New Yorker food issue

[CathyL]

I'm still reading through it, and while it's a bit hit-and-miss, there are some gems. John McPhee on shad; profiles of Diana Kennedy and Mario; taste memories from Madhur Jaffrey and Chang-Rae Lee; Calvin Trillin on wine tasting, which I'm saving for last.

There's a wonderful piece by Adam Gopnik about a jeu de cuisine in which five chefs (including the Blue Hill boys) devise a week's worth of menus from what Gopnik selects at the Union Square market. A sample: "Cooks, I learned, indulge the gaping outsider - I want to run away with the circus! - without even trying to explain to him what they know too well, that the tricks are easy; the hard part is preventing the clowns from committing suicide and the lion trainer from getting in bed with the ringmaster's wife. They're glad that people like the circus, but they understand that the circus is not the show; the circus is the ring around the show."

Other opinions?

[Jinmyo]

I've just gotten it this morning.

[Bux]

I'll let you know when the guys at the post office finish reading my copy.

[mamster]

That was one looooong article about Mario. It makes Mario sound like kind of a nut, albeit a nut who can really cook. The biographical information is interspersed with bits about the writer staging at Babbo, and it could have been two separate articles, although I see why they did it this way.

[CathyL]

That was one looooong article about Mario.  It makes Mario sound like kind of a nut, albeit a nut who can really cook.  The biographical information is interspersed with bits about the writer staging at Babbo, and it could have been two separate articles, although I see why they did it this way.

I don't think Mario would object to that characterization.

[Jinmyo]

When I first saw photographs of Mario I thought he was a bufoon. The orange clogs, the ponytail, the shorts. Just a few minutes of watching the Molto show didn't change that opinion but immediately added a deep measure of respect that has steadily grown to about his height and weight.

I Mario.

[Stone]

Imagine Mario and Pres. Bush trying to hold a conversation. Neither can string together a meaningful sentence without cue cards. At least Mario can cook.

[Liza]

Not sure about the Prez, but I can assure you that Mario doesn't use cue cards.

[Wilfrid]

I'll let you know when the guys at the post office finish reading my copy.

Damn right, Bux. Ditto. First copy that hasn't shown up promptly all year. Pah.

[bourdain]

Yeah--way off target on Mario with the cue cards crack.If any man has no need for cue cards to have something to talk about--it's him. He shoots that show in damn near real time--with minmal (if any) pre-prepared food--all the while slipping in a little off-the-top-of-the head ethnography, geography, history, anthropology--not to mention sly references to Proust, Rabelias, Suetonius and Sid Vicious. Easily the one of the smartest guys on television--including news divisions--far and away the smartest chef out there--and light years ahead of Bush --or any recent president in the brain wattage department.Clogs and shorts aside--one underestimates the man at one's peril. And he owns a whole lot of successful restaurants in Manhattan--an indicator of no small amount of shrewdness and business acumen.

[Ron Johnson]

Yeah, I once saw an episode of Molto Mario where Batali demonstrated three recipes, presented a brief geographical breakdown of the olive growing regions of Puglia, gave a dissertation on the Holy Roman Empire, flirted with the two hotties sitting at the counter, discussed the current state of the socio-economic differences of each region of Italy as they pertain to cuisine, and did it all without taking a breath.

They dont make cue cards for that kind of shit.

No wonder he can only make the MM with his hands at the end of the show, the dude needs some O2.

[russ parsons]

i'll put in my two bits about mario: i've talked to a lot of dumb chefs in my day and he's certainly not one of them. he's smart and funny and genuinely larger than life. and he's a great cook. even though he runs a bunch of restaurants, all of the meals i've eaten at them have been either very good or great. same goes for his partner, joe bastianich. definitely not to be mistaken for your typical food network chef.

[Wilfrid]

Got the issue. Packed. The Adam Gopnik article alone could keep us going for weeks. Very opinionated on the Union Square greenmarket; interesting on Dan Barber of Blue Hill. The article on martinis by Roger Angell has some very funny stories in it.

Keep reading...

[Stone]

Yeah--way off target on Mario with the cue cards crack.If any man has no need for cue cards to have something to talk about--it's him. He shoots that show in damn near real time--with minmal (if any) pre-prepared food--all the while slipping in a little off-the-top-of-the head ethnography, geography, history, anthropology--not to mention sly references to Proust, Rabelias, Suetonius and Sid Vicious. Easily the one of the smartest guys on television--including news divisions--far and away the smartest chef out there--and light years ahead of Bush --or any recent president in the brain wattage department.Clogs and shorts aside--one underestimates the man at one's peril. And he owns a whole lot of successful restaurants in Manhattan--an indicator of no small amount of shrewdness and business acumen.

Poorly worded joke on my part. I was referring to his mangling of the English language. I have no doubt that Mario, his guests, most of his ingredients, a good portion of his kitchen equipment and his clogs are more intelligent than our president.

[Ron Johnson]

I knew what you meant Dstone. The guy can get a little tongue-tied at times.

Oh, and in regard to the pres, you could have stopped at the clogs.

[srhcb]

I have no doubt that Mario, his guests, most of his ingredients, a good portion of his kitchen equipment and his clogs are more intelligent than our president.

Gee, you guys who read the New Yorker sure are clever!

[Stone]

I have no doubt that Mario, his guests, most of his ingredients, a good portion of his kitchen equipment and his clogs are more intelligent than our president.

Gee, you guys who read the New Yorker sure are clever!

Actually, I don't read the New Yorker. It's way over my head.

[Bux]

Wilfrid, my copy arrived yesterday afternoon. It's really only the magazines with the pictures that arrive late, but I'm sure we, I mean my wife doesn't get every copy of the Victoria Secret catalog sent.

I quickly read the Gopnik article because he's one of my favorite writers--when he's not writing about food--and because I saw the photo of Dan and Mike. I like Gopnik's writing but I found the article a little food lite, although still interesting. Anyway, it heavily favored Dan Barber which was alright as I favor him as well although it appears as if Dan was favored mostly because Gopnik related to him as an academically educated person rather than as a cook.

The food they prepared got the short end of the deal and the Greenmarket was not so much more fortunate. The relationships posed between food and art, or rather food and writing as art forms were interesting, if not always so convincingly made.

As I started reading the article, one of my early thoughts was how clever of Peter Hoffman to offer a challenge to his friend the writer that would inevitably lead to an article in which he would inevitably be featured. Then I got to thinking that it's unlikely the New Yorker collects approved food related articles until it has enough to publish a food issue. I think the food issue is a regular feature and articles are solicited from authors, or authors target submissions towards this issue. The greater likelihood is that Gopnik approached Hoffman, a friend and chef, looking for inspiration, ideas and suggestions. It would appear that Gopnik was not entirely seduced by Courtine's idea of the jeu, or maybe Gopnik is just not a food writer, or not my food writer. He nonetheless writes intriguingly about people and places.

That's quite a photograph of Batali. He may well be a clown, or a jester for our times, but he's no buffoon as others have noted. The article and the rest of the issue will have to wait a day or two.

[jaybee]

Oh, is that the issue with the two upside-down ice-cream cones on the cover?

[Steve Klc]

I, too, just got the issue and as I always do first, read one article picked completely at random. This time I picked Jane Kramer's piece. Big mistake. It reminded me of what I didn't like about the old New Yorker--wordsmiths so personally nostalgic, self indulgently boring, yet so tired it never carried me over the threshold of actually caring about the subject. Late in the piece, tacked within a paragraph which just seems interminably long, is this nugget, which I find representative of the whole: "My stove is smaller here (though my pots are bigger). I do not write easily about myself. I am not as tasty or exotic as the characters I usually choose."

So true. I'm going to re-read it down the road to see if I wasn't sufficiently sensitive and nuanced with this driftwood.

When I read more I'll weigh back in. Jaybee--yes.

Bux--how long has there been a "food" issue? The three best food-related pieces I can recall--Gopnik on French cuisine, the Wolfgang Puck profile and the Ronco guy profile--weren't part of larger themed issues.

[Liza]

This is the first food issue.

And speaking of issue, I have quite a few with Mr. Gopnik, a writer I usually adore.

[CathyL]

I, too, just got the issue and as I always do first, read one article picked completely at random.  This time I picked Jane Kramer's piece.  Big mistake. It reminded me of what I didn't like about the old New Yorker--wordsmiths so personally nostalgic, self indulgently boring, yet so tired it never carried me over the threshold of actually caring about the subject.  

Yes, I had the same response to Kramer's piece.

I very much like John McPhee's article about shad, written with his usual quiet precision, and Calvin Trillin's article about the UC Davis wine test, which may or may not exist. Anyone know?

[Fat Guy]

Yes it's real (sort of). We have another thread going about it.

Parts of the issue -- the only parts I'll probably read -- are online, for a little while at least:

http://www.newyorker.com/main/magazine/

[Jinmyo]

And speaking of issue, I have quite a few with Mr. Gopnik, a writer I usually adore.

What are they, Liza? If you are comfortable in discussing them.

[Bux]

This is the first food issue.

And speaking of issue, I have quite a few with Mr. Gopnik, a writer I usually adore.

My apologies for thinking, or rather assuming out loud that there had been others. The New Yorker has been running these single topic issues of one kind or another for some time and I thought I recalled one from the past and someone else said the same thing to me in a conversation in real life. I do have a real life, it's just that it's small in comparison to my eGullet life.

Even if it's the first, my theory works in principle.

Liza, with some fear of dragging out the problems I earlier discussed with From Paris to the Moon I'd love to hear some of your issues with Mr. Gopnick which I might assume are about the Greenmarket coverage. As I said, I mostly consider myself a fan of his writing, but I stumble when he talks about food. I'm not sure I got the overall point of this article. I missed a focus, although I think the stuff on Dan is really good background for the recent eGullet Q&A.

I'm looking forward to McPhee's article. I'm currently reading the one on Molto Mario and found the part about the author's stage in the kitchen a bit of a non sequitur. I'm curious to see if it leads anywhere.