cabrales

Michael -- I have not yet sampled any Bernachon chocolates, but they are supposed to be wonderful. I should have sampled some at the Salon Internationale du Chocolat at the Louvre last year, where Bernachon had a booth. From input I have received from other members, Bernachon is supposed to be excellent. Bernachon is indeed Lyon-based. As you may know, La Maison du Chocolat has NY presence (Madison Ave., at least). However, J-P Hevin is a "must visit" at some point. I speak with no understanding of chocolate, however.

I don't generally alter my descriptions of a meal because I know others might be viewing it; they are the same in nature as the ones I used to write up for myself prior to my membership in the board. I omit description on the board of certain meals, for various reasons. However, when I post, I emphasize for the reader the subjective nature of my assessments and sometimes note my preferences.

Michael -- The line-up for the NY "mirror" event at Blue Hill is wonderful too -- see NY forum.

Jon -- Agreed, or the "salt crust" is sea salt-only (e.g., turbot in salt at Meneau's L'Esperance, Vezelay/St-Pere). However, the picture I saw of the R Blanc salt crust dish showed a very cute-looking, yellowish-colored (as in pastry-like), smooth exterior that was itself shaped to look like a pigeon. I wondered whether the pigeon look was just for show (i.e, pastry with no sea salt), with an interior sea salt case surrounding the "real" meat.

Steve P is right, in that I should be forthcoming about my personal preference for fruit, egg or other non-chocolate based desserts. He is always explicit about the item to which he is allergic, I remember. Except for quasi-signature dishes like Lameloise's "Griottes au chocolat noir sur une marmelade d'orange" (Chagny, France), I would not choose a chocolate dessert. I will more proactive in tasting menus or surprise menus and specify that nicely to the restaurant. Steve Klc -- When you have a chance, could you clarify why you hint that a more experienced, non-professional diner might be subject to a higher potential standard in write-ups than a younger or otherwise less experienced, non-professional diner?

Below is another excerpt from the previous thread:

Has any member eaten at the chef's table at Gordon Ramsay, Claridge's (London) or Charlie Trotter's (Chicago), or in Boulud's "sky box" at Daniel (NY)? mlpc -- As you may know, Takashi Yagihashi of your restaurant is one of the Food & Wine Best New Chef "alumns" scheduled to participate in a Chicago-based event later this year: http://forums.egullet.org/ibf/index.php?ac...45786af01f0b750

Bapi -- It sounds like the bird shape was formed from the salt crust itself, and not from a pastry exterior for a more "normally" shaped salt crust, no? From the picture I have access to, the color of the exterior bird shape resembled the golden/yellowish tones one might find in pastry and not in certain forms of sea salt necessarily. Do you recollect what type of salt with such a color might have been used? Could the salt have been artificially tainted to the required color? The dish sounds interesting.

Below is the thread referred to by John: http://forums.egullet.org/ibf/index.php?ac...45786af01f0b750

On the point about fairness, why would a diner take into account a sommelier's recommendation and its appropriateness to the particular diner (recognizing that wine may be have certain "objective" characteristics; however, pairing with the meal and its saucing is rather subjective with respect to subtleties) in evaluating a restaurant, but not the composition and ingredients of the dessert or any other dish? I wouldn't necessarily downgrade my assessment of a restaurant that served me a chocolate-based dessert, but a lemon or cherry dessert would be much more helpful to the meal. Consider this. In France, woodcock or becasse is prohibited from being sold in restaurants. Monaco too. I had woodcock for the first time during last year's season at Michelin-one-starred Putney Bridge near London. That game bird was prepared very well, with the classical items placed on a little crouton. (The chef is Anthony Demeter, spelling, formerly a sous-chef of La Tante Claire's Pierre Koffman; very technically adept, and generally offering good cuisine). Of course the inclusion of woodcock in the meal led me to look upon the meal more favorably than if I had been served, say, only pigeonneau. Same when I had woodcock for the first time at Waterside Inn -- excellent. When I returned shortly thereafter and the restaurant remembered I had had the restaurant's classic preparation, that had to be taken into account in my evaluation of the meal. (As to how they remembered: my calling about the availability of woodcock several times) When the team brought out saucing with a side of bulbous, ripe but not too ripe, peeled green grapes (without knowing that is one of my favorite things to eat and rarely found in restaurant dishes for some reason) for the woodcock, did I let that strong personal preference for that form of peeled green grapes affect my assessment of the meal? Definitely.

Mao -- What did the sorbet that accompanied the rice pudding taste like? On Bouley's menu in place last month, the dessert was "Tahitian Vanilla-Carolina Rice Pudding with fresh Blackberries, Blueberries and Golden Plums. Sorbet of *Ten* Exotic Fresh Fruit Flavors". It always amuses me when restaurants refer to passionfruit or mango (the dominant flavors and coloring of the sorbet) as "exotic". The sorbet was no more special with ten flavors (integrated) than if there had been two. We were told the recipe for the rice pudding is from Robuchon. I did not think the dessert was particularly delicious. Did anybody in your party consider, and was there on the menu, "Warm Pine Nut Tart with Apple Lemon Grass Sauce, Mint, Vanilla and *White Asparagus* Ice Cream"? The use of vanilla with lobster was pioneered in France by Alain Senderens of Lucas Carton some time ago. Together with the Canard (Duck) Apicius and the foie gras steamed in cabbage leaves, this dish became his signature dish. I have never sampled Senderens' lobster, and do not know whether he utilizes vanilla from Tahiti.

Bux -- You know the answer to that question.

If I received a chocolate dessert (e.g., in a tasting menu or a surprise menu), it would be less favorable to my assessment of the meal than if I had received most cherry or lemon desserts. I do not consider that kind of assessment unfair to the applicable restaurant. In time, with learning on chocolate, I could probably evaluate chocolate desserts. However, chocolate desserts are evaluated less favorably because (1) I like them less, and (2) I know I am not good at evaluating them such that I would give less weight to a favorable or unfavorable subjective rough impression.

PaulaJ -- If you are comfortable doing so, could you consider summarizing the contents of your letter to Ecole des Chefs? Do you have a sense (e.g., from informal discussions with personnel at Boyer) as to how Ecole des Chefs might be sharing the revenue from the program with the applicable restaurant?

Steven -- Sometimes it is not only the substance of what your reviews indicate that is important, but how the discussion is framed (e.g., connotation of words, etc.) If you are comfortable discussing it, could you indicate the extent (if any) to which you seek to convey your own preferences through the framing/language of a review? I have particular ingredients (e.g., chicken, eggs, Brittany lobsters) that I like, but no ingredients (apart from waterchestnuts) that I cannot take in. I generally order what appears most interesting (including in view of a dish's history) and/or most potentially delicious to me. I hold a restaurant accountable for presenting a sufficiently broad and appealing menu that I would find items to order. Thus, I do not adjust for whether the ingredients included in dishes offered are products that I like. If the dish is not subjectively delicious to me, no mitigating factors are available in the manner you suggest.

The Amex Platinum July 2002 newsletter describes a November 5, 2002 Food & Wine Best New Chef Event at Blue Hill: "Join Food & Wine Magazine's 2002 Best New Chefs . . . Dan Barber and Mike Anthony at Blue Hill in New York City as they host a team of alumni Best New Chef award-winners. Your multi-course feast will highlight the culinary skills of these extraordinary talents, complemented by wines from Frederick Wildman & Sons, Ltd." Alumni Best New Chef participants (subject to change) are described as (1) Laurent Tourondel of Cello, (2) Rocco DiSpirito of Union Pacific, (3) Scott Bryan of Veritas, (4) Andrew Carmellini of Cafe Boulud, and (5) Wylie DuFresne of WD50. The cost is $375/person, with 80 reservations available in total and a maximum of 4 reservations per member. Ticket sales begin on July 30, 2002 at 2 pm EST. A comparable event is scheduled for October 15, 2002 in Chicago, hosted by Grant Achatz at Trio.

Steve P -- I think there may be more ingredients in a BH dish than one readily detects. But it is appealing to me that there are a smaller number of ingredients that express themselves clearly in a dish there, very generally (with the preservation of subtlety and the nuances that are appropriate). As I have indicated in the context of other restaurants, too many discernible, "strong" ingredients in a dish is not subjectively preferrable for me.

Mao -- While I have not yet visited Ouest, I read somewhere on the board that Valenti's lamb chops are only available on certain specified days of the week. If you're interested in that signature dish, you might want to check with the restaurant.

Interestingly, on the Calendar on the Blue Hill site, the "Moveable Feast" event is described as being August 15. Note Dan Barber with be one of the chefs cooking at James Beard on August 6 (menu reportedly with an "old" vs. "new" theme).

Bux -- I will try a little of the Bernachon chocolates the next time I am in Paris, and report back (with little chocolate background knowledge, unfortunately). I think Bernachon might be one of Steve P's favorite chocolates.

Another book with an excerpt on Auberge de L'Ill is James Villas' "Villas at Table" (1988): "[W]e were confronted with a whole fresh black truffle coated with foie gras, baked in puff pastry, and served with a burnished Cognac-and-truffle sauce; a delicate effusion of cream, egg yolks, frogs' legs, Riesling, and watercress, called simply 'le potage de grenouilles au cresson'; small salmon filltes concealed under a pike souffle with an ethereal cream sauce (le saumon souffle); roasted local pheasant stuffed with foie gras, mushrooms, and cagge in a truffle Madeira sauce; and a voluptuous white peach poached in vanilla syrup and served in a chocolate 'butterfly' [not in the version I received] with pistachio cream and a Champagne sabayon sauce. . . . "

Ze Kitchen Galerie is mentioned in Ed Behr's The Art of Eating (No. 60, Winter 2002 (not typo), received some time ago): "Last December [2001], I ate at a sixth arrondissement restaurant called Ze Kitchen Gallerie, which had opened three months earlier. The technique in the kitchen was excellent,b ut the overstated style was more Californian than French. Mussels, called 'mariniere', were strangely bathed in orange juice. At the same restaurant, a server first proposed a half-sweet wine . . . ad then a highly oaky white wine. We chose neither, but more assertive California-style food may go better withmore assertive California-style wine."

Are members aware of whether Simon S has decided for some reason to no longer post on his experiences?

I'd appreciate members' input on which of the linked one-starred restaurants in Barcelona offers good cuisine. Also, proximity to the airport or main train station woud be relevant. http://www.viamichelin.com/viamichelin2/gb...Q5YWGY?from=216

Lesley -- No, I was not aware of that article. Could members with access to it post relevant excerpts, including of dishes described?