whatsaMcGee

I am laughing out loud at the thought of comparing Daniel and Eleven Madison Park. EMP is a joke compared to Daniel. Anyone who thinks EMP should have a Michelin star is off their rocker.

Well, I had an very uninspiring meal at EMP last night. I started with the Russet Potato: Gnocchi with Hawaiian Prawns, Calamari, and Meyer Lemon. It was dressed tableside with EVOO and an impossibly small amount of 25 year balsamic. I do not exaggerate when I say that maybe 2 drops made it to the plate. Upon eating the dish, I found it completely devoid of salt and pepper, and so did my brother, who had the same. The prawns were a little tough, and the Meyer lemon was virtually undetectable. I will give credit for very well-made gnocchi. Next came the Four Story Hill Suckling Pig: Confit with Cipollini Onions, Plum Chutney and Five Spice Jus. To put it lightly, this was an utter disaster. I don't recall any sort of jus being on the plate, which was unfortunate because the plate needed a sauce so badly that I almost asked for a portion of the sauce that accompanied the beef. It's possible that one of the servers forgot to sauce the plate, which I hope is the case, because if I ate the dish as it was intended by Humm...woooooo boy. With the absence of sauce, the over-crisped skin helped achieve a level of dryness previously reserved for your aunt's grilled chicken breast. The cipollini onion (emphasis on singular) and plum chutney were afterthoughts. I struggled to finish the 3 oz. portion of pork. For dessert I chose the cheese plate, and that was fine. I hope it was just an off-night, but I can't say that I will recommend this restaurant to anyone. edit for a typo

I got my copy yesterday and have been paging through it all day. I can honestly say I love this book! As a Culinary student at CIA, this book has singlehandedly made me think about staying and getting my Baking & Pastry certificate. The one gripe I have is a very minor one. As I was reading the testimonials on the back, I saw names like Harold McGee, Daniel Boulud, Wylie Dufresne, Francois Payard...and then there was Paula Deen, with her testimonial starting with "Y'all". I can't help but feel that was thrown on there solely to appeal to housewives.

You might want to consider getting the Blazen from JapaneseChefsKnife.com. They still sell the old Blazen, which is made of SRS15. SRS15 is very comparable to SG-2, as both are hardened to about 63 HRC. The JCK version is almost $60 cheaper and shipping is $7 (from Japan no less!) compared to $12-13 from EE. Edit to say that I have owned both the EE and JCK versions and can personally vouch for the two being basically identical in performance.

http://www.knifeforums.com/forums/showforum.php?fid/26/

I got... the Alinea cookbook Vino Italiano Hugh Johnson's The World Atlas of Wine (incredible!!!) a Sani-Tuff 15"x20" cutting board the famous MAC bread knife A Riedel tasting set + decanter Kershaw Taskmaster shears And I'm still expecting Thomas Keller's Under Pressure and a Suien VC cleaver from granny tomorrow!

How is Achatz' even a lunchbox?

← How does it unlevel the playing field? They put a ridiculous amount of hot food in the reach-in. That's Food Safety 101. All 3 should have been sent home. ← I think it would be more appropriate to blame the inadequate cooling equipment provided to the contestants. The should have a proper walk in, not wall fridges... ← Would you be defending them if they left raw meat out in the open overnight? It would be just as foolish as putting what they did into that reach-in. Everything was billowing steam.

← How does it unlevel the playing field? They put a ridiculous amount of hot food in the reach-in. That's Food Safety 101. All 3 should have been sent home.

Tongs are generally a tool used by home cooks and shoemakers. You won't find very many pairs being used in legit restaurants. Tongs damage food more than any other utensil, hands down. edit for a typo

The problem isn't the one in the original post, it's cooking directly from a book and not using your intuition. I'm sure you've heard "it's done when it's done"?