chefboy24

I invite everyone to check out my new blog: http://chefboysfoodandwineblog.blogspot.com enjoy, happy reading!

anyone been? going tonight. this is the restaurant in the former toqueville space, marco moreira is still the owner, and the sushi chef is the original sushi chef from jewel bako. will post review!!

Maybe 'cause you were wasting too much time over at Robuchon's. Hey man. I had some phenomenal meals at JRo. So back off! Heheh. Seriously, though, I feel like L'Atelier recently became a bit... boring and complacent. Is it possible for a restaurant this young to be complacent already? Guess part of that is due to it being a chain restaurant. High-end or not, a chain restaurant just operates on a formula. Nonetheless, EMP was already #1 on my never-ending NYC restaurant list, and your review has firmly cemented it there. It's only a matter of time until I make there. Hopefully sooner rather than later! ← haha i always thought "j ro" was jancis robinson, woman master of wine lol

i'm generally happy with bruni?

Babbo has one Michelin star, not zero. Del Posto's two-star status was a definite surprise to me. I continue to see reports of inconsistency there, so I just can't explain it. Chef Humm arrived too late in the year to be fully rated, so its current status is based on the previous chef.Obviously any rating system can't be perfect. I find it a little hard to explain that La Goulue, Etats-Unis, and The Spotted Pig have one star, but Chanterelle has zero. ← humm arrived the second week of january. michelin made an error, obv, humm got a michelin star when he was 24 back in europe.

going on saturday night! very excited. any recommendations? is the wine list up to date because there is some very nicely aged and well priced stuff on there?

very interesting, but there are tons of hits across the town turbot with chateau chalon sauce at jg polenta & mushrooms at l'impero etc etc there are definitely some memorable dishes on this island but, as great as they are, i don't think i ever crave any specific dish anywhere. i go out for the whole extravaganza of an experience of an evening in a restaurant, right?

bar room if you're doing jean georges, do the real thing, the main dining room, for lunch or dinner.

upbeat music?!?! they were playing drum and bass, house, telepopmusik, ????

i've been there 5 times now, since i work a block away and we know the sommelier and owner. this is a very serious restaurant. i love the style, the concept, the decor, everything. jordan is brilliant. helen the sommelier is brilliant, the owner, i forgot his name, knows what he is doing. who the hell cares if the desserts look one way and the savory food looks another? who the hell cares, really? honestly, someone explain why. the service is very professional and the food is freakin' delicious. my experience there was about 10 times more enjoyable then the 4 hour dinner i had at gordon ramsay, which is why i go to varietal on a weekly basis. the service is just simply on point, and so is the food. there aren't really too many other places in new york i prefer for fine dining... jean georges, le bernardin, the modern, bouley maybe. but varietal i can chill in the lounge and hang out and have a great time. my $.02

morell great stuff!

your thoughts? i thought the mugneret were very very lovely, sweet fruited. the dujac's were super closed right now, but thats okay, they will be lovely, the clos de la roche was lovely lafon- volnay santenots was the wine of the day for me l'arlot's were very sexy.... best food: bouchon salmon rillette....and the shortribs from tribeca grill i believe? cru's food was pretentious.

two recent memorable quotes "hey, like, i want a wine that's like totally dry but also...sweet" me: "i'm sorry to tell you, but those two things are exact opposites" also "you're going to think i'm crazy, but i want a wine that tastes like a boot" so i gave her some chenas, quartz, 2004

well the first thing you should do is stop reading wine spectator lists american sparkling for a toast is very appropriate, because we are american after all, i recommend roederer estate....amazing amazing value, always comes out on top in american sparkling tastings then i'd do a charonnay and a pinot.... a gently oaked chard.... and pinot is a great choice because they are versatile, they'll go with chicken, duck, tuna, bass, salmon, whatever there's tons of great chards and pinots at the $20 price point, if you buy in bulk by the case you can go up to $25 chards and pinots landmark - overlook is always a great choice chalone pinot as well?

chandon de brialle wines are always opulant imho a 96 corton bressand should have been poppin! exploding out of the glass quite jealous but i had an 03 corton blanc last night which was fabulous. - pure and clean but ripe and fat, huge, classy

fatty crab i really really don't understand the fuss i had a raw mango battonet appetizer that knocked a filling out the food came out in the most random weird order the tables were wobbily you are so freaking close to the diners next to you cant help but hear their conversation, and you have no privacy at all whatsoever (i mean they were so ram packed in with uncomfortable chairs and tables, for NYC this was a sardine can) finally when i got the fatty crab, it was so dark in the room, and the crab was so spicy and covered with sauce, the effort required to get the few micrograms of meat out of the slippery wet hot spicy sauce covered legs, it was totally unworth it. i remember thinking i was wanted the broth and the bread to dunk it in...the crab was totally annoying. like the most annoying dish ever in new york ever. and all the servers kept coming over to tell me how much they liked the movia wine i ordered......honestly the wine was the only good thing there.

PACHA. end of discussion

it's a little dated. for italian wine - vino italiano is a MUST, also, the new italy for burgundy: the cote d'or by coats and the wines of burgundy by sutcliffe for france: the new france sotheby's wine encyclopedia is also the best single volume reference, absolutely indespensible, easy to open up and just read... oxford by j ro is great also, more of an A-Z reference...not fun to read, but if you ever want to look up something obscure like carbonic masceration or trellis systems, that is your go to book. also--i learned most of my stuff from the CIA wine book, exploring wine by kolpan and the other guy.... good luck! welcome to the biz

What that article failed to tell us is that starting salaries are $30,000 in New York CIty for sommeliers who work 60 hours a week. (I should know, I've done it in restaurants with certain celebrity chefs at the helm). Usually junior sommeliers or those without much experience would probably make more money as waitstaff. TO make the switch, you much take a huge pay cut in order to further your career. I thought it was a very silly article written from someone very much not in the restaurant business, as much as i do love eric asimov. this article, he missed the mark....

warren went downhill after the kitchen drawer opened much closer to campus. now that i'm in nyc i'd much rather go to jbprince for tools and korin for knives. or you can do both of these mail order.

cia grad here myself, who just switched full time into wine. i was pretty much tired of the low pay of being a nyc line cook, and more frustrated with the BS and games GM's and managers play when you work front of the house... so i got a job as a wine sales associate at burgundy wine company www.burgundywinecompany.com top zagat store, all these awards. no regrets. and i get to sit in a chair the majority of my day! and i make commission! as far as courses, i do not recommend them. read a lot. a lot! and taste. all the time. whenever possible. a large percentage of your income will be spent on wine, much higher then the average person, so be prepared for that hit. you could always start with wine retail.... but the pay is sort of lower then a lot of other work. you could also work at an importer/distributor.... if you did sales, you'd be selling wine at wholesale to retailers and restaurants, which is my goal.. this is very hard to crack into, i think. retail shops are always hiring, but i have never seen a distributor/importer in the new york market hire.... it's a great switch, i recommend it. but if you're good at sales, and you love wine, and you know how to read.....don't waste your time with a course. you have to be patient with gaining knowledge about wine, it will come slowly but surely the more you read and taste.

a-z pinot noir yahmill pinot noir cloudline pinot noir jezebel pinot noir castle rock pinot noir millbrook pinot noir etude pinot noir rose benzinger cab /chardonnay / merlot beringer cab founders estate / chardonnay / pinot noir louis martini cab sauv frog's leap sauv blanc honig sauv blanc silverado sauv blanc covey run riesling dr. frank chardonnay/riesling ridge zinfandel none of these are "great," of course, they are no coche dury or petrus, but for under $20, they are all great values. whoever in this thread said compared white burgundy to cali chards and red burgundy to cali pinots and with SWEEPING generalizations said he couldn't find anything from america he liked....well.... this is just ignorance. laughable. i can't even believe someone is on a messageboard about food and wine and has the audacity to call all american chard and pinot bad? its almost hilarious, you have to wonder if someone is just trying to get a rise out of you.... i can think of tons of american chardonnay that rivals a large percent of burgundy...... ramey, ramsay, marcassin, chateau montelena, cakebread, kistler, Grgich Hills, Talbott, Landmark, Newton Unfiltered, I could go on and on and on... Some of them are big and oakey like Corton, and some of them show restraint and balance like Puligny, some of these are outright delicious, but expensive. And for Christ's sake the dollar is so bad right now that France is anything BUT value, unless you're shopping from the Jura, Savoie, Gascony, sw france, etc AND, furthermore, its SO hard to find GOOD burgundy. there is so much bad burgundy year after year. you have to know the vintages, the producers, the prices, the single vineyards. its too complicated and there is too much crap.. and you have to wonder if the wine is too young (and tight)....or if its aged a few years and its good. Or has it shut down? They say the 1999 Burgundies are closed right now, and will open up again in a few years. What the hell is that? Gimme a Ken Wright pinot noir or a Domaine Serene or Shea out of the bottle from 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, whatever, it doesn't matter...and it will be delicious, and will be 10 years from now as well.

it's not 6th highest in profit, its 6th highest in total sales. big difference.

this thread is ridiculous. talk about ridiculous sweeping generalizations. i can think of many many great american wines under $20. it's almost impossible to find great french wine under $20 in bordeaux, burgundy, alsace, or rhone. there are tons, yes, but it takes hard work. most beaujolais are crap. most cote du rhone are crap. but there are some really wonderful ones out there. and muscadet? are you nuts? talk about all wines that taste the same....most muscadet tastes the same. That's why they are all $12. the same goes for american chardonnay, pinot noir, syrahs, zinfandels, merlots, etc. if you look, you will find it. i think without arguement its safe to say the BEST bargains in the world RIGHT NOW are spain, portugal, south america, and southern france. but there are bargains from every country and every grape if you know where to look.

was there ever a doubt in your mind?