review: acid and heat…

~ “This tastes like Jean Georges, but Italian.” I was looking at a pair of shrimp in a buttery, roasted garlic bath, but talking to Alex Talbot, one-half of that brilliant blog, Ideas in Food. Perhaps that’s because Tony Conte had worked for Jean-Georges Vongerichten. I didn’t know that until Alex told me. But, the […]

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review: acid and heat…

~ “This tastes like Jean Georges, but Italian.” I was looking at a pair of shrimp in a buttery, roasted garlic bath, but talking to Alex Talbot, one-half of that brilliant blog, Ideas in Food. Perhaps that’s because Tony Conte had worked for Jean-Georges Vongerichten. I didn’t know that until Alex told me. But, the […]

Continue

review: baby back… (pappy’s bbq)

~ There aren’t many on my list of musts.  But, this past weekend, Pappy’s Smokehouse in St. Louis earned a line on it. Gerard Craft, chef-owner of niche (and the attendant Taste and Brasserie), had commended Mike Emerson’s barbecue too many times to be ignored. So, to the smokehouse we went for lunch. We arrived […]

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review: baby back… (pappy’s bbq)

~ There aren’t many on my list of musts.  But, this past weekend, Pappy’s Smokehouse in St. Louis earned a line on it. Gerard Craft, chef-owner of niche (and the attendant Taste and Brasserie), had commended Mike Emerson’s barbecue too many times to be ignored. So, to the smokehouse we went for lunch. We arrived […]

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review: gilt… (louis xv)

I had always thought that Louis XV was an odd name for Alain Ducasse’s temple in Monaco. And then I ate there. Louis XV wasn’t exactly the most popular monarch by the end of his reign, when he left his throne, gilded in excess at the expense of his subjects, to his successor, whose head […]

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review: gilt… (louis xv)

I had always thought that Louis XV was an odd name for Alain Ducasse’s temple in Monaco. And then I ate there. Louis XV wasn’t exactly the most popular monarch by the end of his reign, when he left his throne, gilded in excess at the expense of his subjects, to his successor, whose head […]

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review: splendor anew… (jean georges)

Given a choice, I’ll rarely order the same dish twice. And yet, I keep going back to Jean Georges, where, for the past few years, the lunch menu had barely budged an inch (or, so it seemed). Why? I love the dining room, a light box that makes lunch on Columbus Circle the bright centerpiece […]

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review: splendor anew… (jean georges)

Given a choice, I’ll rarely order the same dish twice. And yet, I keep going back to Jean Georges, where, for the past few years, the lunch menu had barely budged an inch (or, so it seemed). Why? I love the dining room, a light box that makes lunch on Columbus Circle the bright centerpiece […]

Continue

review: atonal…

Statistics alone would suggest that, of the twenty-plus meals I had in Europe earlier this year, there would be at least one dud. I just didn’t expect it to be l’Astrance. Perennially celebrated by chefs and “lists,” Pascal Barbot’s restaurant in Paris’s upper-crust 16eme is considered by many to be one of the best in […]

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review: atonal…

Statistics alone would suggest that, of the twenty-plus meals I had in Europe earlier this year, there would be at least one dud. I just didn’t expect it to be l’Astrance. Perennially celebrated by chefs and “lists,” Pascal Barbot’s restaurant in Paris’s upper-crust 16eme is considered by many to be one of the best in […]

Continue

review: the happiest corner on earth…

If good food is to be celebrated, then there is much too little mirth at the high end of gastronomy these days. And, it seems that the more you spend, the more sombre the scene, the more severe the service. At their best, meals should be fun and delicious, a party for one or for […]

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review: the happiest corner on earth…

If good food is to be celebrated, then there is much too little mirth at the high end of gastronomy these days. And, it seems that the more you spend, the more sombre the scene, the more severe the service. At their best, meals should be fun and delicious, a party for one or for […]

Continue

review: toque of toques… (paul bocuse)

I went back to l’Auberge du Pont de Collonges (a.k.a. Restaurant Paul Bocuse) because it was convenient. That’s not to say I wouldn’t have gone back for other reasons. But I was literally down the street from the restaurant at l’Abbaye de Collonges for the day with Team U.S.A. in late January.  So, I decided […]

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review: toque of toques… (paul bocuse)

I went back to l’Auberge du Pont de Collonges (a.k.a. Restaurant Paul Bocuse) because it was convenient. That’s not to say I wouldn’t have gone back for other reasons. But I was literally down the street from the restaurant at l’Abbaye de Collonges for the day with Team U.S.A. in late January.  So, I decided […]

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review: figs on a plate…

After David Chang’s “Fig Gate” incident, it’s hard to order a plate of figs with a straight face. But, I did – in San Francisco, naturally. And, like everything else I had at Zuni Café that day, they were fantastic.  So was the cluster of Zante grapes that accompanied them. Sweet as candy, the pea-sized […]

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review: figs on a plate…

After David Chang’s “Fig Gate” incident, it’s hard to order a plate of figs with a straight face. But, I did – in San Francisco, naturally. And, like everything else I had at Zuni Café that day, they were fantastic.  So was the cluster of Zante grapes that accompanied them. Sweet as candy, the pea-sized […]

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review: it takes a village…

Looking up at the counter seating aldea, New York Recently, on the one-year anniversary of aldea’s opening, the chef and owner, George Mendes, tweeted, “Never thought 1 year ago that rice would be our signature dish.” Mendes’s “Arroz de Pato” – a paella stained with pimenton and saffron and enriched with duck stock – is […]

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review: it takes a village…

Looking up at the counter seating aldea, New York Recently, on the one-year anniversary of aldea’s opening, the chef and owner, George Mendes, tweeted, “Never thought 1 year ago that rice would be our signature dish.” Mendes’s “Arroz de Pato” – a paella stained with pimenton and saffron and enriched with duck stock – is […]

Continue

review: high thread count…

Jean Georges, New York There are few places in the world I’d rather be than at Jean Georges. And I’m not saying that just because I’m treated well there. (And really, who isn’t?) I was reminded of this a few weeks ago when I arrived for lunch with six dear friends.  We were there to […]

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review: high thread count…

Jean Georges, New York There are few places in the world I’d rather be than at Jean Georges. And I’m not saying that just because I’m treated well there. (And really, who isn’t?) I was reminded of this a few weeks ago when I arrived for lunch with six dear friends.  We were there to […]

Continue