The Flame

At my last job, we were on salary. So we were basically getting exploited. We worked 6 days, for about 14 hours a day. And after taxes my weekly paycheck was like $500. My current job I make just $9 for about 60 hours a week. So after taxes is about $550 a week. It is definitely not a lot at all. But that is how it always is, the better and more recognized the restaurant., the less money you make and you can expect to be on salary. It is just depressing when you think that servers work half the hours and make almost my weekly paycheck on a weekend night/brunch shift.

Anyone has any idea what Sam is up to this days? I read he is doing a demo at star chefs with Stupak and Iuzzini. However I have no idea what his status is as far as Tailor goes, or if they are ever going to re-open the dining room? I'd love to go try any new desserts but it seems like Tailor is at a stand still.

I am very excited to hear what they do this year especially in the pastry section since Albert is "retired". Although as is regular with them, they start the menu for the new season with the ending menu for the previous year. So they start integrating new dishes until about a few weeks in, so until then we'll see what things are coming out of pastry. Although I do not believe Albert will be completely out of it. I am sure he will discuss ideas as far as flavor pairings or concepts with the creative team and they can develop them. Who knows, but with the amount of talent that is there I'm sure it'll all be amazing as always.

Tailor definitely is at the top for me.

New article on New York Mag: http://nymag.com/guides/fallpreview/2008/restaurants/49496/ Here's a preview image of the dining room:

It's weird that no one ever talks about Mark Vyrat's cooking. Anyone has any recent reviews?

I think an August date is realistic. Things are advancing in the construction process. I think Doc is right too, starchefs will be a very good time to be open.

www.cortonnyc.com That will be the restaurant's website. It is not currently up as they are still working on the content, but has a homepage with some info.

Starting tonight Tailor is offering a new late night menu from 11pm-2am. It will go every Friday and Saturday.

Hell's kitchen, although pretty entertaining, is the most pathetic group of people there is. At least in Top Chef the people are more serious about making a career out of cooking. Hell's kitchen is a purely entertainment show. Gordon Ramsay definitely lost any credibility of seriousness with this show. The funny thing is you never ever hear about what any of the past season winners are doing. Because obviously it;s just a scam and in the end no one would dare have any of these "chefs" running a restaurant of theirs.

I have heard a lot about Oaxen in comparison to Noma. Basically following the new wave of innovative scandinavian cooking using the amazing local ingredients from the nordic region. I hear they only open for 6 months a year also. Definitely wish to go there soon.

Here are some of the dishes presently in the menu at Tailor: Apple and bonito sorbet Scallops, red papaya, celery, spice bread, tarragon emulsion Maple poached snails, bacon, parsley foam Corned veal, shiso puree, bone marrow beads, parmesan pebbles, pickeld huckleberry, toast oil Red mullet, cumin caramel, pickled ramps, golden beets Duck sous vide, raisin-dashi broth, spaghetti squash, hon shimeji mushrooms Beer & Pretzels - pretzel ice cream inside beer foam Beet-chocolate parfait, beet caramel, tangerine puree, chocolate cream, beet paper Coriander cotton candy with cilantro Sambuca gummi bears

I know what you mean about the steel Octaveman. I sort of put it in the picture at the last moment just to make it look more complete. But I probably won't be using it with these knives. I'll leave it at home for my cheaper heavy duty german style knives I have left from culinary school. I got my waterstone at home and I am assuming we will have some waterstones at the new place I'll work at so I will be using the japanese knives with that exclusively. Oh, and the sharpie, yeah black one and double sided for fine or thick tip. Gotta love those.

Hello. Well I finally consider my knife kit to be complete. The only piece I think of getting in the future would be a deba for fish, but that is not necessary for me now. So here is my full working kit. Thanks to some of the members for their helpful input. First the knives (L-R) - Steel - Togiharu Inox Steel Slicer - Global chef's knife (for the tougher jobs) - Togiharu carbon steel Gyutou - F-Dick offset serrated knife - Mac japanese vegetable knife - Tojiro boning knife - Misono petty - Arcos paring knife - Victorinox bird's beak Other stuff: - Long cooking tweezers - Small plating tweezers - Offset mini spatula - Mini silicone spatulas - Slotted spoon - Metal ruler - Digital thermometer - Notebook, double sided sharpie, black pen

Everyone complaining about no restaurant wars episodes haven't been paying attention the past seasons! Restaurant wars are when there are 6 contestants left. It is teams of 3. In 2 weeks I guarantee we will have the restaurant wars episode.

Well it's encouraging to see that recently people have had better experiences. I went to culinary school 3 years ago, so maybe they've realized it's better to leave it to the students to shop around.

I just want to confirm that yes, chef Albert's wife is indeed asian and a big inspiration for doing this. Albert travels to Japan often and I'm sure he got a lot of inspiration in recent years also from the asian influence at elBulli. It is indeed a asian-spanish fusion tapas bar. As for the team I am not sure who else is there but I know the "sous chef" (I think that would be his position) is a japanese guy that used to be a chef de partie for several years at elBulli. You can see him in the staff pictures from the 2003-2004 books. I'm sure it will be amazing. Can't wait to go to Barcelona to try it out.

Hey. Well I searched this topic and didn't find anything directly talking about this which I think will do for some interesting discussion among the EG members. I have basically never talked to anyone who was satisfied with the knife sets they got at culinary school. First off it is amazing that with the thousands and thousands of dollars that you pay that you don't get something better. But I guess when you start you don;t know any better and just realize afterwards about the true meaning of quality knifes. I personally went to the Cordon Bleu program in the USA and we got a really crap set of knives with not even a known brand name. They were just called "Chef". We got this cart filled with every little detail of things that might just use for one thing in a class during your whole education, but then you'll probably never end up using again. I think culinary school could easily get rid of all the extra cheap equipment and they could give students just a very high quality basic set consisting of something like a chef knife, utility, serrated, paring, steel, and boning knife. What do other preset/former culinary students think of the knife/accessories sets you got?

I agree with Doc. What they do is not really concentration. In the case of the olives, they first drain the olives from the brine, take out the seeds, then puree them in a thermomix. Afterwards they are squeezed through a super fine mesh. So basically what you are left with is the purest olive juice. It is just a regular olive, that doesn't go through any cooking, just a physical change that gets all it's fiber and solid compounds out and you are just left with pure olive water.

Noma went up to #10 at this years Restaurant Magazine Top 50 list. Congratulations to chef Redzepi and his amazing place.

I'm getting tired of the whole challenges in general until now. I mean almost all of them have been group challenges catering public parties/events for dozens of people. I am ready to see them do a fine dining individual challenge. I am sure we will soon see the restaurant wars episode, but that will be until there are 6 people left. To divide them into 3 and 3 to open a restaurant in a day. This season the quality of food for challenges and just the level of challenges has really gone down in my opinion. Enough with cooking for the public masses!

The asparagus course has 3 different cooking levels. The center one is raw, then 2 corners are semi cooked, and the other 2 corners are fully cooked. Each corner has it's own sauce which if I remember corrently where a lime puree, some sort of mayonaise, microplaned cured roe, and some nut praline. Then they spoon an asparagus thickened broth that is clear over it and finish it with aspargus foam. Then tableside the server puts the final garnish over the center tip which are the frozen egg yolk "caviar". It is just salted egg yolks frozen with liquid nitrogen into little balls.

The elbulli season has already gotten underway since late march so just wondering if anyone has been there to eat yet and has any reports/photos to share?

There has been an extensive menu change at Tailor in both the food and bar menus this week. In terms of food, from the previous menu, they have kept the Foie Gras-Peanut Butter Terrine and the Sweetbreads from the starters, and the Pork Belly, Duck and Short Ribs from the mains. Desserts they kept most of their previous lineup except a couple of them. So for new dishes they have: First: 1) Raw fluke with pine nut, pineapple, and a pine needle ponzu sauce. 2) Mackerel escabeche with litchi tapenade, infused daikon, and verjus foam 3) Sepia a la plancha, with marjoram emultion, pomelo, coffee soil Second: 1) Wild Stripped Bass, preserved plum puree, mustard gnocchi, mustard greens 2) Hake, chickpea tart, toasted Pita, mint yogurt Third: 1) Red Bell Pepper cake, cornbread ice cream, corn soil, peas 2) Walnut cake, ginger caramel, lime puree, coconut-cream cheese sorbet inside carrot foam As for the bar there are some staple cocktails from the previous menu still there but they have added about 6 new cocktails. The ones I can recall now are a beet sangria and the mushroom margarita.

I am wondering if anyone has any information or reports of this new restaurant? I am not even sure if it opened already, but I know that Albert Raurich, the former chef de cuisine at elBulli for the past 7 years left at the end of the 2007 season to open this new venture. It is going to be an asian inspired tapas restayrant in Barcelona and from what I had heard they were hoping for a December/January opening. Any news or reports will be great.