Bux

It will be most interesting to learn what you find out about the requirements for raw milk in France. I would not hesitate to drink it and I look for Lait Cru when buying cheese in France. I might hesitate to offer it a very young child, but cows' milk is not recommended for babies these days anyway. My greater fear is that EU legislation driven by the countries with the most sterile food (in many senses of that word) will take it off the market in all of Europe. It is bacteria and the like that make some of our foods what they are -- cheese, wine, bread.

Of course his wife and her two successive chefs may have been revisionists, but there was nothing in what I saw a dozen years after his death that might have indicated any Japanese influence on the food in the restaurant. The sauces and food we encountered were in a way representative of what was served all over France at the time, just better crafted. As Ptipois says, "new" (in any language) is relative to the times. Nouvelle Cuisine in English, refers to dishes that appeared mostly in the seventies and perhaps the eighties. At some point in the eighties, avant garde chefs referred to their work as contemporary, not new. This is not unlike the way we use the term modern art to mean work from the impressionists to perhaps the abstract expressionists. The period has been codified as modern art and new works began to be thought of as contemporary as if modern was now a historical style. In English at least, after Nouvelle Cuisine we have Nueva Cocina. I suppose Point was an innovator, but more the grandfather of Nouvelle Cuisine than the father, perhaps.

I wonder how long "noisette" has been around as a term for ordering coffee. It's likely that we've been visiting France since before many members were born, I'll understand the urge from many to say "forever.' We first heard the term used in the south of France and assumed it was a regional usage, but we soon discovered it was understood all over France. I do not believe it was in use in the sixties.

I certainly can't condone physical violence in such a stuation, but I understand the rage. We share the lobby with a commercial gallery, so the front door is unlocked during the day, but you can't get into the stair well or elevator without a key. Thus menus are left littering the lobby, which is more of a problem for the gallery than for the residents. Still, the menu guys will sometimes try to slip a couple of menus under every door in the lobby including the stairs to the basement and the elevator itself. I mean why would you slip menus into the elevator shaft. It's actually a fire hazard to have the paper down there and every now and then someone has to go into the pit and clean out the menus. Usually someone from the gallery or one of the residents will pick up the menus in the lobby and throw then out. I don't know of any resdients who keep them. I really dislike take out food, but I don't make enough decisions around our house. Anyway the few places from which we order always provide a menu when they deliver. That's basically pizza. The closest Chinese restaurant whose food I enjoy doesn't deliver. I'll walk the ten blocks and pick up the food since it's better food than I can get delivered. If it's cold and raining or snowing, I can eat eggs for dinner. Take out pizza tastes like cardboard, but I will eat cardboard if you put enough cheese on it. Stir fried foods are among the least suited to being put in a box to steam before eating. I find French food better suited to take out than Chinese, but the system isn't supporting that. Stews do very well in a delivery box.

We were in Lyon last fall and I'm sorry to say we forgot about Le Bec, only to run across his restaurant the day after we ate at another restaurant that disappointed us. Worse yet, it was just a block away from our hotel. I too recall some excellent food when he cooked at le Cour des Loges although I found some pretense in the setting and service. His new restaurant looked quite inviting in a modern style.

I didn't get to France until about five years after Point died and la Pyramide was not on my student budget. Besides, I had never heard of him until I started reading food magazines some years later. We did eat there in the late sixties when Mme. Point was still alive and we were just getting to appreciate fine cuisine. I recall a menu that had both duck with bearnaise sauce and chicken in a rich tarragon cream sauce. So much for nouvelle cuisine as we've come to know it.

I don't know your town, or that pocket of France, but I know the story. We've been visiting various parts of France since the mid 60s. The best I can say is that the quality of food in France has dropped sufficiently enough for there to be movements of resistance and artisanal producers who are rejecting an urban lifestyle rather than those who are carrying on the business of the family farm. Regional microbreweries are part of that movement.

Here in the forums we tend to value content over form. The English and the Americans can't always agree on spelling or grammar anyway. Weldome to the eG Forums.

In the Vacherin Mont d'Or thread, listeriosis is mentioned as a potential problem with raw milk and I mention that a lethal outbreak of listeriosis was traced to cheese sold as Epoisses. Traditional Epoisses were made from raw milk, but the factory that made the tainted cheese bought both raw and pasteurized milk and there was no way of determining the actual source of the listeria bacteria. That factory was also stripped of its right to use the Epoisse designation for its cheese for other reasons, and I am not aware of any disease that can be traced to the cheeses from makers who used only raw milk. Preganant women are advised, in the US, not to eat raw milk cheese or most soft cheeses. My understanding is that although raw milk cheese is illegal in the US, we have had problems with listeriosis stemming from commerical cheese made from pasteurized, although prevention of listeriosis is one of the reasons given for the prohibition against raw milk cheese. Some people claim it's just much cheaper to pasteurize the milk than ensure it's clean at the source and that the dairly industry doesn't want competition from better tasting cheese from abroad. The important thing is that contamination can come both before and after pasteurization. Several people in this thread have suggested that raw milk be boiled before using. I'm not sure I understand that. Pasteurization is the process of heating milk to some point below the boiling point. Once you bring the milk to the boil, it's no longer raw milk. Pasteurized milk starts out as raw milk. It loses that quality when it's heated. Surely, there's something I'm missing. If Lucy's artisan dairy farmer's raw milk makes better hot chocolate than the pasteurized milk available, it may just be that the milk is not only raw, but super creamy and just plain better milk.

One site says he was married in 1930. It doesn't say he went to Japan on his honeymoon, but who knows.

Am I mistaken, or is the roast suckling pig not prepared by the brother of the chef who is responsible for the rest of the menu? It also seems as if many modern chefs won't give up their cochinillo. It was not an unusual closer to a creative menu on our last trip. Perhaps nowhere was it better than at Coque.

L'Olivé. I've mentioned it already once or twice in the forum and although we stumbled upon it on night after a general strike because it was one of few places open in the neighborhood, it was listed in the Michelin Guide and we've since learned that Campsa lists it as recommended. It seemed to have a strong Catalan menu, with contemporary dishes. The 2004 Campsa suggests a meal there would run about 36€.

We getting off topic from Casa Camper, but I just want to be sure you're considering Can Roca in Girona, or actually the suburbs or outskirts of Girona.

I was about to mention a place, but while it's hardly a fortune, I see that it's more expensive than Can Majo. Sorry, but thanks for your list which I believe adds a few new names to the forum, and welcome to the site and the forum.

I was about to say that I thought I'd had better coffee in salons du thé than I have had at cafés, oddly enough, but I thought it was just a thought I had based on a very limited selection. Now I suspect it may be a trusim. The other interesting thing about salons du thé is that they tend to have fewer smokers than bars or cafes and thus they're very often been our choice tor breakast.

I've heard so many good things about Thorel's food at l'Auberge Breton that I've questioned my own reactions to meal we had back in '97. I recall it being spectacularly inconsistent, with the low spots ruining my evening. A pushy sommelier didn't help my mood by the end of the evening. I recall an overdone lobster, but something in my memory says it was one that should never have made the pot of a two star restaurant in the first place. However, that all flies in the face of what I've heard about the place. At Crozil's in Plancoët, I recall a dish with fish and syrup. I don't recall much else, but some sort of fish preparation swimming in a sweet soupy liquid. I just didn't get it. Amphytrion in Lorient was fine, but for me, at the low end of the two star range. Admittedly others at the table thought it was a more solid two star experience. I have not eaten at Joffroy's in Carantec. Those are the only two stars, at least currently, or as of last year.

Things are not as they used to be. Things were probably never quite like they were reported to be either.

I think Holly's question was about the determination of who will staff the Iron Chef team, rather than how the Iron Chef is chosen for each show. I also think "show" is an important word. The original Iron Chef was entertainment first, competition second. Without meaning to denigrate the talents of the Iron Chefs chosen, I'd suggest they were chosen for their TV audience appeal as much as, or more than anything else. That they're available and willing to "star" on such a show is undoubtedly yet another factor. Again, no offense meant, but surely one might wonder where Keller, Vongerichten, Boulud, Ripert and a few others might actually fall in the hierarchy of American chefs. The Japanese shows were always campy. That quality was aided by the goofy translations that were often puzzling and sometimes amusing, but always with a sense that food wasn't a major part of the translators own previous interests. The judges themselves were largely people who had some claim to fame outside the world of food and restaurants. The comments made might be analogous to those you might hear if a panel of athletes and chefs got together to discuss literature or fine art. In many ways they were more show business than contest. I've referred to the show as being akin to professional wrestling, although they were far more interesting than that. Watching the chefs cook was interesting as was seeing the finished products. I always felt a need to read between the lines however. No where is that more true than when one of the participants says "We weren't told what the main ingredient would be." I'm always thinking there's a but that would continue that line with "but we were told it would be a root vegetable," or "either lobster or squid." As I recall, the contestants were allowed to bring some of their own ingredients and I always wondered how they knew what stuff to bring since they had no idea at all about what they were going to cook. There's a greater problem with credibility with the new American shows. For one thing, programming on the network has been getting less and less serious (right Boulud, Ripert and Vongerichten have accents, what was I thinking earlier). They've got a vested interest in keeping these shows entertaining for their intended audience. I'm also not going to forget that their vested interests include the current and potential "stars" of the network. They may take a loss or two along the way, but in general, look for an agenda that will keep their people looking good. As with any "reality" show, a little bit of editing and a lot of well placed camera angles and you can make anyone look a hell of a lot better or worse than they are.

One of my favorite questions. Of course the value of the set lunch menu where offered varies from restaurant to restaurant and it's not necessarily in direct relation to the stars or price. I will repear what I've said before about Carré des Feulliants where a few years apart, we managed to have the most expensive dinner tasting menus and the least expensive lunch special. There was no question that the former woud have pleased were it more expensive and the latter while not a bad value, had none of the flair and brilliance we experienced in the tasting menu.

There's no question the provinces generally provide better value than Paris. My only visit to Roellinger was back in 1997. I was very impressed with our meal. I thought he handled a wide range of spices better than anyone else in my experience at that time. I was surprised he didn't get three stars. Seven or eight years is a long time. It's hard to be sure my recommendation still holds up. It's one my places I'd love to revisit. I've had other meals in Brittany since and none have compared well. The other two star restaurants in Brittany in which I've dined, did not compare although I've not eaten in every one of the two star restaurants in Brittany. Let us know what you think. I'd like to believe vmilor just hit a bad day or that his expectations were too high.

I don't dismiss coffee in France. I rarely start the day without a cup and more often than not finish dinner in a restaurant with a coffee, unless there's some nice cafe nearby that's still open. A coffee sometime in the afternoon is not unlikely either. By the way, when I say coffee, I mean espresso. I'd rather have an espresso in France that what I've traditionally found in the US before Starbucks. I think the chains have better coffee than the really bitter espresso that was always served with a lemon peel in NY. Nevertheless, as I've noted elsewhere, those chains are basically selling flavored milk drinks and espresso doesn't seem to be their long shot. Actually their shot is usually too long. Still, I favor parts of Spain and Italy when it comes to coffee. I used to hate American coffee when I returned from my early trips to France, but about twenty years ago, we revisited Italy and when we returned, I found I had lost all taste for American coffee and don't think I've had more than half a dozen cups in the last two decades and those were purely to appear polite.

I don't suppose I'm violating any privacy here. This is a matter of public record. Here's the Livinia page for the 2002 Finca Sandoval. The wine is made from Syrah in the province of Cuenca in the region of Castilla-La Mancha and entitled to the D.O. of Manchuela. The D.O. is not, to my knowledge, a very restrictive one and Finca Sandoval is not at all representative of what's been produced there in the past.

In terms of a restaurant's largess, I don't think there's a need to write off any of this as advertising or promotion. All of the costs involved are probably written off as part of the normal overhead of operating a dinner. The cost of each dinner is not matched against the check for that table. At any rate, now I know why celebreties get married and remarried so often. It's cheaper than going out for dinner.

Than again, the Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich comment is on topic and it's only the first three sentences which, for the record, are a little under 10% of the column, by my count.

I don't know that he specifically wants to write a column about celebrity chefs' spin-offs, but he certainly wants to voice his opinion about the restaurant scene in general. I don't know that he wants to write a regular column on that subject or if he thinks that it's best expressed as part of his diner's journal. I tend to suspect the latter and that he's interpreting Diner's Journal quite literally as his notes on dining with a focus on a single restaurant, but not an absolute dedication to just that restaurant. I suppose it depends on what one wants to read in that column.