paul o' vendange

Forgot to add that as a teenager, for an outing with my French class, went to L'Auberge Parisienne. I can't vouch for the food (going back nearly 30 years ago - god), but the setting was nice; in someone's home, or so it seemed, with a nice view of a verdant back yard and environs.

You're killing me. Born and bred Venturan, haven't been home in 10 years. I remember going to a sulfur-fed hot springs in Ojai, with massage facilities and a natural food restaurant next door. The food was not bad (not hay bricks on tofu squares, actually a decent caesar, at the time). But I would not go for the food, necessarily, rather for the private tubs (sulfur reeks everywhere. Wonderful) and massage. A nice retreat, sorry can't remember the name. Chicago today is: muggy, stifling and miserable. Yippee!

I work for a law firm. Business is for... Aw, the hell with it. I'm going to go read Anna Karenina.

By the end of business Sunday I am ready for the end of business Friday.

Thanks very much Rachel.

Sorry, everyone, been away, and should have confirmed. Yep, you bet, we're on - Monday night, 7:00. I'll be the guy with an Orval, and a lamp, stumbling up and down Clark street, saying "have you seen the dolphin? Have you seen the dolphin?" Guajolote - Am sorry that I will have to miss your event. Reading, it seems you have dozens of howling beasts perched at your door, poised to pounce on some serious food. Have a blast! Look forward to seeing you on Monday. Maggie, thanks for the heads up re: Rachel; I have given it to her. See y'all Monday.

Well, I am quite convinced we got it right with this lad - but given his name is Connor, maybe he's pulled the wool over our eyes and we will have to repeat our visit.

FG, I don't know which is more common, FOH to BOH, or vice-versa. In my case, I had cooked French food since I was old enough to read. Although I came to FOH to make money and pursue life as an actor, I had always wanted to be in the kitchen. There was a romance to it. When you finished, you came out in whites, exhausted, and the staff would pour a goblet of red wine for you. More, I appreciated the artistry of it. Then I woke up. Usually in the middle of a shift, flying about 2" off the ground (and 2" off my sanity) with FOH losing their shit because customer __ had to wait too long for a goddamned rack. FOH was to me disgusting whoredom. But, there was a certain self-righteous joke that only I was in on; I was charming, I could smile, and sell, and only I knew I truly didn't give a damn about what they ordered or wanted, for the most part. Still, I knew and honored some truly career BOH people I had come to know. Many of them were young guys, like me at the time, who had emigrated from "old houses" in NY to L.A. These guys knew what they were doing, were old school though young, and would retire doing it. I was always aware I sucked compared to them. Invento - Can't agree that service is more important than food. Granted, truly rotten service will kill a place. But merely mediocre food will as well, at least from my experience.

Andy, had I known of the Chipping Camden location, my wife and I would have tried it out. Years ago, we spent some time in the Cotswolds (Hook Norton - Pear Tree Inn and Hook Norton Brewery), Warwick, etc., and loved it very much; hoping to come back. Something must have been right. Our little boy was conceived there. Gives new meaning to Hook Norton's "Old Hooky!"

Nigella Lawson?

I can say that from my experience, which includes both sides of the swinging kitchen door, there is no comparison. It is true that a senior back of house member, i.e., executive chef will likely make more than a front of house server with same number of years experience, as the latter's salary is effectively "frozen" and indexed on the check averages, but most BOH folks are not executive chefs. Most places I have worked, from swank L.A. places (For Hans Rockenwagner, among others) to Chicago, FOH makes a killing over BOH. Egregiously so. When a bad night for FOH means less than $200, or roughly $26 an hour, and a bad night for BOH means, well, a bad night, as in no matter how slammed or fried we get, we're still pulling in $9-13 an hour, then, yeah, that blows. And lest one thinks the labor bullshit about BOH not getting paid for O.T. is just that, bullshit, think again - I worked for a since-closed up-and-coming joint for a then-up-and-coming rising star in the L.A. scene, who had the balls to drive around in the JAG daddy bought for him while he bounced - bounced, a month's worth of pay, at 90 hours per week. Forget no OT; more, no pay. Never paid the straight time back. And this is not unusual. As to whether this is a market glitch or not, tips do not come out of owner pockets, so they don't care. In fact, many places, placing servers on salaries and appropriating the tips to themselves, do doubly well. So, from a strictly capitalist viewpoint, no, there is no market glitch. They can get away with it because people will work for it. But from a social good standpoint, it blows. Utterly.

Yep, agree, the little cornichons/acid a good way to cut the richness. Didn't eat with mustard but will for Round 2... Here's what I made it with: 1/2 # rabbit legs (reserved from rabbit roulade earlier in the week), 1 duck breast, weighing about 2 oz; 1/4 # pork butt, the duck liver, which was a little over 2.5 oz; and an egg white, which was about 2 oz. Therefore, total meat and egg: about a pound. 9 oz. fatback. The other duck breast, I split lengthwise and pan seared with FL's "squab spice," which I had reserved from when I made the squab and figs, earlier last month. The squab spice consists of: cinnamon, coriander, clove, quatre epice and black pepper. So, the forcemeat spice ratio: for one pound of meat, 1/3 tsp quatre epice, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1.5 tsp salt. I boiled a small quenelle and cooled to taste, and it tasted spot on, again, luckily. Merveilleuse!

On its way, Xan! This is actually the first terrine I have made, and luck of the draw, it really was very good. Pulled together from a few different folks - Madeleine Kamman gives a good description of proportions, and in the book, Soul of the Chef, Brian Polcyn's Master Chef Certification Exam, his duck terrine. Really nice to see the pink-seared duck breast with a luckily (luckily, as I guessed on spice ratios) well-flavored forcemeat, and the shiitake slices were beautiful. Rich, though!

After resting 48 hours, eating rabbit/duck/shiitake terrine prepared Friday with cornichons on the side. Marvelous.

Chicken saute with tomatoes, artichoke hearts, stock, tarragon, shallots. Rutabega/turnip/bacon gratin Aussie shiraz for now, when it's done, Jekel Chard. Still more (the end) of the peach lavender sorbet.

A robust goblet of a robust Aussie Shiraz.

Looking at my shelves, only about 30-40 total - but they include Escoffier, LaRousse, Bocuse, McGee, Keller, Peterson, Kamman, Child, CIA, David, Pepin, Soltner, Sokolov, Saulnier, Hazan, Dornenburg, Ruhlman... In other words, if I never acquire another, I will die before tapping these out. Well, of course, there is Ducasse, Girardet, Robuchon... Damn.

Chef, thanks for the Seattle heads-up. I love the NW and perhaps my family and I will end up there post-FCI. Cheers.

Lesley, CIA offers both an Associates and Bachelor's degrees.

Chef Fowke, thank you indeed for such an exhaustive, wonderful report. I am on a self-prescribed Bourdeaux tour these days, but my spiritual home is the Rhone, with Gigondas as king, and I have not had the wines you mentioned. Congratulations on such a successful event (and on your other ventures).

Classic rabbit/duck terrine (rabbit reserved when I made rabbit roulade earlier this week), garnished with seared duck breast, shiitakes, and pistachios. Cooling now for tomorrow, with toast points and an orange-bourbon glaze. Edited to reflect, that would be, er, shiitakes.

O.K., one more post. This is from Dan Barber's comments in the FCI article with him: "The FCI is a great example, as a lot of things are, that you get out of it what you put into it. And if you're the type of person who is going to be late to class, and not follow up on your assignments and you're only interested in some sexy presentations and the exciting later-level involvement, The FCI is probably not the school for you. "But it seems to me if that you can bring to it an excitement and a passion for learning at a time when you just have nothing else to do but learn…to me, I would LOVE to go back and do that again….I'd say if you're the type of person who puts a lot of energy and commitment and involvement to what you do, then it's a great, great environment in which to learn." Now, the beer.

I say we all get a case of pbr. And Steve, you have spurred me on to do such a thing.

Soba, c'est la vie. Simply my experience, which goes back to 1990. It is considerably different, and is not inaccurately represented from my empirical vantage point. But I am deeply surprised to hear that most associates in your firm are in it to pay off their undergrad and law school debt in 2, 3, or 4 years? I just did an empirical study, at my firm (granted, not rigorously statistical). 5 people asked, mix of established senior partners, new partners, young associates. "What do you think is the average time to pay back law school loans" [did not ask of these plus undergrad loans]: The consensus was a minimum of 10 years, and that at a huge monthly outlay. Enter family or other financial encumbrances, and that 10 can stretch to much, much longer (one did say, "8...but I'm just taking a stab"...but he is a senior partner and his school was paid for; another associate said she definitely thought the pay-out/pay-in ratio was only going to get drastically worse, therefore expecting much longer payback times). Anyway, I'm glad your experience and that of your firm's lawyers is different. Hell, may all people be thus satisified in their work. ---- Steve KLC - just for the record (god, this is beginning to sound like a trial for all of us, isn't it?), Dan was not one of the guys I spoke with. But he lists FCI as his education, as does FCI list him on their alumni page. Again, what you have had to say is valuable to me, and I leave (I think) this thread with much more than I have come in with. Edited to add: I agree with you wholeheartedly that the nature of the instructor matters above all else. Which is what led me, in a former iteration, to devote 1 1/2 years training as an uchideshi - literally, inside, direct student, a disciple, if you will, to a Japanese Aikido master. But then, that is most definitely another thread. Oh, and sorry, Steve, didn't fully answer you. We are coming en masse - wife, son, and 2 ridiculously oversized labradors - to NY. We shall see what happens after. We want very much to spend time in France.

Soba, most of the ones that "chewed them up and spit them out" were IT-intensive firms. I know, as I worked nights; one of them, in particular, I knew the young associates came in early morning and were there when I left, after midnight. And they were there on weekends. If they weren't, they were out. The other stuff, respecting the life of an attorney, has been my general observation (and apparently that of attorneys, at least in substantial number, judging from the profession's own admissions, which I referenced above). The vitriol was mine, and I regret the heated edge, as I said. But I stand by what I think to be an inherently flawed system which I believe values billable hours over professional growth, or job satisfaction. My main argument was that if we are looking at pay-in v. pay-out, in a strictly dollar sense, law school and the private culinary schools are not a universe apart (to say nothing of the "soft-variable" utility considerations, such as personal fulfillment).