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Unfortunately Paul has other commitments to attend to. I would like to thank Paul and all those who visited and especially those who participated in this "live chat". This topic will remain open for further discussion and we hope to see paul's continued participation both on this topic and others on the egullet Forums. Paul, best wishes on your newest endeavor and beyond!

Paul's website.

I just received my rejection. I can't say that I am surprised though, as my request was somewhat unorthodox. I could not commit to any particular time for either myself or anything that they could have assigned to me, until my vacation assignment for 2007 is allocated. That won't be until this coming Tuesday. Oh well!

please read what I said about vision and concept ← Given the dizzying back and forth here at present I will respond to say that I believe Paul is referencing this post.

personally, i think that chicago is not what everyone thinks it is in regards to food. grant is doing extremely well for many reasons, a big one being that he's marketed very well. articles written about him offer a sort of a provocative/mystical approach, leaving a lot to the imagination. naturally, people are drawn to it. homaru is the same, however i don't think moto is as successful of a restaurant as many new yorkers think. quite simply, new york is the most culturally diverse city in the country, and certainly one of the most in the world... chicago? mmm... not so much. i think that we have an advantage in new york, as we have sort of a "it happened here first" perspective. so for those that think that alinea, or moto, or el bulli wouldn't work in new york, i strongly disagree. however with like anything else, all elements have to be factored in ie: clientel, price point, location, etc. as far as spain is concerned, spaniards are extremely nationalistic. and since the big modern "boom," food movement in spain, i think that they are encouraging all of there chefs. we are decidedly more cynical in this country.. myself included. you know, like when a chef in charleston starts using sodium alginate, you raise your brow to it and think, "why?" but in spain, they think, "what? another modern restaurant? hurray? anything that keeps people saying that we're superior to france now in gastronomy" (i was sort of joking a little bit). i mean, ferran adria is like emeril lagasse over there. and how many americans know who he is? not many, really. ← Thanks for these very interesting observations, Jordan. I agree that restaurants like Alinea, Moto and Avenues would be as successful in New York as Chicago as would Schwa. Both Avenues and Schwa are intersting cases though. Avenues in some respects is in a very similar situation as Gilt was (is?) as it is an elegant Hotel restaurant with a very talented chef with highly creative tendencies. Avenues, though very creative is still much more conservative in approach compared to Graham Eliot Bowle's Chicago peers in Grant Achatz and Homaru Cantu with whom he is often lumped, yet that restaurant in a swanky "midtown" hotel seems to thrive. I have to think that one reason it appears to thrive while Gilt appeared to hit a marketing lag is because the concept of extreme culinary creativity has become accepted in Chicago where it is not yet totally embraced in New York. Schwa, if it was in NYC in a similar location, would likely be located in a borough like Brooklyn rather than Manhatten. While Brooklyn has by all reports some truly outstanding restaurants, I believe that they don't get quite the same notoriety that similar quality manhatten restaurants do. I don't think that sort of division is as apparent or as much of a factor in Chicago.

good morning sir snack!! deconstrution is the idea of taking a dish and breaking it down to the different elements-wether it be temp or texture or colour-there is a point of reference in the dish,the flavour profile is recognized. dematerialization is the idea of taking componants that have no point of reference,this meaning the combinations of ingredients may at first not be recognized,but form might be ← my approche to food has always been to lookat the flavour profile of a dish and then adjust it accorroding to the ingredients , techniques at hand,I was trained in a very classic french michelin style,but I always felt that ingredients have no bounderies this is a common train of thought these days but I grew up in London when it really was not,there is a whole world of ingredients techniques, ideas-I like to use this philosophy when I cook ← Can you illustrate this concept of "dematerialization" with an example of any particular culinary creation of yours or from another chef?

Paul, you touched on this in our discussion. Would you care to elaborate on this at all in relation not just to Gilt, but your other experiences as well? ← when you open any buisness - the way you client percives you is of the upmost importance, in restaurant terms we call this the package-not just the food but the whole dining experience,but to really understand this - and I think most chefs and restauranters will agree, you have to really understand the building blocks of a restaurant- not just the financial side,working front or back of house in a fine establishment gives you a great insite, into understanding the restaurant buisness and in turn what makes a restaurant successful both commercially and financially ← What lessons have you learned from your past experiences not just with the restaurants that you have been directly involved in, but also your experience as a consultant and how will they affect what you do and how you approach your next venture? In other words what specific things were wrongly done and how would you do them differently? In addition what specific things were done well and are worth keeping?

We have had some excellent questions so far, but I will take this opportunity to remind everyone that in addition to questions for Paul, thoughtful opinions on the issues raised are also welcome. For example, Jordan, any insights that you may have on New York vs. Chicago vs San Sebastian or Barcelona and their respective receptiveness to creative cuisines, are more than welcome.

Paul, you touched on this in our discussion. Would you care to elaborate on this at all in relation not just to Gilt, but your other experiences as well?

But how much would that split in the minibar have cost? It would have been nice and appropriate for them to have had the split on the tray.

The most recent posts have been very interesting, etc., but WOW - very philosophical! So I'll keep my post simple and reiterate Akwa's question, above, and add something to it. Do you agree with those that say that New York is not nearly as receptive than, say, Chicago or San Sebastian to chefs like you, who explore the boundaries of taste and texture, take sound and smell into consideration when creating a dish, etc (the so-called hypermodernists)? Even though you do say that the food you were serving at Gilt "was not strange or weird in any way", do you fear that, when you open your own place, newyorkers will not give you the enthusiastic welcome that Grant Achatz or Homaro Cantu, for example, got in Chicago? ← i'm very interested to hear paul's reply to this post, because i think a lot of new yorkers have a skewed vision of chicago's food scene. having just spent the last year there, i might be able to shed some light on this subject as well. also, having tasted paul's food for the first time not long ago, i definitely don't see how new yorkers can be so jaded when it comes to paul liebrandts cuisine, but not when it comes to will goldfarb's? i think that new yorker's are extremely receptive to great and modern food, however you have to consider what was the typical diner like at gilt? wealthy upper east siders. of course there not going to like paul's vantage, they want food like that of aureole. so i just think that paul got a bad rap there, because he was cooking for the wrong clientel. i mean come on, it's the new york palace hotel, and the food was at new york palace hotel prices. as soon as paul gets his own venture, and does it his way, in his style, in a not-so-upper-east-side-location, he's going to fly. and he and i have discussed his plans, and i think he's going to try to open a place that's more approachable, slightly more casual, but still serious, and a bit more cost conscious for diners. i for one am very excited to see what transpires. j. ← I am interested in this question as well. While I think your analysis as to why Gilt might not have been as successful as it prhaps should have been rings true and as a result Paul took the fall, but I don't think that he actually got a bad rap as the vast majority of the reports and reviews that I have read were tremendously positive about his work. I have evn heard rumors to the effect that Gilt would have received two Michelin stars, but that rating was removed at the last minute when Paul was removed.

A corollary to this question would be a view towards copying another's work as discussed in Sincerest Form here in the eGullet Forums.

Guides are by their very nature subjective and should always be taken with a grain of salt. It helps to if they are consistent in their approach so that one can at least calibrate them to one's own taste and experience. As published guides go, I think Michelin is as good as any. I have no problem considering their recommendations along with others that I may consider. As for Zagat, the best thing about that guide is not the numbers, but the descriptors. They at least give some small sense of the gist of a place and they are often fun to read.

Welcome back, Paul!

Doc, you and I are going tpo get along just fine.... just fine.... I bet you like being called Doc, dontcha Doc! Now if someone on here knows Boras, maybe we could collectively woo Matsuzaka by showing him how comfortable NYC is for a native Japanese, over Chef Masa's cuisine. He's already married, so the biggest potential problem is already solved. We need a young ace and I would hate to see this guy in a yankme uniform ← I just don't like being called late to dinner, especially if it is at a restaurant worthy of discussion in this thread! I would happily volunteer for that recruiting mission!

Paul is still working on his computer issues and apologizes to anyone who may have set this time aside to be here. He will be on as soon as he can.

I just got off the phone with Paul who is experiencing some problems with his computer at the moment. He expects to have them resolved in about fifteen minutes or so.

Nathan, I think this is an outstanding post. One way to distinguish art and craft in cuisine is the various kitchen roles. The artistry is the creation of the dish including the combination of ingredients, methods of preparation and plating and presentation. The craft is in following the devised procedure to put all of that together in the correct manner. This is a symbiotic relationship. The craftsperson may have inherent artistry, but that is sublimated to the art of the creator. ← it all starts tomorrow at 9.00am!! ← On behalf of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts and Letters I am delighted to welcome one of our newest members, Chef Paul Liebrandt, who will be posting under the name "veda." Paul, welcome to eGullet!

Absolutely. I was in the "put towards next flight to Japan" camp until I read several "religious experience" reviews of Masa in a row. People are having out-of-body experiences there.... ← ...and I can use the money I saved on not being able to buy Mets World Series tickets there!

The only "event" that I am aware of that they will be attending is the CIA's World of Flavors Conference on "Spain and the World Table" which starts a week from yesterday. Perhaps they were heading out early for a little well-deserved R&R? ← The event has been mentioned on several threads. I will be attending and plan on reporting back on the eGullet Forums with photos if I get some good ones.

The only "event" that I am aware of that they will be attending is the CIA's World of Flavors Conference on "Spain and the World Table" which starts a week from yesterday. Perhaps they were heading out early for a little well-deserved R&R?

If there is one thing this discussion has convinced me of , it is that I must try Masa. Between what I have read here and what I have seen in the Masa topic, my culinary curiosity is certainly piqued.

Also for your perusal: Paul's website.

Here are a few topics in the New York Forum directly pertinent to Paul Liebrandt and his career: Paul Liebrandt Gilt Avant Garde Cuisine in NYC Papillon

I don't think that is a contradiction at all. Inorder to be awarded a single Michelin star a restaurant has to have outstanding food in its category. The additional stars require more than that with three stars being the complete package.