Pacojette

Not really the point. Or not my point, at any rate: the issue is the entirely exceptional nature of the product anytime LaBan comes within worshiping distance of Bryan Sikora; and (most importantly) the fact that his bias is never, ever, even hinted at in the reviews. I considered the issue of his ability to get in multiple reviews. It just so happens that I know of three parties in the last month that had dinners there who have, in the past, served as LaBan Beards. None of them were at full twelve-seat capacity, and none of them would have strongly demurred had he sought to be included. His "inability" has, at a minimum, been little contested. To be entirely clear: I have no quarrel whatever with his opinion of Talula's Table - I haven't eaten there. I do, however, have issue with the fact that he failed to disclose his relationship with Sikora and Olexy, and - most importantly - found a way to give this non-review an amount of space that dwarfs any restaurant he's written up before. As far as I'm aware, anyway. Well, that and the fact that he, having previously warped the Bell-continuum to accommodate a BYOB, has now gone a large step beyond and found a way to elevate a country store to Double-Secret Non-Probationary Honorary Stealth-Four-Bell status. Which rankles, given the standards he's held others to. Well, that and the fact that his opinion of Django always seemed a bit overheated to me, and his review of Sovana seemed like nothing much beyond a way to give a friend a leg up. ← What is Laban's "relationship" with Sikora and Olexy that he did not disclose? Do we know this for a fact or is it merely a suspicion?

What about these places? Yves Thuries Fauchon Pierre Herme La_Duree I've never heard of them in the context of training culinary professionals. Please enlighten...

That is simply not true. How many years ago ? There have been cooking schools in France since the start of this century. Cordon Bleu Ritz escoffier at Place Vendome Yves Thuries Fauchon Pierre Herme La_Duree The notion of cooking school was not solely American. Youngs cooks in Europe trained and apprenticed. Some may have apprenticed alone but European chefs NEVER saw cooking school as an affront to the system. Name one chef who did ? ← Most of the places on the list above are either relatively recent entrants to the culinary school market and/or are geared toward the enthusiast rather than the professional. you are correct that there have been cooking schools in France since the start of this century, but the notion of culinary school as vocational training for professionals is largely one that american schools have advanced en masse in the last twenty years. Many of my instructors in culinary school were chefs trained in the european apprentice system who felt that the american culinary school left something to be desired in comparison. there was a degree of resentment that american kids could become a commis in two years when it may have taken them much longer.

Mixology school, like culinary school, is a point of entry into a career. you don't graduate culinary school a chef (or even a decent cook, for that matter) and you don't graduate bartending school ready to get behind a serious bar. but what's wrong with practicing mixing fake drinks? the volume of "experience" you get in mixology school might take years to replicate as a barback, and in school you can do it behind closed doors with no fear of failure. there's no law that says you have to pay your bartending dues the old-fashioned way, except perhaps the laws of commerce which might dictate the bars behind which these mixology school grads find themselves. years ago the american notion of culinary school was seen by many european chefs as an affront to the apprentice system they went through. but now culinary school is an effective and prolific farm system for the restaurant big leagues. Certainly, in culinary school one is not exposed to many aspects of "real world" restaurant cooking: you don't get to play with truffles and foie gras and wild asparagus in school (it's a business too) and you don't necessarily get to feel the pressure of the entire dining room getting seated within five minutes. but for a lot of people, the price of tuition is worth the years it can save in on-the-job training, and so i see nothing wrong with a mixology school that trains its students with colored water.