I Love LA: Part 17

I just got back from a trip to LA for the Discovery Network Upfront presentations and did a little noshing in LA in anticipation of a story I am working on for the July issue of the magazine. Let me fill you in on a few of the people I spotted in my short visit to the City of Angels and a few of the things that you might want to nibble on when you are out here next.

Kat from L.A. Ink is my newest big fan, and I am hers. I met her in Chicago last week, and she made a beeline for me Tuesday evening when she saw me across the floor at the event. In tow was her beau, the ageless paunchy rocker Nikki Sixx, who was unable to bring himself to chow down on the geoduck that she and I offered to him.

Jai Rodriguez (former Queer Eye style maven) was Trading Spaces stalwart Paige Davis’s date for the event, and he spent the whole time at the show drinking highballs and shouting at the screen, basically acting like a four-year-old. When super hunk Dave Salmoni from Animal Planet hit the stage with a six-month-old cub wrapped around his neck, Jai nearly passed out with desire, audibly moaning from his seat. When Salmoni turned and exited, Jai kicked it into high gear, shouting lecherous offers from his back-row perch. Ten minutes later, Dave sat down next to him, and Jai lost all his confidence, turning into a shrinking wallflower at the very moment he should have risen to the occasion. What a schlub. Paige, by the way, is a stone-cold fox in real life, and all her perky folksiness from the show is noticeably absent when she is out and about.

Dhani Jones, Sam Brown, Kirsten Gum from Cash and Treasures, and all the rest of my Travel Channel teammates were there. Annabelle Gurwich (formerly of Dinner and Movie, with a new show on Planet Green, the new network launching this spring) was there, but all eyes were on PG’s new star Adrian Grenier from Entourage, who has a new show about his home and his green lifestyle. He is a very nice guy, very earnest and genuine, and only out done by the superbly humble Bear Grylls. Bear, Man vs. Wild, has recovered from the flap over his show’s truth telling, and his show is a huge ratings giant for Discovery. He and I share the same diet on the road, although as he told me at one point in the evening that I get a choice, he has none since it is eat or perish.

The highlight of the evening was sitting in between Justin Timberlake and Ellen Degeneres and gal pal Portia Rossi at dinner after the show. Timberlake was cool as a cuke, noshing with pals (no Jessica Biel in sight) and kissing everyone in the room on his way out the door. I got a little chin nod when he stopped to see who was at our table, and he smiled, mimed a little chewing, and then laughed as he made his way to his car. That kid is a star, huge magnetism. I am channeling both Sid and Joe Franklin right now . . . get it? Anyway, Ellen and Portia were having dinner, chowing on steak (we were all at Puck’s CUT in the Beverly Wilshire), and kept looking over at our table, sending one of their pals over after twenty minutes of giggling to ask me what was the best tasting animal testicle I ever ate? Resisting all temptation to make a joke about their lack of experience with that body part, I told them all about the black chicken balls in Taiwan, the Prada of animal testes. Jet black and rarer than truffles.

Turns out, they are all huge fans of the show, and to be honest, what a thrill to have them all be so interested in what we do on Bizarre Foods.

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Tuesday I ate lunch at Spago, and mega chefs Lee Hefter and Wolfgang Puck were both in the kitchen, clearly the stars had aligned. Turns out Alain Ducasse, Jacques Torres, Eric Ripert, and Bobby Flay were all in town for the day to cook a meal with Puck at a charity event in Newport Beach. Dinner for eight cooked by these guys went for $100,000. Well, the chefs were all having lunch at the table next to ours, so I got to hang with them for a bit. Flay was charming and gracious, so for the first time in twenty years, he is off my s**t list. Since Rocco came off that same list after we kissed and made up in South Beach last month, that leaves only Tyler Florence to carry forth the banner of official putz of the food world. He is a pompous and arrogant man who has no-showed on me twice throughout the years as a show guest of mine and the second time with no call or apology.

Anyway, here is what we all ate: Some of the dishes were being worked on and finalized for the event later that night, see the pix below for some cool photos. We started with the tuna tartare in sesame miso cones, then spoons of hamachi sashimi with yuzu, then fava puree tarts with basil oil, then Iranian osetra (wow!) tarts, cured salmon on lemon blini, rhubarb sorbet on pickled Jerusalem artichoke with lemon grass Earl Grey tea, sweet pea agnolotti with marscapone, and those were just the first seven courses!

Above: rhubarb sorbet on pickled Jerusalem artichoke with lemon grass Earl Grey tea.

Above: (left) Sweet pea agnolotti with marscapone and (right) Iranian osetra tarts.

Say what you will about Spago, but Puck and Hefter are always there, and the food is still, decades later, superb. Craft LA, Katsu-Ya, Pinks, In-N-Out, Dan Tana’s, Bastide, Providence, Lucques, Mozza, Matsuhisa, and Crustacean are all on my list of musts, and since I have approximately forty restaurants on my hit list with only room to write twenty, well, I am in trouble to say the least. Best dish? Maybe the sea urchin amuse at Craft. Teeny cubes of pickled watermelon, small slivers of compressed watermelon, and sea urchin perched on top, and the doughnuts are still the best in the universe. Best main course, the awesome roasted lobster in truffle sabayon whipped with the lobster tomalley. Oh, Lordy.

LA Nocturne

I love The Soup, previously called Talk Soup, and who knows, I might have that backward. For years, I have made it a must-look whenever I surf by it on TV. I have just learned that last week, Bizarre Foods Beijing was selected as the most disturbing clip of the week—of course it was the penis restaurant scene. Very cool.

And speaking of cool, check out Access Hollywood tonight. Maria Menounos and I sat down for lunch together at Spago last week and chatted about all things bizarre. She is 100 times hipper and sweeter in person than she usually comes across on camera.

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Here is some hot LA food news from my quick pit stop there last week:

Cut, in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, is still the hottest table in town. Lee Hefter and Wolfgang Puck’s steakhouse is now also open in Vegas. Lee is there all this week supervising the crew and showing everyone the ropes. When we arrived in LA, we stuck our heads in the kitchen since we were staying at the Bev Wilshire. We stayed for dinner, which was as good as ever. The tomato salad, tartare, strip sampler of Wagyu, American Kobe, and dry-aged NY sirloin are just phenomenal. If you want a real beef dinner, Cut is nearly perfect. Noah (our three-year-old) devoured the mini Kobe burgers.

The Boulevard restaurant on the other side of the property is a great restaurant as well, and during breakfast the next day, I sat next to Sidney Poitier. What a feeling. Lunch took us over to Spago for the shoot and some treats from the kitchen, such as basil pesto shrimp pizza— travesty elsewhere but amazing here—and a Greek salad. We shot with Maria and that night ate with friends at their house. For about the umpteenth time, we swung by Madeo and got some pasta and salads to go. I love that restaurant.

That night, we stopped by Cut to say thanks to Wolfgang for all his help with the Access Hollywood shoot, and Noah ran and jumped on him screaming, ‘Wolfy,’ as he gang tackled him. Puck, who has a bunch of little kids himself, was quite a sport about it all. And on May 16, you can see what a star the man is in person by buying tickets to CuisineArt at The Walker, one of the best food events of the year.

Sir Ask A Lot

I get asked all the time about cooking classes. I used to teach a lot at Cooks of Crocus Hill in St. Paul. But this coming November, I am teaching a bunch of classes and hosting a dinner onboard the Holland America Line’s Ryndam. This is all part of the Carlson Wagonlit Travel culinary cruise program, and the classes and events are available only to passengers booking through Carlson Wagonlit Travel agencies. The ten-day cruise along the Mexican Riviera is roundtrip out of San Diego and stops in Cabo, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, etc. Want more info? Go here to book the cruise.

I also get asked to go to restaurant openings, and in the past, I always said no out of some vague sense of professional propriety. But I was asked to attend a soft opening for The Strip Club, Aaron Johnson and Tim Niver’s new joint, and I told chef-partner J.D. Fratzke I would stop by; but last week, my wife and son had the flu, the dog had surgery, and the cat was being the cat, so needless to say, I missed the first few nights of service at The Strip Club, a restaurant on my side of town that I have high hopes for. But I got an e-mail from J.D. at the end of the week. He told me that on opening night, into the first rush, with a bunch of tickets hanging,

“the shelf bolted into the stainless over our char-broiler -- the one holding all of our steak plates -- collapses.  Platters shatter all over the first ten grass-fed strips we've fired for paying customers, two fillets of char, four salmon steaks, two saute pans and, of course, my broiler cook, six foot seven Anthony Finck, who turns to me and says with a bewildered smirk, "I don't think we can stack plates there anymore, Chef." We fought out of it. It took about an hour, but we fought out.  Insurgents breached the perimeter, but we took no casualties.”

Funny stuff, J.D. Every chef has stories like this one, and since so many readers of this blog are in the business, on both sides of the room, perhaps some of you will share yours? Here’s one of mine:

I was running the floor one night in 1984 (or 85?) at Elio’s as a favor to the owner who was out of town for the weekend; it was a Friday night in NYC—in the summer. I was working at his other restaurant Petaluma as the chef, but he wanted me up the street at his flagship for the night, and my sous was handling the light night at our eatery. Calm evening at Elio’s, full but no crush; all our customers were retreating to their summer homes. A guy lights up a cigar at a six-top. I tell him to put it out since tables near him are complaining. He points out that two other tables in the front are smoking cigars. It’s Ben Gazzara at one table and someone at Woody Allen’s table smoking the other one. I tell the foppish guy in the back with the heavy New York accent that those men are regulars and that no one complained about them. He throws five one-hundred dollar bills on the table and walks.

The next day I get a call from the GM at Elio’s; there’s a picket line around the restaurant, and no deliveries can come through. We call Elio. He does some digging on Local 459. Turns out, there is no such union local. Turns out the guy I pissed off was Tony “Fat Tony” Salerno, head of the Genovese crime family. I ended up having to go with the restaurant GM to meet this guy and apologize before they would lift the fake picket. Scared sh**less. Thank goodness he was more interested in coming back to try the gnocchi than he was in messing with me.

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Here’s a great local blog, The Masticator. I get asked what I like about these all the time, and of course I think this guy’s take is spot on. Go figure.

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Go here, and check out the awesome photo contest, and start charging the digi-cam batteries—there are great prizes galore. Also, am I the only one who thinks that Punch in Highland is heads and shoulders better than any of their other locations when it comes to pizza quality?

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Tori Shin in NYC is a hot little Yakitori bar that serves chicken sashimi and some killer skewered, grilled poultry treats. I have been asked about this stuff endlessly, and I promised many of you that I would let you know about it. Consider yourself informed. The yakitori is out of sight, and this should be a must-stop for anyone heading to the Big Apple looking for a taste of Tokyo.

Where Was My Camera?

The Critics Choice Awards were in Santa Monica the other night, and so was I. My wife, son, and I strolled into our hotel and asked the major domo in the lobby who all the paparazzi were stalking, and she says, “I can’t say, but you might want to stroll over to the big fireplace.” We did.

We were staying at Shutters Hotel On The Beach, my new favorite hotel in a city filled with great ones. The location is great; it is at the end of Pico Blvd., right on the beach, great pool, amazing service, and a level of finishes in the rooms that leaves you wanting for nothing: iPod docks, six different Italian bath bombs, and steam and hot tub in the rooms. It is casual and hip but still supplying all the kowtowing that you need when you are traveling with the family. Need milk for a bottle? It’s in the room in three minutes. And you can walk to Michael’s restaurant. The scene in the lobby is always hopping: roaring fireplaces, comfy couches, killer snack food (the braised short rib sliders were particularly awesome).

So we sidle over to the first set of comfy chairs, and who should we see standing in front of us but George Clooney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Julian Schnabel, Sean Penn, and a few other mega stars all enjoying a quiet drink in front of the fireplace. Welcome to LA.

Clooney and DDL are throwbacks, real big stars who radiate a deeper heat than most actors, even the famous ones, and they also strongly contrasted the brooding Penn, who glared at us and never moved from his chair. The others smiled and were gracious as we chatted with the producer who was sitting with them, a fellow we knew from here. Other highlights: Pizza from Vito, brunch at Coast, Wagyu at Cut, calves’ liver at Angelini Osteria, hamachi and crab rolls at Nozawa, chicken salad at Ivy at the Shore, tacos at Guelaguetza, and of course a double-double at In-N-Out. Mozza remains the hottest table in town, but Lucques, A.O.C., Matsuhisa, and Dan Tana’s are still some of my regular stops when I’m hungry.

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I have gotten a ton of e-mail about a few roundups that included yours truly. Check out zap2it’s annual review of TV people. OK, I’ll take twenty-first on the list; it’s better than twenty-second, isn’t it? Or you can check out Chow’s website and click on the media title in the middle of the page. Not too shabby.

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In Defense of Food is Michael Pollan's fifth book, and it’s another home run. As Liz Weise pointed out in USA Today two days ago (quotes are verbatim from her story):

Pollan started out with an interest in "the tradition of nature writing in America," but turned his attentions to our relationship to the food we eat after he "found himself fire-bombing the den of a woodchuck that had mowed down" his garden.

"Here I was pouring gasoline down its burrow and lighting a match to it and I realized I was replaying a certain American approach to nature, which is 'How dare these small-brained creatures thwart our desires?'" But in his latest book, Michael's focus is on the "small-brained creatures" otherwise known as the food industry. He doesn't call them small-brained, actually, but he does seem to regard them as the marketing equivalent of a hungry woodchuck: "Their interests are getting you to eat too much food processed more than it should be. And your interests are to leave well enough alone with food. But they can't make enough money on that."

Instead, says Michael, the food industry seeks "ways to 'add value' to food, by making it more processed and more complicated." They are enabled, he says, by scientists who "deconstruct food, to understand the component parts of it —vitamins, minerals—that make it healthy." Food companies take this information (e.g., resveratrol is good for the heart), and use it "to get us to eat more highly processed foods touted as healthier because the nutrients present in whole foods have been added back in at the factory." Michael's best advice is to "shop the periphery of the supermarket ... where the meat, diary, produce and fish are pretty much as they started out." He also advises eating "only foods that our great-grandmothers would have recognized."

It’s a simple idea but true, and although IDOF won’t change the discourse of our food lives the way The Omnivore’s Dilemma did, it’s worth reading.

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.

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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.

I'm Baaaaack . . .

It doesn’t take much to get me ticked off these days, but one way to do it for sure is for me to go to my local movie complex, clothing store, or supermarket expecting to find some film, shirt, or comestible that the rest of the country is enjoying on a regular basis, only to find that in our market, it’s not available. I remember all too well the skirt steak incidents of years past! Try to find real pastrami in this town, or a good prepared-foods store. They don’t exist.

But I digress. So I went to Iceland a few months ago and fell in love with skyr, a low-fat/high-protein cheese that looks like thick yogurt. You sweeten and mix things into it, and it’s phenomenal. Then I read my Food Section update this week and saw that Whole Foods was carrying it!

When I went to the St. Paul store, no skyr.

Why are so many Whole Foods around the country twice as well stocked, twice as efficient, and twice as appealing as our local versions? It drives me crazy.

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My friend Katie sent me an e-mail re: a post I wrote a few weeks back about St. Paul restaurants generally and, specifically, a comment I made about Margaux closing. I got a lot of e-mail about the same post, most expressing the same opinion. Katie wrote that Margaux had:

. . . hit-or-miss food and not a bad location. Everyone who lives in that neighborhood was sad to see it go. Meaning, I'm speaking for me, who lives a block away. It always seemed like there were lots of people there. I went for drinks quite a bit. Everyone [in] downtown St. Paul that I've talked to wants somewhere good to eat and fun places to hang out and would go there if they built it. We're dying for it! I wish people'd stop saying St. Paulites wouldn't go there. My whole neighborhood is wishing for a grocery store and some places to hang out—the Embassy Suites bar doesn't cut it.

I agree with a lot of this, but let’s be honest. Margaux had hit/miss food when they opened, and it all went downhill from there. There were never enough customers there to sustain the business, and that is why these places close.

When it comes to dining in St. Paul's downtown, I think we are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Look at Atlanta. Their downtown business district rolls up at 5 p.m. sharp. No one dines downtown at all. The restaurants that want to do more than just lunch business have all opened where the customers are . . . which is to say, outside of their downtown. I've said it before: Grand Avenue should be St. Paul's restaurant row. The Grand Avenue Business Association should be working to bring independent restaurants to the avenue, not chasing them away because of ungrounded fears that competition stunts growth. It’s the opposite. And the city council should be relaxing rules and restrictions to allow those businesses to flourish. Liquor licensing and café seating regulations are unduly harsh and need to be eased up on. Grand Avenue does not need another crappy coffee bar or a booze trough masquerading as a burger bar. It needs restaurants that can cater to the diverse clientele that lives around the avenue, from students to titans of industry.

Consider how ethnic dining has flourished on University Avenue. We ought to focus on putting restaurants into neighborhoods that can support them, then let Downtown grow at it’s own pace. If Meritage opened on Grand Avenue, it would do twice the business and have a longer life expectancy than it will opening downtown in the old A Rebours space. I am hoping Meritage succeeds, but location makes it a tougher row to hoe.

The idea that Margaux’s failing represents anything more than a bad restaurant not finding customers is a canard, and while it's less sexy of a topic, the more interesting closing is Copper Bleu shuttering up in Lakeville. I think that closing is a nasty indicator that our economy is not well in the 'burbs. Yes, it was a glorified Applebee's, but it was a notch up food-wise and with respect to price point, and it planted itself within easy reach of customers. It calls to mind enjoy! or the Bellanotte project in Blaine. Are they doing well? Does anyone out there even go to these restaurants? It would be interesting to know. I avoid restaurants like these like the plague.

And what is the early buzz on Heidi’s? I have been away for a while . . . .

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On a happier note, David Kamp (The Food Snob's Dictionary and The United States of Arugula) has added "Mexican Coke" (cane-sugar sweetened cola) and "Pitmaster" (BBQ master) to the food snob lexicon. And he has a website of snobolicious fun for food and what modern food snobbery is. You can even take the food snob quiz, if you like.

The Last Week Show

Last week I was on the Today show. FUN! Here are the highlights:

I revisited some of my fave NYC haunts while shooting the taped package they ran right before my live segment with one of their correspondents. Jenna Wolfe and I went to Carnegie Deli, Jewel Bako, Bowery Congee, and several other hot spots that I adore. They did a nice job with the taped piece, but they played the “fear factor” card a bit too much, I thought. The day of the show, we arrived nice and early and hung in the green room with Chris Matthews and his entourage of brainy politicos. Matthews is a baseball nut, and we chatted about the Yanks, Twins, and the AL. Twinkle (Jenna Bush) arrived amidst a hailstorm of security. The First Family’s personal security detail is an awesome thing to see in action, especially up close. Originally I was going to be on the couch with Matt, but since Jenna did three segments inside with Anne, the producers thought I should be outside on the plaza with all four hosts. It was a difficult thing to pull off. Four minutes, five egos, ten plates of food . . . . I would have preferred to spend the time talking to one host about sharing food and experiencing other cultures, but I’ll have to wait until next time. Meredith and Matt are very kind and sincere people, very welcoming. Roker is a goofball. Curry is phenomenal. She is the most calm and inclusive host on the set.

My wife and I were staying at the Ritz, just a block away as the venerable Plaza Hotel turned a hundred years old. Matthew Broderick cut the cake. We ran downtown before the scene got too hectic and had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Da Silvano. This restaurant has been open since I was a young man, and it’s nothing fancy—a small little trattoria—but the food is great and the people-watching even better. We had thin buttery slices of prosciutto that come served on a sheet of thick butcher paper, a large bowl of steamed mussels, sautéed calf's liver with sage and brown butter, and some spaghetti puttanesca . . . but the stars of the night were the twelve truffle courses. The fresh white truffles of Alba are just now in markets, and the owner of the restaurant showered us with a few dishes that are part of their fall truffle menu. First we tried the creamy white polenta, topped with a quartet of perfectly fried quail eggs crowned with a small snowdrift of shaved white truffle. Next up was a small softball of milky and warm burrata with shaved bottarga and white truffle. Oh my lord, are white truffles good.

 

Plaza birthday cake.

Below: Tongue and brisket at the Carnegie; polenta with quail eggs and truffles.

 

Below: Yoshi at Jewel Bako sharpening his knives; shinso flowers; octopus sashimi with green tea salt, pickled cucumber, and shiso flowers at Jewel Bako.

 

And finally, everybody loves durian . . . !

Top Chef . . . and Many Links

After watching the Top Chef finale last night, I can assure you justice was served. Hung deserved to win. Casey and Dale both could have won, but in the finale meal, they underwhelmed. It also shows that ultimately, the best dish wins. Hung's sous vide duck was the best plate last night, according to those who ate it. Listening to Ted Allen and Padma Lakshmi talk food is a painful experience. Neither one is a legitimate opinion-maker or really knows what they are talking about. They are created characters, essentially. All you had to do was listen to Rocco, Todd, Michelle, Colicchio, et al. talking about the food throughout the finale to see that Allen and Lakshmi are devoid of any credibility. Congrats to all, especially our own Brian Malarkey, who very easily could have been in the final three. The New York Daily News has this exclusive web-interview with the producer of Top Chef about the show.

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So much to link to today.  For starters, David Bouley is opening a restaurant with Yoshiki Tsuji in New York. Tsuji is the president of Japan's largest professional cooking school. This merging of East and West is quite possibly the largest and most important food trend of the last fifty years.

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You may have already seen this, but Ruhlman and Bourdain are doing "The Golden Clog" awards.

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Frank Bruni writes about restaurant nomenclature in his blog.

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Want to help improve school foods? (Want to watch Jared from the Subway commercials talk policy on C-SPAN?)

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Check out this cool toy.

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My friends in Chicago all tell me mixed things about Grant Achatz's health (Achatz has mouth cancer). But along similar lines, a reader of Grub Street wrote in for suggestions on where he should eat before an operation that may take away his sense of taste. Grub Street enlists Eric Ripert to cook him a meal he'll never forget.

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I am a huge stickler for labels and info. Here is an awesome little video on PLU codes and how to read them. The skinny? Conventional: four digits. Organic: five digits beginning with a nine. Genetically modified: five digits beginning with an eight.

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Here is a NYT article on New Yorkers that eat outdoors—that is, suffer through eating outdoors just to be more European, even though eating outside sucks. I don't know about you, but it would be great to have more three-season outdoor-eating venues here in the Twin Cities.

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Do you remember all those bad boy chef stories that mentioned Mario Batali? Here is a wind-up Mario toy that flips pasta in one hand and has a bottle of scotch in the other. By the way, he looked physically worse on Jimmy Kimmel the other night than I have ever seen him. 

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Here's a food-on-stick that sounds awesome: tornado potato.

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Next week, I'll fill you in on my Today Show experience, with pictures.

October Mailbag

In seven-plus years, I have never received more mail on customer disappointment than I have from e-mailers recently about bad experiences at Harry’s. If the sampling is any indication of how things are going there, the restaurant isn't long for this world. Second place goes to Landmarc. Is it just me or has there been a veritable explosion of mediocre restaurants?

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One of the issues in the local dining world is a shortage of talented operators who are demanding enough and capable of training staff and molding kitchens. But according to another e-mailer, the Twin Cites market is oversaturated with wine vendors and distributors. I am quoting here a former salesperson for a venerable company:

We are all climbing over each other to harass restaurant owners who can smell us coming from across the street and hide in the basement until we leave. Some of us are actually doing a good job of seeking out the small boutique production wines, unusual varietals, biodynamic-sustainable production, and generally stellar wines. Others are simply selling on brand recognition and price. I guess the real question I have is whether the Twin Cities market is ready for Inzolia, Nero d’ Avola, Trincedeira, and Moschofilero, or are we content to swim in a sea of animals on the label, Marilyn-Seven-Deadly-Big-Red-Randy-Bicyclettes, giant conglomerate stuff you can find around the corner in the $5 bin? And more pointedly, is there is room in the market for forty-eight wine vendors?

Sound familiar?

I think the answer is that there are fewer restaurants looking to really educate staff and grow a real wine program than there are restaurants looking to serve really good food. Am I wrong?

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Russell Klein’s Meritage is opening next month, and Klein e-mailed me to point out that Meritage will be downtown St. Paul’s only owner-operated, food-driven table-cloth restaurant. He also pointed out that the last three restaurants to close there (Margaux, Fhima's, and A Rebours) all closed because of reasons other than the state of dining in the city itself. Agreed. Margaux closed because it served bad food in a bad location and was a dull restuaurant; Fhima’s was just bad, period; and A Rebours kept sliding off everyone’s radar screen as the food got worse and worse, and as Doug Anderson focused more of his attention on the new Nick and Eddie project in Minneapolis. However, my point in previous blogs has been that the customers are not in downtown St. Paul, and I think restaurateurs need to go where the customers are. I think Meritage has a great chance of succeeding, but if they were up on Grand Avenue, they would fill more often, fill earlier, and do more business.

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Got a few e-mailers who saw me on talk shows or heard me on national radio programs over the last few weeks. I was in NYC shooting a new series for Travel Channel called What’s Your Trip, a Talk Soup–style show that features gobs of awesome user-generated content. Check out the Travel Channel for details on attending the Travel Channel Academy video school—it’s fantastic. I was in NY for Fashion Week and had a great meal at Momofuku and at Olives in the W Union Square. Randy Gerber’s Underbar is pretty cool there as well. I had a ginger ale one night there and saw everyone from Jordin Sparks to Kanye West hanging out.

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According to a reliable source, Boba Café in Brookdale is serving some really good Hmong food. The guy who told me about Va Lor clued me in to it.

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According to an e-mail from Joan Ida, her Hong King project is not moving along as fast as she would like, and she is coming home to Minneapolis after some traveling in Asia. Here is my wish to the food gods that she opens up a high-end Chinese restaurant on Grand Avenue in St. Paul in the space across from CVS pharmacy, the old Bober Drug space.

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Does anyone ever watch TasteTV?

Mailbag

Whoever posted a comment on Tuesday’s post questioning the notion that I would dare post a blog about the MTV VMAs, you need to remember Rule 62, and you should stop practicing contempt prior to investigation, or in this case judging a blog before it is written. So here it is: I was in Vegas, and I was backstage at the VMAs, and now you have me so eager to please you that I am a little ashamed to post about that experience. Perhaps someday in my memoirs. I will say, however, that there were 1,600 police deployed for the NBA All-Star Game and only about 500 for the VMAs. The All-Star Game featured nightly shootings on the streets of Las Vegas, and the VMAs featured Kid Rock and Tommy Lee pushing each other, each afraid to throw a punch at the other. Shameful pansies.

So Saturday night, I ate at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon with PBS icon and Savvy Traveler Rudy Maxa and our respective SOs. The food was superb—anyone who can’t make it to the original Parisian version would do well to check it out in the MGM Grand. The cucumber gelee with cumin and thyme custard, the fresh anchovy and pepper pave, and the seared beef with his signature potatoes were all out of sight . . . almost as good as the lady behind us who NODDED OUT AT HER TABLE while her four dinner companions kept eating and pretended she was fine until they carried her out. Only in Vegas, baby.

The next night, Travel Channel hosted a dinner at Tao at the Venetian. Holy moly. This place was amazing, one of the most stunning restaurants I have ever seen. Three stories of open space, club, bar, sushi bar, restaurant—plus Diddy, Pharrel, Mischa Barton, and Jamie Foxx, just to name a few of the sightings. And the food was pretty tasty. I liked the crispy tuna rolls and the Peking duck in pancakes with scallions the best. Fiamma at the MGM was not as good as the original in New York, but it was still very good, and the room was even prettier than Tao’s. I have never sat in a room that did a better job of maintaining small pods of tables while still allowing you to see through the dining room from level to level. The restaurant is huge, but feels intimate.

A woman e-mailed me last week to ask:

. . . about Clancey's market in Linden Hills . . . and as [you're] a reporter and advocate for local foods (I'm a Slow Foods member), I thought that perhaps passing it on to you would be the best way to test its accuracy. Rumor has it that Greg Westergreen has been axed. That's probably more fact than gossip, but what I really want to know is if it's true that Kristin, the owner, is keeping all the recipes and products he developed over the years. Apparently, they never had any written contract, just an understanding that the shop was a team project, even she was the legal owner. Seems to me that the butcher makes the butcher shop, so I'm not sure if it will be able to retain it's quality if he's replaced. Anyhow, I'll be sorely disappointed if I found out that he was treated unfairly after working so hard to promote local foods. So much for the 'friendly neighborhood shop' reputation.

Okay, so my take is this: Greg’s e-mail to me said he is no longer at Clancey’s. He indicated that he and Kristin parted ways, but nothing more. And if he was fired, so be it. I’ve been fired from plenty of jobs, sometimes fairly, sometimes I had issues with it, but that’s life. It happens. I think you meant to say what you heard is more gossip than fact.

If he and Kristin had a business relationship where she was the controlling partner, owner, or signed his check in any way, and if Greg was an employee, then the recipes belong to the business. When I left Café Un Deux Trois after six or seven years in the kitchen, I left behind a large book of recipes. Michael Morse, the restaurant’s owner, is the one who got those, and he deserved to have them. They were his. He paid for them, because part of my job description was to create food for his company. Subsequent chefs in the restaurant used the recipes I left behind, and the menu at Landmarc (MM’s new place) looks very similar to the one he and I developed at 1-2-3. But that’s the way the business works. He used the recipes in perpetuity and still does, and I still make many of those dishes as well. Now had I developed a cookie or terrine recipe that I wanted to ‘own,’ I would have trademarked or copywritten it, depending on the legalities and the format of the product in question, and not served it in the restaurant at all. Any chef can do that.

The butcher does make the butcher shop. Kristin will live with her decision. Greg will make his living elsewhere, and his fans can follow him. And if the shop quality suffers, Clancey’s fans will also move on. That’s how the world works.

Who knows if he is being treated unfairly or not? I would say, don’t rush to judge. Greg sent me his resume asking if I knew of any jobs out there for him, and since he is so talented, I am sure there are plenty of restaurants or shops eager to employ him.

AND IF YOU REALLY BELIEVE IN SUPPORTING LOCAL FOODS, you should continue to shop at Clancey’s as long as you are happy with the product there. If we stopped eating or shopping at every food business that had some crazy owner-employee relationships, we wouldn’t be able to eat anywhere. Including my house and probably yours as well!

In our office, we look at The Amateur Gourmet often, but after all the heat between him and Mario, he has some interesting things to say about food blogging. Very interesting, considering his book is about to come out, so he's a food blogger going legit. This post talks about the differences between reviewing as a food blogger and then as a newspaper critic, likening it to one-night stands (food bloggers) vs. a more involved relationship (print critics). Pretty good stuff.

So, here are three cool dining reservations that you need to make for yourself . . .

According to the folks at LBV:

La Belle Vie is expanding beyond its front doors to host its first Pique-nique de Automne, Oct. 7, starting at 3 p.m. on the restaurant's front lawn. Guest will enjoy playing boules, listening to accordion music, and savoring Executive Chef Tim McKee's own pique-nique creations.

James Beard award nominee Chef McKee has created a special menu just for the event, including Grilled Leg of Lamb with Herbes de Provence, Fire Roasted Prawns with Saffron and Coriander, Rabbit and Porcini Sausages, Truffled Foie Gras Mousse, Grilled Poussin with Harissa and Honey, Grilled Bread with Tomato, Capers and Garlic.

Learn more on the LBV website.

The folks at the Graves are organizing a dinner at Cosmos featuring "Next Great Chefs of the Twin Cities," promising:

. . . it will be a dinner showcasing the talents of the next up-and-coming executive chefs or chef de cuisines, all new to their positions but creating excellent cuisine. The dinner will benefit the Heartland Food Network and will be held on October 10, 2007. The list of the participating chefs is Hakan Lundberg, Chef de Cuisine at Cosmos; Eric Sturtz, Chef de Cuisine at Café Levain; Landon Schoenfeld, Chef de Cuisine at Barbette; Leonard Anderson, Executive Chef at W.A. Frost; and Dianna Yang, the Pastry Chef at La Belle Vie & Solera.

According to the folks at Fugaise:

. . . we will be celebrating our two-year anniversary later this month. As you know, this is no small feat for "white linen" places such as ours. So again, on behalf of everyone here at Fugaise, thank you for your support. To that end, we would also like to invite you to celebrate the occasion with us on Wednesday, September 26. Chef Don has pulled out the menu archive. He is featuring some of the highlights from the past year in two tasting menus to be offered on the night mentioned above. There will be an early seating at 5:30 p.m., when a five-course menu will be offered, and a later seating at 8:15 p.m. for seven courses. Wine pairings will be available as well.

The earlier menu is:

Scallops with Salsify, Butter Lettuce, Sauce Choron

Skatewing with King Crab, Roasted Red Pepper, and Herb Pan Sauce

Wild Boar Ravioli with Black Mission Fig, Raddichio, and Aged Balsamic

Rack of Lamb Imam Bayildi with Braised Lamb Strudel and Eggplant Caviar

Poached Pear with Mint-Marscarpone Tart, Candied Pecans, and Clove

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?

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

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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?

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

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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."

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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.

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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.

Pass It Over

Good Pesach, everyone.

As you know, collecting stupid press releases is one of my favorite hobbies. This one takes the cake. Is it just me, or is this the worst concept of all time, worse even than Restaurant Miami? It begs the question, what is the worst concept in the Twin Cities restaurant scene? It might even be from a restaurant that closed recently, and let’s confine our chat to eateries that are less than five years old or opened (and perhaps closed) since 2002. "Genesis Salad"??? Oh lord. Read below for some great inspiration as you mull over my question of the day, and of course, for an amazing laugh.

The following press release about the new Cafe Emunah, the first-ever
Kabbalistic lifestyle lounge & tea bar, may be of interest to your
audience. Any editorial comment or mention that you may give this
press release would be greatly appreciated.

ELEVATE THE PALETTE AND SOUL AT NEW CAFE EMUNAH IN FT. LAUDERDALE
FIRST-EVER KABBALISTIC LIFESTYLE LOUNGE & TEA BAR PRESENTS A
BIBLICALLY INSPIRED MENU, ORGANIC ENTREES, AND ‘SIDES’ OF TABLE TALK

FT. LAUDERDALE, FL - March 13, 2007 - Café Emunah opens this month at
3558 North Ocean Boulevard in Ft. Lauderdale. This new, $1.5 million
chic kabbalistic lifestyle lounge and tea bar designed to elevate both
the palette and spirit debuts with a very unique menu option: a ‘side’
of table talk. Created by PhD Dr. Marla Reis and Chabad Rabbi Moshe
Meir Lipszyc, Emunah, which means “Faith” in Hebrew, has already
stirred interest from investors seeking to franchise the concept in
other major cities later this year.

Emunah’s modern “organic chic” aesthetic presents diners with
environmentally sensitive décor consisting of evocative art, natural
woods, large open windows, frosted glass, muted metals, recycled
plastics, ergonomic chairs and chandeliers outfitted by flowing sheer
skirting. Retail towers interspersed through Emunah’s Wi-Fi enabled
lounge area offers soul-inspiring reads, tea pots and tea timers,
organic soy candles, and essential home accessories.

“Emunah’s philosophy is to offer a haven for the senses,” explains co-
founder Dr. Marla Reis, “We are designed to appeal to diners of all
beliefs and faiths. We cater to those individuals who believe in
living consciously and welcome those who want to learn how to
incorporate this consciousness into their lives.”

Biblically-influenced dishes such as “inspired miso soup”, “genesis
salad”, and “enlightened encrusted salmon cakes” set the dining tone.
Terminology such as Foresight (appetizers), Revelation (entrees), and
Soul Stirrings (drink & tea choices), replace the expected. A sushi
menu titled “After The Flood” presents innovative sushi rolls
including Rabbi Rolls, Day 5, and East Meets West. Garden-direct whole
leaf organic teas are proudly served to diners accompanied by
electronic sand timers.

But perhaps most unique of all is Emunah’s ‘side dish’ of table talk
concept. Reis, a practicing PhD, will sit table-side with diners who
order a side order of ‘talk’ with their lunch or dinner.

“Consider a session at Emunah a casual conversation with a
professional source,” explains Reis. “We’ll be the first to mainstream
and commercialize informal sessions—it’s the quintessential coffee
(or tea) talk,” says Reis.

Emunah’s organic restaurant-tea bar-sushi bar-library lounge concept
is also strictly enforced by ORB (Orthodox Rabbinical Board) supervision.
The café is located at 3558 North Ocean Boulevard in Ft. Lauderdale
and is open for lunch and dinner. Operating hours are Sunday through
Thursday 11 am–10 pm, Friday 9 am–4 pm, Saturday from 1½ hours after
sunset till 2 am.

Serendipity

No one invents food anymore, not unless you are Homaru Cantu or Grant Achatz or some other notable heavies working on the edges of the new frontier of culinary alchemy. This recipe, courtesy of the good folks at Serendipity 3 in NYC, has been a favorite for years there, and is one of the best frozen desserts I know of. My buddy John Levy, an intrepid chocoholic, sent this to me two years ago and I am forever indebted, as you are now to him as well.

Serendipity’s Frozen Hot Chocolate
6 half-oz. pieces of a variety of your favorite chocolates
2 t. store-bought hot chocolate mix
1-1/2 T. sugar
1-1/2 c. milk
3 c. ice
whipped cream (recipe below)
chocolate shavings

Chop chocolate into small pieces and place it in the top of a double boiler over simmering water, stirring occasionally, until melted.  Add hot chocolate mix and sugar, stirring constantly until thoroughly blended. Remove from heat and slowly add 1/2 cup of the milk and stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature. In a blender, place the remaining cup of milk, the room-temperature chocolate mixture, and the ice. Blend on high speed until mixture is smooth and the consistency of a frozen daiquiri. Pour into a giant goblet and top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Enjoy with a spoon or a straw . . . or both!

Whipped Cream
1 c. heavy cream, very cold
1 t. vanilla extract
1-1/2 T. light corn syrup
Combine cream and vanilla and mix well. With an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, start whipping the cream on medium speed. Add corn syrup slowly while beating. Whip until the cream holds soft peaks. Slather, drop, and dollop onto whatever your heart desires. Makes 2 to 2-1/2 cups, enough for 1 to 8 persons, depending on if you feel like sharing.

Recipe courtesy of Serendipity 3, copyright 2004

New Orleans Notes

New Orleans is a national tragedy. Even today, eighteen months post-Katrina, there are whole neighborhoods with garbage piled high on every corner, homes left to rot, and lives ripped apart, left unrepaired and ignored. It is shameful, and I still cannot believe this is America. Where did the money go? And why isn’t every single piece of junk hauled out of there? Why are there homes still waiting for repair or rebuilding to happen? You can see it on the news, you can read it in the papers, but until you see it for yourself you cannot possibly believe how bad it really still is down there.

OK, enough seriousness. I spent a day with Sterling Freyou, a fourth-generation Cajun trapper who is seventy-five. He has a different job each month; one month he traps alligator, then he catches redfish. Then crabbing, then shrimping, then trapping nutria . . . He lives in Morgan City and hasn’t left there. Ever. For four generations he has lived off the land; his kids are all educated and moved away, something he is fiercely proud of. It’s also a little sad, he told me, since the family trade dies with him. As I travel around Minnesota and the world at large I meet guys like this all the time. The last bottle of Coca-Cola in the desert. Check out some of the Louisiana pix below.

My southern swing afforded me the opportunity to partake daily in a new ritual for me, eating Zapp's Potato Chips. They are awesome. Crisp and intense, and I bring it up because of all the great blog chat about regional candies . . . what about regional salty snacks??? Any favorites of yours not available here in the Twin Cities? FYI, people looking to buy Cajun foods, I get asked all the time, can find them at Cajun Grocer.

Sterling Freyou, me, and our nutria. Check out the back woods holiday décor shot!

Swinging Cities

London is swinging. I spent a few nights there last month and was absolutely blown away by the city and the food scene. And the prices. I move around a lot and let me tell you, take out a second mortgage if you are going to visit London anytime soon. What are your faves in Old London Town?

Borough Market is a must. Check out Neal’s Yard cheese shop, Furness Meats, and Roast, my pal Charles Keough’s restaurant perched high above the market. His food is some of the best being cooked in London right now. Ramsay’s Hospital Road eatery is killer; Harrod’s food halls are perhaps the single greatest concentration of foods assembled in one place that I have ever seen. Nobu London was rocking the night I ate there because of the Bond premiere—both Lindsay and Paris were there, along with half of the glitterati who flew in to see the movie. What a scene. Check out all the pix.

Borough Market and Neal's Yard

Roast

Nobu

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FYI, the debut of my new show has been moved up from March 12 to February 26. I am officially starting to get nervous.

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I have received a ton of email asking me if Vincent is still as good as it has always been, or if sales are down, or if the spirit that made the eatery great the first few years it was open is still present so many years past its opening date. I think it is tough to maintain your edge these days, which is why I have so much respect for so many restaurateurs who maintain their level of excellence year in and year out. I have not eaten at Vincent recently, but anyone who has, or who has a thought about maintaining your mojo five years into your run should chime in. Larry D’Amico told me he thinks there are too many seats and not enough customers for the fine-dining restaurants in town—perhaps the increased availability of great seats in great restaurants is hurting places like Vincent? Thoughts?

Darwin Awards, Chow & Again Version 3.2

The Chambers Hotel has transformed its outdoor courtyard “into a winter wonderland,” according to its press release, and smack dab in the middle of it is “a 256-square-foot ice bar in the shape of a giant, luminous ice cube. Guests enter the Ice Chamber through white, translucent sliding doors, and once inside they can belly up to a bar made of solid ice to order a variety of specialty Grey Goose cocktails,” etc., etc. 

The bar itself is “ constructed with more than 12,000 pounds of crystal clear ice, with each block of ice weighing 300 pounds. The entire space literally glows from within thanks to lights frozen into the giant ice cubes, a glittering, crystal chandelier above the bar and candles placed throughout the space.” Apparently there is also dry ice fog and staff decked out in white furry boots and puffy coats . . .

So who is the first local drunk who is going to wander in, have a drink or two too many, get lost in the fog, and not reappear until the ice goes out in the spring? And will the Chambers' crew build an ice house there as well?? Will you one day be able to drop a line and pull a JGV-inspired panko-fried crappie out of the water? This is hysterical.

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News and Notes
I got a note from one of my old sous chefs, David Hahne, who along with his partner, Carlo Macy, went on after Café 1-2-3 days to open Pane Vino Dolce and Cave Vin. Last May he sold his half of the biz and moved to Seattle to open a romantic Italian restaurant. I am generally a pretty out-of-touch guy, but I was surprised that I had not heard this before. Anyone been to either place now that the inmates are running the asylum? David was the rock in those joints. I am shocked with him gone that they are even open. Anyone?

Check out my pal Jimmy’s performance on the Minnesota's Got Talent contest with Louie Anderson.  Click on VOTE NOW, and then vote for JR JOHNSON—he is the best thing on there, but I am biased. I used to work with Jimmy when we were both at FM107 back in the day.

Philip Dorwart sent me an e-mail. I was wondering where he drifted off to after he left Tryg’s. Apparently he has started a consulting and catering business and is also consulting with the Land Stewardship Project to write a business plan to launch a national farming program. A lot of people always ask me where these chefs have gone off to so now you know what I do.

Faith Is Found!

My faith has been restored in humankind . . . well, at least in the cured-meat-maven category. Greg and Kristen at Clancy’s in Linden Hills are doing a lot of cool new stuff these days, and OH MY GOD they are making their own pastrami from scratch. It’s big and bold and AMAZING. Go by a pound of it, sliced.

Take it home, wrap it in foil, and pop it in a 300-degree oven for fifteen minutes, then pile it on to two slabs of fresh rye, smear with mustard, and throw another slice of rye on top and you have a meal for two that will make you weep with joy. Next step: convince Greg to cure and smoke whole briskets, not just the flat end, so that he can slice and sell a fattier cut—his is a little too lean for my taste. But I am grateful, very grateful. Check  it out at  4307 Upton Avenue South  in Minneapolis's Linden Hills neighborhood. Phone: 612-926-0222.

Mission American Kitchen and 112 Eatery have expanded their footprints. Everyone serving food in this town that is making people happy wants to make more people happy. And apparently customers like to know that the toughest tables in town are available, at least some of the time. The hardest reservation in town is Mission at lunch and 112 at dinner and in an effort to appease the thundering herds, 112 is adding some cool seating on the second floor above the restaurant, and MAK is adding fifty seats in the IDS atrium right outside the front door. Great news.

Ever hear of Max Brenner? It’s an Israeli chocolate company and my wife’s buddy Val (a global gourma-chocoholic of the first order) says it's out of this world. Apparently they won't take online orders. But they will send it via Fed Ex. If Val says this chocolate is good, it must be amazing. Val S. is the only lawyer I know besides John L. who can debate the merits of Maison du Chocolat and Teuscher with any sense of proportion whatsoever.

I collect dumb press releases and dumb press release bits and pieces. Some of them leave me speechless. The latest missive from Five telling all the national food media about its new chef was expected. What was unexpected was the following:

“Under the direction of executive chef David Parson Capaccioli, Five will be re-emerging as the restaurant to discover great finger food, savor comforting bistro fare, and delight in imaginative tasting menus.  Capaccioli received his Culinary Arts degree from the prestigious New England Culinary Institute and is certified as a sommelier.  He started his career as executive chef of the Sudbury Inn in Bethel, Maine.  Recently, he was chef instructor at the Art Institute of Minneapolis-Culinary Arts School. Capaccioli is a close associate of Vincent Francoual, chef of Vincent-A Restaurant and Capaccioli was the former executive chef of Café Un, Deux, Trois. “

Underlining is mine . . . . if your CV needs to list your close associates what are you trying to say? I am puzzled. I am not trying to pile on here, it’s just that the reference is so useless and I think it is actually a tad demeaning to Capaccioli. He can stand on his own, he has experience and some street cred, we don’t need to be told who his friends are in order to convince us that he has some skills. Strange . . . but like many of us, I can’t wait to eat there and see if this place has gotten it together in the post-Woodman era.

Bomb's Away

Some days, when it rains it pours . . .

Seth Bixby Daugherty has resigned from his exec chef position at Cosmos and the Graves 601 Hotel. December 14 he is cooking at the Beard House in NYC and then the following week will be his last behind the stoves in the kitchen that earned him a Food and Wine 10 Best New Chefs Award just two years ago. Seth leaves after four years, and will be working on his dream job and spending time with his wonderful family. After re-energizing his batteries, he will dive into his new project, Real Food Initiatives, a partnership with local health experts that teaches kids about food, wellness, and nutrition and will ultimately aim to help rework the local K-12 food programs in our schools.

So who will become the next chef at Cosmos? Stewart Woodman is available last I heard . .  . hmmmmmmmmm? Any thoughts, my little Chow-Chows, on who the Graves family should hire? Is there a local candidate worth considering, or would you look elsewhere to another city and import some really hot-stuff major-league talent to replace the major-league talent that is leaving?

Lenny Russo and I have traded e-mails and had a phone conversation after my open-ended blogging last week about the goings-on at Cue. For the record, he says:

“. . . When Bon Appetit negotiated the service contract (for Cue), the Guthrie asked for specific levels of service and food and beverage offerings in specific areas at specific times based upon their projected needs.  Obviously, no one knew what those needs would exactly be.  As we become better acquainted with these things, we are working with them to make adjustments so that we can evolve into a business plan that is workable for everyone involved.  We are still in that adjustment phase, and I anticipate that we will see more changes in the future.  Some of those changes may involve adding service, as we have already done in some ways that are not really worth mentioning here although late night is one such way, and some may involve scaling back things in order to optimize our efficiency.”

That’s chef-speak for “hey, we are making changes over here as we see fit so shut up Zimmern and stop throwing water balloons at us from your office window.”  Lenny is a smart and talented guy and I WANT TO HEAR from more chefs about their restaurants and plans when applicable . . . Especially when they disagree with me on one matter or another. Blogs are a great place to informally connect with very serious food fanatics. Lenny, you are a diplomat of the first order.

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My Knicks have only won a third (or less!) of their games. They are only one game out of first place in their division. What is up with East Coast hoops!?!?!?!?

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Joan Ida details as promised . . . straight from the flack's mouth . . .

“Executive chef Joan Ida will be taking a sabbatical from Tria Restaurant, Bar and Market during 2007 to open a new restaurant in Hong Kong. Ida will be the executive xhef of Watermark, a new restaurant located in the Star Ferry Building on the Hong Kong harbor.  The restaurant is scheduled to open in February 2007.  Ida will be responsible for creating the menu for the 200-seat restaurant, which is being defined as eclectic fine dining.

Watermark is being developed by a Hong Kong food and beverage management company that was founded in 1998 and now has more than twenty outlets.”

“This is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Joan and we totally support her going to Hong Kong,” said Len Ghilani, vice president, restaurants, for Morrissey Hospitality. “We will miss her talents at Tria and are searching for a replacement.”

So does this mean after a year abroad she will come back to Tria???? Hmmmmm. Very interesting . . . .

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And finally . . . the squash side dish at 112 Eatery is arguably the most addictive vegetable offering on any menu in the Twin Cities, the other contender being the same chef’s other hot seller, sautéed escarole with nutmeg and anchovy. I think Isaac is a genius when it comes to vegetables and he shared this recipe with me for my Thanksgiving with the Mack Family. Huge kudos to Carol Mack for essentially pulling off dinner for twelve with one arm tied behind her back, literally. Anyway, with thanks to Isaac for sharing his recipe outline, here is the adaptation for the home cook . . .

112 Eatery Squash
2 lbs. cubed pieces of peeled and seeded hard squash
2 T. olive oil
2 T. butter
1 c. blue cheese, crumbled. Use a dry and sturdy blue-veined Gorgonzola or Roquefort. You want something sharp, but not to creamy or ammoniated
2 T. chopped parsley
Several pinches hot chili flakes
1/2 c.  high-quality real maple syrup

In a large sauté pan over high heat, toss squash in oil and butter until just tender. Add cheese and toss briefly. Add the parsley and chili flakes. Toss and spill into a serving platter, pour syrup into pan to warm it for 20 seconds and pour over the squash. Season with sea salt and ground white pepper and serve.

You Heard It Here First

Football fans rarely get to play in the Super Bowl, cinemaphiles never get to vote for their fave films at Oscar time, but foodaholics can have their cake and eat it too! Do you have a favorite chef in the Twin Cities? In the Midwest? Do you have an opinion on the quality of your favorite chef in the city you visit most on business? Have I got a deal for you—stand up, be heard, and register your nominations for the 2007 James Beard Awards. Anyone can participate in the first round of nominations.

Just go to JamesBeard.org, click on the Restaurant and Chef Awards entry forms (on the first segment on that page), and you can submit your suggestions in the seventeen categories listed, up to two in each category. Deadline for this first round is December 15 at 11:59 p.m . . That’s it. Winners will be announced May 7, so stay tuned.

How’s that for a cool project this coming Friday night with your buddies? Print out the award forms and fill ‘em out with your friends over drinks at the bar at 112. Better yet, pass this blog link on to all your friends who care about food and make a few side bets on who pegs the most regional chef award winners.

Big news . . . . I have been sitting on this for weeks, since I was sworn to secrecy, but Joan Ida, the legendary former pastry chef from Goodfellows, exec chef at Tria in North Oaks, is moving to Hong Kong on January 17 to open her own restaurant. Huge score! Joan has gone back and forth to HK for years and finally said ‘yes’ to her patrons on the other side of the globe. An American style restaurant of the type she is contemplating will be a huge success in that part of the world. Everyone in that market is obsessed with our culture from a food standpoint. Once Joan’s people send me the rest of the info on the restaurant, I will let you know the details.

Lots of blog readers have chimed in on Cue, the new restaurant in the Guthrie Theater run by super chef Lenny Russo. On Thursday, I’ll tell you all about Lenny’s take on his new restaurant . . . .

Red Hook with Bourdain & Co.

Last week I spent the day with Anthony Bourdain at the Red Hook ball fields. Essentially it is an outdoor food fest with a Latin flair, worth checking out any time you are in NYC. I was shooting some of the founding fathers and mothers of Chowhou