Beard and . . .

What would you do if you were a participating judge for the James Beard Awards this year? Let’s say you were a Twin Cities based adjudicator, fully versed in the work of the five nominees in our region. Three of those nominees are 112’s Isaac Becker, Alma’s and Brasa’s Alex Roberts, and Solera’s and LBV’s Tim McKee.

Do you vote for the kid from Milwaukee or Indianapolis? That would be a cop-out, and frankly, our three homeboys are all more deserving. Now the results don’t come out until June when the winners are announced in NYC, and for the umpteenth year in a row, I can’t make it because of a prior commitment, which bites. But I did have to vote for one of the lads, and I will be happy to share that with everyone at the last possible moment. But the question is, who would you vote for, and most importantly, why? Check out the James Beard website for all of the nominees in several categories.

****

Want to see something hysterical? Check out the Deep End Dining website and the fun video that Eddie Lin and I made in Los Angeles last week.

****

An finally, in what might be the most horrifying piece of news that has ever come across my desk, proving once again that there is no accounting for taste of any type. The Emmy nominations came out, and the she-devil of the Food Network garnered a nomination that I am sure she is so proud of:

Outstanding Achievement in Hairstyling: Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee, Food Network 


As my friend Dan Barreiro says, you just can’t make this stuff up.

Conspiracy Theory

According to a WCCO piece I caught online by John Lauritsen, it is a weak economy to blame for Temple having to close its doors, rising food costs, a sluggish economy (let me tell you, this is a full-blown recession and could approach depression standards very shortly). I logged on to several local blogs and news sites and checked out the temper of the commentary, and several posters got it right. As they see it, and as I wrote four months ago, there will be a lot more closings across the region as the discretionary budgets of Minnesotans shrinks.

Temple was not a victim of the economy as much as it was a casualty of its own miscalculations of the marketplace. Restaurants close because customers don’t go. And Temple failed to create a compelling reason for being there. The food was poorly conceived and executed from the get-go, the chef was gone within the first year, and naked sushi is a more desperate attempt at wooing customers than half-price wine nights could ever be.  It’s an important distinction to make because restaurants still work, in good economies or bad, so long as they are resonant with customers and create a business model within their own four walls that allows them to quickly adjust their costs to stay in line with their weekly haul and customer counts. In rugged times, simply thinking (as I believe Pham did) that if you build it they will come is a mistake of the highest magnitude.

The reason I launched my BODY COUNTS in these pages last year was to illustrate the point that the amount of people in your restaurant on a given night is the single greatest indicator of long- and short-term success. We had to suspend our counts because travel schedules and the like in our office, but I would encourage readers to take some body counts as they make their way around town. You might see some interesting trends.

****

Heidi’s restaurant, Heidi and Stewart Woodman’s restaurant, appears in this months Condé Nast Traveler’s annual “Hot List” guide to the “world’s most exciting new establishments.” Check out the May issue of Condé Nast Traveler or visit the website.

****

IACP Awards were handed out not long ago and Lee Klein's November 22 article in the Miami New Times, "Eat Shit and Die,” won an award. Klein’s piece detailed the dirty little secret that food animals are fed feces in the American Ag system. Other secrets that I have heard and read about recently include, but are not limited to, male chicks thrown into trash cans as soon as they hatch in egg farms; male calves torn from their mothers at birth and slaughtered before they are one-day-old; pig farms slice off the toes, ears, and tails of live piglets using knives and no painkillers; meatpacking plants (slaughterhouses) keep it a secret that up to four out of ten animals are not properly stunned, and the list goes on.

For real conspiracy theory freaks, here are a few pieces of food for thought: Some think the USDA isn’t really interested in mad cow disease because finding it would be bad for business. The American Medical Association keeps it a secret that there is overwhelming evidence linking dairy products to cancer. The American Veterinary Medicine Association keeps it a secret that food animals are pumped with hormones and antibiotics, which are directly responsible for many antibiotic-resistant strains of disease. Anyone else care to chime in? In the light of the fact that industry spokespeople are now saying that the powers that be are willing to concede that downer cattle have no place in the food system, it might be time to start stirring the pot.

Stick Shift

Ironically, someone (thanks, Anne!) who works at Health Partners sent me this link to Serious Eats, a great web site and one I peruse regularly. I cannot wait to see if someone does this at the Great Minnesota Get-Together; you would be stupid not to try it. I can’t believe I have not run across this one yet, but I am already looking into where to find it when I land in Korea this summer. Here are my other faves for inclusion this year at the Fair. (And yes, I am thinking about the Fair the moment it becomes spring.)

Thanksgiving on a Stick: Stuffing, turkey, and cranberries on a stick, deep-fried and with a cup of gravy for dipping. Three different people throughout the last three years have mentioned to me that they will be making a serious run at this in 2008.

Banana Q: My fave. Fresh, ripe banana rolled in raw brown sugar and deep-fried briefly. It’s bananas Foster without the snooty server. Served with your choice of crushed nuts, chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream, etc.

Real Barbecue: I admire the Famous Dave’s fellas for doing a great job and coming out with new items each year, but what about real pit BBQ with huge slabs of beef, good beef, being sliced and piled high on fresh, crusty rolls? Or true pulled pork? Heaven.

Doner Kebap: The Turkish version of a hallmark of street food I see all over Europe. Like shashlik or gyro except that the traditional Iskender doner kebap has a range of salads, pickled vegetables, and sauces that are unrivaled in my opinion.

Navajo tacos, shark-and-bake sandwiches, roti sandwiches, California tri-tip sirloin sandwiches, true muffalettas, and southern fried chicken . . . I could keep going. What is the food you would love to see most at the State Fair?

****

On May 16, I suggest you join us for the third annual CuisineArt 2008: The Aluminum Chef Cooking Challenge, a Wolfgang Puck fundraising event benefiting the Walker Art Center. There will be a version of the Iron Chef cooking challenge that Wolfgang Puck and I will be hosting and judging. Teams will compete to create the winning dish using the same secret ingredient revealed at the start of the competition. After the battle royale, guests will be treated to a three-course dinner prepared by Puck, after which guests will stroll down to the “Sweet Success Dessert Lounge” created by Sherry Yard, the award-winning executive pastry chef for most of Puck’s endeavors and the author of a brand new book that I love called Desserts By The Yard.

Even better, only 100 guests can be accommodated, so this will be a very special evening indeed. Reservations are $1,250 per person. Teams of ten receive a single ticket discount for a total table price of $11,250. Proceeds from this fundraiser benefit the multidisciplinary programs of the Walker Art Center. To make a reservation, please contact Cody Ward in Walker Development at 612-375-7642 or e-mail Cody Ward.


****

Speaking of Iron Chef stuff, Alton Brown is coming to Mall of America on April 28. Brown is one if the few luminaries in the food universe that I would crawl across a desert of broken glass to see in person. He is a great talent, and he has had a pretty good year by anyone’s yardstick, garnering a Peabody Award for his show Good Eats, and his new series Feasting On Asphalt is in its second season on Food Network. Last year, he was in Minnesota for FOA shooting at the Russian Tea House, Mickey’s Dining Car in St. Paul, Olsen’s Fish Company, Bob’s Java Hut, and Uptown Tattoo in Minneapolis. Go check him out.

****

Upwardly spiraling commodity prices; skyrocketing oil prices; out of control farming subsidies; and hundreds of millions of new Asian, Russian, and South American middle class consumers with disposable income coming ‘online’ have sent global food prices up more than 80 percent in the past few years, according to The World Bank. And who gets screwed? Why, the world's poorest nations of course. Here is a quote from last week’s WSJ:

Rioting in response to soaring food prices recently has broken out in Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Ethiopia. In Pakistan and Thailand, army troops have been deployed to deter food from fields and warehouses. World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned in a recent speech that 33 countries are at risk of social upheaval because of rising food prices. Those could include Indonesia, Yemen, Ghana, Uzbekistan and the Philippines. In countries where buying food requires half to three-quarters of a poor person's income, "there is no margin for survival," he said.... "Many policy makers at the weekend meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank agreed that the problem is severe. Among other targets, they singled out U.S. policies pushing corn-based ethanol and other biofuels as deepening the woes.

Now, I have seen angry mobs of thousands protesting food shortages in Morocco, Bolivia, and the Philippines in the last year, and it is scary. There is real anger out there, and it is not just directed at us but at all the ‘haves’ in the world regardless of citizenship. I have been pelted with rocks, chicken soup, peach pits, bottle caps, and rotten fruit—and that was just in Bolivia. I have walked in neighborhoods affected in part by our President’s ill-fated foreign policies (or lack thereof), and it is upsetting, to say the least. But what I really want to know is which of the candidates for Dubya’s job has a realistic solution for dealing with this issue, curbing our  misguided ethanol policy, remaking the absurd subsidy regulations in the USA, ending our insane reliance on foreign oil, and helping our nation regain its status as the country most likely to show up with food (not guns) when another nation needs help?

Just What I Needed

This is one of the funniest April Fools’ fakes I have ever read. If you want to read it and pass this on in its entirety, go to it.

I am sure that 99 percent of your friends will think this is a real pre-opening alert for what might be the world’s most pretentious restaurant. And if you send it today, they might forget that Tuesday is the 1st!

The funny part is that this satirical piece of tomfoolery by Chicago Reader’s Mike Sula is so close to the real thing that many seasoned food writers and industry types actually called me to see if I planned on checking it out and could I get them a reservation. The tip-offs in this over-the-top piece of fiction are many: the chef’s name is taken from a T. C. Boyle short story about a chef who seduces a female food critic; many of the signature dishes that the chef lays claim to in the Reader piece are actually famous signatures of other Chicago chefs, such as Graham Bowles and Homaru Canto; the idea of using a $5,000 bottle of wine to replace water in a bong is simply an outrage to any weed or wine lover; and perhaps the funniest bit of all is that the house duck is named Joe Moore, the name of the real life Chicago Alderman who spearheaded the Windy City’s foie gras ban.

The true-to-life elements are very real. A young dishwasher at Babbo lying on his resume that he worked the pass there for three years to get a paying line-cook gig; the bribing of city inspectors; the spoiled, childish chef; the esoteric location of Crib; the nomadic dinners; the shot taken at Alan Richman; the non-disclosure statements that guests must sign before entering the restaurant; the camera ban . . . all too real to anyone who lives in the modern restaurant world.

So has anyone experienced anything remotely resembling Crib? At LAN in Beijing, they have a no-camera policy (I smuggled one in anyway) and offer several entrances for famous regulars who are dining with mistresses or working on big deals and require anonymity. I have attended nomadic dinners in several cities, eaten is restaurants without lights of any kind, dined off of human bodies and the like. What about you? What would be your limit for any of this bulls**t in a local restaurant? Just curious.

Top Chef(s)

The James Beard Award nominations came out Monday, and although I have not eaten at Bluestem, I have eaten at the other four JBA-nominated restaurants in our region. Alex deserves the nomination as does Isaac, both of who deserve the recognition, which is long overdue. But pound for pound, the cooking that Tim is doing at LBV outshines what anyone else has been doing in this town for the last two to three years. And what’s more, there are dozens of chefs more deserving than the guy at Bartolotta’s. I have eaten there several times, and it’s good bistro fare, but it is nothing that makes it Beard-worthy in my opinion. More on all the JBA news on Monday.

****

Top Chef received two nods, and I have to say this show keeps getting better each season. Finally, a show that merges the challenges and evictions that reality TV junkies crave and the rigors of cooking that food fans hunger for.

Some observations so far:

Richard and Dale seem like potential winners to me, both will be there in the end.

Erik is a bozo. Perhaps the dumbest thing I have heard come out of a human being’s mouth regarding food was the insulting, ethnocentric, and ignorant drivel he hurled at Rick Bayless: “I don’t think fine dining and Mexican go together, so he can go screw himself.”  Erik came close to equaling that feat when he declared, after being tossed out, that, “I have a bright future ahead of me . . . .” Not with that attitude and talent level, you misguided idiot!

The only thing you need to know to be convinced that Padma neither enjoys nor understands food: She tried to eat a toasted marshmallow rolled in finely ground graham crackers and chocolate in two bites.

Someone please tell me who does not belong in this group of judges: Tony Bourdain, Rocco DiSpirito, Rick Bayless, and Ted Allen. I need to hear from anyone as to what qualifies this fella; although, he did a fine job explaining why it’s a bad idea to serve corn dogs two hours after they are fried. Then again, my three-year-old could have explained that one.

****

According to yesterday’s DailyCandy that arrived in my box, there is an answer for all the folks out there who want to eat some of the world’s most obscure delicacies. Everything from croc, scorpions, civet coffee, and mopane worms can be found at the Edible website.

****

Scott Pampuch sent me this great article: “The Revolution Will Not Be Pasteurized.” It is a piece as timely as it is relevant. Raw milk should be labeled as such and sold legally; it’s a no-brainer. In similar news, Rep. Michelle Bachman is pushing for a dismantling of the new legislation requiring incandescent bulbs to go the way of the horse and buggy in favor of the more environmentally friendly long life bulb. Again, a no-brainer. Except in this case, it’s Bachman that needs to have her cortex examined.

Hitting the Links

Hey there, everyone. I was traveling last week and couldn’t get connected where I was. So with some luck, I’ll try to make it up this week.

I love the food section of the LA Times, and this is a great piece on the wellspring of chef blogs available these days to peripatetic web surfers. I regularly hit some of the blogs listed, but the truest statement in this piece is Traci’s about chef blogs growing stale when they fail to stay timely.

****

A new fine dining survey similar to Zagat's is out. Who needs another one of these?

****

The failing American economy is hitting the hospitality industry with a wallop. Look for plenty of local closings if this economic trend continues. Restaurants are leveraged to the max with huge credit burdens. Here is an interesting WSJ article about fewer women in the work force.

****

More on Meat Gate 2008 for those that missed it.

****

Pete Wells reports on Alan Richman’s retorts to his "Golden Clog" that Michael Ruhlman and Anthony Bourdain awarded him a few weeks ago. Also check out the brutal Les Halles review on his blog. The best part of the whole thing is that by knowing the players in the game a little bit, I can assure you that Richman was ticked off he got a clog, and Bourdain couldn’t give a sh*t what anyone thinks of Les Halles.

****

Food prices are soaring, and menu prices will grow all over the country throughout the next few months. Here is a great NYT article on the growing global demand for grain, which we all know affects everyone, even if you never dine out at all.

True Lies

I voted last weekend for the second phase of the Beard Awards. Anyone who wants to see the talent pool that my fellow judges and I had to work with can check it out at on the James Beard website or at NY Mag's site here.

I voted for a lot of hometown heroes during this winnowing phase of the process since we were allowed to vote for five nominees in most categories. There were a lot of head scratchers in some categories (more on that later next week), but I got to give some juice to some of the out-of-towners I have dined with throughout the last year. Lee Hefter, Mike Lata, Tony Mantuano, Gabe Rucker, Gavin Kaysen, etc. My old buddy Steve Hanson got one of my nods for Restaurateur of the Year as well.

****

In Tuesday’s NYT, I read that Robert Irvine got fired. The Dinner Impossible star lied about his background in his CV and told the St. Petersburg Times that he lied because he felt pressure to keep up with the Joneses! Why? He was the anti-star, the mess hall cook. How crazy is this? He didn’t have to make anything up for gosh sakes; he works for the network that airs Sandy Lee, the Neelys, and the numbingly ridiculous Fieri guy.

In the same issue, Peggy Seltzer, who wrote Love and Consequences as Margaret Jones, admitted she fabricated her whole best-selling, critically acclaimed bio a la James Frey. Except, this lady could have written her book as fiction and not lost a damn bit of the story. What gives? Seltzer says she wanted to show readers how the other half lived. Irvine and she have one thing in common: They are full of it. They wanted the . . . and rather than admit that they thought they had to lie to keep it, they keep the spin spinning. He thought he had to be pedigreed to get it, she thought she couldn’t sell fiction. Sad.

****

The Kathie Jenkins story keeps getting better and better. Friends who were at P & F on opening night spotted her there with a gal pal, so she bashed P & F in a first-peek style blurb, which is ridiculous in the first place since those types of notices should simply be alerts that a place is open along with a description of the look and feel of a joint. To not tell people you were there on opening night when you are lambasting the restaurant is disingenuous. Why do I care? Because I write about food, and I am shocked at the Pi Press editorial policy that allows this to be printed. I believe in transparency when it comes to these sorts of pieces, and Steven Brown is a friend of mine besides being a phenomenal talent. And it comes hot on the heels of her famous Chambers diatribe in last year’s Pi Press where it turned out that she had based some of her writing on a visit there during one of the pre-opening test dinners.

****

Now, on to the ethics of customer expectations, a question raised by posters to my last blog.

First off to Tony: You are nuts. The idea is to blend art and commerce, especially in the dining world, which is different than the eating world. And if you have the stones, let us know where you work. I am curious. And as someone who attended Doug Flicker’s Beard dinner, all I can say is that not only was the food sublime, but the vibe in the room was indescribable, especially to see Doug’s staff, and their faces, when he was presented with his dream knife. Wow. That night in NYC was the reason I do what I do. It was performance art; you just had to be there.

If a restaurant is taking money for their food, a customer deserves to say what they want about the level of service and quality of food they eat. And it should be good; open means open. But take the Broadway show/restaurant metaphor one step further: When I see The Producers during the first week of its run, I get a less perfect product than I do when it is 100 nights into it. But the energy is amazing, and when I go to see it again, I can compare the performances. I like that, which is why I dine in restaurants early in their lifespan.

A restaurant is a growing, moving, and changing organism. It is thrilling to see, and I always experience less than ideal service early on and eat dishes in need of work regardless of the caliber of eatery. That is par for the course even though I might be paying the same dough for that early dinner as I do for a better one three months later. But that is the fun of seeing a place grow, morph, and become refined. Sometimes the other extreme is disheartening. I have seen The Producers 500 shows in and saw the stars sleepwalk through ‘yet another’ performance. I’ll take the opening week any day over that dud. And even worse, try going to a restaurant, a truly good one, 500 nights into its run. The chef might not even be there!

That’s why I like eating out in good restaurants. It’s about more than the food: It’s about the theater.

Mistaken Identity and a Brain Dead Moron

Thank God more people read this blog than peruse Kathie Jenkins’s column in the Pi Press because that way I can rest assured that one of my fave new eateries gets a fair shake. I know firsthand that it is possible to have a bad meal in a great restaurant; I have had several myself over the years, but her first peek at Porter & Frye puzzled me.

Jenkins railed on the food to a degree that I found laughable considering she must have gone there during the first three or four nights of opening to make her deadline.

Who would so harshly judge a restaurant so early on? I also found it puzzling that she ate so many items on the bar menu and failed to differentiate that tidbit of info in her abbreviated remarks. But mostly because I find her experiences in eating food (both at P & F and elsewhere) so remarkably different than mine, I just had to point out the obvious. Despite my respect for her personal opinion and emphatically stating I believe that she is simply writing her own ‘truth’ about her experience there, I am in shock. Anytime she wants to have dinner there, I would love to take her and give her a primer in what makes for great cooking. I adore the food at P & F. Steven Brown has assembled a fantastic brigade, and this group can really cook.

But don’t take my word for it. I had dinner there on Wednesday evening. I took Tony Mantuano from Spiaggia in Chicago, one of the best chefs in America and a legend in the business, winner of multiple Beard/IACP awards. I was also entertaining Lawrence Keogh from Roast in London’s Borough Market. Roast is one of the best restaurants in the world, and Keogh has helmed kitchens in two different two-star Michelin restaurants and has directed of one of the most forward thinking, organic, sustainable slow-food movements on the planet in his role on the board of Borough Market. Also in attendance was Robert Gadsby, chef at Soma in Houston and formerly of Noe in Houston and Los Angeles, a man who has worked all over the world with Alain Chapel, Thomas Keller, Joel Robuchon, and Alain Ducasse. Addlyn Thao and Nana Chen came from Beijing and Taiwan, local talent was also represented (Lenny Russo was there), and we ate on what I think was the fifth night the restaurant was opened. Porter & Frye BLEW THIS GROUP AWAY.

The food Brown is doing is entirely familiar to his fans, and if the restaurant management can warm up the room a tad, this restaurant is destined for greatness. The food is world-class. I find it unfathomable that Jenkins could have had such a dud of an experience there.

We began with a squash soup amuse with fried sage and truffle; wolfed down a stunner of a Greek salad that featured a garnish of tomato puree, which had been turned into a sunset-colored crisp of tomato candy; inhaled seared tuna with shishito peppers, sea salt, and lemon; devoured grilled swordfish with a sauce I though tasted like the delicious child of the illicit coupling of white anchovies and a tonnato sauce; and we greedily demolished what is easily the best reason in the five-state area to eat chicken in restaurants again: A chicken thigh boned out, stuffed, and cooked sous vide until it literally melted in your mouth and then crisped before being plated, so it ate like a lacquered Peking-style duck. It came over polenta with red-onion marmalade, a stunner. We had a sous vide lamb roulade of both loin and forcemeat over a shank or shoulder confit, which came on brilliantly braised pistachios. We finished the meal with mignardise and a warm, chocolate tart with nutmeg foam and carrots that were crisped and candied. Even local pastry legend Marjorie Johnson couldn’t contain her glee.

After dinner, when Brown came out to meet my out-of-town pals, he got the third degree from Tony, Lawrence, and Robert, all of whom were thrilled with their dinner, awed with Brown’s technique, and stunned at the level of cuisine that was being executed in the first week of P & F’s opening. When Gadsby and Keogh can’t figure out how a chef accomplished a level of finish on a dish (we are convinced Brown is keeping the secret to his swordfish a secret), you know you have really pulled a rabbit out of a hat. This is a must-go restaurant, and along with LBV, Porter & Frye is cooking at a level above and beyond what anyone else in town is doing.

BTW, Mantuano has a new book out in April that will be a huge hit. He is also opening up a Spiaggia in South Beach this summer. Gadsby is opening two new eateries this spring in Houston, where he is literally the hottest table in town. Don Cheadle is playing Gadsby in the new Will Smith project based on the life of a prison inmate to whom Robert gave a job and mentored in the food biz several years ago. Keogh has his hands full with all his activities and is working on a partnership between Borough Market and La Bouqeria in Barcelona while managing to earn every accolade that the European press can toss his way.

****

Congressional hearings into the Westland/Hallmark meat packing company brouhaha could have spawned plenty of laughs and puzzled glances if it wasn’t so achingly sad and disturbing. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schaefer, the pathetically disingenuous scumbag who runs the Ag Dept., actually said under oath on Thursday that “we do not believe this is a food safety issue” when commenting on the horrific conditions and his own agency’s ineffectual stupidity (the plant has five inspectors assigned there). How could those inspectors miss the obvious endemic abuse? And why not use digital cameras in all slaughterhouses that stream video to the USDA, FDA, and Ag. Dept. as Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl suggests? It is cheap, easy to do, and would save money to boot. And since our tax dollars fund those agencies, we deserve to see inside them, once and for all. Schaefer is a vile and pernicious man who is solidly in the pocket of BigAg. It is shameful that he, as the man charged with protecting our health interests, is the only one defending the process and the slaughterhouses. We need people running these agencies who will stand up and loudly decry the industry for its transgressions and work diligently to make our food-supply chain safe for all Americans. He is simply an apologist for the rule breakers.

****

Hope you saw me on the Today Show this morning; I’ll be on Access Hollywood next Tuesday.

The World's Largest Bake Sale, Nick and Eddie, and News

Seth Bixby Daugherty is helping to organize the world’s largest bake sale—aptly named the World’s Largest Bake Sale—at Mall of America on Sunday, March 30 from 1 to 5 p.m. The event is to raise funds and promote Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale. What’s on the menu? Food Network talent recipes will be produced by The International Culinary School at the Art Institutes International, and there will be baked goods donated by Twin City bakeries and restaurants, too.

According to the latest info, both Sandra Lee, host of Food Network’s Semi-Homemade Cooking, and Duff Goldman, star of Ace of Cakes, have agreed to make personal appearances, and Lee will do a book signing. I love Goldman and his show; it gets DVRed at the Zimmern household every week. But Lee, who might be a fantastic person in real life, represents everything that is wrong with our modern food culture. And guess what? Hers is the most popular page on the Food Network website. Help me now, Lord. Apparently Goldman might create the world’s largest cupcake for a taping of the Ace of Cakes. According to Guinness, there is currently no world’s record for the world’s largest bake sale or cupcake. So mark it down, and get involved with Share Our Strength by checking out its site.

Seth will be featured on an upcoming segment of Rachael Ray—they will be in town on Tuesday taping some stuff with him detailing the work he is doing in the local public schools system to improve the quality of the food programs for kids of all ages. The taping is for air at a later date, but I will keep you posted.

****

Scott Irestone is indeed gone from 20.21, but my naming of sous chef Asher Miller as the new chef is only half true: He is the acting chef. The company is considering Miller and several other members of its national organization for the permanent post. I say, “Keep the local guy!”

As part of my ongoing effort to regain the respect and admiration of legendary food writer Jeremy Iggers, I ate at Nick and Eddie the other day for lunch. This is the new restaurant that Doug Anderson opened along with several other local notables, including Scott Ida, Steve Vranian, and the superbly talented Jessica Anderson (Doug’s wife). I really think Doug has an innate sense of style and substance as a restaurateur, and I hope that his new venture stays on course over its first few years so that it can grow and mature.

The base they have set down is impressive. I love casual restaurants that take their food seriously, and if Nick and Eddie can take an accurate self-appraisal and fix some of its issues, this will be a great restaurant for years to come. If it doesn’t, it could go the way of Bakery on Grand and A Rebours: hot start, cool finish. The space is light and contemporary, the location is superb (right on Loring Park), and the menu is very appealing. But some of the items we sampled need tweaking that should be obvious by anyone’s standards. Vranian has his work cut out for him.

On the day I was there, he was not in the kitchen but in the restaurant, which means the cooks are sending out food they shouldn’t have (a training/awareness issue) or, worse, the cooks were simply executing to the chef’s standards. I am hoping that is not the case, but stranger things happen.

The breads we tried were fantastic, especially the Parker House dinner roll loaf that we had. Good Lord was it awesome. The borscht was a decent beef soup with cabbage, but it could have used some seasoning—anything really. It was too thin, had no backbone, and was really disappointing. The whitefish salad that came with potato pancakes was stellar—about as good as it gets—, so clearly someone in the kitchen gets it, but the potato pancakes were gray on the inside and tasted muddy. The pickled onions on the dish were old. What was billed as chopped chicken liver was just a smear of chicken liver mousse, and it tasted of old onions and was bitter on the rebound going down, but the cress salad with it was delightful. The egg salad sandwich was fair, but the grilled sausages over polenta with caramelized onions and peppers were exquisitely turned out, a simple cold weather bowl of happiness. The butterscotch pudding that was so good at Bakery On Grand has risen again, like the phoenix, and I am eternally grateful.

****

The New York Daily News reports that “The New York City Board of Health is poised to reenact a bitterly contested rule requiring restaurants to post the calorie contents of each dish on their menu. The proposed regulation - part of Mayor Bloomberg's campaign to reduce obesity and diabetes - would make eateries with 15 or more outposts around the country prominently display calorie counts before patrons order."

This is a bad deal. Posting calories is only half the battle—not even—, and it is misplaced energy. We need to see proper labeling of all food in retail and wholesale operations and in supermarkets on all items, especially when it comes to a food’s origin. The big restaurant chains will argue successfully that they are being prejudiced against and that the rule should apply to everyone, but how does a mom-and-pop operation afford to test and post all the nutritional information on a menu? And if we properly labeled our food in its ‘natural’ state, wouldn’t the general population become better educated and be able to make better decisions about how and what they eat? And when it comes to fast food, half of the restaurants should be shut down by government agencies anyway for poisoning the public at large. If Big Tobacco can go down, why can’t McDonald’s?

****

City Pages announced who its new food critics will be, and it unveiled plans for expanded restaurant coverage both in the paper and online. Taking over Dara’s chair covering the new and noteworthy openings is Rachel Hutton, formerly of Mn Mo, and James Norton, whose work I have referenced before on this blog, will cover the ‘deals on meals’ angle. All of this begins on February 20, and both of the new hires will be blogging and podcasting as well. I like the work of both these writers, and CP’s commitment to its food section and its plans to grow it is good for the local food scene.

Chef Tales

This just in: Longtime sous chef Asher Miller has replaced Scott Irestone as the chef at Wolfgang Puck’s 20.21 in the Walker Art Center.

****

Randy Lewis, 2001 Food & Wine 10 Best award winner for his work at Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates and Indigo restaurant, is taking over the stoves at Chetek, Wisconsin’s Canoe Bay, our five-state area’s only Relais & Châteaux property. That says a lot about Canoe Bay’s commitment to excellence. Lewis’s friend Lenny Russo told me that Lewis was sold on the resort because of the availability of so many fantastic farm-fresh ingredients in our neck of the woods. Nice.

But last time I checked, Santa Rosa, California had us over a barrel on produce and larder quality, which tells me that the Dombrowski’s made some compelling offers and persuasive arguments to land a chef of that caliber. I have stayed at Canoe Bay before, and it rocks; make your reservations now, and don’t wait ’til summer.

****

Mark McGraw hired Dan Grilz (Bayport Cookery sous and Trio (Chicago) alum) to take over the kitchen at Confluence. Mark will still be there when the restaurant is open, but since the restaurant is weekends only until summer, he has taken a position at Porter & Frye along with some of the best young talent in the city, all of whom are flocking to Steven Brown’s new restaurant to be a part of what I think will be the most important new restaurant in town. Had Restaurant Levain stayed open in 2007, Brown would have been a lock to earn a James Beard nomination, and based on what I have heard from Steven and from others associated with the project, this restaurant will be the eatery that he has always wanted to create. My gut tells me this is the year that Brown gets the national press he deserves, and we get a place to enjoy his stellar, sophisticated, and urbane take on food.

As McGraw told me, “I am absolutely amazed at the team that Steven has put together for this restaurant. I absolutely could not resist the temptation to jump on board; I have no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a very big deal. I know you know this, but he has never had an opportunity to create his own world like this before. Steven is an amazing person, and his ability to lead is something that this town has not seen in this business, at this level, period.”

McGraw also told me that he is upping the food quotient at Confluence and making it more food focused than it already was; that’s also saying something. I guess the ‘build-it-better’ vibe is in the air.

So what local restaurants could benefit from taking a cold, hard look at themselves and improving the food? Which eateries are close enough to making a real impact on the food world but whose food is just a notch below what would get them there? Who could benefit most from a Pimp My Kitchen makeover? Thoughts?

****

And for those looking to catch up on some fun reading:

Absinthe is legal! Here's a very informative and myth-busting article by Sarah Hepola from Slate.

Smoking ban begins—in FRANCE!

Here are some great graphics illustrating how the cheapest calories come from bad food, which is low in nutrition.

Hot Stuff! A notebook made with cocktail napkins; let the inspiration flow!

Parry and Thrust

In fairness to the process, here is my take on some of the other stuff that has left a ring around my tub recently.

To Brad Zellar . . . obviously you need to read more stuff about me.  I could have saved you a lot of time and effort if you had bothered to ask. Anyone who knows me at all could have told that I don’t do dry wall. And even the most casual of my readers/viewers/listeners could have told you that I am all about the eating as well as the dining. I have forgotten about more wing joints, burger parlors, canned meals, truck stops, etc. than Mr. Zellar can ever hope to wax on about.  I hate to throw down with the food-freak pride card, but c’mon Brad! I even made an entire hourlong Travel Channel special on ballpark foods alone just ’cause I love that stuff. And I would happily take you to several places in the metro whose wings are superior to the ones you like at Shorty and Wags, but I am thrilled that you felt compelled to chime in. Someday I hope to meet you and ask about the strangely odd ‘you-must-not-be-a-man-if-you-don’t-do-your-own-dry-wall’ vibe you threw out.

To Jeremy Iggers . . . like you, too, and have enjoyed all our chats over the years when we have bumped into each other. But let’s get to it. Say anything you like about me, I can take it. And I am sorry if I hurt your feelings. Truly. That was not my intention at all, and for that, I am sorry. But what does it mean that I am the perfect critic for MSP Mag? Oh, I get it. Sarcasm. It seems the implication is that I am somehow, in some way, inadequate and that the magazine is as well. Well that not only hurts my feelings, but it is about as uninformed a riposte as I have ever read. By any yardstick, our magazine is the Rolls-Royce of its class, and the people who put it out every month are the best in the business. And yes, I have been to many of the restaurants that you wondered out loud about, and guess what, I could return the favor. Who cares? Throughout the last five months, I have blogged about—and the magazine has published pieces detailing—the issues involved in me changing my duties to account for the fact that I am not in town as much as I used to be, and I am not able to eat in as many local restaurants as I have in the past. This Just In: You and I have differing tastes in what makes for a great restaurant experience.  And that’s good for the food loving readership as a whole.

To Anne Bauer . . . you are  class act. And you get it.

And finally to Mitch . . . You are a smart guy, and I could spend pages and pages of space responding to the points you made in your piece, but let’s simply say this: You missed the forest for the trees. I feel strongly that it is not “anti-Minneapolis condescension”—as you say—to call restaurants that are less than thrilling exactly what they are: middling. And as a longtime Twin Cities food professional, I am shocked that you would try to make the argument that we live in something other than a meat and potatoes state—with an exceedingly large percentage of our community ignorant about many ingredients and techniques that are commonly found elsewhere— or that we support innovative restaurants or are willing to “pay for good food.”  Almost every piece of evidence you can gather from the last decade says otherwise. That doesn’t make us ‘less than’ in some way, just different. We are a food community that is evolving and growing and improving in fits and starts. If we delude ourselves into thinking otherwise, we are simply delaying and impeding our journey. I have many times written and spoken about how exciting our food community is to live and work in; it’s a shame you never read those pieces or chose to excerpt them. Beyond that, you took so much of my stuff out of context that I lost the energy to rebut any of it after re-reading the first couple of paragraphs.

And Jeff Guntzel . . . speaking of out of context. The point I made in our half-hour chat about “people being afraid to come out with bold opinions and stir the pot” was part of my applause for Omer in response to your question about my general impressions of his screed. We need more of that stuff (Omer’s blunt honesty) in our culinary discourse, not less. Well, everything except the cheap shot about my house and my family. What was that all about?

****

On to the world of food news and notes. Here are my faves from last week:

How were your holidays? And are you more partial to Donder or Blitzen? How about Rudolph the Red-Nosed Pâté? Yes indeed, you heard right, reindeer pâté. I love a good reindeer, they’re actually quite tasty.

****

Have you heard anything about the recently passed Farm Bill, which went through the Senate a few weeks ago? Here is the best rundown I have seen recently for those looking for a score sheet to crib from.

****

Are you into umami, the infamous fifth taste? Yes, Dorothy, it does exist, and you should read this WSJ article replete with a video clip of Gary Danko making an umami-laden tomato sauce. 

****

Jamie Oliver, one of the best food presenters on television, is back on the Food Network, and he will have a show debuting January. He will also be battling Mario in Kitchen Stadium; that should be fantastic to watch.

****

Almost as much fun as buying your very own version of Rachael Ray's "Garbage Bowl." And speaking of RR, Slashfood.com reported that an online RR doll has been created and that you can dress her up yourself. Here's the link to the doll—absurd pleasure in the extreme.

****

Speaking of absurd, here's a YouTube video of Kobayashi going up against a bear in a hot dog eating contest. 

****

Did you see Sara's article on the Food Snob's Dictionary? She is fantastic to read regularly; keep her link handy.

****

New York Mag had a great piece this last week. "Check out Molecular Gastronomy Made Complicated via PowerPoint." We all love Hervé This, but the PowerPoint lecture feels like a shark-jumping moment in the extreme.

****

Here is a fun piece from the National Restaurant Association, its annual "What's Hot What's Not" list. I think it is worth a peek as is this gem from the San Fran Chronicle about whether or not it is even possible to measure if organic produce has more nutrients than their commercial counterparts.

****

There’s a new report on salt that is out, and, yes, it says it is bad for you but not necessarily the stuff you use to cook at home or sprinkle on your food. The real problem is the salt compounds found in processed foods. The FDA is holding hearings. 

Hot Stuff

Check out The Deal Hunter with Ian Grant, which is making its debut on December 21 at 8:30 p.m. on Travel Channel. Locally produced and featuring local talent, it should be a big hit. My pal John Kitchener wrote, produced, and directed the pilot. He and I worked on an HGTV series for years together, and he is now with Edelman Productions. Ian Grant owns a shop in Minneapolis that sells beautiful and exotic artifacts from around the world. Several times a year, Ian hops on a plane and travels to remote places, such as the rainforests of Southern India or the mountains of Northern Thailand, in search of unusual objects. He then ships these remarkable finds back to the States and sells them to high-end shops and designers throughout the US and around the world.

The show follows Ian on his travels, revealing the best places in the world to find cool stuff, what to avoid, and how to get the best deals. The pilot was shot in NYC; check out the details.

The cool part is that Travel Channel is going to air their first ever "Pilot Week," which begins December 17. After each new show airs, they want people to log on to the Travel Channel website and vote for the shows they like best. Check out Deal Hunter and all the new shows next week, and vote for your faves. I, of course, have a vested interest in all this, so I’ll be voting also. It would be cool if Ian’s show was a big, fat smash and got put on my new night when my second season debuts in March.

****

John Besh, one of the best chefs in the country, had a really good year in 2007. New Orleans restaurant critic (and Minnesota born and bred) Brett Anderson recently named August one of the Top 10 Restaurants and picked Besh’s new restaurant, Lüke, an Alsatian-style brasserie, as one of his Best New Restaurants in The Times-Picayune. The December issue of New Orleans Magazine touted Besh as Chef of the Year, and Lüke was selected as Best New Restaurant. You might remember Besh as the guy who finished second on Iron Chef to Michael Symon from Cleveland’s Lola Bistro. Now I always thought MS would win since the day the lineup was announced; he completely has the Iron Chef vibe. But the food that Besh cooks in his restaurants and the depth of his organization are superb. Besh’s eateries offer top-notch dining. What’s my point? Well, for the folks who have everything and want something different for a gift this holiday season, Besh is now offering off-site catering available anywhere in the country. You heard it here first.

Talk of the Town

Food chat is great, but there is so much to catch up on, I thought we could stretch a little today as well. Did anyone catch Tony Bourdain at Triple Rock or Solera? What did you think? Anyone go to both events and have a favorite? Any great pull quotes you heard? I was in NYC doing the Today Show, so I couldn’t attend. Very disappointing; I would have loved to check out the action, especially at Solera. If you go to my website, we have some blogs up from some ladies who attended the event, and we also have a podcast on the site that I recorded last week with TB.

Did anyone see the pics of the one-and-a-half kilo white truffle that was discovered in Italy a few days ago? Good lord, I could smell it through my TV. Apparently it was dug up in Tuscany by a truffle-sniffing dog and will be auctioned this week in Florence for charity. According to the AP:

“Truffle hunter Cristiano Savini said Tuesday he was searching for truffles with his father and dog Rocco last week in Palaia, a town about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Pisa, when his dog, Rocco, started sniffing "like crazy." With Rocco leashed to a tree to prevent him from digging too furiously, the Savinis carefully extracted a truffle they said weighed 1.497 kilograms (about 3.3 pounds), which they contended was a record weight. Guinness Book of World Records lists a 1.3 kilogram (2.86-pound) white truffle found in Croatia in 1999 as the biggest. Cristiano's father, Luciano, said the truffle had been weighed at the traffic police station in the nearby town of San Miniato, which issued a certificate attesting to its weight. The station said the officer involved in the weighing was not immediately available for comment. On Tuesday, Cristiano Savini brought the truffle to Rome to publicize the planned auction, to be held Saturday in a palace in Florence. Truffles can fetch €7,500 ($11,155) a kilogram [$5,500 a pound] in Rome, although they usually weigh from 30 to 80 grams (1 to 2.8 ounces). Slivers of truffles, with their strong aroma, are prized in Italy to flavor pasta sauces and rice dishes. Proceeds from the auction will go to an Italian organization that helps sufferers of genetic diseases, a group that helps street children in London and Catholic charities in Macau.”

In a recent Mpls.St.Paul Magazine issue, I wrote a few blurbs on our leading local pastry chefs and was limited to highlighting five talents. Last week, I had lunch at Bank and was impressed with the awesome confection that Liz Matheson sent to our table. Next time you are there, order the white chocolate grapefruit bomb with dark chocolate and salted pretzel. It’s goooooooood. 

Did any of you fall in love with the cardamom mini donuts as much as we did last summer at the Mill City Farmers Market? Well, the talents behind those little gems, Carrie Summer and Lisa Carlson from Spoonriver, just bought a winterized concession wagon. Carrie will be taking her treats to the street. And the menu is growing. You can look forward to more mini-donuts, soft-serve ice cream, and her famous chocolate mousse in Popsicle form. Over the last few years, I have been aching for someone to bring street food into our food culture. Why can’t McCormick and Schmick's have a stand outside their restaurant that sells oysters and cups of ceviche? What about Brothers Deli pushing kosher dogs on the Avenue? Chino Latino could go in several directions, and Lucia’s could do hot chocolate and baked goods all winter long. Well, Carrie is trying hard to bring street food into vogue here, and there is even a wonderful rumor swirling about that she is thinking of creating some kind of winter carnival to take place between the Guthrie and Spoonriver with even more street food being hawked.

Here is the fun part: She needs a name for the cart. In my office, this is cause for a major creative brainstorming session. Berit came up with Street Treats. Dusti came up with The Honey Wagon. Carrie said she would consider readers' suggestions, so get on the stick, and let me know your thoughts. Carrie will check in on this site, and if you end up with the winning name, I am thinking you would never have to wait in line . . . ever.

Now a month or so ago, I started writing about Landmarc, one of the most ridiculous restaurants I have been to in a long time. First, no one ever seems to be there. I have stopped in to peek out the room on five occasions, and it was never more than 25 percent full, not once. No one ever seemed to be talking about it anywhere I went; it had no buzz at all. The food I ate there on the one visit I stayed for dinner was awful. One reason I think this restaurant is still open is because it is in a hotel, which provides some shelter from the typical financial vagaries facing a restaurant on life support. Only open for a relatively short time, the chef was gone one day and then back; and now the manager (my former Café 1-2-3 buddy Michael Morse) is apparently gone from Landmarc in a quid pro quo move by ownership in order to get the chef to return to the stove. Anyone know any details? I called and only got the broad story.

In NYC, I ate a wonderful dinner at Balthazar, followed up by a banana pudding at Magnolia Bakery on Bleeker and 11th.  BTW, the pool at Miami’s Standard Hotel has some of the best mini burgers I have ever tasted, and Versailles in Little Havana still has some killer roasted pork with beans and rice. Cuban sandwiches at La Carretta are better than I remembered.

Thanks for all the opinions on Heidi’s everyone;
anyone been to Nick and Eddie’s yet?

Flattery Will Get You . . .

I love the vitriol on this blog's comments page—nothing like real discourse on real issues. It is rare that someone’s post inspires me to respond within the context of the blog itself but a loyal community member took time from his day to ask me why I occasionally slip into political chat and made the point of looking elsewhere when I don't stick 100 percent to food fodder on this page. Look elsewhere, my friend. And a small reminder . . . a famous man once said all politics is local, and since we all grow where we are planted and we all eat where we live, and since all of our collective wisdom would say that we generally can agree that politics touches what we eat every day, I would say this is the best place to talk about real issues, even political ones. From who gets licensed to operate a restaurant, to who gets subsidized to grow corn, from minimum livable wages for single moms waitressing three shifts a week for extra dough to feed their kids to the import restrictions on unpasteurized cheese . . . need I go on?

****

Today the website that I run, AndrewZimmern.com, debuts its newest feature, the Kitchen Table. I love it, let me know what you think.

****

Mike Smith, the director of programming at KSTP, e-mailed me last week to see if I was interested in co-hosting the new Good Company–style TV show that KSTP-TV is producing. The 3 p.m. TV show for women “is about life and living in Minnesota. Not just the fashion, fun, and food. But, also, something to take away from it about money, or education, or politics, etc . . .” is how Mike described it to me. Did anyone go to the cattle-call auditions at Mall of America last month for this venture? What do you think about the revival of the old Steve and Sharon goldmine? I was on that show in 1992, and always thought it was the perfect vehicle for this market. Thoughts?

****

Anyone heard of watermelon steak?  I love this kind of dish.

****

In our police-blotter quip of the day, the New York Post reports that: "Last month's felony convictions could mean last call for the Ciprianis. The family could be forced to sell off crown jewels in their fine-dining and party empire after family corporations that run the Rainbow Room and the Ciprianis' downtown and Grand Central hot spots pleaded guilty to tax evasion."

****

Also from the NYP: Kitchen Nightmares (the BBC version) is my fave food-related TV show. Based on Gordon Ramsay's current popularity, it seems that these days the measure of success you derive is directly proportional to the number of lawsuits you have pending against you.

****

And speaking of Ramsay, how disappointing was last night’s Hell’s Kitchen finale? Neither one of these characters can run their own kitchen in the sense that the show intimates. One look at the winners from the last two seasons will show you where Rock is headed. I love this show for the train wreck of the personalities that collide each week, not to be told in the season’s conclusion that these two are ‘great chefs’ . . . annoying. I think for next season—and based on the boffo ratings there will be one—they need to pick the craziest kitchen psychopaths with the most talent. Sort of merge their content with the Top Chef concept and make everyone happy.

Californication

Last week, I had dinner at Cut, one of the hottest new restaurants in LA and the brainchild of the Wolfgang Puck organization, whose 20.21 restaurant is one of my fave eateries here in the Twin Cities. Lee Hefter, Puck’s resident food god and the quarterback of his fine-dining restaurant group, has created an incredible menu, a reinvention of the steak house with all the markers of the classic American version put through Puck and Hefter’s prism of Cal-Asian refraction. The service was amazing, a perfect blend of elegant precision and informal passion, the wine list was a delight to the grape juice–heads at our table (the New Zealand Pinot and the high-end, NoCal Cabs to name two), and the eight of us ate our way through the entire menu. We started with two versions of the signature mini Kobe burgers; a gorgeous and tasty duck liver pavé; a tuna tartare and melba crisp construction; steak tartare; heirloom tomato salad with micro herbs and Humboldt Fog chevre; a killer crab Louis; soft shell crabs with roasted pepper sauce; two four-pound lobsters roasted and shelled, served with a black truffle beurre fondue; three types of steak, including pure imported wagyu from Japan; four sauces; four mustards; four sides, including creamed spinach with a fried egg mixed into it; banana crème pie; and the best chocolate soufflé I have eaten since the early 1980s in Lyon.

Speaking of Lee and Wolf, Puck got married on July 7, and Lee shared the menu with me.

Wedding Menu July 7, 2007
Hors d’oeuvres
Prosciutto & salamis
Local cheeses & breads
Passed canapés

Tomato and bread "mille foglie" salad
Tuna carpaccio & bottarga with local olive oil and herbs

Eggplant & lobster ravioli
Filet of chianina beef

Wedding cake

Sounds simple enough, but then again, the cheeses alone were special selections, the fromagorri and affineurs created for the wedding itself, and the cured hams were some of the number-one hams from the attics of Italy's and Spain's best producers. See where I’m going with this? Simple, but perfect. Oh yeah, my spies told me the canapés and hors d’oeuvres were a little over the top as well, from fresh lobster to Beluga 000 caviar. Nice.

Dipping into the mailbag from reader posts on this site, I can tell Reetsy that she needs to buy Giuliano Bugialli’s On Pasta book. It will change her life.

And regards Fugaise, I ate there the third month they opened and then again one day when I had the pleasure of shooting a TV package with Don Saunders, an amazingly kind and talented young chef. I put Fugaise in the top tier of local restaurants, but not in the top three. My top five for food would only be culled from the ranks of LBV, Chambers, Alma, 112, Cosmos, Masa, Vincent, Heartland, Cucina, Oceanaire, Teahouse, Que Nah, Punch (Highland!), Wagner's, my mother-in-law's house, and the cafeteria at Hubbard Broadcasting.

And here’s a note I got from Tor Westgard that should clear up any issues remaining on the table—and I get a sneaky feeling Vlach ends up in the old Carne Asada space. Just a thought.

Mr. Zimmern,

I just read your blog, partly about the Town Talk, and thought I should email you. Maybe I can help alleviate some confusion.

Tim and AJ's new project(s) do not involve Town Talk Diner LLC. They involve New World Hospitality LLC, a separate company owned and operated by Tim Niver, Aaron Johnson and Dan Ritter. They only thing we have in common is that we share some of the same members. I have become the managing partner of the TTD to set up both the TTD and NWH for future success. I will be focusing solely on the TTD for the foreseeable future, while sharing my partners with NWH and their other endeavors. You might consider referring to them as NWH, since the only thing the TTD is doing right now is becoming better at being the TTD.

David Vlach and Tor Westgard were never a part of NWH. We were only ever part of the TTD. I won't speak for NWH, but they have a chef partner already in Dan Ritter. I wish them luck, and I look forward to enjoying a meal at their new space.

As far as David Vlach's departure is concerned, he decided that it was time to take the next step, and I support him in whatever he decides to do. David and I are old friends, and I will miss cooking with him very much. I am very grateful for the time we had to work together. It was an amicable split, and who knows, we may work together again some day.

It continues to give me immense pleasure to help make so many people happy at the TTD. I am excited about the future and the continued development of our restaurant and concept. Please feel free to contact me regarding future projects for the TTD. Have a good day and I hope to see you in our dining room soon.

Here’s the Body Count . . . enriched, this week, with meaningless editorializing to placate the restless hordes who are uncomfy with unadorned numbers.

Corner Table – 10

They had record numbers last week, but reported 10 for this week. Self-reported, I might add. Scott is a class act.

Picosa – 31

A new restaurant with no buzz and no local interest

Aster/Pracna – HUNDREDS!

They had the Life Time Fitness event happening outside their door.

Everyone Happy?

The coming weeks will find our body counters away on vacation, but Body Count will return the first week in August.

Why or Why Not?

According to an e-mail I got on July 13, Town Talk chef David Vlach has announced his departure from the Lake Street restaurant. According to the press release, Vlach will be making an announcement about his next project at some point in the future. Tor Westgard, currently the Town Talk Diner sous chef (and longtime partner), will be the new chef, in addition to his recently transitioned GM duties.

OK, so is the chef's exit and the 86ing of the new TTD pasta-house project a coincidence? E-mails to Vlach and calls to TTD co-owner Tim Niver had gone unanswered until late yesterday, when Niver rang me up. Seeing as how Reetsy and Alexis get all the TTD gossip late night at the bar, I had to readjust my tactics and reach out to the TTD crew for the skinny on the recent news. Why would a chef who is a partner in a successful restaurant leave after such a relatively short run, especially with a new project about to launch? Something was not adding up right. But Niver told me that the partnership was always top-heavy in the management category, and that Vlach, being young and talented, simply took an opportunity to leave and pursue other goals and other challenges.

Niver told me he does not know what Vlach's next project is. As far as the pasta project was concerned, Niver told me that the deal was 90 percent done, and then another opportunity came to the partnership on the St. Paul side of the river. The group decided to move forward with that space and allow the Lake Street pasta project to wither on the vine, a decision made easier after the Lake Street landlord told them that another party was interested in the space and asked the TTD team to make a choice. They did. Wouldn't it make for a great soap opera if Vlach's project was housed in the Lake Street location?

Why am I not sleeping? Because I was watching the news in LA last week and saw a killer KNBC story rehashing the old saw about how ethanol is a tin soldier in the war on our destructive dependence on Middle Eastern oil. It takes a gallon of oil to essentially make a gallon of ethanol, and the corn subsidies that have been playing havoc with our food and health paradigms have served only to line the pockets of Big Ag and the commercial food industry. It reminded me to post this Cool News highlight for you from two weeks ago, something I had been meaning to do for several days now:

"Between 1985 and 2000, the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables increased nearly 40 percent, while the price of soft drinks decreased by almost 25 percent," reports Marian Burros in The New York Times (7/4/07). That's according to a study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, which wants to save family farms and is part of an unlikely alliance of interests aiming at changing America's agricultural policies. Of course, lots of people have long railed against payments made to farmers for growing—or not growing—certain crops. At issue is the so-called "farm bill," which comes up for renewal this year, as it does every half-decade.

Such subsidies date back to the Great Depression, when the intent was to support family farms. But today "the program costs billions and benefits about one-third of the nation's farmers." And critics include not only the usual run of fiscal conservatives, but also healthcare advocates who say that the subsidies bloat both the budget and the American people themselves. These critics "say the subsidies lead to cheap snack foods and soft drinks, made from ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Meanwhile, the lack of subsidies for fruits and vegetables makes them expensive by comparison."

The subsidies, critics say, "are partly responsible for the epidemic of childhood obesity and the increased incidence of diabetes." And so various bills are now before Congress that are "aimed at helping growers of fruits and vegetables." Other bills, backed by environmentalists, are aimed at setting up "more farmer's markets and helping farmers sell to nearby schools, hospitals, and institutions."

Why am I so upset every time I read a nonlocal entity provide a roundup of local eateries? Well, has anyone seen the latest miscreant screed on the topic, MSN’s City Guides list of the ten best local restaurants? My Lord, what are those people smoking? Their top ten are Alma, A Rebours, Solera, Ike’s, 112 Eatery, Town Talk, Cue, La Belle Vie, St. Paul Grill, and Brit’s Pub.

What about Masa, Cucina, Spoonriver, Cosmos, Oceanaire, three or four steakhouses, about fifteen family-run ethnic eateries, Heartland, Sapor, Barbette, W. A. Frost, Lucia’s, Corner Table, Vincent, and about a dozen other places that should be in anyone’s top ten before Cue, Brit’s, the SPG, or Ike’s even enters the conversation . . . ? And that’s not a knock against those four restaurants (though none are even in my top twenty-five) as much as it is a shot over the bows of the boat of ignorance that those vile misinformation mongers keep afloat because they are too lazy or cheap to hire anyone of about 500 local foodaholics qualified enough to put together a cogent list for their readers.

Has anyone read Bracketology? It’s the book that says any contest over what is best-in-show in any oeuvre can be deduced by setting up an NCAA men’s basketball–style bracket. We should try that with restaurants. On Thursday, let’s talk about my recent last-minute trip to L.A..

Self-Involved

All right, three things.

First: You need to click here to sign up for a premiere party that Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, FM107, and I are hosting for the Warner Brothers film No Reservations, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart. All you need to do is ask for the tix and they are yours. Seriously. It’s free, and it’s a food movie! We are going to have a donation bucket passed for the Retreat in Wayzata, with proceeds from our collection benefiting the scholarship fund that my wife and I set up to benefit those looking to access affordable recovery services—but the whole shebang is gratis.

Second: July 9 is the premiere of season 1B of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel. Lock and load, baby.

Third: Next week, Harry's Food and Cocktails opens in the Washington Avenue space that Nochee vacated several months ago. Nochee was a colossal disappointment. Harry’s has a shot. It seems like the right type of concept for the space and for the neighborhood. Harry's has got poutine on the menu, a Quebecois taste treat that I blogged about on Monday, and according to the restaurant’s reps, the menu is “traditional American in style," drawing “inspiration from old supper club standards like meatloaf and prime rib.” Harry’s features a heavily hyped burger, tons of local food resources on the menu, an open kitchen, moderate prices, and a casual environment. The press release boasts of an award-winning wine list—odd, considering that Harry’s isn’t open yet, but I admire the moxie. But I digress. The menu also promises some fun goodies like hearty duck meatballs and a soft shell crab po' boy, as well as tender pot roast . . . . Sound more interesting? So why am I so excited about a restaurant that seems in many respects like the type of joint that needs to open first before cynical food freaks like me develop a blood lust for the place? Because Steven Brown is behind the stove. Thank you God, my fave food guy is cooking for the paying public again, and frankly, I don’t care where or what or how.

Now, the million-dollar question is this . . . Tim McKee and Alex Roberts (for example) own their own restaurants, and with ownership comes freedom to cook what you want, how you want, and with complete creative control. Ultimately, it lets the diner see the artist in his atelier, at his peak. Conversely, though, it also allows the chef/owner and his or her partners to work within the constraints of the business world, making them artist-CEOs, for want of a better phrase. So given all that, when are chefs like Brown and Doug Flicker going to open their own places? When the investor pool comes together, count me in. And what is the over/under on Brown and Flicker staying in their current positions? A year? Less? More? Interesting thought, don’t you think . . . ?

And finally, hats off to American food-fanatic and current world champ Joey Chestnut, who beat an ailing six-time defending champ Kobayashi at the Nathan’s Famous contest on Coney Island by eating sixty-six hot dogs (with buns) in twelve minutes. The best thing about the contest was watching Kobayashi suffer the ignominy of a reversal at the end of the contest, throwing up as the final seconds ticked off . . . and into his hands no less. Congrats Joey . . .

Adam Platt Reports from the James Beard Awards

Special to Chow & Again: Mpls.St.Paul Magazine restaurants editor Adam Platt reports from the James Beard Awards.

NEW YORK—It was a foodie- and food-studded night at the twentieth annual James Beard Restaurant Awards, held last night at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall. The headlines, for Twin Cities eaters, were disappointing: Tim McKee (La Belle Vie) and Alex Roberts (Restaurant Alma) failed to win the Best Chef Midwest designation, bested by Celina Tio of Kansas City's American Restaurant. It was McKee and Roberts' first nominations, and the first year that the Twin Cities had been separated from Chicago in the Beard Awards, which was thought to make it easier for the local chefs. Maybe next year.

Other local favorites showed well, though. City Pages' Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl picked up two food writing awards at Sunday night's journalism awards, and Duluth's Pickwick Restaurant was named one of six American Classic eateries for 2007, recognizing long-standing fixtures on the American culinary scene. (Al's Breakfast won a few years back.)

The 3:10 ceremony was as long as the Oscars, and not quite as compelling. Avery Fisher Hall was entered on a red carpet, cameras and boom mikes astride it, reporters looking for the luminaries of the food world. And they were out in abundance: Jacques Pepin, Eric Ripert, Drew Nieporent, Thomas Keller, Danny Meyer, Bobby Flay, and even Salman Rushdie was in attendance. (His wife was a presenter.)

In a show of utter East Coast snobbery, Boston-based chef Todd English presented the Best Chef Midwest award, mispronouncing most of the nominees or their restaurants, leaving no time for applause or recognition. The Best Chef New York award, which he presented next, contained not a single kerfuffle and liberal applause pauses. The ceremony dragged on so long that when Michel Richard of Washington DC's Citronelle won Outstanding Chef, the night's final award, the audience literally ran to the exits (and the food/drink) before he could ascend the podium. Well, people were hungry.

The highlights of the awards: Thomas Keller (The French Laundry, Per Se) was named Outstanding Restaurateur, Richard was Outstanding Chef, Chicago's Rick Bayless's Frontera Grill was the nation's top restaurant, while New York's outpost of L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon was named Best New Restaurant. Chef David Chang of Momofuku Noodle Bar (NYC) was named Rising Star Chef of the Year.

A perky, flirty, somewhat mawkish Hannah Storm of CBS's Morning Show was mistress of ceremonies, and she could not even say goodnight before the 1,500 or so guests in attendance fled their cushioned seats for the public areas of Avery Fisher Hall and an assemblage of foodie freebies.

Culinary highlights: Tastings of Andrew Carmellini's (A Voce/NYC) duck meatballs; David Chang's poached asparagus with miso butter; Todd English's (Olives/Boston, et al) "free form" morel lasagna with Maine crab and fava beans; Charles Pham's (The Slanted Door/SFO) carmelized shrimp with lemongrass and Thai chili; Tre Wilcox's (Abacus/Dallas) seared sea scallops with truffled potato sauce and spinach; and Carina Ahlin's (Aquavit/NYC) white chocolate cheesecake with rhubarb and almond crumbs.

Less successful were Grant Achatz's (Alinea/Chicago, best chef Great Lakes) sweet puffs with morels, ramps, and black pepper; Marcus Samuelsson's (Aquavit/NYC) cured salmon with burnt leek nougatine; and Bobby Flay's oyster and lobster shooters.

A passle of Twin Citians were in attendance, among them, the Strib's Rick Nelson, gourmands Bob and Sue MacDonald, La Belle Vie's Bill Sommerville and Josh Thoma, WCCO's Sue Zelickson, and former Twin Citian, now New Orleans restaurant critic, Brett Anderson, who not only did not come in black tie, but wore an orange shirt. Despite the Twins' night off, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau did not appear to present their salute to Jimmy John's.

The evening's odd highlight was when Pickwick Duluth proprietor Chris Wisocki offered thanks to all "the crazy Polacks in Duluth." It got a hearty, but uncomfortable laugh.

Still, the lingering message of the evening was that American food continues to advance, thrive, and mature, as our culinary horizons broaden. The most notable aspect was perhaps that the American food scene is so diverse and interesting that the vast majority of the country's wonderful restaurants never are recognized by the Beards.

For the full rundown on the evenings winners and losers, see the Beard Foundation's website. I'd suggest you now go out and book a table at Alma and La Belle Vie, or any other chef-driven restaurant in town, because it's those folks who keep our food scene moving and grooving.

Back to you, Andrew . . . .

Crystal Balls

Today I’m peering into mine, and based on my precognitive, Kreskinesque track record, you should be listening.

Several weeks ago, I told one of my editors that if I was Steven Brown or Doug Flicker, I would try to strike a partnership with one of the front runners for MSP’s 2007 Restaurateur of the Year award (that would be next year’s winner, kids). And if I was Anoush Ansari or Tim and Aaron from Town Talk, I would want to talk to Steven and Doug. Why? Because these restaurateurs (groups, companies, whatever you want to call them) are poised to make some real noise in 2007, and Steven and Doug are two of the best chefs in the Upper Midwest.

Well, the early bird has caught the worm. Doug Flicker has indeed been hired by Anoush’s company, Hemisphere Restaurant Partners, and will be the next chef at Mission. He’ll also be helping out with their new France Avenue restaurant, Via. Who will be the chef at Via? The current chef at Mission. Ansari now has a deep bench.

Since I view the best chefs in town the way most pro sports GMs view free agents, I have a few questions for you . . .

Should Doug Anderson (Nick and Eddies, A Rebours) try to strike a deal with Steven Brown? Oh wait, he hired Steve Vranian to run his kitchen. If I’m Anderson, I would hire Brown to remake A Rebours into the best restaurant in St. Paul. Small, casual, and chic . . . and one mile from my house! Touchdown.

Or perhaps the Town Talk guys will hire him, as I posited a few weeks ago. I still think that’s a good match and saves Brown the trouble of finding a location, raising dough, etc. to create his own space. Or maybe they have chatted and both felt it wasn’t the right fit? Who knows, but someone has to do the cooking at the new Niver-Johnson venture, right?

Michael Morse at Landmarc needs a chef if he wants to make that concept work, and if he hires a good one, he’ll have a shot at making a go of things in his new space. Any takers?

Tom Pham just got buried by Dara in last week’s City Pages. Perhaps he needs someone to help organize and grow the food side of his company. With two to three new concepts percolating in Pham’s head, it would be in his best interest to get a food guy on board ASAP to help make some decisions for his kitchens.

So what do you think, smarty-pants? Who ends up where, with what, and for how long?

So Who Has Them?

We’ve all heard about people having guts or cojones. According to my dad, if you have either, you can arrive home after a long night out with the guys and, finding your wife awake and holding a broom, have the guts to ask, “Are you still cleaning or are you flying somewhere?” He’s got big ones—I can’t pull that off at my house. Neither can Lenny Russo, whose wife would kill him just like mine would for a retort like that. But he did have the stones to walk away from a big corporate job at Cue, the Restaurantistan of the Bon Appetit Gulag.

Lenny Russo and I spoke for a half hour yesterday. He’s a gentleman, so for the record, he gave all the credit to his staff and regaled me with a great story or two about walking away into the sweet night after completing a one-year deal. Mission accomplished. His wife missed him, he missed Heartland, and his Cue job had become more about managing people than about cooking.

Now he can pick up all the projects that he put on hold when he got the last minute notice that Cue was really going to happen. He’s focusing on books, a TV show, setting up a nonprofit distribution network allowing farmers to help get product into underserved areas, and opening a nonprofit restaurant.

Rumors have swirled recently that the mild-mannered but streetwise Russo smacked some corporate suit on the way out the door. He laughed and said it never happened. Whatever Lenny decides to tackle next will do very well, I am sure.

Now, let’s looks at what Russo isn’t talking about. Bon App is an institutional food-service management company, a giant food monolith whose style and substance is diametrically opposed to Russo’s. This marriage was doomed from the start, but Lenny was smart to take the job. It gave him a monstrous platform from which to preach his message. Bon App got a lot out of Russo as well, garnering national attention for doing a ‘local-fresh-best’ eatery in such a large setting. Look for a dumbed down and less-inspired version of Cue to roll out as of yesterday. I have spoken to a lot of people associated with this project over the last few days—purveyors, former and current employees—and, despite Russo’s staff staying on,