Bux

Not so much the popular choice as the professional's choice, not that I can speak for the professionals. Neither do I have sufficient experience with his food to speak about it with authority, but I sense he reaches a level beyond criticism. It's right, it's faultless, it's not "creative," but it's also never banal in any way. It can be breathtaking. It's simple like a high wire act. All you have to do is walk from one end of the wire to the other. It's not an inventive act. But it's more than the food. Ducasse is in Paris and the other two are in the sticks. That leaves me groping for a reason why Adria is the major competition for number one, but he's at the other extreme in terms of creativity as well. No disrespect for Bras. I haven't eaten his food. It's a priority for the spring. Veyrat? I've never had a better meal than at his hands. He can take roots and wild flowers that no one else uses and the meal tastes as if the flavor combinations have all been worked out over a thousand years of trial and error. In the end, it's still probably Ducasse and maybe because he's main stream and I'm left explaining that Adria is the competition because he's so far out of the mainstream. In the end, it's probably a gut reaction and I'm susceptible to what I read and what I hear as well as what I eat. (Edited by Bux at 12:53 am on Dec. 23, 2001)

It's intuitive. It's a lot like knowing what art is or isn't. ;)Seriously, this gets back to the best chef thread in more ways than one. It's not unrelated to the tree falling in the forest. Being Numero Uno is not necessarily the same as being the best cook. Bras or Veyrat may be the connoiseur diner's choice, but Ducasse and Adria seem to have the attention of the profession right now. While I am ready to argue about who was the best candidate for president, mayor, etc. I'm in no position to argue about who's occupying the offices. Of course the chef thing is less clear cut.

When I read the first post in this tread, I wasn't sure what was being asked and now I'm not sure where the thread is going, but that hasn't stopped others from posting before. Steve Klc, I have to ask what you meant when you noted "where Ducasse and Daniel exist alongside the likes of Craft and Prune?" I assume some sort of pairing is implied on both sides of "alongside." Craft is quite different from Ducasse and Daniel in certain aspects, but in no way like Prune especially when compared to Ducasse and Daniel in my judgement. Steve Plotnicki said "it never bothers me that others get special treatment on a greater scale than I do." It shouldn't, yet someone once told me she had a wonderful meal at a wonderful restaurant. Both the food and service were exemplary and worth every penny it cost. Yet that person told me she'd never go back to that restaurant because she noticed others were treated even better. Once I was about to enter into a deal where someone else would profit more than I would, my lawyer, who was an older and wiser friend, advised me to consider only if I could get a better deal elsewhere and not to worry about what others got. Plotnicki, as do others here and in other threads, describes how to improve your own service and treatment and the joy he experiences has nothing to do with what's happening at other tables. It has little to do with special favors. It has everything to do with enhancing his meal. Should I be thrilled if a chef sends out something special. Absolutely. It's generally a sign he values my taste.

Truthfully, I don't understand the perspective of criticizing a restaurant because it brings something new to a city rather than rehashes and refines the existing traditions. If anything, the tradition of NYC is to accept the alien in stride and not shut itself off from new outside influences. Most of those early critical articles--and a whole lot of them were not reviews in the sense that they were reports of a single meal and published as human interest, not food pieces--were not aimed at entertaining the discriminating food audience in the first place.

Ruin art is a favorite with artists of a perverse nature.

I trust you didn't wrap it too tightly while it was still warm or that it cooled off quickly once wrapped. I'd go along with reheating the roast depending on how fatty or dry a piece of meat it was. Trichinosis shouldn't be a problem around 140 degrees F, actually a bit lower, but 145 gives a better margin for error assuming you may have missed the least cooked spot. Taste and texture improve for me at a bit higer temperature, but most people overcook pork. A good Cuban sandwich is an excellent use for left over roast pork. It needn't be the loin, but a not too fatty part is best. Jason's "smash-grilled" is descriptive. A good panini press is usefull, but a heavy pot on top of the sandwich on a flat griddle is fine. It's essential to not that you need a loaf that will collapse and not a good crusty loaf for the authentic effect.

Or something like that. I shouldn't even be repeating the rumor. According to Behr, the lysteriosis that killed two people came not from époisses produced by Berthaut or any of the other legitimate and local cheesemakers, but from cheese made in a new plant that used milk from outside the delimited area. Ironically enough, the same day the courts ruled that this plant had been illegally using the name Epoisses, the lysteriosis was traced to the plant and the good name of Epoisses was tainted in the news. The plant was closed. Three people went to jail for manslaughter. It is unknown if the milk was heated or pasteurized or when the contamination occurred. All Epoisses came under greater scrutiny and Berthaut under this pressure decided to heat his milk. Behr goes on to complain about the sterility. Boy are we off topic and it's a pity as those interested in the subject may not find this thread. For what it's worth, lysteriosis outbreaks occur in the US in pasturized milk cheeses.

Affinage simply means refining and implies improving by refinement. As long as the cheese is held and improves, even if just by virtue of getting older, I think affinage is a justifiable term. I was also surprised by Behr's article on Epoisses, although given what I've been reading about the EU regulations it probably shouldn't come as such a surprise. Behr did seem to favor a cheese that was made from heated milk, but if I recall correctly, he hoped his favorite producer would someday be making a raw milk version again. He also noted that the cheesemonger he most respected in the region favored another Epoisse that was made from raw milk. Behr was clearly in favor of raw milk. It's only one factor, but one Behr seems to think is essential for the very best possible cheese. I'd like to look forward to the day America makes better cheese than the French, but not because the French handicap themselves.

Ron, are you familiar with the two reviews Grimes wrote of Daniel? Admittedly there was some fine tuning of the lighting as well as curtains and other decor elements between the two reviews, but Grimes would have the reader believe there was a significant change in the food in response to the original three star review that enabled him to award four stars later. I found the food changed very little although that's within the context of a chef who's always trying new things. Most telling was how Grimes made no mention of a dish he brutally panned without mercy in the first review but which had stayed on the menu all along. I doubt Daniel's serious clientele cared what Grimes wrote when it came time to make reservations or order dinner. I have less experience with Ducasse, but there probalby was more change there. My one visit was well after it opened, but not recently. It is Ducasse's first restaurant in NY, although he had plenty of experience feeding New Yorkers in Monte Carlo and Paris. If anything, I suppose he was too exuberant about making his NY restaurant special and some of his showmanship was excessive, but those people whose opinion I respect in terms of food and restaurants all reported the makings of a great restaurant and all were impressed even at the beginning. If you want to know if I think Grimes has had his own agenda at times, especially when dealing with the elite restaurants he doesn't understand, the answer is yes. Marcosan, I find something intellectual about all art and we seem to agree that food may be art at times. I think an intellectual will write a better review than a non-intellectual, all other things being equal. However, I will totally agree with any claim that a person who understands and enjoys food with a passion will likely write a better review than someone who lacks this passion. Given two reviewers with equal passion, I would expect the better review from the more intellectual of the two.

Wilfrid, few things will compare disfavorably with supermarket breakfast sausages. ;) Perhaps I should try the Greenmarket scrapple. I've had some of that farmer's sausage which, while not to me exact taste preferences, was quite good.

Of course. Of course? I didn't mention that I don't go near the stuff, although my only exposure was well before my tastes expanded. I'm not a fan of filler in sausage products, perhaps with the exception of blood sausage where I don't mind a bit of rice and stuff. I also find the seasoning of American breakfast sausages is not to my taste. My recollection is that scrapple is similarly seasoned with sage. All things considered, any comment on my part that the meat in scrapple comes from the snout, ears and hooves of pigs might be considered inflamatory by some fans. I think scrapple is much like other comfort foods that remind people of their childhood or some other relatively stressless time of their lives.

Clues are hidden in the word "slab" and the general references to cholesterol. I've had little contact with it and associate it with the mid Atlantic US region, Pennsylvania, to be specific. As I recall it's sort of coarse sausage meat with lots of cereal filler packed in rectangular loaves. You slice off a slab and fry it for breakfast. Eggs and potatoes and toast might complete the breakfast.

Liza, please don't do that. Each and every vote is a positive vote and improves the site's overall count from one to five points. Voting a one for a site ahead of eGullet.com and a five for us, reduces out vote to a relative four. But you can vote for Rosie's site in good conscience. ;)

That's interesting because I think of Boulud as a chef who can fine tune a melange of dozens of seemingly dissimilar ingredients so that the end product appears quite simple. Of course, to do that successfully one needs to know when one ingredient is enough. I think your experience that night, while perhaps unexpected, is not atypical of the way the staff shows an interest in diners who show a great interest in the food. It might have been too obvious to rave about the veal, but to show pleasure in the simple bean puree meant you really loved the food. At least that's my take on the restaurant and staff. Underneath all that glitter, caviar and creativity, lies the best bistro in America and that's meant as a supreme compliment to the waiters, kitchen and Daniel Boulud.

The Art of Eating is probably worthy of its own thread and the focus of the quarterly is not at all limited to the food and wine of France. A cursory look at a list of past issues shows a roughly equal interest in Italian food and American food as well as French. I think it differs quite a bit from all the glossies including the better European food publications. The focus is more on the producers, the farmers, cheese makers and wine makers than on restaurants and things the normal tourist, or even the tourist on a dedicated gastronomic tour would run across. With that focus and without color photographs it may seem a bit "dry" to many. That and the price per page will certainly ensure it's not for everyone although those who find the publications designed for "everyone" are not for them, may find it very appealing. It gets quoted and referred to at eGullet.com from time to time. As it's such a non-commercial venture, I have no problem giving it a good plug. It carries no advertising and, for obvious reasons, the information in the articles is not viewable on the web site, but you can find out more about Ed Behr and his publication at www.ArtofEating.com

I haven't been in Katz's in a while, but I can recall that sign being there for a long time. So that's who was with Carman. ;)

On the contrary. We've moved up a page and Jason's link was specific to the 75-100 ranks. We're at 71 as I write and and you need to click back to that page, or use this link: http://chef2chef.net/rank/inter3.shtml.The next jump up is a big one. There's a 107 point spread. That's 22 votes at 5 points each, if no one votes for SimplyCooking. Page 2, the top 50 is a bit further away. We need 2066 points or 414 five point votes and likely more by the time we get closer if other sites have active voters, but at least we seem to have enough inertia at the moment not to slip back to page four and off the charts by the end of the month.

Wu Liang Ye, 36 West 48th Street has some excellent Chinese (Szechuan?) food. It's upscale in terms of decor, service and price from Chinatown, but it's still moderate in terms of midtown. It's not Italian/American. There are some Brazilian places on 49th Street, but I really don't know their prices or which ones might be good. You should be able to walk from the tree to Ninth Avenue in ten minutes, or so I would think. That would increase your choices.

I'm equally impressed that your wife was really willing and able to enjoy the meal. The thought's occurred to me that a meal of that sort should have a better effect on the baby's outlook on life than countless hours of playing Beethoven recordings. ;)

Progress seemed negligible, but it appears that no one is voting for most of those sites and we are now on page three and unlikely to be dropped if we keep it up. The new url is http://chef2chef.net/rank/inter3.shtml

Sometimes I'm loathe to respond to this sort of comment out of fear of seeming to be provincial or a NY snob, but Commander's Palace is a regional institution and not a world class kitchen. Some years back, I met a young cook who was currently working in one of NYC's top French kitchens. If memory serves, he was a graduate of Johnson and Wales. He'd come to NY after working in Commander's Palace and he couldn't have been more emphatic about the difference in the way things were done or what was expected in terms of perfection. He was in awe of the standards he found himself held to at the time and clearly had a greater sense of accomplishment in meeting them than he had in working in Commander's Palace. There's a difference between being competent able to turn out great food.I suppose a definition of great food is going to be determined by personal taste, but both Emeril and Flay seem far more interested in popularity than in food.

The Fall 2001 issue of Edward Behr's quarterly, The Art of Eating features Burgundy. Most of it focuses on Dijon and the places in the countryside and no restaurants in Beaune are mentioned. He does recommend Le Tast Fromages as a great cheese shop in Beaune. The Art of Eating, at ื a year for four 32 page journals is probably not everyone's cup of tea, but there's not much else quite like it--especially when he touches on a topic in which I have great interest.

That explains why the chocolate coating on ice cream bars always tastes so bad to me. Years ago I noticed that the "stuff" was invariably loaded with coconut oil. We can get into the EU choclate wars pitting England against Belgium. I've been told by some residents of the UK that they actually prefer their chocolate when it's got vegetable oil mixed in place of cocoa butter.

While it has no effect on the recipe, the Ardèche is not exactly where the author places it in that article. EDIT: link invalid

Sometimes I think my memory plays tricks on me, or that my taste buds are jaded or dying, but every now and then I get a reminder of what things used to taste like when I was a child. There's really a big difference in the taste of various eggs for sale in NYC, but even the best here is no match for the best I've had in France. It does't matter if the egg is on top of a crepe or under a layer of truffles, it may not be dish that can be recreated with city eggs. Here in the states, you can get the novello olive oils from Italy. I suspect the commercial versions may not be as impressive as what you have, but they're still great. There's a lot of variety in the taste, but most are very fruity and many of them have a real peppery bite as well. Supplies are usually enough to last the year, although it appears that flavor fades with time. That just makes the next vintage all that much more exciting when it arrives. My doctor's warnings aside, I really like the flavor of butter and think I can tell a difference between the average and the better brands, but it's a subtle difference compared to the difference between the best factory butter and some artisanal butter we bought from a farmer at the market in Brittany this summer.