speidec

I admire the level of creativity involved with this project and the constant evolution of thought processes. I do not believe that there is a majority of diners that want this much attention.

We're in Providence, RI, in a very small place now, but we are changing locations to a bit larger restaurant in the coming months. I hear October, but I've seen the new location and now I'm thinking next year! I tried this panna cotta recipe derived from everyone's advice and I have to say it is the best I have tasted, thus far.. 32oz whole milk yogurt 2c mascarpone 2c half+half 1.5 c sugar 1.5 vanilla beans 8 sheets of gelatine I only heated up the half and half, added the sugar, vanilla and let it infuse as long as possible and melted the gelatine in this mixture. I whipped the yogurt and mascarpone together with a tablespoon of half and half to get it smooth and later added the warm half and half mixture, strained twice, and poured on top of a cooled, half sheet pan of pate brisse brushed with white chocolate to avoid sogginess, and chilled. For an amateur its not bad. Thanks for all the advice from everyone who can tell where their input was used! As for the papers, Ted, all I wanted to do was figure it out, like you we've been to busy to play around.

Wendy and Ted, thank you both for the technical insight. I've looked at different recipes and tried to work them into what we need, but I have never had anyone give me the pastry chef's trained wisdom. Or maybe someone did once and I wasn't paying attention in school.... I will try all these techniques. Two things, the brisse doesn't get very soggy, in my opinion, you may think it was though. And I use the gold leaf gelatine which I am realizing is not good. Where can I find the silver? Again thanks for the advice. We really need a professional pastry chef! By the way, Ted, how's the 'paper' work going?

Good point with the recipe idea, I am actually going on the bisis of 1 sheet of gelatine per cup of liquid. The coffe beans are left whole and help accent the flavor of the vanilla. We do the same with our creme brulee and the result is a furthur richness of vanilla flavor. We are only talking ten to twenty beans. I am wondering if the yogurt is separating when I heat the mixture up in order to a. melt the sugar and b. melt the gelatine. If anyone has a great recipe I'd love to see it. I've had real pastry chefs' panna cotta before and it was perfect, almost custard like and full of flavor.

Can any of the pastry genuis' assembled here offer advice or a recipe for a yogurt panna cotta? I am using 32oz of yogurt, 2c mascarpone, 2c creme fraiche, and 1.5c sugar and 10 gelatine sheets, plus a vanilla bean and some coffee beans for flavor. I kind of made this up and I am not a pastry cook so I know there are 'issues' with the recipe. It generally tastes fine, but grainy, and I set it up on a half sheet pan atop pate brisse. When we serve it, we cut a square and top it with native strawberries and rhubarb sorbet. I just want the panna cotta to taste richer, stay firm enough to cut, but not rubbery, and eleminate the graininess. Any advice?

I posed a question to Egullet just before WD-50 opened asking if it would catch on. I ate there in May for a tasting and posted above on the May tasting thread. (Sorry I don't know how to add text links.) Anyway, I thought parts of the meal was great and others unnecessary. The room was packed. We were the first table at 6:30 and left at 10pm, I saw the room turn at least twice and it was a Thursday. There were clearly regulars and curosity seekers choking down the foie with anchovies, and others who loved everything. The ball is in Wylie and Sam's court. It is up to them to chart the course for the future of this venture and to keep their fans happy and excited.

No offense, I know there is a lot of hype, particularly from the Al Forno crowd, but Mike's kitchen is neither good, a treasure, or anything elso for that matter. If you really want great Italian food in Providence, pick up some good pasta, sausage, ground chuck, veal, and lamb, an onion, garlic, fresh flat-leaf parsley, salt and pepper, simmer everything until it is tasty, toss with your pasta, something no one does, season again, and enjoy with your favorite beverage.

I could not with any sense of dignity recommend this restaurant. Over-sized, dull portions devoid of any seasoning and poor service. Unless you're Italian, they don't much care about you.

Hi Chef, my girlfriend and I would loved to have eaten at the Jackson House Inn but the lady who answered the phone said she wouldn't give us a reservation unless we had a local number. I am a chef in Providence and was excited to visit so if you can, let us know what we have to do to get a reservation in advance. I should also add, the lady on the telephone was not pleasant at all.

I believe in global influences, kalamansi lime juice, kaffir lime leaves, etc... but certain ingredients, in certain restaurants should respect the basic growing season. I didn't think Chanterelle should only serve what comes from the Greenmarket, but I do think consumers know better than to eat strawberries in January and corn in May. YES, it is grown SOMEWHERE, but for four or three stars, and a price, people want reality and respectability to the raw materials.

A small group of us had lunch at the end of last month. This was my first visit to the highly recommended room and we were excited but soon very dissapointed. We ordered the prix fixe lunch menu and two botles of wine. The service was professional and well trained but our specific table 'captain' was devoid of any personality or likability. I love the austerity of the room and there were some beautiful flower arrangements about the space. The amount of windows and light was fantastic and it was a beautiful day. It didn't care for the curtains though. So this was our meal: Soup of the day: corn and lobster chowder. The broth was fine, cream makes everything taste better, right? The corn, though, was coarse and chewy. As if it had been frozen for some time. I shouldn't spend the afternoon picking it out of my teeth. It didn't have the flavor of real corn for some reason and I still believe no one should be serving corn in a three star restaurant in the month of May. In New York. Oh, and thanks for the lobster, a small knuckle piece. Black sea bass saute with a curry broth and sweet onions. This was a fine dish. The fish was cooked perfectly and the sweet broth was delicious. My girlfriend had the special; monkfish poached in fish stock with braised leeks and saffron cream sauce. Every single bite of her dish tasted the same. There was nothing going on. No highs or lows. Just fish and saffron cream. And a ton of it. It looked like a piece of fish swimming in a pool of egg yolk. Very bad dish. Another friend opted for the other special, New York sirloin with crunchy potato egg rolls. The presentation was that of a backyard barbeque: a huge slab of sirloin, a huge pool of sauce, clearly thickened with corn starch, some baby bok choy and two 'spring rolls' filled with potato puree. The restaurant was getting very busy and after our entrees were removed we were offered coffee, etc.. We received our cups and the sugar tray was placed down with cream, etc.. but the coffee took literally 10 minutes to arrive and the desserts 10 more minutes. I am not exaggerating. No one was complaining, but nervously I was watching my watch. Dessert arrived with no apologies and was a rhubarb crisp with a honey yogurt ice cream. Tasty and colorful but nothing special, rather homey presentation. The ice cream tasted more tart and tangy than I'd like. I actually thought it was buttermilk ice cream until I saw the menu again. I have never had dinner at Chanterelle and this is only one lunch but I was not impressed at all and it still cost a fine sum to dine. I expect, just being in New York, let alone a three star restaurant, to have a more refined presentation, delivery and experience. I have had better meals in my hometown. We once had a three hour tasting menu at Cafe Boulud at lunch on a two-day trip to New York and was blown away. In fact, it was a better meal than the dinner at Jean-Georges the night before. We love to eat out and revolve trips aroung as many meals as we can possibly fit in. Cafe Boulud was a four star experience hands down. Jean Georges is still top tier. Chanterelle I simply couldn't imagine even competing. But again this was only one visit and one person's opinion.

We had a wondeful waiter, the man with the curly black hair tied back and fine back waiter service. Some who dropped off plates used the menu description and others took great pride in knowing every-single-little-detail. Obviously the staff is well trained and with this kind of cuisine that is paramount. Sorry we missed the misrable lady.

I hate to say it but it is your neck on the line and your reputation. Staff issues are only problematic if allowed to fester. She needs to go and you have to work even harder until she is replaced, but you learned a valuable lesson and ideas for the future pastry chef.

We were in town briefly Wednesday and Thursday after a James Beard dinner and wanted to celebrate with a tasting menu at what is a very talked about place. I know many have already been and a lot of foodies have made THEIR opinions known so here's my two cents. We had to get back to Providence so we asked the server to pair up what he thought would work for several courses starting with the, forgive the spelling, my notes were sloppy, Beliefon Rose sparkling. Fluke, asian celery pesto, pineapple Amuse-sized, two bites of well-seasoned fluke marinated with citrus flavors, pineapple, chive blossoms, and fried fluke skin. A swoosh of asian celery pesto was a nice condiment, but the fluke shined. Very well-seasoned and a great start. Foie gras terrine, anchovy, citrus chutney, tarragon sauce, cocoa nibs, fleur de sel Obviously a lot has already been said about this dish, good and bad. After a lot of thought I will side with the bad. Very bad. Its not as though I didn't get it. technically it was executed well. The terrine was well made, smooth, a great chutney of lemon, lime, preserved lemon and yuzu, and a fine tarragon swath of light green all worked well with the foie. Even the cocoa nibs with their interesting flavor and texture were perfect with the fleur de sel and the foie. Everything worked perfectly except for the red-headed step child named anchovy. I tried and tried while my girlfriend looked in horror after her first bite. I tried even while watching the table next to us choke down thier full appetizer order-with half smiles. I tried and failed. I didn't get it. At all. And later on the ride back I was actually angry. I coughed up over three bills for an otherwise great tasting and I'm still burping up anchovy. Scallops, coffee cous cous, pine shoots, licorice Fine dish only lacking salt. The coffee cous cous was a tad bitter against the sweet licorice reduction, again a skosh of salt would work well. The scallops were warm and sprinkled with minced pine shoots which I was happy to see because where I work I tried to use them and people thought I was crazy. They are the small, tender shoots of a spruce tree and while they look like pine needles they are actually very edible and tasty. This dish had nice balance but really needed more salt. Rabbit sausage, avocado, grainy mustard paper I have always wondered about the 'paper' phenonmenon. Weekes ago we finally figured it out and now I was happy to try others'. The dish is a take on some very classic combinations and had two slices of rabbit sausage, very bland and not sausage-like, more terrine-ish. There was a nice swoosh of avacado puree, but flavorless, and one of the most perfect rabbit chops I have ever seen. Whoever butchered these should be very proud. And it was the best gram of flavor I have ever had. Then I had the mustard paper. Delicious. One note that bothered me about this tasting was our plates were very small. I know Wylie is known for his presentation and was in attendance this evening, but all of our plates were very small, bread-sized plates. I love tiny, intricate presentations on large, white porcelin. These looked like hors d'oeuvres plates. Langoustine, celery noodles, shitake, toasted rice broth Very lightly broiled langoustine, perfect! I could have eated 10. The celery 'noodles' were poorly jullienned celery stalks, and dried shitake mushrooms. the langoustine was topped with dried celery which, unfortunately had little flavor and got stuck in the teeth. The toasted rice broth was very tasty and the total dish was a very nice combination. Slow poached egg, parmesan broth, tomato powder This one made me giddy. Very, very good. There were dried garbanzo noodles, and a perfect parmesan broth. The slow poaching gives the yolk a richness I can't describe. All the elements worked very well. Lamb sweetbread, green daikon, black bean, chocolate powder Again well executed and this one in particular was very well presented. A paper-thin round of daikon with the nicely caramelized sweetbreads, a rich tomato condiment and chocolate flavor. Good color and flavor. Micro daikon sprouts finished off the presentation and added a fine bitterness. Squab, red beet powder encrusted golden beets, sweet potato juice. The squab was slow poached (sous-vide maybe?) and very tender, very delicious. The beets were an interesting idea and tasty, I love beets though so they cannot be screwed up in my mind. Sweet potato juice reduction complemented well. More daikon micro sprouts finished the presentation and seemed unnecessary. Almost like an afterthought, "It needs something green" That concluded the savory courses and an Aloe-shiso shot aided in cleansing the palate, literally. Aloe is like lavender in my opinion. It sould remain a fine compliment to bathing products, not cuisine. Ricotta, honey, toast Wonderfully delicious, wafer thin toast with a nice honey gelee, and sweet ricotta. The texture of the ricotta was odd and I wondered if it was an espuma. I am sitll not sure. A nice rosemary oil finished the whole dish and as a cheese course it was well excuted and highly creative and delicious. I couls eat a basket of the toast. Rum roasted banana, milk chocolate ice cream, curry Nice presentation, finally on a larger plate! The decadent roasted banana sat upon a brown butter crumble and was spanned by a perfect curry tinged dehydrated banana chip to a decadent chocolate ice cream. The plate was designed with a nice curry paint stroke and caramel gelee. Very nice dessert and finale. We finished up with some nice cotton candy flovored with ginger. I love cotton candy and this was such a great touch for such an awesome and creative venture. Although I am just tired of ginger. Overall I am glad we had a chance to visit and we did get to tour the kitchen and meet Wylie and his father and they were both very friendly and proud of their Bonnet range and toys of creativity. We did feel a bit taken advantage of with the wine pairings. We were charged for a normal wine flight when we only had three glasses.

We make a gelee out of it and add a disc with a caramelized pineapple cake and coconut gelato. I also used to use it as the lime in our summer ceviche, with a lot of syrup, of course. It has a wonderful acidity and sourness, but especially an exotic flavor unlike that of yuzu.

I also must say the photos were great and well focused. I have to ask , though, in some of the pictures there was a small dish containing a perfetc quenelle of a yellow substance; was it butter? and if so what kind of bread was served? ChefG posted a while back about tinkering with taditional bread service. And why was it so yellow?

We had the 7 course tasting but opted for the prune stuffed gnocchi (her specialty) as a supplement. The service was fabulous as the kitchen was overtaxed. It was a Monday, a while back so I needn't go into course detail, but a 10 top sat just after we did and slowed our meal down considerably. 15 minutes from the oysters to the chantanay carot soup with caraway and lobster (tasty, but two spoonfuls). We did have the wine pairings and were treated to extra pours while waiting for our plates. Back to the gnocchi, dissapointing, very small, only four, mushy and the foie gras consisted of four cubes horribly overseared. Had this been a tasting course it would have been perfect in size, but it was an appetizer-sized supplement for $20. Had this been my appetizer only, I would have been very dissapointed. The rest of our experience was delightful and, again, the service made it a very enjoyable night. I would give it another shot if I were you.

Empire closed for good, Loren Falsone is out and a new owner will take over the space soon. It was the textbook example of how not to run a restaurant.

This technique was discussed in the NYT magazine article 'Laboratory of Taste' I wish I could remember the solution, but the liquid in the syringe is injected into a chemical solution that causes instant solidification. You can purchase the article in the NYT archive.

Very well said. I cannot continue to watch this horrific train wreck.

oh sure, any company would love for their prospective employees to staige, unpaid, to see how they fit in, etc.. Does anyone expect doctors to work for free a few months to see if they fit into a new hospital? Firemen? Police officers? Teachers? etc...........???????

Busboy you have changed my perspective and I thank you. The reason I got into the field of cooking was to release my inner "art" and perhaps make a living doing so. I entered the field from a diferent angle, I chose it willingly, I didn't start as a dishwasher and move to prep, etc... I knew exactly what I wanted to do and why and all I had to learn was how. Many years later I am able to practice my craft in a successful restaurant and take great pride and great legnths to create exciting, different, and tasty menus on a weekly and often daily basis. I have a throng of purveyors I rely on to get me the best raw ingredients and a hard-trained staff who have worked many hours to prepare and expedite a fine product. So much thought, care, precision, and sweat have gone into these dishes. So please, glorious diner, don't fuck with them.

I agree that the practice of unpaid staiges should be cracked down upon otherwise the practice will continue to manifest in the top restaurants. It is unfortunate for young cooks who cannot afford to work for free due to rent requirements, car, student loans, etc. Only the kids with wealthy parents get the great opportunites in top kitchens. The reason the French Laundry can be as perfect as it is is due the the plethora of help. And I am sure it is hard to say no to a kid who is willing to ANYTHING just to observe the kitchen. Keller doesn't even have to learn their name, just hand them a crate of favas to peel and direct them to a large pot of salted, boiling water. I think nothing of the practice of a one or two night staige in lieu of hiring a cook or applying as a cook. I think every profession would benefit from this. But I steadfast disagree with long-term unpaid staiges. There are people who fought hard and died during the labor movement just to get a decent wage and schedule. Kitchens and chefs around this country piss on those ideals. I worked 80 hours a week for a very well known chef for six months and took home maybe $360 a week. Am I a better cook, yes, but bitter and not fond of the experience. But learned, most importantly, how not to treat my brigade. It is amazing how we trample over the labor and immigration laws in the restaurant industry. And it is amazing how we worship the work ethic of the Latin American workers, but let me remind everyone, they never work a minute they are not getting paid for.

As a cook, I will always bend over backwards for those with unfortunate allergies. For those who want the sauce or emulsion on the side because they don't know if they will like it we always offer a taste via an amuse and most allow the dish to go as is. But for those who simply want to create their meal to their own liking simply because they are footing the bill, I grunt the same phrase: When you see a play for $60-$100 a ticket, you cannot change who plays the lead, what songs are sung, and absoultly cannot be late for your reservation. Why shouldn't the same respect be given to fine dining?

I still say Gracie's on Atwell's Avenue:Graciesprov.com Tiny, but powerful