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Chef Andoni Luis Aduriz, the highly acclaimed chef of Mugaritz in San Sebastien will be opening another restaurant, this one in the city of Zaragoza in the new five star Hotel Reina Petronila, which will be part of the new Aragonia Complex. It is not clear to me at this time if this will be a restaurant similar in style to Mugaritz or something completely different. Based on the photo, it is clear that the actual opening of this apparently as yet unnamed restaurant will likely be quite some time into the future.

George Mendes, formerly of Wallsé, Tocqueville and Bouley has found his space after two years of searching for the right one. His anticipated opening is September, which would likely mean that he won't be in charge of the prep kitchen at the Starchefs International Chefs Congress this year, though that is an assumption on my part. Food will likely be creative Iberian and French inspired. Another interesting opening planned for NYC is that of Chef Miguel Sanchez Romera, the neurologist cum chef who apparently has closed his unique and beautiful restaurant L'Esguard in Catalunya to concentrate on opening his restaurant in NY. Though I have not seen nor heard of a planned date or even location, the closure of L'Esguard would seem to indicate that it will likely be some time this year. It will be interesting to see how new Yorkers take to his food. I had a great meal at L'Esguard approximately one year ago.

Having only dined at l'Esguard once, I cannot attest to the value of the restaurant or Romera's creativity over time. It would certainly appear that he has focused very strongly on the Micri product, possibly to the detriment of his overall culinary development and creativity, however, based on one visit, I must strongly disagree that his recipes were not exciting or tasty. I could see and understand how they might become boring on repeated visits, but they are unique compared to others and I did find them to be not only delicious, but also quite beautiful. Our visit to L'Esguard last spring was frankly, one of the culinary highlights of that trip to Spain. I had heard plans last spring that Romera wanted to open in NYC, but did not hear that it would be t the expense of the Catalan original. I think that his style and food will likely make a positive initial impression in NY, though his staying power will be determined by his ability to evolve and grow. Based on your post, and others, Judith, I question his interest or ability to do either of those things. It will be interesting to see what happens. I wish him well!

it looks and sounds as if you had a wonderful experience! Nice pics. They brought back many fond memories. I wish that I was going this year!

It won't be boring if it is really good. If it is just ordinary, then yes, boring.

If you have a link to the menu, can you please post it here. I haven't seen it yet myself. What specifically strikes you as "absurdly boring and conservative?" Does it seem like a dumbed down version of classic French bistro fare? If not, if it is just classic French as described in the press release and done well, I don't find that boring at all.

Your point has merit in relation to Gourmet and Saveur, but not, if you actually read SLOW, the magazine of Slow Food, with Slow Food, the organization even though individuals involved with that organization, including myself, can be painted with the same brush you used on Gourmet and Saveur. Slow Food is about much more than selling a few specialties to the privileged, though that is a subset of what happens. That, however, is because the privileged tend to like good things and more importantly can afford them. The motto of Slow Food is "good, clean & fair." Good stands for good quality, clean for environmentally responsible and sustainable production and fair, for non-exploitive economies related to these products. The products involved are global in nature and not designed to keep anyone poor or "rustic."

Though not yet perfect, my second go at the C-Vap was a major step up. I made two veal roasts marinated with olive oil, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. This time I set the machine at the low end of its recommendations. The final temp was set at 130º F with a browning setting of 6 to cook for two hours and hold for another two. The two roasts of about even size totaled about 4 pounds of meat. I used the cook and hold setting and not the constant cook that had been recommended for the chicken. After an initial browning stage, the remainder of the cook time was at or around the target temperature. Here are the results: The roasts could have used more browning. Next time I will set the browning stage higher. I could have remedied this by searing them on the stove, but it had already held for awhile and everything else was ready. In addition, I wanted to see and taste what it would be like as it was. As I hope you can see the internal temperature doneness was pretty nigh on perfect for what I was aiming for. Doing this again, I would let it cook for longer at this temperature in hopes of tenderizing the meat a little more. Nevertheless, the doneness was right on and the meat was wonderfully juicy. The meat picked up nice flavors from the marinade though perhaps not as intensely had it been cooked sous vide. Another nice element was that the meat lost very little volume during the cooking process. I served the meat with roasted cauliflower, roasted fingerling potatoes, sautéed spinach and sautéed parsnips with Indian spices. The meat wound up benefiting from additional salt, though I thought I had applied plenty with the marinade. The non-meat roasts were done with a convection oven. I still have to work on my target times. The chicken I started way too early leaving it overdone. This I started later than I should have. It wasn't underdone, I just should have given it more time.

Yes, it is the same Rafa's. BTW, there is a Rafa's in cadaques that is not at all connected to the one in Roses. Walk-ins may be possible, but are unlikely. rafa's doesn't even open if he doesn't have good fish.

There are a few good places to eat in Roses including the wonderful Rafa's. I would suggest having a fall-back reservation there (if you can) as you will in all probability need it. Rafa's is probably one of the best places in Spain (and therefore the world) to eat pristine, well-prepared, but simple seafood. The premises are nothing fancy and most likely your table will be in the street. In many respects it is the antithesis to elBulli, though they complement each other perfectly. Roses itself is nothing special for a day trip, however, nearby Cadaques is. Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of that seaside village is the home of Salvador Dali, which is well worth visiting. There are other interesting restaurants in the area as well, but since I do not have first-hand experience with them, I will refer you to further research in the forum.

I'm sorry that you weren't there this year. It would have been fun to meet you and get your take on the proceedings. I heard some horror stories about that food-poisonng episode including the kinds of things experienced Fusion goers would not eat. I didn't hear of anything like that happening this year.

I'm excited to read the positive impressions so far. I'm looking forward to reading the details.

This is not just a classic French restaurant. It is a classic French restaurant with the name Alain Ducasse behind it. he could open a hot dog joint and it would be newsworthy. Come to think of it, it really would be newsworthy if he did that!

The press release for Benoit:

I'm not going to claim that the article is well-written-- as I said, it's snarky, which doesn't help Sterling's case-- but it doesn't strike me as at all unreasonable in its content. ← Had the writer chosen different words to convey the "content", the overall impression given would have been quite different and quite reasonable, leaving a positive impression of Slow Food. It is his specific choice of words though that make me question the seriousness of his intent. As a hatchet piece, if it really was intended to be one, it really is pretty poor. As for the last paragraph being "frankly admiring," I wonder which he admires more, "aging sharks" or a "networked swarm of piranhas"? I would hate to see what he would have written had he not been so admiring.

The problem is that the author appears to have a problem with that! I don't get that. Can you point to examples? ← Basically it is the tone of his choice of words as exemplified in this paragraph: The words "myrmidons" and "infiltrate" don't exactly offer positive connotations, which is why I took the piece as being satire. The remainder of the article carries the same tone. There may be plenty to criticize Slow Food about, after all it is a human organization, but if this writer is serious, his critique is absurd.

The problem is that the author appears to have a problem with that!

Thanks for the input, Nathan. How would you suggest monitoring the oven temp?

Many restaurants in Europe charge a "cover" which includes bread. It is usually fairly nominal.

The irony is that it may actually be better for people who are not big bread eaters than simply rolling it into the general price structure of the restaurant. Because it would be an increase that is not disguised it would be more noticeable and so more potentially problematic to the restaurant's pr.

This has to be one of the finest and funniest posts I have ever read. There must have been a lot of maple syrup in that food. I wish that I could have been at that dinner. It sounds like it was incredible in every respect (except perhaps the wines).

Excellent article on a rarely described side of the world of evening fun. Thanks!

Nice photo. I will add that this is some of the best coffee I have ever had the pleasure of drinking. It is not as easy as it looks. I managed to get away without any real burns, but then I didn't get to the full arm's length either!

Rob, Aga ovens are basically fancy conventional ovens that I have no doubt are wonderful. This one depends on water vapor, timing and fancy electronics. The closest thing that I have seen to the C-Vap is the Alto-Shaam ovens.

The interesting thing about his device is that it does more than just cook low and slow. In fact, this chicken came out quite differently than if it had been cooked that way. It combines high heat for browning and low temperature for cooking and holding. If I didn't want the chicken browned, i could have cooked it with more of a sous vide approach, but I agree that would not be the best way to go with a whole chicken. In classic sous vide if one wants a maillard on one's meat, one would have to sear it either before or after. This machine theoretically, at least, incorporates that into its process. For the roast chicken, it acted not so much like a low temp cooking source, but a controlled high temp source. Since using this machine is entirely new to me, I will be learning as I go and document my successes (and failures) here. Because it was overcooked, this chicken was a failure, but not a total one. It was a valuable learning experience that needs to be followed up on. I did get to see some of the very real potential greatness of this tool.