vserna

I'll stick to my guns on the "overall" level of French restaurants: undeniably lower than in 1983. Are there 15 'true' three-star places (i.e. places that deserve the rating, not Bocuse) now instead of 12 then? Perhaps. (I'm not even sure.) But obviously such a small difference in a nationwide restaurant scene cannot compensate, on its own, for the precipitous drop of standards across the board. IMHO, of course.

Is that a commendation?

Robert: I think there is much better awareness of the Spanish culinary scene in the US than in France, even though the French are catching up fast. Re the nationality of Michelin inspectors: they are all Spanish in Spain and Italian in Italy, but again the 'big' decisions are made in Paris.

They do have trouble recognizing traditional 'exotic' restaurants, and that extends to modern 'exotic' restaurants. But not to modern European restaurants - after all, there are many two- and three-star restaurants in Italy and Spain that are markedly 'non-French' in concept.

The Michelin inspectors are headed since 2001 by a Briton, Derek Brown - which as you can imagine was a bit controversial fact at first in proud France! They're full-time employees, and all have a professional restaurant/catering background. There's 20 for France alone. My own very limited experience with them and their methods indicates that they are rather bureaucratic in style and preferences, that they are relatively autonomous only as far as 1-star and 'bib gourmand' restaurant go, and that the big 'political' decisions (i.e., the two- and three-star restaurants) are all made by Brown and the Michelin bigwigs. A marked turn to favor ever more modern cuisines is obvious in the past few years. Also an effort to reduce the bloated list of stars in France, where the overall quality level of restaurants is undeniably lower today than 10 or 20 years ago. Problem is, they're doing likewise throughout Europe, even in places where the trend has been just the opposite, i.e. to marked across-the-board improvements, as in Spain. The Michelin brass got an earful from Spanish restaurant critics in December when they went to Madrid to present the 2003 Spain guide and had to admit that there were no more stars in it than in the 1990 Spain guide - without being able to offer a plausible explanation for this fact, given that Spain's culinary explosion is such a well-documented story... But the French have a very hard time admitting that they may be going through a hollow period while others are buoyant. It's a bit ridiculous, because such pendulum swings have been common throughot culinary history, but they have real trouble facing that fact.

Let's face it, the only good, authentic Mexican food in Europe is to be found in Madrid - particularly at La Taquería del Alamillo and Entre Suspiro y Suspiro, with Las Mañanitas a worthy third on the podium. There is no Mexican population in Europe, no ethnic background, and so-called 'Mexican restaurants' on this continent are wannabe defrozen-tortilla Tex-Mex joints of strictly no distinction.

Well, I've seen many more in NYC restaurants (and shops and apartments and elevators) than in Spain. There's no place in the world where cockroaches seem to thrive more than in New York... That said, 'cochinillas' in this context are the cochenilles, tiny insects traditionally used to make natural carmine color. The text simply states, tongue-in-cheek, that ants just go nuts over sugar. And sugar is what drives people to Espai Sucre.

Please! That's like saying English is a cross between German and French.

It's good to see all this good-faith interest shown in Ferran's outstanding work. (As some of you know, he has been savaged a couple of times in the US...) Please allow me just one very small point: those who, when visiting Spain, choose to stay in Barcelona only, or perhaps do a Barcelona-San Sebastián duo, are sure to miss out on the greatest culinary explosion taking place in Europe right now! From a garlic-producing town in La Mancha called Las Pedroñeras to Ezcaray, a mountain village in Rioja, the scene is mind-boggling in the amount of creativity, talent and freedom to be found in so many kitchens. One day I'll explain 'the Christian Parra theory' for this new Spanish cuisine, but if I had to find one most important defining word, it would have to be 'freedom'. BTW, the scene in Madrid is undergoing the same type of deep-seated transformation as in Barcelona.