Steve Klc

Robert and Robert--thank you for the talk of Picasso and the bicycle seat/handlebar analogy--I have not been able to get it out of my admittedly bullish head all morning. And Richard, I am not intentionally trying to provoke you but if I am, know that I also admire your extreme sensitivity and poetic expression.

Richard, we agree more than you realize. I have no problem with "this idea of the specificity/sanctity of place." Just don't tell me, given enough time to explore, Bras couldn't hike through the woods of Maine and come back stimulated and motivated by odd encounters with Scotch pine or fir needles, wild herbs and leaves, locally slaughtered meats, make his unique "licorice" powder or hazelnut salt and make milk skin from local cows and create a fantastic meal that would be Bras--visually, aesthetically, technically superior albeit with subtle changes and adjustments due to the different aromas and fragrances and textures of those local raw ingredients. The reason I refer to talk of terroir as limiting, deceptive and obscuring--with respect to chefs not with winemakers--is because it is just another attempt to define a chef--to categorize or slot him like a wine!--and the best chefs transcend their place and their cuisine transcends labels--those that are geniuses or poets or even those that are exceptionally skilled practitioners can do what they do anywhere--in France, Spain or Providence--and their meals in three different locales using the same list of ingredients but procured locally would be as distinctly inflected as your wonderful film stock analogy--yet still of one mind and one creative spirit. My perspective doesn't diminish the experience of Bras in Aubrac; however, it also doesn't diminish Bras. It would be a leap on your part, and not valid, to then extend my view to include "Yet we pretend that anything shipped in, next day air by UPS or FedEx, is consequently "fresh" without regard to whether or not any kind of harmless little commercial compromises ("Oh, its such a small difference, it shouldn't matter") have been made in the process that deviate from that intimate, local understanding." I don't pretend or compromise about too much. Each chef has the right to make up his own mind how he will work, create and factor in the materials and mediums at his disposal. I certainly begrudge no chef or cook the option of having an ingredient flown in for any reason--nor do I begrudge the use of commercial ingredients--either would be like denying an artist a certain color blue. Would it be nice if that blue were locally available? sure. Would it be nice if another, similar but subtly distinct blue shade available locally could be substituted? sure. Would it be better still if the artist mixed up his own blue hue from locally sourced pigments? possibly but not necessarily so. It's still his choice and the main thing that matters, to me, is what he does with it. Also, with so many things Richard, there is no intimate, local understanding anyway--what's the intimate local understanding of the Valrhona chocolate Bras (probably) uses or the Chocovic Adria uses? (I can hear John Whiting weighing in the background saying well, neither are organic, neither are fair trade and he'd be right but I don't think that's what you mean.) What would be different would be the cream and the yogurt Bras might find in those three different parts along the Atlantic coast--so when he made a version of his wonderful yogurt cream for a dessert, with the meringue folded into it and then sandwiches it elegantly as an inverted "napoleon" in between the thinnest, crispest triangular sheets of some type of pastry--say his really inventive (and delicious) gingerbread powder which is 1) cooked in a caramel--then 2) poured out, allowed to get rock hard, then 3) pulverized into a powder again and 4) reformed into an impossibly thin tuile in the oven and 5) removed, allowed to cool until service--well each of the three desserts would be in some small way distinct, possibly undetectably distinct if Bras tested and experimented with each local variety for fat content and active cultures and, because of his genius and scientific mind and experience was able to make adjustments--or perhaps because of that genius allowed the active bacterias, so different in each area, to shine through. Adria isn't doing something substantially different when he dries out artichokes or whatever, grinds them into powders and reforms them into thin flavorful fun lollipops and diverting little tapitas. They may be of that particular place--at that time--but they are of something wholly beyond that place, too. It would still be Bras, just as it would still be Adria, anywhere. Start a new thread about your terroir as absolute horizon for thinking about food and wine Richard, it would be a good one and here's not the place for it. I'd love to see you try to counter my belief that chefs can transcend their place--that the very best chefs are eminently translatable to use your very apt word--and can embrace their locally available ingredients if they so choose whereas winemakers have no choice. (That truth just might set you free and save you alot of time.)

I could've picked Newark or Trenton or Hartford or you get the picture. It wouldn't matter. (Though it would be harder to go on long runs through the woods and hills of Newark...)

Bux--note that there was a print media reference Lizziee referred to earlier in the thread reinforcing my speculation of a media backlash. I wouldn't intimate Lizziee's report is evidence of anything of the kind. I would choose the aberration hypothesis until others weighed in. Lizziee felt trepidation and clear anguish over posting as she did--she shouldn't have and we're all grateful she did. However, what the media buildeth, the media can try to knock down, especially when some in the media never got Adria and might have or had other competing agendas of their own. I have openly hinted at a few reasons why such an attempt could be forthcoming in the media--and in no way ascribe any such intent to Lizziee. She's a peach and a fantastic addition to the community. Robert--it would have been interesting for you to have pinned Gagnaire down, in his own words, as to what exactly was the "Bras approach that held nothing for him." And Bux, as we've commented here on other threads, Adria is not alone to looking toward and valuing the US--so too does Philippe Conticini value the spirit and creativity and freedom of the US, which he finds lacking in France as well.

no offense taken whatsoever glenn, I was once where you are now. yes, I do feel that if you woke up to a double espresso with true crema in the morning you would be better off. Remember you could add a bit of water to your espresso and you could add foam or frothed milk to your espresso. not only that, as has been discussed here previously, once you start making your own espresso, if not with a Sylvia/Rocky but with another comparable setup you will begin to have a problem with the double espressos you order out at restaurants. you will do a better job yourself and you will resent paying for a mediocre product, whether at a restaurant or at a Starbucks. I do see it as an inevitable and inexorable progression--which is why I phrased it playfully as one of enlightenment. I am somewhere between half and wholly serious, but then what religious or spiritual pursuit is any less certain, any less guaranteed? Sylvia and Rocky are not the cream of the crop--they are just the entry level, the minimal but acceptable price point for a home espresso setup. The next bump up to enlightenment is about $900 but you are not there yet, neither am I. I'm happy at the entry level. I am more than intimating that your thinking about coffee and espresso would change with the Sylvia and Rocky--I am directly and blatantly saying so. Espresso is a different animal from coffee--in a sense it could be a Gramercy Tavern experience compared to an experience at the local Red Lobster or Olive Garden--though for what they are trying to be, trying to achieve, the Red Lobster and Olive Garden might be an excellent achievement. It's too simplistic to say espresso is an old growth grand cru to coffee's Gallo jug wine. It certainly is possible to have a poor espresso. Plus, the Sylvia/Rocky setup is by no means easy, by no means guaranteed. Find those threads where Bux and I discuss our Sylvias. I can just share my personal experiences, my pursuit of palate and sensory satisfaction, along my road to enlightenment Just don't get me started on chocolate. I am much less forgiving, much less charitable when it comes to chocolate.

it just depends where you are presently on the road to ultimate coffee enlightenment. If you believe, as I do, that it is just a matter of time before you realize a semi-commercial espresso machine is the way to go--but while you dabble you're prepared to go with the French press for awhile--then buy a good grinder, a burr grinder capable of grinding coarse for the press and fine for the espresso machine. I use the Rancilio Rocky, as we have discussed on many previous threads about espresso and french press. The coffee geeks say it would be the last grinder you'll ever need to buy and costs over $200. If you have doubts about whether you'll personally awaken to espresso, I'd still use a cheap $15 Krups or Braun blade grinder to grind coarse for the French press because you probably aren't that attuned to the very minor defects that John rightly mentions and you'd save money--money that would be better spent on procuring fresher and better beans which you WOULD notice. Though that $200 grinder would produce perfect, unheated, uniform grounds for your press. Better still, make friends with someone who owns a Sylvia and Rocky and see for yourself what you are missing.

Any cheap grinder will work just fine for the french press, which requires medium to large grounds, relatively. The big money grinders are much more important for owners of semi-commercial and commercial espresso machines.

No, Robert, my wild, unproveable Providence teaser is pick him up and drop him and his team whole in Providence and forget all about Aubrac. That's the only place he'd be. In short order, the man and the mind who wrote those books--Bras Essentials and The Dessert Notebook--would be the best chef in America, the skill and the techniques would show through and clearly surpass those of lesser culinary "geniuses" like Michel Richard and Thomas Keller--and Bras would create a different, but still three-star Michelin experience. Thank you for sharing the little anecdote about finding the yogurt foam in an unlikely place--that is exactly, precisely the kind of effect we will start to see more of. (Not foam used and misunderstood by a trend-seeking New York chef who wants to be seen as cutting edge, but someone connected to his food, with grounded skills who chooses to employ it to create anew.) In this case it happened to be a dreaded foam--but what it represents for that chef and for his dining public is a willingness to think and cook with an open mind--assimilate and challenge and embrace. The true culinary geniuses inspire that. Richard--you aren't incorrect in your line of pursuit regarding the parallels of Bras and Adria at their restaurants as just as much about terroir, as uniquely individual and personal, and equally as much about terroir--that's a nice thesis; I'm just already beyond that and say that neither would fall from the very short list of best chefs in the world if you forcibly uprooted them and plunked them down in a different environment and said create. I do think Adria would translate more seamlessly but the Bras revealed in his books would, too. Robert--perhaps a younger Gagnaire was not prepared to go deeper into the Bras cannon of technique because he himself was pushing forward so quickly in certain exploratory directions, or perhaps because at that elite level rivals can't be seen to connect, I do not know. I can tell you there is such refinement, technical innovation, subtlety, acuity and achievement in the Bras Dessert Notebook that it at least rivals and clearly surpasses everything except Adria in this generation and Girardet's first book in the previous generation.

The vanilla was the favorite in the Klc/Apte household.

Lizziee--I think your post about your two visits to El Bulli fits right in with an emerging pattern of excellence, depth and unpredictability to be found at eGullet. I'm sorry you had any trepidation whatsoever about posting. You shouldn't have. You write "To take Bras out of Aubrac would be like taking the essence of the man himself. I honestly don't think you can separate one from the other. Would Bras have been moved to be a chef in some other place - who knows. But to speculate on that is not what Bras wants you to do. The entire experience at Michel Bras is centered on the region." I suspect Richard agrees with you and I am sure countless others do as well. It's the party line. Well, with no disrespect, and just as honestly, I don't care what Bras wants us to do. I'm evaluating him critically, dispassionately and unromantically. I have seen culinary myth-making at work on both coasts and in several countries. We are all free to believe what we want about first-hand experiences and embrace the spirituality, poetry and uniqueness of cuisine and a place. I do not challenge those assessments of yours or of others. You may not think "you can separate one (Bras) from the other" (Aubrac). I do disagree politely. Bras--apart from Aubrac--and given time to embrace a different place, any place, say Providence, Rhode Island, would still be a genius, still merit three-stars, still display a vital, unique spirit--and still produce ephemeral cuisine--it just wouldn't be the cuisine of Aubrac. The written record of his achievement, his techniques and his perspective--which I have cooked from, analyzed and compared to the achievement of others--including lesser lights like Richard and Keller--amaze me still. His significance, influence and techniques do not depend on buttercups, pine syrup and roots--are not easily defined--and they translate--they've translated to me. As I've said, I've read every word of his dessert notebook and consider it an amazing, highly personal achievement that has relevance for every working chef and pastry chef in the world, even those that have published their own books, still to this day. It does not depend on Aubrac but on Bras. You can choose to speculate about this possibility and can embrace his written work, assessing where his achievement stands in relation to other 3 star Michelin chefs or not. I have and I feel his work translates almost as much as Adria's--and certainly as much as Girardet. (I don't mean to divert this from Adria or to rehash the Chef of the Century thread.) Now that "Bras Essentials" and "The Dessert Notebook" have been published in English I suspect he will become even more appreciated, even more translatable and more universal.

Robert--I'm no more or less interested in the Adrias as I am Conticini, Keller, Herme, Kunz, Boulud, Bras, Girardet, Gagnaire, Arzak, Berasategui, Trotter, Susur, Tetsuya, Rick and Gale at Tru, Ken Oringer at Clio, Bouley, Laurent Tourondel, Rocco DiSpirito et al--I want to be as aware and knowledgeable of those cooking now as those who cooked before. The fact that I have enough skill as a cook to replicate dishes from their books and am a decent pastry chef could increase my appreciation and my awareness but not necessarily so. I try to evaluate and articulate why in terms anyone can understand, especially culinary lay people. When I teach I treat lay people just like professional students and guess what--they achieve. They get it and they surprise themselves. I do find that there is more "to get," more appeal, more to appreciate about the Adrias but I'm a firm believer in the "proof is in the pudding" approach--it has to taste good and it has to work--for the everyday diner as well as the jaded, globe-trotting foodie. An open mind, rather than a narrow perspective doesn't hurt, but it has nothing to do with me being a professional pastry chef. I know alot of cynical, bitter, frustrated pastry chefs whose time has passed them by and view everything current as inferior to the past, their past. Let's see, which cliche to employ--to experience firsthand is the only way to know (but even then that might not be enough!), there are no guarantees in life except death and taxes...but what I write does not mitigate Lizziee's report of her experience, a report I value. I, too, would be very interested in 2001 season reports. For all I know, her post represents the bleeding edge of a trendy, post-Adria backlash. A has-been parody that never was. I wouldn't bet on it, though. Adria both threatens to the core and inspires to the heart alot of chefs and food writers--immediately challenging assumptions that have been relied upon and promulgated for years--especially Francophiles. It all happened so quickly, huh? I'd be naive to think a decline an impossibility--after all, travelling the globe--appearing on Gourmet trading cards--takes a toll on even the best chefs. But, I actually feel the same way toward Bras as I do Adria--they're both geniuses--I think Bras could create a recognizably "Bras" atmosphere virtually anywhere given time to familiarize himself with the gastronomic landscape, as you aptly phrase it. You write "I suspect that Michel Bras would be the first to say that he would not be who or what he was if you took him away from his beloved Aubrac and its botanic life. After all, he got to be who he is because of them" and I wouldn't know how to reply, except to say that I have alot more confidence in his genius, palate, mind and spirit to believe he would remain an innovative, absolutely exceptional leading edge Michelin three-star chef elsewhere--he just wouldn't be the Bras of Aubrac. Good subject of another thread, Robert. As I suggested previously, geniuses are geniuses no matter where they create. To answer your specific questions--and to try not to diminish others participation on previously raised questions--yes it's a positive Adria would be Adria everywhere; yes, it would follow that would be an endorsement of the internationalization of cuisine--I'm one of those that feel high-end modern cooking is global and neither French, American, Spanish--those terms are as limiting, deceptive and obscuring as "terroir;" I have no wish either way for it to be or not be so--cooking is what it is and the best cooking defies limits and labels imposed by others and isn't easily categorized.

Since this wouldn't have anything specifically to do with New Jersey, why not pull this out and start a new thread on Cooking or Food Media?

Yes, you cannot hope to understand this subject fully unless you read this book or are friends with a pastry chef who doesn't mind explaining everything to you. (This is apart from, and not required, to simply enjoy a pastry and observe what you liked and disliked and why.) I recommend devouring the book as a consumer reference--even if you never cook or plan to cook-- if only to guide your appreciation of modern French patisserie and pastry shops. This book dates to 1996/97 and contains so many revealing hints and tricks and in-process photography that will literally blow your mind. It is, decidely, not dumbed down yet remains accessible. You can break down recipes and steps--indeed compare recipes and steps with others--without cooking a lick yourself. I do believe seeing how and why Herme does things can inform your writing, your appreciation and your enjoyment of life and eGullet more fully.

"Steve K, I do not mean to put your feet to the fire, but as you may recall I asked you during our dinner together if Adria had great technique. You replied, 'His technique is nothing special; it’s his palate'. Care to elaborate?" Robert--no fire, no worries. What I've presented previously on eGullet re: Adria is that those people who talk about Adria's major significance first as one of technique, one of gimmickry--predictably gloss the surface and miss his real significance and his lasting importance. I've already made my prediction on the "Chef of the Century" thread. His technique is nothing special but at once his techniques are at least as special, as scientific and as refined as Bras or Gagnaire--and there is much to be gained in terms of technique, composition and presentation from Adria books as well as the Bras books. But foam, shmoam. Lazy restaurant critics, food writers and non-chefs have to understand an Adria-style foam is just like saying mousse, or emulsion, or sorbet, or cake--it is an infinitely variable culinary "form" which can be created in different ways and should be viewed as but one possible component of a larger whole. My thesis would be Adria is palate and mind and that we have not felt the full weight of his impact yet, but we will. Re-read Richard's excellent post where he initially chides my "very Bras by way of Adria with a little bit of Jose" (time will tell, Richard, if the description is misleading) and then moves on to some eloquent and perfectly reasonable "untranslatable cuisine/terroir" talk--which I largely (and possibly unreasonably) disagree with, certainly in the case of Adria (and Conticini while we're at it.) Richard reveals to me that he comes closer to getting it re: Adria--as close as anyone else at eGullet or in print foodie magazines to date--when he writes "A universal translatability/replicability is a fundamental aspect of his art" and "Ultimately, a meal at El Bulli cannot be reduced to a sequence of "concepts". I would argue that an experience here is just as profoundly about the place where the restaurant is located as is a trip to Aubrac chez Michel Bras." Yes, the "experience" there is profoundly about the place and yes, the "techniques" are universally translatable. However, the question I'd pose to Richard: Adria is Adria whether he cooks in Spain or New York or Napa or Bangor Maine--he easily transcends place; can the same be said of Bras? I won't argue that forging a special relationship to the herbs and flowers and pine needles--the flora and fauna in a region--can't coalesce into a magical experience in that region at the hands of a master chef--a master interpreter of that surrounding medium. But talk of terroir is defining, it limits significance rather than reveals it--though perhaps in Bras his significance is truly limited by terroir, by place. I wonder if perhaps Keller--called a genius, along with Michel Richard, by Russ Parsons on another thread--is not limited by terroir at the French Laundry as well? Will his "cuisine" and "genius" prove untranslatable in NYC? Geniuses, for me, are inherently beyond limitation and I'd employ it a little more selectively. Richard also seems to get that Adria's effect and impact is more liberating and universal than Bras and all the other geniuses, though he doesn't go so far as to state it. (I don't want to put words in his mouth.) Ferran can conceive and execute a revelatory dish out of canned, creamed corn that "works" or "translates" anywhere. He nods politely when other elite chefs wax poetic about the absolute fundamental importance of the best possible ingredients at all times to reveal their art. When Jose Andres serves a refined, pristine, intellectually stimulating deconstructed clam chowder on a flat plate as he did for a Beard dinner or an FCI demonstration in NYC or as a guest of Rick and Gale in Chicago--and it is so lick-your-plate-clean delicious as well as "interesting"--those in attendance are given a glimpse of Adria's universal and eminently translatable significance which is slowly being felt, slowly being realized. It transcends, in terms of significance, the restaurant experience at El Bulli. Robert asks "if you and others think that Adria will end up being considered a fad or aberration, but nonetheless regarded as having made some significant midcourses changes in serious cooking?" We've felt 20% of Ferran's weight and influence and...genius so far. At this point Adria is Michael Jordan 5 years into his NBA career or Tiger Woods right now--the best is yet to come.

Especially the dessert wine/lavender gelee. I am a sucker for dessert wine gelees. Thanks for the update cabrales, though where's the fusion "in the most profound sense?" These desserts sound so decidely French, and classic French at that, that they could be 20 years old. Perhaps it's in the presentation, so "imbued with Japanese culture that we get a true Hegelian synthesis of the two worlds."

Helena--I haven't been to your local Manalapan branch--in fact, though I grew up in New Jersey I have no idea where Manalapan is, so I don't know the setup. Is that branch one of the ones which has an in-house Herme pastry shop? For all I know Bridewater is Manalapan or they are distinct--from my reading here--it appears Bridewater has the full setup with an in-house Herme pastry kitchen plus chocolates plus macaroons as does Princeton; Manalapan probably does not--having chocolates and macaroons only, which can easily be shipped in. If it is like the Princeton store--the chocolates are displayed in a very clean, very minimalist square pedestal case--much like a Richart chocolate presentation. The macaroons are in two locations--on trays in with the rest of the Herme individual pastries and cakes in a very long refrigerated display--staffed by sales people which front the production area...and the macaroons are also packaged up in regular plastic takeout containers across the aisle in a much larger refrigerated case which also contains all the typical non-Herme very white processed American light airy bakery-style crap. You are correct in that they were not marked specifically as "Herme Nicolettes." Cabrales--I think the press releases on the Wegman's website lists the 4 locations that have the full Herme boutiques--I believe 2 are in NY, 2 in Jersey. This vast wasteland known as upstate New York I don't visit often. I am not in a position to contradict/add anything in those article excerpts except what I reported about my Princeton visit yesterday. I have no confidence in Consumer Reports when it comes to awareness and appreciation of fine food, though I rely on it for air conditioners and car buying advice. It is incapable of contributing meaningfully to sensual, sensitive or poetic pursuits. The Princeton store has a production schedule--so the variety and sizes available for certain pastries vary day by day. Yesterday they had a lemon curd tartlet, a lime curd tartlet, a chocolate ganache/sauteed banana tartlet--incredibly delicious yesterday, a typical mixed berry fruit tartlet, an eclair split lengthwise and filled with creme chantilly with berries, a rectangular slice of cake composed of a cooked green apple, a faintly cheesy bavarian cream, a walnutty jaconde-like cake layer and a crumble topping--very satisfying yesterday, a vanilla "panna-cotta-like" cream in a plastic bowl with berries and berry gelee on top, also a little round strip of red striped jaconde wrapped into a cylinder containing a cream and berries on top--kind of a red fruit charlotte, also a version of his Le Tropique cake from Fauchon days--coconut dacquoise, coconut mousse and tropical fruit. I didn't inventory them and a list is not made available. They were the same ones from before--clean, straightforward, simple, unchallenging, accessible versions of stuff from his excellent "The Patisserie of Pierre Herme" from 1997 (Montagud, Spain--but available in English) slightly re-worked, slightly tweaked recipes and presentations from this book. (Eminently superior to either of his American popular cookbooks.) Finishing and detailing of the Wegman's line, not surprisingly, is not as professional, not as skilled as in Paris, nor was it designed to be. Cabrales--in order to become fluent in Herme you must study this book. It will inform your critical assessment of all pastry work that you might encounter--and has quite a few excellent step-by-step photographs. Realize that describing the pastries--describing the base flavors or components is no substitute for seeing and tasting them and that all of these bases can be combined differently for different effect even by the same patissier. To take just one example--his chocolate and banana tart pictured in the book on p. 191 has layers of shortcrust, ganache, flourless chocolate cake, banana compote, sauteed bananas and hazelnut nougatine with cocoa nibs--with the nougatine and banana slices arranged on top. The Wegman's version omits the flourless chocolate cake layer, puts the banana in the shortcrust shell first, covers them with ganache, covers the ganache with a chocolate glaze, places a perfunctory banana slice on top (hardly sauteed or caramelized as in the book) and omits the nougatine. It is a basic and excellent tart and could have been done by anyone with attention to detail, good ingredients and his book.

OK, Kim WB's scare was just that. Herme's beautiful boutique within the Princeton store is still intact and popular as ever, went there today on my way back to DC. They had all the same pastries as before--plus the new line of chocolates, available pre-boxed, pre-selected as over the internet and as Helena mentioned, by the piece available by weight. They have a selection of faux-suede fuschia boxes (They look better than that sounds) which you can fill up yourself if you don't like certain flavors in the pre-selected Internet package--or want 20 whiskey ganache truffles for a dinner party. $33 for the pre-wrapped 1# box. A 1# hand-selected box could be more or less depending on the varieties chosen. A very fair price. They also have the macaroons, which are called "nicolettes" or "violettes" or some such. Chocolate, vanilla, passionfruit, coffee, raspberry...but not the only one I actually wanted to try--caramel with salted butter. I forgot to ask if they were temporarily out of that variety. The counter sales person was charming, conveying an infectious enthusiasm for the chocolates and offered a sample piece or two for us to taste and even explained to us the best way to enjoy the chocolate--by placing it on our tongue and allowing it to melt, resisting the temptation just to bite and chew immediately. She had no idea we were pastry chefs. I was very, very impressed that someone took the time to explain to the staff--probably earning not much more than minimum wage--why fine chocolate is special and how to share that with the customer--and that the sales force ran with it. Refreshing. One variety of chocolate was not available at the time we were there--it still had about 6 hours to go before it could be sold, according to the counter person. I'm guessing that means thawing, coming to room temperature. (It is possible some chocolates are being deep-frozen and shipped, but I won't know until I look at the ingredients and taste them.) It is possible that the Princeton Wegman's store offers the best pastry and chocolate work in the entire NY/NJ area. Sorry cabrales--no rose meringue pastry.

Don't know whether this is true or not Malawry--but it is hardly surprising. Mediocre Italian has had its run. Spanish food and the Latin subset is destined to supplant Italian--with paella becoming as ubiquitous as risotto--that is, if Jose Andres has anything to say about it. I'd put my money on him. We've already mentioned elsewhere about the attention Gourmet has paid to Spain, Amanda had a whirlwind 4 day Spain trip, the stars are in alignment. Shrewd move if Goldoni is converting--I mean, if other chefs around town can go on vacation and come back to reinvent their restaurants as Latin, why can't he?

Lizziee--he's the chef and partner of Jaleo in DC and in Bethesda, MD. Calling it a tapas place doesn't quite do it justice, but it is a tapas place. Though the salad I described is not representative of his work there. He let a little more of his adventurous, inventive spirit loose at Cafe Atlantico, and ran both kitchens of Cafe and Jaleo for a few years, but then handed the Cafe reins over to his sous chefs at the time. At the moment he's readying his modern take on Greek cuisine for the Jaleo ownership group--I think that place is planned to open in the Fall 2002. Otherwise he saves his best stuff for magazine work, consulting, charity chef events, Beard dinners and friends that impose and ask to get married in his restaurant--like me, last May he wove 10 traditional tapas off the menu with about 10 of his modern Ferran-style dishes for our reception. It was kind of like the joint Arzak/Adria book from a year or two ago. (A really nice book, by the way, very interesting to try to guess which chef did which course throughout the menus.)

excuse me Kim--when did Wegmans in Princeton stop carrying Herme's line of wonderful pastries? I haven't been there in about 3 months, so this really is significant news. But in January I had about 8 of his pastries and 6 were as good as anything at Payard.

Before I weigh back in full Russ, I think Steve Shaw's question re: Bauer: "Do you also think the analysis of his power was flawed?" is where I'm also hung up despite your initial comments. It doesn't appear you address this frontally--Bauer as main restaurant critic, weekly Food section editor and with supposed "control" of the weekend magazine food coverage as well. Perhaps part of our confusion is misplaced, stemming from that article. Is this the case and if it is, is it fair to say you don't have any ethical or professional problem with this arrangement? When you write that "being a section editor gives you the power to throw away press releases and go to meetings, but that's about it. Being a columnist .... now that's POWER" is it possible you are underestimating this weekly section editor role? Does an editor typically assign, approve, reject and promote topics? Which "columnists" at some of the food sections we might be familiar with are beyond the influence and control of the section editor in NY, SF or DC? Is the Washington Post's Food section editor Jeanne McManus so limited in her power and decision-making that Walter Nicholls and Judith Weinraub write whatever they want? Everyone there is listed as a staff writer, so I suspect none of them are columnists and just might have to report directly to the editor, no? Is it different in SF? To the best of your knowledge, Bauer does or does not have the authority to assign topics, deter topics from being pursued, kill references and mentions of chefs or restaurants or decline to publish a piece with which he disagrees--across all the main food-related venues of the paper--the restaurant review, the weekly food section and the Sunday magazine? You also write that you "have never once been asked to change an opinion or alter my coverage in any way out of financial concerns" but how about non-financial internal politics or staff turf issues unrelated to advertising?

I was just made aware that recently Bouley sent two of his guys to work at El Bulli for a while, so the appearance of the mango raviolis with passionfruit is perhaps explained. I'm still very interested in members comments regarding the current utilization and presentation of the raviolis--pre-dessert? dessert? But hey, if you're going to copy, uh, emulate, at least they're emulating the right guys. (Memo to critics and power columnists of the foodie scene like John Mariani and Jonathan Gold: don't talk up the originality of the desserts here.)

Richard--thank you so much for this wonderful gift of a post--what a nice way to wake up! Completely coincidentally I had dinner last night with Jose Andres (a true protege of Ferran, not a media construct or a chef who made the pilgrimmage to stage at El Bulli for a week) and I am unsure which caused me to pause and appreciate more--his home-cooked meal or your thoughtful reflection. One dish from last night holds special interest regarding your post--a composed salad that Jose described as "very Bras by way of Adria with a little Jose," of various fruits laid down first on the plate--mostly citrus--blood orange, ugli, grapefruit--peeled, sectioned, atop were placed various lightly poached vegetables, all poached separately--among them green and white asparagus, brussel sprout leaves, leaves the shape of a "Belgian endive" but that had the reddish color of radicchio, tiny fresh herb leaves like dill, purple basil, oregano, an odd raspberry, peeled grape--a few peanuts--all dressed sparingly with a simple (Spanish) olive oil and vinegar dressing. I am not a good enough writer to convey how incredibly varied and beautiful this jumble of ingredients looked on the plate or tasted. He used the angled sides of the citrus sections to "prop" up the vegetables and leaves slightly, in effect giving height and interest to an essentially flat salad plate. The two highlights of this dish for me were 1) that Jose included several intact clumps of the gelled seed sections of the tomato as well--the juicy mucilaginous part of the tomato that is usually thrown out, and 2) over the entire salad Jose grated fresh raw cauliflower with a microplane zester. Simultaneously parmesan and cous-cous-like and utterly revelatory. I asked him about that particular, to me unique, technique--and he said that yes, it was something he himself started doing but that completely unbeknownst to him and simultaneously, Ferran and Alberto had started doing the same thing at the same time. Jose is, for those abroad or unfamiliar, at 32 a known, significant Beard award-winning chef here in the States, with the most significant portion of his career and influence still to come, yet whenever he is interviewed or asked about his thought process, techniques or his creations he says that everything he does is infused with and made possible by the spirit of Ferran and El Bulli--and that he is, modestly, a vehicle for suffusing that spirit.

Rail Paul--in your visions, are the peasants harvesting coffee at wood's end...of a jungle and wearing tropical versions of lederhosen? I love dreams.

Since I drink several espressos daily, I'm curious whether a Viennese-style coffee (drip/filter/press) can rate--please keep the reports coming. Rockefeller666--are you a coffee drinker or an espresso drinker? (Or both.) Not having been to the Cafe yet, I'm presuming we're talking a regular cup of coffee here--am I mistaken?