Chris Hennes

There's no reason not to preorder it: you can always cancel before it ships, and you will get the lowest price they post anytime between now and then. At least, that's what I tell myself... glad I got in early!

Hmm, that makes me wonder if I didn't add enough vinegar: I didn't find it anywhere near as tart as I was expecting. I was definitely hoping for a balance between the beans and the escabeche, but for me it just wasn't there, the escabeche was not tart enough. One of the things that I've found as I cook more Mexican food (both from Bayless and Kennedy) is that the flavors of Mexico are much more varied than what we typically see up here in the States: it's been fun to discover that variety.

So this "aligning the strands" bit with the short ribs is still done with a meat grinder? Man, this book can't arrive on my doorstep soon enough.

I thought I read in one of Kennedy's books that you were supposed to freeze it if you weren't going to use it within a day or two? I don't quite understand the physics of what might be happening bad to the masa when frozen, anyone have any guesses (or actual knowledge!) ?

It sounds like a lot of work is going into the new version of EYB, I'm really stoked about some of the changes that are coming down the pipeline. Do you want us to continue submitting bug reports about the current version, or would it be best to just wait until after the big upgrade?

Get out the Dremel!

Yeah, Heidi, that seems to be it exactly (I just ate two more of them...). When I tried without the beans they were better, you could actually taste the escabeche. I should also point out that my wife liked this considerably more than I did, in particular without the beans.

Easy Yucatecan-Style Tostadas with "Pickled" Chicken and Black Beans (pp. 204–205) I used store-bought tostadas for these to make sure they were actually crunchy this time: I think that was probably wise, the texture was needed here. These are a layer of beans with a chicken and onion escabeche on top. The escabeche was easy to make, but I didn't find it particularly well-flavored. I'm not sure I could pin down what was lacking, but this dish didn't really work for me; it just seemed sort of uninteresting. There are a lot of other things in this book I'd make again before I returned to this recipe. I have a lot of leftover escabeche, any suggestions for what to do with it?

Are you kidding me? They were saving him like one saves a chicken for next Sunday. I don't think they did anything wrong, and I don't think they mistreated him, which is the implication I get from the phrase "threw him under the bus." They didn't try to blame him for anything, or accept his garbage food and set him up to be the fall guy, or anything like that: they (really, Angelo) set themselves up to win, period. So Alex didn't have much input... is that really mean, cruel, vicious behavior? They worked around his weaknesses, corrected his mistakes, and really did save his ass because you know he was the one going home if that team lost. But not because the team threw him under the bus: if they lost and he got sent home, it would have been because the team didn't do enough to cover up his weakness.

Does saving his ass really count as throwing Alex under the bus? He lives to cook another day, and no one on that team mentioned his lack of participation to the judges.

A Herculean review of what sounds like an interesting restaurant. What is your feeling about the "price to performance ratio" of the restaurant? If not an epiphany, at least a good meal for the dollar? Do you get the feeling that it may improve with time, or is this pretty much it?

Wouldn't be Philly without the snark! Excellent summary, as usual. And I'll pile on to the recommendation that you have a cheesesteak: it's the most iconic food of the city, to come and not at least see if you like them would be a shame.

My vote is for the weekend of July 31, but I could probably make that second weekend if I skip whatever is Sunday morning (I have to be in Denver that evening).

In that burger above, it seems like most of it is possible with normal home equipment (e.g. a FoodSaver and a Sous Vide Supreme, or something along those line). I assume the compressed tomato requires a chamber machine though, right? I'm really curious about the grinding technique, too: does it need special toys, or can it be done with normal consumer-level stuff?

Phew, finally got caught up last night (why do hotels never have Bravo?). First off, much as I dislike Alex (or his portrayal by the Elves, at least), my money's on his making the pea puree in question himself. The logistics of stealing someone else's just seem like too much of a stretch. As for knowledge of the world's cuisine... Chris A, are you seriously suggesting that all of last year's top nine contestants could pull out something from every one of those countries? Sure, the top three or four, but so could this years' top three. Next up: the overall creativity of this year's batch. I maintain that last year was simply an anomaly, the Elves got lucky and it turned out that the Volts were both fantastic chefs. Every previous season was much more like this one, with wild inconsistencies in even the top chefs' performances, and general lack of creativity until the last episode or two, with only a few exceptions (Blais comes to mind, but "creative" pretty much sums up his whole style). I liked the show before last season, and while I loved last season, I still like the show now that the contestants are mere mortals again. Re: "restaurant wars" (which is that in name only, I think, now that they got rid of all the silly crap like decorating the space)... Kenny started out strong, but he really did need to learn how to edit himself down. I can't say I was too terribly surprised to see him slip up here, though they were playing up his rivalry with Angelo which seemed like would make a fun finale. Amanda is not long for this contest, she is too inconsistent: she may survive another week or two or three by getting lucky, but she's not finale material. At this point in the season, my hope is that once Alex is gone, the creativity will start to ramp up because they can't wait for other chefs to fail anymore. We'll probably start to see even more inconsistency across the board as the competition heats up and the chefs have to do more work to get the win, or to avoid the loss. I'm not sure how many of these chefs are really capable of pulling out all the stops and getting it right at this point, but I hope we are about to find out.

I know there are some dissenting opinions out there (what fun would the site be otherwise?) but I had a very good meal at Alma de Cuba last time I was in town. I'd also suggest stopping by the bar at Oyster House, Katie Loeb makes a pretty mean cocktail. Are you a beer drinker? Philly has a lot of places with fantastic beer selections.

Definitely a great watch, I am really itching to get my hands on these books. Nathan, when does works start on the next set of volumes covering pastry? Here's the video linked to above, embedded for the lazy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGKSdQJrIWY

Can you get fresh-rendered lard in Cleveland? I've been on a tamale kick recently...

This one may tell the rest of the story. Channel Gordon Ramsey for a moment, if you will: "Hennes, put down the f^&*ing camera and f&*(ing plate these f&*(ing microgreens, NOW!!" (no he didn't say it, it was all in the look). Slave driver, he is...

As always a pleasure to see you all at the Gathering. I'm just beginning to sift through the mound of photos, but I think this one tells the tale: Caption: Steven "supervising" while malawry cooks and edsel takes photos.

Trolling Amazon.com for new cookbooks that I desperately need I ran across an upcoming release from Dorie Greenspan that sounded like it might be interesting: Around My French Table is set for an October 8, 2010 release. From the publisher's description: Anyone know anything more? Of course I already own Wolfert's definitive "The Cooking of Southwest France" and I'm hoping that this will fit in nicely with that and Mastering the Art. I've had good luck with many of Greenspan's other recipes, but didn't realize she might be an authority on French cuisine. NOTE: Now that our copies have started to arrive, we are posting about the recipes here!

The Old Navy was the only place open early enough when I discovered I needed a sweater in August(!!), it's now the trendiest piece of clothing I own. I wish I had more time to explore the breakfast and lunch options, but the recommendations above served me very well. And I definitely agree about Blue Bottle, their freshly-brewed drip coffee was really good. Maybe next time I'm in the city I'll skip the big dinners and focus on breakfast instead.

Peeling thick asparagus doubles the time investment: no thanks. If it's thick enough to need peeling, it's too thick. Cut it into smaller segments if the "stringiness" bothers you.

I had dinner at Acquerello a few evenings ago came away quite pleased, though upon reflection I think that was due to the atmosphere and service more than the actual food. The service was flawless and the space itself beautiful. The formality and quietness of the restaurant stood in sharp contrast with the previous evening's meal at SPQR: Acquerello is much more spacious, more sumptuous, and overall simply more polished; with a price point to match, of course! The first thing I learned was that they do not have a bar: there is no liquor available here, only wine. Fortunately their sommelier was very helpful in finding us a bottle to fit our tastes and budget. Not that I can remember what it was, mind you... but it was delicious. The wine list looked very extensive to my unpracticed and uninformed eye, so I simply discussed our options with the sommelier without really digging into it. I'm not sure what a real connoisseur would think (it's overwhelmingly if not entirely Italians, of course). For dinner I started with the steak tartare (passé, I know, but I love it no less for that...). The tartare itself was delicious, but the plating made it very difficult to eat. Some sort of tuile was placed atop the tartare that was just a bit too firm to nicely shatter, instead basically just pressing the tartare into a pancake on the plate. Ill-conceived, in my opinion. Next I had the veal raviolo. They present this dish without a knife, which confused me. It did not appear to be a lapse in the service, I saw another diner receive the same course, also without a knife. At this type of dinner I certainly expected a knife, so asked for one, which was provided promptly. I thought the raviolo was decent, and the mushroom sauce atop it excellent. Next time they can hold the pasta and give me more mushrooms. For my entrée I had a lamb tenderloin wrapped in lamb sausage. It seemed like a good idea at the time... For no apparent reason they thought that roasted fennel would be a good side, but it overwhelmed the other flavors on the plate and was not particularly good to begin with. The lamb was cooked to my liking, but the plating was unattractive, and the whole protein-component was rather bland, all things considered. For dessert we each ordered the cheese course and port (the sommelier was quite helpful here again, and his port recommendation was spot on): their cheese selection is entirely Italian, which ordinarily I would suggest means it must be awful, but in this case there were quite a few interesting options. I'd say about half the cheese tray of nine or ten cheeses were quite good, and the others forgettable, but at least not actively bad. I think someone above suggested that at this price point the food ought to be better, and I agree with that sentiment. However, the food was not actually bad and the service and atmosphere really were top-notch. If you enjoy formal dining I suggest checking Acquerello out.

I had dinner at Aziza a few nights ago and on Carolyn's recommendation got the tasting menu, which lived up to its promise as an excellent value. I took a few notes when I got back to the hotel, but they are not terribly comprehensible. Overall it was a very good meal, however, and something I doubt you can get throughout most of the US (certainly not in Oklahoma!!). My first impression was that the water tastes like cucumbers: presumably they have a few slices in there? Personally I prefer water to taste like water, but it was mild enough that I didn't ask about the availability of bottled. For food, first up we had Harissa pretzel rolls, which were pretty good. Next up, we were served two different soups (one to each of us): a lentil and a cranberry bean. I enjoyed them both, though I liked the lentil best of the two. Next was albacore with cucumber and black garlic. The plating was beautiful on this one, and the flavors excellent. After this was a very large course of chicken wrapped in a phyllo crust. I can't recall the other ingredients, but it was also delicious. The portion size was wholly inappropriate for a tasting menu, but I guess they are really intended for four? After that was a dish of cooked octopus and squid. The texture was fantastic, the best I've ever had octopus, but I found that the char on the squid overpowered its relatively delicate flavor and wound up dominating the dish. Next up was another gigantic course of lamb shank and faro. It was delicious, however. By this point it felt like they were trying to kill up via overindulgence. Fortunately, that was the last savory course. For dessert we had the pistachio dacquoise and the almond frangipane. Hard to really evaluate dessert at this point, so my opinion of them is that they were beautiful on the plate.