Lesley C

The press conference is today. I'll post information as soon as it arrives.

Is this a duck breast or magret (breast of a force-fed duck)? For a boneless magret, lightly score the skin and fat in a crisscross pattern and sprinkle generously with sea salt (pepper is optional). Place in a fry pan, skin side down over medium heat. Fry, untouched, for twenty minutes draining off the fat every so often and spooning a bit of fat over the breast. After twenty minutes (the breast should be a deep golden brown and almost all the fat should be rendered), salt it and turn it over. Place another fry pan on top to weigh it down (you might want to place a weight on top) and fry on the other side for another 5 minutes. Remove from pan, cover lightly with foil, and let the breast rest for about 15-20 minutes (this step is essential, otherwise you'll lose all the juices). Slice diagonally to serve. For a duck breast, you'll want to fry it for about 15 minutes on the first side.

Ouest is miles ahead of Lumiere. Thanks heavens people -- save Mark Bittman -- are starting to notice.

People, people hold on here! Pate brisee and pate sucree are not the same thing! Pate brisee is flaky pastry and pate sucree is shortcrust pastry. I wouldn't use pate sucree for a tarte Tatin. Brisee is better.

I have a Tarte Tatin recipe in my book Suvir, you should try it out. I use a combination of Granny Smiths and Goldens, or Cortland apples, and I use pate brisee instead of feuilletee. A good trick for Tatin is to let it sit a while once baked for the juices to firm up before inverting the pan. You can also let it cool completely, and then heat it lightly on the stove when ready to flip it. Just never flip it when it's hot because the apples sometimes render quite a bit of juice. I'd add a vanilla bean to the base caramel and I think I bake it for a while before adding the crust. Boy, I can't remember the details. It's been a while since I made one.

I LOVE the bistro book!

Paris desserts without pictures? Linda Dannenburg did a beautiful Paris pastry book years ago that I still look through every week for the beautiful pictures. To me, pastry books without pictures (especially French pastry books) are quickly forgotten. Also, French pastry is out of reach to most home bakers. I think you're fooling yourself to think there are that many advanced home bakers in America. I will definitely buy the book because I enjoy all of Dorie Greenspan's books and because I'm a pastry chef. But a book on that subject, without pictures...well...seems like a missed opportunity to me -- especially now considering the renaissance of Parisian patisserie.

You're all talking about a flan like a creme caramel right? I thought you meant the French tart.

Not too many whites used in the mix, and cooked just so.

OK, I ate that, but I didn't know what it was. It was good, not too smoky and just a bit fishy and it just melts in your mouth like fudge. Very different. I almost ate it with the wax. Whoa. Nice young staff there as well, with Costas' son working with them. Very cool.

Again Welcome Dave! I was at the opening last night and tasted some brilliant things: olives, little preserved onions, stuffed grape leaves, marinated yogurt cheese balls, the salt, marinated seared hallumi, sweets and this incredible oilive oil called Agrilia from the island of Andiparos. Costas was in great form. His intention with this new enterprise is for people to see Greek products as something beyond the old rusted tin of olives. This store is Greek Chic. You should see his collection of amber worry beads. Tonight I bought my whole dinner from Le Petit Milos: this terrific stuffed chicken, white beans with dill, more stuffed grape leaves, feta/phyllo rolls and more. It was quite cheap, the chicken was $21, and the final bill was $55 for dinner for four. There's talk he'll open a couple more of these places in Montreal and maybe one in New York. There are also some wild tisanes available; I'm sipping some of their eucalyptus tea right now. I'm going back tomorrow to buy some honey. Great, great place (btw, address is 5551 Park Ave. corner St-Viateur).

I just met a producer in the Cotes du Provence who makes tons of crappy wine. He also owns one of the largest vineyards in Chateauneuf, owns major real estate in Provence and drives a spiffy Range Rover. Trust me, the guys and negoces making cheap wine are making tons of the stuff and a tidy profit. It's the mid-range vignerons trying to make great wine, competing to find a place in the big markets, that I worry about. Especially this year with all the horrible weather in France -- save the Loire.

Steve, would you know where the venison was from? Could it be Quebec? Was it written on the menu? I just met a farmer here who sells to Trotter, Ducasse and Boulud.

Clothes are a bit different because they last forever, especially expensive clothes. But when I look at the price of a Calvin Klein suit, the guilt sets in again. I would make a crappy rich person. I'm quite happy spending all my spare $$ on very good food and decent wines. I'm satiated with the Gramenons and Domaine de La Courtade's of this world. And La Meme is so full of love, I'll happily pay $50 for that bottle, 100% guilt free. Huge restaurant markups are the worst. If I could, I'd buy all my wine from the hands of the vigneron who produced it.

When I pay more than $50 for a bottle of wine, major Catholic guilt sets in: images of hungry orphans, nuns collecting money on street corners, down- and-outs my age living in shelters, single mothers, burning in hell -- the works. Guess, some people just don't have that, which might actually be a good thing. I never feel guilty, however, accepting expensive wine as a gift or at a tasting.

Interesting. I really enjoyed the oyster amuse, but one of my dining companions also found the granite lacking, thinking it would have been better with a wine base. I'm not sure about that. And yes, the cornets are rather passé, but I liked the tray they were served on. I also liked the mesclun because it was Mr. Daignault's wonderful mesclun, which I'm always happy to munch on (instead of the usual tasteless, crappy California mix). I completely forgot about the mignardises. I wonder why they bothered. Then again, for the price charged, I thought we were spoiled. That meal at the Jardin des Sens would have cost about three times as much. There was a wonderful ambiance in the room. Everyone looked thrilled to be there and considering the Pourcels weren't in their own kitchen, I thought they did spectacularly well. Patrice, did you get to talk to them after dinner? Did you see the kitchen setup?

Welcome dave mc! My fear is that these guys have too much going on right now. I ate at the Compagnie des Comptoirs in Avignon last June and it was kind of shitty watered-down trendy stir fried bean sprouts meets seared dorade with a cherry tomato brochette on a square plate kind of crap. That's the last thing we need here in Montreal. I think when they do the Jardin des Sens cuisine like they did this week in Montreal, they're amazing. When they get into the lower end trendy stuff, their style kind of falls apart.

Patrice, I look forward to your report. The Pourcels were in town by request of Rasha Bassoul, who spent a week at the Jardin des Sens and fell in love with the place. Rumours are running fast and furious that they will open a restaurant here with the W hotel group in New York in the new Caisse de Depot complex. Of course, when asked, they denied any involvement in the project. But I have my sources...

Last night the Pourcel brothers – Jacques and Laurent -- were in Montreal at a lovely little restaurant called Anise. In a tiny kitchen (by French standards) they cooked up a superb 9-course menu alongside chef Racha Bassoul. The food didn’t knock my socks off. Instead, it slowly and carefully peeled them off. The flavours, plate – or glass – presentations, and ingredients were modern, intense and elegant. Best of all, the portions built up from amuse-size to generous and back down again for cheese and dessert -- a far cry from the dreaded Tetsuya/Trotter/Feenie school of amuse-sized Barbie doll food. BTW, the cost was $110, or $150 with 5 glasses of wine (Americans, that’s about $70-$90 US!). The menu: Les petits cornets croustillants a la chair de crabe et tartare de saumon Whimsical amuse made of tuile cornets, one filled with salmon tartare with black sesame seeds, the other with stone crab and a bit of pear puree with vanilla Declinaison d’huitres aux pommes vertes: roules a la crème moutarde, granite au poivre de Szechuan This was good fun. The pepper granite was served in a small glass with a raw oyster suspended in the middle. On the plate was another oyster rolled in a slice of smoked arctic char with batonnets of green apple, which was served with a mustard cream. Raviole de bettrave au celery et figues noix de Saint-Jacques poelées Amazing. A single, large ravioli made of al-dente beet slices and filled with julienned celery root and diced figs was surrounded by four seared scallops and a pool of slightly sweet beet vinaigrette. Sur une purée de potimarron, l’émince de truffes fraiches, bouillon de volaille au jus de truffes The best dish of the night. Served in a wide glass, this “soup” consisted of a sugar pumpkin and chestnut puree topped with slices of truffle and a few hazelnuts, with an intense, frothy and slightly creamy chicken bouillon infused with truffles poured on top. The only disappointment here was that the truffles (2 kg flown in from France for the dinner) didn’t pack much of a punch. But this dish was more about the velvety bouillon/pumpkin combo. Pot-au-Feu, foie gras, facon Thai Again, amazing. A huge piece of raw foie gras (from the Périgord) was served in a small glass bowl with hot beef bouillon infused with ginger and coriander poured on top. In the broth was a julienne of carrots, ginger, coriander root, and baby coriander sprouts. What I enjoyed here was the slightly spongy consistency of the poached foie gras, so different from the usual buttery terrine or crisp and pudding-like hot foie gras. And the ginger and coriander with the foie – Wow! Filet de loup cuit au four, grosses asperges vertes, vinaigrette aux citrons confites. Disappointing. The striped bass was beautiful, but they went overboard with the preserved lemon, which gave the dish a soapy taste. Millefeuille craquant de pommes de terre et filet de pigeon roti, sa cuisse en civet, jus a l’amertume de cacao. Very simple, elegant dish. A pigeon filet set on a mound of puréed celery root, topped with unusually thin, flat and golden potato chips. In between the chips was a spoonful of confit-style shredded meat. The sauce was intense, with hardly a taste of cocoa. Brie de Meaux sur un brique de carottes legèrement épicé, jus de carottes A slice of Brie drizzled with spiced carrot juice and honey. A triangle of brick filled with spiced carrot and a mound of mesclun drizzled with honey. Nice. Salade de clémentines, parfait de dates aux épices, caramel a la crème. Too sweet! Slices of clémentine set around a spiced purée of dates topped with a tuile, the whole swirled with caramel. My teeth are still aching. All in all, a very impressive dinner. Everything was so light, after three and a half hours it was nice to walk away not feeling stuffed. The Pourcels were working side by side in the kitchen, looking very happy. Rumour is they want to open a restaurant in Montreal. After this dinner, I certainly hope they do.

When I was in Avignon last summer, I was told there wasn't a single sushi restaurant in town. That says a lot. One would think, though, that there were enough enough fashionistas in Paris to keep Nobu afloat.

OK, I'd like to point out for any interested Nice visitors that EVERYTHING IS CLOSED IN NICE ON SUNDAY NIGHT! I ended up in a touristy place eating fried lamb testicles, grey fish soup, and bad beignets. At least the Chagall museum was amazing. And by the way, I saw all those lovely restaurants mentioned.

From what I hear, they're in for about 2 million euros and have until February to turn things around. Considering the price he's selling all those lovely pastries and the lineups at the door, you'd think he could pull it off.

The press conference for that event will be held December 12th. I'll post news right after. Anyway, I only have names at the moment, not dates. And the names aren't 100% confirmed either. I also just heard Pierre Gagnaire will be coming to Montreal with Herve This, but I haven't a clue when.

For late starters to catch up is a possibility but it depends in what. There is so much dexterity involved and to be good you just have to work FAST. So when you learn, I think you have to look for a program with a very solid base you can later build on. I'm always in awe of chefs -- sweet or savoury -- with strong technique. No one here has mentioned sugar work, which is still huge in France. There is a side to this profession -- a very elitist side -- where you become more of an artist. When I worked at Thuries, the people with the most clout were the sugar guys, and the best one of them was 17 years old. That's all about God-given talent. Pierre Herme would be Pierre Herme no matter who he apprenticed with. That's why it's important to find out who you are and what you can add. Otherwise you're just copying the person you learned from, and then, what's the point? It's just a job. I've seen young chefs completely stiffled working under big names.

Restaurant Petrelle - 34 rue Petrelle. Anyone been?