matthewj

do you know what he needs it for, maybe i can give him an alternative. Sheeps milk ricotta?

I'm thinking he would have to go and get it himself.

did you think about contacting Jamison Farms, Elysian Fields or Four Story hill farm.

I think it depends on what the guest expect, or the expectation that they have held before they dine. IF the guest is informed that they are going to a namesake restuarant, to get personalized cuisine. And the chef is no longer a part of the operations, or food. I would feel duped. But what do I know look at all the restaurants that have the names attached in Vegas and Miami. Maybe the public does not care

I came with Joel and helped him execute the Foie gras Demo. From what I could see. the Star chefs was done really really well. Since I was in contact with all the star chefs operators, I thought they were more than helpful, and it was very organized especially since the president was in town, so I believe that may have thrown a monkey in the works. My only comment was maybe the next year the workshops could be on the first floor, more accessible to everyone. Maybe they could not charge for the work shops, that way everyone could be able to interact. The workshop, I believe was not as interactive as it should of been. Maybe that was our fault, it is difficult to include people when foie gras is the topic, it is not exactly hands on. Also i wish that the venue was closer to the hotel it was murder getting all the mise en place there. I thought all the after events were very good as well. Hats off to the organizers it was unreal.

JM, nice to see you again. Again sorry about the rabid dog routine. Dinner was nice.

It was nice to see everyone. Sorry I could not stay long. What did you guys think of the conference? I thought for the first year, it went really well. Miss the north, maybe time to come back.

I was always worried about restuarant week. I mean I never wanted to do it, not because of trying to rip the customers off, but it always seemed like a money grab. A way to jam as many people, who normally would not come to the restuarant, through the door, and shove half baked food onto a plate. It concerns me, because you never know who is going to be eating that night, and you always tend to shun the regular clientele in effort to get new clientele that will never come back. The case may be that some of the higher end restaurants should participate, and let culinary prow-less shine. Because making "cheap food" is not always easy. It can be the most challenging, and one can really flex there culinary mussel, and out shine someone else. I believe twenty-twenty one is a great place to go during restuarant week. It is off the beaten path, but the chef is of good caliber. As for the Book and Crook I think restaurants should start boycotting it until they lower the cost to have these "great chefs", run the kitchen

It is funny tha you mention Paris Brest. V . The pastry chef at joel made on the other day for the wekly menu, it was Auesome. Did you know where the name came from? Question of the week.

I think we should be concerned with traceability rather locality of the fruits vegetables, meats so on, that we buy. It would be nice to share the same weather as the farmer that grows the vegetables but it does not always happen that way. So maybe one should concern themselves with the trasportation, weather and growing status of the product. Do they use chemicals, or natural fertilizers. Some do and some do not. I know a plenty even local farmers that will or will not subscribe to this. So folks research is key and call the farmer and ask, I am sure they would be more than happy to help.

Wow! I thought I ranted.. I know that sometimes it get frustrating about the fresh and Local. but the frustrations should be directed to the retailer and the chef for touting the local card when they know it is purchased somewhere else. I believe in supporting the local community, especially the RTM, but I think that a discerning eye needs to be placed on all the products. Like I would buy from whole foods first when it comes to mushrooms because I know that they have good buying power, and they can get the exotic mushrooms not from kennett square. and they do not look tired like the ones at ovine. But I would get cheeses from Downtown cheeses, before whole foods or, strike me down Dibrunos, because Jack know how to handle the product better. So I believe that it comes down to this. I think if we collectively put pressure on the retailer to supply better product, even if it is not local, and search and seek out new sources of farmers and growers, and entice them to come down to the farmers market, in the square, make it worth their while. Make them come back to PA, instead of going to New York Cities green market. example, Del val college, none such farms Buckingham. By the way Blue moon is not even 3 miles from where I grew up in Buckingham. great stuff, been buying from them for years. not just the restuarant stuff either. There are a slew of farmers in Bucks county. Also product knowledge. So I tell you what we can do. We can start a thread about a product of the week.

....Of course you should V. How else are we going to continue the La colombe coffee club 5 states away without the femoral magic of egullet. Although every opinion is different, warranted or not, respected or just to be flagrant; it is still cool that a group of people feel strongly about food, dinning, or shall I say cheese steaks in one corner of PA, NY, LA, SF, and even ATL.((run on sentence I can do that I am not a critic) So what if some consider us food snobs, elitist or a food zealots. Good, F them. All of us except for a few would not even look at each other on the street if not for the safety of a pixel. Exchange of information no matter how explosive it may be always get the best out of people. A little screw turned hear and there will turn heads make people think, dare to comment from ther computer at 8:00 in the morning. Besides it really pisses people off sometimes. (my favorite) p.s. I got the five state chill out... That is good eating

Maybe they need her to write towards her audience. I used to think Laban did not know much about food, until I started to read his online chat. He knows a lot about food, and dinning. Maybe he is just writing for the audience of the printed word. I do not think critics should be chefs, but it would be neat if they had more than a working knowledge of picking up a fork and eating. They should be educated and have an interest in food. It does not have to be formal training either.

I agree with Phillidinning. I myself do not care about the mentioning of whoever is in the article. I just read the article. The food does not sound good. Even without the description. Asian Caesar salad? Chocolate spring rolls? "Ewww." See .. I can say that, cause I am not a critic. I think what V is saying, FG, is that there is a lot of talking significant others in the conversation, and not enough content. It is alright when Frank Bruni writes about his guests because he has more than ample writing room to continue his critique. This article was not very long, so maybe she should have stuck to the topic better. I would just not go to the restuarant, not matter how good the tea is

V, I remember one of the earlier reviews of Lacroix. That one of the writers stated "ewww Sweetbreads" Any writer that uses that combination of words in the same sentence, that should be commenting on the quality, not if one appreciates them or not, should be disregarded as a serious food journalist. Talk about run on sentence. That was a good one By the way not bitching, venting, I love to "vent", keeps the juices flowing, unfortunately I left my soap box in Philadelphia

if Django had a liquor License, they would still be in Philadelphia. It has nothing to do with the chefs raising the expectations of dinners. That is false. Young chefs can not afford to pay the outrageous rent, let alone liquor license

I have just read the food section online for Philadelphia Inky. "On the side" complained about the "chainifying of the city". This is what we have been discussing all along, but the problem is after a four paragraph diatribe, he never once pointed out that the reasons for the chain restaurants proliferating in the city. It is good that he brings the problem into the public's attention, but we need solutions and and we need someone in the paper to force the issue. Not just complain about an issue we have already discussed, but to actually take a stand on way or another.

If anyone is interested gormet magazine "produce issue" has an article that hits on what we have been chatting about.

OK We have established that my spelling is deplorable. That is why i always had Meghan proof my menus. One of the most informative books is a Book called the Fish Encyclopedia. It has a listing of fish from A-Z. but experience is the best tool I have found. Just keep trying. If anyone is interested, and you are friends with someone in the business ask them to buy your fish for you and get a separate invoice. So essentially you would pay C.O.D..

Kumolo... I love her

Good food. I mean as quality stand point. Working in a restuarant, many times guest will look at the price tag first. ( not all but a lot) , then look at the ingredients. That is why restuarants are able to hoodwink guests into thinking they are eating and paying for gold when in actuality it is only ferrus. Believe me if you ate a Lacroix a lot of the ingredients that I used were not noble but we elevated the quality with technique, and culinary prowless. If I were to pick a fish from Brown trading or Sxxxxxx and sxxx, I would choose Brown every time I know it is better. I know the quality. I know that they handle it better. They have my best interest in mind. I will, as a retail agent pay the premium for that product. The guest always deserve the best. But sometimes that is not what they receive. but thatis going to reflect in the price tag.

Ok. V "Epaule d' agneau au thon."- Translated "shoulder of lamb stuffed with tuna." This dish comes from the Provence region. It usually has hard boiled eggs, olives and wrapped like a crepinne. This dish is logical result of Strong tuna that you will find along Provence near marseille. Such as skip jack or bonito. Which is often very strong and sometimes grey. ( grey is not always bad, this case it was but some fish have grey color. King mackeral, carp, some pike0 from the amount of swimming and warm waters. It is combined with a strong tasting lamb. almost like a cuallette nicoise. I wanted to do it one time for brunch but chef said that the customer would not understand it . So I am not sure if that is what Gayle is going for but, there it is. You know, I know I hate the wording of fresh and local. Fresh, gees I hopes so...and local. well I haven't seen some local salmon recently. I saw a blurb in inky that professed a restuarant was using fresh herbs. Sure as hell hope so. I thought that should already be understood that a restuarant uses fresh herbs. Like that is something novel. This proves what I talked about before. A lot of restuarnts believe that they can get away with serving sub par food, dirty service, in the name of fresh and local. The public needs to be educated on a higher standard of eating. Like BB said about the fish is true. That being said it is up to us to set higher standards for ourselves and our clients. And stop using Sxxxxxxxx, and the second tier fish mongers and give the clientele the premium product. Not some second grade bull crap, and sell it like it is gold. (BB remember the passed around halibut. And that ended up in one the "finer" establishments in town.) but then also educate the client that good food costs money. (25 dollars a # for European Turbot.) It depresses me to hear stories like these. Because someone invested in that crap.

do not fret V. It will get Three Bells, and it will be a hit.

I know it is neat and all, but a restaurant with a Liquor license should not have to compete, and lose money to a BYOB. Because they have to do a BYOB night.

Great points BB. and very good as well V. . You see folks some of things that all have brought up are great, but some flaws. Technically speaking on paper it could work outside the city. Let us take a look at an area that I am familiar with, Green street and above Callow Hill. Let us call it Fairmount. This too me is a gold mine. Great residential locations, good walk ability. Nice all around area. Why no more restaurants? Well I lived on green street for about 4 years and Wallace street for about 4 years. So I saw the change in the neighborhood. But it really did not change too much. Rent got a lot a lot higher, but the drugs were still at the end of the corner. Run down houses, right next to condos that were going for 400k. No one wants to go and fight parking, the drug corners and feel unsafe to go to a restuarant no matter how good. The rent goes up way to fast to coincide with the gentrification of the neighborhood. Making it impossible for a up and coming restuarant to afford a place. Let us also look at a vacant restaurant Cuvvee Notredame. ( Sniff Sniff... ) I bet you, and i have not been to Philly for quite some time that it is still vacant. Still. Still. Why? I can come up with a couple of theories. But I happened to see the previous tenants rental agreement, I would have left in the night too. I do not think that Philadelphians are as eager to go to a "destination restuarant" as one may think. Tacs is Pizza, dam good pizza, but pizza none the less. That alone can support itself in any economy. Pizza is not challenging. Another issue is not only rent but, red tape, unions, wage taxes, business tax, ( that needs to be paid no matter if the business makes money or not. I mean I have seen unions in Philadelphia picket a deli. A deli. Give me a break. Take a look at the opening a restuarant in Philadelphia thread, and take a look at that BS that gentleman went through. Is his restuarant open? About giving Writers something to write about. I remember. Pitch after Pitch, that I gave to Lacroix, to give to the papers, magazines, locally, and they did not pick any of them up. But months later I saw the idea in another cities paper from another restuarant in their city. And Bam. An example BB do remember when I started pairing eggs with everything. Or when I started pairing warm ingredients with raw fish. That was in 1999. I pitched that to an unnamed journalist. They passed. How about small plates upscale. That is a neat idea. Two months later Crudo was coined in NYC. No saying that we invented it but we were on that wave and the Journalists missed it. My point is that the Journalist have to look and listen to the chefs a bit more take a chance. and go with it. Not just wait until some one else does it. Brinn how long have we been using bitter chocolate in our salmis. BB do you also remember Ricky Nicky did not like chef much, so he never printed anything nice to say. Or always gave a back handed compliment. How many wine dinners were missed, or not printed. As for the front of the house. I remember Craig Bashed a small independent restuarant for not having a decour to his liking. Not cool if that is all they could afford. Hence flashy lights, short skirts, a lot of Drama, little substance. I like the idea of that forum. I want the public to know why some ingredients cost so much, why one steak cost different from another. Why We hardly ever used Sammies and Sons. Who is Brown trading, Why is chefs garden so expensive. It is important to know. A more educated clientele, is a more discerning clientele. We also need to reinvest in the Book and The Crooks. I mean, I saw this years line up. Not that impressed. Too expensive. And not worht it for alot of small restuarants. Why do think Vetri does not participate. . If some one know someone, who knows someone. Let them know. 1000 for a chef, and not very good, is too much, plus food expenses, plus room and board. Not worht it.