Tag: tasting menu

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: pioneer… (notion)

You know what I like about Dave Racicot? He’s passionate. He’s generous. He’s fearless. And, he’s just a bit crazy. There’s little glory, if any, in slim margins, empty seats, and twenty-hour days. But chefs across the world run the restaurant gauntlet again and again. Why? They love to cook. They were made to cook. […]

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review: pioneer… (notion)

You know what I like about Dave Racicot? He’s passionate. He’s generous. He’s fearless. And, he’s just a bit crazy. There’s little glory, if any, in slim margins, empty seats, and twenty-hour days. But chefs across the world run the restaurant gauntlet again and again. Why? They love to cook. They were made to cook. […]

Continue

review: sweet heat…

The fact that Kevin Gillespie was one of my favorite cheftestants from Season 6 of BravoTV’s Top Chef reality show factored little in my decision to visit Woodfire Grill.* In fact, I hadn’t intended on eating at Woodfire Grill at all on my recent stop in Atlanta. When Gillespie passed through Kansas City earlier this […]

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review: sweet heat…

The fact that Kevin Gillespie was one of my favorite cheftestants from Season 6 of BravoTV’s Top Chef reality show factored little in my decision to visit Woodfire Grill.* In fact, I hadn’t intended on eating at Woodfire Grill at all on my recent stop in Atlanta. When Gillespie passed through Kansas City earlier this […]

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review: kb6…

Kasparov, Euwe, Capablanca, and Spassky – none of them have occupied a more magnificent “KB6” than I did recently on the seventh floor of the Peninsula Hotel in Chicago. A 2-inch square of black anywhere else in the world, “KB6” at Avenues is a swivel-top throne, last in a row of six (thus, aptly coded […]

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review: kb6…

Kasparov, Euwe, Capablanca, and Spassky – none of them have occupied a more magnificent “KB6” than I did recently on the seventh floor of the Peninsula Hotel in Chicago. A 2-inch square of black anywhere else in the world, “KB6” at Avenues is a swivel-top throne, last in a row of six (thus, aptly coded […]

Continue

review: thunder out of the gate…

commis shot out of the gate with a thunderclap.* James Syhabout opened this tiny, tiny restaurant on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, California in June of 2009.  Four months later, it earned its first Michelin star, and half a year after that, Syhabout was named one of Food + Wine’s Best New Chefs. Barely opened for […]

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review: thunder out of the gate…

commis shot out of the gate with a thunderclap.* James Syhabout opened this tiny, tiny restaurant on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, California in June of 2009.  Four months later, it earned its first Michelin star, and half a year after that, Syhabout was named one of Food + Wine’s Best New Chefs. Barely opened for […]

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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, […]

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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: 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: pan hellenic…

komi, Washington, D.C. It was the year that April Bloomfield brought the gastro pub to the West Village, Dan Barber opened a restaurant in a stone barn in Pocantico Hills, and Grant Achatz cast a wrinkle in the fabric of modern cuisine with an archaic symbol. Joël Robuchon landed in Las Vegas at The Mansion, […]

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review: pan hellenic…

komi, Washington, D.C. It was the year that April Bloomfield brought the gastro pub to the West Village, Dan Barber opened a restaurant in a stone barn in Pocantico Hills, and Grant Achatz cast a wrinkle in the fabric of modern cuisine with an archaic symbol. Joël Robuchon landed in Las Vegas at The Mansion, […]

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review: constant, steady, ever-faithful…

Salmon-Caviar Le Bernardin, New York I don’t take my birthday too seriously.  All I ask for is a very good meal (or a few) shared with good friends. For the past few years, I’ve made it a point to celebrate my birthday away from home.  I’ve had a strong bias for New York, which has […]

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review: constant, steady, ever-faithful…

Salmon-Caviar Le Bernardin, New York I don’t take my birthday too seriously.  All I ask for is a very good meal (or a few) shared with good friends. For the past few years, I’ve made it a point to celebrate my birthday away from home.  I’ve had a strong bias for New York, which has […]

Continue

review: from the dragon’s perch…

Steamed Garoupa Fillet with Morels Lung King Heen, Hong Kong Pleased to let me arrange our entire eating itinerary, my friend Mr. RBI flew all the way from the U.S. just to eat with me during my first three days of my trip to Hong Kong. It was his first time in Asia. Being a […]

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review: from the dragon’s perch…

Steamed Garoupa Fillet with Morels Lung King Heen, Hong Kong Pleased to let me arrange our entire eating itinerary, my friend Mr. RBI flew all the way from the U.S. just to eat with me during my first three days of my trip to Hong Kong. It was his first time in Asia. Being a […]

Continue