Steve Plotnicki

Do they allow BYO?

Then they should have a "Top 10 Widely Available" list. But why debase the WOTY by choosing the Guigal? They have to realize that the amount of credibility they will lose with their knowledgable readers will cost them.

The last time I was at Charlie Trotter’s was in 1994. The reason that I can remember the exact year is that the occasion was the 40th birthday of my oldest friend. It’s someone I went to sleep-away camp with when I was a kid. After we got too old to go to camp, we stayed friends through our high school years (1969-1972) doing things like riding the subway (he from Ocean Parkway, me from Bayside) to see music in the city. But we were also budding foodies and we managed to sneak in eating the latest junk food rage before or after shows. Now here we were, 22 years later, having graduated from Blimpies and gyros to prosciutto and Foie gras. Well the end of that story is that while we had a fun weekend, our meal at Trotter’s was sort of a bust. It was a Friday night in February and along with one other table with two people at it, we were the only people in the dining room. I can’t remember much about the meal other then we thought the food was uninteresting and repetitive. Charlie himself was there and he was fawning over the other table and he often poured what looked like a clear liquid out of a little pitcher over their food. My first experience didn’t whet my appetite for more. For years I both avoided and spoke poorly of Trotters. But on occasion, someone would say that it was great and that I needed to go. When that happened, I would pursue that line of thinking on some wine board or with friends who had been and ask them if they thought if I should go? The answer was never a resounding yes. It was sort of a combination of yes and no. And one time when I had to go to Chicago on business I actually toyed with the idea of going back. So I posted a note on one of the wine boards seeking guidance. The responses were all over the place. But my favorite one was somebody who said, “look, you’re in NYC, you have Daniel, Bouley, Le Bernadin etc. there. With those places you don’t need to go to eat at Trotters. I live in Minnesota so Trotter’s is a big deal to me.” Well that took care of that and for the last couple of years I hardly had the urge. But this past summer, good friends of ours went and said it was “phenomenal.” And these are people who we trust. So after a short discussion with another couple it was agreed we would take a weekend in Chicago so we could give Charlie Trotter one more chance to win us over. The dining room at Trotter’s was exactly as I remembered it. It was as if nothing had changed. And as soon as we entered, there was Charlie Trotter himself (and you know how I am about the chef being in the house.) They sat us at a table in the corner on the left near where you entered the kitchen. I gave the sommelier my wines and he inspected them with great care. Then our waiter handed us menus. As she started to explain the various tasting menus, she saw that I was trying to tell her something so she stopped. I explained that we were here to see Trotter’s at their best. So she said she could take the menus back and they would be glad to cook for us. Waiter, we’ll take four of those. Then the sommelier reappeared to discuss how to serve the wines I brought. He had devised a complete strategy including serving temperature. They started us with an amuse bouche of a bay scallop that was coated with sesame seeds and then sautéed. It was served on a bed of chopped red onion with some wasabi that was on the mild side but which had a little kick to it. It was a nice way t start to the meal and the wasabi opened our palates up. We continued on with an assortment of various potatoes, which were tossed with some thinly sliced raw Vidalia onions rings. Then a slice of celery leaf was laid among the potatoes and then the entire dish was showered with white truffles. Terrific dish. I can’t think of being served a truffle/onion combo before. With these dishes we ordered a NV Egly-Ouriet Blanc de Noir off the list. For some reason I’m never as impressed with EO as other people are. But it is a winey champagne, and it played a decent enough foil for the food. We moved on to fish. They appeared with a square of steamed turbot about the size of a brownie. It was white as snow and served with an olive leek sauce. Lovely dish and it transported us to Provence for the moment. But the fish was slightly overcooked. Thirty seconds too long? Okay we will cut them some slack on what was a busy night. The next dish, filets of imported dorade, served with chopped chestnuts and pineapples, was fishy. I hate fishy fish. And it was served with a sauce where the primary ingredient was chopped pineapples. Let me tell you that fishy flavor and citrus/sweet is sort of a deadly combo. And to make things worse, the dorade was even more overcooked then the turbot was with the flesh (fishy flesh that is) being fairly dry to the taste. This dish was a bust on every single level. With our poisson we drank a 1989 Ramonet Chassagne-Montrachet Morgeots. The sommelier told me it was a little stinky on the nose on opening and that the stink hadn’t completely blown off by the time it was poured even though he had decanted it at the beginning of the meal. What a huge and intense wine, too huge and intense. Still in the slightly painful stage. Of course I had let some sit in my glass until the end of the night and by then the stink was gone and the nose was beautiful and fragrant. Oh what time does for wine. This wine needed a good three hour decant and probably needs at least three to five more years in bottle to be ready to drink. Meats were up next. They started us with some roast squab that had a portion of Foie gras sitting alongside it. Nice, but what I will call a standard issue upper middle game dish. If I had closed my eyes, I could have been dining almost anywhere. But as I typically find, game despite it’s reputation for being flavorful is often mild and blandish. In fact in my experience it is more likely bland then anything else. Then they served us three slices of partridge that were served with large cubes of red beet and golden beet and some Minnesota wild rice. It had a lightly smoked flavor (we later found out that is was grilled over wood) and the meat was medium rare, juicy but just firm enough and each slice had a nice layer of crispy skin on top. And the beets were cooked perfectly, firm yet soft enough to cut with a spoon. It didn’t take me long to learn that a small slice of the partridge paired a paper-thin slice of beet was culinary perfection. Clearly this was the dish of the night (with the potato and truffle dish a firm second) and everyone at our table agreed. We were then stampeded by a serving of three thin slices of loin of bison, a first for me. The meat was very lean and was roasted rare. As with the squab, it was nice but the point of eating bison was lost on us. They could have told us it was gorilla and what would we know? We asked them to add a cheese course to our meal. It featured an exceptionally good Camembert and we asked the waiter what brand it was. She appeared a few minutes later carrying the box. It was Camembert des Normandy’s Les Perreles I believe. Perfectly ripe and packed with flavor. With these courses we drank a 1975 Trotenoy and I can’t begin to tell you how good the wine was. It came from a case I bought in London about 6 years ago. It was maybe the fourth or fifth bottle I’ve had from the case. But I have to say that I haven’t had it in a few years, but when I did have it, the wine was always very good but was in a slightly dormant state. But once again time proves that it can be a wine’s best friend because the transformation here was magical. This wine was so concentrated, so searing (not tannins but intensity) and was such a big mouthful of wine that on first taste every person at the table made a noise that was somewhere between an mmmm and a grunt. Just super and this will easily hold and improve for at least 15 years or more. I’m not even going to write about the desserts because we hated them all (although we finished them.) Every single one played on the same theme and they were loaded with off- spices, cloves, and in general, combinations that played on a savory/sweet contrast. Why are pastry chefs obsessed with this style these days? Where is the brilliance that a Herme shows when he makes a simple macaron, raspberry and lychee pairing? That tastes like dessert. I wish there was more of that. Soon someone is going to try and serve a beef dessert. I have to make a special mention of the service. It was astoundingly good. Both our waiter and the sommelier did not miss a beat. There was never an empty glass, the courses were paced perfectly, the wines were at the proper temperature and decanted at the appropriate times and they seemed to anticipate our every move. I’m sure one thing that allows them to offer such good service is that they aren’t turning tables. Our table was ours for the night and it made our meal nice and relaxed. In fact we got there at 7:30 and we didn’t leave until after midnight. But the all time great service award has to go to whomever at Trotter’s relayed to the kitchen that I had wheat flour intolerance. Because during the first course our waiter showed up with a basket of wheat-free corn muffins baked especially for me. I have to tell you that in 12 years of having this condition, this was the first time any restaurant ever prepared special breads for me, including places where I am a regular. And I can honestly say that there is nothing sweeter for me then to be able to schmear some good quality butter on good bread. I should also add that when M. Trotter saw me standing near our table and looking into the kitchen, he grabbed me by the arm and motioned to everyone at our table to come take a tour of the kitchen. My overall impression of Trotter’s is that it is a restaurant that is the equal or better then the top upper middle places anywhere. Is it significantly different or better then a place like Gramercy Tavern? Maybe from the standpoint that the small size of restaurant allows them to put a finer hand on the cuisine. But if I had to compare it to other restaurants I would say it is closer to a place like Gramercy then a place like Daniel. Maybe Bouley Bakery (the old one) is a better comparison but the cuisine did not hit the heights (at least on this night) that Bouley Bakery used to hit. And though I am not jumping on the next plane to go back there, I certainly wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to go again and to see if I could become a little bit more familiar with the cuisine. I actually wouldn’t mind going and saying to them that they should cook me all of the dishes they consider signature dishes. On balance, an overall criticism, and this is particular to my what turns me on about a place, it didn’t really express a strong cuisine to the extent that I would have liked it to. Yet there seemed to be a cooking philosophy at work albeit in a subtle way and I would probably need to take in a few more meals to get a better understanding of what M. Trotter was trying to tell us all. But it isn’t the type that screams out at you. I should also add that we thought the portions were rather small. And certainly the number of courses they served with a chef’s menu wasn’t an overwhelming number. So there could have been a little improvement there as well. So all in all, let’s call it a B+. People speak of Trio like it’s in Chicago but its really in Evanston, Illinois. That’s like a drive to Great Neck if you are a New Yorker, Walnut Creek if you live in SF (or maybe Mill Valley) or maybe Sherman Oaks or Paso Robles depending on which part of the sprawl they call L.A. you live in. So it’s in the burbs. When we got in the taxi and showed the driver a piece of paper with the address, he actually said he knew the street its on. 25 minutes later we turned onto Hinman Avenue but it was a residential street with rather nice houses on it. We couldn’t imagine it was going to be in that location. But about a half dozen long blocks later we saw the lights of the small residential hotel that houses Trio. I was even more surprised when we entered the restaurant and it was completely full. Since I was warned about the extremely modern nature of the cooking, I couldn’t understand what all these suburban looking people were doing in a place that was going to foam everything in site? I mean the chances of a restaurant with a modern menu and modern technique making it in a place like Great Neck are probably next to nil. But here we were in the Chicago suburbs and the people looked primed for it. Trio offers three tasting menus. The Prix Fixe Tasting Menu, the Chef’s Tasting Menu and the Tour de Force Tasting Menu. Big eyes that we all had, we opted for the Tour de Force. And when I called to inquire about BYO, the manager of the restaurant strongly discouraged my doing it (despite the fact that they allow it) on the basis of the cuisine being so unusual that it was likely that a wine I brought would be a mismatch with the cuisine. He continued on by telling me that they offer a wine program with the cuisine for $95 a person and he emailed me the menu and the pairings. It was 21 courses of food and 13 different wines. Yowza. After a quick confab with the other couple we decided to let Trio do all of the driving. I think based on the volume of dishes and wines, the best way to approach reporting on the meal is to list the food and wines and then discuss them dish-by-dish. If there is no wine listed under a dish that means they gave us another pour of the wine from the prior course. So take a deep breath and…….. Caramel Popcorn Blandy’s 5 year old Sercial Madeira Watermelon-Smoky Paprika Ice Raclette et Pommes de Terre 1999 Trebbiano Shaved Bottarga/Sea Urchin Custard Parsnip Soup 2001 WillaKensie Estate Pinot Gris Black Truffle Explosion L’Uvaggio di Giacomo Arneis Sashimi Fluke flavors of the sea Rihaki Nigori Sake “Dreamy Couds” Shimane Prefecture Oysters and Beer Campari-grapefruit Roasted Alaskan Halibut parsley, olive, vanilla 2001 Heidi Schrok Ruster Muscar, Burgenland, Austria Maine Lobster with Rosemary Vapor 2000 Hubert Lamy Saint-Aubin 1er Cru “Les Frionnes” Poached Venison Loin butternut squash, four flavors grated 2000 Carmenet “Dynamite Vineyard”Merlot North Coast 2000 Braised Pig Tail and Crispy Cheek Elysian Fields Farm Lamb cardamom-coffee, lentils, shallot, date 1999 Zenata “Ripassa” Valpolicello Superiore Cap of Prime Beef white truffles, pink peppercorns, mache Champagne L. Aubrey Brut, Joey-les-Reims Icy Pomegranite yogurt, mint, chiles Pushed Foie Gras bosc pears, sauternes, salt roasted pear sorbet 1998 Bechtoslheimer Beerenauslese Ernst Bretz, Rheinhessen Passion Fruit Lassi cumin foam Roasted Pumpkin Crème Caramel bacon, curried pineapple, carrot sorbet “Don PX” Pedro Ximnez, Bodegas Toro Albala Montilla-Morilles Tea Smoked Chocolate crystallized nori, Asian plums Burmester 1989 Colheita Port Hucklebery-Juniper Soda They serve the caramel popcorn and watermelon ice as amuse. The caramel popcorn was sort of like sucking candies with a gooey caramel center. Like a hip version of the butter candies that my Bubby would have had in a crystal dish on the coffee table in her living room. I’m glad to see how far those candies have come. It was a rather sweet way to start things off. But then they ripped your palate back in the other direction as the paprika dominated the watermelon and the dish was more about the spice playing against the coolness of the ice then the taste of watermelon. Neither amuse made much of a statement to us. But the Madeira was great and we sucked it down quickly only to be served another pour. Things improved dramatically when they brought us the raclette. It was a small soup bowl with sliced potatoes and a creamy raclette sauce. Dotting the bowl were small pieces of pickled vegetables. A great dish that other then being a pinch of salt short, made us complain that our portion was too small. Next they brought out a tray that contained a soup bowl holding a small pile of clove sorbet and next to it on the tray were additional ingredients including some shredded prosciutto, prosciutto gelee and chopped pistachio nuts. It was a deconstructed parsnip soup. The waiter poured the soup into your bowl from a small teapot and then you were supposed to put the rest of the ingredients on the tray into the bowl. Although it could have been a hair hotter, the soup was comforting and made for a tasty appetizer course. My sea urchin custard didn’t have the intense taste of sea urchin I had hoped for. Actually I had the sea urchin because the shaved bottarga had some bread in it. But the people who ate the bottarga reported it delicious, served on a lightly set parmesan gelee. I’ve designated that the wine we had was a Trebbianno based on the waiter announcing it while pouring. I didn’t write the name down at the time because they had emailed me a list of the wines in advance and I figured I had the name at home. But now that I look at the list of wines it isn’t identified as a Trebbiano. Whatever, the wine was terrific. Not a large wine but terrific acid and more then sufficient fruit. Perfect to cut the richness of the raclette. We moved on to the black truffle explosion. It was a single ravioli, filled with black truffle juice and what appeared to be thinly sliced vegetables. You were supposed to eat it by taking the entire ravioli onto your tongue and then pressing it up against the roof of your mouth. When you did that, the truffle juice was released as it broke though the thin ravioli wrapper. By the way, they announced they had made mine using a little buckwheat flour. Ah it’s those little things. Well this dish was a treat that was sort of in the style of Chinese soup buns. It’s too bad it wasn’t an amuse because that’s the perfect spot for it. It was served with an Arneis from California, a first for me. And the wine held true to it’s New World form as it was as ripe as could be and tasted as if it was injected with steroids. But it actually wasn’t bad with the food but I’d hate to drink it all by itself. Sashimi of fluke was not among our favorites nor was the follow up course, which was Oysters, served in a beer foam. Both dishes were unpopular across our entire table. We drank an imported sake where prior to serving it they shake the bottle up and the liquid becomes cloudy, hence the name. I’m still not deft enough at being able to identify sakes. Then they brought us a little sorbet of campari and grapefruit as a way to refresh our palates. The roasted halibut came with a little vanilla custard and some chopped olives (nicoise?). The square of fish was perfectly roasted with the meat being slightly flaky to the fork. It laid a perfect foundation for the chopped olives, which gave it a little crunch and saltiness and the vanilla custard, which added sweetness and a satiny texture. But on the whole, what came though it all was the taste of olive oil. To me this dish was modern cuisine at its best and in the spirit of the great French chefs of the 80’s. On a side note, it’s funny how two of the best things I’ve eaten recently pair olives/olive oil and vanilla. This and Pierre Herme’s Olive Oil and Vanilla Macaron. We moved onto a service of a shallow soup bowl filled with clippings of fresh rosemary. In the middle of the bowl was a small dish filled with a warm lobster and wild mushroom salad. After they set the dish down in front of us, the server poured boiling water from a small teapot onto the rosemary, which released an intense aroma of rosemary vapors. Every time you bent over the dish to scoop us some lobster you were emerged in the aroma of fresh rosemary. Okay it’s a little gimmicky but the dish was great. They ratcheted up the viscosity of the wines even more with an oaky and buttery chardonnay from Hubert Lamy. I’d rate is as fair even though it was fine with the food. These courses would have benefited from a wine with a little age on it. Some poached venison loin was next served with butternut squash and Brussels sprout caps filled with four different spices, Jamaican peppercorns, ground hazelnut, cocoa powder and black truffle. Lovely presentation but not something I found memorable. More about a sampling of weird/off flavors then being enjoyable. That was followed by some braised pig tail and crispy cheek, This dish wasn’t bad but didn’t bowl us over. It was sort of like a confit of pork that was shredded and then formed into a round with a layer of crispy cheek served atop a layer of the braised tail. They served it with a merlot from Carmenite that had us scratching our heads at the choice. This was a typical Ca. merlot with a vegetal thing showing. There are so many better choices that this one left us a bit puzzled. The Elysian Fields Farm Lamb was a square (I believe they told me it was shoulder) of flavorful lamb that was coated by finely minced shallots that were toasted crispy. A real showstopper. We all agreed that the shallots reminded us of dried onion soup or dried onion flakes. It was a perfect foil for the juicy lamb, giving it some crunch and some bite from the onion flavor. It makes me want to pan roast some lamb chops and then finish them off in the oven with a coating of chopped shallots mixed with some finely chopped nuts like walnuts or pine nuts. And then the flavorful quotient was raised to an even higher level with the cap of prime rib. I’m a skeptic when it comes to steak, especially outside of New York City. In my time I’ve suffered far too many mediocre steaks after promises of greatness. But these three small strips of cap of prime rib, which had extremely thin slices of white truffle on it, which made the taste of truffle be ever so subtle, were just divine. More flavor then any of the game we had on either night. Unfortunately we didn’t love the Zenatto Ripasso. I’m not a fan of the Zenato wines to begin with and this wine seemed a little bit off. Six different courses for dessert sort of made it a meal within a meal. The passion fruit lassi with cumin foam and the icy pomegranate with yogurt, mint and chilies were both interesting and sort of palate cleansers. I particularly enjoyed the cumin foam but then again, I have a thing for cumin. To me the interesting desserts were the pushed Foie gras and the tea smoked chocolate. The Foie gras was pushed through a tamis and it looked as it they had served you a large spoonful of chestnut puree. Have you ever seen what a Mont Blanc dessert looks like? This looked the same but the strands of Foie were thinner in size then what you get in a Mont Blanc. Alongside the pile of pureed Foie was a sort of pear puree. Kind of like apple sauce but made out of pear. The purpose of the Foie is to add body, texture, and a fatty component to the dish. It doesn’t add much flavor and if it does it’s very subtle. But the tea-smoked chocolate was probably the most creative dessert. It was a bar of what appeared to be milk chocolate that was sort of a mousse like consistency. It was separated into quarters by a piece of dried nori which was placed between the quarters. And each section of chocolate had a small sliver of hot red chile pepper on it. It was quite unusual. From an intellectual perspective it was interesting but I’m not sure if it overcame intellect and offered pleasure. I didn’t love the huckleberry soda, which was more like ices that were melting in soda water. I passed on the wines with this course. It took us until the next morning to be able to speak about the meal with some clarity. After all, 21 courses, most with some type of twist isn’t exactly easy to digest. It wasn’t until we were in the taxi on our way to the airport the next morning that we pretty much all agreed on the following. There was too much going on in the meal for us. We all found that we would have preferred a meal with fewer courses that featured slightly larger portions of the dishes that worked well. I also have to add that I thought the gimmicks take away from the food. This whole business of, take the ravioli and press it against the roof of your mouth, strikes me as silly. As does the hullabaloo it causes when they pour the parsnip soup in your bowl and then tell you to put the rest of the ingredients in. What is the point? How about if I was led to the kitchen to chop my own vegetables? Even the rosemary vapor, which I thought lent substance to the dish, didn’t need the ceremony of the pouring of the boiling water. I just want to eat delicious food. Everything else is cherries jubilee prepared tableside to me. But if one can strike the theatrical excesses from their mind and look at them as an affectation, they certainly can cook up a storm in this place. We longingly spoke of various dishes and even though it was less then 12 hours after we departed, we put together a menu where we would have slightly larger portions so we could get to know the dishes better. In our dream world our meal would be; 1, Truffle Surprise 2. Raclette et Pommes 3. Parsnip Soup 4. Pushed Foie Gras (prepared as a savoury course) 5. Roasted Halibut 6. Maine Lobster w Rosemary Vapor 7. Lamb w shallots 8. Cap of Prime Beef In fact I have no trepidation in saying that if there was more focus on serving the above, and less on the flash and what I think of as excess dishes, with time, Trio could be considered among the best, or even the best restaurant in the country. Grant Achutz’s cuisine is in many ways less flashy than the French Laundry (where he was sous chef I believe) and the places in Spain that obviously influence him. But in spite of its modernity, there was something wholesome about the food that came though in the dishes I singled out. Because ultimately there are two ways to serve fish flavored with vanilla. You can do it and make the diners remark about how unusual it is, or you can do it and make them remark how delicious it is. I’d say Trio is 80% about the latter with the other 20% lost due to the distractions due from the clutter in the meal. But of course, the type of clutter I am reacting negatively to is fashionable these days. So I’m not sure how much this type of criticism would influence things. Te service at Trio was nothing short of stupendous. The wait staff had to be the most knowledgeable wait staff we have come up against in this country. Let me tell you, those dishes are difficult to explain (let alone remember) yet they did it perfectly and the staff was able to handle rather difficult follow up questions about the food. And just like the previous night, they anticipated our every move. And I don’t know how this happened, but right around when they served the first course the showed up with a plate that had a half dozen toast points of bread made from rice flour that they baked especially for me. Could it possibly be that after 12 years of not eating bread in restaurants that special breads were prepared on two nights in a row? Now what are the odds of that? And the wines were a good deal except we were disappointed with the red wine choices. But the non-red wine choices were great and all in all the wine program is worth the money (huge pours and refills too.) So I’ll give Trio an B++/A- and it would have gotten an A if there was a little more focus and a little less clutter. But it is definitely a place I’d like to go back to very soon and one that also has the potential to be rated at A++.

This can only be the statement of someone who is not particularly experienced with wine. Because if you read my post (or any of the others) to say that the list is inferior because of the price point, you don't understand what we has been said and that can be the only reason. As someone who has been to Chateauneuf-du-Pape to taste twice in the last three years, there are at least three dozen wines that are of better quality, and at the same price point or lower, then the Guigal CNDP. In fact saying that Guigal CNDP is the wine of the year is sort of like saying that Kraft American Cheese "Individual Slices" is the cheese of the year. And this doesn't even get into the whole issue of comparing it to the top wines from the appelation which sell for more money.

Again, it's really simple. And I don't really have much of a point. And in spite of its sheer simplicity, there are doubters who need to go to the extent of bringing things like arrogance and people being super-tasters into the issue. Rubbish. I've noticed I eat better when I let the chef choose my meal. That's it in a handbasket. It really isn't a very controversial statement. Why it's the case, whether it's fair it's the case, the fact that you as a diner might not be able to communicate that properly, can everyone get the same treatment as everyone else, is it always better etc., who cares about any of that? I make no statement about political correctness, fairness, business practices or any other issue that is ancillary to the topic. In fact anyone who is more interested in discussing those issues rather then how to get themselves the best meal possible should be posting on eFairness.com instead of here. But if you are interested in improving the quality of your experience in a restaurant, you will either take the advice or you won't. It's no skin off my back if people order off the menu. More good stuff left for the people who obviously care about it more. Bux - You have raised the not very politically-correct topic (albeit in a much more diplomatic way than I usually raise it ) of the level of experience among diners. Personally I believe that people who have a number of modern French bistro meals under their belt can approach BH in a way that is different than people who haven't had those meals. And it's not an issue of some people being more capable, it's just a matter of having had the meals to lay the foundation. I can taste the connection between the two when I go and to me that's a large part of why I like the place. And I can go to a similar place like a Fleur de Sel or Anissa and have a good meal but not experience that component during the meal. Yvonne also raised the issue of dishes being flavorful and I have to add to this that I try and eat at BH on market days. It's the same for Craft. I always try and go on Mondays or Wednesdays as much of the food will be fresher.

I haven't offered any proof other than my saying that I have noticed that when I allow the chef to choose my meal, the quality of the meal is usually better then if I order myself. And I pointed to Blue Hill and Craft as two places where the difference in quality has been material. In fact I never used to enjoy eating at Craft but since I let them do the driving I love eating there. If you don't want to be treated like every other diner, it's your responsibility to somehow convey to the restaurant that you want special treatment or that you are particularly knowledgable about food and that you would like them to perform at a certain level. I have found that the base meals in many restaurants in this city are not up to my expectations. But many of those same restaurants have a high gear they can shift into when need be. It's my job as a diner to shift the gears. Because if I am a stranger to the restaurant, they might mistake me for you or Tommy and serve me what everybody else eats. So if you want to call that arrogant, well then yes indeed. But better a well fed arrogant then a mediocre fed shmuck. Jaybee - Your question isn't really relevant because much of what you get isn't even on the menu. This is even more the case at a place like Arpege where the dishes on a chef's tasting menu might not appear on the printed menu at all. So it isn't a matter of getting a better poached duck then someone else. It's a matter of being served baby beef when it's not on the menu, or beets baked in a salt crust when they are not on the menu while other tables are eating poached duck. Or maybe it's a matter of getting a slightly different preparation then they are offering on the printed menu. I find Macro and Tommy just not getting this concept. People who do creative things for a living love catering to those who appreciate their craft. Whether it is a concert hall full of adoring fans, or a restaurant full of people who understand their cuisine, it's a more rewarding experience for them then cooking for a smartass from NJ and a middle aged business man from the U.K. And it's not that those people can't get a good meal in a restaurant because of who they are, it's just that in my experience the odds improve if you display what Robert B. calls a little connoirsseurship. (added in after) Yes Charles is correct and the concept is like Omakase. Omakase is about more then the chef choosing, it's about the chef choosing the best ingredients he has on hand.

Macrosan - You are still not paying attention. I didn't say that I think I get better food, I said I did get better food. To save you the trouble of rereading what I wrote, I said that I used to like both Blue Hill and Craft much less then I do now. And the difference has been allowing the chefs to choose my meal for me. And I don't make any special arrangements, I just make a reservation like anyone else and I just don't ask for a menu. All I will tell them is what I am allergic to, or what I hate to eat, but other then that I let them choose my meal. And it isn't that I will get special cepes. I get the same cepes as everyone else. But if you go to Craft they must have a dozen vegetables on their menu. How is one to know the cepes are special that day? Well you can't unless you somehow comunicate to the kitchen that you are looking for that information. And before you say anything, a restaurant is a business. They want to sell everything they have in the house. And if the salmon is from yesterdays delivery, but the turbot just came off the plane from Schiphol, the odds are that nobody is going to disclose that information to you unless you ask. In fact they have an incentive to sell the salmon. But as I said before, most people don't want this. They want to be safe and make sure that what is on their plate won't be offputting. They would rather eat day old, no two day old salmon and complain about it rather then eat a strange fish named turbot. But for anyone who is interested in having the best and the freshest, these types of menus are available to anyone who asks for them. But you have to ask.

Jewish Community in Strasbourg Don't know what the Our Crowd crowd ate for Hanukah but I do know that Our Gang ate ham .

The WS top wine of the year is usually a baffler but when a negociant wine from the southern Rhone, bottled by a northern Rhone producer, wins, they have stooped to a new low. It's just ridiculous. In fact the entire list is ridiculous and if one can draw any conclusion, it's that they have changed their focus to attract readers who supports a lower price point. Usually a good part of the list has top quality wines on it but not this year. The quality has clearly been debased and it can't be a coincidence.

Macrosan - Who cares why it is the way it is. Do you want to eat well or not? If you want to eat well do as I say. But if you would prefer complaining to having a great meal, just keep doing what you're doing and talking about how it's the restaurant's fault. I'm sure you will get a lot of sympathy and support from the other people on the board who would rather complain then have a good meal.

Why is it an unrealistic for customers to express to the restaurant that they are knowledgable diners, and they want the restaurant to prepare the best that they have in the house? It's quite easy. You can even ask to speak to the chef(s) to discuss it with them. As for TF, you're on probation?

Robert S. - There was a decent size Alsatian Jewish community that immigrated to the U.S. In fact the synagogue on Madison Avenue between 94th & 95th Street was founded and is still predominantly attended by Alsatian Jews. I actually have a very close friend who is the grandaughter of someone in that community. They were/are a well off community which I guess is why they lived in that neighborhood. I always found that Jews tried to hold themselves to a "peasant standard" when measuring authenticity. In fact I grew up with an immigrant father who was from a small village and didn't have much of an education. And his friends were mostly like him. So I used to think of that as the standard for Jews. But it just isn't true. There were many well off and educated Jews all over the world, both Ashkenazy and Sephardim that didn't follow peasant traditions. But I didn't, and in fact most Jews I know, didn't realize that when they were growing up. In fact my parents would speak about people like that as if they were "fancy Jews," or as if they weren't really Jewish.

Apropos of this thread, there is a terrific piece written on the A.O.C. designation system for wines in France on the Joe Dressner site. It was written on 11/1 so you have to scroll to the bottom of the first page and then click on older posts and it's the first one on the second page. For those of you who don't know him, Joe is a wine importer with a large portfolio of wines from the Loire Valley. I would have asked him if he would let me reprint the piece here except he's away on vacation. But the article outlines just a few of the problems that arise when objective standards are administered by a group of people.

The way things are going over there, I don't think it's going to be anytime soon. And it's a shame too because I've been wanting to go back to Yehuda Avahzi for some foie. I also want to go to Roshfeld and Moul Yam. Are they still good? Do they serve latkes?

That story doesn't make much sense. It wasn't exactly the best job of reporting I've seen.

Mrc - The Food Channel has plenty of money. They just don't like to give it out to people who own television programs.

So the only way to do it then is to sell your shares. That way there will be only one tax. But I'm not understanding the "abnormal dividend" rule. Do they have a rule that says dividends have to be in cash? Why can't a corporation give out any dividend they want to give as long as the receiving party pays tax on the distribution? Or why couldn't the owners of WF buy the assets for fair market value, have the corporation pay tax on that sale, and then sell the assets for cash and then they apply their stepped up basis against the purchase price to eliminate the second tax? I mean suppose they weren't retiring and they were moving to a larger location and they wanted to keep their building as the family home so they sold it to themselves? One tax or two and if the answer is one, why would it be any different on retirement?

As I was saying, are machine grated latkes artisanal?. In fact in our house machine grating is discouraged. it's hand grated or bust. Where is Israel do we have to go for the latkes and what else are you serving?

I was considering going this past summer but friends who had been years ago put me off it. They said that besides it being overly formal, the food was horrid and the wines were cheap and disappointing given the outrageous prices charged. If I recall correctly, the food and wine is included but the daily price of a room was more then $1000 a day.

Well you're putting words in my mouth. I didn't say there was anything wrong with their regular menu, I just said that if you ask them to choose your meal you are guaranteed that what they will give you are what they consider their best ingredients. And you will eat much better then if you order off the menu. But if you don't ask, you certainly can't blame anyone but yourself. But if your point is that everything on their menu should be top quality, well I guess you don't read eGullet because we complain that restaurants serve less then the top quality all of the time. But do me a favor and next time you go, don't mention my name. I don't want to be associated with people who have your attitude about it.

Shaved and white. It's an Italian restaurant remember:wink:. I mean can't you see Italian Jews doing this? Truffles should be kosher, and it's just a local ingredient. Personally, I don't see what the big deal about latkes is. They make them all year long. Nothing about the Hanukah latkes seem special to me. They are fun to eat as a social occassion but as special food? Why are they more special in December then they are in May?

Robert S. - Because those were the best latkes I've ever had. Could there be better ones including Fat Guys? Possibly. Could the numerous Tante Gussie's out there make better ones? Possible as well. Meanwhile the Campagna latkes win my prize and if I never found a better version I wouldn't care. Nina - Latkes are just the idiomatic phrase for potato pancake. Like kishka for stuffed derma. Every Polish coffee shop in the city has the same exact recipe as Eastern European Jewish homes have listed on their menus as potato pancakes. But the type of latke you are describing is the peasant way of making latkes. Not every Jew was a poor peasant. In fact, Jews from wealthier countries had better quality potatoes, and they had access to expensive toppings like smoked fish and caviar (see Alsatian Jews.) They would not only not need flour in the batter, it would probably lower the quality of the finished product. A trick to making good latkes, no matter which version you make, and I don't know if anyone has already mentioned this, is to put an onion in the pan while you are frying the latkes. That way they get the subtle taste of onion from the oil without any onion being in the batter.

Tommy - The only thing I can say about your egalitarian post is that you need to feel better about yourself. You are entitled to what you deserve, even if it's better then what everyone else gets. And I should add that the fact that you don't know how to ask for it, or are uncomfortable doing so, should only be a reflection on you and not the restaurant. Because they would gladly comply with your request if you asked them. But under no circumstances are they obligated to serve everyone the same meal. In fact, they couldn't serve everyone the same meal if they wanted to. That's because guys like you and Macrosan, knowing that chef's menus are available, still decided to order off the menu. So when the customers decide to order what they want, instead of what is the best thing in the house, in fact often rejecting what the restaurant recommends as the best thing in the house, why is it that you want to blame your bad decision on the restaurant? And yes I think the restaurant realizes it, but they shrug it off and say that's the business we have chosen (Lansky, Godfather Part II,) to serve Tommy and Macro what they asked for, not the best thing available today.

He's a good guy. He likes drinking good Rhone wines. Do you want me to hook it up?

Socialization couldn't possibly have begun with fire, unless running away from it was a group activity . Socialization in regards to fire could only have been a product of being able use a contained fire and figuring out how to use it as a source of energy. I can understand Armesto's point about cooking, but I would think that using a fire as a source of keeping warm precedes it's use for cooking. Cooking seems like it's a pretty sophisticated use of fire when keeping warm is a simple one. For 50 bonus points, who made the first fire and was he cold or hungry or both?