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Monday, 30 August 2010 16:03 |
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Here I go...let the sass begin. A very nice writer, tweeted a link to his latest article in "Inside Northside Magazine," which I immediately read. Suffice it to say, I am infuriated. The article, "Cultivating Cuisine," by Stephen Faure is a chronicling of the Chef John Besh's "farm" at La Provence. It's not Stephen's writing, nor the overall subject of sustainable farming that's disturbing, but Chef Besh's deplorable attitude. Really.
Moving directly to the first offense is this quote: "Besh had previously brought in a series of chefs to take the reigns at La Provence, but none proved to be a good fit. 'The first two chefs wanted to get rid of Joyce and get rid of Chris' pate. Once they brought that up, I wanted to get rid of them.'" What a disgraceful, disloyal statement. I personally know both chefs referenced by Besh, one in particular who was very hopeful about the partnership, has been very discreet about his not-so-fabulous time at La Provence and who has shared some "secrets" with me, including a very careful, but pointed comment about the conditions at La Provence. I have NEVER repeated those words in writing and the chef has NEVER uttered them "on the record," keeping Besh's counsel for the most part. In public this chef has only had polite things to say about the entire experience.
I am particularly put out by Besh insinuation that Chef Rene Bajeux wasn't a good fit as chef at LaProvence, and am...well words simply escape me...almost. My take? Bajeux didn't want to be in Besh's shadow and left accordingly...John is about the worst "celebrechef" when it comes to promoting his true working chefs...the worst.
The only quote from Chef Erik Loos (the current working chef at La Provence) in the entire article are some words on gardening, nothing more, not his position on sustainability, buying local, growing, farming, nothing. And I know he has thoughts on the subject, but let's face it, this is about Besh isn't it? Isn't it always? I suspect Loos couldn't get a word in edgewise. How many people know, for instance, that the sharp cookery, the real hands-on chef at Restaurant August is brilliant Mike Gullotta? Hmph, not as many as should know. Therefore it is no surprise that we know almost nothing about Loos or his committment to...anything.
As for Besh "wanting to get rid of..." previous chefs for not wanting to keep Chef Chris' pate on the menu? Bull. I don't believe that for one second. I attended a "class" where a group of us food writers were bussed to the restaurant specifically for Chef Rene to teach us how to make that very pate!
Second annoyance: The story of Chef Besh's youngest son who was "attacked" (probably should have read "chased") by a rooster, demanded the bird's death, then got his wish and gloated about it. Where is the stewardship, the teachable moment about farming or raising chickens/roosters and understanding their behavior? That was pure indulgence, nothing more and it was nauseating to read.
Finally, and honestly I'm losing my steam, but, for Besh to to imply that he is the self-styled leader of a buy local movement is disegenuous beyond the pale. How embarrassing for Besh to suggest it is his hope that if he spends much of his buying dollars on local product, and then the Brennan's do likewise, others will follow. Is he kidding? Who does he think did it first? Even Emeril properly credits the genesis of using local, American product to none other than Miss Ella Brennan. The late Jamie Shannon of Commander's Palace next carried the torch, passing the "mission" on to a slew of chefs including Jared Tees (also currently in the Besh chef cadre), who became the Executive Chef at Bourbon House and was one of the early few buying from the Crescent City Farmers' Market; and Eman Loubier (to name another) who has always been about buying fresh local, farmers' market ingredients and fashioning a local ingredient-driven menu at his restaurant, Dante's Kitchen. The list of chefs doing this is endless and was part of the landscape well before 2005. We were all there, present and accounted for, when the Farmers' Market launched almost 15 years ago!!
I'm done for now. But come on. The spin must stop. It's dizzying. It's misrepresentative. It discounts and insults brilliant chefs and hard-working farmers who have been on the forefront of the locavore movement for longer than 5 years. And all this bullshiz is for what? Fame? Notoriety? Bad t.v.? Splashy magazine coverage? Puh.
Besh, get your ass back to reality, back in the kitchen, and remind us why we fell for you lo those many years ago when you were at Artesia - a bright, charming, talented chef cooking with love, and soul. Right now I can't remember any of that, my head is...spinning.
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Sunday, 29 August 2010 18:30 |
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Um, this is a wee embarrassing, but I've just heard that my blog, the one I've let laspe for a few weeks (yes, I know, very lame), has been voted #1 by The Gambit readers. Whoa. I had NO clue, but I'm very grateful and as my pal Rene Louapre says, "You now like the Saints, have a target on back." Yikes. And a big congrats to Blackened Out and Nola.com for being that number too.
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Thursday, 22 July 2010 13:33 |
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My favorite Chinese restaurant right now, is Jung's Golden Dragon (3009 Magazine Street; Nola; 504-891-8280). The food is fresh and as close as I've come to "authentic" (I really don't like that word, but you know what I mean) Chinese cuisine, for preparation, presentation and taste. My typical meal at Jung's goes like this: to start, a fresh cucmber salad in a dressing of rice vinegar, red chile flakes, garlic and a toss of cilantro leaves.
Next up, I dive into a traditional preparation for pan-fried dumplings - hand made dough, wrapped around a lush, pork-centric filling brightened by finely diced ginger, scallion, etc., set in a pan and cooked golden with a flour-water slurry and some oil (the owner of Jung's tells me there will be dumpling cooking classes in the fall. See you there).
For a main, I choose from the "yellow" menu (ask for it) and this Crispy Fried Fish is tops. I forgot to ask them to go easy on the sauce (over-saucing happens a lot at Asian restaurants - the thought being that Caucasian diners prefer their food doused), but this gigantic whole fried fish is boneless, very lightly battered, crisp and crunchy, carved to reveal and make for easy access to the fresh-tasting fish. The spicy-tangy sauce is deliciously unfettered by starchiness and bolstered by hand-diced vegetables (see how they are happily not uniform?). Three of us share this dish, and all the above, easily and satisfyingly. A fabulous meal.
NOW FOR THE WHINING -
RADIO PROMO - I am slightly disturbed by the Times-Picayune's newest weekly "Food Briefs" entry for one particular food radio show...not because there is anything wrong with the show, but because there are several food radio shows (No, I do not have a radio show at the moment) and the paper should be fair and balanced, so in my opinion, all radio shows or none, should be promoted. And I don't want to hear about how the one show sends in the content and guest info...blah, blah, blah. This is a small big town and there is more than one food show on public radio, so don't give me that b.s. either.
MAGAZINE MADNESS - I also recently read an article in Marie Claire Magazine, "The Careerist," which featured an interview with local Chef AllisonVines-Rushing of restaurant MiLa. The article was about how she survived a "career disaster;" in Allison's case, Hurricane Katrina. I'd love to be able to link to the piece, but it hasn't yet been publishe on line. So I paraphrase and quote. According to Allison, "In the weak post-storm economy, locals weren't dining out and there were no tourists." Um, that's not how I remember things. We all dined out like crazy immediately post storm, to avoid more work after long days of clean-up and, it's where most of us re-connected with people, hugged and got our odd-as-it-may-be group therapy. Allison and Slade did indeed try to "...keep Longbranch open for a year-and-a half..." and they may have "run out of money" but Longbrach didn't make it because it was poorly located, didn't get great or even good food reviews and that's that.
Allison and Slade also simultaneously opened a fried chicken joint, Dirty Bird To Go, in New York City, and traveled back and forth between Louisiana and New York (another possible reason things didn't go so well at Longbranch). "Dirty Bird" got panned on line by Serious Eats' fried chicken guru Ed Levine and well, practically everybody. Later Allison defended the restaurant, writing to Ed and, for reasons I don't think had anything to do with food, he retracted his panning of "Dirty Bird."
Finally, Allison is quoted: "Two years after Katrina, I teamed up with a former customer who opened a restaurant called MiLa. My husband and I are co-executive chefs and managers. I don't own MiLa, and for now I'm fine with that." Again, that's not how the opening of MiLa was spun to New Orleans (I have all the opening press releases). In fact, until I read the Marie Claire article, everyone I asked - chefs, restaurateurs and food writers, including me - believed Allison and Slade owned MiLa. And there was the flap about the name - that MiLa was the state abbreviations for Mississippi and Louisiana, which it isn't, and which they later came out and said, "Oh, what we meant was, that it's the first and last letter of our home states." Ok. Whatever.
Does any of this change that Allison and Slade are excellent chefs and that their restaurant is a success? No. It's just aggravating to read spin. Why can't stories be told straight? I don't get it; the real story is just as interesting. Meh. I'm being cranky, but the state of journalism and chef posturing (read bullshitting) is really pissing me off these days.
TELL ME MONDO, MONDO, MONDO - I have dined at Mondo and will tell you that the service was excellent, the menu diverse and interesting, and the restaurant so uncomfortably hot, it interrupted any dining pleasure. As diners sweated, fanned themselves and guzzled water (as did the staff and Chef-Owner Susan Spicer), we were told that the situation is dilligently being worked on and will be corrected ASAP. I can't wait. And I'll be back when I can dine without sweating to death. Food report forthcoming.
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Monday, 19 July 2010 21:12 |
My pal Kim Ranjbar writes an excellent blog that covers, amongst many things, food and drink. She's been waging a personal battle of the bulge, having dropped almost 60 pounds, eating carefully 6 days per week. On the 7th day (Thursdays), she cheats. And then she writes about that cheat. Her weekly reports post the next day following a cheat and they are loads of fun to read. For good or bad, her intent or not, the posts are hunger-inducing.
Taking a page from Kim's dining "book," I too have decided to "cheat" on Thursdays...with a twist. I am cheating on my carnivorous ways, spending one day each week dining as a vegetarian. Can it be done in breaded, battered, buttered and fried, pork-a-licious, meat and seafood-centric New Orleans? Can I cheat on meat and dine well, withour succumbing to nothing but salads? Are the restaurants up to snuff? We'll see.
I start with last week's dining adventure. Taceaux Loceaux (on Twitter as @TLNola), a gourmet taco truck forging New Orleans' burgeoning food cart scene, has two vegetarian tacos on their menu and both can be made vegan. Chef-owners Maribeth and Alex Del Castillo are making quite a name for themselves with their super fresh, extra delicious and cleverly named "taceaux" (tacos). Pictured are "All Hat, No Cattle" and "The Notorious V. E. G."
"All Hat" is a mass of spicy black Beans and rice, shredded cabbage, slices of radish, crema and cilantro, tucked into flour tortillas. The beans are deep and earthy, crisped quickly on the griddle to produce delectable crunchy bits amid the creaminess of the beans. The cabbage and radish provide another toothy layer, while the crema cools and the cilantro adds herbaceousness.
"Notorious V. E. G." is the plant-only version of a popular meaty taceaux also served by Taceaux Loceaux. Tofu crumbles are cooked and seasoned like chorizo, then topped with a tomato-rich homemade salsa, shredded cabbage, cilantro and avacado crema on corn tortillas. Surprisingly this tofu taceaux tastes exactly like a fresh, light and fabulous version of its porky cousin; no joke.
Taceaux Loceaux's vegetarian taceaux come two per order for $5. Great food, great price, great start on my weekly foray foraging vegetarian dining.
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Friday, 09 July 2010 22:13 |
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Several years ago I was hired to write a comprehensive drinks story for a national magazine. I wrote the article and a month later I received the editor's questions. The subject of coffee came up. "New Orleans doesn't have a coffee culture and your coffee is mediocre at best," she wrote me. Worse still, in her edited version of my article, she had inserted those words. WHAT???? Long story short, I blew a fuse, and though the offensive words were removed from the printed piece, I was furious and refused to accept the pay. Stupid, I know, but it felt like blood money and I wasn't interested. In case your wondering, New Orleans' coffee culture is over 200 years old. I realize that's giving the subject serious short shrift, but it'll have to do...for now.
We all have our favorite coffee shops, coffee brands, blends, roasts, flavors, and New Orleans has several longstanding family-owned coffee roasters, but it seems we're always on the look-out for better and the truth is, we don't have much of a "barista" culture. Things are changing. On a hot tip from my pal James, I learned about Dee's Coffee in the CBD, a place that touts itself as having "The Best Espresso in New Orleans." They also have certified Baristas, and the organization SNOB (Society of New Orleans Baristas), that meets every Thursday at 6:30 pm to have...well...coffee talk and "throw down some awesome latte art..."
I popped in recently to taste the coffee and watch a certified barista in action. The regular iced coffee is cold dripped and kept cool in your cup/glass with ice cubes also made of coffee - the theory being that coffee ice cubes will not dilute the drink. Hmmmm. I ordered an iced latte and asked for the coffee ice cubes. That drink is pictured above. It was rich from whole milk (I'd likely ask for reduced fat in the future) and bold, upheld by those coffee cubes. This was indeed a great iced coffee. I'll be back for sure.
Dee's also offers "Billy Bites" pastries, free wi-fi, foodstuffs including gluten free and vegan options as well as self-serve copy machines, consignment art and the deal-maker - validated free parking. Open from 7am - 6:30pm, this is a very interesting place to sit and sip. There's fair people watching, plenty of outlets, lots of quiet, and yes, the espresso is excellent - it took the barista four "pulls" from the machine to get my espresso "perfect" (his word) with a lovely quarter-inch, amber colored crema - and worth the wait.
If the whole barista thing intrigues, check out www.facebook.com/snobbarista
Dee's Coffee in the CBD
401 Baronne Street
(504) 596-2012
deescoffenola[at]gmail[dot]com
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