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This sounds like much more than the usual amount of dishes, so I can understand that pacing might have been an issue. Being in the kitchen must have been so cool. What was the atmosphere like? It seemed very quiet and calm for the brief few minutes that I was in it last year, but being there during the service must have been very interesting. It was very cool. I was actually overwhelmed by the attention. The kitchen itself was the model of order and calm attention to their work. Out front in front of the bull it was a bit more hectic with people and cameras and voices and laughter. It was a blast! ← I am really looking forward to hearing more about this. ← Hopefully later today if I get the chance. If not, then Thursday.

My experience at elBulli this past Friday for my birthday solidified its hold on me as my absolute favorite restaurant. I will post photos later, but I will apologize in advance for their quality. My camera settings had been altered and the photos were quite dark as a result. Using digital enhancement I have managed to get most of them to a presentable point, though nothing like the plates deserve. Fortunately a number of the dishes are already represented above by smoz. Early in the afternoon on Friday I was not feeling particularly well to the point that I wondered if I would even be able to make it. Fortunately with the help of a brief nap and some Advil I was able to rally so that by the time we got there I was in reasonable shape. Aside from the fact that I couldn't have missed this meal, I'm very glad I made it there. What we met upon our arrival simply took my breathe away. We arrived about 5 minutes late for our 7:30PM time and were brought immediately into the kitchen where Ferran, Juli Soler and their team were waiting to greet us and show us to our table - in the kitchen! They asked me if we would mind if we were served the snack portion of the meal there before removing to the dining room! Oh, in addition, we would be filmed by a crew from Spanish television doing a report on the restaurant in the wake of the Restaurant Magazine rankings. What could I say? I was stunned and turned into a babbling idiot (moreso than usual ), but my appetite revived and we had a blast. We ate the first 8-10 courses there before moving into the main dining room for another 25-30 plates. Fortunately my ability to taste was fully intact. Unfortunately, I filled much more quickly than I ordinarily would and couldn't enjoy all the dishes to the extent that I ordinarily would have as I tried to pace myself. Having the opportunity to chat with Ferran and Albert Adria, Juli Soler, Luis Garcia and a number of others on the elBulli team was fun, but an additional highlight was seeing eGullet Society member Dana Revallo again. He is currently chef de partie of warm tapas at the restaurant. The vast majority of our dishes were new to 2007. Though I enjoyed the flavors and concepts of all of them, as in any restaurant there were some I particularly enjoyed. I will do my best to present and address each dish individually when I post my photos later on. There were new techniques, new concepts and new ingredients, but the overall tenor of the meal was built upon Catalan tradition. This was made more evident to me by the fact that my wife's and my 4 dining companions were all native Catalans, who were able to illuminate some subtleties that I would likely have missed. By the end of the evening I had waxed and waned with multiple second winds and was feeling pretty good. I would have loved to linger a bit longer after the meal, but it was already after 1AM and my wife and I had to drive to Barcelona airport early that morning to fly home.

The texture of the raspberry fondant (as I remember it) was somewhere between a fondant and a jelly however I was discussing it with Mrs Smoz last night and she insists that it was more like a freeze dried raspberry, couldn't be a more different texture so take your pick as to whose memory you trust. And yes, we were told to eat the fondant first before following it up with the vinegar. I have no suggestions as to how best to replicate this, perhaps people more gifted than me will have an idea. ← My recollection is more along the lines of what Mrs. Smoz recalled. I believe the "fondant" was represented by the vinegar. It's funny how small details can be obscured within one's memory when the formation of those memories is bombarded by so many incredible things.

show me an instance where Adria did. I don't see it in any of his books or elsewhere, other than his rejecting the label. ← Ferran Adria (1997) Los Secretos de El Bulli, p.33: In a chapter entitled 'Is there anything left to discover? -- Physics & Chemistry', Adria describes his first encounter with Herve This on a course on Molecular Gastronomy run by the Fundacion Escoffier, and says, "I can affirm that thanks to this encounter my style could follow a new direction ... soon some of the ideas that followed from this conference, such as foams, became great successes at El Bulli.".. ← You have me on a technicality, but it only referred to the course called "Molecular Gastronomy." Adria did not use the term as a description of his cuisine. I also did not mean to imply or imply that Adria or presumably Blumenthal have ever rejected the work or contributions of This or McGee, which they very much still embrace. They just don't embrace the term. Ibelieve though may be mistaken that the term comes from This.

Of course he had plenty to do with the kind of cooking that the term "Molecular Gastronomy" purports to describe. What he didn't have anything to do with is the term "Molecular Gastronomy" itself, which you claimed he co-opted and used for marketing purposes. There is simply no evidence for the assertion that you made. He was very quick to distance himself from that term as it became the popular one used for a style of creative cooking. This does not mean that Adria (or Blumenthal) reject science in the kitchen. What it means is that science is a tool and not an end in itself as the term "Molecular Gastronomy" would imply.

Congratulations to eGullet Society member Michael Laskonis for his James Beard Award as Outstanding Pastry Chef!

Outstanding!

It would have been a crime if Chef Achatz did not win this Beard award. As with you Steven, there is no question in my mind that Alinea is amongst a handful of the very best restaurants in the world.

Congratulations to Chef Richard and mark Slater for their Beard Awards - Chef Richard for Outstanding Chef and Mark for Outstanding Wine Service Both of these awards are national and not just regional. Outstanding indeed!

Rancho Gordo grows and sells many different kinds of beans. Any idea which variety was used?

Perhaps Blumenthal used the term, but show me an instance where Adria did. I don't see it in any of his books or elsewhere, other than his rejecting the label. Of course you are free to call it whatever you want.

Is "new cookery" the accepted term? ← I don't believe that there is a universally accepted term, but at least molecular gastronomy appears to be universally rejected - at least by the chefs themselves who are doing the work. That is not to say that science has been thrown out of the kitchen. Far from it. Instead it is a means to an end rather than the end itself which the term "molecular gastronomy" implies.

Working on them along with others from Can Roca, Ca Sento, L'Esguard, El Poblet, Monastrell and others!

I had the pleasure of sampling a number of flavors at Arlecchino back in March that were all sensational. The only comparables that I've had for gelato are some in Italy and the olive oil gelato at Otto in NYC, which remains my all-time favorite. At Arlecchino I sampled about 8 different flavors. I can say that I have never sampled a better body of work in gelato than there.

I shared that remarkable meal with Eliot and concur with every one of his points. The meal was outstanding in very respect. The sensation of the Kobe beef exploding in the mouth was reminiscent of the first time I tried a spherical olive at elBulli. I don't have anything else to add to Elliot's outstanding report except to also say that any future visit to LV will also need to include a visit to Wing lei. It is a cuisine that I have not experienced anywhere else at this level of quality and preparation. Having done my medical specialty training at UVA, I have always had a healthy respect for Coach K. We had a brief but very nice discussion with he and his family that only increased my respect for him even more. He also appears to have good taste in restaurants.

I just returned from an incredible week of dining in eastern Spain culminating in a birthday dinner last night at elBulli. I am quite pleased to say that creative cooking remains alive and well in Spain and if last night's dinner is any indication, the amazing creativity at elBulli shows no sign of slowing. More to come from what was once again an amazing experience!

Given that yesterday was a "puente" or bridge day for the May 1 holiday, at least a few of the better tapas bars in Valencia were unable to serve most seafood items because of the inavailabilty of fresh seafood secondary to the holiday. Seafood including Denia prawns were served today at El Poblet. I asked the waitress there if the fisherman in Denia fished today. She answered that she didn't know.

Given Pichet's previous relationship with J-G, i'm not surprised about the sodas. The question to me is did Pichet Ong contribute the soda idea to J-G or vice versa? I love the sodas at J-G and think it is a great idea whoever developed it.

Discussion of the new Ducasse venture in NYC - Adour - is located here.

Critics like Bruni and Platt have a bias against restaurants that do classic things well. They are bored by old-fashioned cuisine, practically no matter how well it is executed. They also don't enjoy the rituals of formal service. Remember, Bruni's favorite word for that type of service is "fussy," which he never means as a compliment. So Gordon Ramsay has two strikes against it, right off the bat. ← Funny thing is, Bruni doesn't appear to like hypermodern or extremely creative cuisine either, but that is probably a discussion for another topic ← I don't care whether or not Bruni is gay. I live in a golf resort area a little out of Jacksonville (you can wave to me at the TPC in couple of weeks). He talks about food the way just about every male golfer I've ever played with here in years of playing talks. Steak is great - particularly if served with/by sexy women. Stranger food (anything that is not steak) is frequently ok if not served in formal surroundings. He has had to bow a bit to TPTB in New York - not like giving Per Se 1 star. But overall - to me - he's just an average guy who seems to enjoy average guy food. Wonder what his handicap his? Robyn ← What does Bruni's sexual orientation have to do with anything here?

I made some RG Cannelini beans last night and served them with pasta along with spinach, pork tenderloin, porcinis and sundried tomatoes. i had leftover beans for lunch today - soooo good!

I did a similar thing last month. I walked in around 6pm on a Friday. I ordered the entire dessert menu. I had everything you had plus 2 other desserts (Hazelnut, banana, and parsnip; and Elderflower, Lychee, green tea, and black currant). My favorite was the latter. I had the same reaction with the carrot dessert. At first, I thought it was rancid because it was sour. The goma-white chocolate combination was good, but the carrot just ruined it for me. I needed something salty so I ordered the beef tongue dish at the end. Creativity aside, it was a mediocre dish. ← Many people espouse eating dessert first, but unfortunately that doesn't always work out for the best. Might the order of your meal have contributed to your perception of the tongue? I know that it would have for me.

While this discussion is quite interesting, worthy of discussion and heretofore has been pertinent to the topic, it is becoming increasingly more marginal to it. As such this avenue is closed unless it can be explicitly brought to bear on the apparent deterioration of the quality of the Italian-American food in Little Italy.

Well, if you look into the sociological and demographic research done on cities, including NYC, you'll find that the research supports what I'm saying about the formation of ethnic neighborhoods. Structural constraints limit where people can settle more than their preferences do. There are a lot of studies on this, but I'll just quote this bit from the abstract of the first one that came up for me (From "Race and Ethnicity in Housing: Turnover in NYC, 1978-1987"): And that's just one study, that's a bit old at this point. Anyway, I think it's widely known by those who study cities that this is what happens much more often than people freely choosing which areas they want to live in. But the reason I want to point out how this happened in the first place is to say that segregated neighborhoods with a bunch of ethnically-similar restaraunts are not a sign of progress, but of problems and inequality. That is directly related to the issue of ethnic neighborhood deterioration because, well, should we really be trying to encouage segregation? It seems a bit to me like getting nostalgic about colonization or other unsavory periods and practices in US history. ← Your points are well taken. I think John L. addressed some up-topic as well. Sure most people who wind up in ethnic neighborhoods would rather have the means to be in more upscale locations as per John's Asian example, but the reason they tend to concentrate in specific neighborhoods is still due to familiarity - with people already there as well as customs. of course, it also has to be a neighborhood that they can afford so the choices are indeed limited as you pointed out. The second part of your post is quite right. It is certainly not a bad thing for the people who grew out of their neighborhoods. I am one of them. Segregation, especially forced cannot be defended nor am I wont to do so. However, something special is lost or diminished when these cultural icons are lost. They are part of one's identity. What people including myself are bemoaning here is not that the neighborhood has "gone downhill" or even that it has been replaced by different ethnic groups each of which are doing what those before have done. What we are bemoaning is the loss of a particular quality and identity. Who will replace DePaolo's when that wonderful institution eventually gives way or becomes something different than what made it great? Or Esposito's Pork Store in Brooklyn? or others, whatever the ethnic origin? In this particular discussion it happens to be the Italians of Manhattan's Little Italy but the questions can apply to any recently assimilated culture. However, while the convergence of ethnic homogeneity in an area may very well be signs of "problems and inequality" I don't believe that it is necessarily so. It is if those neighborhoods are closed off to others or egress from those neighborhoods is closed off to those who comprise it. Fortunately I think that while still present in various parts of the country and city it is less so than it was in the past.

Short of getting to the shop in Alicante are there any alternatives in either Alicante or Valencia for sampling his products?