docsconz

What part of Ottawa is Atelier located in? Based on the photos, the area appears to be a residential one. Is that true? Chef Lepine, can you give us some background on yourself and your staff? Best of luck!

Thanks for the outstanding report, David. As I mentioned uptopic, this is the one restaurant in Las Vegas that I had definitely planned on dining at next month. You did nothing to dissuade me. The one thing I would say, is that Chef Moonen does not not to specify that the peaches at Frog Hollow stay on the trees to ripen as that is what they routinely do. The peaches at Frog Hollow are not inexpensive, but the quality definitely shows.

Ricardo will be presenting at Madrifd Fusión in January. His topic will be "Mexican Soups, a Very Contemporary Tradition."

The full description for Chef Franklin Becker's Lunch was "Grilled American Lamb Burger with Wisconsin Feta, Pickled Onions, Golden Raisin Ketchuo and Shawarma Spice." Thanks Kerry and Renn for reading. I appreciate the feedback!

I'll be in Las Vegas in early December for a CME course. I'll be by myself and welcome dining companions from the 1st through the 3rd. PM me if interested and available. At this point I'm not sure which restaurants I'll hit other than RM.

You usually get less dehydration and trim loss percent using larger pieces. The longer the aging time, the greater this benefit would be. But despite this, most dry-aging these days is sub-primal, probably for ease of handling. Other than that, the process is pretty much standard no matter how long you dry-age: 32-36F, around 80-90% humidity (aging does work at lower humidity, but your weight loss would be appalling over a long aging time), lots of air flow and careful bacteria control (UV light is your friend). ← David Burke ages beef up to 80 days in a specially constructed room made out of Himalayan salt blocks.

Beautiful. Do you know how thick the steaks were when originally cut?

That's for damn sure. ← I don't mind paying a fair value for this, but if the seafood is going to be expensive, I'd at least like to see the fisherman get a fair part of that. To this point the prices in my local supermarkets remain high. It does not appear that the lobster fishermen are seeing much of that right now. That kind of pisses me off.

My experience at August had the food as decidedly mediocre and the service poor. Mila was exceptional on both counts. Ironically Brett Anderson was dining at MiLa the night I was there and I met him then.

I have been using my CVap to good effect, but I haven't tried much new with it for a while. Here is a video and recipe via Starchefs of Wylie Dufresne using the CVap for cauliflower and turbot. I will have to try something like this.

I would certainly put MiLa over Restaurant August. Other than Cochon, which would shock if it wasn't there, I can't really comment on the rest of the list. Cochon can't have a much longer track record than MiLa, can it? Upperline was great 14 years ago. I still hear very good things about it.

Cheaper perhaps, but is it a better value?

The problem is the Momos aren't really cheap - they just lack the trappings.

The Program for Madrid Fusión 2009 is out and looks spectacular. This year a focus is on Mexico, including presenters such as Ricardo Muñoz, Patricia Quintana and Enrique Olvera amongst others. There will be a strong presence of US based chefs and culinarians including Grant Achatz, David Chang, Harold McGee, Sotohiro Kosugi and Jose Andres amongst others as well as the usual assortment of European heavy hitters. The dates are January 19-22nd.

Sounds wonderful.

This is true of a lot of technoemotional cuisine. Generally it either resonates or it doesn't. WD-50 is much the same way. I love that restaurant, but have friends who simply do not. On the same token, I know a lot of people who love Pierre Gagnaire and/or El Poblet. Neither experience particularly resonated with me. It could also be that given the apparent problems in the restaurant listed throughout Kai's meal, the restaurant simply had an off-night and was in the weeds from the get go. Unfortunate if true, but it happens to every restaurant on occasion. I tend to agree that large groups should not be accommodated in the main dining rooms of high-end restaurants along with other customers. It does have a tendency to restrict or impair the experience of the other diners.

Lenski, what made the canalons so distinctly Catalan? What was the preparation? How do they compare with the canalons from Gaig, to date the best that I have experienced?

My most recent experience at Moto, which is posted up thread, is certainly along the lines of Brent's. The Moto servers, while lacking in some polish compared to career FOH staff, offer other attributes to increase their value to the interested diner, Kai's experience notwithstanding - that appears to be an unfortunate fluke. I wonder if some of Kai's response to the food may have been cultural. Cantu's jokes play directly off American culture and dining sensibilities that may not play as well to a European. It is clear that Moto is very much a technique driven restaurant, however, I found the techniques to have been put to good use. In this sense, it is more similar to WD-50 than say Alinea. Wylie also tends to riff off of American comfort food in many of his dishes. If those traditions are not part of one's culinary genome, I would expect either of these restaurants to be less well received.

A minimalist, Jordan is not. They are beautiful plates and I'm sure they are delicious as well.

All indications I have seen indicate late this week or early next.

He is currently the pastry chef at Michael Mina's new L.A. restaurant XIV.

In an apparent shocker, Neal Ferguson has suddenly left Allen & Delancey, the restaurant he opened to critical acclaim after leaving Gordon Ramsey. He is becoming executive chef at Soho Club, a private dining facility. He left citing "personal and moral reasons."

I was cutting back on travel and high expense dining even before the economy tanked as I now am paying one full private college tuition and anticipate a second next year. With the economy down, much of the funds that I thought I had set aside have disappeared with the market crash. As such, my discretionary dining and travel budgets have taken even greater hits rendering much uncertainty for the future. I don't plane on totally missing out on fine dining and travel, however, I will have to select opportunities carefully. When I do get to indulge, I will need to keep a closer eye on the tab. A clear and easy casualty will be scaling back on wine options. One thing that seems to have already happened is that we are dining out less frequently at more routine type restaurants and cooking in more.

I have to admit that the desserts as listed on paper didn't really thrill me. I mean, "milk and cookies?" But those do not appear to be ordinary chocolate chip cookies! That last photo is just sinful!

Wow! Great report and photos, Ronnie. I couldn't wait to get out there for myself before, but now...I am totally drooling. Soon, but not soon enough!