robert brown

echriste, you lucky guy (or gal). Having never been, I can't give you any advice. However, welcome to eGullet. Any chance you can share your impressions? Have fun.

Five years ago we walked into a small specialty foods store in the small square adjacent to the Castello di Barolo that two sisters own. We saw some dried egg pasta in long cardboard boxes covered with plastic. We bought mostly tagliarini and became so hooked on its silkiness that we always buy a dozen or so boxes each time we are in the region. We gave a box of it to Eli Zabar, hoping that he could import it. He loved it as much as we did, but when he asked about the possibility of selling it, the sisters said that they had already made a deal with Williams-Sonoma. However, I have never seen it for sale there or anywhere else outside of the Barolo district. I am still a bit confused who makes it; whether it is the Cravero sisters or a company in Monforte d'Alba that packages it for them because I have also bought some at the bar-enoteca in Monforte. The line is sfoglia all'uovo, which is egg pasta laid out in sheets. For sure the address of the factory is Localita S. Anna, 63. Monforte d'Alba (CN). They also make paglia y fienoa flat, square pasta with jagged edges whose Italian name escapes me, and a few others. Has anyone else had contact with this pasta?

My impression is that French people mostly use the Michelin because it's a French-based guide. It's the first (sometimes only) guide that the less-committed r4estaurant-goers buy. I think that a French person who has the Michelin and the Gault-Millau and/or Pudlo, Bottin,etc. takes eating out with some seriousness or does a lot of business dining. Outside of France, I agree that the locals for the most part don't even buy the Michelin of their country; but if that is indeed the case, why not publish all the Michelin Guides in French? Speaking of guides, do any members use the Zagat Guide for Paris?

Pedro, thanks for the first-hand report. I'm sure you're right about the quality as you have a live, young palate.

I haven't been receiving my truffle reports from Alba, which leaves me in the dark about quality and price. I am expecting a good year, but right now this is only a guess. Has anyone read or heard anything in this regard?

Now see what you've started, Bux. I think gastronomic interests take different forms in different countries. My anecdotal hunch is that American diners have the most curiosity and are anxious to try a much wider gamut of restaurants than people in France, Spain and Italy. (Perhaps the Swiss, Dutch and German are more like us, too). If you go to a really expensive restaurant in France, say a three-star, foreigners appear to outnumber French. Italy is interesting because there's this phenomenon of the guys going out for lunch or dinner. I see large tables of men eating with great enthusiasm and ordering lots of wine and discussing it, although I don't understand Italian very well. As for a Michelin Guide for NYC, I bet it's foreign tourists who would use it the most.

tsquare, 50 euros is allowing for a worst-case scenario. I just don't think you will find a more enjoyable low-cost place for a restaurant meal than La Latteria. I'm also big on lunch in cafes, but you have to find a good one. They can be fun, delicious and a good way to husband your resources. For good cafe addresses, I'm not a good source.

Simon, where were you when I was at MB's in San Sebastian?!!!!!! I'm sorry we didn't meet. Where are you going next? John, I'm so happy you are off to a great start. Who's in your group? It seems you are on your own as well? Keep those reports coming.

tsquare, La Latteria or Arturo's is the quintessential low-cost restaurant in Milan. I haven't been in a few years, and I notice that it isn't in my Guida de L'Espresso, though I remember it being so. It is in Faith Willinger's Eating in Italy, but this book is now several years old. Try giving a call at (02)6597653 and hope it's still around. The restaurant is tiny; it doesn't take reservations. I would always arrive for lunch as close to noon as possible to get a table, although the turnover is fairly rapid. It's delicious, down-to-earth cooking that I would guess is less than 50 euros a head. It's on via San Marco 24, not far from via Manzoni. I have eaten there many times and have always left contented. Otherwise da Giacomo is lively and delicious for seafood. It's medium price, I would say. Maybe 60-75 euros per person as a guess.

I always think of Aux Armes de France in Alsace when I see your name. I went there with some friends from Basel on your recommendation. It was a delicious meal. Quickly, can you talk about a few other restaurants in France you enjoyed in the 1970s and beyond, and if there are any you have been to recently that you could highly recommend?

Scott, the helpful answer, based on my visit there five years ago, is between casual and dressy. It is nicely and warmly appointed, but it isn't formal or luxe. So I would say a jacket and trousers, but not necessarily a tie, if you want to look presentable and serious. Slacks and blouse would be fine for your wife.

Since the restaurant is named after the famous Man Ray photograph, it would not be inappropriate to wear nothing.

Diana, this may be a stale recommendation, but worth checking out. When we stayed at the Calle di Volpe several years ago, they had a terrific lunch buffet that served impeccably fresh food and grilled-to-order lobster and, I believe, other seafood and meat. We have found none better since.

De-emphasizing decor is no big deal. Restaurants have cut back in everything else, so one would expect a non-culinary expense such as fixtures and fittings to be held to a minimum. What really drives editorial direction and emphasis in the print medium, including guides, as much as anything is chauvinism, which is why you get such manifestations as New York food writers and editors calling New York "the restaurant capital of the world" and why Michelin is parsimonious when it comes to giving out stars in Spain and Italy.

A friend of mine knows him and expressed a bit of surprise at the appointment because he comes from the ranks of hotel management, not from the restaurant side. Perhaps it doesn't really matter, but it's interesting nonetheless since Derek Brown, for example, was a Michelin restaurant inspector.

Yellow Truffle, think of it this way. There's one three-star restaurant in Paris that has Mr. Grand Tour's name on it. The probelm is that he has to be lucky enough to hit on it. It could be Arpege, Gagnaire, Lucas-Carton or Ledoyen,etc. But if he is indeed lucky, he will know it before the meal is finished. It's called having an epiphany. It's what happened to me when on my first tour gastronomique, still wet behind the ears, I made the completely uninformed choice of going to Restaurant Alain Chapel. I knew I had had the best meal of my young life, and no restaurant from that day on ever supplanted it. I am talking about the 16 years Chapel was alive since then and hundreds of meals all over France. So when you know it, you know. Your gut tells you literally and figuratively. Of course there are restaurants where you, for whatever reason, are not able to take good measure of it on the first visit. But the right selection both in the restaurant and the individual dishes should make the visit memorable. A little research into the general nature of a restaurant's cuisine might be useful along with digging up (on eGullet, especially) certain hard facts such as only order a la carte at Gagnaire or the lobster in yellow wine at Arpege; that kind of information. But to pass up the opportunity and being needlessly victimized by a culinary Catch-22 because you have no experience or practical knowledge isn't intelligent.

Guess what, GG. What may be the best sourdough loaf in the Nice-Monaco area is in one of those drive-in places in Cap d'Ail. It's part of a chain called Ribeireau (sp?). Each outlet differs in quality, but this particular one is where we always stop if we are within ten miles. Jellybean can vouch for me, and he's an extremely serious amateur chef who buys bread there frequently.

A woman I knew for a short while went to work for the Beard Foundation when it started. It sounded like BS to me then, and it has from then until now. It's institutionalized hedonism, or pleasure subsidized by the IRS. It seems to me that it was nothing more than an eating club that didn't have to pay taxes and a way to get cut-rate meals. Super Mario hit the nail on the head about the awards. They're also a joke. Next to non-profit groups that support struggling orchestras, ballet companies, theatre groups, and so forth, the Beard Society seems irrelevant. I don't see the NEA handing out grants to chefs. If chefs want to have a peer group that won't be exploited, as French chefs do, that strikes me as perfectly legitimate. Actually, I'm surprised that the Beard Foundation rambled along as long as it has before having its legitimacy called into question.

A chef doesn't always set out to make a signature dish, though he may hope it becomes one. My guess is that he hears from clients how wonderful the dish is and that they hope he or she will keep it around. Also the reviewers, writers or guidebooks discover it and then the dish achieves notoriety and is copied or adapted by other chefs. Most chefs, I believe, tend not to change the dish, but there are exceptions such the Michel Guerard caviar and scambled eggs one. Or, as we saw with the Troisgors salmon with sorrel, the next generation changes it perhaps to conform more to the younger taste.

lxt, I have had hundreds of dishes created by the great French chefs during the 1970s and '80s. There are precious few left to try. Michel Troisgros, someone told me, altered the salmon in sorrel dish of his uncle Jean and father Pierre. It may no longer be on the menu. One dish I see quite often that other chefs have picked up is Alain Chapel's mushroom soup "cappucino". I had it last year as an amuse-gueule at the Miramonte l'Altro restaurant near Brescia. Philippe Rochat continues to offer the passion fruit souffle that his mentor Fredy Girardet created. It's pretty close to the original, as I recall; but the version Michel Troisgros makes (he apprenticed with Girardet) was rather different. Michel Guerard changed his scrambled egg with caviar dish eight years ago, turning it green somehow. Of course some of the older cats who are still around must make some of their classics the same: Marc Meneau; Guerard; Senderens, of course; Bocuse (who still offers his soupe de truffes VGD). bleu d'augergne has a point: Ingredients and approaches change, and I bet one's palate does too over 15-20 years. Let's not forget, however, all the great classics in France and elsewhere. These will still be around in recognizeable form long after the new dishes of today that come and go like the recordings on the Billboard 100.

When it comes to where to eat, don't expect anything else from French magazines.

It was La Compagnie des Comptoirs in Montpellier. As the meal was entirely forgettable, I don't remember the details. In general, it had the usual shortcomings of a bistro moderne; dishes made ahead of time, very little cooked a la minute; poorly-conceived recipes; and all that goes with a mass-feeding operation. It was crowded and noisy. I felt ripped-off and ignored.

John, you're not going to spy on chefs, are you? Dr. Viking, you described espardenyes perfectly. I doubt I ever had them before, but I'll give them another go with a more classic preparation.

Margaret, does that mean you love it or hate it?

Avoid the Pourcel's second restaurant at all costs. Last year I had a terrible dinner there. 'nuf said.