chefboy24

phenominal review. on point. thank god bruni's talking about the food and beverage and not going off on rants. looks like he came back from his little vacation and got down to business. sounds like 3 stars are coming.

my guess is ADNY, per se, daniel...3 stars.

American bounty at CIA. for dinner is very good now, the chef is eisenhour, former chef at prune and savoy in nyc, and she is hardass (but we love her, some of us anyway) the wine list at escoffier is EXTREMELY UNDERPRICED, good cote rotie for like $95. colavita is a pretty good value for food and wine too and a beautiful dining room. gigi's has a decent wine list, ok food, terrapin i only go to for the purpose of drinking wine, getting drunk, and the sexyness of the room.

how appropriate that its coming from australia.

i have never seen a shellfish stock that color? but when making the stock....yes.... you have to saute the shells in oil or roast them. the reddish brownish orangey color will usually come from the pincage (adding tomato to fat). once the tomato is browned (and it browns quickly), and the shells are red (shrimp, langoustine, or otherwise)... then you add water.

how do you have a hot nose? love that nero d'avola, had it at otto. delicious. excellent grape.

THAT is interesting. it's very hard to say no to a guest..... i've been trained and automatically i cringe when i say no. he should have at least told management what you were thinking and checked in the kitchen before saying no. as a waiter, the only time i will say no...... is when a guest asks to make a ridiculous alteration to a plate. for example one time on a lunch $20 prix fixe menu i had a guest demand a plate of sliced avacodo for her ap (isntead of the mixed green salad with wild mushrooms, avacado, and bacon).....saying that she couldn't eat anything raw. i wanted to stick it to her and say "listen you dumb bitch avacado is raw and if you dont want this dish then order off the real goddamn menu you cheap jersey trash" but out loud i actually said "unfortunately i can't create a dish for you, there are 2 options on the priced fixed menu for your first course, and we can also do a mixed green salad as well). then i smiled and bounced. sorry to hear you got a firm "no" from the waitstaff. then again they have been hiring waiters since may on craigslist, and i saw an ad for "service director" go up recently as well. maybe the service really isn't what its cracked up to me. i wouldn't be surprised.

My belief is that the full 18 months is really the only way to do it at CIA. (from a cia grad) Otherwise just go somewhere else? just my humble opinion.

i would like to add I'm pretty sure brunoise, nicoise, and vichysoise are pronounced SWAHHZ, right? not swa? because that is my biggest pet peeve in the kitchen, every damn cook calling it "brunwah" right? (I took spanish in highschool, no regrets of course, but I wish I had a firmer grasp of french pronunciation)

Much better read imho ← while it is better written, it is a much more boring topic. the master chef competition is a pretty silly thing. (i should know, i volunteered and helped out a chef in the 2004 test at CIA). i can't think of one influential chef or even memorable one that has passed the master chef exam in this country. there are much more influential and interesting chef's i'd rather read about then those who go thru the test at CIA. (bouley, barber, thomas keller, alain ducasse to start......oh......what a coincidence, they're all in psaltis's book, and none of them took the american master chef exam). and lesley! thankyou!

ding ding ding. we have a winnar.

i think the lard smoke point is around 290? 320? vegetable oils smoke points are at 400+ wouldn't you burn the hell out of the lard (cause an awful taste & smell) i'm a big fan of searing steaks in olive oil. (at home)

that's discouraging. i just sent them my resume.

because he wrote kitchen confidential. because he wrote the les halles cookbook (i have never read such a hillarious cookbook anywhere, let alone a hilarious cookbook about french bistro classics) i mean the cookbook gets me cracking up, laughing out loud, his personality comes through in what would ordinarily be the most mundane instructions on how to make stock or french onion soup) because he is a chef's chef, not the people's chef. because he is inteligent, has relevant things to say, and isn't affraid to say them. because he points out things that should be said (that CIA is now a place where rich mommy and daddy's send their children, about trends of food, about phonies, and BS) surely have something more interesting to say then "he is a sellout."

as a line cook, i love it. it makes us more valuable. it makes americans more interested in restaurants and restaurant food. it might make cooking seem like a more respectable profession (and it has come a long way since the 70's), and there will be more young american boys and girls who will persue serious cooking, and as a result our cuisine and restaurants will get better and better. at least i hope. are you the real Mimi Sheraton? what an honor that you grace egullet with your postings. (sorry I'm a bit new here)

i read the book as a result of this thread. whether he got fired from the french laundry or whether the job wasn't a right match and he decided to leave (i personally believe the latter) is irrelevant. the 200 some page book is about all of the places he's worked, his journey, and there is some interesting stuff about how very succesful chefs run their restaurants. it is not well written, it is a collection of some simply flat-out interesting facts about some great chefs. it was very easy for me to read the book in about 2 or 3 sittings, i loved the information. i wish he wrote like bourgess or sedaris (a more talented greek) or bourdain (or even dan barber), but he doesn't. dan barber stealing recipes? was he a sous chef or a co chef or what? who knows? who cares? personally if that time out magazine refered to him as sous chef, and he described the opening very well, and the whole process of the concept at peacock alley......and now he's being described as just a line cook, i think i'd rather take psaltis's side of the story. he was probably fired. but who cares, i liked the dirt on dan barber. the dirt he was talking.....if anyone bothered to read the book....... was that dan barber was always looking at the french laundry cookbook and the el bulli 92-98 (or 92-96 or whatever) book in catalan and pulling stuff out of there and using a lot of those recipes (or variations on) when blue hill was starting. This was in 1999! (because he says the laundry book had recently come out). lots of chefs do this. lots of B-list chefs have the laundry cookbook in their office at the restaurant. chef's who are starting out and are trying to form their own cuisine lift recipes from cookbooks. dan barber eventually after 3-4 years got really talented and original and is enjoying his deserved success. more proof that batali hasn't read the book. I'm sure barber's recipes are original NOW, but when they were at blue hill and he was pulling shit from the el bulli book, they were less original, 6 years ago. how many fucking menu's in manhattan have tomato water on them in some form? i rest my case. summary: somewhat boring poorly written clunky clumsy sentence book with interesting info on the world's best chefs.

But then we'd have to ask, did they braise, grill, or sauté the kittens? And with what sauce did they serve them? ← well clearly you would braise the kitten forelegs and hindlegs. i would saute the tenderloin and roast the breast. and the sauce would probably be some sort of roasted kitten bone stock reduction, maybe fortified with butter, shallots, red wine, and thyme.

Wow, this thread is a trainwreck. Would you guys read the book already? Melkor and foodman - no. You have the wrong idea. (Probably because you didn't read the book). He did great work at March. He did great work for Bouley. He did great work for Alain Ducasse. So much so that he moved up from an assistant to an assistant to a line cook.... to the Chef of his kitchen at Mix. This isn't some shady guy who keeps getting fired. This is an extremely talented hardworking cook who's not very bright and can't tell a good story. Or doesn't even have a story, really?

there's another error... or at least oversight or simplification in that NYT article. ny state restaurant workers are not required to be paid hourly, if they are in supervisory positions (sous chefs, or even argueably line cooks) can definitely legally work on salary with no overtime pay. doug probably thinks there should be no overtime (as he never got overtime.......but look who he worked for...... bouley, adny, etc). what good has come from china grill management anyway? ducasse should have known better. china grill? asia de cuba? english is italian? ono? crap. we saw what happened to mix and roccos.

i'm guessing jus de presse ..... they had a carcass presser, probably matfer, and crushed the lobster body? those pressers are like 2 grand. did they do it table side? comments: the lobster plate looks flawess. the chicken looks flawless. (was the tableside carving manner smooth and sexy?) altho that endive looks sad and gross. where is the tablecloth? the langoustine vege looks awesome the line caught bass vege.....oh....my......god. its like a sugar snap pea rainbow? how the hell did they do that? that was probably the most time consuming prep, hands down.

holy shit.

flawless invaluable resource. a must buy. if you drink the 3 glass wines listed you will never have to wonder about the quality of a producer and you will never drink a bad or even average italian wine. and! its not all barolo/brunello (altho they take their share)! some really interesting stuff there.

one word omlette. (if you want to be fancy-shmancy...get farmers market fresh free range organic yada yada yada eggs)

don't worry about your boy, he's very much alive, and i hope you support his decision and that you're proud of him. he'll be fine. (i'm sure of it if he's got a mom who posts on egullet!)