Lesley C

I also loved Chef! -- but only the first season. Gareth reminded me of a few chefs I worked with. Miscast? No way! A colleague of mine used to show the episode with Everton losing his bandaid in the ravioli to first-year cooking students. They loved it!

Check it out: http://www.paintedhouse.com/mainframes/Abo...on_kitchen.html

Wow, great advice. I'll pass it along to my friend and run out to get some oil, acid and sandpaper for my counters. I never work directly on the counters; I always use small, plastic IKEA cutting boards I can later pop into the dishwasher. Anyone out there thinking about butcher block counters read this advice. If you neglect those babies for 5 minutes they look just awful. Hollywood, I'll consider the zinc for my next kitchen renovation along with a sealed steel floor.

I have these wicked butcher block counters in my kitchen, which now look like crap because they were never sealed properly. The man who sold them to me said they didn't have to be sealed when I bought them but since then the areas hard hit by water (around the coffee maker and the sink) have warped a bit and turned black. I have a friend who just installed such counters and asked me for advice on how to seal them. I'm thinking mineral oil. I've seen some chefs use three coats of vegetable oil. Any ideas?

I had dinner at both restaurants this week. I thought the setting was breathtaking at the Wick but the food was disappointing. The Long Beach Lodge was terrific for its simple handling of organic ingredients. The service and desserts brought the experience down a few notches but I was just thrilled to be there. Tofino is my idea of paradise. So is Ouest in Vancouver, but I'll report on that magnificent meal later.

Yes. The service and setting are great but the food could use sharpening up a bit. It's a notch below the rest. I thought Le Saint Christophe was better for food and the wine list and service were just as good. That lost little street in Old St Rose is starting to look like the most interesting restaurant destination -- besides Laurier Ave. of course

Drive out to St.Rose Laval and go to a place called Le Saint-Christophe. The food is on classic side, but the service, "cadre," and wine and cheese selection are great. They also have these beautiful modern-style Laguiole knives that I'd never seen before. The place is family-owned and feels like a "real" restaurant. It's as though you're in a one-star in France. I'd do the romantic meal thing there in a minute. La Lutecia is worthwhile. The chef makes some interesting food but there are a few glitches and the noise and smoke from the bar downstairs is unreal. I also had horrible service, which is surprising because the service there is usually quite good. If you get down to Old Montreal again, go to S in the Saint-Sulpice hotel. They serve a yellow gazpacho with a lime sorbet in the middle -- quite amazing -- and the desserts are wonderful. The chef, a fellow by the same of Steve Lemieux, was sous-chef at La Chronique and Chez L'Epicier (maybe Patrice knows him). There are other surprises at S and the service is great (interesting wine list and free valet parking, which means a lot in Old Montreal). It's expensive and half of the menu is grilled meat or fish -- pretty basic but, for that genre of restaurant, very good.

OK gotcha! The stage was with Loiseau! Welcome welcome welcome! I won't "out" you but to everyone reading, guru is one of Montreal's top chefs. And yes, I will have to give your restaurant another try. There's a lot going on there. By the way, I adore your foie gras as well.

I'm reading your book right now and I have to ask, who is your reader? I'm a restaurant critic and food writer so this kind of in-depth information is interesting to me. But I don't know many people -- especially outside New York City -- who would be interested in such a detailed account of a restaurant. Am I wrong about this? Are there in fact many foodies out there who can't get enough behind-the-scenes information?

OK, you could be a number of people I do have a guess though. Are you the chef who did a stage at Gagnaire, worked at Toqué! and disliked An American Place?

Hmmm ... you work in Montreal. Care to share any clues regarding where that might be?

I'm glad you mentioned Le St-Augustin, one of my favourite restaurants and a real deal (guru are you from Montreal and if not can I ask how you heard about Le St-Augustin?). Did you have his cheese course? His meats are also superb. That place is a real find, especially considering the quality of ingredients and prices. Mr Giroux is also a very nice, humble Frencman. Claude is pretty low-key as well. I also preferred Claude's food at Mediterraneo. I think he's trying to change his style, and that could take a while to gel. I had a wild mushroom and cheddar tart there that was out of this world AND the sea bass was terrific. The veal and salmon trios didn't quite do it for me.

Oh I know what you mean. But in this case, I'm familiar with the cast of characters and I know they were gunning hard thoses first few months. Funny though, I didn't find the food ordinary at Cube, I found it "cheffy." Pelletier was making trio dishes last year, salmon three ways... veal three ways...foie gras with apple three ways. Did you have the hot foie gras? Last year he was serving it with a julienne of green apple, applesauce and a Granny Smith sorbet. It was very very good, the ideal way to eat foie gras in the summer. I think he makes the best foie gras dishes in the city. Often better than Toqué!

Marcus made a good point about a reviewer covering the scene. It's a beat. That's why the best reviewers are the ones who have been at it for ages. At least they know and understand what's happening around them before they start handing out the stars. And eventually when you award stars, you're often rating the restaurants in relation to each other. And Steve P., it's not really fair to mix up restaurants on the same page. These people are competitors. Should they really be compared in print side by side? Also, how do you know nobody really cares about that Tuscan place? Just because it isn't on the gourmet radar doesn't mean it should be dismissed. Maybe the people in the neighborhood are curious. And as to Steven's idea about inviting another reporter along not to waste that free dining companion spot...FORGET IT! I can't even imagine having to endure years of long, drawn out dinners with the same person -- especially a wine writer!

You'll have to write Ruth Reichl at Gourmet. How many subscribers do they have? Shouldn't your friend J Gold be filling that role? Didn't the "new" Gourmet mention something about covering more American restaurants featuring a different city every month? What happened to that?

A statistical report on service and consistency! Do readers really want that much information? Sidebars on the wine list? Most restaurant wine lists merit a paragraph. If it's really outstanding, it could be covered by a journalist in the food section. And are you going to pay the expert wine writer to dine at said restaurant to make sure the wine is properly served? Let me get this straight: You want a reviewer who is a terrific writer, a food expert, the added input of a wine expert, and the budget to dine at the restaurant more than three times. Also, you want one of these critics in every major American city. Questions: What kind of money do you think newspapers (besides the Times) shell out for the restaurant column? How much do you think most restaurant reviewers make? And, how important do you think a restaurant review column is to a newspaper editor-in-chief?

Lizziee, It’s the best part of the job because when I’m anonymous, I am the client. When I’m recognized, I’m someone the staff is bending over backward to impress. If I favorably write up a restaurant where I was recognized and a customer returns a few weeks later and doesn’t share an experience remotely similar to mine (this has happened) I hear about it. Also, before I worked as a restaurant reviewer, I worked in restaurants as a professional pastry chef where I heard every chef under the sun brag about how he added this and that to some critic’s plate. I’ve had to assemble dishes for a critic myself and -- trust me -- we ignored every other order while three people worked on that one plate. I think many posters are only considering the highest of the high end when they say a restaurant cannot change its style at the last minute. I agree, in fact, anonymity is not such an important factor with the four-star places. It is important, however, when reviewing that large group of restaurants that fall between 1 and 3 stars. Ultimately, preferential treatment can best be judged by the service. I was recently reviewing one of Montreal’s best hotel restaurants. The food was wonderful but the service was horrible. Next to me was a PR woman from a big wine company. I watched the waiters kiss up to her shamelessly while I was treated like some poor, stupid tourist. Lovely, I thought, the truth comes out! The first time I went to Gramercy Tavern, the two girls by the door barely offered a hello and we were offered a banquette in a back corner of the restaurant. I thought the service, though correct, was cold, verging on smug. It wasn't a pleasant experience. The next night I went to Babbo and the service was superb. The food was excellent in both places but the service made Babbo especially memorable. A year later I went back to Gramercy with someone who knew the staff well and we were treated like long lost friends. Big difference.

Ah yes...well sometimes it's better to get to a restaurant right after the opening when everyone is in peak-effort mode. I know there have been a few changes in the kitchen but Claude is a very solid chef. I completely agree with you about the service.

Lizziee, My rant about anonimity was on the Hangin' with the Peeps thread. Steve, sometimes I can't believe the stuff you write! Common denominator? Jesus, you are such a snob! Do you realize that a lot of those “common denominator” people from the suburbs are probably better cooks than you are? They just don't spend all their time analyzing every last detail. And if a reviewer wrote such an elitist, Plotnicki-friendly review, he/she'd bore the crap out of 99% of the readers. If you want a really detailed upscale restaurant review, look for it in a magazine like Gourmet -- not a newspaper. Is Jonathan Gold not doing it for you? And I don't go for this "deserving" garbage. I think anyone who is willing to drop their hard-earned money on food or wine out of interest, curiosity, or keeping up with the Jones' -itis is OK with me. In fact, they keep the food writers employed -- because heaven knows, the gourmets already think they know everything.

Guru, What were your expectations? How did you hear about Cube? And what besides the overcooked shrimp and portion size bothered you about the food? I quite liked Cube. I thought the service was poor, but the food was good to very good when I was there last summer. You should have tried the desserts. The coffee/chocolate plate is amazing.

I disagree with a lot -- if not most -- of Steven's post but I'm tired of re-posting opinions already stated on another thread. I believe there are plenty of excellent restaurant reviewers out there. And anyone who thinks anonimity isn't important hasn't a clue what goes on behind the scenes in most professional restaurant kitchens. Don't you people ever tire of critic bashing? What is this, the third thread devoted to the subject?

Oh... now I really say don't put them in the guidebook!

I would think if someone specifically asked not to be listed, it probably means they don't respect the guide or the opinions of the guide's author.

Never happened to me when I did my book, but I say don't list. It's free publicity for him and if he really doesn't want it, too bad.

Bux, Don't you have duck, lamb, chicken, or saucisson at home? Who says steak knives are just for steak?