Lesley C

ComeUndone, each sheet of gelatin is 2g, so you had only 8g, as opposed to 11g in your recipe.

Yeah at Cornellier, $25 a head with get you a shrimp on a toothpick and a meatball.

Hmm...I don't think either man is THAT good an actor.

Actually my biggest complaint about AL'Os is the ventilation system. I was there twice on crowded nights, sitting in a cloud of smoke. Those guys will have to eventually turn on the hood. Maybe they already have. Hope so, I came home smelling like a grilled veal chop.

Considering his lecherous behaviour at the book signing, looks to me like he just might enjoy that.

A L'Os is a bit more upscale, and certainly more expensive, than La Colombe. I thought the food was uneven, but maybe things have shaped up since I reviewed the place in the winter. I, for one maybe, really like Les Infideles. Same owner as A L'Os, but the food is much better, and they have a nice cheese course, essential for BYOW restos IMO.

Boy, I really wanted to like Rocco, but last night he came off as an ass. That book signing escapade with him coming on to that Jennifer girl was sick making. No wonder his girlfriend dumped him. Rocco, I have news for you, you aren't as hot as you think you are. Heck, he doesn't even look like he showers. Also, who can really blame Chodorow on this one? Hello, the place is hemorrhaging money and Rocco's attitude is "no comment" and "get my lawyer on the phone." Chodorow should have been down his throat Day 1. Rocco just sat there huffing and puffing or storming out of the restaurant in his pink shirt. I gotta wonder, does Rocco mean baby in Italian? I loved the line when the waitress said, “As far as I’m concerned, I work for Jeffrey Chodorow.” Mama seems to be the only one on Rocco’s side, but I say rename the restaurant Mama’s. At least she’s putting her heart in it and working the room.

Good idea. Sounds nice. I say, go for it. Go easy on the milk chocolate and maybe serve it with a bitter chocolate sauce. It will taste like jellied chocolate milk -- a bit like what Frederic Bau recently served at his chocolate tasting menu dinner in Montreal and New York (though he used agar agar and the consistency was crumbly instead of melting -- rather gross).

Yeah, no kidding. As a Montrealer, I always think of TO as a town where multi-million dollar restaurants rule. Is this trend on the rise or beginning to wane?

I would wait, at chez Noeser, for the terrace to open up. It's really quite something.

Trama's food to me seemed quite dated. I had the exact same dessert there two years ago that I used to make at Thuries in 1990 (a larme au chocolat) and my starter, a baby-food-like mixture of pureed avocado topped with caviar, arrived in a chipped Martini glass. I found the whole experience to be seriously underwhelming. Mystified by the fuss. Yeah, that's about right Now at Bocuse, it was wow, wow, wow. Classic food yes, but superb ingredients, great service, and luxury. At Trama, the menus were paper and they charged me 100 ff for a copy. I left Puymirol pissed off. I left Bocuse elated. But the decline of Bocuse's restaurant is odd. He has what?, 2 MOF on his staff? I would love to dine there again to compare. Not that I don't trust reports, I'm just surprised that a man as proud as Bocuse would let his restaurant slip.

I dined at Bocuse in 1989 and it was amazing. I had the truffle soup en croute (packed full of truffles) terrine de foie gras, canard en deux services, wonderful cheese, and a dessert lineup I will not soon forget (they used to assemble tables all around you and cover them with desserts, which were only whisked away when you had your fill). Coffee came with beautiful Bernachon chocolates. I loved every minute of it, but what I loved best was the friendly "acceuil." Verry sorry to hear it has gone downhill . But to each his own. I ate at Michel Trama two years ago and thought it was second-rate. He got three stars this year -- so go figure.

Sorry, when you said "revival" I thought it sounded like Kennedy was "reviving" the dish. My mistake.

The chef who should be given all the credit for bringing poutine from the snack bar to the Fine Dining Scene is Martin Picard, chef and owner of Montreal's Au Pied de Cochon. When Picard opened in 2001, he had poutine with foie gras on his first menu. Also David McMillan of restaurant Globe was making poutine with duck gravy years ago. To think Jamie Kennedy started that trend is downright laughable.

I always felt that the slamming reviews read like the critic had a personal vendetta against the chef, and that the gushing reviews read like the critic was friends with the chef. Look, when Hesser gushed about Spice Market, the gossip went so far as to insinuate she was sleeping with the chef (I didn't make that up; Vongerichten was quoted saying that). I have been to hundreds of restaurants, and I have never had a meal that was 100% good or 100% awful. There always seems to be a grey area in there somewhere.

Yeah, I went to a pretty bad restaurant last night, and I'm trying to put a positive spin on the review to avoid getting my knee caps broken.

I just think it's important to remember the restaurateurs and chefs are your readers as well. And even in a negative review there should always be a sense of hope that things could improve. I hate snide reviews and I hate gushing reviews. There is a balance in between all the critics with good instincts have achieved. The bad critics pontificate and offend us with their self-importance. Total sick making.

Yes you call it as you see it, but in that realm there is as much -- if not more -- room for positive language than negative. I've been a restaurant reviewer for five years now, and if I maintained your attitude I would have stopped after year one. That kind of writing gets boring real fast. I admire chefs and prefer to point out their strenghts than their weaknesses. That's the way I handle the job. I'm sick to death of reading about critics being the enemy. We are also there to do good. I may have put a few restaurants out of business in my time, but I have filled up a heck of a lot more.

Thanks Kathleen. I understand what you mean. But I think it's important to realize a good restaurant critic is more a friend to the restaurant scene than a foe. If a critic is seen as a villain, he or she is failing. A critic is also there to introduce a restaurant to the public, and point out the brilliant qualities of its chef. Praise is as much a part of a review as constructive (and not mean-spirited) criticism. At least, that's the way I see it.

Kathleen, you're a great food witer. So I'm wondering, why is it you think you would suck as a critic, or should I say, reviewer? I think your answer could shed some further light on the subject.

Hey clothier, chill out. I said so much at the bottom of my post above. And no one here called him an idiot or said he sucked. Those were your words, not mine. Hmm, that's an interesting statement coming at a time when some of the best restaurants are opening in New York and the SPAC is most probably dropping the NYCBallet, a mainstay of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center since it opened in 1966, after this summer in favour of rock concerts. And if all of us are eating and, like Bruni, with an eye to learning and understanding more about what we're eating, shouldn't a restaurant review hold even more weight than a review of an opera, a gallery or a ballet? Who do you think was a more important at The Times, Anna Kisselgoff or Ruth Reichl? Whose column do you think was more widely read?

It's not. Why should it be? Anyone can walk into an opera and tell you if they like it or not and why. And I guess the great writers would use better adjectives. Sounds to me like some people -- hello busboy -- are saying the same goes for a meal at a restaurant. Oh, but silly me, I keep forgetting. Cooking is a craft, not an art. I have to keep reminding myself. And sure people are judging Keller and Ducasse every day. But they’re having conversations around the office water cooler -- not writing for The New York Times. Do you read the Times just to get another guy's opinion? Or do you read The Times to get the best opinion in the land? I certainly read Reichl's reviews that way. But I don't know, maybe I'm allotting too much importance to that paper.

You know, I just don’t buy that. Yes, a great writer can write about anything. I enjoy reading about Apple’s adventures eating hot dogs with his wife in Chicago, and I’m sure many writers could do a fine job writing about the ins and outs of wieners and buns. We all have food in common. But a critic -- and in this case, a restaurant critic -- is an entirely different species. In a review, the writer must pass judgment and allot stars. No one is saying “who is Johnny Apple to write about hot dogs?” But I’ll bet there are a number of chefs in Manhattan right now thinking, “who is this Bruni guy to judge ME!” Also, shouldn’t the NEW YORK TIMES choose a critic who knows the game, who has a proven record of respect on the restaurant scene as did Ruth Reichl when she was hired? Bruni will now have to write-up restaurants like Per Se, Masa, and AD/NY under Delouvrier, and I can’t help but ask, who is this guy to offer an opinion sure to GREATLY affect such multi-million dollar investments? Ducasse, Delouvrier, Kunz, and Keller are chefs who have devoted their lives to their work. And Bruni is going to judge them without any deep knowledge of haute cuisine? Come on. Start him off in the $25-and-under column to get his feet wet, or send him to Chicago to write about hot dogs. But handing him the BIG JOB – a massive responsibility -- on a silver platter just proves that The Times holds little regard for, or little understands, the profession. I’m not saying you have to have worked as a chef, dined in all Michelin three-star restaurants, or read every cookbook on the planet to be a good critic (though God knows, it would help). But when I want to know if a chef is brilliant or if restaurant is worth the money, I don’t just waltz over to my neighbor who is a neurosurgeon who happens to love to eat out. I turn to a specialist, someone whose opinion holds weight. Yes, there are the Steven Shaws out there, people who have switched careers to become excellent food writers and reviewers. But he’s been at it for a while and as he stated above, he’s still learning. And it seems to me he’s already miles and miles ahead of Bruni. I guess being someone who religiously reads The Times Food Section from friggin’ CANADA, I expected something more. Not just a great writer, but an expert. Bruni, soon to hold one of the most powerful jobs in food writing and the most powerful job in restaurant reviewing was, until recently, writing about George Bush and Silvio Berlusconi. If I were Ducasse or Keller I would read his review, have a giggle, and use it to line a crate of oysters. (Now, all that is, of course, speculation. If he comes out writing spanking reviews, I will gladly take it all back!)

Robert Beauchemin (aka, Beaucher) reviews Cocagne today in La Presse and gives the restaurant four stars (out of five, I think) http://www.cyberpresse.ca/dossiers_a/04200...04,646194.shtml Geez, what's that restaurant been open now? Two weeks? Robert, seems a tad early for a review, no? (notice I called the place a restaurant. If that establishment is a bistro, I'm a monkey's uncle )

Close. It actually means -- and I'm not making this up -- the action of making the scalloped edge on a pithivier. The French have a term for everything.