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Article 24
Manresa 1.0 – Los Gatos, CaliforniaEveryone foodie needs a goal in life, if for no other reason than to keep him off the streets. And so during my year in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, actually), I made a...
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Article 23
Buzzy – Coi – San Francisco Few restaurants have generated as loud a buzz – positive buzz – as Chef Daniel Patterson’s San Francisco restaurant Coi, located in the somewhat scruffy North Beach...
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Article 22
Chef in Translation – Manresa 2.0 – Los Gatos, CA My second visit to Manresa, Chef David Kinch’s highly esteemed restaurant in Los Gatos, occurred less than two weeks after the first, and in culinary...
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Article 21
Loaves and Fishes – Le Bernardin – New York Nearly twenty years ago I had one of the most splendid and memorable meals of my life at Le Bernardin. As it happened, and although we did not realize it at...
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Article 20
We Are Not Modern – Comme Chez Soi – Brussels At a recent conference on the convergences and divergences of food cultures – there actually are such funded academic gatherings – I argued that cuisines...
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Article 19
Pop-Up Gourmet - Ludobites 6.0 – Sherman Oaks Perhaps we should blame the housing bubble, perhaps the remaining high rents in the beau monde, or perhaps the lack of commitment of a generation of...
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Article 18
Soon I hope to post about my dinner at El Bulli (and Celler de Can Roca), but today I want to start with the new cocktail bar that Ferran and his his brother Albert Adria have opened in Barcelona, 41...
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Article 17
Photos from my February 2011 Dinner at El Celler de Can Roca. For discussion of this dinner and dinner at El Bulli, see the next post,The End of Astonishment. While not all of the dishes have a classic...
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Article 16
The "End" of Astonishment - El Bulli's Classicism and a World of Pleasure - Roses, Spain Every art movement has its lifecycle, a fact that is as applicable to culinary movements as to other aesthetic...
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Article 15
In Hiding – Baumé – Palo Alto Looking at the field of cuisine, it is impossible to escape the reality that molecular cuisine has run its course. Heston Blumenthal and Grant Achatz are mining the past....
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Article 14
The Citrus Mind – Manresa – Los Gatos, California David Kinch, the esteemed chef at Manresa, is perhaps the most accomplished shape-shifter in American cuisine. But maybe I am the one who has been...
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Article 13
White Light – Commis – Oakland, CA For some obscure reason, this evening I decided to review some food pictures from the past few months. I realized that I had not described my January dinner at...
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Article 12
Delfina, Delfina – San Francisco Some restaurants, modest though they seem, are just about perfect. Their humility hides their brio. In San Francisco I can think of no better example than Delfina, a...
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Article 11
Crab Crab Crab Duck – Yum’s Bistro – Fremont, California Few things can be more depressing for an ecstatic lover of ecstatic food that to dine at a Chinese restaurant alone. So many possibilities, so...
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Article 10
Out of the Way – Pacific’s Edge – Carmel, California Some restaurants are so fortuitously sited that the wisest thing that a chef can do is to stand out of the way, not blocking the diner’s line of...
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Article 9
San Fran Hip - Flour + Water As I think of my year in the Bay Area, I have discovered that San Francisco restaurants are adept at producing stylish, creative cuisine at prices that 20-somethings can...
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Article 8
The Burden of Critique – Benu – San FranciscoA dispiriting requirement for any food critic is the responsibility to write critical notices of restaurants that shoulda, coulda been better. Even with a...
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Article 7
A Night of Sparkling Forage – Coi – San Francisco I begin my sermon by reciting the eleven (plus two) course tasting menu at Coi in full, chef Daniel Patterson’s own record of a virtuoso meal: cracker,...
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Article 6
Mlle. Proust in Cow Hollow - Atelier Crenn – San Francisco Often young chefs find a horsey-style and ride it, but not so Dominique Crenn who is working with flair to harness her own vision. She has...
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The Challenge of Dining
The Challenge – Restaurant at Meadowood – St. Helena, CA The most memorable mignardise that I shall ever taste was served on June 15, 2011 by Chef Christopher Kostow, the inspired and mischievous chef...
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