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Steve Plotnicki

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Everything posted by Steve Plotnicki

  1. Suvir - Mango Chutney is where it's at for Bhaja and me. And we don't make them at home. Actually it's probably a good thing to try out in the Hamptons where we can fry up batches of veggies.
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  4. If I can add a variation on this theme, the best chicken soup I've had in the city is the Chicken Vegetable soup at EAT on Madison and 80th street. Yes it is outrageously expensive but, it is of a far higher quality than anything else I have found in the city. Matzo balls are usually not available other than at times when the major Jewish holidays are occuring when you can buy them by the matzo ball. As for the obvious group of contenders, I think the 2nd Avenue Deli is quite good. And I've had a terrific chicken in the pot from Artie's Deli on upper Broadway. And not to forget if you happen to be in Miami, that the Rascal House on Collins Avenue makes a mean bowl of soup.
  5. Cabrales - I dined at Gramercy Tavern the Saturday before and we opened 1954 Cune Vina Real (my birthyear) which was terrific. Then on Monday at Annisa with Jaybee and A.H.R. we drank 1985 Roumier Clos Vougeot which was also terrific. Tuesday at home with some strip steaks from Lobel's we drank 1983 Guigal Cote Rotie La Landonne which I have to say was good, but less than stellar. I've had much greater bottles. Then the 1954 Marquis de Murrietta I drank at Blue Hill with A.H.R. and Lxt was supposed to be had at Bouley and when it was cancelled it got kicked into the next week and that was just phenomenol. Like sour cherry jam. As for my fondest memory, none in particular as the fondest but a few come to mind. I had a fantastic birthday meal at Daniel two years ago. Can't remember what I ate, but we drank 1997 Niellon Chassagne-Montrachet Les Vergers and 1990 Domaine Pegau Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee Laurence which were both great. Then, last years dinner at Troisgros with 1992 Coche-Dury Meursault Perrieres and 1990 Henri Jayer Vosne-Romanee Cros Parentoux was off the Richter Scale. And I can remember a dinner at Jean-Georges maybe five years ago where we drank 1990 Leflaive Chevalier-Montrachet, 1970 Mouton and 1970 Vega Sicilia Unico along with a 1/2 bottle of an Andre Ostertag Gewurztraminer SGN. The wine was so unusual that the sommelier brought Jean-Georges himself over to the table to taste the wine.
  6. It's far better for lunch than dinner. After all, remember it is really a patisserie. It is fairly quiet at lunch, the room usually getting 80% full. I think that takes the burden off of the kitchen a bit. I've had the BB for lunch and it is fine, given that my lunchtime expectations are lower than my evening expectations. And if I wanted to eat a serious lunch, I would go elsewhere. In the evening the place is more about being a social scene than a place of fine dining. And I limit my evening visits to a seat in the cafe for a coffee and pastry.
  7. TCD - I saw them deliver the La Tache to the table next to ours. It was a couple in their 30's who were having a majot tasting menu. Up until that point, they were drinking Salon champagne (not sure of the vintage.) After they poured the La Tache and the commotion from it died down, when they were busy eating one of their courses, I summoned one of the waiters over and asked him if he knew the vintage. He didn't, but went over to a waiter who was tending that table, and he set out on a scheme of minor proportions where he went over to the table and rearranged some of the glassware, including the La Tache which was laying on its side in one of those cradles with a handle for pouring. As he rearranged the La Tache, he turned the bottle until the vintage became apparant. When he was done he visited the bus station nearby and then came by to announce the vintage to me. Actually, this little conspiracy kind of made the waitstaff warm up to us a little. About ten minutes later, the couple with the La Tache were presented with one of the dishes on their menu before it was plated tableside. Since I'm a big yenta, I turned around to see the presentation and just as the waiter was retreating from the table I made eye contact with the guy at the table and we started chatting a bit about how good the food was and then I asked him about the La Tache. When he told me how good it was I mentioned that 1972 was a great, but highly underrated vintage blah, blah and confessed I had asked the waiter for the vintage. Turns out it was the birthyear of his dining companian who had just graduated from business school that day and earned her MBA and that fact propelled my wife into announcing it was my birthday which culminated in four raised glasses and a round of congratulations. We went back to our dinners and two minutes later the glass of La Tache appeared at my table. Life is made up of small pleasantries isn't it? I have to say that what I have just described isn't that unusual an occurance and has happened to me, both on the recieving and giving end a number of times. At a dinner at Beacon last year among a bunch of my wino friends, a diner at an adjoining table was ogling a botle of '78 Latour on ours and the subsequent conversation led to our pouring him a short glass. And if I bring an important bottle somewhere that a restaurant doesn't get to see everyday, I quite often send a small glass back to the chef. In fact I did it the other night at Blue Hill with a tasting glass of '54 Marquis de Murrietta Gran Reserva and it got us an invitation to the kitchen when we were leaving.
  8. "I don't know about inhouse or outhouse, but I know what I like, and the pastrami at 2nd Ave. Deli is far superior to my palette. I also give high marks to Ben's." That's sort of like saying you like Omaha Steaks better than the ones you get at Peter Luger's. Look you're entitled to your opinion but I would try and think it through differently. Make believe you are contributing to the school fund of the pastrami slicers children. I assure you if you go back with an open mind, and set aside any thoughts about being blackmailed, you will find the pastrami sandwich at Katz's at least five times better than what's available at the Second Avenue Deli. And I think all the pastramaniacs on this board will second that.
  9. Blind Lemon - I had a superior meal at the Fat Duck last year that included the exact same amuse bouches you had, all terrific. And I dined at Le Manoir this past February and it was decidedly mediocre. Have we eaten at the same places? I haven't gone to the Capitol so I can't calibrate my palate with yours. But I will add that I thought the decor at the FD, a mix of new and old to be refreshing? Which do you read, Wallpaper or Architectural Digest? LML - Why does it matter whether Blumenthal created those dishes or not, and/or gets credit for them? Do you really care? I don't. I can see it being a reason for not eating there. But if you go and like it, why is that complaint relevant?
  10. Glenn - Let me ask you this, what's the difference between having to schmear the slicers at Katz's a few bucks and their charging $11.95 for a sandwich? If the sandwich was the higher price, would you not go there? And the other side of this coin is that the pastrami everywhere else is third rate. Since Leo Steiner died the Carnegie seemed like they lowered quality, and the Pastrami King has passed away. Katz's is the only place with house pastrami. To me it's worth $15 a sandwich if not more. Schmearing or no schmearing.
  11. My birthday dinner was originally scheduled for the new Bouley. But on its eve the phone rang and the mother of one of the other dinner guests was having emergency heart surgery on the day so a bash for six people end up cancelled. Not wanting to go to Bouley, only to go again when the event was rescheduled, I went about finding a last minute table at one of New York’s temples of fine cuisine. I resigned myself to it being a long series of phone calls when I was surprised that my first call met with success. I hadn’t been to Lespinasse since Gray Kunz left. That’s a long time. But I am usually predisposed to places that allow BYO and Lespinasse is a no-BYO place. And while the menu seemed like it had promise, the reports I received weren’t the greatest. But I was in the mood for a new experience and figured what the hell. The room at Lespinasse seemed unchanged since my last visit, which I found only mildly surprising. I figured since I had reserved that day that they would seat us in Siberia, which in Lespinasse means in one of the two wings on either side of the main room. But to my surprise they led my wife and I to a table at the back left of the main room where we could sit side by side and take it all in. Did they secretly know I was an Internet VIP? Or was it my flash suit? Unfortunately, neither as the room didn’t ever fill up. While we were happy with our table, the service left a little to be desired. The staff appeared somewhat distanced and they didn’t offer through either their body language or their tone the opportunity to engage them in any substantial discussion of what was to come. More of the feel of hotel dining than I like. They presented me with a small tome of a wine list. Now here’s an activity I could enjoy. It was a fairly complete list for a restaurant, including most of the important bottles of Bordeaux from the 80’s and many important ones dating even earlier. But I quickly was able to calculate that the reprehensibility of the pricing rivaled the comprehensiveness of the listings. First Growth Bordeaux from 1982 at $1900 a bottle. Sheesh. Not that long ago places of this caliber were selling those wines for $900. How high is it going to go? But as with almost every list, there are always a few wines that are either well priced, or unusual to find and you don’t mind paying the full ticket and here I zeroed in on a bottle of 1999 Meo-Camuzet Clos Vougeot, a wine I hadn’t as yet had the pleasure of having. We started with a Tuna Tartar served with a Potato Salad. The presentation was somewhat different than the usual tuna/potato chip way of serving tuna that many restaurants in the U.S feature. There were quarter inch cubes of Grade A tuna served on top of a fancy version of potato salad that you might get in your local German deli. It was shaped into a large round with the potato salad serving as a base layer and the cubed tuna being a second layer on the top. Not quite 50/50 between the layers. Call it 60/40 in favor of the potato salad. Lovely flavor and the textural difference between the cool cubes of tuna and the starchy potato salad was nice. For me this dish was only missing the component of crunch or else it would have been perfect. We followed with a Trio of Soupes. They brought us a long thin plate with two small soup bowls surrounding a martini glass. We started with a Crème of Asparagus with Crabmeat. An intensely thick and opulent concoction, surprisingly rich for asparagus. Not remembering what the trio was by the time they served it, it wasn’t until we glanced at a menu on our way out that we remembered it was asparagus as the soup was rich enough and dense enough to seem like spring peas. That was followed by a martini glass filled with a clear Gaspacho, and bits of chopped vegetables were suspended in the soup. The crisp acidity of the gaspacho played perfectly against the creaminess of the asparagus soup. Then back to richness with a suave and velvety Curried Mussel Soup with a breaded and fried Mussel floating on top. It completely coated the roof of your mouth and it finished the course with the sharp tang of curry. Quite an excellent dish and one of the better ones I’ve seen in this town lately. We had ordered glasses of Champagne to start. A non-vintage Taittinger, which had a medium mousse, pretty good delineation of flavors for a NV wine, and just a touch of sweetness which made it go well with our tuna course. Then they served us the Clos Vougeot, which clearly showed the special traits of the 1999 vintage in Burgundy. Aside from a horribly over-oaked Hubert Lignier Clos de la Roche, every ’99 red Burg I have tried has been stellar with perfectly ripe fruit and great structure. Meo seems to have picked a few days earlier than some other growers as this wine wasn’t as intense as say the ones from Dujac are. But I’m splitting hairs here because the wine was terrific, with tangerine-like brightness in the acid. And as a special birthday treat, the table next to ours sent over a small glass of 1972 La Tache for me (don’t ask how I wangled that one from complete strangers .) The ’72 La Tache is the most underrated La Tache of the last 50 years. This bottle was perfect. Fully mature, amazing flavor of earthy mushrooms and cherry liquor. For the main course my wife and I split our choices. She had the Sautéed Skate on a puree of Cauliflower, which I will (and so will she,) nominate for the best skate dish ever tasted. Dishes like these are at the pantheon of the haute cuisine style and when you run into them from time to time, you remember why we pursue this hobby. An entire side of skate (it came out as two pieces) that were dredged in a spice mixture (possibly a light flour included like Wondra?) and sautéed very crisp on the outside and totally warm and moist on the interior, sitting on a pool of the most luscious puree of intensely flavored cauliflower imaginable. Superb. For my main I ordered the Confit of Baby Pig, a dish I’ve read about for many years and always wanted to try. It reminded me of cassoulet, but was served more in the style of a garbure with a large square of the confit, crisped chunk of skin draped atop, sitting on a bed of haricots blanc in light, tomato infused broth. The portion was copious, too much so. But it was also delicious with the meat fork tender. Luxury comfort food. Dessert, as I am experiencing more and more these days was not up to the level of the cuisine. And as I am writing this from memory 10 days after the fact, can’t even tell you what they were. That says more about them than anything else. Lespinasse is clearly in league with other top places in NYC like Jean-Georges and Daniel. Is it as good? Hmmm, I’d say that it is a hair below those places when they are operating at their top form. But it’s very close. One level of care or refinement and the quality would be indistinguishable. I’m in a hurry to return so I can fashion a proper tasting menu of an appetizer, the trio of soups, the skate, pork and if I recalled correctly, they had a truffled poultry dish on the menu. Maybe with tasting size portions it will rank alongside the very top echelon. Plus there were a few other good bottles tucked away on that list, which are begging to be drunk. How many more reasons do you need to go back?
  12. Bux - You know I've never been to France in the summertime. Once many years ago a business associate and I went to Paris the day after Bastille Day and it was so empty that I vowed never to return in the summer again. But my general sense of Provence from being there at the end of the season (last weekend in September) is that the tourists make them cranky. You have to remember that the winemakers are basically farmers and they live a farmers life and a farmers year. In general the best time to visit wineries is after the February school vacations are over, and through the end of June. During the summer months when they are all busy working hard in the vineyards up to and including the harvest (anywhere from the last week of August until mid-September,) and including the vinification period which often ends with the bottling of the prior vintage they are often to busy to see you, and if they do have time they are rushed. That brings you right up to appx. November 1. That is usually when they start selling the new vintages and you will find the winemakers in their offices, eager to give tours in order to sell the vintage. Of course the larger wineries have year round staffs that give tours and they might be less affected by the seasons than smaller wineries.
  13. "My reading here is that her breasts somehow make her less credible. Her breasts are incredible--" Stellabella - I was actually thinking edible
  14. This issue has hurt business for a number of restaurants in France. Especially since they lowered the acceptable blood alcohol level in recent years. I know specifically from people in the trade that it has hurt Jacques Chibois for being so far from the coast and forcing people to drive back to the coast after dinner. I know he was trying to open a hotel on his property but I'm not sure that has happened yet. As for me, I try and stay where I'm dining. And if I'm not and I know I am going to be drinking a reasonable quanitity of wine I take a taxi. But if you have to drive, being stopped by local police is less of a problem if you are visiting a region like the Cote d'Azur and stay on the coast. But I have found that there are numerous checkpoints set up by the local police in the heart of Provence. In fact one time we were stopped outside of St. Remy for such a long period of time that we missed our reservation at a restaurant in town. They made the driver of our car get out and walk a straight line and gave him all types of problems because he wasn't carrying his passport with him. I thought they were going to arrest him but his wife who speaks French very well got a little huffy with the cops and they used their better judgement. And this was at 8:30 in the evening with no probable cause. They stopped every car on the road.
  15. I love a good Bahja. We order the assorted one from our local Balucchi's all the time (it still happens to be good even if they turned into a chain.) Red peppers and cauliflower are both good fillings. I find starchy fillings like potato mixtures to be too heavy. They are a treat for me because I am intolerant to wheat flour and chickpea batter fritters are right up my alley. I wish I could find a place that makes bread exclusively from Gram flour.
  16. Lesley - I was tasting in the Southern Rhone this past February. Fortunately it was truffle season so our trip was based around eating truffle menus in the evening and tasting wine by day. I don't know if you've ever been tasting there before but I will give you a few recomendations and if you have, others will use them in the future. By far the best tasting is at Beaucastel in Courthezon, just outside of Chateauneuf du Pape. It is quite convenient to Avignon as it is located outside of the town and adjacent to the autoroute as well as the route nationale. The tour there is usually given by Mike Rijken, who is of Dutch origin and is their Director of Public Relations. Mike speaks perfect French and English (and Dutch obviously) which makes a tour extremely user friendly. The tour usually lasts between an hour and 90 minutes and usually includes tasting barrel samples of the component parts of the most recently vinified vintage. In addition, if Mike sees you are a true amateur of wine (the French expression for true hobbyist for those who never heard that expression,) he will crack open a number of different older bottles of wine for you so you can see how the wine ages after it is blended and bottled. And the chais at Beaucastel are magnificent, only rivaled in my experience by the chais at Chapoutier in Tain l'Hermitage. It has the feel of a different era, like one you might get when visiting the racing grounds at Churchill Downs or Saratoga Springs. The moment you step into their cave the deep aroma of wine that is imbedded in the wooden tanks and barrels is magnificently intoxicating. Not only one of the best things to do in the region, but in my opinion, one of the best things to do in France. It;'s quite easy to get an appointment there. If you just call their main number they will schedule one for you. We also enjoyed our tastings at Domaine Soumade Andre Romero in Rasteau and at Domaine Aphillanthes which is outside the town of Travaillon, just north of Orange. Both excellent Cote de Rhone producers. But unfortunately we weren't able to get to my favorite Cote de Rhone producer, Domaine Gramenon. They are in sort of an out of the way place, not far from the town of Nyons. If you happen to be there on a Thursday, the market in Nyon is supposedly the best olive market in the region and a tasting at Gramenon right after a trip to the market might not be a bad thing. Hope this helps. I can give you the CIA on a few other producers if that is helpful, but mostly they will be in Chateauneuf.
  17. Cabrales - VIP is a syndicated TV show with an excellent wardrobe person. Wilfrid - Beards are okay in person, just not on the site.
  18. Howie - One of the nicer tours is at Pride Mountain. It's one of the few wineries making wines at the "cult" level that allows visitors. They also sell wine there but the hard to get stuff will be long gone by the time you get there. It was the only tour I took in Napa where they walked us through the vineyards and explained how they planted them. And since I was there at the end of October, all the varietals except merlot which had been harvested a few days earlier were still on vine. Tasting fully ripe cabernet sauvignon, cab franc etc, right off the vine was interesting. A tour at the Peter Michael Winery just over the Sonoma County line (but in actually obly a few miles out of Calistoga) is also a great experience. Tasting their chardonnay out of the barrel before they blend the individual vineyards into a single cuvee will teach you more about Ca. chardonnay than you need to know.
  19. The word "mazel" in Yiddish means luck. Like wishing someone Mazel Tov on the birth of their child means good (tov) luck (mazel.) So a schlemazel is someone with bad luck. That is why the soup that someone else spills is on their pants. But it is really more than just a single incident of bad luck. A schlemazel has terminal bad luck. He is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. A schlemiel on the other hand is someone who always chooses wrong and is the cause of their own poor fate, but acts like it isn't their fault. They spill the soup every time because they don't learn from their mistakes. Yet, they always try and carry the soup.
  20. "i'm more curious about liza than humus" Tommy - You know, she's a girl. She has all those girl things about her. There really isn't anything else to say. Liza - The Patra sounds right. I think I need a big order of those next time. Have a good time on Sunday
  21. Needing to cleanse my body from a week of stuffing myself at Gramercy Tavern, Annisa and Lespinasse (more about those meals later,) not to mention a bunch of rather large meals cooked at home, I stuck to the straight and narrow and met up with Liza for lunch at the reknowned Dimple. Not having been there before (nor having met Liza before either,) it was going to be an afternoon of new experiences. Dimple turned out to be a simple place (I couldn't resist.) It's a long thin restaurant with chafing dishes in the window where you can help yourself to a buffet lunch, then a counter on the left of the room with assorted Bhaja (Suvir did I get that right?) which are various fritters and doughy things made from mostly chickpea flour, along with a steam table holding various vegetable dishes. We sat down and they handed us the menu which must have had 100 choices. I quickly sized up the situation as one where I could put myself in the very friendly owner's hands and let him choose for us, or feel like a putz because we decided to go it ourselves and we ordered all of the wrong things, and none of the right things. At least I knew enough to order a mango lassi. We started with an assortment of fritters etc. The highlights for me were a deep fried ball shaped chickpea coated mixture of lentils which tasted as though it might have been mixed with nuts and cloves. And a ribbon like dough made from chickpeas and lentils that had the consistancy of chow fun and was rolled into a spiral. For our main dishes we had a Cheese and Spinach Dosa that was stuffed with Potato Masala and a Mixed Vegetable Uttapan. The dosa was tender and comforting. I'm used to my dosas having a bit of crunch but this was different. Now that I have the lay of the land I will be back as it clearly offers the best lunch in that area. Then for dinner I was headed to City Hall because we were alerted that they had an extremely hard to get bottle of wine on their list. Problem was that the person whose job it was to secure the bottle dropped the ball and the dinner was cancelled at the last minute. What to do at 7:00pm on a Tuesday night with no place to go? Easy, I jumped in the car and headed out to Shea to see the Mets continue to play like crap. Afterward as I was driving back to the city, I decided that Crackerjacks weren't sufficient as a dinner so I decided to stop at the Kabab Cafe to see what impact having his picture published in Time Out had on Ali. Leave it to Queens because I expected the place to be mobbed but it was mostly empty. One table with two people who were obviously musicians (she sounds like a combination of Enya and ......) and Ali was sitting at a table smoking his hookah with a single woman who left shortly after I got there. I has some terrifically creamy humus and baba ganoush that was dresssed with sumac,and studded with slices of tomatoes, endive, orange, apple and cucumbers. Then I had the soft shell crabs made especially for me without any wheat flour in the batter. Ali dredged them in turmeric, garlic and sea salt and sauteed them as crisp as a non-battered soft shell can get. Served with his signature potatoes, eggplant etc., I have to say it was the best dish I ever ate there. And a recipe I will surely pinch from Ali to make at home. One thing I will say for Kabab Cafe is that at $40 for a dinner like that including tip, it isn't cheap compared to other places in Queens. But it's obviously much cheaper than what you can get in Manhattan, especially considering the quality you get for the money.
  22. I just had dinner at Le Dauphin when I was in Paris at the beginning of April. Having read about Didier Ouddil for many years (he used to be number two to Guerard I believe,) the Gault Millau would always rave about his cooking. And then a few years ago Le Petit Leby named Le Dauphin the Parisian bistro of the year. So I was looking for a place for Sunday dinner and Le Dauphin is one of the few places open. Dinner was fine enough, good enough to go back if I needed a place for Sunday dinner but I thought the quality was somewhat below my expectations based on what I had read. One of the things the restaurant features are various mixed grill platters. I had a mixed grill of various fish. Wine list was better stocked and better priced than most. I thought the atmosphere a little dreary. There are dozens of places I would reserve at before going back there. Margaret - The famous Lievre Royale in Paris is at the classic bistro A Souseyrac in the 11th arr. on rue Faidherbe about 6 blocks behind the Bastille. I know they only serve it one night a week. It's either on Thursday or Friday but I can't remember offhand. I know one night is cassoulet and one lievre. That area of the 11th is totally residential but manages to have Souseyrac, the excellent Moroccan restaurant Mansouria on the same block, and the excellent bistro Le Chardenoux is within spitting distance as are the fun wine bars Jacques Melac (superior Cantal omelet) and Le Passage which not only has a staggering list of reasonably priced wines from the Rhone, but features artisinal andouilettes from 6-7 different producers around France. Bofinger used to be one of my favorite places being the best brasserie in Paris by far. But then it was taken over by the Brasserie Flo chain and the quality slipped. I did have a good meal there a few years ago and it seemed that management had made a decision to operate Bofinger seperate from the chain. But I wouldn't take the chance, given that there are so many other good places to eat. I mean one can walk around the corner to Baracane and have a simple but delightful meal. As long as people are putting in their two centimes for good places, the best buy in Paris is at Willi's Wine Bar on rue des Petitis-Champs just down the road from Place Victoire and across the street from the Bibliotheque National. For those who don't know the history, Mark Williamson and his partner Tim Johnston (Brits) opened this wine bar dedicated to the wines of the Rhone Valley many years ago. Since then they have expanded their little empire to include the wine bar Juveniles around the corner on rue Richelieu, and the more upscale Maceo (named after the James Brown saxophone player Maceo Parker) which is a few shops down from Willi's. If you are a lover of Rhone wines I wouldn't walk, I would run to Willi's. You will find a list of wines that will knock your socks off all being sold at reasonable prices and you will find food that is much better than it should be given the fact that wine is the draw. They also have a good list of wines by the glass and a seat at the bar is a great place for single dinners to have a meal. Also good for English speakers because the place is run by Brits and Sophie the quirky British manager will go out of her way to make you feel like you are at home. A lunch I had there on a sleepy Monday in May of 1999, when all of Paris was shut (except Willi's) for a holiday still brings back fond memories. We ate lovely slabs of garlicky tuna with a simple julienne of vegetables and drank a bottle of 1991 Jamet Cote Rotie (one of the great bottles of CR over the last 20 years) which they were selling for $65. Another place I enjoy in that neighborhood is Chez Georges on rue Mail just off the place Victoire. It's an old school bistro, as simple as they come. Nothing there will knock your socks off but if you are looking for comfort food you can get yourself an honest pair of garlicky sauteed lamb chops and a perfectly browned potato gratin. Also an excellent list of Burgundys and a few Rhone wines. I had the wisdom to order a bottle of Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage there one night (it cost something silly like $30) and I became the chef/owners friend for life.
  23. Gee I'm glad that Bux got scolded instead of me! Lesley - I can't tell you how happy I am that you came onto eGullet to straighten us out. To be honest, I wasn't intending on buying and reading the book but you have converted me. But as long as you're here, maybe I can get you to defend and explain a statement you made earlier in the thread. You say, "I consider Daniel to be probably the very best restaurant in the United States, and one of the best in the world, and I think that attitude comes through loud and clear in the book. " Now before I go on I have to say that I am a big fan of Daniel and have been for years. But if I have any complaint, and one that has been echoed on this site by others, it's that they serve 300 meals a night instead of having a single seating like three the star restaurants in Europe have. I was wondering if your book touches on this issue and if so in what way?
  24. Bux - Well yes but I am taking it further than you did. Most things are sold by appealing to the biases of the readers. And whenever the subject matter is about anything expensive that the well to do pamper themselves with, you are bound to find this type of writing/reporting. A book about a 3 star restaurant in Manhattan is only of limited interest to the book buying public if the topic is the food. But if the topic is what goes on there and who goes there maybe people will buy it. But where I find this type of writing/journalism breaks down is that they don't do a thorough enough job in getting the details. Like the story of Bill Blass getting the three tier VIP hors d'ouvres. Do you think the writer takes the time to ask Blass he appreciates it on a gastronomic level? I would bet not. If you write that he gets it, but do not ferret out the facts, the reader is left with the implication that he got it because he is important, not because he can appreciate it. For all we know, Blass is one of the greatest gourmands living. But getting the tray for that reason won't sell books. As for the three tier silver tray, I haven't noticed its proliferance because I haven't been to Daniel in about a year and a half. Their no BYO policy makes it one of my last choices when reserving at a place on that level.
  25. Who is SauteWednesday? I don't think you can tell a thing from that review. Maybe it is accurate and maybe it's just sensationalizing. The writer's style is to promote a controversial reading of various observations that Brenner makes in the book. He/she cuts and pastes snippets from here and there to achieve the dynamic they want in the review. In general, books on restaurants that aren't on cooking or eating are usually just gossip. Yes there are interesting vingnettes to tell about how they spilled the soup on some celeb or how when some VIP wanted a certain dish and the restaurant didn't have the ingredients on hand they leased a private helicopter to get them there on time blah, blah, blah. But cooks cursing each other in their native tongue has nothing to do with food. They could be working on any assembly line anywhere. I'd much rather read how Daniel was inspired to create the three tier hors d'ouvres tray that is mentioned in the review. I've been the recipient of that tray on a few occassions and how and why each little dish got on that tray would be of interest. But too bad that isn't what sells books.
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