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Bill Klapp

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Posts posted by Bill Klapp

  1. False premise is the problem, Steve. I haven't found much evidence of analysis in your posts, much less fair analysis. The relative cleanliness of Swiss versus Italian streets in a border town somehow doesn't seem to advance the cuisine ball very far. A semantic debate centered on the word "interesting" didn't contribute much, either. Craig hit upon something very important a minute ago-the French culinary scene is in a state of some disarray, while the Italians, through initiatives like Slow Food, are defending a rich culinary heritage and preserving its best ingredients, while at the same time, a new generation of chefs are reinterpreting traditional recipes and those ingredients in exciting new ways.

    The classic butter and cream-based haut cuisine has all but disappeared. Paul Bocuse's restaurant is more of a museum than a restaurant (but still very good, nonetheless). Cuisine minceur, probably motivated by the greedy desire to boost profits by offering less food for more money, has been dead for two decades. One of the current generation of elite French chefs, Bernard Loiseau, committed suicide recently, possibly because he suffered from depression, but not, as reported, because his restaurant had lost two points in the latest Gault Millau, but rather because his publicly-traded restaurant empire was losing money. So whither French cuisine? Fusion? Fusion certainly has a bright future. Take two or more cuisines that are not strong enough to make a statement on their own and do a mix-or-match thing. Spend a week in a noveau American city like Atlanta, eliminate the steak houses, the seafood houses and the ethnic restaurants, eat in every remaining touted restaurant in the city and tell me if you can honestly tell the difference among them (or remember any of them a week later). America may well have killed the viability of the fusion concept before the French have taken it up in earnest. What does that leave? A bunch of overpriced Paris restaurants flanked by a zillion bistros of ever-declining quality that open and close on a revolving-door basis? Gimmicky concept restaurants like Spoons? The answer is...YES.

    That, and the simplistic, homestyle cooking in places like Burgundy, Alsace and Normandy. You know, chickens braised in red wine, choucroute, local cheeses, that sort of thing. And guess what, Steve? That is where people who REALLY know French food eat. Where the food has evolved to marry perfectly with the native wines. Where only fresh, local ingredients are used, and prepared in ways that showcase those ingredients. Not in Paris (or Milano, just to show you that I am even-handed about these issues), where they sell more Perigord black truffles each year than Perigord could produce in a decade. (And while I'm at it, I'll let you in on a little secret, Steve-most Perigord truffles come from a little town in Umbria called Norcia, which produces a superior product!) In short, places that seem to me awfully like the adjacent Northern Italian countryside. In Italy, it is enough to have one great ristorante, sometimes run for decades by the same family with change, to be sure, but no loss of quality over time. No publicly traded haut cuisine restaurant chains for these folks. The emperor has no clothes, Steve. Cover up before you catch cold!

  2. Help is on the way, Steve. For lunch, try the squab salad with lightly smoked foie gras and pomegranate at All' Enoteca in Canale d' Alba, and polish off your meal with the meringue with rosemary gelato and warm wild strawberries. Then for dinner, drive to Torre Pellice (overshadowed by the French Alps, by the way, in case the urge to flee Italy strikes you when you encounter a local service station where you have to pay inside or suffer some similar indignity) and go to Flipot (just awarded its second Michelin star, and the chef isn't even French!), where you should try the antipasto comprised of rollatini of local brook trout and Swiss chard, a small filet of the aforementioned trout pan-fried in Alpine butter and a few local crawfish for good measure, and then fresh lavender creme brulee, lavender sformato (flan) or lavender sorbet for dessert. It is admittedly simple home cooking, completely devoid of any imagination or fusion, and the very but it sure is tasty and filling! (I suppose that you could take a bite of the fish and the lavender sorbet together, and create an interesting new flavor.)

  3. Are you reading this, Alain, you simplisic, unimaginative home cook, you? Your own people are turning on you. First the contretemps at the U.N., and now this. Could another loss of a Michelin star be far behind? Worse, could the sales of Alain Ducasse cookbooks and memorabilia fall off at your restaurants?

  4. Steve, you are truly amazing, and I mean that in the worst possible sense of the word! I am new to egullet, but your recent posts have inspired me to research your older posts (alas, not all 5,500 of them) on a variety of subjects, just to get a sense of your overall perspective (or lack thereof). I have concluded that you are best described as a "21st-Century Ugly American".

    Craig gives you entirely too much credit when he links you to the "temples of haut cuisine". Anyone who believes that the inclusion of pasta in a national cuisine is a fatal drawback to that cuisine ever achieving greatness, that "stinco and osso buco" are the proper measure of Italian culinary technique and that the pinnacle of technique should be to cook a bunch of things together in an effort to create a new taste, rather than enjoying the taste of "one ingredient at a time" is, to my mind, clueless respecting great food. Your most telling statement for me was that you prefer not only French, but also AMERICAN, cuisine to Italian. Clearly, you are more comfortable in France than in Italy, and the reason is simple-the French have now realized their own worst nightmare: they have become American, or at least, adopted most of our least desirable attributes. Gone is the 3-hour lunch in Paris, in favor of grabbing a sandwich and staying at your desk to make more money. Gone is the ubiquitous artisanal baguette in every corner bakery, in favor of cheaper, mass-produced loaves with a higher profit margin (but I grant you, still better than Wonder Bread!). Been in a French supermarket lately? for a frozen moment, you can easily believe that you are in suburban New Jersey! My Parisian friends tell me that the best new restaurants in Paris are either ethnic or Northern Italian, and one went so far to suggest that we open a chain of soul-food restaurants in France together, in that he believes that the French would go wild for fried chicken, collards and cornbread. And the recent French assertion that they should get a full share of the spoils of the Iraq war after trying to keep it from happening because of their fear that it would destroy their secretive but lucrative contracts with the regime (including weaponry, of course) makes the movie "Wall Street" seem like a fairy tale by comparison! Perhaps your most telling precept is your unwillingness to cope with restaurant guides that do not provide you with a simple number by which to judge how good your food is. Even Robert Parker, the guru of numerical evaluation, cautions you against the failure to heed his written notes. All of this is symptomatic of the typical American approach to life: tell me what to eat, read, watch, whatever, and then serve it up to me without delay, in the most convenient manner.

    We agree on this-Italy rarely does that for you. Italy requires that you exhibit some fundamental intellectual curiosity about things Italian, good and bad. Italians unfailingly love foreigners who love what they love, and they will go to any length to show that type of person the very best of what Italy offers. I know-I am one of those fortunate few who has learned to set aside most of my American bias and to go with the Italian flow. They do not consider it a virtue to speak English, but they will do everything in their power to help you communicate in Italian if they sense your love and respect for their language. They could give a rat's ass that you are inconvenienced by their inability to speak English. They have little interest in things American, for the simple reason that there are few things in America that do not have better counterparts in Italy. (How about some Kraft Parmesan, domestic prosciutto or California Sangiovese?) In point of fact, when the Italians bend themselves to the American culinary will, as they do in Rome, Florence and Venice, it all but destroys the local heritage.

    But back to food. Given the diversity of styles of food preparation on earth, it is hard to imagine that all great chefs could agree on a single set of principles, but the evidence is that they do. If something is flavorless no matter what you do to it, don't eat it (or eat it to survive in an emergency). Otherwise, seek out the freshest, most flavorful, seasonal ingredients that you can find, and prepare them in a manner that maximizes the unique flavor of the ingredient at hand. Balance is all-important, so even though bearnaise sauce and lump crabmeat are both delicious, covering lump crab with bearnaise diminishes both (although it does create a "new flavor"). The Italians have known and practiced this simple concept for centuries. Unlike us, they use only a little sauce on pasta because great pasta has a taste and texture that should enhanced, not obscured. In season, asparagus is offered as an entree, not a side dish, in many fine Italian restaurants, and then with a little butter or oil and lemon to bring out its flavor. The asparagus are baked, rather than steamed or boiled, because they know that baking concentrates the sweetness and richness of fresh asparagus. And, by the way, so do the best French chefs. Ever hear of Alain Ducasse? Of course, he has now become a wealthy American matinee idol, in the very best French tradition, but when I last checked, his restaurants seem to be doing very well. His culinary style? Based upon the dominant style of the Italian Riviera (I say Italian rather than French because the excellent examples of the style are much diminished west of Monaco), which is to say impeccably fresh seafood, Ligurian olive oil and vegetables and, GULP!, pasta, all simply treated. No cooking stuff together until a new flavor emerges for that boy! Finally, I just wanted to remind you that Catherine de Medici not only taught the French how to cook, but also how to eat with some implement other than their fingers! I think you either need to sample the best that Northern Italian restaurants have to offer (I would gladly provide you with a foolproof list, but Tuscany doesn't count, by the way-their native cuisine, based upon beans in the old days, has been decimated by invading British and American tourists), or stay the hell out of the Italian kitchen...

  5. Being a Type-A personality in the extreme, and having pretty good Italian language skills (at least as applied to food), I started an interesting hobby several years ago: I have created spreadsheets which collate the scores of all major restaurant rating guides for all of the provinces of Italy north of Lazio, and also list the best dishes, addresses, phone numbers and closed days and dates of each. Those guides include Michelin, Osterie d' Italia, Veronelli, Espresso, Piccinardi, Gambero Rosso, Accademia Italiana della Cucina, Willinger, Plotkin, Massobrio's Guida Critica (more or less Piemonte only) and Gault Millau (now outdated). (In the early 90s, I did the same thing for 10,000 wines worldwide for Parker, Tanzer, Wine Spectator and Gambero Rosso to teach myself about wines, and I still maintain a data base of the 1,700 or so best wines on earth.) Using that approach, you can gauge your own palate to that of the critics. I have NEVER had a bad (or even mediocre) meal in Italy using my spreadsheet. Whenever the high scores align, only the death or unannounced departure of a chef is likely to cause my spreadsheet to fail. It reveals that Gambero Rosso/Osterie (having a common publisher and covering two different levels of dining establishments) is probably the most reliable source, followed closely by Michelin (which is the most reliable source for addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and all-important closed days and dates) and Massobrio for the Piemonte. Plotkin and Willinger are good but somewhat outdated at this point, and Plotkin has a real penchant for eating on the cheap, which can be either great or terrible. AIDC and Veronelli both reflect substantial bias and idiosyncratic treatment, although both tend to hit all of the high points. Espresso is better than either, and a notorious "hard grader". Piccinardi, on the other hand, is a fairly easy grader, and has gone to a 10-point scale, which limits its effectiveness in defining quality gradations. Gambero Rosso is also a fairly hard grader, such that an overall score of 75 or better on a 100-point scale pretty much guarantees a good meal. As to Michelin, two things stand out. They are rarely wrong in passing out stars, and reasonably quick to take them away. I can confirm that ristoranti with a French style about them may fare better with Michelin, that a restaurant's ambiance will keep the ratings down regardless of how good the food gets (not a problem with Gambero Rosso, by the way, since its score has components for food, wine and ambiance) and that its "Bib gourmand" rating for typical local places representing good value is becoming increasingly spastic over time, making Osterie even more valuable. That being said, Michelin has still passed out stars to the very best young chefs in my area, the Piemonte, and it is in the hands of those chefs that the future of the outstanding Piemontese cuisine rests. If used as your only source, Michelin may let you down from time to time, especially in its ratings of ristoranti that are neither starred or "Bibs", but if cross-referenced against one or more of the sources listed above, you will generally eat very well in northern Italy.

  6. Aquitane: Sorry about the spelling! You have the mostarda of which I spoke correctly identified. Also on the pate des fruits-strictly artisanal in our area, generally in the shape of fruits and rolled in sugar. A couple of local confectionaries in our nearby towns, Alba and Asti, make them in-house, but some of the greatest come from P. Romanengo in Genoa (which is also very famous for its beautiful candied whole fruits-figs, apricots, etc.). Regarding the cugna, it is really a homemade thing, although there are artisanal jars available in local gourmet shops. In point of fact, only those I have seen for sale use the word "mostarda", and not often. The recipe is always more or less the same, I believe, but it does of course vary with the cook. By the way, jackal10 may have answered the rose question, too. I'll check, but I seem to remember something about "apothecary", although a one-to-one syrup (I assume that's what jackal10 meant) seems like it would produce something sweeter than my friend's version. I am relatively sure, however, there is nothing other than rose petals, water and sugar in it. Ciao!

  7. Aquitane: I do not believe that we are talking "confettura solida". Cugna is the consistency of apple butter (not far off applesauce, but cooked down), while the confettura di rose is the consistency of preserves (not as thick as, say, some orange marmalades, but similar to strawberry preserves without the chunks of strawberry). Neither is a paste or solid. You do find a lot of fruit paste candies made with natural fruit in our area, as well as in France, of course. These are similar to American gum drops or orange slices, but much more tender. One word of warning on cugna: it is also (rarely) called moustarda in the Piemonte, but if you go further east (Lombardia, for example), there is also a moustarda made with mustard seed which, while it can be a little sweet, is a accompaniment for meats. I don't believe that there is any hope of getting my friend's recipe on-line, and maybe not at all, but I will gather as much info as possible while I'm there this summer. I am relatively sure that the variety of rose can be grown here. Re: Piemonte, my wife and I have a retirement home there. Bill

  8. I need more opinions on Flipot. Two posters were not enamored of their meals there recently. I think they will be sharing their experiences. But dining is often the luck of the draw.

    Robert: Thanks. Let me put it this way: if we knew each other personally, I would offer you a money-back guarantee on Flipot (unless, of course, the chef had left or taken ill!). Al Sorriso and Flipot are the two best restaurants I have experienced in Italy, and my adventures include most of the Piemontese greats, including Da Guido many times (not to say it has not always been at or near the top of my list). It would be hard for me to imagine that one could fashion even an average meal at Flipot if you stick to the obviously local ingredients like salmon trout and lavender.

  9. In the Piemonte, we have something called "cugna" or "cougna", which, in Piemontese dialect, means "sister-in-law". The reference is actually off-color, since it suggests the attractive, delectable and desirable nature of one's sister-in-law! (They are Piemontese, but still Italian, after all!) Anyway, cugna is made in the fall, usually of grape must (can be Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto or a blend), apples and hazelnuts, three of the most famous local ingredients. Sugar is rarely added, as only perfectly ripe fruit is used. It is slow-cooked until it turns a rich dark brown, and it is not unlike the American apple butter, only a LOT better. It is traditionally served with the local cheeses, which include a full range of cow, milk, sheep and goat cheeses, and hard, soft and triple creme. It brings out the cheese flavors without masking them. Locals also sometimes serve the excellent local honeys with cheese. A close Piemontese friend also makes a confettura di rose (rose preserves) each year, from an edible species of antique rose that only blooms for two weeks in May each year. It is also served with cheese, and confettura with Gorgonzola makes me weep just thinking about it! (She also makes us a rose petal risotto, but I will break down if I even think about it in March!) In any event, a lightly sweet preserve or honey with the cheese course is one of the greatest Piemontese traditions.

  10. Steve P's take on this might be useful in keeping us from returning to the morass of the "superiority of French cuisine" thread. Is there something in the nature of Italian menus that robs them of variety or gastronomic interest? That would be a new topic worthy of debate.

    I personally have experienced no lack of subtlety or complexity in the best Italian restaurants, and especially at the homes of some very experienced and passionate cooks in Italy. Nor have I felt pressured to eat pasta, polenta or risotto at every meal, though at least one of these is invariably on offer. Friends on the Atkins diet (a strange idea, to my view, but then I'm no doctor) do struggle in Italy. But is that not more a matter of weight control than gastronomy?

    I have found that individual Italians, in general, seem to have somewhat stronger ideas than the French about what constitutes a "proper" meal, especially in the ordering of dishes and tastes. So perhaps they have embraced innovation less warmly than have the French.

    Or perhaps Rebecca Spang's analysis is correct (long after Wilfrid's prompting, I am finally reading The Invention of the Restaurant): the French, in the form of Grimod de la Reynière) "invented" the idea of gourmandise and  educated, classified taste -- a fairly late invention, by the way.  Hence what some are experiencing is not some inherent inferiority of Italian cuisine but rather the lack of a developed language for talking about that cuisine.

    I'm in the "Catherine de Medici not only taught the French how to cook, but also how to eat with something other than their fingers" camp myself!

  11. But they don't cite it based on their modern cooking techniques or philosophies. They cite it based on simple and traditional cuisine using local ingredients. Personally I believe that the pasta course kills any possibility of Italy ever creating a modern cuisine. To think that there *has to* be a course in the middle of the meal that is entirely devoted to starch makes no sense in the world of modern gastronomy. I mean the trend is away from starches in the first place as people want to eat lighter. Did you ever see Dr. Atkins recommend pasta? If you impose either pasta, rice or polenta on every meal, let alone as it's own course, when would you serve things like an egg with maple syrup or "perfect" food? Oh that's right, the guy who serves the perfect food also serves pasta. Gee Sandra was right about those circular arguments  :biggrin:.

    Gavin - The easiest definition of modern gastronomy in this context is the restaurants and cuisine(s) that foodies and chefs talk about. You don't hear much chatter on this website about Al Sorriso, Don Alfonso, Enotecha Pincchiori, San Vicenzo or other restaurants in Italy that have 2 or 3 Michelin stars. You hear some, but they aren't really destination restaurants other than for Italophiles who are travelling in Italy anyway. Not much talk about "I'm dying to go to San Vicenzo."  You also don't have the same demand from chefs for cookbooks and recipes from Italian chefs as you have with French and Spanish chefs.

    Steve: Fair point on the pasta. However, if you stick to fresh tajarin in the Piemonte, the best is (well, SEEMS to be) 90% egg yolks and 10% flour (40 eggs to a kilo of flour in many places), with a nice rabbit or sausage ragu on top. That will keep you well within the Atkins tolerances! (I thought that I recalled from an earlier thread that you were allergic to pasta.) I do note that my Piemontese friends tend to have pasta only at lunch, or, in keeping with tradition, after midnight (similar to the American custom of getting drunk, closing the bar and then having breakfast at an all-night diner at 2 in the morning!).

  12. Francesco, do you know Le Calandre or Flipot. The latter is on my list for this summer. Yet, I have not set eyes on any mention of Le Calandre. It is brand new to me because I have not been planning any trip to the Veneto. I will have to look it up. I hope it's better than the meals I have had at the two other three-star restaurants

    Robert, do not miss Flipot. It just received a second star, and if I were passing them out, probably would have received a third. It has an incredible young chef, one of Italy's finest. Torre Pellice is more or less where the pavement dead ends into the French Alps (or the "Freedom Alps", as we now refer to them in the U. S.!). The menu is seasonal, and created from whatever can be picked from the hillsides and fished out of the local streams. Trout and fresh-water crayfish are often featured, sometimes together. In spring and early summer, lavender flavors many dishes, including one of the most remarkable desserts I have ever tasted, lavender creme brulee! This is not, by the way, some over-the-top effort to impress Michelin-the chef has dozens of such original dishes up his sleeve, all executed to perfection. The Piemontese roots are still there, but with a totally unique individual and local spin. A great, reasonably priced wine list and a beautiful, understated dining room with seamless service. Do not miss it. We have a home in Neive, about an hour away, and I never have trouble getting a crowd of our Italian friends to pile into cars and make the run for Sunday lunch. Reservations are essential, and they have a great website. Enjoy!

  13. Peter: If you can work it in, try Le Carmagnole in Carmagnola. It hardly seems right to call a Michelin-starred ristorante a "hoot", but the place is not to be believed. Fixed menu with wines included, and not all that expensive. Incredibly original and even idiosyncratic, but never loses touch with its Piemontese roots. The owner is wonderfully warm and gracious, and his wine and food pairings are nothing short of brilliant. Strictly local and strictly fresh and seasonal ingredients, lovingly prepared and presented. None of the pseudo-French qualities that cause many Italian restaurants to earn their Michelin stars. Reservations absolutely essential. This is a place universally loved by our Piemontese friends. By the way, Carmagnola is the sweet pepper capital of Italy. Slightly southeast of Torino, and not far from the Autostrada. Torino itself is, somewhat surprisingly, not a great restaurant town. There are fairly recent rumors that fabulous ethnic restaurants are popping up around the Porta Palazzo market (one of the largest and finest in Italy, by the way), but most people want Italian, not ethnic.

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