European Restaurants Looked Up To

[cabrales]

Leslie -- Your book describes the background of certain key members of the Daniel kitchen team (e.g., Boulud himself; executive chef Alex Lee, who spent some time at El Bulli, among other places). Leaving aside the restaurants in Europe at which various members of the brigade had worked, did you sense which among the restaurants in Europe garnered the admiration of many such members and why?

[Leslie Brenner]

Cabrales, the European restaurants that seemed to inspire the most awe in the kitchen at Daniel were Alain Ducasse, particularly in Paris (Alex Lee was especially impressed, and Daniel told me the best meal he ever had was at Alain Ducasse), El Bulli (Neal Gallagher was particularly gaga over it), and Martín Berasateguí in San Sebastian, Spain. That's generally speaking--I'm sure particular cooks had other favorites, but those were the restaurants I heard the most talk about.

[cabrales]

For other members, below is an excerpt from Leslie's book in which Berasategui and El Bulli are mentioned.

"Now [Alex] Lee [boulud's Executive Chef at Daniel] brings in a two-foot clear plastic bag, knotted at the top, full of baby anguilla, tiny wormlike Spanish eels. Each one is a little fatter than a strand of sphaghetti. . . . Lee can still taste them as he ate them in Spain -- sauteed with garlic, olive oil, hot pepper, lemon and parsley. Lee plunks the wobbly bag down on the cool surface of the indiction range. . . . Damien, a new French garde-manger cook, has poured the baby eels into a big wodden saladier in the meantime. 'Put your hand in,' he tells Kevin, his partner. Like Lee, Kevin did a stage at Martin Berasategui in San Sebastian, as well as at El Bulli, Ferran Adria's outrageous house of surreal cuisine just outside Barcelona -- The restaurant that's on everyone's lips this year. Clearly, he's seen a few anguilla in his time. Kevin's hands goes in and he feels the slimy eegls wiggle against his skin . . . ." wink: