Kellers "Oysters and Pearls" reach Isle of Wight!

[Andy Lynes]

I was very interested to read Jay Rayners review in the Observer today of The George hotel in Yarmouth, Isle of Wight

http://www.observer.co.uk/life/story/0,6903,668701,00.html

and was suprised to read that his amuse bouche was a version of Thomas Kellers Oysters and Pearls.  

It sounds like a dumbed down version with an oyster sitting in a salty broth with grains of tapioca. The original is a sort of custard made with sabayon, tapioca, creme fraiche and whipped cream with the oysters placed on top in a butter sauce of vermouth, oyster juices shallots and vinegar with some caviar on top.

This must be the first instance of a Californian chefs signature dish turning up in an Isle of Wight kitchen isn't it? As you will read Jay didn't like the dish and likened it to snot! Has anyone had the original, did that taste like snot?

[Fat Guy]

I've had it, but Thomas Keller hasn't.

[Lord Michael Lewis]

Out of curiousity, did Rayner recognize the dish as Keller's?

I've had Keller's version and it was quite nice, although I imagine that it's an easy dish to get wrong.

[yvonne johnson]

Out of curiousity, did Rayner recognize the dish as Keller's?

If Rayner did recognize this "oyster with pearls" as Keller's, he doesn't say so.

http://www.observer.co.uk/life/story/0,6903,668701,00.html

[Rosie]

I had this dish and it was magnificient. No taste of snot at all.

[jayrayner]

Morning all. To be absolutely clear, I didn't say that the dish tasted of snot, only that I have an aversion to tapioca which I think tastes like...

No, I didn't recognise it as a knock off of a keller dish because, sadly, I've yet to visit the French Laundry. While it may have made me look smart to have made the comparrison should I have been in a position to do so, I don't think it's relevant to my opinion on the amuse I tried. (LML will doubtless disagree but like I care). That said, I am interested to know whether, in Keller's hands, this dish works. Maybe I wouldn't like it the way he does it either.

interestingly I now know (knew after I'd written the piece and it had gone to bed but before publication)  that one of the other dishes I tried, crab soup on a cold crab jelly, is also a French laundry knock off. Again I didn't think it worked and again, I'd be fascinated to know if Keller can make it work.

Just for background Kevin Mangeolles was one of those who wnet on the Caterer magazine trip to the French laundry. Clearly he came back with a full note book.

[Lord Michael Lewis]

Kevin Mangeolles was one of those who wnet on the Caterer magazine trip to the French laundry. Clearly he came back with a full note book.

Much like your beloved Heston Blumenthal on the Caterer jaunt to El Bulli.

[cabrales]

Kevin Mangeolles was one of those who wnet on the Caterer magazine trip to the French laundry. Clearly he came back with a full note book.

Much like your beloved Heston Blumenthal on the Caterer jaunt to El Bulli.

Andy -- Would it be safe to assume that one has to be a food professional (writer, chef, etc.) to be included in the Caterer visits? Have you heard of interested non-professionals gaining a spot on those trips?  

Everybody -- Do members have any updates on the French Laundry outpost that is supposed to be appearing in NYC? How is T. Keller expected to allocate his time between the two coasts, for example?

[Andy Lynes]

Jay - Well that solves that little mystery then. Also, sorry about the mis-quote.

Cabrales - it's usually chefs that go on the Caterer junkets and always catering professionals of some sort.

[Fat Guy]

Jay, I wasn't kidding when I said Keller hasn't tasted the dish.

http://ruhlman.com/articles/1999_10_00_gourmet_keller.htm

It's not good. It looks pretty and it doesn't taste awful, but none of the main ingredients is improved by the presence of the others and the combination offers no interest.

I didn't have the crab soup so I can't help you there.

Are we really going to haul out the same old mistaken assumptions about what it means to be a chef every time a dish at one restaurant makes reference to a dish at another restaurant? I thought we put those to bed conclusively on several other threads. I mean, it does seem Keller was the first to popularize the oysters-and-pearls thing, but he was not the first to combine oysters and tapioca. Take a look at James A. Michener's "Chesapeake" for one example, in that case tapioca in its powdered form. It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that a thousand chefs in Asia had already done it -- most of our usage of tapioca is adapted from what they've been doing over there for quite awhile. Today you'll see tapioca and oysters at restaurants all over the place, with each chef doing a slightly different variation on the dish. Likewise, at the same time that Keller was popularizing his version of the dish, tapioca itself was becoming a vogue-ish ingredient among Western chefs. So this guy took a trip, saw Keller's dish, liked it and made a version of it. Big deal. This is no different from what every chef does every day by taking historically successful combinations of ingredients and techniques and trying to improve upon them. Go to any great restaurant in the world and you will see a sizeable percentage of chefs and restaurateurs as customers. What do you think they're there for? The practice of visiting other chefs' restaurants in order to see the best of what is available and incorporate it into your own establishment's repertoire is as old as the restaurant itself. Chef who don't eat out much don't tend to cook very interesting food.

[Steve Klc]

"The practice of visiting other chefs' restaurants in order to see the best of what is available and incorporate it into your own establishment's repertoire is as old as the restaurant itself. Chefs who don't eat out much don't tend to cook very interesting food."

I could not have said this better myself.  Any other view is without merit, misguided, at best, delusional at worst.  Even Ferran Adria eats around--he especially loves the ideas and spirit of the US--and goes back to his lab to play. Must this canard of chefs ripping other chefs off--reinterpreting, reimagining, reworking, filtering ideas--which everyone in the business does--be trotted out again and again?  Can we not put this to bed once and for all as misunderstanding what it means to be a chef?

So what if Heston Blumenthal went on a Caterer jaunt to El Bulli and so what if Isle of Wight guy went on a junket to the French Laundry and, not so surprisingly, each chef was inspired by their visit--so inspired, in fact, to copy or emulate techniques, combinations, or even exact dishes.  Guess what--no two dishes can ever be exactly alike even with the same ingredients.

Keller and Adria are two of the most pre-eminent chefs working today--who wouldn't pick up a thing or two or five from them?  I learn from my students and colleagues all the time--and the best in the world themselves say that they never stop learning from others.  This is neither stealing nor corrupt--and it is disingenuous to intimate otherwise.

The only fault I'd find with these chefs is if they published recipes that were blatant ripoffs--or if they went on tv or were quoted in print saying what a genius they were for creating such a unique dish.

I'm hardly breaking new ground here, but the real evil is the cookbook authors, newspaper food writers and glossy consumer food magazine editors who really copy recipes from one another and dumb-down what chefs do without making them better.  Oh, and lazy compliant writers who regurgitate press releases which have been spoon-fed to them.

[Andy Lynes]

Steven - the reason I remarked upon this particular case is that the Isle of Wight is not exactly a culinary destination. It is a very insular and really the last place I would have expected a dish inspired by Keller to turn up. The mystery as I said has been solved by the fact that the chef got a free trip to California with the British industry rag Caterer. I wasn't intending to spin this out into any sort of wider meditation on modern restaurant practices,but if anyone else fancies it feel free. I'll be posting on the A Balic or Rock Groups threads.  

[Fat Guy]

Wight you are, Andy. (Sorry, sorry.) You see, I think it's a good thing that a chef from a non-culinary-destination Isle is willing to be a bit of a risk taker and prepare something other than brasied-whatever-they-eat-over-there. Kudos to him for getting out and seeing the world and bringing back what he thinks is the best of it (though I disagree with his choice).

[Steve Klc]

On another thread, the impeccably eloquent cabrales just wrote about how she approaches reviewing a restaurant by describing dishes against historical context and current practice: "If the comparison is sufficiently interesting, consider including it in the review. If the dish appears relatively novel in combining ingredients or tastes, try to discern why."

Sage advice.  Would it have been nice if Jay Rayner knew about Keller's dish and who took the Caterer junket to the French Laundry?  Yes.  Does it diminish Jay Rayner's perception of the dish and its taste? Not one wit.  There's also a real world element to this that begs to be said--often writers, puffed up with themselves, include little cheeky, insidery, knowing comments into their reviews and articles--and guess what?  Editors remove them for length or because they're more of a distraction.  Happens all the time.

Must all restaurant reviewers everywhere have eaten at the French Laundry?  No.  Should every restaurant reviewer be knowledgeable of Thomas Keller and read the French Laundry cookbook?  Probably, yes.  But let's not turn this into an indictment of one reviewer, who, by the way, acquits himself generously and well here.

[tutti-frutti]

I have to say that this is a truly fascinating question. And some of the answers have been illuminating.

[Andy Lynes]

I agree that it's very good news that the chap from the George got to go to The French Laundary and that he was inspired enough to try and reproduce what he saw and ate there. It was certainly not meant as an indictment of Jay Rayner. I mentioned this review partly because I enjoyed reading it. Several of jay's recent reviews have made me laugh out loud, whilst still telling me all I need to know about the restaurant in question. I think he's the best reviewer in the UK press at the moment, bar Fay Maschler of course! There really was no side to this posting at all, I simply felt that it was worth remarking on.

Perhaps I should tell you that I was brought up in Portsmouth, which is where you get the Ferry or Hovercraft over to the Isle of Wight. I'm afraid the general feeling about IOWers was that they were rather a rum lot to say the least. In addition, the Isle's main source of revenue is as a holiday destination and as you may know, the UK seaside holiday is virtually extinct. As a consequence, the poor old Isle does not have the most booming economy in the world. Therefore the suprise. It would be a bit like Reg's cafe in Southend on Sea running a "Tribute to Robuchon" promotion. Well, not that bad but you get my drift.

[cabrales]

I'm grateful for, but don't feel deserving of, Steve Klc's kind words in this thread. But pursuit of chefs' "taking inspiration from other chefs' cuisine" would be most interesting to me. I do try and sample similar dishes at different restaurants (e.g., the chicken in half mourning dish at Boyer and L'Ambroisie and hopefully, at some later point, La Mere Brazier, and the oysters in a gelee of seawater dish in France at Meneau at L'Esperance, Vezelay-Saint Pere; Dutournier at Carre des Feuillants, Paris; Guy Savoy at namesake restaurant, Paris; Jean-Michel Lorain at La Cote Saint-Jacques, Joigny).  See "What are vegetarians missing" in "General" (long post); "Guy Savoy" in "France". I wonder who among the listed French chefs came up with the idea of using the jus/water inside an oyster to construct an accompanying gelee? (It might well have been Meneau or Lorain).

I enjoy both the "pure" comparison of the taste of similar dishes, and considering the question of how the dish of each chef "came about".  I collect books on French restaurants in France, including out-of-print books, and look over their menus too. I am also interested in evaluating for myself how a chef who has trained under another (as sous-chef, head pastry chef or another meaningful position) might have his style influenced by the teacher.   That is a thread I have from time to time thought about starting (e.g., Gagnaire, Trama/Pourcels; Michel Roux/Koffman; Koffman/Demeter at Putney Bridge; Robuchon/Bouley; Marco Pierre White/Novelli -- was Novelli ever MPW's sous-chef? similar questions for Bouley), but I do not feel equipped to provide an initiating post. :confused:

[Fat Guy]

Cabrales, to paraphrase Rabbi Hillel, if you're not equipped to provide such a post, who is equipped to provide such a post? Every contributor to Gastronomica, Gourmet, and all four editions of Vogue put together couldn't have done more research on this than you! And if not now, when?

[cabrales]

Steven -- Thanks for your encouragement. However, could one of the coordinators consider providing a lead post, if members are interested in the topic? Perhaps one could focus on the Ferdnand Point line or the Roux line, to make the task more manageable?? Or, if noone feels inclined to provide a lead post, I'll have to think about the topic for a while before posting  

[jayrayner]

Thanks to Steve for his kind comments and, of course, to Andy. If you swallow as well I may just have found my perfect partner.

As has been said here perhaps it might be useful if I knew more about Keller's work but I'm not convinced that it would have helped me write a better piece. Indeed, though I would have found it hard to resist doing so had I known, smartypants comments about these dishes being Keller knockoffs would probably have only irritated the vast majority of the people who read the column. As I, like others here, think it is only natural and healthy for chefs to learn from each other, even import ideas from each other, there would be no sin to report. And as I haven't eaten at the French Laundry - more's the pity -  I couldn't do a comparrison job which, in any case would have been irritating for the vast majority of people etc etc.

Instead - and I'm going to blow my own trumpet a bit here - I think I dealt with the point anyway by taking as my theme ambition and the attempt to realise it. In other words I may not have known that the chef at the George was working in the same vein as Keller but I did spot that he was trying some dramatic stuff (which he failed to pull off). So I suppose I'm claiming I did my job. And that's not meant as defensively as it sounds. It's meant about half as defensively.

[cabrales]

And as I haven't eaten at the French Laundry . . . I couldn't do a comparison job which, in any case would have been irritating for the vast majority of people etc etc."

Jay -- I appreciated your post very much. If I were in your shoes (as a professional food writer providing a review other than on this board) and thought the dish of a chef might have been "inspired", shall we say, by that of another, I would not consider it appropriate to so suggest unless I had tasted both. The process of comparison is one that, as your post suggests, is to be taken with caution, for all the connotations that might result in readers' minds.

I thought long and hard before suggesting that L'Orangerie's chef in LA might have sought inspiration from certain Parisian chefs in another thread. It's a serious point to make, despite the similarity of the themes in some of the dishes. Reflecting back, I am not entirely sure my "suggestions" were warranted. Even though I have eaten at all relevant restaurants, I had not taken in the precise dishes mentioned with respect to L'Orangerie. I have, in fact, considered editing out that post (but have not yet). In the future, I will not provide such suggestions absent having sampled each relevant dish and having put even greater thought into appropriateness considerations.  :confused:

[Andy Lynes]

If you swallow as well I may just have found my perfect partner.

To paraphrase Meat Loaf : I'll swallow just about anything, (as long as it's free of course), but I won't swallow that.

[Lord Michael Lewis]

Forgive me for raising this again, but...

Look, this isn't about mere copying, this is about heralding someone as the most innovative British chef for fifty years. And it's about the heralds not knowing or caring that the credit for the innovation is grossly misplaced.

Or to put it into the simplest possible terms: if Rayner and his colleagues had said something like, "Blumenthal pulls off a technically adroit imitation of culinary greats like Adria and Bras..." I would have absolutely nothing to say on the subject. I repeat, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO SAY.

However this isn't the case. Blumenthal is being lauded for something he's not responsible for. And I do mean, lauded, a good example would be the opening papragraph of Rayner's extraordinary 'review' of Blumenthal's new riverside brasserie.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/...4362028,00.html

So, this is not about copying; this is about perspective.

The fact that makes food so exciting -finite ingredients, infinite possiblities- is what makes, for me, the relationship between Blumenthal and the press so depressing. With an infinity of of furrows to plough how can it be acceptable to, not only, plough someone else's but also to reap their crop?

[Tonyfinch]

Blumenthal is being lauded for something he's not responsible for.

You miss the point Michael.99.99% of restaurant goers couldn't give a monkeys stuff whether Blumenthal invented the dishes or not,or whether he takes the credit for doing so  or not.

Blumenthal takes credit for MAKING IT AVAILABLE in Britain,for enabling more people to AVAIL THEMSELVES OF IT,should they wish.

Even those of us with money to spend in expensive restaurants don't want to have to make a pilgrimage to bloody Spain if we feel like eating "cutting edge" food. Going to Bray is quite far enough for me thank you.If this means I'm only eating a rendition of the original,well I can console myself with the fact that I saved on the plane fare and I'm grateful that someone decided to spread the word in a town not too far from where I live.If he wants to claim that he INVENTED the word,then to quote Jay Rayner "like do I care"?

[yvonne johnson]

To bring things back to the Isle of Wight for a moment, as a reader I'd would have liked to have found out (in this case I knew, but if I hadn't known....) the Keller relationship to the dish. I think to say that 99.9% of readers wouldn't care to know doesn't ring true. As Andy points out, we're talking about a dish associated with a world renowned chef landing up on the Isle of Wight. I think that makes for a great story. But even if a Keller-inspired dish ended up in central London, I think it adds to the background information, placing dishes and influences in context.

I agree with views above about chefs borrowing from each other all the time, but that doesn't mean, I hope, that the links are ignored. And I don't think making those links for the reader turns the reviewer into a smartypants. Whether they've visited every restaurant on earth or simply know about major trends in culinary things, I value the information.