Opening weekend has come and gone . . . eight days left, so here we go! Perhaps the most important thing you can do this year at the State Fair is head to the Epiphany diner and say thanks, because next year it won’t be there. As a transplanted New Yorker, I have marveled for all 20 years I have attended the fair at the…
Bourdain, Deen, Bruni, Redzepi . . . and Why It Matters
Paula Deen and those that cook with commoditized unhealthy ingredients are to be faulted most not for telling us to eat canned, processed, and commoditized ingredients but because they never tell you not to! The food-health-wellness issue in America is indeed a class issue. It costs money and requires time to eat well. Food deserts exist in this country that shouldn’t, and the schism between…
Pride and Prejudice
Alan Richman in GQ writes about the Californ-ication of the restaurant business, a pervasive laissez faire attitude about service in American restaurants. Here is the whole thing but one statement caught my eye. (And for the record Richman is spot on throughout when he talks about the decline of hospitality in the hospitality industry, but I loved M Wells when I was there a…
Several Meanings of Local
Burgers are all the rage. Still. Locally there are dozens of great burgers to choose from. Recently I crushed the house burger at Manny’s—amazing beefy flavor, just stunning flavor of the meat itself. Could have been seared and crusted a little better but who is quibbling? Travail with its roasted sirloin fat rendered and paddled into its burger gives it a unique flavor profile that…
Final Meals, Disappointing Meals, and Dining Etiquette
In case you missed it, a timeline of el Bulli last meal Tweets.
And here is a great Colman Andrews blog about the last night as well.
I have had the privilege of dining at el Bulli on two occasions, and also spent about 18 hours there one day a few years back, cooking and hanging out in kitchen with Albert…
Pickle Power
Summertime and the living are easy. I am a fermented pickle guy 100 percent, but my wife and son love a good vinegar brined dill. In hopes of making a pickle we all would like (I have a fermented batch just for me going on in the basement), I made these easy…
