Lesley C

OK, it's up and running. Still fixing things but it's a start. Thanks to all of you who showed an interest! www.lesleychesterman.com

Thanks! As for the google ads, I'll take $10 if I get it. And sorry I didn't go live this weekend. There are still a few details to iron out and many, many pictures to upload!

I'm loading in the content now...and there's lots of it. After reading through a ton of copy, I've decided to start with a year's worth or reviews and add in the relevant ones from there. I'm also including some older, recipe-driven features that I liked best, as well as book reviews, interviews, recipes, and favourite kitchen products. There will also be a blog for posting artices not suited to the newspaper. It should be fun, but getting it off the ground has taken forever. I will gladly accept any food stories, and -- hey -- when those google ads kick in, I might even be able to pay you! If all goes well (and heaven knows there are bound to be glitches), I'll be going live this weekend. www.lesleychesterman.com

I grew up eating this cake, but we called it forgotten torte, and the recipe came from a Good Housekeeping Cookbook published in the sixties. It calls for meringue mixed with almond extract, and it's baked (well, placed in a turned-off, hot oven) in an angel food cake pan. I don't see this as similar to a Pavlova, which offers more crust than frothy center. This cake is just the opposite, frothy center with just a bit of crust. I would compare this more to a floating island, and if you served it in a pool of creme anglaise with some spun caramel on top, you'd get just that. We topped it with sweetened whipped cream and strawberries. When made correctly, it's amazing -- sweet but amazing. I recall Amanda Hesser wrote a story about forgotten cake in her Recipe Redux column a few years ago. Definitely worth a read.

I'd call them on Tuesday and ask to speak to the owner, then calmly (calm always works well in situations like this) tell them what happened and how disappointed you were and how you had booked in advance etc. Restaurants shouldn't get away with this kind of neglect. If you do end up calling, please tell us their response.

Were there any free tables at 8? Or had they overbooked? I lunched at Jun-i a few months ago and found the service, by two young guys, to be both friendly and excellent. Question: did you speak to the manager or Juni himself?

I think the point of a website is to see it as the modern version of a restaurant guide. I wrote two guides and I will not be writing a third. With so many restaurants opening and closing, a website is, I think, the better format for a guide. I’m going to start with a year’s worth of reviews, and gradually add older ones that I think are still relevant. As I did with my guides, only restaurants rated two stars and above will be listed. Even if people don’t agree with my reviews, it will be a good resource for finding information. I’ll also include other articles, interviews and book reviews that I still find relevant, as well as recipe-driven articles and columns. I can add more pictures, up-to-the minute info, and stories that aren’t necessarily suited to the newspaper format. I hope it goes well, and at the very least, it will save restaurant goers the $16 many of them forked over for the guides. This should all be on-line within a few weeks.

Thanks Alex. Looks like they could use some furniture! Danny St-Pierre, is very talented. I'm sure it will be terrific. What I can read on the blackboard there looks promising.

A year later... and it looks like it just may happen sooner than later. Fingers crossed.

I'm looking for a good spot for a light lunch around this theater, or in the general Soho area. Any suggestions? thanks!

This is sad news. Hesser took a lot of flack during her tenure at the Times, but she was one of their brightest voices. Just this morning I happened on one of her articles from 1999 about financier cakes, which was so elegant and informed. No one did -- or does -- those kind of stories as well. And that piece she wrote on Sandra Lee years ago was brilliant. I always hoped she would return to the food section but I'm especially sad to see her leaving altogether -- save for the Recipe Redux column, I guess. I have a feeling, though, that this isn't the last we'll see of her. She'll be back -- or at least I hope.

I got the impression from the Globe article that Susur is being closed and renovated by his wife and will re-open under his sous-chef, and that Lee will remain untouched, but the Lee chef will be heading to NY with Susur. An article in today's Star says Susur will be in NY three to four days a week. He hasn't left TO completely.

Steven, Boulud is Boulud. In New York, he's one of the kings. You can't take that away from him. Like I said in a previous post, if he came in on his own to set up, more power to him-- even though it sounds like he doesn't know much about the city besides what his visiting staff has told him. I think Boulud's tone about this whole takeover has been patronizing, as in look at us big New Yorkers coming in to show you yobs how it's done. I'll clean up that mess… Daniel Boulud: the cleaner! Also, there's a history in that restaurant space that Boulud seems happy to ignore. I don't know the details about the Feenie downfall but I do know that when I've interviewed him he has said intelligent things about Vancouver, his hometown. So ok, let's just erase all of Feenie's hard work, take over the spaces with Boulud concept restaurants, and pretend this Rob Feenie guy never existed. I guess what gets me most here is what's looking like a complete disregard for the man's work. Boulud is going to Vancouver because Vancouver is a great food city. Correct me if I'm wrong (and as I’m an outsider I may be), but didn't Rob Feenie have a lot to do with that?

Poor Dale...yet another chef cast deep in the shadows of "one of the food worlds top players." But if he's not happy, OUT! right? Let's bring in a fresh NY chef to show 'em how Boulud's dated nouvelle cuisine is done!

If someone chooses to frame it that way (and I'm guessing few do), that would only serve to shed light on the insecurities of the framer. At the end of the day it's just a business decision - this guy is obviously a high profile guy being brought in to replace another high profile guy. Of course, you can read into it whatever you want. ← Not my insecurities (I'm from Montreal so this isn't going on in my back yard). But let's say that here, if Normand Laprise (someone with a similar profile to Feenie if a wildly different temperament) left Toque! and Daniel Boulud took over that space, it would cause a big scandale.

OK, but let's just say that little scenario is in the planning stages. Right there you're looking at over a million in food sales alone for a two week period. But besides all that, this whole venture stinks. Say what you will about Feenie (a man who is now clearly walking around with Daniel Boulud's chef knife in his back), but he built that restaurant. I also think it's disingenuous for the owners to still list awards acquired by the restaurant under Feenie's reign in the "Honours" thread on the Lumiere site. I don't think I would have found any of this as icky had Boulud just decided to open up a restaurant in Van. On his own, great! But under these circumstances...yuck.

My guess would be with a $300-per-head "Olympic" tasting menu for fourteen days straight, turning the tables three times a night. Sounds like a sharp business decision to me.

One word: Olympics

Is this really such good news for Vancouver? Bring in the big guy from New York to show us lowly Canadians how it's done. When I think about Vancouver I think about how locals like Feenie, Hawksworth and Bishop put that city on the gourmet map. So now Boulud comes in to hog the high paying customers and add a bit of New York know-how at both Lumiere and Feenie's -- soon to be a DB Bistro Moderne. I don't know...some might argue that Daniel Boulud doesn't need Canada, but I wonder why Canada, which is finally pinning down some sort of culinary identity, needs a Lyonnais chef based in New York.

I got an e-mail today from Rosalie's chef, and according to the e-mail, his name is Luc Garnier. As for this Chris Leahy fellow being second tier, I think even he would admit as much. Here's the menu they sent me: • Huîtres ‘’Totten Inlett virginica’’, mousseux de concombre, caviar américain • Escargots de Bourgogne grillés, croûtons au fromage ‘’ Manchego’’, sauce chimichurri • Céviche de Kompachi, fenouil mariné à l’orange ‘’Cara-cara’’, noix de macadamia grillées • Pétoncles de ‘’Nantuckey Bay’’, risotto noir, citron ‘’Meyer’’ parmesan • Foie gras cuit au torchon, de la ‘’Vallée Hudson’’, poitrine de porc croustillante, salade de pommes vertes et cerneaux caramélisées • Bar sauvage enveloppé de proscuitto, haricots cannellini, poivrons ‘’Piquillo’’ • Côte de cerf rouge, bette à carde, Cèpes • Panna cotta au Calvados, gâteau aux noix, sorbet de pommes,‘’Mutsu’’ grillée • Gâteau au chocolat 5 épices, crème glacée au fromage à la crème, bonbons aux Kumquats et orange sanguine

BTW, I hear the new chef at Rosalie is pretty good. Why not have him host a special event? Show off the new guy, so to speak.

Price sounds good? It's more expensive than the tasting menu at Toque! A lot to pay for a second tier chef from New York...

I've picked up a lot of knives over the years and I gotta say my Mac knives stayed sharp longest, whereas the Furi was quick to disappoint. Looks pretty though...

OK, I'll bite. What are you implying?

(OK, I'm on my second wind so here goes...) Look, say what you want about the burgers BUT don't make like the charity aspect of this business is no big deal. It is a big deal. And if you do the math, you'll see that 5% of their sales (not profits, SALES) adds up to a heck of a lot of money that will go towards the Children's Hospital Foundation. And I'm with Latelier on this one. Easy on the angst. We're talking about a burger bar here not the Bouchard-Taylor Commission. Sheesh...