Bux

I think most people's comments on Rafa's are right on target, but when dozens upon dozens of members post about a little place with absolultely fresh fish, it takes on mythic proportions which in turn lead to unrealistic expectations. Rafa for instance, was a good three or four inches shorter than I expected him to be. The room is also more ordinary in an ordinary way than I expected it to be. I expected it to be more distinctly ordinary. The food at Rafa's is an excellent foil to all of Adrià's flash as either a palate cleanser before, or a antitidote afterwards, but the food at Las Golondrinas, at least the little we had for a light lunch, was delightful. I thought it was thoughtful rather than overly creative. Rafa's prices may be surprisingly low or high to those unfamiliar with the relative scarcity of individual species served, depending on what's available that day and what you order.

What will, or won't, trickle down to the consumer level is an interesting question, but the answer may be subjective. For instance, I don't see consumers pressure treating watermelon for the texture as much as I see someone making a business decision to vacuum pack it as snacks. I could be wrong. I've not spent much time trying to relate to what the average Joe does in his or her kitchen. "Boil in bag" is old story. What made the article interesting reading is that it took Cryovac technology into the 21st century for most readers. Cryovac and "boil in bag" at uncontrolled temperatures is about as far as most home cooks have gone. Professionals are using circulating water baths. I'm not sure the definitive word is out on the possibilities of bacterial growth at low temperatures, but the information in the article, as well as mention of Goussault was important and news to those who haven't read the thread by Nathan. In any event, what's posted here in the forums can hardly be described as consumer level even when it's as cutting edge as what's being posted in that thread. Likewise, I don't fault Amanda for not mentioning Juan Roca's definitive book on the subject, even though there's an English edition and even though it has a foreword by a NY chef -- Wylie Dufresne -- simply because very few copies are going to be purchased by lay cooks. "The Goussault material is the interesting part of the article" and it's an article about Goussault as much as it is about the techniques it covers. Goussault is the story and he's working with chefs and industrial food processors. Presumably chefs are going to Goussault for what's not available to the consumer. There's much that's available to the consumer and much more than may trickle down. The millions of vacuum sealing machines now in homes, don't work as the professional ones do as participants in the eG thread on sous vide recipes acknowledge.

With a possibility of only two secret ingredients, I should expect any team to have practiced cooking at least ten dishes in a timely fashion. Unless they haven't taken their responsibility to heart, they don't need to speak. They've rehearsed and know pretty much what they're going to do, with the exception of some improvisation caused by last minute equipment failures. Yes, chefs have arrived with heavy and highly specialized tools because they know they're going to make five out of perhaps ten dishes, give or take one or two.

I've just reread the subject title of the thread and I'm guilty of making off topic posts, arguing against the presumed premise or something. I've held and continue to believe that tipping, per se, will not end at Per Se with the establishment of a 20% surcharge, unless, of course, there's a note on the bill that says tipping is not permitted (or perhaps even if there is such a note).

Man bites dog is news. That the Times is behind the curve in relationship to the eG forums is not. My guess is that this will reach a large audience beyond even those that read the Wednesday Dining section. It will reach a mass audience as well because of its placement in the magazine. Another guess is that not even the majority of our members have read much of what's been poted here in the forums, and I've already mentioned that we've discussed some of the aspects touched on in the article. In fact we've probably touched on all of it and mentioned everyone of those chefs and in disparate forums to boot. Bruno Goussault hasn't been mentioned here until this morning however.

It would appear, from their web site, that cosmetics are the biggest selling products, at least by the numbers offered. Perhaps their Frrrozen Hot Chocolate Mix is the number one product. Who am I to argue with Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, The Dutchess of Windsor, Cher, Diana Ross, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Courtney Love, and Meg Ryan, who, it seems, have all been served the dessert. I suppose there is something impressive about "a secret blend of 14 gourmet cocoas." When I was a teenager, the place was famous for their ice cream sundaes and desserts. I haven't been in there in over 40 years. All I can offer is the web page above.

I might suggest that if you have a need to to know, you have a need to get the experience first hand.

Define "hand in the kitchen." I think many celebrity chefs definitely leave their imprint on the food that is served. Which is also to say that I think one can learn a lot from working in any well organized, well disciplined kitchen where great food is being turned out. I also suspect that in restaurants where the chef is in attendence every day, a stagiaire is not going to work at the chef's side and wll be learning most of what he learns from others in the kitchen.

Campsa says Can Rafa is closed on Sundays and Mondays. (Rafa's phone number is +34 972 25 40 03.) There's no question in my mind which is the destination restaurant, although I don't know if I could do justice to both Can Roca and elBulli one right after the other. While Rafa's may not be a destination restaurant, it may well be a "don't miss" kind of place. I've been preoccupied by the idea of destination restaurants that draw one from far away and for which no detour is too great, and those restaurants that one shouldn't miss when one is in the area. I will also suggest SnackMar/Las Golondrinas, originally recommended by Louisa and across the street from Rafa, is a place for exceptional tapas. In its own way, it may be as don't miss as Rafa's.

I've had my problems with Hesser's writing in the past, but this appears to be a well researched and exceptionally rewarding article. It documents some of the revolution occurring in cooking in a way that's comprehensible to the lay person. Cooking "sous vide," that is immersing a vacuum packed pouch in hot water is old hat. Cooking it at a low temperature is still the province of a minority of restaurants and fewer home cooks. Using the vacuum packing to alter the texture of the food was news to me. There was a sort of self satisfaction of knowing that the NY chefs mentioned are high on my list of favorites and that the rest are chefs I've read about in the forums. I recall my association of Cryovac with "boil in bag" frozen dinners, something I, in turn, associated vying with junk food for the polar opposite of the kind of meal I went to a four star restaurant to eat. To put it mildly, I was rather naively shocked when I first learned Daniel Boulud used boil in bag techniques to cater large parties. Perhaps that prepared the way for me to be less shocked to learn chefs were using the technique to prepare meals for single diners in their own flagship restaurants. Professional cooking and science in the kitchen is rapidly changing. Dan Barber and Mike Anthony were both noted in the article for their early interest in the processes, yet not much more than a month ago, I was at Stone Barns and Mike was excitedly talking about a new thermal circulator he was testing in his office. In spite of the fact that Stone Barns is one the area's newest restaurants, here was a major piece of equipment for which space might have to be made in the kitchen. Hesser's article also reaches out to include other "attention being paid to temperature and laboratory precision, as in Grant Achatz's Alinea kitchen which has "an entirely new mechanism they're calling the Antigriddle, which has a surface that chills to minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit), allowing you to freeze food in the same way you would saute it." This device has been mentioned a number of times in a few forums here. Below is a version used to "grill" frozen desserts at elBulli this season. We've been processing our foods for a long time, probably starting before we discovered fire. The recent attention to science and technology and the the use of exacting temperatures and controls seems to blur the difference between commercial food processing and fine cooking, be it in the home or in a luxury restaurant. For some chefs and cooks alike, the reaction will be reactionary. No doubt, not being able to put the fat to the fire will seem less than sexy. To borrow a line I first read in James Jones' From Here to Eternity at an impressionable age when those things stick, "it will be like washing your feet with your socks on." Will it be as satisfying to depend on a digital read out in lieu of a prod of the steak with your finger? I don't know, but the ultimate satisfaction for a chef should be in the flavor of the dish and the look on the diner's face. To come back to Keller's watermelon as served as Per Se, I don't see home cooks "Cryovacking" their fruit, but I will expect to see blocks of pressure processed melon at the market. Artists have often been at the forefront of development that finds its way to a mass audience and, at least in this aspect, I hope we can agree that chefs are creative artists.

Sad news, but I'll choose to be glad I had the chance to try their callos as well as some superb seasonally perretxicos mushrooms and an unusual and successful dish of pulpo, rather than regret the lost chance to return. After all, there are a number of restaurants in this thread, that I've not tried and which deserve a dance.

As I post, there are already well over 200 posts on the Per Se ends tipping in favor of service charge thread, starting on the 8th of August, about this subject in the Food Media and News forum. Fat Guy's op-ed piece in first mentioned in post #77.

I would not accuse of them of using food coloring, but I would not rule it out either. ← yeah the thought did occur to me but i would hope at that level they wouldn't be stooping to that ← I've said things like that and cooks I know who have worked in French (Michelin) three star restaurants and NY (Times) four star restaurants just roll their eyes when I do.

I think the booths are actually rather plush. I don't recall the chairs being other than normally comfortable. I don't think WD-50's tasting menu is any longer than that of Per Se in either the number of courses or time it takes to be served and to eat the dinner. It didn't seem like an unusually long period of time to sit at a table, at least if one is used to tasting menus.

I would not accuse of them of using food coloring, but I would not rule it out either.

I'll be happy to tell you what I think I would do, or what I think others should do, but I'm not going to bet on what they will do. For me it will be just like dining in a foreign country for the first time. I"ll nudge my wife and ask her what I should do. She'll tell me she didn't ask to be born into a society where the men take out the garbage and make the decisions about tipping. Then she'll tell me to keep an eye on the other table that's ahead of us in the meal. When they leave, I'll ask her if they left a tip and she'll say I was supposed to be watching for that. Then I'll make a decision I don't want to be held responsible for making and block it out of my mind so quickly, I won't be able to remember when I'm asked for advice. The next time I go there, I'll be embarrassed, but I won't remember if it's because they think I'm a piker or a spender. I remember the first time I ate in a really fine restaurant in Paris in the winter. When I left, somebody gave me my coat and I gave him a tip. He looked as it he'd just met someone from Mars and put the money in his pocket. I never wear an overcoat anymore even in the dead of winter.

The guys I really want to tip are the ones in the kitchen. Let the waiter sneer at me all he wants. I want the bigger portion, the extra truffles, etc. on my plate. Since I go out to eat for the food, it makes me wonder what how the restaurant gets the kitchen to perform to such high standards without tipping.

The family that dines together while watching TV is the family that stays together, not that any of them would notice.

Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded. The last time we were in Provence, it was the dead of winter around New Year's to be exact. In fact, New Year's Eve found us in Marseille celebrating by watching the fireworks in the harbor. Provence was very quiet and low key. The one drawback is that the days are very short at that time of year in France and even in the afternoon. Low buidings cast a shadow across squares that bask in the sun in summer. May, late September or October would be when I would want to be there. Many years ago we spent a long weekend in February in Nice. Locals were complaining of the cold -- they had to wear a sweater. I didn't need a sweater, but they stopped complaining when they found out we were from NY. The TV news that day was full of pictures of a huge snowstorm that blanketed NY. Little things like that really help make a trip rewarding. Just not being in NY would have been enough.

Am I the only one who finds the Chinatowm Ice Cream Factory ice creams chewy or gummy? In spite of that, I enjoyed the flavor of their black sesame seed ice cream the other day. They have a Nolita branch uptown on Kenmare Street conveniently located to L'Esquina taqueria.

Here we can only make suppositions. Your guess is as good as mine. What I expect will happen is that people who eat here regularly will talk among themselves. Journalists will help spread rumors about what's becoming the standard and tipping will, or will not re-establish itself. For all that those who wish tipping would be replaced by a fair professional salary and true dining costs reflected on the menu, I should not that some people buy their lawyers Christmas presents as well. Call it a gift, call it a tip or call it a bribe, it's ingrained.

Context is everything. I believe Fat Guy made a similar statement when he said it was a move in the right direction, or whatever he said (even if I'm putting words in his mouth). Let's also bear in mind that this move is made not in the context of the US restaurant world as much as it's in the context of diining at Per Se, per se. (Gotta wish I was speaking to Percy so I could add his name.) That context includes a severe charge if you're a no show. It includes a charge for the no show when a party of five shows up and the reservation was made for six. For all the hoopla, there really is little or no precedent being set here.

One more point about restaurants and stars, particularly one star restaurants, the star may also be relative to the price. Within the same area, a more expensive one star may offer much better food than a less expensive one star. L'Astrance in Paris now has two stars, so it might not be such a good example, but when it had one star, it did offer a glimpse at what one found in two and three star restaurants. As I said, it's all relative. Dining is an ongoing educational process.The more you understand how far you've come, the more you will appreciate how far you have to go. Enjoy the process, for it can provide a lifetime of pleasure and how close you come to the goal will have little effect on that pleasure. You'll be arriving well after the height of the tourist season and miss the most notable thing about Provence in summer -- the tourists. That will make it easier to get reservations. My rule of thumb however, is that two and three star restaurants anywhere are best reserved a month in advance, or more if dining there is essential to your trip. That wouldn't stop me from trying anytime right up until the day I wanted the table. Peter Mayle, who explained Provence to many people, may also be responsible for it's deline. I've heard that Japanese tourists buses stop at the entrace to where he used to live although he's moved on.

Understand that the difference between a three star restaurant and a one star restaurant is not a matter of service and ambience. The food in 90% of the one star restaurants is unlikely to offer great insight into the food of a three star restaurant. There may be a bigger cutoff between one and two star restaurants than between no star and one star in Michelin terms. For all that, I fully agree that it's best to learn about French food from the ground up -- from bistros to temples of haut cuisine -- but you should recognize that three stars is an absolute classification, while one star is relative to what the restaurant offers compared to others in it's price range or region. A one star in an area packed with good restaurants is apt to be far better than a one star in some out of the way region not known for good food.

Waiters would never put their hands on my shoulder or smiley faces on checks if they believed good service was the best path to a better tip.