foreign and domestic…

~ Last year, I quit the firm and lept into a brave new world.  Landing, unexpectedly, in an amazing suitcase party, I traveled, photographed, and ate around the globe, visiting nearly a dozen countries, and just as many states.  I thought I’d never have a year like it again. I was wrong. 2012 has been just as […]

Continue

foreign and domestic…

~ Last year, I quit the firm and lept into a brave new world.  Landing, unexpectedly, in an amazing suitcase party, I traveled, photographed, and ate around the globe, visiting nearly a dozen countries, and just as many states.  I thought I’d never have a year like it again. I was wrong. 2012 has been just as […]

Continue

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: 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

travel: more dots to connect…

~ New York in May.  It’s always a feast. I’ve attended the James Beard Awards, which is held annually the first Monday of the month, for the past six years. For the past two, I’ve had the privilege of photographing the event for All-Clad Metalcrafters (a sponsor), which was the primary purpose of my latest […]

Continue

travel: more dots to connect…

~ New York in May.  It’s always a feast. I’ve attended the James Beard Awards, which is held annually the first Monday of the month, for the past six years. For the past two, I’ve had the privilege of photographing the event for All-Clad Metalcrafters (a sponsor), which was the primary purpose of my latest […]

Continue

review: blade runner…

CityZen Mandarin Oriental, Washington, D.C. I have very good instincts about restaurants. They work for me, anyway. I’d say that about 80% my restaurant experiences match my expectations. I tend to walk in with a glass slightly less than half-empty and hope that the restaurant can fill ‘er up.  If it doesn’t, there’s not a […]

Continue

review: blade runner…

CityZen Mandarin Oriental, Washington, D.C. I have very good instincts about restaurants. They work for me, anyway. I’d say that about 80% my restaurant experiences match my expectations. I tend to walk in with a glass slightly less than half-empty and hope that the restaurant can fill ‘er up.  If it doesn’t, there’s not a […]

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, […]

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, […]

Continue

review: a tropical umbrella…

Mango-Anchovy Ravioli Cafe Atlantico, Washington, D.C. I can’t believe that I lived in Washington, D.C. and never once stepped foot in Cafe Atlantico. Jaleo, yes.  But never Cafe Atlantico. Neither did I visit Jose Andres’s Mediterranean “mezze” restaurant, Zaytinya, which opened shortly before I moved away, or minibar, which always seemed (and still seems) like […]

Continue

review: a tropical umbrella…

Mango-Anchovy Ravioli Cafe Atlantico, Washington, D.C. I can’t believe that I lived in Washington, D.C. and never once stepped foot in Cafe Atlantico. Jaleo, yes.  But never Cafe Atlantico. Neither did I visit Jose Andres’s Mediterranean “mezze” restaurant, Zaytinya, which opened shortly before I moved away, or minibar, which always seemed (and still seems) like […]

Continue

review: one fish, two fish, three fish, goldfish…

Goldfish Hank’s Oyster Bar, Washington, D.C. Goldfish. Pepperidge Farm Goldfish is what they give you to snack on while you look over the menu at Hank’s Oyster Bar. I’m assuming they do this at both locations.  I was at the original location near Dupont on a recent Saturday for brunch, drawn by a sudden yen […]

Continue

review: one fish, two fish, three fish, goldfish…

Goldfish Hank’s Oyster Bar, Washington, D.C. Goldfish. Pepperidge Farm Goldfish is what they give you to snack on while you look over the menu at Hank’s Oyster Bar. I’m assuming they do this at both locations.  I was at the original location near Dupont on a recent Saturday for brunch, drawn by a sudden yen […]

Continue

review: happy in the kitchen…

Ahi Tuna Burger Central Michel Richard, Washington, D.C. The temperature was dropping rapidly.  In the hour it took to get from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to lunch, the thermometer trimmed itself of nearly twenty degrees.  Cold rain might turn into snow, they said.  Freezing temperatures were expected by early evening. […]

Continue

review: happy in the kitchen…

Ahi Tuna Burger Central Michel Richard, Washington, D.C. The temperature was dropping rapidly.  In the hour it took to get from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to lunch, the thermometer trimmed itself of nearly twenty degrees.  Cold rain might turn into snow, they said.  Freezing temperatures were expected by early evening. […]

Continue

travel: a vernal showing…

Cherry Blossoms Dunbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. The cherry trees were beginning their vernal show around the Tidal Basin.  And despite the unexpected freeze, they held up nicely for the official start to the Cherry Blossom Festival. Though I can’t say I enjoyed living there, it was good to be back in Washington, D.C.  I hadn’t […]

Continue

travel: a vernal showing…

Cherry Blossoms Dunbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C. The cherry trees were beginning their vernal show around the Tidal Basin.  And despite the unexpected freeze, they held up nicely for the official start to the Cherry Blossom Festival. Though I can’t say I enjoyed living there, it was good to be back in Washington, D.C.  I hadn’t […]

Continue