Click photo to see entire album.

Banh Mi Search, Seattle, Washington, Tasted on November 6, 2006 — If you haven't tried banh mi (also known in the U.S. as a Vietnamese sub) then you don't know what you're missing. It's essentially a fantastic, fresh, delicious Asian sandwich available almost universally for under $3 (and often about $2). If you're ever feeling like there's no decent food for lunch (or breakfast or dinner for that matter) that's quick, cheap, and fantastic, then look no further. Banh mi to the rescue.

"Fusion" is a dirty word because it's come to represent food where (often) Asian ingredients are sprinkled into traditional American dishes willy-nilly without thought or care, like wearing a fashion accessory that's trendy rather than really putting on an integrated and well-thought out outfit. And like most things that trying to be fashionable and done on the cheap (not spending a lot of time on it is a form of cheapness) the shelf-life is quite short. I find that things that are timeless are always worth eating. And even though French colonial rule ended in Vietnam over half a century ago the "fusion" of French bread and Vietnamese ingredients in the form of banh mi has lasted.

Continue reading Banh Mi Search...

Wagamama, December 5, 2006 — Thanks to Alex for pointing this out - Wagamama is finally coming to the United States according to this page on their site. I believe and hope this is likely very good news.

Before we analyze their announcement, a few words on Wagamama (which means "selfish" in Japanese). In my never-ending quest for good food the archetype of the scalable high quality fast food restaurant is rare and wonderful. The folks at Wagamama have taken the concept of the Japanese roadside noodle stand and scaled it with quality. Long community tables evoke...

Continue reading Wagamama...

Theo Chocolate, Tasted on November 24, 2006 — I was recently hanging out with a fellow food blogger. We were stuck in a situation where we had to wait awhile and both had a craving for chocolate. When asked what they had gotten, the other food blogger sheepishly pulled out a fancy bar of milk chocolate. The look that followed basically said "yeah, I know it's looked down on as not real chocolate but it's a rare guilty pleasure." Now understanding the feeling that a poker player experiences when he has a winning hand versus what was thought to be an unbeatable set of cards, I pulled out my bar of white chocolate with hazelnuts and said: "oh yeah? How about this!"  You should have seen the horrified look I got.

For some time now I have known that in the world of chocolate snobbery while milk chocolate is the ugly stepsister, white chocolate is the uncle in prison. Nobody speaks of it. Alex and Lauren have insisted for years that it is in fact not chocolate at all. Call it whatever you want, but I enjoy it. According to the master chocolatier I met in Provence white chocolate is in fact chocolate. However according to Wikipedia "...white chocolate does not contain cocoa solids or cocoa mass, it does not meet the standards to be called chocolate in many countries." Semantic arguments aside, I enjoy it. That said I also enjoy regular chocolate and milk chocolate as well. And I'm not embarrassed by any of it.

In the last couple of decades chocolate has started to approach wine status in terms of the level of discernment and discrimination that a core group of customers will apply to its consumption. Boutique chocolate makers are popping up everywhere. In some ways Hershey's purchase of Scharffen-Berger is the ultimate acknowledgement that these smaller chocolate producers are a force to be reckoned with.

I recently was purchasing some presents for folks and needed some chocolate. Kat had introduced me to a relatively recent addition to the local chocolate scene (which is surprisingly vibrant) - Theo Chocolate. I drove over to Theo the day after Thanksgiving to...

Continue reading Theo Chocolate...

Recipe World Championship, September 15, 2006 — Today we're announcing the 2006 Recipe World Championship. This is going to be a fun game we play on the site for a few days. Imagine a 16 recipe field where we pit recipes against each other until one is the champion. The goal is to find a recipe and corresponding dish that's worthy of winning the championship.

The question for the competition each day is: which recipe and corresponding dish are more important to modern cooking. Only one can win. We have some ideas on how to populate the field of sixteen, but we want your suggestions as well. So please add your thoughts and suggestions in the comment stream. Which recipe/dish do you think deserves to compete? To win? The contest will commence in a week or so.

Photographing Food, September 14, 2006 — To anyone who's read this site for awhile or browsed our vast image archives my ever improving skill with a camera shooting food should be apparent. Of course given where I started even modest improvement has looked pretty good. I'm no professional, but I am always trying to get better. Since we're in the mood to share our favorite resources this week, I'm happy to point you to Imaging Society. This is a relatively new site dedicated to all things photography. I like that it's so focused on pointing me to information that's not only interesting but actually useful in practice. They even have already dedicated a post to photographing food - as a food blogger who posts pictures of the food being eaten, you can't ask for more than that. Share your resources for taking good food photography in the comment stream.

(BTW, I often get asked which camera I'm using. For the last several months - and the foreseeable future - I'm using the Canon 20D (pictured). My first actual SLR. Changing lenses is fun! ;)

Food Events Calendars, September 13, 2006 — For awhile I tried to catalog all of the food related events around the country and the world that I could find, but writing about restaurants filled up so much time that I couldn't really do it myself. The right way to do this of course is to have the community get together and enter the events in a central place everyone can share. CalendarData is that site. They already have a couple of food related calendars posted here. You can subscribe to the feeds, and add your own. The site is still in its early stages, but the more events we all add, the better it will get. I encourage everyone to check it out when they get a chance. :)

Blackberries, September 12, 2006 — We're finally back from vacation, and thanks for sticking around. I can think of no better way to finish out the summer and ring in the new fall than with the picture (and context) below.

A couple of years ago when we moved into this house I was thrilled to find an enormous thatch (is that the right word?) bramble of blackberries. I didn't really eat blackberries growing up (another silly habit due to lack of trying things) but imagine my surprise when I finally started eating them and found that some could be super juicy, crisp, and (most importantly) sour. I love sour things. We picked blackberries through the late summer eating bunches and looked forward to the next year. Much to my dismay, there were none the following year as they had all been removed. Despite their delicious fruit, blackberries are a huge pain in the ass. They're fundamentally an aggressive weed with tons of thorns. They're not even that nice to look at from a distance. I was bummed.

Continue reading Blackberries...

Vacation, August 23, 2006 — You've probably already figured this out since posts have been lacking for a bit, but we're taking our annual August-ish vacation. Sorry for the lameness but even the highly paid and super-motivated tastingmenu staff needs to recharge once in awhile. There's only so much caviar you can eat before your taste buds need a rest. In the meantime, feel free to head over to our still shiny tastingmenu discussion boards and make some fun of your own.

We'll be back on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 fully recharged and ready with all kinds of new tastingmenu goodness. Enjoy the rest of your summer. :)

Saying Yes, August 11, 2006 — As we said in our last post, the  main reason to say no is how it increases the value of the times you say yes. And saying yes, especially to customers is (in theory) the reason you run a restaurant in the first place. We've spent so much time talking about how important it is to hold on to your values, stay focused on what you do best, and not get distracted by those who would have you veer off course, that we need to make sure to remember that saying yes is not limited to the times when your customer happens to ask for the thing you've been wanting to give them all along. The key is to figure out how to say yes within the constraints of the core values that are the reason your best customers keep coming back in the first place. This is tricky, but its essential for survival.

Here are some examples of creative ways to say yes:

Continue reading Saying Yes...

Saying No, August 9, 2006 — Counter-intuitive though it might be, one of the single most important things you can do is say no. When it comes to focusing, limiting, creating, and succeeding, surprisingly "no" is incredibly powerful. And it's not because you should be negative. Negativity is well... a... downer. It's because the more you say no, the higher the impact when you do say yes.

When you are running a business there are tons of people who will present you with all kinds of options, choices, and suggestions. Other businesses that want to sell you things. People who suggest ways for you to expand your operations (or your menu), and customers who want you to tailor your experience just for them. Some of these suggestions may be good. But you can't say yes, even to the good ones until you really understand your core strengths and values. For example: a potential business partner may want you to expand to another location. The spot is great, the rent is cheap, the opportunity truly is fantastic. But you also know that to maintain your high quality you'd need someone incredibly talented and trustworthy to run that other location the way you would run it yourself. And while you have good people working for you, none of them are yet up to the task. And this means that as good as the opportunity seems...

Continue reading Saying No...

Focusing and Limiting, August 7, 2006 — We've spent some time talking about educating customers in terms of what you're about. This has some consequences that you should know about - you will have fewer of them. Let me explain...

There's a natural tendency in politics to hedge. Taking positions that offend no one are thought to offend no one. The problem with this thinking when it comes to creating a unique and long-lasting food experience (and when it comes to politics in my opinion) is that by offending no one, you typically don't inspire anyone either. Believe it or not there's a significant percentage of the population that aren't happy just not being offended. They want to be inspired. They are willing to put up with some opinions and perspectives they disagree with in exchange for the genuine article. There are plenty of folks who aren't stupid. They crave authenticity. And given how hard you're working to delivering consistent, high quality, food, aren't those the people you really want eating at your restaurant? How much repeat business will you get from someone who doesn't mind blandness, and doesn't recognize a phony?

Continue reading Focusing and Limiting...

Educating Americans on How To Eat Out, August 4, 2006 — (Today we have another entry in our continuing "Restaurant Love" series where we're talking directly to chefs and restaurateurs who want to make a superlative eating experience for their customers.) Given how the depressing the state of food in this country is (as detailed in the last post) it's time to turn our attention to what can be done? How do you deal with the fact that most of the population of this country eats horribly? How do you try and make a name for yourself with food that tastes great when most of your customers don't bother to taste their food as it flies from its packaging into their gullet barely touching their tongues? How do you get customers' attention when even the ones that claim to be into food are more focused on the trappings of good food than the reality? While the current state of education in this country may not give a ton of confidence, education is still a key part of the answer here.

I don't think I'm going out on a limb saying that most consumers in this country think of the food service industry as being primarily about service, and not food. This is not to say that service isn't important. It's just that diners typically go into a restaurant thinking: "I'm paying, I should get whatever I want," and not "I'm paying to participate in a particular experience." An analogy might be the moviegoer who thinks that a western should be a science fiction movie because they're paying. Perhaps the static nature of the film vs. the seemingly just-in-time nature of the food makes diners think that more flexibility exists than actually does. Ultimately though, restaurants are certainly a service business, but for chefs who are trying to create a particular type of experience.

Continue reading Educating Americans on How to Eat Out...

The State of Food in America, August 2, 2006 — This is a topic which others have articulated much better than I ever could and for some time. So rather than try and rehash their statements, let's just take a survey of a few of their comments:

"Over the last three decades, fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society. An industry that began with a handful of modest hot dog and hamburger stands in southern California has spread to every corner of the nation, selling a broad range of foods wherever paying customers may be found. Fast food is now served at restaurants and drive-throughs, at stadiums, airports, zoos, high schools, elementary schools, and universities, on cruise ships, trains, and airplanes, at K- Marts, Wal-Marts, gas stations, and even at hospital cafeterias. In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food; in 2000, they spent more than $110 billion. Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music -- combined. "

Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation

 

"Still, the impact of this lawsuit is being seen far and wide. School districts in New York, Texas, and San Francisco have banned sugary soft drinks in schools. And all-natural healthy options are popping up everywhere. McDonald's joined right in, sponsoring events that showed how health-conscious they've become, and creating a new line of premium salads. At the same time, however, they also masterminded one of their fattest sandwiches to date: the McGriddle. A pancake-wrapped creation that won my heart in Texas, but can pack as much fat as a Big Mac, and have more sugar than a pack of McDonaldland cookies. In fact, their new premium ranch chicken salad with dressing delivers more calories than a Big Mac and 51 grams of fat, 79% of your daily fat intake. Over the course of my McDiet, I consumed 30 pounds of sugar from their food. That's a pound a day. On top of that, I also took in 12 pounds of fat. Now, I know what you're saying. You're saying nobody's supposed to eat this food three times a day. No wonder all this stuff happened to you. But the scary part is: there are people who eat this food regularly. Some people even eat it every day. So, while my experiment may have been a little extreme, it's not that crazy. But here is a crazy idea: Why not do away with your Super Size options? Who needs 42 ounces of Coke? A half pound of fries? And why not give me a choice besides french fries or french fries? That would be a great start. But why should these companies want to change? Their loyalty isn't to you, it's to the stockholders. The bottom line: They're a business, no matter what they say. And by selling you unhealthy food, they make millions. And no company wants to stop doing that. If this ever-growing paradigm is going to shift, it's up to you. But if you decide to keep living this way, go ahead. Over time, you may find yourself getting as sick as I did. And you may wind up here [emergency room] or here [cemetery]. I guess the big question is, who do you want to see go first? You? Or them?"

Morgan Spurlock, Super Size Me

 

"A joint study by Harvard University and Boston Children's Hospital researchers in February 2001 concluded that such excess liquid calories inhibited the ability of older children to compensate at mealtime, leading to caloric imbalance and, in time, obesity." Related book: Kitchen Medicine Discover the healing power of everyday kitchen foods (like honey) in this healing foods exploration written by Kelly Joyce Neff. In this free online book, you'll learn the healing secrets of salt, garlic, cayenne and a number of culinary herbs. "One extra soft drink a day gave a child a 60 percent greater chance of becoming obese. One could even link specific amounts of soda to specific amounts of weight gain. Each daily drink added .18 points to a child's body mass index (BMI). This, the researchers noted, was regardless of what else they ate or how much they exercised. "Consumption of sugar [high fructose corn syrup]-sweetened drinks," they concluded, "is associated with obesity in children."

Greg Critser, Fat Land

 

"It came quickly, with little fanfare, and was out of control before the nation noticed. Obesity, diabetes, and other diseases caused by poor diet and sedentary lifestyle now affect the health, happiness, and vitality of millions ofmen, women, and, most tragically, children and pose a major threat to the health care resources of the United States. Most alarming has been the national inaction in the face of crisis, the near-total surrender to a powerful food industry, and the lack of innovation in preventing further havoc. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) labels the obesity problem an "epidemic." Within the United States, 64.5 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese, with the number growing. For many reasons, some obvious and some not, the increase in overweight children is twice that seen in adults. Other nations are in hot pursuit. Country after country follows the American lead and grows heavier. Overconsumption has replaced malnutrition as the world's top food problem. From Banff to Buenos Aires, from Siberia to the Sahara, the world need only look to America to see its future. There are now clinics for obese children in Beijing. Similar to a new virus without natural enemies, our lifestyle of abundant food and inactivity faces little opposition. Quite the contrary, powerful forces push it forward, spreading the problem to all segments of the population. These forces are woven so tightly into out social system (economics, health care system, even education) that change seems almost beyond imagination. Despite talk of an obesity crisis, government reports, and Presidents pushing exercise, obesity is increasing in all races, ages, income groups, and areas of the world. In the United States, obesity now contributes more to chronic illness and health care costs than does smoking."

Kelly D. Brownell, Food Fight

"During the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. In 1985 only a few states were participating in CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and providing obesity data. In 1991, four states had obesity prevalence rates of 15–19 percent and no states had rates at or above 20 percent. In 2004, 7 states had obesity prevalence rates of 15–19 percent; 33 states had rates of 20–24 percent; and 9 states had rates more than 25 percent (no data for one state)."

Obesity Trends: U.S. Obesity Trends 1985–2004, CDC

I'm not sure what more I can really add to these written and graphical assessments. Just look around at the people in this country, the food that's available to them, and the results in terms of their health. And in case you wondered  if it's really an epidemic just refer to the map above. Hopefully you're not too depressed to stay tuned. Next post we talk about how to start combating the problem with your customers.

Normalcy In The Middle East, July 31, 2006 — My dad sent me a link to an Israeli cooking show called: "Shum, Pilpel, ve-Shemen Zayit" (Garlic, Pepper, and Olive Oil). A lovely combination to be sure. He pointed out that the show is so nice and normal it reminds you that life can be good and normal over in the Middle East. Here's hoping it gets closer to good and normal as soon as possible for everyone living in the Middle East. (Click the text to the right of the image of the guy holding his arms up to launch the video.) Happy to post links to cooking shows in Lebanon and other countries as well. :)

Constraints Force Creativity, July 27, 2006 — This is not an original thought or observation. But I did come to this realization on my own. As often happens, once you notice something, it seems to appear everywhere. Much more likely is that I never noticed this truism until I learned the lesson myself, and then all of a sudden I started noticing what had always been there in the first place.

"I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead."

- Mark Twain

Unlimited freedom in fact negates creativity and creates laziness. The lack of  rules or constraints make it easy to be random. Whether it's writing an overly long blog post because we can't afford an editor, or putting wasabi aioli on everything, the concept remains the same. Part of the marvel of Shakespeare's sonnets are that they must be fourteen lines and in iambic pentameter. Slate points out that some of the best writing at the New York Times is in the shortest amount of space - the TV listings. Examples abound. So why is it that the first thing many chefs do when they get their own restaurant is take a meandering and undisciplined tour of every favorite dish, ingredient, and technique they'v ever encountered. Freedom often kills focus.

Continue reading Constraints Force Creativity...

tastingmenu Discussion, July 25, 2006 — Tastingmenu has never been just one person's efforts. Even though the bulk of the writing has been mine, the long list of friends, family, meal companions, cookbook collaborators, cooking partners, restaurant staff, and fellow bloggers have all participated in one way or another. And most importantly, you the readers have been participating fantastically through comments both on the posts as well as suggestions of places to eat on each of the city pages. The comment system is fine for posts, but it's straining to support real discussion of restaurants. So to give our readers a real venue for their own contributions today we're unveiling:

tastingmenu Discussions

Please join up, and contribute your own suggestions, recommendations, questions, and reviews of restaurants and culinary experiences. Don't limit yourselves to restaurants. You're encouraged to include roadside stands, bakeries, food stalls, and any food venue that catches your fancy. We've moved all the existing comments and suggestions to each of the city boards so that they won't be lost. Happy eating and discussing. :)

Fromage de Chèvre à Tartiner, Tasted on July 19, 2006 — When eating with friends who have trepidations about trying new food, I always evangelize my belief that chefs make the dish, not the ingredients. Now of course high quality fresh ingredients are key to a great dish, but the choice to put those in said dish is that of the chef. For example: when I'm eating somewhere great with someone who doesn't like tomatoes, I always encourage them to try a dish with tomatoes. Not only are there bad tomatoes and good ones (and great ones). But the chef can have an incredible amount of impact on the tomato in terms of how it's prepared and the flavor that's coaxed forth into the broader dish. Certainly there are times when nothing is going to make someone me like cooked green peppers. But I think most people who have a list of ingredients they know they don't like will be surprised at how many they might enjoy when chosen and prepared by someone with standards and talent.

And so this brings us to...

Continue reading Fromage de Chèvre à Tartiner...

Click photo to see entire album.

L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Las Vegas, Nevada, Tasted on March 31, 2006 — For many years, when I've thought of the restaurant that I would create (I know this is silly given that I'm not qualified to write about food much less create an institution that serves it) I always imagine all small plates made in front of the customers sitting in a sushi-bar-type layout. The dishes keep coming, and the customers get interested in different things just by seeing all the ingredients laid out and the dishes being cooked before their eyes. Then one day I read about a new project from Joël Robuchon, his L'Atelier (workshop) to be specific. The idea of a chef having a place to experiment seemed exciting, and the description of the dynamic was exactly what I'd envisioned. I had to try it. Sure enough L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon is one of my favorite restaurants in Paris. When it opened in Las Vegas, I wondered if it could scale and keep the quality that I'd experienced in Paris. After all, scale is hard as it is. And celebrity chefs like Robuchon can collect the check without trying. I wondered what I would find...

Continue reading L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon...

Click photo to see entire album.

Mix, Las Vegas, Nevada, Tasted on June 12, 2006 — I've never eaten at an Alain Ducasse restaurant. And frankly, even after eating at Mix I'm not sure I have. The brand extension that's rampant among celebrity chefs is at its most extreme in Las Vegas. Here's how it works. Casino owners pay chefs with notoriety to lend their name and overall creative direction to restaurants in their respective hotels. There are certainly times when the chef actually moves to Las Vegas and cooks every night in the restaurant that bears their name. But this is essentially the exception. By the time chefs warrant payouts by Las Vegas casinos they are running restaurant empires with multiple locations. Not being able to be in multiple places at once means by definition that the chefs that are big enough aren't cooking every night at their own restaurants. So the best case really is that the chef actually hires the people who run the kitchen, trains them, oversees the menu, and then visits for quality control for a few weeks spread out throughout the year. However, in the worst case the chef takes a check, signs off on the menu, visits maybe once or twice, and is essentially done. The truth for most is probably somewhere in between.

Chefs who sign these deals will claim with some legitimacy that even when they're cooking in the kitchen they have help, and scaling that help across geographies is just an extension of that. And sure enough there are chefs who have folks working for them for years now who they can truly trust to carry out their culinary missions without day-to-day supervision. But I'll claim that this is an unbelievably difficult challenge. And this leads us to Mix. Despite the details presented in The Seasoning of a Chef, I don't really have any way of knowing where on the spectrum this particular celebrity chef Vegas presence lies. But I'm going to hazard a wild guess that Ducasse wasn't cooking at Mix the night we were there. I'm happy to be proven wro