Bux

There isn't usually any guarantee one will have a position waiting after a stage. It shouldn't be expected and isn't promised. Are you at all familiar with Ecole des Chefs? For a substantial fee, an amateur cook can get to work for a famous chef in a top kichen in Europe or the US. That includes Gary Danko and Joachim Splichal in California. Can they get around the law by charging, so you're no longer a volunteer? It's also not an uncommon practice for a chef at one restaurant to voluteer to work in another restaurant for a short period to get some additional experience. I'm not defending the practice, but it's widespread in the industry and offers an opportunity for someone to get experience in a kitchen that is not likely going to pay that person to work there. That doesn't mean it's not generally an exploitive practice, but if someone begs Thomas Keller for the chance to work for nothing for a few months and then turns around and sues him, that guy is probably never going to work in any important restaurant or get any sympathy in the industry and my guess is that Keller is not spending time looking for unskilled labor to work for nothing in the French Laundry.

So we're talking about earth apples and pine apples?

I just saw Grade AA eggs in the supermarket. Are they better or not as good as Grade A. They were less expensive than Grade A. Is this like double A and triple A batteries?

I see several significant differences between the two range tops. The difference in BTUs is obvious--two burners are 10,500 BTUs, two are 12,000 BTUs and one is 15,000 BTUs--but there's also a diffference between the size pots that can be handled comfortably. The five burner top is only 20 5/8" deep. You can't really put four 12" pots centered on 4 burners, let alone five and I'm not sure if the front or back burners are the 12,000 BTU burners. Looking at the DCS drop in cooktops with one 17,500 BTU burner and four 11,000 BTU burners, I find it surprising that DCS doesn't even offer a six burner drop in cooktop.

Not so different, I suppose, from calling potatoes pommes or pineapples ananas. ? I'm confused. You're using two words that mean the same thing in two different languages. How is that like a French speaking person coming over and using andouille to mean something else? The english came over and called the potatoes "potatoes," and the pineapples, "pineapples." Well not exactly, I believe both of those where found in the new world and brought back to Europe where they were given different names in different languages.

If you have 36" you can get the model with the six 17,500 BTU burners. One advantage of the DCS 30" model is the fifth burner in the middle.

When we say andouille, don't we mean short for andouille ham? Whaddya mean "we?" I'm not ever sure about what you mean by andouille ham, but here in the France forum, as opposed to the Southest USA forum, when we speak of andouille, we speak of a sausage that is made from chitterlings and stomach. The larger andouille are almost always sold cooked. They are generally sliced and served cold, but may be grilled or used in recipes. They are generally packed tight and slice smoothly. The fanicer ones show concentric circles like a tree trunk when sliced. The smaller andouilles are also usually sold cooked (poached and cooled) but are more loosely and coarsely packed and grilled before being served hot. The relationship between a Cajun andouille and a French andouille begins and ends at the use of the same name. It would be as if English colonists came over to American and decided to call chickens ducks. You'd have two countries using the name "duck," but for different fowls, or worse. If you ordered roast duck and got roast chicken, you might be disappointed. I've heard of Americans who ordered andouille and were freaked out by what they got.

Kind of like kitchens and kitchenettes, or bachelors and bachelorettes.

Le Bistrot de Lyon. I believe it was one of several bouchons or bistrots started by Jean-Paul Lacombe, chef of the two star Leon de Lyon, although I am also under the impression that he no longer has an interest in it. I'm reluctant to recommend it highly on a general basis. Mrs. B., who usually has a better sense of where and when to order what, had the misfortune to order too haute a first course--smoked salmon on a blini--and while the thick slab of salmon was fine, the blini was thick and dense. However, her main course--a gratin of tripe--with lots of onions and maybe some tomato sauce, was moist under a coat of bread crumbs. Simple pots de creme in three flavors was a perfect bistro dessert. Le Bistrot de Lyon was not listed in last year's Michelin and I don't see it in this year's GaultMillau. I am not so much recommending that particular place as indicating it's the sort of dish one finds commonly done well in Lyon.

Only half jokingly it was once suggested to me that if I wanted to eat really well, I should arrange to get the table next that of a prominent critic.

This New Yorker hasn't dined recently in the DC area recently--at least not in public--and I haven't had much chance to eat much in either the right or wrong places, so I'm not in a position to do much more than ask questions. In this regard I would have been curious to know if the NYC visitor was referring to the restaurants available or to the attitude with which Washingtonians go out to eat. One can eat very well without "dining." By the same token, one can dine quite luxuriously without eating well. Do you think the restaurateurs are driving the interest of diners or that an interest in dining well is driving the newer restaurants?

Nothing makes me more homesick for France than a discussion of andouille, except perhaps one about andouillette. When Michel Guerard served thinly sliced andouille as part of his amuses bouches, I knew I was in good hands. I generally like to slice it thin, but my Breton son-in-law prefers his thickly sliced. Smoked andouille is a specialty of Brittany as well as Normandy and northern Burgundy. One of the best dishes I've had that incorporated andouille was a gratin of thinly sliced potatoes and andouille sausage served with roasted John Dory (St. Pierre) served by Chef Hellio at his one star restaurant in St. Brieuc on the north coast of Brittany. (He later opened La Voile d'Or-La Lagune alongside a lagoon in the resort town of Sables d'Or les Pins) I though it was an unusual preparation then and haven't run across it again, but it was wonderful, especially with the fish. That meal was eaten in 1997, but I clearly recall the potatoes more distinctly than many a dish at a three star restaurant I've had since. The most distinctly malodorous irregularly shaped artisanal andouillette I've ever enjoyed was had last spring in Lyon at an inexpensive retro buchon in Lyon. There are times I almost forget one can still get French food in France, although I wonder how much of it the average Frenchman eats these days. I'm sorry Louisa, you do yourself an injustice. Your whole career just pales in interest beside the mention of guts in a casing.

Is nothing sacred anymore.

Let's assume so, if only to remove all vestiges of guilt for pampering yourself with all the foie gras you can eat today. I too am just compensating for a derived childhood.

Good post. Let me relate a story of someone who got a Diplome Cesar Ritz (I think that required about two months of schooling) at the bilingual Ritz-Escoffier in Paris while on leave of absence from an academic university. At the time, the interest in food was on a non professional level and the term off from school was to slow down a torrid academic pace and graduate with the rest of the class. After college graduation, an interest in a culinary career arose. The advice of a famous NY chef was to go to culinary school. Our subject wanted to see if the business was appealing from the inside and offered to work for nothing before committing to culinary tuition. An offer by the chef required a three month committment and proof of health insurance. The offer was taken and extended to six months when after three months, this stagiare was telling culinary school graduates what to do and how to do it and for this person, working for nothing beat paying tuition. After six months this person had a paying job in a good kitchen and a few months later was in charge of the pastry kitchen in a very good restaurant. I don't mean to prove anything other than that there are many alternatives. I suspect the short Ritz-Escoffier session was necessary and I'd note that there was a history of appreciation of excellent French food. I'd also say that this was one very bright, determined, stubborn self starter.

I am as pleased as Margaret to see your post, although I regret that we're not on our way to Lyon.

I think it's easier to talk about a dish's origins than to debate the authenticity of any one version. What makes a dish authentic? My guess is that more paella is served to tourists in Spain than is eaten by the natives and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that most of that is prepared sous vide at the Paellador commissary and delivered to local restaurants to be reheated and served at inexpensive cafes an restaurants in Catalunya. In the town of Rosas, just a few kilometers from the very famous El Bulli, boil in bag paella appeared to be something a restaurant bragged about rather than hid, judging by all the signs announcing it in front of restaurants. Paellador introduced its product in the US market with ads in the NY Times indicating which restaurants were serving it. I've always been leery of ordering paella in the states, but like bouillabaisse, even a second rate inauthentic paella can be a great crowd pleaser if you're looking for delicious rather than authentic. Paella is but one of many rice dishes in Spain and in most restaurants, I'd recommend most of the other rices dishes over paella if for no other reason than I feel they're made for local rather than tourist tastes. It's possible I've never had a great paella, let alone an authentic one, but I've never had one I didn't enjoy. Nevertheless, I'd opt for an "arroz caldosa" with lobster or mixed seafood most of the time. In a good restaurant the depth of flavor in magnificent. Pasta is a commonplace ingredient, particularly in Catalunya and there are versions of seafood and pasta that are parallels to the local rice and seafood dishes. I believe, Catalunya, the Balearic Islands and Sardinia were part of the same kingdom once.

OK Bux, you win my much coveted Quote of the Week Award" with that one The prize this week is two tickets to the UK Glenfiddich Awards on 19th June 2003. They're in the mail. Don't I at least get a little jpg image of the award to add to all my posts this week. Following up on my insight into kosher eggs, is it enough to know that the mother was a kosher chicken. Has Talmudic wisdom been revised in light of DNA testing?

There's no doubt I have associated eggs and butter as inseparable pan companions. This was reinforced in Japan when we were served cold eggs that had been fried in oil earlier. Nevertheless, one good tortilla Español should convince anyone that olive oil and eggs are a natural and it doesn't matter if the tortilla is served hot or cold for the olive oil to taste right.

I find it hard to believe the way a chicken was killed will have much of an effect on its eggs, other than to make it stop laying eggs. I also find it hard to believe that the future fate of a chicken would have any effect on the eggs it lays before it meets its fate. It shouldn't take a talmudic scholar to explain that the future can never be assured.

I see that as reasonable under most circumstances. I would only note that some restaurants still look askance at someone ordering only one course.

Let me add that "Atelier" also infers that the restaurant may be a work in progress and that the food may be expected to change. I think it also implies an informality as opposed to "restaurant."

An interesting take Robert. I'm not sure I agree with it. I think Robuchon chose a name that means studio or workshop in English, not because it was his attempt to back away from personal responsibility, but because of it's association with honest work and creative work. In France, both an auto mechanic and a fine artist would have an "atelier." It also seems to be the vogue for Spanish chefs to use words like that. Doesn't Adria call his winter kitchen a laboratory--which in Spanish has much the same meaning as workshop--and isn't there a similar name used for a pastry shop in Barcelona. I think it's part of a trend. Of course with the open kitchen, everyone will know he is, or isn't, there at any time. There has been speculation that the Atelier de Joël Robuchon is ripe for franchising. Perhaps that supports your contention. Perhaps future culinary historians will refer to the food of Robuchon, l'Atelier de Joël Robuchon and that of his disciples as "school of Robuchon." "Epnonymous," in this day when chefs annoint their restaurants with their given or family names, must be the most overused word in restaurant reviews. Has anyone ever spoken of the Yankees' eponymous stadium? Maybe sports writers never studied for the SATs. As for the IHT and Patricia Wells, she is their only food journalist and Paris is her beat. Surely the IHT could have carried the NY Times article by R.W. Apple, but one could easily argue that no one is better qualified to explain what Robuchon is trying to do than the journalist who has worked closely with him. It's not a review as in the NY Times where the restaurant is scored and measured against the competition and Patricia Wells' report seems as fair and professional as R.W. Apple's. The restaurant is open to public scrutiny, Ms. Wells writes openly under her own name and her professional relationship with Robuchon is certainly widespread public knowledge.

From the Patricia Wells review on the IHT web site, " L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, 5 Rue de Montalembert, Paris 7; tel: 01-42-22-56-56. All major credit cards; à la carte, about E50 a person, including service but not wine. Open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 to midnight. Reservations are not accepted." It would appear that the restaurant will not be serving continuously as I aslo read earlier, and will be taking a three hour break from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. You could call when you're in Paris.

Portions are often smaller in France, but it also depends on the restaurant. I've had some large portions in some restaurants even in France. Prix fixe can mean a lot of things in France as well. At one time, restaurants in France were required by law to offer a prix fixe meal, I don't know if it's still a requirement, but many do and many have several prix fixe menus. Sometimes the difference between the less and more expensive ones are the number of courses. At other times, it's the relative expense of the ingredients. Often, there's a cost savings by ordering the prix fixe, but sometimes not. Until you've seen the menu, it's really impossible to know what you want to do. Fortunately, all restaurants in France are required to post the menu outside. You my in fact, want to order a la carte and let him have the more complete meal. Lest we get too confused, in France, what Americans call a menu, is called a carte. The menu is what's offered as a set meal. You can have a prix filxe menu or a degustation menu. If you walk into a restaurant and ask for a "menu," you are likely to be served the special menu of the day and never be offered a look at the "carte." Anyway, it's not clear to me exactly what you want to do. If one of you orders the prix fixe menu, that person is likely to get three courses. If the other orders an appetizer and main course, that person will have one course less. If one of you is ordering a tasting menu, that's another story. As far as splitting dishes, we have at times asked a restaurant if a dish can be prepared and served on two plates. We've only done this in upscale places and in order to have our own tasting menu. We've had some success in this and often it's a dish by dish situation. Some dishes can be split, others do not take well to being split. In Spain we do this a lot. In France we do it less often. At bistros, it's usually less feasible. There's no harm in swtiching plates halfway through a course and I've been known to finish off a plate my wife has not finished after I've finished my own dish. As I started to say, I'm not sure I understand what it is you want to do.