Steve Klc

Welcome, as well, confiseur, but there already is such a dilution in the world at large--because many of the best and/or most interesting pastry chefs don't "compete" just like the best chefs don't compete--they don't have to or choose not to. For them, competition is in the marketplace and their ideas, creativity and work speaks for them. Regardless of what anyone might feel about how the event is run--and really, you have to take your hat off to Michael Schneider and Norman Love for what they have created and the sponsorship dollars they have attracted--this has largely become an event for hotel professionals or pastry chefs doing French-leaning work, NOT, in general, for the more globally-aware restaurant pastry chef doing creative interesting personal work or the pastry chef who doesn't embrace the formal traditional MOF French pastry vision but instead pursues something rather more personal, a la Conticini or Spanish or American or anything rustic/traditional--all of these kinds of personal thinkers and doers are left out. At least a few of us here on eG have gone on record saying this event is too French, that the "American" teams have been too French, and that it is inherently biased against those who work or think outside the French box. The foreign teams and competitors who come here, and the Americans who compete in the off-years essentially accept going in they have to work inside the box. (Realize at this point that I think both Herme and Conticini work outside the French box.) But I also think being "too French" is perfectly OK--this is exactly who many of these pastry chefs are--just call it as you see it. And what we've tried to stress on eG is that you should be able to question and criticize the structure or format of any event or title like the MOF--to engage it and each other respectfully and even to disagree--to also assess its role or impact--without it being seen as commenting critically about the work or the competitors themselves--because this work is really impressive and the skills on display are impressive. This is fine work and FINE picture-taking--thank you all for sharing. It's just that it is of a certain similar "French modern" style--a style promulgated by certain French pastry chefs-turned-judges that to my eyes and level of awareness hasn't been inclusive enough. That's why I call this a "French" event which just happens to be held in America, and that's why I think the other French-dominated world competitions are already diluting themselves to a certain extent and diminishing their impact: there are many talented artistic people no longer willing to see themselves in that scheme, fitting into that box. No language has been changed by this competition--the work is still of a certain school, next year's winners will still be of this school, etc. The inherent flaw of this event is much the same as the flaw of the magazine Pastry Art & Design--a little too behind the times, the same old same old holding on to something because the favored chefs profiled in the magazine (and in the competition) are still holding on to it, largely out of touch with what's really appealing and really happening around the world, they're both a little too insular when it comes to embracing the diversity and excitement and appeal of the current scene. It isn't that this event is unfair or misjudged or mishandled or that the motives of the organizers are nefarious in some way--because they aren't or at least I don't think we've seen any evidence they are; no, the flaw is that it really doesn't determine what it purports to. It's a limited competition, a promotional opportunity you choose to partake of, a networking opportunity, but not a definitive one--not one destined to influence the industry or even a minorit of professionals in restaurants around the world, one limited in scope in many ways: it's a supreme display of technique clouded with a lot of subjectivity especially when it comes to form, taste and artistic sensibility which we can't experience or influence. And as such it is a great first step for younger pastry chefs, for those trying to broaden their horizons and improve their skill level or network so they can eventually get to the point where they can think for themselves and make up their own minds about what they want to create and how they want to create. It may end up being within this box and it may fall outside this box--and that choice is always going to be up to the individual.

I'm not so sure Brad, at least at the higher or more creative end. Just about every chef working in whatever you want to call the New American style--those influenced by or trying to emulate the cooking of a Thomas Keller or Rick Tramonto--have or have had a foie gras dish on their menus utilizing a late harvest or dessert wine along with fruit--as a sauce or macerating the fruit--and not just pairing the wine with the dish. Reducing fresh fruits changes those fruits--and many think deadens the flavor and the acidity/brightness quotient of said fruit--and that's where some inherent acidity in a good dessert wine can help layer flavor. The Asian/Fusionists, or whatever you want to call them, also realize sweet wines harmonize with their food well and not just in a wine-food pairing sense. I see glazes and gelees of dessert wines used in savory applications quite a bit when dining at the high end--usually as an accent, say glazed on clam or oyster for instance--and all this could pretty easily be adapted by you Cane because you'd use so little of those relatively expensive wines at home (versus in a restaurant)--you'd use leftovers much the same way a chef would use. I'd try not to dilute the wine and use it pure in your dish. You could also pour out a gelee of the dessert wine then cut it into cubes and sprinkle it on a dish--some chefs put the dessert wine cubes in a bowl along with some other ingredients--and then pour a hot consomme or stock over it tableside--allowing the cubes to melt and release aroma.

You mean Colleen and I haven't already discussed that on eG in a previous thread? (Add bourbon to melted, tempered chocolate turning in a Kitchenaid bowl with the paddle until you've added the just the right amount--then turn it out, form, let it get hard, then sculpt away. It changes the structure of the chocolate and allows you to grab onto it better without melting as readily as pure tempered chocolate would. It also allows you to build up a form more quickly than trying to set tempered chocolate in layers would.)

That white chocolate pistole-pulsing in the Cuisinart technique was first explained in this book: http://www.jbprince.com/index.asp?PageActi...PROD&ProdID=891 the Betrand & Marand "Chocolate Behind the Scenes" book. If you follow the link, that's how they did the tusk on the cover--it works best for larger sculptural forms. (This book is still the best book out there for improving your chocolate showpiece skills.) Wendy--this technique works basically because you never bring the white chocolate out of temper--the heat of the whirring blade warms the chocolate up slightly so you can model it, roll it, pack it, etc but never takes it above the temperature (86-88 or so) that white chocolate would come out of temper. (I don't actually take it quite as far as modelling chocolate consistency--I use it still fairly firm so it sets quicker and doesn't stick at all--but that's personal preference. We use the "bourbon chocolate" technique when we need something really soft--like if you're building up a more intricate form to sculpt/carve down later.)

Is there a picture of the one you bought online somewhere Richard? The model that most pros use is called the iSi "Profi"--and if you strain your mixtures it doesn't "clog" at all. I'm not sure they still sell the aluminum one, I've only seen stainless steel lately. (But I worked with plenty of the older aluminum Profi whippers and they function just fine for espumas--they just don't hold up well in the dishwasher and the aluminum corrodes over time.) You also get the full color Adria recipe booklet with the "Profi" model, I'm not sure what you get with the home models. I think you'll find that heavy cream has too much fat to foam--you'll need to cut it with milk to reduce the thickness and something more "foamy" and smooth. You should also be trying anglaise-based foams (again, cut the crean% with about 25% milk) and gelatin/fruit puree-based foams from the basic recipes. As far as tips go, I use the long narrow one, and actually saw off the notched end so it is just a round and gives a smooth puddle. But if you like that kind of bulbous star tip, use it, it'll just give you a different effect.

Good food and good marketing. Stupid lists, top tens, sell. That's why almost everyone does it. I think another way to approach it, Tobism, would be to try to come up with your own list of very deserving cheap eats restaurants that didn't make it but should have--and work backward from that. Any magazine that accepts advertising from restaurants and runs those ads right on the pages with the reviews and articles is going to be susceptible to charges like this--but don't forget the Post also solicits and runs ads from restaurants in the Food section and the Magazine. There are a lot of disgruntled, envious usually also anonymous people in the food biz so I wouldn't be surprised if there are supposed insiders out there saying the same kind of things about the Post. I think you have to trust the people at the top until you have some good evidence otherwise--at the Post I trust Jeanne, Sietsema as restaurant critic is edited independently and doesn't "report" to Jeanne unlike at some other newspapers, and at the Washingtonian I trust Tom Head--he's an interesting, experienced smart guy--but that doesn't mean you can't raise suspicions, especially about "best of" stunts like the cheap eats lists, which are usually excuses to recycle material and sell magazines. (I think where the Washingtonian opens themselves up is more at the high end, their choices, who they over-praise, seem a little too predictable, expense-accountish and conservative--but then that's their target audience. I guess we can wait for that in January.) In case you're wondering, I don't think the Washingtonian does as good a job nor is as critical or astute on the cheap eats end of the spectrum as Sietsema, Eve Zibart and Todd Kliman. They lag a little behind and their information seems to be a little tired, especially if you read year after year. Work backward from who is on their list and who isn't--how many of the usual over-praised suspects are there and how many obscure or new finds doing a great job are there--and then assess. There really aren't that many cheap eats places doing interesting work--do all 100 belong? Ask yourself how well they got out of the city and into the burbs and whether they seem as knowledgeable as Eve or Tom or Todd? Did they nail those little holes in the wall in your neighborhood correctly that you've been saying have the best whatever in town--or did they overlook them? I haven't seen this issue yet, but the Washingtonian tends to suffer from the same critical malaise Chowhound suffers from when it comes to restaurant coverage: very little reliable differentiation of quality, too many restaurants championed, and when you actually try these places they're just average or fail to distinguish themselves at their price point.

Tracy--when the outer layers of rose petals are on wires you can really get that delicate curled up, dying, drying, peeling away effect--if done well it's amazing and you don't see any wire. Rather than an "assembly line thing" I think it just might be the most skilled and most difficult way to do a rose--which is why you don't see it that often. It's also really the best way to have a rose in a spray or roses of different ages which extend out from or wrap around a cake because it affords a lot of flexibility. The assembly line might be more aptly applied to the way Ron has developed--half sheets and half sheets of rows of spoon "cups" each cradling a petal--which he can then let dry and color and assemble or only partially dry and pick up when still a little soft to apply. His roses really are beautiful and full, though, regardless of how efficient a system he's developed. The wired way can be as thin or thinner than most roses done without wires. I think what this speaks to is that there are so many different ways to do creative things. Richard Ruskell did his roses this wired way at that recent Beaver Creek wedding cake event and they were stunning (he came in a close second.) I think, too, that there is a fine line between a fake look and just poor work.

I think if you try this, you'll find that brushing/painting the wires with tempered chocolate will work out cleaner than dipping, especially if you're going to wire them together afterward. Chocolate adheres to brown floristry tape very well. It's cleaner to compose and bend your wired branch or spray, then paint. I first did this technique--applying some sugarcraft methodology to chocolate--in this case wires--on an anniversary cake for the Smithsonian in 1996 that had all tempered chocolate decoration otherwise, and was lucky a picture of it ended up in Smithsonian magazine in 1997--my first national exposure: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian/...7/cake_jpg.html I needed some lift, some lightness, away from the main flowers since much of what I did (looking back now) was heavy and since it was a literal cake I had to use wire to extend little modelling chocolate buds and blossoms. (If it had thought more figuratively then, I could have just used tempered chocolate wisps.) In this example you could use modelling chocolate to fatten out the branch at the base, stick the wires into the modelling chocolate, glue that along the side of the cake with tempered chocolate, vein it to create some ridges and then brush the modelling chocolate portion with tempered chocolate so it matches the taped/wired portions. And I think it always comes down to skill and experience to decide how and when you apply your decor to a cake--every situation is going to be different--heat, travel, set-up time, cost. Wendy--I think you'll increasingly find more people designing cakes for decor without wires, I know we have been for a while. It's harder and more time consuming to do wired flowers well. Ron makes his rose without wires--the petals are formed on those little plastic spoons and then glued in place rather than each petal being on a wire and then all those wires wrapped up. Too many wedding cakes look too similar--making wired flowers and sprays the same way, without much life and vibrancy, are part of the reason why. In this case I think Ron's cake had a lot of life and was beautiful, it doesn't bother me at all that he likely used a few wires to support his decor. (He may say all his decor is edible but that's probably just for marketing purposes--yes he tends to style his cakes with flowers adhered close to or on the cake surface but if you visit his super website you can see wired sprays and buds on mostly all of his cake designs.) He does it delicately and well, and I think from this picture it's pretty easy to tell the buds and twig ends that are wired (thinner, more curvy, more delicate, lighter brown) versus the stems and branches that are likely piped chocolate (darker, thicker, sweating slightly, pressed against the cake.) You also can achieve the same flower thinness and shading with modelling chocolate as he did in gum paste.

We're returning to Epcot this year, Tony, we'll be there the weekend of October 15th: Colleen and I are doing the Party of the Senses on Saturday and then on Sunday a new wrinkle they've added just this year--something called "Sweet Sundays" I think. It's for 75 people--a reserved demo/master class kind of event just featuring pastry chefs--where we lead a class, hand out recipes, answer questions and then serve 3 of our desserts to the guests. I think it's a fresh concept and allows guests to interact a little more with the pastry chefs than they have the opportunity to at the Party of the Senses, where it can be pretty hectic. (I'm also promising right here to make my class special and pack a lot into it.) Bouquetduvin--that's great news, will you be doing a Party of the Senses this year--if so, which weekends? I hope you bring an icewine. (We also eat at Le Cellier every year; supposedly it isn't considered one of Disney's fine dining options, but the quality of food and wine there is tremendous, the chef, Brian Piasecki, does a great job.) A few years ago my wife and I did the dessert for an Inniskillin wine dinner during the Food & Wine Festival--I'm glad to hear more Canadian wines are available now in the US distribution channels. They're still vastly under-appreciated here. As far as the outside stuff goes, the booths and little tents and the masses of sometimes rude people, I'm not sure that's going to change much--to get the full Disney experience and something special, you have to do the wine dinners, the Party of the Senses, the reserved wine tastings and, hopefully, spend a "Sweet Sunday" with a pastry chef or two. Is anyone aware of any chef or restaurant developments at Disney since last year?

Yes Mrs. P, Michael is under increasing pressure these days to keep that "neighborhood" feel despite the fact he's really morphed into a "destination" restaurant now--with people from all over calling weeks ahead of time to secure a table. I expect it will get a lot worse after July/August. I'm glad your first point of contact with the place, that phone call, was a good one--I think it is indicative of how Michael sees his place in the community--a community which begins with every diner and every phone call.

Richard--you got a recipe book with only 5 recipes in it--not the full color booklet with the Adria recipes? Which model did you buy--is the canister white, aluminum or stainless?

Agreed, I think it's a good rule, as far as rules go, and that's exactly what I was thinking--because when it came to pastillage you had to work backward (design-wise) from whatever the airline's carry-on dimension limit was and what you thought you could fit inside a box in the overhead. Otherwise it sure was a hometown advantage, though only for all the Vegas hotel pastry chefs and anyone close enough who could drive. For me getting intricate details and transporting pieces safely wasn't too much of an issue--anything thin and delicate could be hand-carried--it was more the size limitation. If this event continues, my recommendation to the organizers is to open up the pastillage day so it is publicly viewable--since pastillage is a dying art anyway it would be an unparalleled opportunity to raise awareness of something no one gets to see outside taking a master class: how to work well at the highest levels with pastillage.

How sure of this are we--was the scoring breakdown disclosed or discussed with the audience this year? I didn't see anything about it on the website--though in previous years we were given the percentages in advance of the comp. Final scores were never released publicly nor put up on the website, though they were shared with the competitors, one year handed to us at the airport as we were about to fly home. And for those of you in attendance--how did it seem the US, French and Belgian teams worked--did it seem one guy mainly did the chocolate piece and another guy mainly did the sugar piece and another guy mainly cranked out all the degustation? Or have any team philosophies evolved to the point where there was serious overlap and collaboration--with lengthy periods where all the chefs were doing non-showpiece aspects or multiple chefs doing sugar or chocolate for their showpieces (one person air-brushing pastillage, another pulling or blowing sugar, etc.) For those of you who were there the whole week--one thing I thought was interesting (and different from the 3 years I did this event) was how pastillage was handled: it had to made by one person only, on-site in Vegas, on Sunday in a limited time period, two hours I think. Did any of you attend--was the public allowed to watch the chefs work with pastillage? Also, were any judges present judging how the chefs worked the pastillage--or was this not judged and scored in terms of work, hygiene, etc? I like this wrinkle, and respect its intent, I wonder if anyone discussed it or noticed it? Was there any talk of Spain and Italy being absent this year and why? Does anyone have a better idea if the French and Belgian pastry chefs have aired any "substantive" complaints in terms of process, work, scoring, logistics, fairness? Or is it just that they disagreed with the assessments of taste and artistry, which are inherently subjective anyway? A lot of fence-mending will probably take place in the coming year--since losing the support of the French/Bajard/Caffet MOF block and the Belgian/Wybauw/Debailleul MOF block would be a crippling blow: Bajard, Wybauw and DeBailleul got this comp off the ground by lending the most international stature and independent credibility amongst the judges, and since this remains a French-styled pastry competition which just happens to be taking place in the US--this is a turn of events the sponsors would surely notice and might potentially impact their willingness to fork over money for a future international event. I wouldn't be surprised to see this resolved somehow, after the passion of the moment has passed.

I'll keep playing devil's advocate here--I think restaurants can be many things to many people simultaneously--and my hope is we resist the natural inclination to apply labels to places--because labels can mislead. If I reacted to the "neighborhood" comment wrt Eve that was mainly my intent, Sara, a general reaction and not specific--because pretty clearly Eve's concept is to be different things to different diners at different price points each and every night. Kind of impressive and daring if you think about it--you can have that delicious baby beet salad and other gently priced apps sitting at the bar and a $7 glass of some amazing wine Todd found or you can have the $65+ tasting menu experience which from early reports (not my own, yet) seems to rival if not surpass what Gian Piero was doing so well at Elysium--which I always thought was special--except with the added plusses of Todd, wine and service. It can be a casual stop after work or the perfect upscale place for an anniversary or birthday--several of which were being celebrated in the bistro on July 6th when we dined there (unbeknownst to the house it was also my wife's birthday that night and we chose Eve because our first choice--our neighborhood and destination restaurant Ray's the Steaks--was closed. Michael took 4 days off in row, deservedly, to recover and refresh a bit.) I think of all the places you mentioned the one that comes the closest to Eve in concept, price point, service and execution is Hugo's in Portland--where I really enjoyed myself last Summer: its number of seats is maybe half that of Eve, but has the chef-driven, modern-leaning stylish cuisine, close farm connection and consciousness, fantastic and fair wine list not quite as good as Todd's, though, where you can have individual dishes sitting at very cool tables at the bar or various multi-course tasting menus in the restaurant--all of which, bar and restaurant is one room about the size of Django maybe in square footage. Hugo's was also the last place beside Eve where I had a killer pork belly dish. But overall your point is valid: DC, for all its wealth, has never been as rich as it should have been with small gems like this or with neighborhood restaurants aiming higher. (There's that n-word again.) There's a slippery slope when it comes to comparisons with other more established restaurants, and I'm guilty of this too often as well--it can hinder appreciating things just for what they are. But look at the controversy generated in your "other" city when Craig LaBan awarded Django that final bell--how could such a small, unpretentious "neighborhood" byob, with entrees in the mid to high teens, with such a small kitchen and staff, be elevated to the highest ranking? Well, it could because it defied label, it defied category--and at least in LaBan's mind it achieved enough excellence in its own right. Only those with preconceived notions and requirements complained. So when I made my intimacy comments it was irrespective of whoever our dining companions might be--it was solely with respect to service--how the staff teams up to approach you and care for you throughout the evening--and that can function well in big or small house. You're right, Sara, that often the food achieves a certain level of excellence and then it is the intangibles, some of them transparent, that set the lasting mood, tone or remembrance of an experience, at least they do for me. More "experience" or flow and less "dishes that work" or not work viewed in some kind of isolation. That's why I extended that analogy about everything filtering down from chef/owners at the top--you keep your family happy and retain them that loyalty will transfer to the guests in the dining room. You bankrupt restaurants and displace one family or investor after another methinks that too transfers to the guests in your future dining rooms--and impacts how experiences are remembered and whether as a diner you're eager to return. And I'm not sure about the fetishization angle at least when it comes to DC and the small places, I don't think enough of the media or the public has gotten over the cell-phone-toting/jet-setting celebrity chef angle yet (which way back Phyllis Richman helped to promote) and instead bought into the newer charms and diversity represented well close-in by Ray's, Firefly, Palena, Eve, minibar, Nectar or way out by over-achieving independent places like SBC Cafe or Boulevard Woodgrill. We're inching forward but the vested interests are still well-vested.

It might just be semantics keeping us apart on that Sara--to me, intimacy occurs at all price points and at all destinations, from high to low, and yes, even within hotels. And also to me neighborhood places can also be destination restaurants--like the ones you mentioned, and to that list I'd add a Blue Hill in NY or a Django in Philly as perhaps even better examples--which are both pretty good comparisons for Eve, by the way. It might be the "casual" tag that separates us a bit--and the difference between that and what might be called a more relaxed formality--and my initial (and perhaps incorrect) impression of Eve is that it aims to provide this formality just in a transparent way--delivering heightened expectation and service--like at a Blue Hill--whereas places like you mentioned, a Prune or an Alias on the really low East side, or the byob Django, as you know one of my favorite US restaurants, do not. And that's one difference between a place that serves entrees priced in the mid to high teens and a place like Eve with bistro entrees hovering around 20. I think most people's expectation of Eve, even in the bistro, will be a little higher than that--yet without sacrificing any intimacy. We'll both have to try the tasting menu side of Eve next time to get a feel for that level of service as well, and that will undoubtedly be another huge way it can distinguish itself against the other casual/neighborhood restaurants you've listed--if not the other fine dining options around town. Yes they are in a neighborhood, but they really transcend the neighborhood already--and people will travel to them, regardless of the (mostly underwhelming) neighborhood. Are Firefly, Palena and Nectar "neighborhood" restaurants or are they really much more than that?

She sure is to be applauded--and might I add she handled this eG situation with all the tact and graciousness I've seen on display at the restaurant. Meshe clearly "cares." I have to admit I had the same misgiving about Sara's intoxicated comment when I read it and wondered if anyone was going to respond to it. Restaurants rot from the top down--and when a chef or owner stops caring and/or starts mailing it in, you not only see a decline in the food but you see it when the chef stops caring about his family of employees, his or her "family" in the front and back of the house get the message, the next step is the family stops caring about the customers. There are a few too many chefs around town who open and close restaurants, bankrupting one and failing with another, who are not above playing games paying their staff, sometimes letting payroll checks bounce and who seem never to have offered good customer service--yet these chefs seem to be given too free a pass by an at-times-uncritical local media focused mainly on the "food." The kind of chef, with several failed restaurants under their belt, who wouldn't inform their staff until the very last night that the restaurant was closing the next day and, oh, by the way, they'd all be out of work. What I can tell from the way Meshe engaged Sara is that not only does she care about her family--her employees--she even views patrons as part of her extended family even those who have a complaint. That's refreshing, it's also the hallmark of the many good local people who realize this is a customer service business: every single diner and every single experience is important. Sara is to be commended as well for having the courage to raise an issue for discussion which might not have gone over so well or swum against the tide. No one is protected here and dissent is welcome--it's just that all of our opinions, ideas and arguments are likely to be engaged and challenged. It also doesn't mean that just because you're "in the biz" or have dined at all the Michelin three-stars your opinion is necessarily correct or more correct--as we've seen demonstrated over and over again on eG that isn't the case. Pros disagree all the time. If you are not prepared to engage respectfully, to explain and/or to defend your opinion--you might as well not share it in the first place. Would that all the professionals who post or lurk on this site add their names to their signature lines rather than continue to post anonymously or stew privately. Thank you, at this point, to all the eG members and eG pros who do post under their own names--it helps keep this a special place. Some things are better expressed privately--beginning with whether anyone feels this little discussion should have been held in private--but communities gain when prickly, thorny issues are discussed out in the open--it raises awareness for everyone and everyone can make up their own minds. I think we all have to remember one fact about the restaurant business--that the period after a positive review by the lead critic of a town is a difficult time. That's why, I think it was John Wabeck, made the crack about now having to wait six months to go to Eve. Eve has been in that period of transition since the Sietsema review came out--of likely hiring new staff, training the exisiting staff to operate seamlessly at the pace of higher expectation and heightened awareness. Mistakes and poor decisions are going to be made in this period--the true measure of commitment is in how the restaurant management handles those situations as it goes forward. My sense is that they're in good hands with Meshe and Todd--and the few on the service staff who may have seemed a little green or apprehensive on your last visit will be just that little bit more confident and mature on your next visit--and one of the reasons they will be is because of posts just like yours Sara. We ate in the Bistro for the first time on July 6th and were very impressed, I'll write up a little more about it later, but we were taken in most of all by the level of service: consummate, earnest and seamless despite the fact that the house was full, including a packed bar, this just after the long holiday weekend. And Todd wasn't even there--he was teaching a scuba class that night. From the way you are greeted at the front door, which is the side door actually, to refilling the water, to the little delish Breadline rolls, to the incredible cocktail and wine list and wine service, to the dishes presented, to our server Laura eagerly going into the kitchen to find out what a certain odd-looking but incredible-tasting leaf was in the wonderful baby beet salad (turned out to be osaka, a type of mustard green apparently) despite the fact that she obviously had better things to do, to the black-clad runner bringing out a single sabayon for two elderly ladies to share and presenting it as if it was the most important action he had that night--this place oozed sincerity and attentiveness. It's a mistake to consider this place just a "neighborhood" restaurant--which could be interpreted by some as almost a diss. I mean, it aims to convey a neighborhood feel but Eve is poised to be much more special--and in some ways it already is.

My wife and I stumbled onto a special evening last night quite by accident out in unappreciative Cowtown. We walked up to SBC at 6PM--I had had the hot-sweet seared scallop on coconut grits, the tuna tartar with wasabi aoili and candied ginger and also the seafood tamale on my brain all day--just to find there were maybe 25 people in the place already--and my first reaction was damn, the eGullet mojo must be working, DonRocks must have worked his inestimable magic--there were as many people here at 6PM as there are usually at Ray's the Steaks at 6PM. And here I thought this place wasn't doing as much dinner business as it should be doing! Hadn't word spread like wildfire about the ridiculously high pricing here? Or was this a long overdue outpouring of support from the usually-too-indifferent tract-home-dwelling chain-restaurant-loving exurban neighborhood upon hearing the news SBC was moving to the old Be-Du-Ci space in Dupont? Turns out the cafe was closed for a wine dinner last night, but since I'd always thought one of the strengths of SBC was its interesting affordable wine list, and since there was a last minute cancellation, we settled into a booth and scanned the room. What were so many attractive well-groomed people doing here instead of hanging in the Penn Quarter? Hadn't they heard this was a non-descript dining room? I looked down at my Teva sandals but before I could feel even the slightest bit hesitant about crashing this party poorly dressed, Ana(?) the wife of the chef whisked over to pour our first wine of the evening--and as she's done without fail on our previous 6 or 7 visits made us feel completely welcome. She whisks around the dining room treating everyone this way, really well, and really sincerely, not just other chefs like me who are known to the house. We had stumbled upon a Michel Schlumberger/Country Vintner wine dinner--more specifically the import side of Schlumberger which we found out last night has been split off and renamed Vintage 59--and that our host for the evening was going to be Lori Varsames. She turned out to be a real sweetheart, very fun, very cool, with nice confidence and presence in front of the group talking knowledgeably about the all French wines we'd be having--mostly 2001 and 2002 vintages from younger French winemakers (or older winemakers who passed the reins to their sons) who use organic or biodynamic farming methods. The wines and the pairings were super, and while the chef doesn't feel he does "French" cooking all that well, you wouldn't have known it from the satisfaction I derived from the menu. None of last night's dishes were regular cafe menu items but all could be. I think what Mark does well is just "be" himself in his food: humble, shy, committed, and last night he was. The meal started with three distinct interesting whites, my apologies in advance to the wine geeks for mispellings and errors: Blanc de Coupe Roses, 2002 cuvee Champ du Roy, Cotes du Brian from the Minervois (Francoise Frissant le Calvez et Pascal Frissant) was served with a canape of toast, with tapenade topped with a quail egg half and a chiffonade of basil. The toast was a little too thickly cut, like 5/8ths of an inch thick where 1/4" would do, but this was delicious and the basil/olive went really well with the minerally nature of the wine. I had another glass of this wine before the next course imagining how well this wine would pair with, say, Thai basil in an Asian dish; Then came the 2002 Domain de la Garrelierves "Cendrillion" from the Loire with a cup of asparagus soup drizzled with a little chive cream; just delicious. Then a white Burgundy with mussels in basil butter with some fougasse flat bread Mark baked and stuffed himself. 8 mussels in their half shell, with a brunoise of tomato and the basil butter melted over them, served with the Normand Macon La Roche Vineuse, 2002 I believe but I didn't see this bottle; Perfectly cooked, as in nicely under-done, duck breast slices in some demi with a hint of powdered strawberry came next, along with a mushroom "napoleon" which was more strudel or spring roll than napoleon--still delish however, more so with the pinot noir Lori picked, a perky but elegant and smooth premier cru Domaine Lucien Muzard Santenay "Maladiere" 2001. Perfect braised veal cheeks with a perfect little clump of sauteed baby arugula and a perfect roasted garlic custard flan (that I could have had ten of) followed, ably matched with two reds: the bargain-priced, simple but good Chateau Haut-La Pereyre Bordeaux 2001 and the best wine of the evening, the Domain Louis Cheze 2001 "Cuvee Ro-Ree" St. Joseph. Dessert was a choice between orange pots de creme or lavender creme brulee. And they had the nerve to charge $65 per person for this, including essentially unlimited pours of all the wonderful wines, which in my case was about 12 glasses of wine spread out over the whole evening. Damn those money-grubbing bastards out at SBC Cafe.

Yes, they handle even this act with distinction--you get fresh portions of the potatoes and spinach if you take some of your steak home--not whatever was left on those skillets. And for those of you concerned somewhat about cost: the hangar is in the high teens and is his best cut, just call ahead and make sure he'll have it for you and as far as wine cost, they have the wonderful Castell del Remei Gotim Bru in that price range, it's a real quality-to-price ratio winner.

Ted, just realize desserts take up maybe 45 pages. That's what, 10% of the book, but the real value for a pastry chef, though, will be in reading through all the savory recipes and processes as well, they're quite avant-garde and interesting considering how often the conservatively French nature of Ducasse is played up in mainstream media--this book is very open to emulation and interpretation--it's not difficult to imagine a pomegranate-sumac molasses he pairs with pork subtly re-worked to be drizzled over ice cream. I think you're going to find this every bit as inspirational as the major Adria books. This is quietly, subversively, an impressive achievement. (fyi--I ordered mine (#2297) a few weeks ago from amazon.fr and got it in 4 days. I have no idea if they have any left.)

Thanks for posting about this Kerry, and best of luck with it this year. Here's the link to the online home for the show which has photo galleries of all the work: http://www.oksugarartshow.com/

Good question W-Grrl, someone in the audience asked me this right before I was about to move the cake to the display table. I said it would depend if I had to travel to do it or could do it locally--and then I would probably try to re-design it slightly to be a little less risky--but locally as is about $1,500 for 150 or so people because we'd have to do x hours of extra sugar work--basically backups of ALL the sugar pieces and then extra backups for the things most likely to break. So that means about 1/3 the time extra even though we likely would not need to use any of those backups, because when you promise something to a client you have to deliver. (I may not have mentioned but there was an emcee fielding questions throughout the event, sticking the mike in our face, and two cameramen in and around our maybe 10 foot wide kitchen getting up close and personal--and then projecting the image onto big screens so everyone seated in the theater could see everything we did. There was no place to hide.) Sweet, once they announced the results. Seriously, the judges didn't taste our cakes, only the public did--and we did chocolate with cardamom, pistachio and rose. Really, thank you everybody. The reaction to this is unexpected. You're convincing me our continual efforts to raise awareness on this site and support good work are worth it.

Again, thank you, we're suprised by the reaction and appreciative. I think JFLinLA I'll follow your suggestion and get into the questions people have about the event and techniques over in the Pastry forum: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=45329&st=30 It meant a lot to me to represent DC well on a national stage, that the Post deemed it worth covering and that you all were moved by what we did.

OK, thanks to Owen and his imagegullet tutorial for dummies like me, here are some shots resized to 640x640 which hopefully reveal those sugar rods a little better--everything is sugar, pulled, blown, poured, everything is edible, like licking one big Chihuly art glass lollipop. Here we are about 45 minutes before the end trying not to break these really fragile things we spent 3 hours making: Sliding that curvy top piece onto the rest of the cake, our one really tense moment, trying not to break it. I had budgeted enough time to build a complete second curvy piece in case this one broke--fortunately we didn't need it: Adding that one piece of near perfect ribbon, just for the judges: Duff's wild ride, he designed and welded this cool support structure himself: It's over, we're tired, hungry, but at least it didn't break. Of course, we spent 5 days straight making those damn rods, and went through about 30 feet of that Home Depot vinyl tubing, until we figured out just how to curve them and just how to do that top piece under pressure so it wouldn't break.

Cafe Atlantico. Jose and Kats do something special with the pork, I'm not quite sure if anyone has ever talked about it or if it is a secret they'll be pissed at me for sharing, but I think they confit it, or at least poach it in some kind of fat, and it just oozes flavor and moistness. Man that thing is good, I've never made a single dessert that good. Ask for extra pickle.

Sorry for any confusion, that photo was something the Beaver Creek media team sent out after the event and that was the one the Post art director thought had the best clarity. It doesn't show the cool sugar rods that well, though, so if I can figure out how to use imagegullet and if it is back online, I'll put better ones up. I'm guessing it is a photographer rights issue why it only ran in the paper and not also online. Did anyone catch the Food Network special last weekend about this big national wedding cake challenge where they invite 5 top pastry chefs and cake artists out to Beaver Creek, set them up in kitchens on stage in front of a big theater audience, then give them artistic license to do battle for 6 hours live creating a wedding cake? Colette Peters from NYC, perhaps the most famous and most widely emulated cake artist in the country, won the $10,000 first prize with a typically beautiful cake--well, that was the second time this event was held though it was just shown now. The details of this event are being discussed here but be forewarned--it's a lot of pastry shop talk: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=45329 I was fortunate enough to be one of the 5 people chosen for this year's challenge in Beaver Creek, I think because they try to draw a diverse national group who work in different mediums and styles. I'm fortunate to be married to a fantastic pastry chef in her own right, who is also used to doing things live in front of an audience and who could assist me (since we're allowed to work with an assistant), and even more fortunate to have won the big money this year, the third time this has been held. (Colette judged this year.) Our geographic area was well-represented actually--a fantastic cake artist from Baltimore named Duff Goldman was also in this group of 5. You're going to keep hearing a lot about him--unlike many decorators he's very talented in the kitchen baking, he's got an irrepressible and original spirit, and thinks very outside the box creatively. He's an ex-graffitti artist turned cake decorator. (I'm trying to talk him into teaching me how to use the airbrush better, I'm no dummy.) Dig into Duff and his Charm City Cakes here: http://charmcitycakes.com/ If he keeps pushing boundaries, he has the potential to become the "Colette Peters" of the next generation of cake decorators. I'll post the wild thing he did if I can find a good photo. Thanks everyone for even noticing and the Post for finding it significant. And if you ever see that Food Network special come on again, Tivo it, trust me you won't regret it. It was one of the best-produced things I've seen on FoodTV in a long time and very rarely do you get to see elite talent just doing their thing unvarnished and under pressure.