T. Brooks

You ate it, you bought it, no? If for whatever reason you choose not to return the dish, you must expect to be charged for it. Although if you're not entirely satisfied you should voice your displeasure to the manager, who must then try to make amends by either offering a round of digestifs or dessert or cheese or whatever. Am I wrong? I don't request or demand anything in this sort of situation. I simply ask for the manager, inform him/her of the problem and let the manager decide what if anything the restaurant will do to remedy or compensate me for it. How they handle the issue determines whether I will return. Usually the first offer is to recook or replace the offending entree. That is sometimes fine but as I said before forces me to watch everyone else at the table eat their entree and vice versa. Depends on how quickly they can replace my entree. Assuming I opt to pass on the replacement and explain my reason, more often than not the manager doesn't charge for the entree. That is what should happen. They screwed up. Holly, The floor manager? Sending a piece of fish back to the kitchen as soon as you realize something's wrong with it sends a clear message to the kitchen that 'Hey, we messed up.' The manager back there, whoever it may be, sous, expediter, etc. will take care of the problem. It's their mistake. They should take care of it. Assuming you run the restaurant smoothly, the floor manager, only responsible for the EMPOWERMENT of his or her own staff, shouldn't even have to hear about it. What the even bigger thing is, though, is that the Exec Chef or whoever is expediting shouldn't let something go out like that. SO, up to the waitstaff on their own to fix it between the kitchen and themselves, and up to the kitchen to ensure that it doesn't happen again. Otherwise, you're on the road to major issue.

Here's the big thing, if it hasn't been said already. Most of the people who own restaurants... shouldn't. The guy across the street from me owns four in town. All because he has an idea. Lives in a fancy limestone lake house, and entertains. Lucky for him, he got the property cheap, so he can recoup his expenses despite having subpar food for fine dining at prices that'll run him into the ground in the next three years.

Kim, how lovely of you to downplay the existence of a man who clearly puts thought into his posts. Do you cook? The black/white thing clearly fosters discussion on a level that helps sophists facilitate their own intrinsic need for argument. Based on the short attention span of so many of us "cooks" (thanks for that one, btw. Nothing like a stinger to tell someone to kiss your ass), it's the kind of discussion that we can sink most easily into. Now, arguing over the obscure references to Pulitzer Prize winning novels and the misspelled names contained therein, that's an obvious credit to the time and effort he-who-makes-lengthy-posts puts in. (see Ignatius J. Vs. Ignatius T. Thanks for that one as well.) My point is that in three or four short posts, you've devalued what this fella does, and stepped on toes here quite possibly without your knowledge. Instead of saying "You are no Bourdain, blah blah fart blah", don't let this line of conversation fall into the same dreadful pattern that defouls places like this. And hey, if you like Alton Brown, more power to you. He's a smart guy. No doubt, that's why all the housefraus and "foodies" (God, they stole our word!) love him. Personally, I think he has about as much personality as a dead salmon, and it's not as though I make appointments to watch him, because I can just open a cookbook and find the same stuff he's talking about in there. I can do it on my own time, without the banality of having to sit through a program where I get to relearn how to soak a genoise cake that didn't come out of the pan right.

It's actually $1,100 to $1,400 for two days. I have an article in the New York Times from September 4, 2002 in the dining out section titled, How to Boil Four-Star Water. It might be on their Web site but I don't like subscribing to online newspapers so I don't know. The article focuses on how ametuer cooks can intern at a four- or five-star restaurant anywhere between two and five days. If you want to intern at The French Laundry (Chef Thomas Keller) , Daniels in NY (Chef Daniel Boulud), L'orangerie in L.A. (Chef Ludovic Lefebvre), L'Arpege in Paris (Chef Alain Passard), Restaurant Guy Savoy (Chef Guy Savoy), Gary Danko in S.F. (Chef Gary Danko), Charlie Trotter's in Chicago (Chef Charlie Trotter), etc., etc., etc., you can find more information at here or call, 212 856 0115. A five day internship costs $1,900 to $2,600 and a two-day program costs $1,100 to $1,400. Cost does not include your transportation to and fro, nor lodging while there. You also need to bring your own chef's uniform (including the proper shoes) and a knife kit that includes tweezers, scissors, saucing spoons, and a variety of knives. FYI, the following U.S. restaurants are booked through the end of 2003: The French Laundry, Daniel, Jean Georges, and The Inn at Little Washington. The site says to check back after November 1, 2003 at which time the new calendar for 2004 will be open for booking. From the Web site: Have you ever dreamed of watching a world-renowned chef in action? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to cook in a famous kitchen? Now, for the first time ever, there is a way to realize this dream. Through an innovative one-on-one internship program known as L'École des Chefs Relais Gourmands, many of the world's greatest chefs have opened their doors to amateur cooks with a desire to learn and a true passion for fine food. Don't waste your money interning at Daniel. Cafe Boulod did a guy from my program for free last summer for a month, AND gave him a comp'ed ten course meal as thanks. And although Gary Danko is a hell of a nice guy, the kitchen's not the best for working. Rather awkward and staggered, but the wine cellar alone is enough to merit such a fancylad type expense, if you're into that sort of thing.

Myself: French Laundry 12 people@ 160/person +wine&gratuity, estimated around 325. Danko was nice to me, so probably only around 150. I had a meal in France that rivaled and surpassed both of them though, for 50 per person, and I can't tell you where it is. Still, I'm only 22. I've got alot of company dollar to spend.

I've TRIED THOSE! On a bus ride from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, I bought (ever so rebelliously) a pack of juicy fruit, which out of fear I threw away at the border, and a bag of durian candy. Everything that you say is true. To the letter. I've heard horror stories about durian, and walking through the back alleys on a musky hot Chinese New Year, I smelt it for the first time. "What's that?" I asked my friend Tomo. "Durian," he replied. "The only way that I can really describe it, the taste, texture, and smell, is that it's like eating a raspberry creme reinverse in a truckstop bathroom." The fruitstand was three blocks away. Either someone had left their window open, and in the perpetual 92 degree everyday weather, forgotten about it, or someone's shirt laundry had been pulled from the back of a durian dump truck. They don't allow durians in school, and when I took classes at an international school over there, instead of bomb sniffing dogs at the gates, there were teachers with sensitive noses, checking the backpacks of unstealthy students. It's a nasty taste, and coupled with the smell, it just doesn't have the potential to sit right. The only other food that makes me feel that way?: Natto- How so many Japanese schoolboys can eat that for breakfast and still not be known for their terrible breath or fits of vomiting, I'll never know.

Red Lobster live freezes their lobsters, ships them in cryovac'd containers, and then thaws them out at the beginning of service. Nasty, nasty stuff. They may do it differently closer to water, but as long as I know that there's no Crustaceous equivalent to Col. Sanders that'll come after me, I'm all good. Watch your back. Here comes "Larry Lobster." Oooooh. ::trembles w/fear::

Oh, and maybe you were right about just twisting them apart, although I'm fairly sure that Little Eric taught us to just give 'em a little stabby.

Hm. I was there for a summer stage last year. They had just remodeled the dining room, but are you sure there was a window running past the kitchen? I was 16 in 96, so I wouldn't have the strength of character to have spent my hard earned paper route money at the time, but I'm scratching my head trying to figure out how that would work. The kitchen now is just a continuation back from the dining room, running a line parallel to the street. Hot service line, small pastry room, and an all purpose room that they used mostly for oysters and storing the ice cream maker.

There are two ways that work for me: Keller way- Pour boiling water over them and let them steep for ten to fifteen minutes, remove from shells or roast, beurre monte to poach, what have you. The Le Bernardin way- Live, spear them behind and between the eyes with your Chef's knife, skewer the tail quickly with a bamboo rod, twist off. Twist off claws, open body, reserving tomalley and coral, cleaning and removing lungs and undesirable organs, and reserving shells and bodies for stock. The Keller way is more uniform, but to me, the Ripert way is much better, and you can get a more specialized use out of each part of the lobster itself. We used Keller's method in school, and I worked with Lobsters last summer at LB. Both are good. I prefer LB's. Don't chill them. This tenses their muscles and yields unappealing textures for the finished product. The sugar content changes, and the secretion of panic endorphins may change the flavor of the meat. Plus, using pre-chilled lobster is how they do it at Red Lobster. You don't want to be like them, do you? (Apologies to Red Lobster. I've seen how you cook your stuff)