Tina Wright

i keep passing la arepa on the way to the rock gym and had thought about trying it. now i definitely will. what other arepas have you tried? what do you know about la lupita in olneyville square?

what school so we can keep an eye out and say "hey"?

I was just on the world pastry forum website and they have all the instructors and classes posted now. Banquet Desserts- Donald Wressell USA Composition- Anil Rohira, USA Making Dough with Bread- Ciril Hitz, USA Entremet- Thomas Lui, Hong Kong Entremet Glace- John Kraus, USA Japanese Desserts- Tatsuya Kijima, Japan Painted Chocolates- Ewald Notter, USA Plated Desserts- Keegan Gerhard, USA Sugar Showpieces- Christian Faure, MOF, Canada Cakes for Pastry Chefs- Nicholas Lodge the hands on program is Stephane Glacier and Stephan Iten don't know much about the competitors. I imagine the Branlard team will be tough to beat, and the women's team has been generating some buzz, but not sure where they stand.

and if you are looking for edible goodies to take home, i have to give my husbands company a plug, sorry- garrison confections at 815 hope street. best chocolate around.

Thanks for the propers. I don't violently disagree, but I'd substitute Chez Pascal for New Rivers, mebbe. ←

That upside down pear cake with the blue cheese has been on the Chez Pascal menu for a while. Its interesting, actually, as the taste of the dessert changes entirely depending on the type of blue cheese used. Next time you go back, you should try the scallops- Matt Gennuso, the chef, is a master with scallops. Matt just cooked at the James Beard House in NYC last week and received rave reviews from the diners and regular members. his duck confit is also quite tasty, (and doesnt require a steak knife, unlike chris's recent experience at Citron!). Chez Pascal also has an unbelievable heirloom tomato salad with a corn flan on the menu at the moment. not sure how much longer that will last but if you liked the asparagus salad you'll love this.

I agree with Chris, blech i expected more from John Elkhay. He should be leading the food scene here not lagging behind it. The decor of the restaurant is ok, but the food is less than insipiring. I had the salmon in a lemongrass broth- the fish was overdone and not a shred of lemongrass to be found anywhere. The waitstaff were awkward on the whole and became more so once the manager, David, had come over to inquire about our meal. The only decent thing I can say is that the cappuccino was actually quite tasty. Not worth the price of the rest of the meal, however. With other, better restaurants in this city, i wont go back either. And, unfortunately, this experience is typical at all their other restaurants under ths same owner. they hid behind gimmicks and overly designed menus while in reality the food is boring, old style and tasteless from my experience. oh well.