Comments on Bitter Greens Journal: The Way Forward

Real French chefs cook really delicious things!

2007-12-02T04:19:00.000-05:00

Real French chefs cook really delicious things!

Just now (7/25/07) came across this. Ed Mitchell'...

2006-07-25T13:59:00.000-04:00

Just now (7/25/07) came across this. Ed Mitchell's barbecue was indeed something to write home about: the best east of Raleigh, and arguably the best in the state -- which North Carolinians would tell you means the best in the world. Alas, Mr Mitchell ran into trouble with the taxman, his restaurant has closed, and he did some jail time. He's coming back, though. He cooked in June at the Big Apple Block Party in New York, and he may reopen his restaurant, in the same place or another. I certainly hope so.
You can read about his problems by going to archive.wilsondaily.com and searching on "Ed Mitchell" 2005 and "Ed Mitchell" 2006.

I believe that the answer to Big Ag is the Free En...

2005-09-20T16:20:00.000-04:00

I believe that the answer to Big Ag is the Free Enterprise system. As I have posted before, even as Big Ag grows ever bigger, so do the food options of Americans. Here's an article today about the growth of small businesses creating and selling Bitter Greens-type food:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9377822/site/newsweek/

As far as I'm concerned, those of us who love natural, local-made, organic, toxic-free food, we live in a great -- and improving! -- world.

Um, Tom? As a Texan, isn't your response to the sl...

2005-07-01T19:31:00.000-04:00

Um, Tom? As a Texan, isn't your response to the slow-cooked pork in North Carolina supposed to be something along the lines of "Boy, that sure is tasty! But it ain't barbecue."

At least that's what I've always been taught . . .

(and by the way, the short answer to your e-mail to me is "yes". I'll write more to you this weekend)

"Leff once told me he thought it was ridiculous th...

2005-06-30T15:19:00.000-04:00

"Leff once told me he thought it was ridiculous that a certain restaurateur insists on using Niman Ranch pork, from heritage-breed pigs raised on small farms without industrial inputs, at his high-toned Manhattan BBQ joint."

Hmm...if you say so, I'm sure I said this in some context. And I'm glad if discussion of the issue helped spur some insights. But this isn't actually how I feel - about food in general or about that particular Manhattan BBQ joint.

I've eaten food made from crap ingredients where the final result tasted so ecstatically delicious I was made to gasp. And I've gasped over food made from fussy foodie fixings (FFF's), as well. Ingredients are irrelevant, really. Unless you're eating a single raw ingredient (i.e. gnawing on an artichoke), all that truly matters is the skill, care, and touch of the chef. I'd vastly prefer soup made by a loving genius from canned supermarket ingredients to soup made from FFFs by someone just going through the motions. This might sound reverse-snobbish, but it's not.

If a chef feels the need to pour 1959 Chateau Lafite into the stock to give it that certain oomph (and someone else is footing the bill), I'm all for giving that chef what s/he thinks is needed. But same if the secret ingredient is Jiffy Peanut Butter. I don't take a materialistic view; ingredients don't interest me. Great cooking is more than the sum of its parts, and I aim to live entirely in that margin.

By the same token, I'm never impressed with glib adjectives or pandering to status...though that, too, could be mistaken for a reverse-snobbish attitude.

The place you're talking about is Blue Smoke, a barbecue restaurant run by Danny Meyer (of Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe). They use blue chip provisions, and the chef is a fancy trained fellow, not some backwater 'cue meister. The result doesn't taste like folkloric 'cue; the meat is infinitely more subtle and rich, and everything's extremely refined...and there's soul to the food and I deem it delicious. It's not "authentic", but who cares? It's just another manifestation of deliciousness.

And it's Blue Smoke's deliciousness that impresses me, not its refinement in and of itself. Refinement is merely a parameter. The spectrum from sophisticated refinement to guileless simplicity is horizontal, not vertical, and there are peak experiences (and soulless crap) to be found at every point of that spectrum.

Both snobs and reverse snobs miss good stuff, and I strive to be a universal receiver for every manifestation of treasure (there's so little of it, we mustn't disregard an iota!).