Steve Klc

Rob--why don't you copy this and start a bio thread, introducing yourself? I'm also not sure whether you went to school or not first--it may be you're not working under chefs who are teaching you and enabling you to learn from those around you. Sometimes that's what school does for you--when you're out in the real world working--you know how or why something happened or went wrong when it goes wrong. It may be you're learning how to do things--by watching those around you--but they're not imparting why they do those things. Is your whole job on the line or did you get involved in prep--and see how dishes were composed and why? (I didn't go to cooking school until I was 32 and that was 10 years ago.)

FM--have you ever tried blending butter and Crisco in an application--to get the benefits of both? (I have in pie dough and it works out well.) How about butter-flavored Crisco--ever used it? (Yes, I know it looks nasty.) How'd your baking of pie doughs turn out with and without Crisco besides taste--how'd you do in color and performance? What else did you try with Crisco as an ingredient besides pie dough? (I should disclose to you that my wife and I were "Crisco chefs of the month" not too long ago--not that that means anything. But we got to experiment with all their products and we actually enjoyed using their oils and their sprays in several applications and built some recipes around them that met our standards.) Do you ever cook for vegetarians?

Some of you have approached this with the perspective that a restaurant has a say in how it will be "covered" and that a restaurant has the right to ask to be excluded or not covered, in other words. I don't believe it has this right to decline to be mentioned--for whatever reason--either to keep a nice place secret or to keep a lousy review from seeing the light of day. And disclosing publicly that certain establishments "did not respond" to a questionnaire or "declined" to participate or did not return phone calls, etc., is not vindictive--in fact it happens every day in every section of every newspaper in the country. It's called fairness and disclosure--and in this case the author, editor, publisher, restaurant and reader would all be served with an editor's note stating "x" restaurant asked not to be included--should said editor wish to include one. When you are a public entity you can't opt out of coverage--even if that coverage is a mention in a guidebook or a list. However, I'd have no problem including them anyway--without an editor's note--despite their objection.

Greeks and Eastern Mediterranean--I think mostly to make jams and rosewater--which would then be used in syrups, pastries with phyllo, served with rice puddings, ice cream, little fruit mixtures. For beverages, I've come across recipes for cold almond milk drinks flavored with rose and even plain spring water perfumed with rose petals. In desserts, rose seems most often combined with other flavors like mastic, orange blossom water, pistachios, lemon but really, you can find recipes and references to rosewater being combined with many, many things--all dried fruits, pomegranate seeds, etc. The one or two Turkish books I have have some interesting traditional dishes--a milk pudding with rosewater and a rice pudding with saffron and rosewater. Suvir--have you ever seen preserves with the whole petal intact--as in the Canadian example I have? I love the Diana Vreeland pink as the navy blue of India line.

Thanks Mark for sharing that.

Chefette--I just went to the fridge. The brand of rose gelee is "Arome fleurs & fruits" and is a product of Canada: C. P. 611, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu (Quebec) Canada, J3B 6Z8. $6.99 for 180 g, ingredients: water, glucose, sugar, organic roses, rose water, lemon concentrate, pectin. And Suvir--I'm reading a few Greek and Middle eastern cookbooks right now and a few of them mention that red rose petals are the most fragrant. Have you only seen pink used in India?

Have you considered adding a disclaimer in the back of the book that "so and so" restaurant requested not to be listed? List them by name and do not include their phone number and address. Otherwise, it speaks to your awareness and attention to detail--i.e. some reviewer or reader might say "he forgot to include so and so."

David and Mark--have you observed jalapenos gradually becoming less hot and a little sweeter over the years?

Rosie--have you dined there as a critic before, were you "known," or were you unknown and just identified it was an anniversary/birthday when making the reservation?

Peter--the very sympathetic NYT treatment of restaurants in Ludlow, including praise for Shaun Hill, ran June 19th and was by Marian Burros.

Peter--do you have a link to that article? The last I read praised Shaun Hill but my NYT attention has been spotty recently. Gavin--yes as far as the wheat from the chaff is concerned--another indictment of the sloppy DT writer for either not possessing a palate capable of discerning the difference or not seeking out trusted sources to tell him where he should be going. OSulli--wouldn't you think the persuasion would be "why do we have to go to France for food?" or do you really mean the readership couldn't tell the difference anyway?

Since you're interested Jin, I'll share some more--what I especially liked about the attention Yannick paid to the crabs--which aren't big to begin with--by quartering them was each piece almost looked like a little frog leg--each piece had some body "meat" and could be picked up by a spindly claw or leg. Very cool. He didn't have to do this--to notch this up to another level--he could have done softshells whole as just about every other high end restaurant does in this area. But then I would have had to use a knife and fork.

Jin--my pale imitation apple/curry/mussel soup was ripped right from the menu of a far superior meal, chef and restaurant here in Great Falls, VA called Le Relais, where I dined about two weeks ago. It's hidden in a strip mall and the chef is Yannick Cam, now slightly graying but once a bad boy culinary savant/genius that many around here felt rivalled if not surpassed Jean Louis Palladin and Gerard Pangaud. I had a lamb curry dish of his in 1983 (when I was cooking around town) that still is one of the best taste memories I've ever had. He was doing curry before Roellinger and doing it well. Le Relais could be the finest fine dining experience at the moment in DC--the most consummate blend of service, decor, wine and food--based on my sole visit. Yannick's soft-shell crab with a cilantro cream sauce, from that dinner, is the finest single dish I've had all year--each soft shell was quartered and deep fried in an ethereally-light tempura batter--then intertwined and presented on top of the sauce. SA--because then I'd hate my life.

My wife and I co-cooked for a little group of ten this weekend so I can finally contribute to this thread. We spent much more time painting, creating, decorating and readying the condo than on the food and wine, but most of the plates were "cleaned" so it must have been at least tolerable. Colleen took the lead on the apps, I chose all the wines, then took the lead on the first three courses, then Colleen handled the two meat courses, then I did the pre-dessert and she handled the main dessert and all petit fours. The menu, all in small tasting portions: Pre-meal munchies while sitting around sipping wine: Olives (virtually ignored--we'll be eating olives for months); Prosciutto-wrapped melon cubes on toothpicks; Watermelon balls and cherry tomato halves with olive oil, sea salt and basil in Vietnamese soup spoons. We didn't want to worry about these, but sit and talk. Wines: 2000 Navarro White Riesling; 2001 Chehalem Pinot Gris; 2001 Les domaines Grassa SARL Lalande Sauvignon; 2000 Bridgman Yakima Valley Viognier. Gazpacho--served in a square white bowl--first in the bowl a confetti dice of red, yellow and green pepper, shallot and cucumber floating in clear tomato water, then some shavings of carrot, then a layer of pink gazpacho foam was applied (400 ml gazpacho seasoned, whizzed, strained with a little cream and a sheet of gelatin, added to the iSi Profi whipper) then on top of the foam a yellow and red cherry tomato half, chiffonade of basil, sea salt and a spritz of sherry vinegar and olive oil. This was all prepped ahead and just had to be plated. Wine: Gruner Veltliner (I forget which.) Apple/Curry/Mussel soup--served cool to room temperature in shallow clear glass bowl, sprinkled in first a fine dice of apple (Fuji, sweet) then a quenelle of creme fraiche in the center, then 5 cold steamed mussels piled on top of the creme, then the "more yellow than orange" curry mussel cream poured in the bowl (white wine, cream, mussel and clam juice, shallots, ginger and curry powder--my blend, toasted whole and ground--heavy on the fennel and coriander seed--then strained), then a pinch of chopped chive and a few drops of curry infused grapeseed oil drizzled on the surface. This just had to be plated as well. Wine: 2001 Lucien Albrecht Alsace Gewruztraminer (Colleen had cleared out our small kitchen of extraneous stuff, like sheetpans, the toaster oven, pots and pans, bowls, anything we didn't need--and then stacked all the dishes, glassware, serveware we needed on the now free racks--and created space for my three courses--which I had all laid out on sheet trays, one for each course.) Shrimp risotto--done in the microwave a la Barbara Kafka (so not to inordinately heat up the kitchen or require me to stand there stirring.) This was started during the gazpacho course and takes 35 minutes from start to finish. Arborio, butter, oil, shrimp, shrimp stock, flat leaf parsley, leek, fennel, peas, asparagus, parmesan, salt and pepper. (Fava beans were done ahead-- poached, skins removed, set aside.) Molded in a metal demisphere and inverted on plate, a few fava beans placed on top of each dome, a few drops of truffle oil on plate, a few drops of olive oil on plate, raw cauliflower grated on top (original idea Jose Andres.) Wines: still the Gewurz Duck confit in phyllo tartlettes, room temp, with jalapeno-corn relish on the side (white corn boiled, shaved off the cob with cilantro, shallot, red pepper and a vinaigrette) Wines: 2000 Domaine de Coste Chaude Cotes du Rhone Villages, 2000 Chateau de Valcombe Costieres de Nimes Grilled pork loin, Israeli cous-cous salad with dried cranberry and sun dried tomato, balsamic reduction with a frisee tossed in a different vinaigrette. Pre-dessert--tangerine juice foam with lemon verbena syrup, with cherry halves, blueberries, red currants, grated pistachio. Wine: 2001 Nivole Michele Chiarlo Moscato d'Asti 2001 Dessert--phyllo napoleon with thin layers of flourless chocolate cake, espresso creme brulee and caramel bavarian sprinkled with chocolate covered rice krispies. Wine: 1996 Seppelt Rutherglen Show Tokay D.P. 57 Petits fours--little cubes of traditional Opera cake, a rose buttercream/cardamom ganache/pistachio jaconde Opera cake, assorted little molded chocolates. Wine: Lustau Solera Reserva Pedro Ximenez "San Emilio" A few additional notes--the pork loin (also all fruit, corn and frisee) came from the Arlington Farmer's market--and was larger than Colleen was used to--since the pigs were older. (She had practiced with these loins a few times and all the previous ones were very small, called "fish tails" or fish loins I think. The tangerine juice was from Fresh Fields/Whole Foods Market. I was planning to do a peach foam from fresh peaches, but ran out of time. All my seafood, vegetables came from Fresh Fields as well, didn't want to take the chance on the Farmer's market not having what I needed. Plus, I needed to do a complete gazpacho for the foam the day before anyway. The shrimp I chose, unbeknowngst to me at the time, had two veins--so I had to clean top and bottom--and for those who might want to know how I made the shrimp stock it was just the heads and shells of the shrimp, carrot and leek scraps, celery scraps, an onion half with a clove stuck in it, some wine, some clam juice, boiled for 20 minutes or so and strained.

Am I recalling correctly that the restaurant got a "0" star review in the Times?

Besides the Achaya book already discussed in another thread, Toby, the paperback "Indian Food: A Historical Companion" there is a hardback from 1998 "A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food" and I like and appreciate both--but with the very same qualifications Suvir raises. There isn't the warmth--for lack of a better word--which a better writer would bring to the page despite its factual form. Achaya is no Elizabeth David, but then who is? He's an "authority" on food rather than a cook or an authority on cooking--and he writes with the detachment of a scientist or researcher and without feeling. These are dense, scholarly, dry, factual and dispassionate works--but as Suvir says these are still invaluable for those of us not raised and exposed to the richness and depth of Indian culture. I found I used the Dictionary more often--turning to it for origins of ingredients, products and interconnections between India and other countries and cuisines. Since I try to take an interdisciplinary approach to things--these sources help--and the books are very good with this. If you need an essay on the food of Kerala, it's here. A few pages on the food of the Mughal period? It's here. Where the books fall down somewhat, culturally speaking, is in translating meaning and significance and making a direct impact in how one cooks or lives or sees. But by collecting this vast chasm of material, Achaya has created an opening for authorities like Madhur Jaffrey and Suvir to step into and make a more direct impact by sharing their writings, thoughts and philosophies here on eGullet and in their own books.

There's little of interest here except predictable self-reinforcement of one's readership.

Since more than a few have mentioned the Medici myth, I should chime in to second Toby's suggestion of the Elizabeth David "Harvest of the Cold Months," her last book cobbled together after her death and somewhat disjointed as a result. In it, however, is a very clear chapter right on point called "Ice Houses and Sherbets: Tales from Turkey and the Medici Legend," and especially pp. 44-49. No 16-17C reports detail Catherine having imported "insensate Italian luxuries to France" and "No contemporary accusation that Catherine perverted French taste with the introduction of ice, iced wine and table forks seems ever to have been made against her." Later David writes "How curious, then, that in modern times--meaning from about the mid nineteenth century on--it has come to be believed that Catherine de Medici was accompanied to France by a bevy of Italian confectioners who taught their French colleagues how to make ices and frozen sherbets. Since the story is widely believed in Italy, appears indeed to be central to the credo of the Italian ice-cream trade, and is one I was myself once gullible enough to believe and repeat, it is necessary to say here that although the source of the story remains unidentified, it is plain that its origins are in the nineteenth century." She goes on to pick apart a few of those responsible, Hayward (1853) and Beeton (1861), discusses in glorious detail the "linguistic trap of the term sorbet" --looking back in time, seems "chilling" is not what we ascribe it to be!--and there's this very nice paragraph "When Catherine de Medici left Florence to go to France in the sixteenth century, it was reported that she took with her the best of chefs to make sure that she would be supplied with frozen creams and ices every day, runs one version of the Catherine story. A catch there--apart from the little matter of nobody yet knowing how to freeze 'creams and ices'--is that when the fourteen-year-old orphaned Catherine was dispatched to Marseille to marry the Duke of Orleans (he too was only fourteen), her entire household was French..." She goes on in much greater detail and it would be a shame to excerpt more--the chapter is a quick read and an essential one. And then you have to read her later chapter "Ices for the Sun King" as well, which gets into actual recipes and instructions for ices from primary sources. David could be so understatedly devastating: "Since the story is widely believed in Italy, appears indeed to be central to the credo of the Italian ice-cream trade" which might help put the veracity of what is to be found on the About.com Italian food website into perspective.

Have you gotten your hands on an iSi Profi Whip yet? There are several very nice foams based on egg whites. Also, that shell trick is the best way to get spots of yolk out of the whites as well, which any meringue-maker will tell you can be detrimental to whipping whites.

Cab--this is old, it ran in the July 2001 Esquire. The article, along with hundreds of others, is on the el bulli website, so you can see the images which accompanied the piece here: http://press.elbulli.com/scripts/fitxa.php...?id_article=575 So he's really talking about what he had in the 2000 season, though Brits might think he was talking about the 2001 season. Here's a good one from Food Arts: http://press.elbulli.com/scripts/fitxa.php...p?id_article=20 Here's what Phyllis Richman wrote in Gourmet: http://press.elbulli.com/scripts/fitxa.php...?id_article=204 All with very good pictures.

Nick--maybe the way to approach Steve's statement is like this: imagine someone watching a movie like Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" or viewing a performance of a Mozart opera like "Cosi fan Tutti" for the first time. Even if you don't read the subtitles or surtitles-- if the work or performance is good--the inherent emotion and the drama conveys or transcends your limitations--even if you don't understand the language and are new to opera and Japanese film. You sense what's going on even if you can't fully appreciate it or understand it or articulate why, but, some people just aren't going to get it. Some people inherently are closed off and can't open up to a movie with subtitles, in b&w, or an opera with language, emotion and action driven by singing. My Dad is this way. He's never watched a Woody Allen movie because they were in black and white and never took up the whole screen. Go figure. I suspect Steve is just trying to say the same thing operates in food and dining and not really trying to be as provocative as you might think. Like in other arts, some things about food and cooking transcend hurdles of perception and bias--some things don't. But often the problem lies not with the producer but the receiver.

J--I'm not sure yet what kind of event or client or party you're planning to do these for--but an end-around your situation, especially if you're at all worried about tempering or getting these strawberries perfect--is to consider doing a fondue instead. That way you can use an excellent, inherently flavorful chocolate--and you won't have to temper it or bastardize it. Set up a station where you can melt and hold a melted chocolate dipping mixture over simmering water, in a stovetop bain marie for instance--and then invite guests or kids to dip their own strawberries or little squares of pound cake into the chocolate fondue--and then have a few little bowls of ground up goodies and spices which can be sprinkled on--like caramelized almonds, ground pistachios, ground cinnamon, sea salt, rice krispies--you name it--whatever you think your audience would like. You could follow APPS suggestion and have a little squeeze bottle of a mint infusion or Port syrup--which is pretty easy to make yourself--to spritz on the pound cake before dipping. Just a thought. might be more fun than the strawberries dipped by themselves and easier to pull off in this heat.

J--if you're trying to dip strawberries into a mixture of melted chocolate and cream, well, stop trying. Cream brings it more toward a "ganache" and will remain soft and/or spoil. If you know how to temper chocolate--pick a semi-sweet couverture with a high percentage of cocoa butter (something like Cacao Barry "Favorites mi amere" 58%) and dip your strawberries in that. It's the only way to do it well. If you don't know how to temper chocolate, don't want to or work for a typical country club or caterer which doesn't expect you to, you could try to pass off a version of chocolate-dipped strawberries in something called "chocolate glaze," which is a disgusting faux-chocolate product that has had all the cocoa butter removed and replaced with a vegetable oil--and hence does not need to be "tempered." You can try creating a version of this yourself by adding oil to melted chocolate--and the resulting dipped strawberry will be thinner and set up somewhat--but not so firmly as with real tempered chocolate--and also won't be as good to eat and won't hold as well. Usually glazes like this are made with the poorest quality cocoa mass--the dregs that are cheaper than the stuff that goes into the cheapest candy bars. What chocolate are you dipping into? What are you making them for and how will they be transported or presented?

I'd be very interested in your thoughts and observations about what's going on up there Paul, it's interesting to see WF expand in the NY/NJ metro area as Wegmans starts to extend its reach as well. I guess my larger point of the above piece is--for anyone to be in a position to evaluate their own Whole Foods or Wegmans store--to understand just how great or how underwhelming their local store is--they have to see the very high level Whole Foods is capable of achieving elsewhere--as in my SF example--and the truly amazingly high level Wegmans is capable of achieving--as in the Princeton example. As you intuit, I will be severely disappointed (and vocal) if at least one of the VA stores is not every bit the equal of the Princeton store, which is a supreme achievement on every level of service, selection, design, efficiency and value.

Yes, thank you for starting a new thread on this here Paul. You're so lucky to have several Wegmans stores in Central and Southern NJ. At the moment, we have to make due with Whole Foods supermarkets here and most of the eGullet discussions of Wegmans and Whole Foods have taken place on other boards. I wrote this liitle on May 1 2002, in response to Lesley C, who wondered whether she should get excited about Whole Foods opening in her Canadian neck of the woods: "There is no guarantee whether you should eagerly anticipate it or not. At the moment I loathe the Whole Foods Markets in my area. However, I've been to other excellent Whole Foods stores around the country--and therein lies some of the rationale behind why I currently dislike my local stores. I have also been to a Wegmans--which is a superior supermarket on every level to the Whole Foods in my area. I can't wait for the first Wegmans to open in our Northern Virginia area in 2003 to teach the now complacent Whole Foods a lesson. The San Francisco Whole Foods store is amazing--there is a greater standard of awareness and expectation in that market--and that store delivers on its promise at all levels in produce, prepared foods, cheese, whatever. Even in areas that don't depend on the bounty of locally supplied, locally grown produce. As an example, in addition to making their own breads in house--they also stock and sell numerous varieties of locally outsourced artisinal breads--so the customer has an excellent choice. They have a stone hearth and bake off pizzas to order. Like others have mentioned, I don't mind paying high prices for superior product--as long as the product is superior. Unfortunately, I live in the Mid-Atlantic region where Whole Foods has over 20 stores, after buying out Fresh Fields, falling under a regional administrative umbrella yet each store is given the freedom to explore different directions with some autonomy. That's why "team leaders" at different stores can create a different shopping experience just based on how much they care and how experienced they are. One store could stock 5 different brands of high end coffee; across the county, with a less knowing clientele, the other Whole Foods store might just carry their house organ--Allegro coffee--which Whole Foods bought out and wholly owns. WF initially pushed their organic, socially-concious un-processed agenda down everyone's throats--to mixed success--and gradually expanded their product line to carry more standard, processed products to meet customer demand alongside the crunchy, progressive, consumer guilt and fear-inducing product lines. Their baked goods, desserts and pastries always sucked and prepared foods remain underwhelming, and were underwhelming even initially. It seems SOP to hire a local chef as consultant. But, when Whole Foods moved into our market, they brought with them some very knowledgeable, dedicated teams from corporate, staffed the stores with knowledgeable and motivated people and made a big splash--immediately improving our market options exponentially and forcing our area's dominant supermarkets--Safeway, Giant--to adapt and to improve themselves. That was good. For years I shopped, often exclusively, at two of our local WF stores--one in Georgetown (really Glover Park) and one in the Clarendon section of Arlington. Many product lines were (and remain) excellent--milks and dairy, eggs, butters, waters, canned and bottled goods, healthier meats and free range chickens, in-store sushi bars, a menu of fresh squeezed juices in bulk, fairly priced flowers, etc. You can even buy agar-agar there! The DC store went downhill first--all the original people transitioned to other stores or left disillusioned, a disinterested often surly, poorly trained and motivated new crop of sales and service people were hired and now they go through the motions yet have kept the high prices--much like many of the known chefs in our city. The Clarendon store was next--long held out to be one of the best stores in the chain--now it is just an expensive, a cash cow in an affluent yuppie neighborhood. The standards of awareness in the community have evolved and have been raised such that what WF does is not very special anymore--we now have farmer's markets vying for attention--and you can't rely on WF anymore for the best of anything--certainly not prepared foods, not fish, not produce, not bread and not beer and wine. But we all should be grateful for what Fresh Fields and Whole Foods did for our market years ago. The main difference at the Mid-Atlantic stores seems to be a conscious decision not to offer locally produced artisinal products from other small vendors--so we're stuck with mediocre bread for instance, baked in their commissary kitchen rather than a selection of breads from local bakers--like Firehook, the Bread Line, etc--which are superior, national class products. Even Nancy Silverton's bake-off bread that she's shipping nationally is head-and-shoulders better than anything at out local WF. Instead we get Whole Foods pale imitations of figh qaulity breads and pastries at the same price! Too much mediocre stuff processed through commissaries with too little thought and talent behind them. In my experience, the sales staffs are clueless now. Occasionally there is a wine/beer buyer who knows what he is talking about, but that's it. Our local stores have now morphed into a kind of a high-priced convenience store that retains enough of that "socially-aware feel good preachy Slow Food veneer" to make certain consumers feel good about shoppiing there and dupe others who don't care. To give you just a little example that I happen to have some personal involvement with: years ago when I consulted for Chocolates El Rey I gave a presentation to various team leaders of all the Mid-Atlantic stores at their corporate headquarters on proper chocolate storage--basically how to handle bulk chocolate to extend shelf-life so that it doesn't deteriorate. My biggest take-home message was not to put the chocolate near the cheese cases--that chocolate was capable of absorbing odors and to prove my point, I took a block of Valrhona that I bought at my local Whole Foods store and passed it around to taste--it reeked of blue cheese, needless to say. To this day in most of my local stores bulk chocolate, rewrapped in flimsy cling film, rests on top of the cheese or right next to the cheese case. If form holds true--in Toronto and Montreal you can expect a big push initially to impress followed by cruise control and pretentiously high prices. The store chain you really want to expand into your markets is Wegmans." The best discussion thread on pastry chef Pierre Herme's invaluable relationship with Wegmans--and why DC residents should care--go here: http://forums.egullet.org/ibf/index.php?s=...hl=wegmans&st=0 Let's hope at least one of the soon-to-open VA stores has an Herme boutique so we finally have one worthwhile source of takeaway desserts and pastries. And we can stop shopping at Whole Foods until they rise to the Wegman's challenge. Here's the link to Wegman's April press release: http://www.wegmans.com/about/pressRoom/pre...ia_Maryland.asp