cabrales

Steven -- Are you angry at me for some reason? I meant I couldn't help with edits, etc., in particular. As for chef changes and other updates, I think participation on the board in response to questions would make information available, no?

Below is the bulk of The Evening Standard's report from yesterday on the opening of Menu. Note the references to a recent act of vandalism. "400 of Gordon Ramsay's closest friends turned up last night for the launch of his two new restaurants, Menu and The Grill Room. The celebrity chef was unshaken by the recent attack on the restaurants by vandals, causing thousands of pounds in damage - which I first revealed last week. Ramsay said he thought he knew who had carried out the attack. 'Good luck, darling,' said Michael Winner loudly, giving Ramsay a big hug. Jockey Richard Johnson was more restrained in his greeting with former girlfriend Zara Phillips, daughter of Princess Anne, but they got along well enough. As it was also the preview party for the Thomas Pink Gold Cup at Cheltenham there were racing celebrities like tipster John McCririck." On September 25, 2002, the same newspaper had reported the vandalism: "Just one week before the opening ... vandals have done thousands of pounds' worth of damage. 'Cigarette burns were found in each of the blinds in Menu, the main dining room at the Connaught,' says a Gordon Ramsay spokesman. 'It smacks of sabotage. As the blinds are designed by Nina Campbell, and there is one in every window, they are very expensive to replace.' . . . . Damage was also done to the carpets of the 70-seat restaurant . . . ."

Steven -- While I am unable to render assistance in view of other time demands, I'd be interested in learning about what the principal themes in your book are. Since your book title refers to "best" restaurants, was the quality of the cuisine the only criterion taken into account (thereby potentially including many more expensive restaurants), or are there "best" restaurants in lower price ranges?

Wilfrid -- You make things sound so complicated. What Steve P is doing shows a lot of conviction, which I commend.

I'd appreciate members' views on the taste discrepancies between curly and flat parsley.

Here are some links to descriptions of the blue Chagall windows at Rheims: http://www.gen.umn.edu/faculty_staff/yahnk...ss/cross-1b.htm http://www.cathedrale-reims.com/vitraux3.html

Less so: Tetsuya's dish with ocean trout, which I have not sampled. At least one version appears to be "Confit of Ocean Trout with Fennel Salad". My sibling tasted some type of ocean trout dish, and indicated that the restaurant at least did perceive it as a signature dish. I believe Steingarten's article from earlier this year, addressing the sourcing of ingredients, might have also mentioned trout in connection with Tetsuya. http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Main/Fea...1197,96,00.html http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/store...3522020-5129605 (see book description)

Michael -- Perhaps you could prepare desserts, and then sample them with me, one day.... By the way, I read somewhere that you might have started at Tribute not in the patissier position, but as part of the non-patissier cuisinier team. If you are comfortable, please consider discussing how much you like cooking non-dessert items.

Below is a 2002 article from The Observer, on how helpful MPW was to Novelli. I believe a Novelli cookbook might hint at this too (unclear, as I glanced at it in a bookstore and did not buy it). http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4350798,00.html "Novelli's saviour, in this expensively appointed kitchen sink drama, was, appropriately, the man who set in motion the whole idea of London as a restaurant capital, the man who Novelli refers to as his greatest friend and as one of the 'very few inspired artists Britain has produced': Marco Pierre White. . . . They had not, at the time, been in touch with each other for many months. As the financial pressures on him [Novelli] had increased Novelli had stopped talking. . . . Novelli responded for once to the March of the Valkyries ring tone of his mobile phone. It was, of course, Marco, first inviting him to his forthcoming wedding, second insisting that they talk about his problems. They met up that night . . . . He poured out everything to Marco; the size of his debts and liabilities . . . . . Marco, he says, in reply, very measured . . . . He . . . arrived in Clerkenwell the next day **with his cheque book** asking how much he needed to at least keep his flagship restaurant, Maison Novelli, afloat. 'I was so embarrassed,' says Novelli now, in his office above that restaurant, 'And **so honoured** that he wanted to help after the way I had behaved. I said to him 'Take the fucking place'. But he said it was my place . . . And he signed me a cheque, **much more than I expected or deserved**. Later we worked out a partnership deal . . . '"

Michael -- I don't disagree Gagnaire will have "an" infulence on the way "some" chefs cook, but the question is what type of influence in the context of the current discussion. By the way, I don't happen to agree that a great artist (which, in my mind, excludes Gagnaire) would necessarily produce a large number of pupils. Nor necessarily great pupils. It's one relevant measure, but not necessarily determinative. I don't purport to know the future influence of Gagnaire, particularly as it might be perceived by others. On Lefebvre's lamb dish, I concede that I have never sampled it. I am very cautious about making assertions about dishes that have never been tasted, including by reason of looking at pictures, reviewing the ingredients and the name of the dish, etc. Perhaps you are confident framing arguments predicated on such secondary or tertiary information; I am not.

Michael -- The eight member of the Group of Eight is J-M Lorain. I don't disagree that M Troisgros' views are in certain ways close to certain views of others in that group of eight. I am making the point that, even though Michel Troisgros worked with M Guerard, among others, he must have been more influenced by Pierre Troisgros (if not Jean) than by Guerard. Absent a more concrete showing on your part re: S Bras, I would tend to assume that M Bras would have been more influential. I was calling into question your earlier statement that "[t]he full extent to which we see Gagnaire's influence is not quite apparent... Sebastien Bras (Michel's son), one of the Pourcel brothers, Jordi Butron, Ludovic LeFebvre, are just the few that immediately popped into my head". If S Bras is to be an example of Gagnaire's influence or potential influence, wouldn't there have to be some type of demonstration that M Bras, his father and the person with whom he has been immersed all his life, was not more influential? http://www.saveurs.sympatico.ca/relais/fra.../troisgros2.htm "Michel a suivi son parcours de part et d'autre de l'Atlantique MOULIN DE MOUGINS, Roger VERGE, en Eté 1974 Restaurant Alain CHAPEL à Mionnay en Eté 1975 Restaurant GIRARDET à Lausanne, Suisse, en 1976 Restaurant TAILLEVENT à Paris, en 1977?1978 Restaurant CHEZ PANISSE à San Francisco, en Hiver 1978 Restaurant COMME CHEZ SOI à Bruxelles, Belgique, HOTEL CONNAUGHT à Londres, Grande Bretagne, en 1979 Restaurant MICHEL GUERARD à Eugénie les Bains, Saison 1981 COMPTOIR GOURMAND, MICHEL GUERARD à New-York, en Hiver 1982 Depuis 1982, retour dans l'affaire familiale, le RESTAURANT TROISGROS à Roanne" On my point re: Lefebvre, it was merely to point out to other members a fact of which you are, of course, aware -- that Lefebvre (whom you mentioned as an example of Gagnairian influence) worked at Arpege after he worked at Gagnaire, and was influenced by not only Gagnaire. I do not believe that five examples from a book -- containing dishes that neither you nor I have sampled -- are persuasive on the slanted influence of Gagnaire on Lefebvre that you might be inferring. I should mention that, for example, one does not know how the rack of lamb was prepared --perhaps it was roasted in a special way. Also, the inclusion of sweet AND sour vegetables with the lamb goes to negate the inference you draw that the lamb dish suggests Gagnaire. That manner of spicing does not necessarily suggest Gagnaire.

As members based out of NY know, the lead article in the NYC Dining section today was about the utilization of grapes in cuisine. It featured Blue Hill: "One recent afternoon, the chefs Dan Barber and Michael Anthony were painting purple hues in the kitchen in Blue Hill, their restaurant in Greenwich Village. Mr. Anthony spooned onto a plate an indigo sauce he had reduced from a quart of ripe Concord grapes plus shallots, ginger and lemon grass, creating a pool for four barely **steamed red Maine shrimp**. . . . Concord grape marmalade, a condiment for **seared foie gras**. Earlier, he [Dan Barber] had seeded the grapes and had separated their nectary pulp from their slip skins. He had cooked the grapes with a small quantity of sugar, folded in caramelized onions and a touch of vegetable broth, and had baked the mix until it reduced to a thick jam. Now he was tweaking its sweetness with spoonfuls of an inky, tart grape-skin purée. 'I've come a long way from Welch's,' Mr. Barber said, laughing. Indeed he had. As he got ready to prepare a third grape-laced sauce for the menu that night — **a glaze for duck breast** — the thought came to mind that an American grape had rarely inspired such enthusiasm." I happen to have pre-existing reservations at BH this weekend, and hope to ask for more than one of the described dishes.

Michael -- I'd have to say that Ludovic LeFebvre is not necessarily best classified as a disciple of Gagnaire. http://www.jamesbeard.org/events/2001/11/018.shtml ("He entered the professional kitchen at age 13 with an apprenticeship at Maxim. A year later, Lefebvre secured a second apprenticeship, this one in Marc Meneau’s kitchen at the legendary L’Espérance in Burgundy. Lefebvre was deeply influenced by the culinary leanings of his next mentor, Pierre Gagnaire, who encouraged his protégé to experiment with unusual combinations and spices. **From Gagnaire’s kitchen, Lefebvre moved on to Alain Passard’s famed L’Arpège,** and followed that experience with a **stint** at the Michelin three-star Le Grand Véfour.") http://www.orangerie.com/news.htm ("Bon Appetit. . . . Executive Chef Ludovic Lefebvre came to the Ferry's from a multi-starred background which includes Marc Meneau's Three-Star L'Esperance, Pierre gagnaire and Guy Martin's Three-Star Le Grand Vefour, **Alain Passard's Three-Star Arpege** restaurants in France.") Also, while Michel Bras' son did work at Gagnaire, wouldn't he be more influenced by M Bras? For example, M Troisgros worked for all sorts of chefs. However, wouldn't M Troisgros have been influenced most by the Troisgros family?

Pic's (originally Jacques Pic's) bass with caviar La Tour d'Argent's duck (with the blood sauce and made using the duck press) La Mere Brazier's chicken in half-mourning Less so: Bernard Loiseau's frog legs with parsley and garlic Less so: Divellec's lobster made from the lobster press Less so: Bocuse's bass in a pastry crust

Steve P -- I couldn't have said that better, except that I also consider Ducasse's technique to be unimpressive.

Andy -- With respect to the specific aspect of reestablishing himself after his earlier problems?

Novelli was fortunate enough (with respect to reestablishing himself, to be clear) to have MPW as his mentor and cheerleader, though.

Andy -- That's too bad. I have never visited Neat in Southern France, but did visit Neat (gastronomic) in OXO twice. I remember the smoked foie gras dish -- intense (in a good way) and the views of the river at night from certain tables. Also, the purplish-burgundy single stalk of lily the restaurant sometimes used as table decoration.

BLH -- I have been seated at several different locations in the post-redecoration restaurant. Once, I was in the back-most room, and Guy Savoy kept on peering into the dining room areas and seemed to be moving back and forth a great deal, past the corridor next to my table. More recently, Steve P, Marc and I sat in the first room upon entering the restaurant (on the right hand side, close to the deep burgundy-dominated modern painting, as one enters). I am not thrilled by the decor at Guy Savoy -- it's clearly modern and expensive-looking. However, it lacks a certain lusciousness. I wonder whether members have sat in the little, one-table room adjacent to the first room (and closer physically to the street than the first room) upon entering the restaurant. That little room is to the left as one enters the first room from the street.

In the course of reading up on Sel de la Terre, bistro sibling to L'Espalier in Boston, I stumbled across a review by the Boston Globe. It refers to, among other things, the following: "An appetizer of **grilled trap squid** sings with a robust red wine sauce, lots of thyme, parsley, and other herbs, and the salty bite of capers. The trap designation refers, Gardner says in a phone interview, to the fact that the squid were caught in traps and brought in that day, in the same manner as dayboat fish or lobster. " http://ae.boston.com/dining/globe_review/253

I'd appreciate hearing about what dishes might be relatively attractive at Maxim's, Paris. I understand that the cuisine is not particularly good, but am planning a visit for the historical aspects of the restaurant.

Michael -- "Plan", hmm, too concrete a connotation.

Thanks, everybody. Once again this year, I am hopeful, but that has been the case every year for a while now (with ultimate failure having been the result.)

Jinmyo -- Now you're making me blush.

awbrig -- It will take a while. I am going out of town this weekend (hopefully; Clio) and work is somewhat busy.