Bux

I also take issue with the judges but only because my opinions are never in line with theirs. However, most of them are more than qualified to express their opinions on the given dishes. There've been a couple questions raised about who exactly these people are. Regarding the "fat lady", that's Karine Bakhoum, the head of KB network news. She runs a PR firm that used to represent Bobby Flay, David Burke and Steve Hansen's restaurants. Right now her clients include Kerry Simon (she didn't judge his battle, did she?!) and all China Grill restaurants. So while I also want to shake her for being so whiny, it's not as if she has ZERO knowledge of food. Steingarten is in no position to judge any battles that include Batali, considering he's written in the past about his unconditional love for him and his food. It's always good to have a Mo Rocca in the mix for the comic relief. Some of the judges just take themselves so f'ng seriously. Give me a break. It's Iron Freaking Chef; it's entertainment. ← Perhaps the ideal audience is composed of those who believe that doing public relations for a restaurant offers critical insight into food worth hearing and that judges shouldn't take themselves, and by extension their responsibility, seriously.

Unfortuantely, the average restaurant reviewer rarely rises above the level of a consumer researcher, and more often than not, is writing with so much baggage that a little inside knowledge could hardly make him less neutral. Few restaurant reviewers are also good culinary journalists nor do they often seem to aspire to being that. I'm afraid the response to your attitude from most restaurant reviewers, and I'll avoid using the term "critic," would be to ask "Why the hell are you reading my review if you're not interesting in eating in the restaurant?" Knowing the chef, and being known by the chef are simply a few of the many things that can color your opinion. The can also afford more insight to that opinion and to what you write in general. Is there a balance? Probably and it will vary with each writer. Ultimately, we'll all have to judge our restaurant reviewers, our food critics and our journalists in their own time. The words of an unknown journalist, like the food of an unknown chef, need to be tasted before one can know if they need a grain of salt. For all that, I disagree that the a restaurant can't make a difference in the way two different people or table experience the food and service. Once he's been recognized and his food undergoes a particular inspection before it leaves the kitchen, it may be harder for him to know if the food at other tables is over salted, or underseasoned simply to offer one example. At the same time, access to the kitchen can often give him a better idea of the likely consistency than eating half a dozen meals incognito. There are tradeoffs all along the way and ultimately some critics may be better off masked while others operate best in the open. In this regard, Fat Guy seems to have a vision about improving reviewing, while Yardly blindly adheres to a dogmatic conviction. I think Fat Guy would be wrong if he assumed all restaurant reviewers should introduce themselves before dining in a restaurant, but I don't think he's suggesting that approach. It might also be pointed out that Shaw doesn't regard restaurant reviewing as it's currently practiced as the epitome of food criticism. It's something he did without renumeration on his own site to gain a reputation so he could establish himself as a culinary journalist. That may be good evidence for Jinmyo's point about the relevance of non-pro reviewing. I'd also add that although I don't share Fat Guy's tastes that often, I've come to respect his opinion and I've rarely seen a professional restaurant reviewer gather fans as quickly as he did on his web site. I understand why this opinion of Shaw's is controversial and I understand the many good arguments against this position, but I think it's wrongheaded to dimsiss his notions as "totally wrongheaded."

We tip mostly out of social custom. It's hard to offer rational explanations beyond that. I will say that a waiter serving $75 meals might serve three in the time it takes to serve a $200 meal and the tip on the $200 meal may have to be shared among a larger number of servers. The problem is that in the US, a tip is not a discretionary addition to a waiter's salary. Waiter's are paid less than the mimimum legal wage as the restaurateur is allowed to assume the waiter will tipped well. There are professions or jobs where one is paid according to the pleasure of the cutomer after the fact. Most jobs assure one of a minimum salary until you're fired. A tip in France or Spain is very different from a tip in the US, and in Japan, to leave a tip is considered insulting.

I'm a great fan of walking and a greater one of walking off a meal. Paris is a great city for walking, even when the storefronts are closed. I absolutely detest getting into a cab on a full stomach. I might suggest that if you could locate a taxi stand some comfortable distance away from Gagnaire, or any target restaurant, in the direction of your home destination on a nice boulevard, you might want to walk a few blocks and then take a cab. Be careful, I remember once choosing not to take the last Metro thinking we'd catch a cab if we got tired of walking and having a great deal of difficulty finding that cab late at night when we wanted it.

I think it goes without saying that a new Parisian bistro created by Parisians for Parisians, might look nothing like a bistro. I'm not sure why, but Americans seem to use brasserie and bistro interchangeably although they are very different types of places. Balzar, is a smaller brasserie that physically perhaps closely resembles a bistro in some way. Bistros are generally rather small, tend to serve traditional dishes (should I say that traditional bistros serve traditional dishes?) and ideally the owner should be in the kitchen with his wife at the cash register. This is not a model on which retro bistros owned by three star chefs operate. Brasseries are less personal establishments that tend to be open throughout the day and where one may eat a larger variety of dishes. Which brings up my last thought on the matter. I've always been led to believe it is almost disrespectful (to French tradition, more than to the owner) to dine in a restaurant or bistro and order less then three courses, although it might be permissible for a svelte female diner to skip dessert, whereas brasseries are the place to grab a bite, a single course, a dozen oysters, a sandwich, etc. at any time of day. At one time in France, it seemed almost impossible, especially in a small towns without brasseries (a feature or larger cities) to find a light lunch. Nowadays places featuring salads and all sorts of one dish opportunities about in France. Has that affected the way people eat in bistros? Can one really enter a bistro in Paris and leave after having no more than a half dozen snails, a pate or other entrée (in the French sense of entry course or appetizer)?

I had a little trouble not with the fact that the reviewer had a different opinion, but that he seemed to present that opinion as the correct opinion, not just his opinion. My mind is not yet made up on the issue of how much it helps or hurts a reviewer to be known. At this time, I think it can do either or both depending on the critic, the restaurant and the target audience. I think Jennifer is correct on the antagonism that exists in general and on the defensiveness in this review. Is Yardley a restaurant reviewer and why wasn't that something made known to us. My opinion on this issue has prbably been colored by the fact that I sensed William Grimes, a recent NY Times reviewer, made a great point of not knowing chefs and restaurateurs. Unfortunately I sensed this was less out of professionalism than out of disinterest. My assumption is that anyone with a passion for restaurants would not be able to repress a curiosity of what goes on behind the scenes and that such knowledge would make for better reviews. Journalists I respect have different opinions and I understand the dangers involved in writing critically about the people you know. Being a restaurant reviewer is not something I'd really care to do for that reason.

They don't actually "make" whiskey from them. They submerge them in some high proof alcohol and the dead animals impart some essence to the liquid. I'll bet that someone looked hard and had a clue, you could find something like that in Chinatown in NYC. In Guandzhou we saw snakes and lizards in such bottles of alcohol quite commonly. My wife wanted to buy some to bring back. I wondered if they'd pass customs, but mostly I thought bottles are heavy and I need to want to drink what's in them to make it worth while carrying them. I don't believe there's much of a chance a porcupine quill could get mixed into the stew by accident. I think we need to get used to the idea that much of the apparent "documentry" is scripted and that the voice overs of Tony thinking are added later. Then sit back and relax. Theres a level of what, for a better term, could be referred to as less than professionalism in the production of the series. And that's the good aspect of it. Seriously, there's a disjointed aspect to the episodes we've seen so far. They all don't seem as if they're from the same series. There is no formula and that alone leaves one excited to catch the next episode. Each one is an inspired reaction to what they already know of their destination and what they find there. We all know travel shows where if you've seen three, you can plug in what you know of the fourth location and not need to see the show. This is a bit different. Tony's refreshng, if not a breath of fresh air.

On the commitment issue I would no sooner guarantee my place at a dinner table than I would actually pay for my seat at the opera, theater, music hall, etc. before I've seen the show. Okay, you get the picture. I just don't understand why restaurants allow no shows to get away with it. Hotels will only hold my room up until a certain time to give them the chance to sell the room. If I want to arrive at midnight, all I have to do is give them my credit card number. We've had this discussion a number of times and I've been on record as saying I would think it would fair for the restaurant to bill a minimum meal price at the time the reservation is made and for the diner to pay for supplements, wine, etc. when he's finished eating. The worst fraud anyone in my family has suffered came from a box of new checks stolen in the mail. The bank was quite good about returning the money to the account in a reasonable time and stopping all checks afterwards, but the various venders hounded us for years. Imagine upwards of 50 guys telling you that they didn't care if you didn't write the check, but wouldn't it be worth the couple of hundred bucks just to be sure they didn't screw up your credit record. Indeed, your bank account is more sensitive because you have to get the money back rather than not pay the bill and argue the charge(s). I've suffered a number of credit card frauds as well. For the most part the banks caught it before I did and notified me of what they thought were bogus charges before I got the statement. I lost track of the actual number of people I know have seen one or more of my credit card numbers, but it's safe to say that at least one person has seen it each time it's used. At a restaurant, this is a food site, I have no idea how many people see it after the waiter takes it, nor how many times it's copied or the number recorded. If I keep my head up, there's the fifty dollar limit, which although rarely charged, is also covered by my homeowner's insurance. My wife's a travel agent and sometimes asks for a client's card number by e-mail. It's funny when they call on the phone because they con't want to send it by e-mail. I don't know which is more secure, but the likelihood is that my wife will forward it to the airlines or other party over the internet. When a restaurant checks your card, they aren't exactly sending a guy over to the Visa or AmEx office in an armored car. It's handled electronically.

I've been there tyhree times. The first was for lunch and the place was empty. Service was fine. The other two times were in the evening and service was about what I expected from a place that shoehorns too many tables too small to serve the needs of the diners assigned to the tables. I don't recall any particular rudeness. That doesn't mean others weren't treated rudely on that, or other nights.

My understanding is that you can order items off the tasting menu as a la carte dishes. I thought someone said that last night. Then again I had a lot of wine. Portions are not large, but they are not unusually small by any means. I don't know that ice cream makes a good hors d'oeuvre before dinner thought. As much as I like Il Laboratorio's ice creams, I think I'd just save room for another dessert at WD-50. One more thing. We found service good, but a little slow. The room seemed to be full and we had good company, so other than perhaps its contribution to ordering one more bottle of wine than we might otherwise have done, it wasn't a problem. We sat in one of the booths which offer a kind of privacy some might not want. I often enjoy the spectacle of seeing a room full of people eating and being served. Nevertheless, the booths are plush and comfortable and allow you to focus on your own conversations. We had a choice and Mrs. B chose the booth.

I expect to taste them again soon, but I'm curious about your reaction. The version I had was very different in texture from any pasta I've ever had. It had a most un-noodle like texture and consistency and although it looked like noodle, it didn't move like noodle or particularly have a mouth feel like noodle. It was perhaps closer to Asian fish cakes, which is not a bad thing as I like them when done well. ← I'm agreeing with you - they didn't feel like noodles, they didn't feel like shrimp, either. I really don't know how to categorize them, but they were delicious. ← Actually Wylie had sent a note to me urging me to try them again as he's made some changes in the dish he thought I might find interesting. They were not on the tasting menu, but they were on the a la carte menu and the tasting menu had many of the dishes we had the last time we were there. Thus I had good reasons to answer my own earlier question about what it was like to eat off the a la carte menu. The short answer to that is that it's great. The success of a meal doesn't depend on the progression of so many courses. Three is fine and I think four courses is ideal. Wylie's course are not large, so it's easy enough to order two appetizers if you're hungry. The food is creative, perhaps even experimental in some people's view, although I don't mean to imply he's using his guests as guinea pigs. The courses are tried and true, but the combinations are often unusual and the results difficult for the diner to assess just from the menu description. My experience is that that they all work well, and some are spectacularly effective. Given the subjectivity of individual tastes however, I'd not predict that every diner will love every dish. The longer the menu, the more likelihood a diner will come across one that simply makes the whole evening a success. Of course that also assumes one dines with that kind of attitude. I had too appetizers, a main course and a dessert. In some cases I didn't even choose my favorite food, preferring not to order what Mrs. B was having so we could share, as well as focusing on the wines we were ordering. I enjoyed every dish I had and probably three would rate as exceptional and dishes I might order again, although there were other dishes on the table that caught my eye and which a small taste put them on my "look for" list. Two of the things that separate exceptional restaurant from those that are just very good are having a great meal you'd want to repeat and even better having a great meal you'd want to repeat, but seeing other items you need to try. What's becoming clear is that in spite of its reputation as an avant garde destination, WD-50 also works as a place for three course meals in a regular rotation. Back to the noodles. They're not really made to fool anyone that they're an Atkins friendly pasta replacement. Wit will always remain as part of the reason for the name, but they did take a giant step towards acting like noodles on my fork. I guess the problem is that there will always be a tendency for the noodles to stick together a bit once the dish is plated and that's related to the binder used to form the noodles. (The noodles are about 99% shrimp.) Anyway, I enjoyed the dish a lot the first time and they were better yet, this time. For me the warm roasted foie gras with passion fruit scramble was the hit of the night. The foie gras itself was ethereal and it was hard to believe the passion fruit scramble was not a perfect rendition of haute cuisine scrambled eggs -- basically a custard -- flavored with passion fruit. There are no eggs, I was told. Special mention has to go to the panna cotta dessert. I actually found the desserts on the tasting menu less than inspiring although certain more than acceptable. The desserts on the a la carte menu appeared to have greater depth. If I thought the foie gras was ethereal, the caramel panna cotta set a new bar for panna cotta desserts. It is hard to imagine one could have used any less gelatin and it was brave of Sam to make it so tall. The caramel flavor with the corn crunch -- I don't exactly know what that was, and sometimes I just want to enjoy the flavor -- was a great combination. I think I could add that those who don't want to know at all and just want to enjoy the flavor could do very well at WD-50 if they have some sense of adventure and aren't looking for meat and potatoes or what they've had elsewhere. It is the kind of restaurant I was reluctant to recommend to a general audience after one meal, but as I get to know it better, I feel it has the ability to appeal to a wide audience.

Making ice creams in small batches and not having to ship it to stores would seem to offer a great advantage. Whenever I know a restaurant is making its own ice creams, I want a dessert with ice cream. Sam Mason's panna cotta is pretty amazing as well. It seemed as if there was almost no gelatin in it last night.

I also find it gummy., although I wouldn't have used that word beofre you suggested it. I keep waiting to be impressed by the Factory, just as I wait to enjoy Doughnut Plant doughnuts. So far, I can't even pretend to like them. ← Okay. We're finding a symdrome here. I didn't dislike my donut, but I didn't understand the raves. There is just so much better in NY if one is making a destination run for pastry or dessert. By the way, I don't get Krispy Kreme either. I find them as cloying as their name. As for "gummy," I don't actually know if it's gum that produces that mouth feel, but it doesn't come from milk, cream or sugar. There are stabilizers which keep an ice cream from melting too quickly and which inhibit ice crystals from forming. Some of these are gums which are not only natural products, but have lots of healthy fiber and are good for you, but which I generally don't find improve my enjoyment of ice cream.

I saw that in London where a table of three rather smartly dressed women in a very upscale Italian restaurant finished dessert and ordered cheese. I thought perhaps it was an excuse to order more wine, as I believe they did. I wondered if they weren't next going to order some meat and then fish as well as pasta. Having picked up my style of dining by spending a great deal of time in France as well as reading about France, and having spent little time in the UK, (some of which dates back to the dark ages of the 1960s in British -- dare I use the word -- cuisine) I thought they were a bizarre table. With the assistance of members here, I learned they were a proper table and the entire UK followed bizarre practices at the table and afterwards. In France, I believe, it's the custom for the men and women to pair off privately by couples after the meal.

I'm always glad to hear good reports about Jardin des Sens. We've had three meals there ranging from excellent to exceptional. The least impressive was just after a celebratory meal in NY that cost more money and in which the kitchen staff had knocked themselves out for Mrs. B's birthday. So that wasn't a fair night. All of these meals of ours were had some years ago before jardin des Sens had earned it's third star. Since then, I've heard mixed reports and some very negative reports. The restaurant obviously went through a period of turmoil. Perhaps some of it related to the pressure of three stars and the worldwide expansion capitalizing on those stars. Let's hope it's back on course and that talent so obvious to us in earlier times is prevailing. On another thread, we have a report of a fine job done the Pourcels catering division.

I'm wondering how nice it will be to spend a half hour after dinner on a vaporatto in early October. Nevertheless, I've marked this address. Perhaps in October lunch might be a better option. It looks as if we'll be in Italy in early October starting in Venice. How's the weather then? It sounds as if Alle Testiere is where I most want to go. Robert makes a good argument for dalla Marisa next. We'll have three nights in Venice and then leave by car. A bit under two weeks later we'll return to NY from Rome.

Talented kids out of school and young cooks on their way up come to NYC and take a pay cut to learn what they can by working in a kitchen that operates as such a high level and they also know the value of the lilne on their resume and the reference given by a chef such as Keller, when they go looking for their next job or backers for their own restaurant. When I had family working in the kitchen at Daniel, it was not unusual to meet young chefs on the move who saw the stint at Daniel as part of their education and understood that if they could do what was asked of them there, they could confidently work anywhere. It's not everyone who can afford to intern in the best places in any profession. Just a guess, but maybe the cost of living here, not that I suspect it's cheap to live in Napa Valley.

Of the four shows so far, the Vietnam episode is undoubtedly the one that is likely to appeal to the broadest audience, and I mean that in a positive sense. Of course loyal Tony's fans would subscribe to cable tv just to see him eat a squeezel.

Mostly the latter. Twenty years ago we roasted our chickens to the degree that left them quite pink, almost bloody at the joints. We still might do that with a local farm chicken, but never a supermarket chicken. Then again, we've stopped buying chickens in the supermarket. I would largely discount immunity or tolerances built up as a reason for the spread of salmonella. They may be finding more salmonella because they're doing more testing and that may relate to the idea that hysteria plays a part in our perception, but I suspect it's simply a matter of the factory conditions under which most chicken is processed today in the U.S.

Kitsch rarely travels well. I was reluctant to say it didn't seem like a place I'd recommend for shopping or souvenirs as it's been generations since I've been there.

I expect to taste them again soon, but I'm curious about your reaction. The version I had was very different in texture from any pasta I've ever had. It had a most un-noodle like texture and consistency and although it looked like noodle, it didn't move like noodle or particularly have a mouth feel like noodle. It was perhaps closer to Asian fish cakes, which is not a bad thing as I like them when done well.

What Rich said. I thought it was a fascinating article and rather illuminating especially after all we've thought we've said here. No surprise that anyone believes tipping is all about power from the diner's side, in my mind. If there's one thing I don't like about dining out in the US it's the sense I have of all the wrong baggage some diners bring to the table. I still recall the NY Times article about the guy who dined with someone who simply returned perfectly good dishes to prove he could and let everyone know who's boss. It's always been clear to me that the customer is not always right in the ethical, moral or legal sense, although I don't argue that it's not good sense for the restaurant to treat him as if he is. That it's the waiters who are complaining here is no surprise either, nor does a comment from Keller that a cook "had asked to become a waiter temporarily so that he could pay some bills" sound surprising. Professional waiters may take as much pride in a job well done as a cook, but on the whole, my guess is that they take the best paying job they can find, while a young cook is more likely to take a job where he can learn from a great chef. Waiters at top places make a good living, although that's relative whatever you might make. The math is to complicated for me. There are too many unknown coefficients. There's a much larger tip left for a meal at Per Se than at most restaurants, but more people are serving that table and the meal takes much longer so the table is occupied by one party instead of two or three as at other restaurants. From a cook's point of view, the idea of making a better salary while working in a top restaurant has got to have lots of appeal. There are only so many talented people willing to sacrifice themselves and they're only willing to do it for so long. If Keller can pay better salaries, Per Se will served even more consistent food. If that's the case, Boulud, Vongerichten, Ripert, et al. have to watch out. The potential trade off for a place like Per Se is that the power people slack off and the seats are filled with food people. That could make for better and more pleasant working conditions for waiters. I'm stretching a few points, but there are certainly opportunities for a ripple effect in some parts of the restaurant world, though perhaps in a limited part. I really liked what the GM of Chez Panisse had to say when he was quoted as saying ""If Mr. Big Bucks comes to the restaurant and drops 20 percent and in comes Mr. Non-Big Bucks and leaves 17 percent, I don't want the waiters at Chez Panisse giving Mr. Big Bucks better service." I don't however mean to disparage current service levels at the top. I'm not a Mr. Big-Bux, and I'm treated royally and I've heard nice stories about service from those who have saved a lifetime just for the one big dinner.

Chef, It's interesting to me that you had the cheese after the dessert. I've heard about and seen this order in the UK, but I don't recall cheese every being offered after dessert in France. To the best of my recollection, it's always served before dessert, or simply as the last course when no dessert is ordered. In French homes, I've often seen salad and cheese served as one course between the main course and dessert. Green salad as a course between the main course and the cheese course seems to have all but disappeared in restaurants. To continue, is this a custom that's been carried from the UK to Vancouver or just a spur of the moment decision on your part to continue the meal?

The commercial anchovies I've had in France put all the ones I've had here to shame, but I was still totally unprepared for the fat anchovies one can get in northern Spain on both the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. The best in France seem to come from just north of Spain on the Mediterranean. I'm just talking about commerical brands in jars. The white anchovies are more perishable and harder to find here, although I've found a decent source, but not good enough to compare with boquerones in Spain. I have had fresh cured anchovies from Daniel Boulud's kitchen and Blue Hill that were heads and shoulders above the commercial variety and really luscious and large anchovies at Rafa's in Roses, Spain (hometown of Adrià's elBulli. Anchovies and roasted peppers are a wonderful combination. A few black olives and hard cooked eggs doesn't hurt either. They're essential in a real black olive tapenade, which is really named for the provincal name for capers, not the olives or the anchovies.

I'm not defending the hostess, but I've seen this at any number of places. I've seen less hospitable practices, in fact much less hospitable practices. My point would be that this was about a year and a half ago. It hardly seems relevant to a discussion at this point. Do we know if she's still there or if that's current policy?