Bux

Some? The world is always changing and we may be on the cusp of having more chefs who started in culiary school than as apprentices, but I am an older school diner. In NYC, when a chefs, considerably younger than I am, open a restaurant, their press releases have, more often than not, stressed in which kitchens they've worked, and not where they've gone to school or if they've gone to cooking school. Surely you're not saying that a diploma from a culinary school entitles one to be called a chef? The only people who call a cooking school grad "chef" on the day he graduates are his friends and relatives. If he's got a PhD in culinary arts however, he's entitled to be called "doctor."

Jean-Luc Figueras' name comes up several times in a thread on Sant Pau, and not unreasonably in a thread on Barcelona One-Stars. You can click on the underlined links to go to the threads.

I forgot all about the Chez Paul boulangeries. They are not only all over Paris, but in other parts of France. I remember getting a fougasse from thier shop in Lille. As much as I am not fond of the homogenization of food brought about by chains and the fabrication and distribution of the same products all over, I will admit that they make some fine bread. They're certainly not the best bakers in Paris, but my guess is that they're often the best bakers in the neighborhood. I think Chez Paul even has a sandwich shop in the food court at the Louvre in the underground space.

Jaymes, I've edited you post to make the link to Lance's page a clickable one, but I don't find much information about the Tour on his site. I suppose we'll get updates later.

The only cookware shop I've ever bought anything in in Paris is the rather famous E. Dehillerin at 18-20 rue Coquillière also in the 1st arrondissement. It's probably a few blocks away from the shop nightscotsman recommends. Both shops are in Patricia Wells' chapter on kitchenware shops. MORA seems more geared towards baking. This area is just northwest of the Jardins des Halles. The shops in the area date from when the area was the commercial wholesale food market of Paris and you'll find several professional cooking and baking supply shops in the area. It's worth checking out both places and scouting for other shops in the area. I almost forgot one other place and that's the Bazaar de l'Hotel de Ville across from the city hall in the 4th arrondisement. Patricia Wells recommends the Art de la Table department on the third floor. I recall that as having overdesigned stuff and shopped for real tools in the basement, but this goes back close to 40 years.

I know Dan and Mike well enough to almost wince when I read negative comments about Blue Hill. I also know of Harold Moore, who was last chef at Montrachet and who is now in the kitchen at Blue Hill. I think that says quite a bit of the sort of respect the kitchen has among other chefs. In a way however, I am relieved to read of faults, especially minor ones, because there are always going to be some people who are disappointed, at least some of the time, at any restaurant. Reviews and posts on eGullet about restaurants should help decide where to eat and how to get the most out of the dining experience once that choice is made, but what's written is far more important than what some people consider the bottom line -- was it good? If eGullet can guide the right people to the right restaurants, it will serve a much better purpose than a guide such as Zagat where the numbers from diner with my taste and understanding of food are averaged with someone else whose opinion is uninteresting to me. From Zagat I get the same score when my alter ego rates high and my nemesis rates low as I do when my food doppleganger hates the place and someone else loves it. Rozrapp's careful documentation of the things that displeased her is the kind of thing that serves us very well. I'm pleased to learn of her server's interest in offering a relaxed meal and not assuming an early diner has someplace else to go that evening. I'm not pleased that the price of an expensive side dish was not mentioned in advance. I haven't had that poached duck since the early days of the restaurant, but I've had poached fish. I wonder if the relatively low temperature at which the duck is cooked has anything to do with the temperature at which it is served. It seems to me that not just at Blue Hill, but at other modern restaurants, I'm getting tasting menus of smaller courses and that the dishes are often warm, rather than hot, but that the temperature seems right.

As a tourist, I welcome outdoor cafes. I make no bones about it, I've spent so much time trying not to look like I'm a tourist when in foreign countries That I better understand what I tourist is and does as well and have come to the understanding that some cities cater to tourists and that tourists often have a better time than the natives. As a consequence, I am willing to allow myself, not only the opportunity to be a tourist abroad, but to act like one at home. Vive la vie du tourisme. But the other day, I was strolling late in the evening in the south village (aka west SoHo) not far from where I live. There were few outdoor seating areas, but there were several bars and restaurants whose wall of windows was completely open to the street and it was like a band shell echoing the clatter of dishes and roar of the crowd out onto the street. Not on my block would be my response.

I trust no one here believes that affects my response. Thank you for posting an insider's view. Thanks also for posting with the professsional understanding that everything one says may be a double edged sword. I think there are a few restaurant and food industry people who are reluctant to post, less out of fear of saying the wrong thing, than out of fear of offending by appearing to be an opportunist just by posting. I don't think it's a well grounded fear and we welcome the honest post by a professional willing to identify him or herself. I think we have a reasonably sophisticated audience here and most of them can separate the self-serving propaganda from the honset reply. If not, Fat Guy is here to help sort it out.

Granted, but while you don't make it sound attractive, that does sound like an atraction. At the beginning of April we passed by Marbella and it held some fascination, not unlike a train wreck, for me. My wife insisted we make a right turn and head straight for Ronda. My curiosity was not something I could shape into a rational argument and we spent the night in Ronda although we called ahead first to make sure we could move our hotel and dinner reservations in Ronda ahead one night. As luck would have it, my wife just won a round trip for two to Malaga with a week's stay in either Malaga or Marbella, for two.

I think that when I've had it in a Japanese restaurant in NYC, it's been poached. It's served cold in a ponzu sauce with a piece of lettuce as a garnish and a bit of spicy stuff. They must roll it up in a cylinder before poaching as it's served in disks about a third of an inch thick.

Chefs with a sophisticated PR palate generally don't order from the menu.

Famous restaurants that don't hire a PT firm, probably have someone on staff whose job it is to see that the publicity gets out. Most of the well known restaurants have a mailing list, or mailing lists that are used regualrly. Famous restaurants that do hire outside PR firms, probably have someone in the office whose job it is to deal with the PR firm. No highly successful luxury restaurant gets along without someone doing PR work for it. Public relations involves more than just getting publicity.

only people who know what scampi means in italian know it is somehow "wrong" or funny. the rest of us just accept scampi (no italics, as it's an english word in this usage) as a preparation. Of course if I had never heard of the animal called a buffalo, there'd be nothing amusing about Buffalo Wings either. The less educated one is, the more likely one is to accept what one is told.

Presumably it is, if they have been preserved or at least had their shelf life increased.

If everybody behaved appropriately, we'd have no problems. The issue is how should those who wish to behave appropriately deal with those who don't know how or want to behave appropriately? Indeed and the adamant reactions here on either side generally reflect our minds' images of a restaurant we know little about. Those defending the chef may be thinking French Laundry while those deriding the chefs may be thinking Applebee's. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that many readers here have never been to one or the other and have only a very vague notion of what they should expect.

Garden vegetables at least seems to distinguish between farmed vegetables and garden raised vegetables that were grown with more tender loving care. Of course most vegetables listed as "garden vegetables" are probably the accomplishment of some giant agricorp and do not come from a garden so the term is misused with the intent of deceiving the consumer. "Creamery butter" however is just redundant as far as I can tell. "Jumbo shrimp" is just humorous because the word can signify both a particular seafood and size. "Shrimp scampi" has become associated with a type of preparation, but you have to agree that was weird as scampi (prawns) may be prepared any number of ways. It may be commonly understood, but that doesn't exempt it from being considered a misuse. "Coquilles St. Jacques" is the French name for scallops. When used to denote a specific method of preparation, it falls into the "shrimp scampi" classification. As tommy points out, after long misuse, words develop their own meaning. Barbecue means different things in different parts of the country, and in different parts of the world. The best argument I've heard is that the US south appropriated a word that originally meant "grilled." Apparently the natives of the Caribbean used a word similar to "barbecoa" to denote the grilling of meat over an open fire. Buffalo wings are not made from parts of the Buffalo, but there's a long standing tradition of naming food stuff for its place or origin. "Buffalo wings" may elicit some humor, but it's not a misuse in my opinion. "Swiss cheese" is far worse.

In total agreement. I know only what I've learned and nothing more. Pepin worked as chef for Howard Johnson's and is proud of what he accomplished there.

Exactly. The word "chef" is French for "chief," not for "cook" or "professional." The title comes with the job, it doesn't come with a diploma from a school. Once you get the title, like president, senator, governor, and the like, you get to keep the title. Those of you who insist on using your subjective standards are free to do so, but recognize them as prejudices. Spencer, you could read Pepin's book and learn something new about your profession.

But I have heard "I'd like the tasting menu [which is primarily seafood] but I can't eat fish or sea food" at El Bulli. It was asked in advance and accommodated. It's all about what's appropriate, yet the debate here is often on absolute terms. Of course one has the right to make any request one pleases and the right to refuse all requests and we have the right to mock the requests as well as the refusals -- or at least some of them.

I guess that would make it safe for me to have dinner at the cannibals steakhouse. It's kind of like having a beer at the tastefreres du bourgogne club house.

Perhaps no one from that hotbed of mediocre chain blight, the suburbs, reads the Times. I assumed Fat Guy was complaining that they didn't print his letter.

While the language might seem stilted to some, I wonder what was meant by "over edited." Spencer, you seem to love the cheap shot, but of course you're a country club chef in Memphis. See what I mean? Coulld you put some substance behind that inane remark? I had no problem with the detached way in which Pepin delivered his story. His life was quite exceptional and I was glad to hear his story without being subjected to emotional pleas or poetic embelishments. I found it a good job of reporting. While I had no trouble putting the book down to attend to things I had to do, I was eager to pick it up again each time and finished the book in a few days.

I've had little or no trouble eating from street vendors. Even Canal Street with its very high levels of car exhaust fallout was not a deterrent. Subway stations on the other hand, are a complete turn off in terms of food ingestion. I don't even like to take sealed food packages on the subway. "Cuchitritos" are not necessarily a desserrt and most usually are not, as far as I know.. Although the term generally refers to all sorts of fried stuff, I've never heard it applied to things like churrros before. I associate the term with Puerto Rican food (alcapurrias and bacalaito fritos especially) and churros with Spain and Mexico. I wonder if certain words take on new meanings in Pan-Latino cultures such as exist in NYC.

I've heard of this place, but have never been there. Thanks for the URL. There's an interesting selection of wines by the glass, and quarter liter and half liter carafe. More importantly the price per ounce (or cl) is about the same, which affords a wonderful opportunity to taste different wines. Nevertheless, I suspect this is not the killer list Scott is looking for. I'm afraid I am of no more help. When dining at the three star restaurants, I tend to drink from the less expensive pages of the wine lists. I also tend to regard wine lists much the same way I regard menus -- if there's one thing I really want to order, the list is excellent. A small concise menu of dishes that express the strengths of the chef and his kitchen are more appealing than an impressively large list of offerings. Elsewhere on eGullet, from time to time, references are made to the difference between food connoisseurs who consider wine as but an element in the meal and wine connoiseurs who see the perfect evening as one in which the food compliments the wine. I suspect wine buffs are more apt to appreciate an extensive wine list than the food buffs care about seeing many dishes on the menu. Perhaps this is a thread for another time.

My caveat about savings accounts has nothing to do with any understanding of the system and is based solely on other people's reported experiences. I'm also not sure if this has been mentioned directly, but the bank must be on either the Cirrus/MasterCard or Visa/Plus network. I've yet to find a card that didn't have one of these logos that could work in Europe. In the West Indies, it's possible to find ATMs connected to smaller US networks. I seem to recall seeing NYCE in both Puerto Rico and a non US island. I'd get the TCs in US dollars. They're always a reasonable back up and you can redeposit them if they're not used without having to suffer yet another conversion. I also believe you'll get a better rate of exchange buying euros there than here, although with the current trend, the rate gets worse every week and sometimes you can get hit with minimum commissions that wipe out any advantage with small exchanges. For all this, I trust that when your daughter returns, the few dollars you will have lost on inefficient currency exchanges will seem small potatoes in exchange for her opportunity. I am a very fond supporter of foreign travel and cultural exchange programs for teenagers. I was dismayed, the other day, to learn of the cancellation of a home stay visit by a group of French students at the last minute. It seems the American families had second thoughts. Some parents were concerned about the safety of the students and others just didn't feel comfortable having a French teenager in their home. Actually, I was shocked, revolted and disgusted by these fellow countrymen and take some comfort in knowing their attitude is not typical of those I know.