schaem
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Posts posted by schaem
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Hey, when I was growing up Stillwater meant Dairy Queen and Carbone's Pizza.
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This, I think, is why expansion of favorites is something to fear. I love Murray's and believe they have integrity, and making their product more available may seem like a plus. But suddenly, you have a new lease in a high rent area and unforeseen pressures arise. And if the new, high-rent store starts to lose, does it hurt the original? So to lessen the pain for the long-term good of the store maybe we take a shortcut, just this once...
It's a slippery slope.
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I find that simple pasteurized dairy products (as opposed to ultra-) are difficult to find. Where do you go Orik?
PS I'm from Stillwater, but it's been a long time...
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You're a saint Orik. So now that we're on the topic waht are the preffered, commercial Creme Fraiches? I've used Vermont and Ronnybrook, with a slight edge to Vermont. Of course, the one CF I tried in France was the winner, but not so practical for high volume, everyday use in New York.
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Count me in. I've read that various cultures can be purchased and added to heavy cream, but I haven't been able to source them. Wait, here's something...
Gem Cultures
3031 Sherwood Road
Fort Bragg, CA 95437
707-964-2922
This is from a book called "Serious Pig" Specifically in reference to homemade buttermilk. But perhaps there's more.
Also, I was once told that if you add a little Creme Fraiche to cream the whole batch will culture, but I haven't had any success with that. Perhaps pasteurization is to blame. Is Creme Fraiche dissimilar from Clotted Cream?
edit- oh, i see that it is different.
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Yeah Ann, that was very good. Interesting about the pickles. I am more familiar with Korean food (and pickles) than Cantonese. I always thought Western food should develop a sort of "panchan" (variety of accompanying pickles and sides). Every restaurant seems to serve the amuse bouche as their "interesting giveaway", why not panchan?
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I haven't see it since leaving Minnesota, but Stroh's (and Stroh's Light, of course) was pretty hideous, even compared to all the other stuff my poor ass was drinking. We used to buy it though, cuz it came in 30-packs. Such a nice, round number. There was also Red Bull (which is now something else completely). Like Bull, but much more alcohol. Yeesh.
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Aquavit is pretty damn modern.
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I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but perhaps has been forgotten: It costs a hell of a lot of money to open a restaurant in NY! If you open up your 40-seat, one-seating boutique and nobody shows up, back to paralegal school and cooking "innovative" cuisine for your wife. JG, Daniel, etc. are brand names in Manhattan and can get investors to do anything they want, but they aren't interested in innovation. Some future, NY, Adria is going to have a hard time convincing big money to invest in "something no has tried before".
Perhaps hope lies in the"arrondisment-ization" of the boroughs. Maybe someone will create a Berkeley-style "gourmet gulch" in Long Island City or Brooklyn (more ambitious than Smith Street, I mean). Though the trick would get the diners with money (ie Manhattan) to come. Its funny, people will travel to Napa or San Sebastian or The Aubrac to eat but would they go to Brooklyn?
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Steve,
You should be a culinary trendspotter, then you could publish Plotnicki's "What's Hot, What's Not" chart like in Vanity Fair.
Talk of trends, or what's hot, whether or not meat is "in" or "out" is about as relevant to what makes a restaurant good as your disdain for tongue. Kiwi fruit was "hot" once, and people used to think oysters ond lobsters were plebe food. Who cares? Meat is not going anywhere just because Alain Passard says it is. Some hot (Probably French, maybe Spanish) chef will blow your (Steve P.) mind with the latest "innovation" in Snipe cookery at the newest home for the most cutting edge food, and then, meat will be back.
Back to the topic. Why does high-end cuisine seem a little dull in NY? I think it's been a while since any one new with any serious talent has opened a restaurant here (Alain Ducasse doesn't count as new). All the other four-stars have been here forever. Union Pacific was exciting when it opened but is fairly established by now. Liebrandt didn't catch on. Peacock Alley closed. For whatever reason (economy, chef as celebrity, lack of home-grown talent) the exciting new chefs seem to be springing up elsewhere (Illinois!).
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I haven't seen the NYPL exhibit yet, but when I first got wind of it I had hopes that it would influence the current NY restaurant scene. Steve P., I don't think Wilfrid is neccesarily suggesting re-hashing crusty old classics, but, perhaps using the old as an influence, the way, say, Japan, was an influence. I also agree with Wilf in my boredom with what seems like the same 6 proteins. Is it more radical to change the garnish on a rare-seared tuna than it would be to serve something besides rare-seared tuna? When was the last time anyone saw turtle on a menu? Tongue? If you look at old menus you will see that NYers used to eat this stuff. I think tongue would "challenge" more diners than lemongrass foam at this point.
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In a way, like haute couture, haute cuisine is self identified. Armani is haute couture, A/X is not. Daniel is HC, DB is not (Cafe Boulud is, I think). Again, what seperates it from bistro food is the ability to identify it with its creator. Just as "Gucci" means something (or more accurately, "Tom Ford" means something) so, too, does "Alain Ducasse". In the same vein, I don't think Alice Waters would be troubled to hear that CP doesn't serve haute cuisine, but I think Rocco DiSpirito might be troubled by the equivication on UP.
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Jaybee, I think there's a certain amount of truth to that. At on time HC would denote adherence to a certain tradition, that of Careme, Escoffier, etc. based on codified techniques, master sauces, garnishes, and preparations. Now, due to changing tastes, the "discovery" of other high cooking traditions i.e. Japan, nouvelle cuisine, boredom, appreciation of "bas" cuisine, what goes on in "haute" restaurants, while still influenced by the tradition, is very different from the original definition. However; since arguing is fun, it is useful to have some sort of eGullet definition of HC, so that I have something to do when I can't sleep on Saturday morning.
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I don't actually know if Passard is a genius, not having eaten at L'Arpege (yet). But I do think it is more about setting, presentation, and ingredients (and price), than any specific technique. And I mean specific technique, I think good technique is essential, whether it is just shaving a raw product or turning it into a foam, care must be given.
Somehow a quote about Chez Panisse seems appropriate, "That's not cooking, that's shopping."
P.S. When do you sleep, Plotnicki?
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Perhaps haute cuisine has something to do with the descernible (sic?) influence of a particular human being (the chef)? For example tete de veau can be well prepared by a number of cooks, mothers, tradionalists, but when it is identifiably Daniel Boulud's Tete du Veau it becomes haute cuisine. I know this is rather the Great Man of History theory which I normally shun, but I can't seem to avoid thinking it. My original response was merely going to be a cynical, "Steve, if Alain Passard served roasted mushrooms on a plate at L'Arpege, you would think it was haute cuisine." But then I realized that so would I, and so would everyone else.
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Though I had the aforementioned "worst dish ever" at PG and I thought his desserts were awful on a technical, not conceptual level, I would still very much return. Perhaps that is enough to signfy that I don't think Gagnaire "has crossed the line". His food does not seem merely interesting-for-interesting-sake, but seems to be a genuine exploration in flavor, rooted in the idea that food is meant to be eaten, not studied. Or, I should say, only studied.
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Steve P., I find myself agreeing with you on this particular subject. If relevenece means currently influential, then Italian cuisine is not. It has relevance. Or has had relevence. But no, I do not track down cookbooks from current Italian chefs because it seems to me their interest is in preserving a very valuable tradition; and since that tradition is largely ingrained in the French/ New American tradition in which I work, anything current in Italy is "irrelevant." However, I would hate to see the day when the upholders of tradition vanish from the face of the earth and the old ways are ignored and forgotten.
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Just to prove that all of arguments are basically the same, my most recent post on the PG thread (5mins ago) is just as relevant (what does "relevant" mean?) on this thread.
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What about John Cage. Would "everyone" agree that his work is art, or music. Is a recording of silence, labeled "sonata no. whatever" music just becaues the artist labelled it so. What I'm getting at is how far something can be manipulated before it stops being that thing. Someone (I'm not good at operating the quote device) here said that most chefs respect the natural ingredient. For me that is the natural limitation on how far the chef can take their art. Adria's potato foam is fine because it not only represents potato it is potato. But if someone finds a way to turn duck into caviar, I'm leaving.
I'm not sure I'm getting at what I mean. I guess it requires a definition of food, so that we can say, "That's not food, that's art." (Something my chef has actually said!) Steve P. I'm asking for a definition!
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I thought Plotnicki was Russian for "person who thinks he wins arguments by redefining terms."
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All of the Italian (and most of the Italian-American) cooks I know want to cook like their Grandmothers. Most of the American (or other) cooks want to cook like Ferran Adria. Who has the more admirable goal? Who has the more difficult task?
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I've said before that I don't have that much French (as opposed to NY) fine dining experience, but I have eaten at Gagnaire. He had eaten at the restaurant I had been working at (i may change my eGullet handle so none of my former or current co-workers deduce my identity) and two weeks later I ate at his. My experience there was troubling. Nothing about the meal stood out out on the positive side, though some of the dishes were fun and everything was innovative. What did stand out was the booziness of every single dessert (he sent us all of them) and what was easily the worst dish I've ever had anywhere. It was oyster, caviar, tuna, seaweed, and a foie gras cream. The unctuous cream made the oceany flavor and textures linger in ones mouth until the booze in the desserts finally obliterated them. I guess the theory behind the dish was to combine the most luxurious ingredients possible, but, my god...
Anyway, Chef Gagnaire invited my wife and I to have coffee with him at the hotel the next morning. Of course we did, and were quite honored as well as pleased to find how personable "the great chef" was. But it was a bit uncomfortable to have him praise the meal he had had at "my" restaurant while all I could think was to ask, "Why oysters and foie?"
Still, I wouldn't write off eating there again, though perhaps, Steve P., I'll try L'Arpege instead.
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Well I guess that about wraps it up. What should we argue about next?
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Sorry. I wrote "do" instead of "due" and I may have left out an apostrophe or two. Hope that doesn't completely discredit my argument.
Clotted Cream
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
I'm roasting apples in it right now!