Steve Plotnicki

I'm sorry but even the magical talents of M. Troisgros can't overcome the limitations of nature and physiology. But then again they don't have to because you're not their to eat. You're there to drink.

I've read your response and is your position that the ingredients are available to the French or are they not? Or are they available and the French don't use them? That wouldn't make sense because if they are importing snails and frog's legs, why not superior products from Spain?

Well of course they did but, the notion that Latour goes with every course of a meal is an odd one to begin with.

I think that you will find that since Jeff Connell became the buyer at Astor Place Wines, the selection in Loire, Germany is superior and the selection in the Rhone and Burgundy is a notch below. Can't speak for the Tuscan section since all the regions mentioned so far are in the same aisle and I never make it to any other aisle. Otherwise, go to Chambers Street.

But wait a second, this is a Latour tasting. They haven't represented that they have chosen the best wines for the food. Nor vice-versa. People are going to this function to taste the wines. The food is secondary. If you are interested in eating Troisgras's food paired perfectly with wines, go on a different night. The food here is irrelevent other then being a balanced meal. How would Latour do this promotion if they served d'Yqueem with the Foie gras?

The only places that are BYO only are places without liquor licenses. I think that in NYC, the rents are so high that restaurants can't survive without selling alcohol. 20 years ago, before the wine boom, those types of places were around but I can't remember the last time I saw one.

I'm interested in your notes on the '83 La Chapelle. As many people know, RP once had this wine rated at 100 points. But I believe he demoted it to 90 based on excessive acidity. In spite of his recommendation, I went out and bought some. Way too acidic for me. Could take the chrome off of hubcaps with this stuff. So I sold it off. But if you are saying that excessive acidity is not a problem anymore, it could be one of the best buys on the market because RP's rating tanked the wine. But your note that it is at peak gives me some cause. La Chapelle is a historically slow ager with wines like '78 and '79 not being ready yet. Otherwise it sounds like a great tasting.

I'll agree with Victor about the loss of quality. But I also want to know why that is so? The ingredients available to the Spanish chefs and French chefs are the same. Aside from inventiveness in cuisine, why would the quality be any worse if the quality in Spain is now so high?

Adam - I don't understand your question. Do you mean places that are BYO only?

To restate the usual debate here, this issue tips on how a restaurant views BYO diners. They can view us as the same as people who drink water, or they can view us as people who would buy a fancy bottle of wine if they refuse to allow BYO. While I can make arguments both ways, in reality, I don't go to restaurants very often if they do not allow BYO or if they offer it at an astronomical pricepoint. For example, I have been to Daniel once in the last two years, Jean-Georges not at all, and I can't remember the last time I ate at Le Bernadin on my own (I attended a private function there about 3 years ago) all because of their no, or excessive BYO policies. I would eat at these places on at least a twice a year basis, and probably more at J-G because of Nougatine, if they had a reasonable policy. The only analysis I can do of this is the following. If a restaurant wants to play the "I will always be full" card, then it doesn't matter if they do not allow it. But if they ever have an empty table, well my BYO dinner might be the one that is filling it. The other way to look at it is the empty table I don't take, and which is given to someone else, might be a table full of tap water drinkers and they aren't making big beverage profits there. Finally, the BYO diner is typically the type of diner that often orders expensive tasting menus including expensive supplements. A typical BYO dinner among 6 people at Daniel will most likely include 3 bottles of brought in wine and is likely to result in the table ordering something off the list as well like Champagne or dessert wine. I assure you that the meal they order to accompany their wines will not be 3 courses and then ask for the check. What you never see a restauranteur do when he does this analysis is calculate how much extra money he is making from BYO customers. You only see him talking about what he has lost. Well it seems to me, that with many BYO drinkers, he hasn't only lost their wine order, but their entire business. Certainly, there has to be some business arrangement he should be able to come to with BYO diners so both parties can be happy. After all, it's only a matter of money right? And if it is only a matter of money, how does that reconcile with a no BYO policy? That's it you guessed it. It can't.

Your bias is showing.

Clearly you aren't speaking about Italian food.

Bravo.

Yes ChefG, Cabrales and I are going to come to Trio and we want a 40 course menu. In fact, Cabby wanted 60 courses but I talked her down to 40.

I know someone who was able to buy a case and a half of the 1958 . Problem is, my experience (ahem) is that 50% of the bottles are bad. But the bottles that are good are phenomenol. In fact I had a Rioja tasting at a friend's house a while back and I am including a link to the notes in case you never saw them; Old Rioja in Greenwich Vikkage

Sociando - Mallet.

I used to believe this but I have been informed otherwise by my friends in the trade. Sommeliers like to put their cherries on their lists, but they like to save them for their cherry customers who give them repeat business. I had two instances in 3 star restaurants in Paris that I found unusual and which friends of mine told me it was because I wasn't a regular customer. One where the sommelier fought very hard with me about the wine I wanted to order (some powerful 1990 red Burg) and instead pushed a 1987 Jayer Cros Parentoux which was diluted. And another where I wanted to order a bottle of 1999 Meo-Camuzet Richbourg and the sommelier fought with me about it and I ended up ordering a 1995 Haut Brion instead. And I don't know how long ago you ate at Ducasse, but I've had that Chave a number of times in the last year and a half and the bottles vary from being on the verge of ready to drink to slightly closed. Certainly nothing that can't be overcome with a short decant. I think he was just trying to hold on to his Chave. In reality, most of the wine restaurants sell is closed. In fact, I would say that 95+% of the wine on restaurant lists is not ready to drink. So that excuse is bogus. And if the wines are closed, what are they doing on the list? Once when I went to Arzak the sommelier offered me the wine list. I had heard from a friend that they had 1958 Marquis de Riscal on their list for $45. So I open the list and the oldest wine is from the 80's. After a discussion with the sommelier, in which he hemmed and hawed, I eventually out my foot down and he finally offered me a reserve list with wines going back to the '40's. By the way, I find that Taillevent does not discriminate this way and that their recommendations are actually improvements on what you tried to order. Vmilor - That '95 Coche Perrieres is a great wine. But not as great as the '96 Coche Perrieres which along with the 1996 Niellon Chevalier-Montrachet are the two greatest young white wines I have ever tasted. They are as close to perfection as it gets IMO.

Actually we usually have 22 people. But there's a turkey as well and not everyone eats meat. So figure 14. If you do the math, a 507 rib roast only feeds a little more then 1000 people. That's probably just enough for the people who live on my block.

No I actually meant 507 ribs. Here on the Upper East Side, we have very good butchers who have access to special meat. Seriously, isn't 7 ribs the max?

Ribs removed but then trimmed and tied to the roast. Too hard to carve if it is just on the bone. We make a big roast every Thanksgiving. Somewhere between 507 ribs. We melt some butter and paint the outside of the roast on all sides. Then we completely coat it with minced garlic and sea salt from Brittany. It's really yummy. I prefer the end cut which will be medium rare if you cook the middle to rare.

At least she will have home grown olive oil at her disposal.

Steve Klc - Since you posed it that way, there is another aspect to the entire signature dish/masterpiece debate. I mean it is nice to be able to walk over to the Met from my apartment and see Autumn Rhythm. Or to put on the CD and hear Miles still play that great solo on So What Live at Carnegie Hall. And even though it's not quite the same, it is also nice to be able to go to Yountville and have Thomas's White Truffle Custard. And while I understand the concept of progress, I hate to see masterpieces discarded in the name of it. That one doesn't really work for me either.

Steve Klc - Well those are both marketing issues that restaurants have to deal with. Obviously, the better people can communicate what a restaurant does well, the easier it is to convince people to dine there. Sure you can say that at Trio the food is "modern and inventive," that just won't sell as many covers as "modern and inventive take on Midwest cuisine." And I'm not suggesting that ChefG should alter anything he does. But the market is the market. It's hard enough to change the market's perceptions about tastes and textures, changing the methods we use to communicate how things taste, and why we should go taste them, is just one more burden. When someone first said "Nouvelle Cuisine," everyone knew what they meant. I'm still waiting for someone to describe what is going on in Spain in a more descriptive fashion then "cooking with total and complete freedom," a description which has not exactly made every American jump on a plane to go have dinner there.

From what I know, as recently as 3 weeks ago, they had yet to make a deal with a U.S. publisher.

Stone - You're becoming one of my favorite people. What happened, did you get hit with the haute cuisine stick upside your head? You and I have to have a serious conversation about this at dinner this week.