Retired Chef

I've been watching this thread with interest and awe. There are some valid points on both sides. As for Carole's "signature" dish...has anyone eaten it? Do we know for a fact that the peanuts are only sprinkled on the top? I don't know that some of the prep of the dish doesn't include peanuts that can't be removed. As for 8 top at the Watergate, that request is difficult, if not impossible, no matter how "high end" you consider yourself. I've read Ms. Clarks "rant" and although the Beethoven analogy may not have been the most suitable, I seriously doubt Chef Clark compares herself to Beethoven. Like Malawry, I've eaten at Chef Clark's restaurant. I had my salmon as the chef intended it, but my dining companion was allowed to make a substitution with no fuss or discussion. As a side note....my salmon was perfect. Something I haven't always had at "high end" restaurants. But that's another thread now, isn't it?

This made me laugh out loud. It obviously is personal, and you obviously missed my point. Mr. Klc, you are entitled to your opinions and as far as I'm concerned you have every right to say what you feel in public and in private. After all, this is America, and I will (and have) defend your right to say it. I only wish that instead of being self-serving and defensive you were more about the food and the love of cooking. Try to appreciate the different styles and efforts. I would no more choose a Texas sheet cake or a chess pie as my wedding cake than I would take one of your beautifully decorated cakes to a picnic. It is just bad form for one chef to bash another chef (especially when defending another chef), much in the same way it would be bad form for Tom Sietsema to open his own restaurant and maintain his current job. Everyone in this business has had to endure his or her share of bad press and wrongful comments at one time or another. It's part of the game. Let's all put bad reviews and hurtful comments aside. Let's instead learn from others successes and failures, find shortcuts, share stories. What do you say?

If you want to say in OC there is a more, low-brow place that is tucked out of the way in Fullerton...Rutabegorz. http://www.rutabegorz.com/browser/ver_4/index.html

If you're travelling all the way to LA for dinner don't miss out on Lucques. http://www.lucques.com/

Well Suzanne, maybe Mr. Klc should be more Gertrude than Hamlet here: "O Hamlet, speak no more: Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; And there I see such black and grained spots As will not leave their tinct."

Let me be the first to say that Steve has a lot of good advice and insight and offers a lot to the egullet community. What I have noticed in reading over the discussions is that along with discussion and opinion, which is good and enlightening. I have also seen the ugly side. The side where in an attempt to salvage someone’s reputation someone else not involved is put down. One such case is your attack on Valerie Hill. I have enjoyed Ms. Hill’s desserts since she was at the Morrison-Clark. Why did Ms. Hill have to be the victim in your attack in order to make Ms. Meighan look better. This is just one example I’m thinking of, Mr. Klc. As for my education Mr. Klc, I did go to college and majored in economics. I stayed in Europe after the war and trained to be a chef. When I came back to this country there was no celebrity...only the tough love of the job. There were no cookbook deals and TV shows. I’m from a generation of chefs that weren’t called Chef until they could carve a swan from a block of ice. You speak of your thick skin. Frankly, your skin couldn’t look thinner. You constantly need to “talk about my own restaurants” so all can share their “exhaustively praise by local and national media”. Thick skinned people let it go. I wonder if you would you have been so quick to comment on Ms. Schrambling’s article had one of your restaurants not been mentioned. I'm sorry to see that this is what this site is about. I'm sorry to see humility absent in the modern culinary world today. Yes, I suppose my generation was different. In my day it was jsut unadulterated dedication to the craft. j People were too busy making food all day and all night in clubs and restaurants to sit in front of their computer all day and critique the work of others who are so busy at work they haven't time to defend their work and their good name.

Being newly retired and new to egullet and have been spending some time reading over old discussions. What should be a forum to share and learn has turned into a soap box for the whiney and insecure. Whether it is "deserving" or not, I find Mr. Klc's overall opinions of his peers and others in the culinary community narrow-minded and nasty. On the other hand I do find it amusing that the only praise he seems to dole out are to restaurants that serve his desserts. Mr. Klc, be a man. You're coming across like a whiney school boy that's not being picked to play on the team.

Don't miss Lucques in Beverly Hills. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.