Wilfrid

I wouldn't tout Beacon highly at all. Della Femina is another option in midtown, but may be a little more expensive.

In those narrow terms, yes Rosie, but I would be doing a disservice to my family if I didn't mention that the fruit of my loins made a brief appearance at the Official eGullet drinking session at Zum Schneider, and has attended more than one unofficial eGullet-type dinner. She may never recover from the sight of Nina eating the feet of a guinea pig.

At its best, yes, but I confess I sometimes find the idea of cooking more enjoyable than the actuality. Surely I can't be the only one who, having dreamt up a nice menu during a long day at work, finds themselves chopping onions at 9.30 in the evening and thinking "I wish I hadn't started this."

Hmm, the Professor must have been hiding that Scotch up his sleeve when I stumbled across him in a louche meat market earlier in the evening.

Your pasta and meat courses reoplicated my white truffle dinner here a few weeks back. I am glad you got the raviolini - they were finished when Cabby tried to order them - as I thought they set off the truffles best. I regard the pannacotta with the balsamic reduction as pretty much the house dessert - they disappointed me for a while by switching to a strawberry coulis, and I'm glad they've brought the rich, soursweet vinegar back. I have to look out for those chestnuts.

Nick, was the crudo anything other than slivers of fish so coated in oil and salt that the flavor was indiscernible? I am still trying to figure out whether I had it on a bad day or whether it's supposed to be like that.

If they like steak houses, Beacon is the clear choice of the two. A lot of charred meat on the menu. I find the food at Aquavit infinitely more interesting, but there are those who dislike it. Beacon is a safer bet in the circumstances you describe.

I know, Steve - I was just trying to make life simple. Thanks for the warning. Maybe I'll take a knife sharpener - there must be something with a blade in the kitchen I'll be using .

Significant that so many of us dined once and didn't go back, I suppose. I recall enjoying a trou gascon after my garbure - a shot of something fierce which they encouraged you to down in one by the expedient of serving it in a cone shaped glass, impossible to set on the table.

As long as it's only me that's poncey, and not everyone and their dog (sense of entitlement badge of merit).

Eek, I was planning to check knives on my flight to London to cook my game tasting menu, and then I just re-read Steve Klc's September 2 comment. I'm really going to have problems with knives in my suitcase???

"Wilfrid is beyond dreamy". Hmm, yes that'll do, thanks.

"Dreamy" is cheap currency these days, isn't it?

Yes, indeed Toby. If I eat in a restaurant on a regular basis, I do expect the management and chef to consult me in advance about any menu changes. The concept of "ownership" when it comes to restaurants is really quite a tricky one.

Al dente beans in the cassoulet? Cardinal sin.

I ate dinner there about a year ago - I think just before I joined eGullet because I suspect I posted about it elsewhere. I have had lunch a couple of times since. Service at the dinner was excellent, but the captain and waiter in question are now at Atelier. The dinner menu is very hearty. Not a place to go if you are concerned about dishes being a little fatty or greasy. The charcuterie is D'Artagnan's best, which is not global best but pretty good. I enjoyed a huge garbure - a chunky, fatty-in-a-nice-way soup with a duck leg submerged in it. My Beloved ate rotisserie quail which were adequately but not perfectly cooked - a bit charred here, a bit pink there. At lunch there have been slip ups. Over-salted frisee salad springs to mind. Reasonably priced French country wines on the list. Not a place for precision cooking, then, but okay for a hearty, carnivorous meal.

I haven't been back to Picholine in a while. I'll put it back on my list - thanks.

Good to hear someone else sing praises of my old favorite. I never warmed to the open cannola, I think because of the candied fruit. But I'm glad you found the meat cooking to be good, and I envy you the hot chestnuts, which I've never seen there. Looking forward to part two.

If only I was coming to the Indian dinner, I could have brought some faggots along for Suvir. I do a nice line in faggots.

In the past, that has been a lot less interesting than the carte. If the kitchen is not turning out the food of which it was once capable, there's no point going for a last meal. It doesn't even have the nostalgia value of the original premises.

It is disturbing because the problems appear to be too deep for you just to have been unlucky. Damn, damn.

Oh gawd. Who's up next? Tony Finch? Or is it time for us all to bail on those reservations?

Most interesting. No, I don't want tough partridge. I don't cook it tough at home, and I don't want a restaurant t cook it tough for me. At the same time, I don't want it turned into baby food. The texture question is more subtle than that, as Mr P. well knows. Ironically, the sear-it-and-bung-it-in-the-oven game at Lespinasse last week presented a challenge to the cutlery in the way that a well-made salmis or civet would not have. Am I asking for retro cuisine? Let's be honest, a part of me is, and I accept I'm probably in a minority there. But even if we're not going to turn the clock back, I think it's worth contemplating the curious fact that New York restaurants today are serving a much narrower range of food and using a much more limited set of techniques than the restaurants of thirty, forty, even fifty years ago.

I would like to know a lot more about this cadmium problem before panicking. Cadmium is a heavy metal which can potentially cause liver damage - researchers have been able to produce lesions in the livers of laboratory animals by exposing them to cadmium in their diet. However, I would be surprised if you could get enough cadmium in your diet from eating deer liver once or twice a year to present any concern. Of course, I haven't seen what the health agencies have said - just speculating based on what I know. I think I take much bigger risks every day of my life than presented by the cadmium from nibbling a bit of deer liver.

I can't remember the petits fours, although I certainly ate some. I would say there was nothing wrong with them.