robert brown

Jeff, that was a labor of love. It looks like there aren't more than five people preparing the food. Did you get a chance to watch the goings-on? Did you get up and watch from time to time? Could you get an idea of how much the chefs prepared ahead and how much was "a la minute" or made during the seance?

Don't tell me Goldenberg at 69 Av. Wagram will be closed Christmas Day!!! Same for New Year's Day when I bet the prices are the same as usual. Apparently you can do a lot worse, according to the Gault-Millau.

Jellybean, thanks for the scoop!!!! It's the end of a prolongedly dragged-out era. To see the curtain come down on the home of one of the greatest chefs in history is sad, even if the restaurant was in decline for the past dozen years or so. In its heyday, the Moulin de Mougins was magical. Every aspect of it was charm and class personified. The discreet setting in one of the most picturesque, gorgeous villages in the world and the timeless sense of elegance that Denise Verge imposed on the restaurant was nearly unique, rivalled perhaps only by Michel and Christine Guerard in Eugenie-les-Bains. In the 1970s and the 1980s, the cuisine at the Moulin was in the highest echelon, matched by only a handful of other three-star chefs in France. Even though I stopped patronizing it with the exception of one meal a few years ago, I feel sad. My head feels a bit out of whack as it has a hard time taking in the fact that not only is Roger Verge departing, but that a chef whose cooking, after my having had two dinners, has yet to be to my liking is taking over. The thought of an Adriaphile in the Moulin bothers me. It doesn't seem right. Maybe it is just the fact that Roger Verge has been so deeply associated with both the village and the restaurant that it is difficult to imagine the Moulin de Mougins in the hands of any other chef.

lxt, you deserved to be comped a whole other meal. That was a real tour de force of food reportage. Did you take a lot of notes or do you have a photographic memory?

marktynernyc, I simply want to express my appreciation for your taking the time to share such a wonderful and detailed report. I wish it had existed before I visited Turkey two and a half years ago. How did you select the restaurants you did? I went to some of the ones you mentioned, but others not. Between you and vmilor, eGullet scores again.

Margaret, it is good to see this topic of discussion starting to get some play in more than one forum at a time. You put it in compelling terms. I wish there were compelling resolutions. It seems that there is no way that widely-differing opinions about the same establishment will ever go away. It is easy to identify the dishonest restaurant and restaurateur who is clearly playing off the diner with no knowledge and looking to maximize his profit as much as possible, As one moves up the ladder, however, it really becomes impossible to identify a restaurant that even the most experienced eGullet members would all agree upon. The cliches "One man's meat is another man's poison" and "There is no accouting for taste" certainly apply. That you have had some less than good experiences at Gault-Millau "coup de coeur" restaurants is upsetting. No doubt we have differing ways of deciding which restaurants to visit that we have never visited before. How people chose a restaurant is an interesting topic. Lately I find myself thinking the the Guide Michelin model may be the best we can hope for--a kind of "the less said the better" approach. Then I think how the Italian Michelin guide seems less reliable that other Italian guides and the Guide Michelin for France. I have stated before on the site that there is some metaphysical haze called consensus: a haphazard coming together in each person's mind based on long-ago- read articles and recent word-of-mouth recommendations or criticisms that drive a person to chose one new restaurant over another. I can't explain it any other way. It is the way I often go about it. I would say that it works about half the time.

What happened to Albert Adria's terrific chocolate desserts or his ice cream? What about the thoroughly magical dishes such as the mojitas, the dehydrated popcorn and pizza-flavored toast? How about the wit of a dish that combines in a fun-to-eat and witty way the two most common products of Italian cuisine: Parmesan and spaghetti? On and on it goes, but you can read more about delicious, mind-boggling Adria dishes in my write-up from the summer of 2002 and "Eight at el Bulli" that Jonathan Day and I wrote for the Daily Gullet. Believe me, Adria cares about how his clients respond to his dishes. Someone in the kitchen looks at the plates that come back from the dining room and a maitre d'hotel will ask you why you left a dish nearly untouched. I don't think Ferran is deliberately about to serve shit, both literally and figuratively. This doesn't mean that he won't try something that may surprise or shock people in unpleasant ways. I have had several dishes there that didn't work for me and that I did not enjoy eating in the course of 25-30 dishes. It just means that when you go there, Adria is experimenting with what many have called "experimental" food.

Having a reservation at the world's most talked-about restaurant that you may never obtain again only to cancel it on something one small step up from heresay is folly. I hope you don't approach partaking in other creative endeavors the way that you do with food; i.e. how it tastes. There's a cognative element to food and dining just as there is to Abstract Expressionism, which, of course, you are free to be ignorant of, or absent yourself from, because it isn't about pretty pictures or everyday forms. There is something to be said for, "It wasn't my taste or to my liking, but I am glad I did it."

It's my hunch that people convince themselves they can do without going to el Bulli so they won't feel bad if they can't get a reservation. I mean the guy's the hottest thing going in the food world. He must enter nearly every discussion that people have about international restaurants. Not to at least try to get in is an oversight unless you want to be guaranteed to participate in those discussions in a vacuum.

Bux, it was more like the waiters were uptight and afraid to engage us. They were not forthcoming about the preparations of the dishes, didn't tell us we were ordering two similar desserts or bade us a farewell at the door. Some of them seemed to take delight that the sommelier could not locate the wine we ordered. We felt absolutely no "esprit de corps" either. If it were a language barrier involved, Martin should hire servers who speak acceptable English, espcially give that it appeared that half the cliente was Anglo-Saxon.

I'll say it again, but in a somewhat different way. Blind Lemon and I went in there blind, so to speak, and we both left disappointed for the same reasons. When I think of my greatest meals, I can't think of one in which the food was great and the rest of the visit out of whack. By this I mean our meals at Troisgros, Chapel, Guerard, Girardet, and Verget to name a few, and for one-visit experiences I would add the three-star Robuchon and my recent dinner at Arzak. But what we saw at MB's in the composure of the dining room staff was something approaching fear, if not terror. This was clearly a troubled house and it cast a pall over our experience. I wouldn't go so far as to say that this was what made the food taste as less-than-stellar cuisine. I believe we were able to form our opinion of it independent of the problems plaguing the establishment. It would take another visit to change my opinion, and not being part of a minority opinion. Until then, I'm sticking to my guns. This isn't the Zagat, you know.

I hope it's not considered off-topic that I write some words about the dinner I had at the Fairway Cafe last Friday. The onion soup was the classic kind with melted Gruyere on top. It was not distinguished, but just the kind you want when you feel like having French onion soup, which apparently is a very popular craving. My wife and I had the Delmonico steak for two that was tender and correctly seasoned, which means not too salty. My wife's complaint was the somewhat lack of a beefy taste, but overall it was enoyable and a bargain. Just remember to have it brought to the table in one piece if you don't like the kitchen to slice it. The fries and onion rings are very good, as well. People on eGullet have complained about the service. True, it was a long wait for the main course, but someone was almost always near by whenever we wanted something. It's a barebones, unatmospheric place, but it is one of the handful of restaurants we go to on a regular basis. I can't wait to try the burger. Alas, not only are the days of free corkage over, but now you are not allowed to bring your own wine. The list is small, but extremely fairly-priced. Cheap, really, for a restaurant.

Let's check that. I believe he has one star.

Judith, after reading your lengthy summary of your interests, I hope you will start posting often. Your post above is very knowledgable and accurate.

Nick, I though that one over when considering posing the topic to include likes as well as dislikes. I figured that if accentuating the negative goes over well, we could do a positive follow-up discussion. For whatever reasons, however, cynicism and negativism, if not out-and-out mean-spiritedness, seem easier to write off the top of the head (at least for me).

At some point in the short history of eGullet we may have had this discussion. I can remember components of it having taken place here such as the vagaries of picking up or dividing a restaurant check and economic disparities that can cause uncomfortable moments both when paying and ordering. Yet whether or not there has been a wide-ranging discussion about dislikes in dining partners, it is a subject worth coming back to from time to time. So, the question is, what sort of behaviors engaged in any of your dining companions do you dislike. I will start the discussion off by mentioning this story: While I do not recall the dish in question, but do remember that the offensive act was perpetrated in the summer of 1997 at the Mas du Langoustier on the Ile de Porqurolles by the wife of a couple we have dined with in Europe many times. Quite simply, my wife and I were taken aback and quite offended when she said, "This is so delicious that I'm not going to share it with anyone." At first, we did not believe her, thinking it was her way of letting us know how fortunate she was in ordering the dish. My wife and I kept waiting for her to pass her plate or to put some of the dish on our plates. In the end, she devoured the portion by herself, and it became a little dining saga that we reminisce about (if that is what you call reminiscing) nearly each time we dine with them.

Bux, I recognize the woman front right, but who are the other folks? Caption, svp.

Mark, what part of the year will you be there? Your best shot at el Bulli, if you don't get a table by e-mail, is to phone a day before, or the day of, that you can go. Sunday night is the best night to call at the time of the year the restaurant is open every night (summer time). el Bulli is the only restaurant in and near Barcelona that presents this problem. I would, however, have your resevations in place before you leave. I can't imagine anywhere being booked day after day a month in advance. There will be odd times when a restaurant may be booked up somewhat in advance such as Hispania in Arenas de Mar for Sunday lunch or Can Fabes or some spots in Barcelona Saturday dinner. Can Majo for weekend lunches in beach weather, etc.

Then the solution must be for the Times to give Grimes' job to Fat Guy. It would fit my hypothesis, which goes as follows: I bet that the large majority of influential restaurant critics are drawn from the ranks of the publications they work for. Some of us can remember the well-known remark by Clay Felker during the start-up of New York Magazine in the late 1960s: " Let's give the restaurant job to Gael". Also you have Walter Wells at the International Herald Tribune giving the restaurant job to his wife and the NYT tapping their cultural reporter Grimes for the restaurant job there. To get back to my hypothesis, it is that the best food writers start out as dedicated culinary amateurs even if they are professional writers in other areas. Take R.W. Apple and Calvin Trillin. Practicing law seems to be significant as well. Look at Steingarten and Fat Guy. As for Felonius's query, whoever reviews restaurants for the Times inherits the influence that goes with the job. Look at the power of the drama critics there, which is even more of a "make or break" situation.

Fat Guy, I don't buy those arguments at all. As I wrote on this site over a year ago, the first overt introduction of Asian ingredients in French cooking occurred as a result of a Gault-Millau sponsored trip in the late '70s of several leading French chefs such as Michel Guerard, Pierre Troisgros and Louis Outhier to Asia ( I seem to recall Thailand and Hong Kong among one or two others) to cook together with local chefs and to familiarize themselves with techniques, prepartions and ingredients. Only Outhier overtly was affected by this and, as many of us know, his apprentice Jean-Georges adapted it and, more than anyone, introduced fusion here in New York. Thus, I would say that if French and other foreign chefs come over here to see how Americans cook, it's because they want to learn how to run a restaurant business and cater to the new generation of eaters who have not been exposed to really fine French cooking and are more taken in by gimmickry. Otherwise, a well-trained chef from France can cook circles around just about any American one. My hunch is that French chefs come here because they love visiting New York and other American cities and to decide if they want to join the culinary brain-drain that has run from France to the USA. Did Patricia Wells say that America was responsible for the trend in France of Asian-French fusion? Or are the chefs going to Japan, Thailand and, Hong Kong to learn at the source?

New York leads the world as the city that serves the most unauthentic international cuisines. However, since most cuisines don't travel well, it's probably not a blemish on the Big Apple. I would say, however, that in terms of impeccable produce, which are the building blocks of good or great restaurant cuisine, New York is behind many cities, particularly some Mediterranean ones. Most restaurant food in New York taste tired to me, but maybe because my palate has turned tired and it takes more than it used to in order to wake it up. It does wake up most when I am in Japan, Italy, Spain, Thailand (where I'be been only once) and sometimes France. But, as I have occasionally maintained, an unscupulous chef or restaurateur can ruin a really nice bit of produce in a variety of ways.

Bill, this sounds terrific. It looks like you lost some of your post. I'll try to make it there before Christmas.

Bux, in the interest of full disclosure, would you tell us (or tell us again since you may have previously done so) the prior relationship between Berasategui and your family and if you think it influenced your opinion or resulted in some kind of special treatment, or the staff being told to pay special attention. For me, I would have to return to Berasategui to reconsider that maybe I missed something. I still maintain that the fact that I and Blind Lemon Higgins had near-irdentical problems and reactions is tough to ignore. Thirty minutes of waiting is a half-hour wait regardless of how you slice it. Maladroit and unattentive service is what it is. Opinions about the quality of food is a matter of taste, maybe even the luck of the draw. Regardless, the four of us had something much less than what should be the experience of a Michelin three-star restaurant.

Bill, what's the story on Il Vicoletto? I read something about that it closed or changed owners or format, or something? Is the food shop new? What's it like? How was Il Centro and the others? Marco, how did I miss your post? I'll go to it now.

The Chapel restaurant is in Kobe, but your post is informed and interesting. It's tough for those on the outside to know if Robuchon, at age 51, was tired (as I think he gave as the reason for closing the restaurant) or was motivated by some personal reason. I believe the restaurant closed in the fall of 1995, which was a rough period economically. I think he may have realized that to continue at the same level, he would have had to make financial sacrifice. It used to be that some chefs were after big money and some weren't. Chapel never was. He never upgraded or added hotel rooms, although I know he talked about it shortly before he died as something that he was planning. Georges Blanc was always expanding in Vonnas, looking to make more money. AS a result I believe his cuisine suffered, although it may because he was a cut below and never held in the same high esteem by chefs and gourmands as Chapel, Robuchon, Guerard, Girardet, the Troisgros Brothers and Gagnaire among a few others. I have no feeling or hunch if Keller is doing the right thing. As long as he can keep living off the three or four dishes that he has been, he could do okay since he will be reaching a new audience in New York. I hope he pulls it off and creates something new and good at the top, something New York hasn't had for a while.