robert brown

Ruby, what a great thing to collect. Do you have any ashtrays? What about the Blue Angel? Sherman Billingsley, what a great name.

I can only think that given the magnum-size bottle at Le Louis XV, the sommelier thought the wine was still too young, but would then be ready after decanting. At Ducasse NY, the sommelier said that a 1998 Grand Cru or Premier Cru Chablis was ready, and it was. But he didn't decant it. (I'll check at home which one it was and report back to Steve and others).Decanting good white Burgundy seems like such a rare event. In my experience it must be one in a thousand.

Cabrales, the only time I ever dealt with a decanted white Burgundy was at Le Louis XV where the sommelier decanted a magnum of a 1989 Francis Jobard single-vineyard Meursault. (This was in 1997). If you decant a white wine, you will pretty much knock it back to room temperature. Knowing if and when to decant even red wine is a matter than never has had any hard and fast rules. I certainly would not decant a ready-to-drink good white wine. I suspect that until recently it was rare to decant them. Perhaps this is a new wrinkle like some makers of chardonnay advising the use of 'balons" from which to drink their wine.

Lizziee, it took me just as long to write it than it did to eat it. Thanks for your patience.

Sam made the pants too long, and Bill set the bar too high. In his reassessment of Restaurant Alain Ducasse New York, William Grimes in his gushing, breathy New York Times review this past December 19, categorized the cuisine of Ducasse, New York as “the kind of food that brings diners to their knees” and commented that “Mr. Ducasse, a chef in the classic French tradition, promised New York a great restaurant. Now he has delivered it.” Using the occasion of my birthday, my wife and I took my brother and sister-in-law to ADNY two weeks ago. I must admit my high-end dining experience has taken place over many years and mostly in France; not to a large degree in New York where I have been to Jean-Georges and Le Bernadin a few times each, and the old Daniel twice. Yet, Ducasse has never tried to categorize his New York restaurant as inherently different from his Paris or Monaco establishments. In other words, one can only infer that our Ducasse outpost is meant to be thought of as no more or no less than the other two. Or, as Steve Shaw put it when the restaurant first opened, Ducasse’s intention was to bring the three-star dining experience to New York. After patronizing a certain number of distinctive restaurants, I began to realize that many of them, whether consciously or unconsciously, told a story or communicated some theme or another. The ones that emanate from ADNY are, “You New York fat cat diners aren’t as sophisticated as we French, and therefore we need to lead you by the hand” and “We’ll add just enough ruffles and flourishes to distinguish us from the top-end competition”. From the moment one lays eyes on the superb Art Deco "fer forge" doors (no doubt designed by the 1920s French master Edgar Brandt) that lead into the dining rooms to the large assemblage of saxophones by Arman (the reason one sees Arman’s work in so many fancy restaurants is that he trades them for meals), one realizes that this is as close as one will get to a luxury France restaurant without being there, and also realizing, perhaps, that these Essex House rooms are also a graveyard for fancy French restaurants gone awry. Almost as soon as we settled in to our table in a small dark room (both in terms of the walls and before-the-feature-film-starts level of lighting) a server pushing one of the several carts we would see before the night was through offered up an array of Champagnes without mentioning anything about price. We then received copies of the menu written entirely in English, which not only was a linguistic slap in the face, but as English is wont to do,also makes French food sound less interesting than it otherwise might be. Nonetheless, the menu was interesting for several reasons. First was how restrictive it was in its offering of four appetizers, three fish and shellfish dishes and three meat and poultry ones. In addition one could order between two set menus; one called “Spring Theme” comprised of four etched-in-stone courses and cheeses and small miscellaneous confections; the other “All About Beef and Lobster” which was five courses, cheese ,and the same Friandises & Goumandises (the only untranslatable course on the menu), but apparently not one of the six formal desserts. The "a la carte" appetizers and main course could be combined in any way: two for $140. or three for $160. (The menus were even more, around $175 and $220, but don’t hold me to it). It was also the first menu I ever encountered that listed the "amuse-bouche" in such a way to make it seem it was an additional course. Wine is a big deal at Ducasse. The sommelier handed me a big mothership permanent wine list and a smaller satellite, seasonal one. It took me a very long time to be able to choose a good wine without spending what it would cost to eat a few times in France French restaurants. To give you an idea, I captured a few prices of Henri Jayer Vosne-Romanee Cros Parentoux that Steve Plotnicki was curious about, which were $1900, $1700, and $1100 per bottle from 1990, 1989, and 1988 respectively. I didn’t look at the wines outside of Burgundy, but suffice to say, any list filled with Jayer’s wine and those of Coche-Dury (also devilishly difficult to obtain) is indicative of a great cellar. Clearly no restaurant in New York, or nearly anywhere else, has a comparable array of wine. The cuisine at Ducasse NY, based on our meal, could be the best in New York. Certain dishes we had were indeed the best I have had in New York. My favorite was “Tender and multi-colored seasonal vegetables, truffled bouillon” that was in two portions: one warm in a truffle bouillon and the other room temperature as a salad that one ate with chopsticks. The vegetables in question were sliced truffles, morrels, white asparagus, lentils, and fava beans. It is a dish similar to what I had several years ago at Ducasse’s Monaco restaurant, Le Louis XV. The other appetizers brought to the table were “Sea scallops and Osetra caviar, watercress ‘vichyssoise’”; and Ravioli of wild mushroom and fresh herbs, bitter salads veloute”, both of which my fellow diners pronounced as memorable. Then my brother and I took as an extra course, “Maine lobster, roasted in a cast iron pan, glazed green peas and pearl onions, 'jus de la presse' ”. I can’t say the dish pleased me as much as the seasonal vegetable combination, but it was still very good. Nothing however disappointed us than the main courses. My brother and I had “Roasted lamb saddle, rubbed with savory accompanied by an eggplant and zucchini tourtiere”. Here the lamb was chewy and tougher than it had any right to be. My sister-in-law did, however, enjoy her “Grilled bison loin, seared foie gras, Perigueux jus, My wife was not enamored of her “Sole, "poeleed" whole with almonds and black truffles, Chateau-Chalon sabayon”. Among the desserts, my brother and I had the “Caramel variation: crunchy, soft, and iced with salted butter ice cream." This rich dish was ambitious as it offered caramel in a variety of ways, with the salted ice cream serving as an interesting counterpoint. I rather liked the salty taste imparted to it. My wife had a dessert that Grimes made a big deal about: “Baba, rum of your choice, Monte Carlo style”. Offered four rums, including ones from Venezuela, Guyana, and Guatemala she chose the Guyanese. The baba was served with crème fraiche, which the waiter described in “Americans-can’t- speak- French” fashion as “sour cream” The last wagon pulled in about three hours into our meal, weighted down with lollipops and hard candies. I found it to be a cheap way to hoodwink diners into thinking the restaurant was being generous. Having spent about $350. per person, I think we deserved more than that. When my brother and his wife left to catch their train, she mentioned to a maitre d’hotel that it was a big birthday of mine. Nothing came of it, a far cry from the days of Ducasse’s “spiritual master” Alain Chapel in whose restaurant the overhearing by a waiter that you were there to celebrate a birthday resulted in a freshly-baked cake: no questions asked and no charge. As a kind of postscript or aposteriori discovery, I was comparing my menu to one that Cabrales showed me from Alain Ducasse at the Plaza-Athenee. While the dishes were not identical, it was obvious that someone (Ducasse, himself possibly) tried to use the same main ingredients in both restaurants, varying the preparations according to what good ingredients were obtainable where. The size and ordering formats in both establishments also were similar. It would be interesting to know more precisely how the restaurants are co-coordinated and who is responsible for the execution. To conclude, I want to add that my meal at ADNY was a celebratory event that took place long enough ago so that I have lost details about the food; thus, my analysis of the food is superficial. My remarks also come off as more critical than they probably should be. I had a wonderful evening, very decent wines, and some of the best food available in America. The service, all executed by trained Frenchman, has no equal in New York, and even most of the best restaurants in France. I have not seen such attention, coverage, and precision in years. The heart of the matter, however, is that Ducasse still hasn’t learned that New York and America is not Paris or France ,and American food enthusiasts are different but no less savvy than their French counterparts. Chefs from France (and the very best native-born chefs) who have settled here and tend to their restaurants on a near-daily basis seem to have a better grasp of what culinary and dining style works best on our shores. They also have more respect for their clientele. In these regards, Ducasse has probably come half-way from when he started nearly two years ago.

From strictly a food point of view, I developed a criterion to justify my being in Nice a lot of the time: I call it the 3-1/2 hour in any direction test. It is posited on the notion of what place in the world offers the most interesting gastronomic possibilities that one could reach in a reasonable weekend getaway. Even though one direction from Nice (south) is nothing but water, the remainiing three offer a quality and diversity that may not exist elsewhere. Heading West along the coast you get shellfish and seafood of impeccable freshness. Go Northwest, you have the glories of Provencal cooking. East along the coast is a major Italian cuisine, Ligurian, while in 3-1/2 hours,you can get well into Piemonte and such towns as Barolo and Alba. The other gastronomic cities and towns 3-1/2 hours from Nice are Cannes, Marseilles, Genoa, Livorno and Sig. Schonfeld's Lucca (if you step on it) and even a good part of the Rhone Valley, though I haven't figured out exactly where you can get to in the alotted time. Almost to Lyon, I bet.

Paula, The Relais & Chateaux organization used to be the virtual no-brainer key to a nearly full proof quarantee of a nice stay in a special place. Steadily over the past 15-20 years, it has slipped by allowing inferior and more mercenary establishments into the group. I also found the headquarters to be unresponsive when one of its members pulled the following egregious, mendacious trick on me: On March 1 of 2001 my wife and I drove more than four hours to Erbusco, which is in Lombardy between Bergamo and Brescia, to stay and dine at L'Albereta/Restaurant Gualtiero Marchesi, Marchesi being the most famous chef in Italy the past 25 years or so and whose cooking I had never tried. When we mistakenly drove up to the service entrance, we saw that the lawn was littered with old kitchen sinks and cabinets. When we got to the front desk, the woman there told us that the restaurant was closed for renovation, but that we could have dinner in our room (the next night we did, and the room service food was limited, basic, and awful) or someone would drive us to a one-star Michelin restaurant nearby. Of course I blew the proverbial gasket and asked why no one told us when we phoned the day before, she gave us the incredulous reply, "We thought the work would be finished". Although the evening had an extremely fortuitous ending as I made the hotel drive us to a two-star restaurant I had found in the Michelin Guide, Miramonte l'Altro, which I have praised highly a few times on the board, and where we had a meal that I suspect would have been far superior to the Marchesi one (just on the basis of L'Albereta's lying and lack of integrity). Nonetheless, what L'Albereta did to us simply to get at our money, was dishonest and inexcusable. I explained what happened to the Relais & Chateaux head office, whose answer was that it would pass on my e-mail to the hotel. The hotel never answered, and my follow-up to the Relais & Chateaux elicited the reply that they would not involve themselves. What one should derive from this, and the above posts, is that there are now many establishments outside of the Relais and Chateaux guide that are more civil and friendly than those that are in the guide. More comfortable, too.

Aw shucks, Lizziee and Steve. I hate to disappoint the die-hards, so I'll see what I can do.

I had a major birthday celebrated in major ways, and while I believe I could write about it in an engaging, insightful way, would anyone really give a shit? And why should they?

Jeanne, I'm sorry. I didn't know to what or where you meant by "members of the community from El Salvador". I thought perhaps it was Salvadorans living in the DC-area community. Not that they are form a significant reader base of the Post!! Thanks so much for answering both my questions.

Let me put it this way, then. The New York Times has R.W. Apple; the New Yorker Calvin Trilin and Adam Gopnick; i.e. journalists who have "gourmandness" in their soul but are not food writers. Conversely, there are active members on this site who feel that William Grimes lacks this quality and gets by on his journalistic skills. Is there an equivalent to Messrs. Apple, Gopnick, and Trillin at the Washington Post, and if there are, or were, would you use them on a regular basis? As I stated the first time around, I have never seen your section. Is that you would or would not use "gourmand" writers a function of a section that is a product of your ideals, or one whose main function is to attract and retain advertising the paper would not otherwise have, including, apparently, members of the immigrant community?

Jeanne, No doubt you know the famous story about Clay Felker and Gael Greene. When Felker was launching New York Magazine, he said something like "Oh, give the restaurant column to Gael", who apparently had no qualiifications for it. I read a lot of food journalism in which I don't feel "gourmandness" from writers even in the way I feel it it from a lot of people who post on eGullet. Is this a quality that you look for at any time in any way, or do you feel that just a good idea nicely executed is all that matters? Not knowing your section, I don't know what the breakdown is between regulars and freelancers, but in the case of staffers, have you ever hired anyone who wasn't "gourmand" but thought could do the job? Also, do you try to heighten awareness or make celebs of your writers in the way, say, that the New York Times did with Amanda Hesser's personal life? And what do you think about that particular manifestation with her?

Paula, that shouldn't be. Is the cancellation fee the policy of the hotel or the Relais & Chateaux people? It always was that you could cancel without penalty up to 6 p.m. of the day of your scheduled arrival. I would complain and e-mail your post to both the hotel and R&C.

My semi-educated guess based on one trip to India where I tried to dine in local restaurants as much as possible, as well as having a feast in the home of a well-to-do Indian, I would guess that there is an Indian equivalent of the Italians "Cucina Internationale";i.e. the dishes that get served most places outside of Italy. I don't think we foreigners even get to scratch the surface of the cuisine of this huge, highly-differentiated country. I, too, have wondered about the use of various preparations as a means to mask bad produce, just like France in the days before refrigeration. Maybe Suvir can tell us about the prevelance, availability, and distribution of good, fresh produce in India. Also, what is chicken saag in light of Steve's post?

Gavin, last summer we spent a couple of days on the Lake of Garda. We had a very good dinner at La Tortuga, although the details of what we ate escaped me. The people who work there are very nice. Miramonte L'Altro is a restaurant I have mentioned here a few times. It is one of our most favorite in Italy, which is saying quite a bit. The chef is French; born in Nantes and a student of Georges Blanc. The cuisine is part creative Italian and Italian produce made with French technique. The squab is amazing even though it comes from Transylvania. It was cuttable with a fork and the slices were like butter. The cheese course, served from two chariots, is magnificent. There are many cheeses we had never seen before that were from just a relatively few miles away. Everyone gets delicious vanilla ice cream with a sauce, probably raspberry in the warm season. The drive from the Lake through the mountains is nice. It takes somewhat longer than it looks. Everyone is really friendly at the restaurant. Once you get to the main street of Concisio, look for small signs that I believe are on the lamp posts. I have already gone back one time.

Jordyn, just for a start before I sit down for dinner; unless you are a fan of Belle Epoque interiors, Bofinger is rather mediocre last I knew. What do some of you others think?

I would worry about certain products no longer being available and being gently coerced by the staff into leaving. I would also rush through dinner without prodding since I hate to see tired employees working so late. By the way, my latest Babbo visit was terrible. I had friends in from Florida who had never been there. I phoned the day before, a Monday, and a woman told me that the restaurant holds six tables for people who show up without reserving, and if I got there by 5:30, which is when she said the restaurant opened, I should have no problem. In fact, she said it would probably be okay if we arrived as late as 6:00 since it was early in the week. We arrived at 5:30 and were told by the Major Domo at the reservations lecturn that the tables were all given out at 5:00 and that we should wait at the bar; if worse came to worse, the four of us could have dinner at the bar. At 6:00 the fellow said everyone had come and there was no table for us. In the interim I had walked over to Blue Hill and got us a table as a fall back. The Babbo guy was nearly shocked when I told him we were not going to sit cheek by jowl in order to have our dinner. To me, the restaurant led us down the primrose path, and may have from the beginning trapped me into a potential bait and switch situation. It sounds like the place is getting really mercenary.

Sean, are you the American from California I spoke with circa 1988 when the restaurant was in the town? Did you work at Mondrian after that? Thanking you in advance, Robert

Steve, it seems to me that the haut cuisine repetoire is now a matter of adapting approaches or techniques rather than several haut-cuisine chefs making the same dish. It used to be a sign of comaraderie and solidarity that chefs would prepare or make available dishes made famous by other chefs; i.e. Bocuse would make Troigros' salmon in sorrel, or Michel Guerard would make Bocuses's Soupe de Truffe VGD. Now if a chef trys it, he doesn't credit it, and he gets criticized by those who can claim they recognize plagarism. The end result is that there are fewer and fewer recent classic dishes than there were 15-30 years ago. If you believe that the legitimacy and importance of an era in a creative field is measured by the classics it produces, where does that leave today's haute cuisine? That today's most visible serious chef can not produce a classic dish says what?

Steve, a little bit of my mentioning those old dishes was whimsical. To me they represent the demise of a certain kind of cooking more refined than what still survives as bistro food and a kind of domestic "cuisine de grandmere"; i.e. boeuf bourguignonne, coc au vin, blanquette de veau. Forty years ago the quenelles,etc. were what you would have at the luxury New York French restaurants. To me it would be if classical pianists no longer played Debussy or Ravel, or jazz musicians Charlie Parker or Tadd Dameron tunes. That these dishes are all but gone, but that "Bird Lives" in jazz is yet another reason that cuisine not one of the lively arts. A blanquette de veau offered in the home of a good amateur chef is hard to beat in most restaurants. Of course there is no reason why the old "haute cuisine" should, or should have to, appear on menus. If they did, there would certainly be a very accomplished chef in the kitchen unafraid to make a clearly-defined traditional dish without hiding behind a bunch of ersatz ingredients and gadgetry. The Ducasse-Adria contrast is fascinating. I want to think about it more.

A friend told me today about Luxurylink.com. It has an auction format on some properties. There were a couple of luxury hotels in France where you can bid on 4-5 day stays at a fraction of the rack rate. Also AA Vacations (Tours?) or something like that (American Airlines) offers special rates on hotels without needing to buy a plane ticket.

LML, it took me about 15 seconds to get what you mean. Irrespective of that, I do not mean to give the impression that I think Alain Ducasse is not a good or great chef. I have had some wonderful dishes of his, including some this week in New York. I also think that Wolfgang Puck has changed the face of American cuisine and also provided me a wonderful meal at Spago. However, Ducasse at the top end, and Puck somewhat below that, epitimize to me most what has been happening in the high-profile segment of cuisine. It is major change that some people find vexing and others exciting or rewarding. I wrote what I wrote in the post because I think it illuminates some, but hardly all, of the matters people raised in this thread.

My going to Restaurant Alain Ducasse New York recently for a birthday dinner occasioned me to reflect on the man, what it is that he does, and how best to describe him and his livelihood. I eventually came up with the conclusion that not only is Ducasse not an artist (I'm not even sure how artistic he is), but rather what he resembles most is a couturier. Like Giorgio Armani or Yves St. Laurent, Ducasse oversees, supervises, employs surrogates, licenses and leases his name, franchises, builds and renovates properties and once in a while creates something. He epitomizes more than anyone (with the possible exception of Wolfgang Puck) what cuisine has become, and continues to become, as a growing number of chefs try play the same game. Because so many of them, including the chefs just starting out, have taken on the couturier’s mentality even if they are not aware of it (and I would guess most of them are not), this is why they do not want to be seen making the culinary equivalent of a Balenciaga gown and why the so-called classic dishes of today are pizza with "crème fraiche" and salmon or a lobster club sandwich instead of those in the spirit of "saumon a l’oseille" (salmon in sorrel sauce) or "loup en croute". It is also why the unambitious or highly-principled (take your pick) fellows like Michel Trama become the cooking world’s answer, at least in terms of mentality, of those designers who are constantly screaming “copy cat” and launching (usually without success) copyright infringement suits against their colleagues. I am sorry Wilfrid, but those "canards a l’oranges", "vols au vents" and "quenelles de brochette au sauce Nantua" have all but gone the way of black and white TV. Classic cuisine went and got stuck in the closet and mothballed; "demonetized" out of existence.

Lizziee, don't overlook that old chestnut L'Auberge du Pere Bise. It is on the most beautiful piece of lake property in France, maybe even more so than anywhere in Switzerland. Of course the cuisine has taken a header from the glory days of Fernand Bise, but when we go, we manage to cobble together a nice meal centered on the inn's classic chicken with tarragon sauce. It's a great place to stay, as well. Cheap it ain't. But what a view!!! I haven't been to Ombremont in many years. It is a pleasant spot too, but I can't comment on the cuisine. I have happy memories of summers spent on both lakes. The Lake of Annecy is the lake superior.

I would add the sashimi salad, specifically. Also the mochi (sp.) for dessert. I agree completely with Steve about the general approach and the specific dishes.