth, much more uniqueness and way better customer service.

That's great news Malawry--at least for us Virginians. I went to the Wegmans website a few weeks ago to see if there was an update on those stores and didn't see anything new. Heather--to whet your appetite--next time you drive north on 95 to NYC or wherever--plan a brief detour to the Princeton Wegmans to see what we're all talking about. I usually do it on the way back--and even pack an insulated bag along if it's warm. One taste through the Herme-consulted pastry boutique in that Wegmans and you'll see why I'm so eager to drive out the toll road to Rt. 28 next Fall for my regular grocery shopping. It will be similar to all of us older Washingtonians who made the trek to the original Marvelous Market store on Conn. Ave way back when when it opened--it was just such a superior experience it dwarfed the scene. And let's just hope the Sterling store is on par with Princeton.

Michael--try the 0% fromage blanc from Vermont Butter and Cheese Company in your olive oil ice cream.

No link?

One approach could be to start with this year's James Beard Award "Best Chef" nominees for the Mid-Atlantic region--four of five nominated are from DC: Peter Pastan at Obelisk, Jose Andres at Jaleo, Todd Gray at Equinox and Ann Cashion at Cashion's Eat Place. Throw in Fabio Trabocchi from Maestro--who picked up the Beard "Rising Star" nod--assuming he stays here and isn't the chef Tom Sietsema referred to in his last online chat as moving up and out of the area. I think another young chef who might qualify with some buzz is Jamie Leeds of 15 Ria.

Stone--pate de fruit? Shaw--clearly the desserts were the weakest link on my trips West as well, it's where I was wondering if Stone might be trying to go if I gave him the opening. You'd think if any elite West coast restaurant would have an imaginative, creative, interesting dessert program it would be at a high end East Coast restaurant with a NY tested French chef like Laurent Gras who just happened to be cooking in SF, wouldn't you? Someone who was competing with the likes of a Cello or Atelier, no? You're gonna get me in hot water but yes, it seems few on the West Coast, especially in the food media, realize how underserved and/or poor their dessert programs are as a rule compared to elite restaurants in Chicago or New York. It might stem from viewing Nancy Silverton as a great pastry chef rather than the baker she is or Alice Waters and this business of impeccable fruits presented very simply with little hint of the interest, finesse or refinement that's capable of being achieved in desserts. I'm not sure, I don't get West enough to see if the situation has improved. The problem of being overfed by a chef to the point of savory saturation, leaving no room for dessert of any kind, unfortunately is common on both coasts. That's why I always appreciate dynamic chef/pastry chef teams who work together for a complete meal, where desserts are integrated with the style of the meal which preceded it and not an afterthought. I'm not as current on the scene as I could be--perhaps it has improved--and for the record, the desserts from the FL in the summer of 2001 were fantastic. But then they were being made by a French ex-New Yorker.

Let's not forget eGulleteers Kathleen Purvis of the Charlotte Observer and Grant Achatz of Trio also got Beard nominations. Congratulations Steve, Grant and Kathleen. (Zaytinya picked up a Best New Restaurant nod as well.)

That almost sounds too good to be true! 5 pounds and by the gram? Do you have a model number and a link perhaps to where you bought it?

Stone--did you select the dessert or was that the tasting menu item? Do you recall any of the other choices and whether they matched up with the link you provided? Was the name of the pastry chef mentioned on the menu? No pre-dessert or amuse? Also--your souffle seems way traditional, so, too, do most of the desserts as listed on the website, with a tweak here or there of a spice or unexpected ingredient, like the blood orange with chocolate. The big exception being the banana and avocado parfait with coconut milk. But descriptions can be misleading: were you able to observe anything about the presentation of these desserts that said "I'm as elegant, reworked, or reinvented a presentation as the food?" What do you remember about the "fours?" And did you just get four--two each of a kind? No pre-dessert and skimpy petits fours--at these prices? Is it possible you received less because you did the tasting menu rather than a la carte?

Home kitchen or pro kitchen? Will you do pastry? If so, make sure it measures down to 2g increments with 1 g increments even better. The ability to switch between grams and ounces without having to turn the scale over in order to switch back and forth is a very nice feature if you plan to work with alot of different recipes. I think we had a few previous threads on this--have you searched? I think I mentioned we've had good luck with several of the inexpensive battery-operated flat, sleek, light, low-profile plastic Soehnle (sp?) scales. It travels well, we've packed it and taken it everywhere. It holds up. I haven't ever used the Salter models, which Sur La Table sells, but have the Edlund in one restaurant and it is excellent. It's also more expensive than you need if you're working at home. (I do like my Pelouze digital best, though, which is more expensive as well. Model FS2 weighs to 1 g, has a two pound capacity, electric and rechargeable internal battery, don't have to turn it over to switch g/oz.)

But even that's helpful--thanks alacarte!

alacarte--do you know the paper and the Boston scene well enough to give us a brief rundown of the editor and writers for this section--who they are, how long you've been reading them--and what distinctions are made between "staff," "correspondent" and/or freelancer? Thank you for the nice annotations. (By the way, the only souffle misunderstanding this diner has is why they are on any menu except for French restaurants that time forgot.)

"i'm interested in brilliant food and unique experiences. preferably without having to play "dress-up." Django would be perfect for you considering your criteria, if you can get a reservation. Of course, Django would be my number one recommendation anyway. Don't forget it is BYOB.