docsconz

The biggest advantage of this farmed tuna is that so long as its feedstock is sufficient, it should be sustainable.

Any idea how these will price out?

Exciting! It would be great to eat bluefin again. Even if the quality is not quite up to the best wild specimens, if it helps preserve the wild stock, it is a wonderful thing. I am curious to try it.

This article claims that there has been a "great Mexican tortilla crisis" due in large part to an increased price of corn secondary to the use of corn as a biofuel. Has there in fact been such a "crisis" in Mexico? If so what are the perceived causes? Has the promotion of corn based ethanol in gasoline been a factor?

Very nice review of MiLa by Mr. Anderson. Based on this I would not be surprised to see this restaurant on next year's list. Interestingly, Mr. Anderson dined at Mila the night I was there. I had an outstanding meal and look forward to returning.

No doubt those are huge problems which seem to be magnified in NYC. It is a difficult, expensive and risky enough process as it is, all this can not help. In the meantime, I am waiting patiently for Aldea, George's restaurant.

I think I could do it, though I would not enjoy it. One of the biggest problems in the rural US for quality farms is finding quality slaughterhouses. They are unfortunately all too rare. One of the projects our local SF convivium hopes to get involved with is developing improved slaughter facilities locally and fostreing the right skills to go with it. The quality of the meat in northeastern NY is great as the farmers do a wonderful job raising their animals. The quality of the slaughter and the butchery is much more variable. If I remember correctly, I believe I paid $4/lb live weight, since I technically bought the animal while it was alive. Lambs of this age are hard to come by in the US. Most sheep dairy farmers around here prefer to raise them to a greater weight and size.

Thanks for the report, Bryan. It is definitely on my list of places to try on the all-too-rare times I'm in the city.

Looks like I have quite a bit of catching up to do. Nice to see Jordi get the recognition. I remain amazed that Spain still doesn't have even more M stars.

Unfortunately, George won't be opening until February at the earliest. I guess that makes it my most anticipated opening of 2009.

← I believe that Dec. 8th is the anticipated date of opening to the public. I will have to find a way at some point thereafter to get down there.

I just read Platt's review - nice. I didn't want to read it or others until I finished my own.

I have posted the full report of my recent dinner at Corton on my blog. For photos please refer to the link above. I will post the body of my report here, although it is rather lengthy.

I am very much hoping to, but it ultimately will depend on economics. Last year I stayed at a lovely small hotel called Room Mate Laura. It was reasonably priced, well situated for Madrid (less so for the conference) and nicely funky. I recommend it.

Thanks for your usually well done and informative report, Lenski. Pics are always welcome It is good to hear such positive things from someone whose palate I know and trust. Do they still have the bar at the kitchen?

Interesting. It certainly makes sense that the heat from the flame would evaporate some water as well as burn some alcohol. Unfortunately, I can't tell you if that is actually the case though.

The Southern Food and Beverage Museum and the associated Museum of the American Cocktail located in the same space in Riverwalk in the fair city of New Orleans are not to be missed when there.

I know the thought has crossed his mind, however, I am not aware of anything imminent. Given the current economy, I doubt that there will be anything in the near future. It is clear though that Chef Achatz is quite comfortable with the staff he has running Alinea, as he has stepped away from the restaurant much more than he has in the past, including during the depths of his illness. In addition to the Astor Center event, Starchefs ICC this past September and Madrid Fusión in January, Grant will be doing the special dinners at Per Se and The French laundry with Thomas Keller as well as Keller's joining him in Chicago for a dinner at Alinea. They should be amazing dinners, although the price tags are out of my league.

The Astor Center was the scene last Thursday night of the NY Public's first opportunity to taste Grant Achatz' cooking in their home city. Grant Achatz, Nick Kokonas and a crew from the restaurant, Alinea, in Chicago were in the Big Apple to promote the eponymous new book from the restaurant and to have a party. At $250pp, there was no evidence of a recession as the Astor Center event was extremely well attended. The NYC dining public was treated to Achatz classics like "hot potato, cold potato," a dish that combines potato, hot Yukon Gold sphere and cold potato soup with a bit of Parmesan cheese, butter, chive some truffle and sea salt with the novel presentation of a pin and a paraffin bowl as well as the always enjoyable "black truffle explosion" with more black truffle, ravioli filled with black truffle "spheres", Parmesan slices and wilted romaine lettuce. Needless to say, given the crowds, the lines for these legendary delights were long throughout the event as it took time to assemble each serving. Other, newer and less well known dishes were also presented. One of which even involved a wall installation that was a play on a now classic Alinea centerpiece, the Ohio honeycomb. With this installation, the guest had to punch through the paper honeycomb to reach a shrimp crisp locate within each cell of the installation. This was clever, fun and tasty. Thanks to Steven Shaw for being the hand model in the photos. As busy as the event was, even Nick Kokonas, Achatz' business partner in Alinea, was thrown into the mix, serving "pumpkin with smoked salt" from the famous Alinea antenae. Despite all the culinary delights and theater in evidence, as always the star of the show was Grant Achatz himself. Chef Achatz welcomed the crowd to the event and over the latter half tirelessly sat at a table dedicating and signing an Alinea book for each person who attended the event. The event was a success and many a New Yorker, who had never previously been able to experience Alinea, now were able to have a taste of it. I am sure that many an appetite became even more whetted for the full experience. It was great to see a number of eGullet Society members there, too! For more photos from the event, please see my blog.

Prices are starting to inch down where I live. The seafood manager at my local Hannaford's doesn't order his lobsters through Hannaford. Instead he says he orders them right from a dockside supplier in Maine. He says that he is paying considerably more than $5/lb, but then he isn't really moving very many of them. The small ones are being sold there as of yesterday for $10.99/lb with jumbos at $12.99/lb, all hardshells.

John. The only question is that in the next 20 years, this cuisine, is no more contemporary. The same for "avantgarde cuisine" Honestly, Tecnoemocional, reflects what I felt in restaurants such as Alinea, Denis Martin, Can Roca, Mugaritz.... ← I agree with you, Paulo, which is why I use "technoemotional" to describe that style of cooking. While Victor is right that it is a little cumbersome, I believe that it is accurate. I use " contemporary creative" when discussing it with people who may not particularly care or really aren't all that involved.

Stayiing at the apartment of friends in the Upper West Side of Manhattan last week, I was curious to try the new salumeria in the area owned and run by Cesare Casella, Salumeria Rosi. having heard a rumor that the shop/restaurant had opened I arranged to meet my brother and sister there for lunch. While the Marketplace of the salumeria would be open later in the afternoon and they were planning on serving their opening dinner that night, unfortunately they were not yet open for lunch. Instead we wound up at the not too far and still quite new Shake Shack UWS. Suffice to say that we enjoyed each others company, but this post is not about Shake Shack. After our lunch, I headed downtown for some business and returned to the UWS later in the afternoon. 2Since the marketplace was supposed to be open, I decided to return and check it out. Still a bit late from the time we were told earlier, but clearly closer to fruition, the marketplace was just about to open, but only in a soft sense. They were not quite yet doing business, but Casella and his staff were there with samples of their wares for prospective customers to try. Though small and with a low-key storefront located to the also low-key, small storefront of the new Jacques Torres chocolate shop, the shop/restaurant was very nicely appointed with the salumeria counter at the entrance and some tables to the side and the rear. With prosciutti hanging from the ceiling in front of the wall behind the counter, the offerings looked fresh and delicious. Freshly imported mozzarelle di bufala and burate along with other Italian cheeses lined part of the glass enclosed refrigerated cabinet.A variety of salumi were to the left of the cheeses as one peered into the glass, while a number of prepared products along with olives and other items lay to the right of the cheeses from the onlooker's perspective. The presentations were colorful and beautiful in the glass cases. Cesare Casella himself cut some Prosciutto di Parma by hand for me to taste, while the countermen sliced some more of that as well as prosciutto cotto, Mortadella and Prosciutto di San Daniele to sample. The samples were delicious, my preference in this case being for the Prosciuuto di Parma over the San Daniele. The Parma was, in this instance, more complex and with deeper flavor. Another time, I would love to return to try the many other items available. This should be a fine addition to that neighborhood. For more photos, please see my photo album on my new blog, aka "Docsconz - the Blog."

Victor, the term is a bit cumbersome, but I still have yet to see a better or more accurate one for what it describes. You are correct that Arenós has rightly identified what he considers "technoemotional" cuisine to be a direct descendant of Nouvelle, which in itself is a descendant of classic French cooking. You are also correct that both of those schools utilized technology and emotion. The difference, however, is the conscious desire in this new field to create technology and the techniques derived from it to achieve specific and explicit emotional and intellectual results, more so than has ever been the case with any previous movement in cooking. Previously, the emotions sought consisted of generic elements of pleasure and astonishment. This movement looks to understand what produces specific emotions and to elicit them such as Blumenthal's use of sea sounds in one of his dishes. As for people using the term to decide what to have for dinner on any given night, I doubt that will be much of an issue as very few of these chef's restaurants are of the sort that many people will be able to dine at them on a whim. As for "neococina," that, like "nouvelle" cuisine is built to be almost immediately outdated, especially this far into the evolution of this style of cooking. I'm not suggesting that this be used, but when referring to the "technoemotional" style of cooking and not wishing to belabor that point to those who may understand, but not particularly care, I generally use the term "contemporary creative" cuisine.

Wendy Littlefield, a very intelligent woman with a head for business (she built Ommegang Brewery) and a heart for sustainable agriculture, has formulated an idea to bring more local, sustainable agriculture to regional higher education institutions. She outlines it in her blog.

Is he? I know that he is very much into food and Spanish food in particular. I met him briefly at the first Starchefs ICC in NYC, where he stopped in to visit with Sergio Arola. He was quite friendly with a number of the chefs there. Of course, he could still be vegetarian or vegan, though that is difficult to do in Spain, especially the latter. Unfortunately, I did not see him eat, so can not give a first hand account.