Month: September 2010

dinner: oui, chef…

“Chef.” That is the title afforded to every member of the staff in a gentleman’s kitchen. I recently had the honor and pleasure of being in the kitchen with four extraordinary gentlemen by the names of Bocuse, Boswell, Boulud, and Keller. Watching them orchestrate the “dinner of the decade” at Stella! was not only a […]

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dinner: oui, chef…

“Chef.” That is the title afforded to every member of the staff in a gentleman’s kitchen. I recently had the honor and pleasure of being in the kitchen with four extraordinary gentlemen by the names of Bocuse, Boswell, Boulud, and Keller. Watching them orchestrate the “dinner of the decade” at Stella! was not only a […]

Continue

review: imitated by many, but never duplicated…

There’s a surly fellow behind the counter at Central Grocery Co., I heard. In fact, I know someone who had such a terrible experience with him that she vowed she’d never go back (and she hasn’t). Well, I didn’t get to the meet the muffuletta Nazi on my latest trip to New Orleans. Given all […]

Continue

review: imitated by many, but never duplicated…

There’s a surly fellow behind the counter at Central Grocery Co., I heard. In fact, I know someone who had such a terrible experience with him that she vowed she’d never go back (and she hasn’t). Well, I didn’t get to the meet the muffuletta Nazi on my latest trip to New Orleans. Given all […]

Continue

review: the asian laundry…

“You’ll feel like you’ve left the city,” someone told me when describing their experience at benu. I didn’t understand what he meant by it then, but I understand it now. You’ll see benu’s kitchen through the big, picture-windows on a quiet stretch of Hawthorne Street in San Francisco’s SoMa district.  If you arrive after nightfall, […]

Continue

review: the asian laundry…

“You’ll feel like you’ve left the city,” someone told me when describing their experience at benu. I didn’t understand what he meant by it then, but I understand it now. You’ll see benu’s kitchen through the big, picture-windows on a quiet stretch of Hawthorne Street in San Francisco’s SoMa district.  If you arrive after nightfall, […]

Continue

photo of the week 12: chopin and borscht…

The International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition – the Olympics of the 88 ivories – was taking place in Warsaw, Poland as it had every five years since 1927.* The brightest young pianists from all over the world had converged upon the city, and I happened to be there. It was October of 2005 and I […]

Continue

photo of the week 12: chopin and borscht…

The International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition – the Olympics of the 88 ivories – was taking place in Warsaw, Poland as it had every five years since 1927.* The brightest young pianists from all over the world had converged upon the city, and I happened to be there. It was October of 2005 and I […]

Continue

review: powder puff…

I’m not a Southerner, and I won’t claim to be an expert on Southern food. So I can’t tell you how the beignets at Café du Monde measure up to what a Southerner expects from a beignet. But if the beignets at Café du Monde are representative of the Southern ideal (and, judging by their […]

Continue

review: powder puff…

I’m not a Southerner, and I won’t claim to be an expert on Southern food. So I can’t tell you how the beignets at Café du Monde measure up to what a Southerner expects from a beignet. But if the beignets at Café du Monde are representative of the Southern ideal (and, judging by their […]

Continue

are you being served…

Pull up your knickers and call me Captain Peacock. I don’t know how many countless childhood hours I spent musing over the antics of the staff of Grace Brothers, a fictional department store in London and the setting of the impossibly absurd British television comedy, “Are You Being Served?” While most kids my age were […]

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are you being served…

Pull up your knickers and call me Captain Peacock. I don’t know how many countless childhood hours I spent musing over the antics of the staff of Grace Brothers, a fictional department store in London and the setting of the impossibly absurd British television comedy, “Are You Being Served?” While most kids my age were […]

Continue

dinner: linger a little, laugh a lot…

What do you serve to Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, and Jerome Bocuse when they arrive together at your restaurant for dinner? That’s a question that Scott Boswell recently had to answer. The night before the B.I.R.D.S./Bocuse d’Or dinner, Chef Boswell and his team hosted a small, private dinner for the guest chefs, their sous chefs, […]

Continue

dinner: linger a little, laugh a lot…

What do you serve to Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, and Jerome Bocuse when they arrive together at your restaurant for dinner? That’s a question that Scott Boswell recently had to answer. The night before the B.I.R.D.S./Bocuse d’Or dinner, Chef Boswell and his team hosted a small, private dinner for the guest chefs, their sous chefs, […]

Continue

photo of the week 11: put your hands up…

It was 2 a.m. when Glen David Andrews and his band wrapped up their last set at d.b.a., a bar in the Faubourg Marigny district of New Orleans (wait, there’s one in New York too?). By 2:30, the house had pretty much cleared out (including a large group of chefs, which included Lee Anne Wong […]

Continue

photo of the week 11: put your hands up…

It was 2 a.m. when Glen David Andrews and his band wrapped up their last set at d.b.a., a bar in the Faubourg Marigny district of New Orleans (wait, there’s one in New York too?). By 2:30, the house had pretty much cleared out (including a large group of chefs, which included Lee Anne Wong […]

Continue

travel: stars in the dining room, legends in the kitchen…

Before I could unpack from San Francisco, I was re-stuffing my suitcases for New Orleans. The “dinner of the decade,” is how they billed it, and I had a seat. But before I get to the event (which will come in a subsequent post), first, a little back-story, which operates as both disclosure and a […]

Continue

travel: stars in the dining room, legends in the kitchen…

Before I could unpack from San Francisco, I was re-stuffing my suitcases for New Orleans. The “dinner of the decade,” is how they billed it, and I had a seat. But before I get to the event (which will come in a subsequent post), first, a little back-story, which operates as both disclosure and a […]

Continue

review: personality, with a side of perfection…

The bread fairy always calls thrice at The French Laundry. First, arrives a beautifully glazed brioche bun. It’s got Lana Turner’s curves with the coloring of Sophia Loren after a summer on the Riviera. Then, a basket of mini baguettes and whole-grain wonders, all of which I overlooked in favor of the pretzel roll with […]

Continue

review: personality, with a side of perfection…

The bread fairy always calls thrice at The French Laundry. First, arrives a beautifully glazed brioche bun. It’s got Lana Turner’s curves with the coloring of Sophia Loren after a summer on the Riviera. Then, a basket of mini baguettes and whole-grain wonders, all of which I overlooked in favor of the pretzel roll with […]

Continue