Category: restaurant review

travel: daily wipe-downs…

~ As a boy raised on the prairie plains of a Midwestern border state eating fried chicken and barbecue, I like to think that I have a particularly close kinship to Southerners. Whether it’s true or not, there is something about my Missouri upbringing that makes me feel more Southern than my friends in Kansas, […]

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travel: daily wipe-downs…

~ As a boy raised on the prairie plains of a Midwestern border state eating fried chicken and barbecue, I like to think that I have a particularly close kinship to Southerners. Whether it’s true or not, there is something about my Missouri upbringing that makes me feel more Southern than my friends in Kansas, […]

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travel: sense of urgency…

~ While walking through the administrative back-end of TKRG (Thomas Keller Restaurant Group), a village of offices in a compound, including The French Laundry, inter-connected by trellised walkways, Monica Bhambhani, the Director of Competition and Events for the Bocuse d’Or USA Foundation, turned to chef Thomas Keller and said, wistfully: “Chef, I think I want […]

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travel: sense of urgency…

~ While walking through the administrative back-end of TKRG (Thomas Keller Restaurant Group), a village of offices in a compound, including The French Laundry, inter-connected by trellised walkways, Monica Bhambhani, the Director of Competition and Events for the Bocuse d’Or USA Foundation, turned to chef Thomas Keller and said, wistfully: “Chef, I think I want […]

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travel: america’s resort…

~ Having now spent nearly two weeks, collectively, at The Greenbrier photographing for the Bocuse d’Or USA Foundation, I have learned one thing: at The Greenbrier, anything is possible. On my first visit in July, the executive chef, Richard Rosendale (who will be the United States’ competitor in the upcoming Bocuse d’Or competition in Lyon, […]

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travel: america’s resort…

~ Having now spent nearly two weeks, collectively, at The Greenbrier photographing for the Bocuse d’Or USA Foundation, I have learned one thing: at The Greenbrier, anything is possible. On my first visit in July, the executive chef, Richard Rosendale (who will be the United States’ competitor in the upcoming Bocuse d’Or competition in Lyon, […]

Continue

travel: beach buffet…

– When my plane lifted off the field at Kansas City, after sitting on the tarmac for nearly an hour, I knew, already, that I would miss my connection to San Diego, the last one for the day. I was going to have to spend the night in Minneapolis. But, thanks to inflight wifi, and […]

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travel: beach buffet…

– When my plane lifted off the field at Kansas City, after sitting on the tarmac for nearly an hour, I knew, already, that I would miss my connection to San Diego, the last one for the day. I was going to have to spend the night in Minneapolis. But, thanks to inflight wifi, and […]

Continue

travel: meet-ups and eat-ups…

~ Aaron and Chrissy are getting married! In Tahoe! I didn’t have time to go home between the Bocuse d’Or training session and the wedding, so I headed straight from The Greenbrier to San Francisco. It should have been an uneventful ride. Unfortunately, there followed an unscheduled, overnight layover in Detroit due to a faulty […]

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travel: meet-ups and eat-ups…

~ Aaron and Chrissy are getting married! In Tahoe! I didn’t have time to go home between the Bocuse d’Or training session and the wedding, so I headed straight from The Greenbrier to San Francisco. It should have been an uneventful ride. Unfortunately, there followed an unscheduled, overnight layover in Detroit due to a faulty […]

Continue

travel: peripatetic…

~ I apologize for my silence. I’ve been on the road. In the last month and a half, I’ve crossed this continent four times, bouncing between New York and San Francisco, San Diego and Burlington, Vermont, with trips to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia and Lake Tahoe on the side. I crossed the border to […]

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travel: peripatetic…

~ I apologize for my silence. I’ve been on the road. In the last month and a half, I’ve crossed this continent four times, bouncing between New York and San Francisco, San Diego and Burlington, Vermont, with trips to White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia and Lake Tahoe on the side. I crossed the border to […]

Continue

review: cab ride to crazy town…

~ It’s not every day that one gets kidnapped on the way to dinner, as I was on my way to Jungsik. Afterwards, I read Pete Wells’s review of that restaurant in the New York Times and realized that my strange, “cab ride to crazy town” was foretold (fourth graph, last sentence). Thankfully, with some quick […]

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review: cab ride to crazy town…

~ It’s not every day that one gets kidnapped on the way to dinner, as I was on my way to Jungsik. Afterwards, I read Pete Wells’s review of that restaurant in the New York Times and realized that my strange, “cab ride to crazy town” was foretold (fourth graph, last sentence). Thankfully, with some quick […]

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 […]

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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: rule of thumb…. (château eza)

~ As I sped along the coast to Nice from Monte-Carlo for dinner one night, a page out of paradise popped up: Eze. This Medieval town, preserved almost to the stone, juts out on the Corniche Moyenne, a rocky rise with a breathtaking view of the Côte d’Azur, which sprawls at its feet. I pulled […]

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review: rule of thumb…. (château eza)

~ As I sped along the coast to Nice from Monte-Carlo for dinner one night, a page out of paradise popped up: Eze. This Medieval town, preserved almost to the stone, juts out on the Corniche Moyenne, a rocky rise with a breathtaking view of the Côte d’Azur, which sprawls at its feet. I pulled […]

Continue

review: the new colossus… (torrisi italian specialties)

– Nothing dulls my appetite more than hype. It makes me suspicious, for example, when members of the press tweet weekly (nightly?) from a restaurant’s table, raptured to the point of incoherence. I suppose the enthusiasm is endearing. But what could be that good? I take no issue with the media doting on its darlings. […]

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review: the new colossus… (torrisi italian specialties)

– Nothing dulls my appetite more than hype. It makes me suspicious, for example, when members of the press tweet weekly (nightly?) from a restaurant’s table, raptured to the point of incoherence. I suppose the enthusiasm is endearing. But what could be that good? I take no issue with the media doting on its darlings. […]

Continue