Category: dessert

review: alone at the plancha… (rafa’s)

Some whelks, served cold with a side of garlicky vinaigrette. Espardenyes – those curiously striated cucumbers from the sea, tender with bounce and bite – langostas, gambas, chiparones, and a baby turbot not much larger than my hand, all grilled on the plancha. These are the simple pleasures of Rafa’s, an unassuming little eatery that has all but become […]

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review: alone at the plancha… (rafa’s)

Some whelks, served cold with a side of garlicky vinaigrette. Espardenyes – those curiously striated cucumbers from the sea, tender with bounce and bite – langostas, gambas, chiparones, and a baby turbot not much larger than my hand, all grilled on the plancha. These are the simple pleasures of Rafa’s, an unassuming little eatery that has all but become […]

Continue

review: spectrum… (mirazur)

I first learned of Menton, a small resort town on the French Riviera, through a dessert. It was a cold December night in Paris, and the biscuit molleux I ordered at Michel Rostang was kissed with the sunny scent of lemons from that city on the Côte d’Azur. I remember that meal in the 17eme […]

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review: spectrum… (mirazur)

I first learned of Menton, a small resort town on the French Riviera, through a dessert. It was a cold December night in Paris, and the biscuit molleux I ordered at Michel Rostang was kissed with the sunny scent of lemons from that city on the Côte d’Azur. I remember that meal in the 17eme […]

Continue

review: inside his mind… (quique dacosta)

I’ve never tasted terroir as intensely or unequivocally as I did in Dénia, Spain earlier this year. Eating at Quique Dacosta is like doing a faceplant on the shoreline not a hundred yards from the restaurant’s door.* It is a dynamic experience, where prehistory meets the future, where the land meets the sea, and where […]

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review: inside his mind… (quique dacosta)

I’ve never tasted terroir as intensely or unequivocally as I did in Dénia, Spain earlier this year. Eating at Quique Dacosta is like doing a faceplant on the shoreline not a hundred yards from the restaurant’s door.* It is a dynamic experience, where prehistory meets the future, where the land meets the sea, and where […]

Continue

review: holism… (saison)

“Old-ass pigeon.” Those are Josh Skene’s words, not mine. In a spirited email exchange that ensued after my meal at his restaurant, saison, that’s how he lovingly referred to the twelfth of sixteen courses I had at his Chef’s Counter. Skenes had salted the cavity of one of the birds. The other one, he left […]

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review: holism… (saison)

“Old-ass pigeon.” Those are Josh Skene’s words, not mine. In a spirited email exchange that ensued after my meal at his restaurant, saison, that’s how he lovingly referred to the twelfth of sixteen courses I had at his Chef’s Counter. Skenes had salted the cavity of one of the birds. The other one, he left […]

Continue

travel: southern, by the grace of god…

If you’ve been to the South and didn’t leave smelling like bourbon and barbecue, then you had best go back and do it right. The scene of the last chapter of this most amazing year of travel and eating for me was set among the palmettos and live oaks of the Lowcountry. On 20,000-acres of […]

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travel: southern, by the grace of god…

If you’ve been to the South and didn’t leave smelling like bourbon and barbecue, then you had best go back and do it right. The scene of the last chapter of this most amazing year of travel and eating for me was set among the palmettos and live oaks of the Lowcountry. On 20,000-acres of […]

Continue

review: context… (osteria francescana)

Someone with grand wit once quipped that the problem with dining on the cutting edge is that you’re oft left bleeding. How true. It grieves me to report that my dinner at Osteria Francescana, perhaps one of the most spotlit restaurants in the world right now, was disappointing.

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review: context… (osteria francescana)

Someone with grand wit once quipped that the problem with dining on the cutting edge is that you’re oft left bleeding. How true. It grieves me to report that my dinner at Osteria Francescana, perhaps one of the most spotlit restaurants in the world right now, was disappointing.

Continue

travel: camera vivid…

– As an American living in a privileged bubble, it’s hard to know the rawness of life outside, even when I witness it first-hand. I recently took a photography assignment in Honduras.  The last time I was in that country was in 1999, right after Hurricane Mitch had devastated the region. Perhaps a bit naive, […]

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travel: camera vivid…

– As an American living in a privileged bubble, it’s hard to know the rawness of life outside, even when I witness it first-hand. I recently took a photography assignment in Honduras.  The last time I was in that country was in 1999, right after Hurricane Mitch had devastated the region. Perhaps a bit naive, […]

Continue

dinner: collaboration…

The last time I pushed back from the table at a collaboration dinner, I vowed I’d never attend another. They’re just so tricky.  You take a group of random chefs, put them in a random kitchen with random cooks, all of them trying to orchestrate their random plates of food, and, somehow, it’s supposed to […]

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dinner: collaboration…

The last time I pushed back from the table at a collaboration dinner, I vowed I’d never attend another. They’re just so tricky.  You take a group of random chefs, put them in a random kitchen with random cooks, all of them trying to orchestrate their random plates of food, and, somehow, it’s supposed to […]

Continue

review: ever after… (sant pau)

Good chefs tell stories. They convey a sense of time and place. Great chefs tell fairytales. They create time and place. Carme Ruscalleda is a great chef. And at her restaurant by the sea, a meal unfolds like a storybook, full of romance and wonder. It is a capsule, a world unto itself, Sant Pau […]

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review: ever after… (sant pau)

Good chefs tell stories. They convey a sense of time and place. Great chefs tell fairytales. They create time and place. Carme Ruscalleda is a great chef. And at her restaurant by the sea, a meal unfolds like a storybook, full of romance and wonder. It is a capsule, a world unto itself, Sant Pau […]

Continue

travel: a bay of plenty…

Stanford, an old college buddy, emailed me while I was in Europe. My intrepid friend was about to launch his new company, a car-sharing network called Wheelz, based in Palo Alto.  He wanted to know if I’d fly out to California to help him celebrate his new start. This was the guy with whom I almost […]

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travel: a bay of plenty…

Stanford, an old college buddy, emailed me while I was in Europe. My intrepid friend was about to launch his new company, a car-sharing network called Wheelz, based in Palo Alto.  He wanted to know if I’d fly out to California to help him celebrate his new start. This was the guy with whom I almost […]

Continue