cabrales

Molecular gastronomy was included in the following context: "Hesotn Blumenthal, it may go without saying, is Britain's most inventive chef. He calls his cooking 'molecular gastronomy', and he's often said to apply science to cooking, as if that hadn't been done before, or never properly. 'The Willy Wonka of the kitchen', my friend Patricia Michelson [fromagier] called Blumenthal, echoing a description in print. . . ." However, the potential for "inspiration" taken by Blumenthal or from others was not, as far as I can tell, discussed by Behr. By contrast, Behr seems to be impressed with Blumenthal's inventiveness, as well as the humor in his dishes. "I was glad to eat Heston Blumenthal's food, and I admire his talent. More than a handful of other chefs in the world, notably in Spain and Italy, also pursue highly innovative cooking." Behr's other theme appears to be that certain combinations utilized by Blumenthal are less outrageous when sampled than when described, and gives the example of "mere" cooking he perceived in a poached pigeon breast dish ("[g]ood old roasting").

For the sake of completeness and for LML's benefit, I thought I would provide additional thoughts by Behr on Blumenthal: "It's hard to imagine cooking like Blumenthal's succeeding in France or the US. Maybe the English are more open-minded. Unlike the French, they don't have a strong gastronomic tradition that is an inevitable point of comparison. . . . Even the most experimental French and Italian chefs that I know of refer to tradition in their cooking. They take a familiar dish and radically reinterpret it . . . . At the very least they refer to the traditions of the surrounding region by using its raw materials [terroir reference, obviously]. . . . The two menus I have from the Fat Duck contain a few continental-place names but no reference at all to English geography or products. England is richer in intellectual than in gastronomic culture, and a meal at the Fat Duck takes an unusually cerebral approach [??] to the senses. . . ."

Wimpy -- That's only a solution with respect to outgoing calls.

Steve Klc -- With respect to Shaun Hill, no. I didn't learn anything material from Behr's article on British food, with respect to restaurants at least. I also believe that, despite Behr's own caveat, one cannot write an article purporting to assess the state of cuisine in the UK without dining at Gordon Ramsay RHR, La Tante Claire and Waterside Inn, among other places.

I believe the print version of the Vacuous Gourmet's Phone Book (aka Zagat) has a list in back. At least my older version did. You can add Tabla to the list above. Apologies the numbers in the "Corkage Fees" list at the back of the *2001* NY Zagat might be outdated (I have not purchased the 2002; members should verify before reliance). The Zagat website does not currently have a list. However, below is the relevant discussion from the 2001 Zagat: "(The following major places permit patrons to BYOW after phoning in advance; though the practice is not common, these places do not discourage it, especially for rare bottles that are not on their list) Blue Ribbon Sushi ($20) *Chanterelle ($35)* Eleven Madison ($20) FireBird ($20) Gotham Bar & Grill ($35) Gramercy Tavern ($20) Il Mulino (varies by vintage) Jean Georges ($45 -- outdated clearly) La Caravelle ($30) Le Perigord ($15) *Nobu ($15)* Nobu, Next Door ($15) *Picholine ($35)* 71 Clinton ($15) Sushi of Gari ($20) Tabla ($20) Union Pacific ($30) Union Square Cafe ($20) Vong ($20)" What are members' experiences with BYO at Chanterelle?

Steve Klc -- Not to my knowledge, regarding Hiramatsu. However, I have not followed Hiramatsu reviews in recent months and have limited knowledge with which to respond to your question.

Edward Behr includes The Merchant House as among his "particularly recommended" restaurants, in his feature article on "English Food" in the most recent edition of "The Art of Cooking": "The best meal I ate in England [note Behr did not eat at, say, any Gordon Ramsay restaurant, La Tante Claire, etc., but ate at The Square], nearly perfect. Shaun Hill, the chef, cooks alone (he also answered the phone the two times I called). His wife, Anja, makes the desserts, and she serves with one helper. . . ."

Edward Behr's latest edition of "The Art of Eating" (No. 61, 2002) has "English Food" as its feature article. After noting that he has not eaten at Gordon Ramsay restaurants or locanda locatelli, Behr lists The Fat Duck, The Merchant House and St John as among his "especially recommended" places. "The highly experimental cooking of Heston Bumenthal . . . is recommended to the curious and forewarned." Below is an excerpt from a two-to-three-page write-up by Behr on The Fat Duck, with which I do not necessarily agree on certain points made: "Miraculously, these juxtapositions taste much more conservative than you could have imagined beforehand. . . . The execution is delicate and precise, and everything pretty much works. The key is restraint [??]. Flavors that sound shocking are often present only in small quantities and well-considered balance. . . . Heston Blumenthal, it may go without saying [??], is Britain's most inventive chef. He calls his cooking 'molecular gastronomy' [the subject of another eGullet thread, under General] . . . I stopped thinking that Blumenthal meant to shock and show off. Instead, I saw his food as uncompromisingly earnest, the result of a personal quest to understand taste. Blumenthal wants to amuse, and he wants to challenge, but in a good-natured way." Behr gushes: "We were more than full [by the end of the meal]. But my expectations of what constitutes a meal had been so defied tht, standing outside, I felt as if I'd hardly eaten." Also included is the snail porridge I sampled, the name of which was discussed on the board (Humor thread under General??): "Sometimes the menu lists 'snail porridge' -- a combination of rolled oats and tender snails, chopped to about oat size, with Jabugo ham in a leaf-green sauce. Our table criticized the sauce's powdery starchiness, but was that part of the play on porridge?" Behr notes, with respect to the lime and tea amuse: "Just one thing, for me, didn't suceed at all, and it was the very first, a small glass containing 'green tea and lime sour.' The taste was fine except that the ecxiting, unusual, subtle, grassy flavors of good green tean, if they were present at all, were entirely eclipsed by the lime. . . ."

I like French critic Gilles Pudlowski. He has his own guides, but also writes for various French magazines. I don't rely on this guides and frequently do not agree with his assessments of new restaurants (e.g., his glowing review of Hiramatsu, Paris), but he is quite immersed in the French restaurant scene. For me, writing in French is less beautiful when it is translated into English. The best French critic is the collective of Michelin, naturally. When Jonathan Meades (UK) was still writing about restaurants, I liked his weekly column as well. http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2840...0841273-9016250 (guide "Le Pudlo France 2002")

polly -- Apologies for the "basic" nature of my question. How can one know which rose water specimens are edible? Are there particular brands that one should be attempting to purchase?

MartyL and Beachfan -- Thanks I'll report, of course, on the wine selection as well as the cuisine. However, I don't have much experience in describing wine sampled. In the past, I have merely noted the bottle and a very general indication of my level of preference for it. On previous visits to ADNY, a friend selected the wine.

Steve P -- Your reasoning predicated on your ability to take business to another restaurant assumes that restaurants do not offer a distinctive cuisine that is not obtainable elsewhere (or at least that there is a high degree of substitutability among restaurants). For me, that is not the case. Le Bernardin (which I assume is non-BYO?) offers the experience that only Le Bernardin can offer; as does Bouley (which does allow BYO). Granted, Le Bernardin and Bouley are to a *limited* extent substitutes for another, and they are competitors for diners' business. However, going to Le Bernardin less because of the absence of BYO appears *to me* to be rather a drastic response.

Margaret -- While "capturing" meals as they become available is worthwhile, at certain restaurants I also see a given meal as part of a sequence that emboldens me to consider how the restaurant has progressed over time and how it sits somewhat differently with the passing of seasons. Sometimes that allows me to better understand the restaurant; other times it prompts me to consider how I have changed since prior visits. For instance, L'Espalier in Boston is an example of a restaurant that makes me reflect more on how I have progressed or not as I visit over time. From earlier periods when I considered the food delicious and saw a visit to the restaurant as a special occasion to now, when I consider the food acceptable, would see a visit as being in the ordinary course, and would prefer to eat at Radius or Clio anyhow (not that Radius and Clio were in place when I first visited L'Espalier). Lucas-Carton is another example of a restaurant against which I benchmark certain food-related changes in myself. It was the first three-star restaurant I visited in my life, and, despite my conclusion that Senderens' cuisine is not outstanding for me, I like the restaurant. I considered a signature dish, the foie gras steamed in cabbage, to be mediocre when I tasted it as part of that first meal -- a bit bland. When I resampled the same dish recently, I liked it considerably.

nesita -- Note that some restaurants provide less interesting dishes and limited selections as part of their $20.02 lunches. At Gotham Bar & Grill and Union Square Cafe, I subjectively found the composition of the dishes less interesting when visiting for the $20.02 lunches. Note I am in favor of having such lunches, work permitting.

Mao -- The standards I utilize for restaurants in France are considerably more stringent. I subjectively believe that French cuisine in France is markedly superior to cuisine one can find in the US.

Suvir -- Could you describe the rosewater-flavored dessert/drink that Dimple Chat appeared to offer, at least from time to time? The rose flavor was a bit stark, but rather distinctively rose, I believe.

What do people consider the minimum retail (i.e., today's wine store) price for a bottle of wine for it to be acceptable to be BYO'd to a place like Craft (or another restaurant that allows BYO)? Would a $100 retail Laville Haut-Brion 1997 suffice? If so, how about a $45-50 bottle (retail) of Chassagne Montrachet or Puligny-Montrachet?

Nina -- For me, "eat" has connotations of the mechanical aspects of putting food into one's mouth, chewing and swallowing. I prefer "take in" because it is more descriptive of sensing the aromas in a dish, viewing it and sampling it.

I recently read about the flash-fried tiny crabs at Sushi Samba 7: http://www.newyorkmetro.com/news/articles/...shes/menu_3.htm ("Dancing around in a jar atop the sushi bar, these restless crustaceans look like giant bugs. Until, that is, the chef plucks the little critters from their receptacle and plunges them -- live -- into hot oil. Zap!") I called the Sushi Samba close to Patria, and the restaurant currently has the tiny crabs. I plan to take them in sometime this weekend. Have members sampled this item, which is called "sawagani"? I took in the flash-fried Japanese river crabs (Sawagani) at the Sushi Samba close to Patria around midnight last night. As tommy observed, they are not particularly interesting. About 1/2 the length of my pinkie in width, certain small soft-shelled, coral-colored crab were quite actively moving about in a glass fish-bowl-like container at the end of the sushi counter when I arrived. However, the ones displayed were larger, and were not, the ones served to me from the kitchen. This breakage in the link from my observation of the crabs being alive to their being served to me was disappointing. The crab have somewhat harder shells than the typical large soft-shell crab, and therefore offered predominantly crunchy sensations. There were 4-5 small ones in a serving. No meaningful taste of crab flesh, and really just crunchiness (almost like corn nuts, although corn nuts feel "denser" in the mouth and less angular than the crabs). I also ordered the yellowtail Sashimi Seviche, served with a ginger, garlic and soy-based sauce ($11). There were shreds of raw celery and red onion, and a bit of radish with a heavy dose of the reddish-orangish, peppery-tasting purchased spice one sometimes uses for udon. Overall, the ceviche dish lacked the immersion in acidity one finds at, say, Patria across the street, and was only average. Other Sashimi Seviche flavors were: Tuna, orange, ginger, yuzu and white soy ($12) Fluke, lime, lemon and aji amarillo (9) Salmon, onion and citrus (9) Lobster, mango and lime (13.50) Mackeral, strawberries and balsamic vinegar (8.50) Octoupus, sake and sweet mustard miso (10) A four-seviche assortment was $27. A four tiradito assortment was $30. A combination with four of each was $49. I had a glass of Gall of Sonoma Chardonnay 1999 ($8) -- not necessarily to my liking.

I agree with jordyn. A restaurant is, of course, entitled to prohibit BYO, or to set a vey high corkage. Once it permits BYO and establishes a corkage fee, however, it should not complain about its decision, which can be modified (e.g., raising the corkage fee) from time to time as it sees fit. What is problematic about taking a restaurant up on its "offer" with respect to BYO? One is not obligated to order wine (I appreciate wine lovers may disagree with that), and one is certainly not obligated to order very expensive wine.

Beachfan -- Apart from the restaurants already mentioned in this thread, are you aware of NY restaurants at comparable levels that permit BYO? I do not have a cellar, and might purchase 6-8 bottles from time to time to drink at home and occasionally to bring to restaurants (increasingly so). It's still worthwhile, depending on the wine involved.

As members may know, Pierre Herme has a rose-flavored macaron in Paris (not necessarily in the US Wegmans facilities). Also, in Paris, Herme has a creation called the Ispahan, which involves combining a larger rose macaron with lychee. On top of the macaron is a single burgundy rose petal with a drop of translucent, dried sugar-type substance to mimic dew. See the Pierre Herme thread under France for additional details (unlinked).

Soba -- Apologies; I should have clarified the reference to expectations related to the following discussion in the "Best Sushi" thread: I recently read about the flash-fried tiny crabs at Sushi Samba 7: http://www.newyorkmetro.com/news/articles/...shes/menu_3.htm ("Dancing around in a jar atop the sushi bar, these restless crustaceans look like giant bugs. Until, that is, the chef plucks the little critters from their receptacle and plunges them -- live -- into hot oil. Zap!") I called the Sushi Samba close to Patria, and the restaurant currently has the tiny crabs. I plan to take them in sometime this weekend. Have members sampled this item, which is called "sawagani"? they taste like nothing and are a novelty imho. tommy -- Some background might clarify Soba's input as well. He and I have a visit to Jewel Bako planned.

Steve P -- Err, why not?

Blue Hill Co-chef Michael Anthony began working at Daniel in 1995. Understanding that Mike had long left Daniel by the time you began your reporting, did you happen to come across favorable discussions by Daniel kitchen or dining room team personnel relating to Blue Hill or Mike? Also, if you are comfortable discussing it, could you describe why the Boulud team chose Cello for the Christmas party described in your book? For instance, is Cello highly regarded by Boulud or A Lee, or is there some connection between Laurent Tourondel and Boulud of which I am not yet aware?