What is the best way to have a Thanksgiving spread that turns out looking like the glossy photographs in your favorite foodie magazine? I'm sure some readers are expecting a list, organizational techniques or special tips on how to create the perfect meal when you are working full time.

It seems that a better idea is to not slave over the stove, but take you and your family to the nearest upscale restaurant for the special meal. Eat, drink and relax, the turkey will be cooked to perfection. Handing the responsibility for a beautifully cooked Thanksgiving feast over to someone else might even make spending the day with your annoying cousins just that much more bearable.

Another bonus of not preparing your own Thanksgiving meal at home is that often the menu includes items for those at the table who really don't like turkey. It may be considered heresy, but there are many who, out of hunger, force down what is often a dry uninspired main course because that is the only option. There is often at least one vegetarian at every table who sits glumly while the rest of the guests are feasting.

For example, at Ken Aretsky's Patroon in New York City, pictured above, executive chef Bill Peet presents a family-style menu in the warm dining room of this midtown restaurant. In addition to the traditional free range turkey with all the old fashioned fixings (mashed potatoes, stuffing, roasted Brussel sprouts and giblet gravy) you will find chateaubriand as well as Scottish salmon for the vegetarians in your group. The restaurant will charge $85 per adult and $45 per child for the meal. Whether you live in the tri-sate region, are in the area visiting family or to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade I can't think of a better way to make you meal truly stress free.

For those of you who live around the country and are watching the parade or the games on t.v., there are great Thanksgiving menu options at the Craft and Craftsteak restaurants, run by the award winning chef Tom Colicchio, located in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. (New York too!) The restaurants offer holiday prix fixe menus - everything is served family style, except the choice of main course.

Leave the turkey in the freezer, save it for a random winter weekend, and eat out!

When you're throwing a lavish Thanksgiving dinner, it's good to keep some things simple. The decor doesn't have to be over the top; anything too fancy may appear to be "trying to hard." There are two things to splurge on: The drinks and the food.

While there are endless options for amazing wines and and fabulously presented after-dinner drinks (red lacquer Grand Marnier bottle, anyone?), the main dish says the most about the dinner.

So, what's a luxury turkey? Bypass the supermarket and go for the gold: Designer turducken.

Chef Ryan Farr and San Francisco's chic 4505 Meats have teamed up to create a a totally mouth-watering combination of turkey, duck and chicken (above) which "comes on a bed of root vegetables in a roasting pan and includes an electric thermometer with a preset alarm on it, making it simple for home cooks to follow the directions and pull the bird from the oven when the thermometer beeps." If you're in SF, you can order one from 4505 Meats for $200-$225 (15 or 20 pound turduckens, which will feed 14 or 18) and pick it up in the Portero neighborhood or have it shipped (at an additional cost); just get your order in by November 20.

If you're not in San Francisco, there are a number of other websites where you can get a perfectly good turducken, including cajungrocer, herbertsmeats, or you can even hit up Sam's Club for Tony Chachere's® Cornbread Turducken at a delicious price (but you didn't hear that from us).

For a holiday like Thanksgiving, it's a good idea to let the meal speak for itself. If everyone's enjoying the food, nobody's talking (and nobody's fighting).

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Her Deepness, legendary ocean explorer and marine scientist Sylvia Earle about the state of our oceans, and the conversation took an unexpected turn: we talked about caviar.

While we enjoy reveling in all things luxury here at Luxist, occasionally, it's a good idea to step back and take responsibility for our impact on the world around us. Luxury doesn't have to mean unsustainability, and those of us in more privileged positions have the opportunity to effect change and set a good example for future generations. That's why I want to tell you the truth about caviar. As Earle herself said, "Not knowing that you have a problem is the worst problem of all."

Luxist: Is there a certain kind of caviar the eco-conscious should choose?

Sylvia Earle: Well, consider what caviar is; fish eggs. Some people are raising sturgeon to extract the caviar, but it takes about 20 years to get an egg; to grow a mature female sturgeon that can have eggs of her own. And we don't raise 20-year-old chickens to get their eggs. Sturgeons can be 80 or 100 years old when they are taken out of their natural systems and carved up for caviar. The reason that caviar is increasingly rare is because the sturgeon are increasingly rare. There are very few remaining, even in the coastal waters of the United States. Chesapeake Bay used to have sturgeon. There was native sturgeon in Florida. There are precious few remaining.

L: Wait. They "carve them up" to get the eggs? They don't lay the eggs?

SE: Oh no! They take the adults and slice them up and remove the eggs. And sometimes they eat the fish, too, but it's ... it's like cutting old growth [such as centuries-old trees in the rainforests]. It doesn't make any sense. And the big, old fish are the ones that are the best reproducers. Only an old sturgeon will have eggs, and the older they are, the more eggs they produce. It's just kind of insanity, it shows how little we appreciate the investment that it takes.

While having access to something difficult to get can feel like a luxury, as Earle points out, "It doesn't make any sense." We've come to appreciate that ivory, for example, is not necessarily the height of luxury. While it's rare, it's often perceived as being in extremely poor taste, as our elephant populations dwindle. Perhaps it is time to adjust our thinking about caviar, as well, and to consider why things become so expensive and exclusive -- sometimes, it's because the way the product is being created isn't sustainable. Is it really worth carving up a 20 to 100-year-old sturgeon for a ten-minute appetizer? Other caviars are no different.

Our intention in publishing this is not to guilt trip anyone, but to provide the tools for all our readers to make informed choices. Now you know.

Crystal Clear spring water from Mount Herman and the finest selection of many generations of pure Russian Sturgeon go into making Karat Caviar, a recently introduced aquacultured Osetra caviar from Israel that took 16 years to develop, with incredibly delicious results. Karat uses the same Russian Sturgeon species (Acipenser Gueldenstaedtii) found in the famed Caspian Sea, raised in the most natural settings under pristine conditions to produce an imperial grade product usually associated only with increasingly scarce wild sturgeon.

Karat Caviar is produced by Caviar Galilee, one of the longest running fish farms in Israel, which has been involved in aquaculture since 1939. The Caviar Galilee Farm began growing Russian Sturgeon in 1992, when the first fertilized eggs were imported directly from Russia. The Farm is located in close proximity to the main source of the Jordan River – the Dan Springs, which flow with crystal clear snow waters from the peaks of Mount Hermon. The natural flow of water which gravitates through the Farm enables fish breeding in water that is clear, pure and rich in oxygen.

The Russian Osetra is produced from ten to eleven year-old fish. During the production process, the caviar is produced separately from each single fish and is then packed separately ensuring the product's purity, without mixing caviar from different fish. Freshness, consistent high quality, large pearl size, fine taste and texture and sustainability are the watchwords of Karat, which aims to put the rest of the farmed caviar trade to shame. Karat's exclusive 100% pure Russian Osetra is now available at Dean & DeLuca under the Galilee label, as well as at Zabar's and Whole Foods in the Southeast.

Booking your holiday party just got a bit easier. OpenTable, the popular online booking service now has private dining pages to make it easier to find a place to hold your next party or private event. The Private Dining pages allow you to browse hundreds of listings, filter by neighborhood, price or cuisine type, and see capacity numbers and view photos of private dining rooms and other event spaces. Once you've narrowed down your choices to a few places you fill out a contact form for each restaurant and someone from the restaurant can answer all your questions. The service is currently available in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. with more cities to come.

Which is healthier? Margarine or butter? Liquid margarine is a healthier option, but if truth be told, neither is good for you.

Butter contains saturated fat, while nearly all margarines contain some saturated fat and trans fatty acids. Recent studies on the potential cholesterol-raising effects of trans fatty acids have raised public concern about the use of margarine. On the other hand, butter is unhealthy because it is made from animal fat and contains cholesterol and high levels of saturated fat.

Since most margarines are made from vegetable oils, they contain no cholesterol, says the Mayo Clinic's Martha Grogan, M.D., a consultant in the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and assistant professor of medicine at Mayo Medical School. "Margarine is higher in 'good' fats, which are polyunsaturated and monounsaturated, than butter is," she adds. "These types of fat help reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or 'bad,' cholesterol, when substituted for saturated fat."

Still, not all margarines are created equal. "Some may even be worse than butter," warns Grogan.

Indeed, margarines are processed using a method called hydrogenation, which results in unhealthy trans fats. In general, the more solid the margarine, the more trans fatty acids it contains. In other words, stick margarines usually have more trans fats than do tub margarines, which are softer. Like saturated fats, trans fats increase blood cholesterol and the risk of heart disease. In addition, trans fats can lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good," cholesterol levels.

The American Heart Association recommends using soft margarines (liquid or tub varieties) over harder stick forms. Look for ones that have "zero grams of trans fat" on the Nutrition Facts label. The more liquid the margarine, the less hydrogenated it is and the less trans fatty acids it contains.

Butter is unhealthy because it is rich in both saturated fat and cholesterol. It is potentially a highly atherogenic food, too, which means it is a food that causes the arteries to be blocked.

When selecting a margarine, look for ones with liquid vegetable oil as the first ingredient. Even better, choose "light" margarines that list water as the first ingredient, because these are even lower in saturated fat, advises the American Heart Association. Look for margarines that have the lowest trans fat content possible and less than two grams total of saturated plus trans fats. Manufacturers are required to list saturated and trans fats separately on food labels. Margarines fortified with plant sterols (made from soybean and pine tree oils) can help reduce LDL cholesterol levels by more than 10%. The amount of daily plant sterols needed for results is at least two grams. The American Heart Association recommends foods fortified with plant sterols for people with levels of LDL cholesterol over 160 milligrams per deciliter (4.1 mmol/L).

If you don't like the taste of margarine and don't want to give up butter completely, consider using whipped butter or light or reduced-calorie butter, advises Grogan. There are also spreadable butters with vegetable oils added. Per serving, these products have less fat and calories than regular butter. The important thing is to use these products in small amounts - just enough to add flavor to the foods you're eating, she adds.

Oyster lovers in the deep South are fuming over a potential FDA policy that would require Gulf Coast oysters harvested in April through October to be treated before sale for raw consumption. While the FDA says it is trying to prevent deaths to the potential consumption of deadly bacteria, restaurant owners and oyster lovers says that the government is nosing in where it doesn't belong.

Oysters are a huge part of life in Louisiana. Fresh oysters on the half shell eaten at the raw bar aren't just a delicacy but a tradition. But the FDA says that 15 people each year die from the Vibrio vulnificus bacteria and warm weather oysters are more likely to carry this deadly bacteria. Oysters can be treated with a bacteria-fighting technology but critics of the policy, which would go into effect in 2011, say that the treatments are expensive and there are too few of the oyster treating machines in place in the area. The price of treated oysters could skyrocket.

There is also a fear that the sterilized oysters don't have the same intensity of flavor as the untreated ones. Methods including soaking the oysters in hot and cold water baths, using a water pressure treatment, freezing or even irradiation. The FDA says that oysters treated with all these methods are safe to eat but all the processes except irradiation kill the oyster which takes away a bit of the naughty thrill of eating live shellfish.

Oysters are important to the Louisiana economy. Around 3,500 people are employed in the industry in the state. The LA Times reports that it has a $318-million annual impact on the economy and provides a third of the nation's oysters. Federal officials have said that Louisiana can regulate what goes on within its own state, the FDA only regulates food that passes over state lines.

Those who have seen the deadly effect of the vibrio bacteria feel that the raw oyster ban is a simple and necessary precaution but it's hard to convince the shuckers and longterm consumers of the need to change what they have always done.

Architecture lovers and foodies come together in a new package that combines a private tour of the Philip Johnson Glass House site in New Canaan, Connecticut with a three-course dinner at the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York. This exclusive package is available for $400 per person and includes a two-hour tour with access to five Johnson-designed structures – Glass House, Painting Gallery, Sculpture Gallery, Library/Study and Da Monsta - a collection of contemporary art and expansive views of the 47-acre landscape. After the tour guests head to the Four Seasons Restaurant to indulge in a three-course dinner paired with champagne and wines selected by managing partners Alex von Bidder and Julian Niccolini. Guests are responsible for finding their own way there and back.

The restaurant, which first opened in July 1959, is a Modern jewel with furnishings created by Charles Eames, Garth and Ada Louise Huxtable, Eero Saarinen and Mies Van der Rohe and the modern art masterpieces throughout the five dining rooms including works by Roy Lichtenstein, Juan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg and Frank Stella. Eighteen pieces of serviceware along with a selection of furnishings are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. The pool room, shown above, was designed by Philip Johnson and Mies van der Rohe.

For more information or to purchase the package, contact Meri Erickson at the Philip Johnson Glass House, 203.594.9884 x5 or meri_erickson@nthp.org. The offer is based on availability, tax and gratuity is inclusive and travel between New Canaan and New York City is not included in the purchase price.

Celebrity-friendly restaurant Orso Los Angeles becomes the latest restaurant to close. Orso opened in 1989 and its location near Robertson Blvd. and the tree-shrouded smoking-friendly patio have made it a popular film industry haunt. Over the years paparazzi have caught a wide variety of stars including Eric Clapton, Ellen DeGeneres and Sharon Stone dining at the restaurant.

The Italian trattoria serving fare priced at around $25 per entree will close by November 21. Entrees included options like grilled seabass with Sicilian vegetables and garlic-herb butter, veal scaloppine with roasted red peppers, capers and lemon and roasted pork chops stuffed with spinach and fontina with mustard pork sauce. Orso restaurants in New York and London will remain open.

An NY Times article says that Orso Los Angeles began to falter when the Creative Artists Agency and International Creative Management moved into Century City office towers and when the nearby New Line Cinema once a huge client, began deep job cuts. There's no shortage of other restaurants in the area but its always sad to see a restaurant that has survived 20 years in the fickle world of Los Angeles restaurants close down.

There is a spot of good news though. The restaurant may be closing but the space itself may have a new future, LAist reports that restaurant owner Sean MacPherson, who is part of several Los Angeles spots including Bar Lubitsch, Swingers and Good Luck Bar, is listed on a recently submitted alcohol permit for the space.

This holiday season two unique luxury brands Catherine Malandrino and Cointreau, both brought to the States via France, have teamed up to deliver the ultimate gift bottle. Malandrino chose the symbol of the Statue of Liberty, arguably the best thing the French ever gave us, to mark the limited edition Cointreau bottle.

The Cointreau bottle has remained remarkably unchanged for nearly 160 years, making this one of the hottest collector's bottles of the season. Malandrino's romantic bottle remains true to the silhouette, but is dressed in stars and lace, calling to mind the signature detailed cuts and handicraft trims of her ready-to-wear collection.

Cointreau is a must to give our favorite cocktails that slight edge of "Je ne sais quoi" sweet and bitter oranges, making for the most perfect margaritas or cosmopolitans. Bring this luxury gift to your hostess this holiday season to spice up any cocktail hour.


Cointreau Cosmopolitan Recipe
2.5oz Vodka
1.5oz Cointreau
1oz Cranberry Juice
0.5oz lime juice
Shake and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with twist of orange to bring out the flavor of Cointreau.

The ramp up has begin for the long-anticipated opening of Chef Thomas Keller's first Los Angeles restaurant, Bouchon in Beverly Hills. Chef Keller now has a total of seven Michelin stars to his credit (three for The French Laundry in Yountville, California, three for Per Se in New York City and one for Bouchon in Yountville). Bouchon in Beverly Hills will feature classic bistro favorites and seasonal offerings as well as a raw bar featuring a wide array of oysters on the half-shell from both the west and east coasts. Bouchon in Beverly Hills will open on November 18, 2009 in the Beverly Hills Gardens building located at 235 North Cañon Drive and is already accepting reservations.

Bar Bouchon, a French wine bar with an extensive wines-by-the-glass selection and small plate offerings will open in mid December 2009 and will be located on the first floor of the restaurant. The restaurant's small plates menu will feature a variety of both classic and seasonal potted foods, salads, charcuterie, cheeses, tartines, sandwiches, caviar and desserts. Vin de Carafe, a Bouchon wine program that brings recognition to local vintners will feature unique selections to showcase wine producers in Southern California. Each exclusive selection is blended specially for the restaurant one barrel at a time to showcase the distinct personality and flavors of the featured winemaker.

There has been a proliferation of bottled waters on store shelves and in restaurants. There are differences, whether you can taste them or not, and the industry is tightly regulated by both the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) and the IBWA (International Bottled Water Association).

The FDA determined standards of identity to help classify the different types of bottled water. A basic summary of the classifications follow:

• Spring water which comes from a natural underground source and from which the water flows to the surface of the earth.
• Purified water where the water has been produced by a process that is defined by the United States. These processes can include but are not limited to distilling and reverse osmosis.
• Mineral water which is described by having naturally occurring dissolved solids (minerals and trace elements) at the minimum rate of 250 parts per million. This means the minerals or other solids can not be added later.
• Sparkling water is allowed to have carbon dioxide added or other treatment to retain the same level of carbonation it had at the original source.
• Artesian water which is water taken from a specific height above an aquifer.
• Well water which is self explanatory, just like our backyards it is water that comes from a hole drilled or bored in the ground.

Soda water, seltzer and tonic water are classified as soft drinks and are regulated differently.

If you think that the different brands of bottled water taste differently it is not your imagination run amok. While many of us are influenced by the design of the bottle itself, if you listen to your taste buds carefully, you might learn to discern which of the bottled waters you prefer and why.

According to industry experts, the mineral content, both amount and types as well as PH, and the level of carbonation effect the taste of a given brand of bottled water. High TDS (total dissolved solids) in mineral water as well as the amount of specific minerals such as salt, may also effect ones perception of the taste. Obviously the size of the bubbles in carbonated water influences the way it feels in your mouth, just as it does in champagne.

Speaking of champagne, a fun idea is to conduct your own bottled water tasting. Look for waters from different regions, aquifers, rain water, mineral waters and even tap water for comparison. The best part is that there is no right or wrong just what you prefer!

I guess everyone has to eat, even in a recession. When the light appears at the end of the tunnel, though, appetites get bigger ... and more discriminating. In London, upscale eateries are seeing the investment banking crowd come back, and the wine is once again flowing. The cities top chefs are still worried about what will happen after Christmas, but for now, they're happy to see their creations gobbled up by the city's financial sector.

Marcus Wareing has had what he calls "a fabulous year." The waiting list keeps getting longer, and he says, "There's a good vibe." Tristan Welch's Launceston Place is seeing more wine flow, and demand is picking up. Pearl's Jun Tanaka remains cautious, "We'll really know in the first quarter 2010 if business has returned ... I don't know if it's a trend or a hiccup."

Across the city, there's a mix of optimism and trepidation. Le Gavroche, Wahaca and Le Café Anglais, for example, offer some variation of "Business is good" or "Business is booming, and Gordon Ramsay tells Bloomberg News, "There's an increasing air of confidence, which has been particularly apparent since the beginning of September." Michelle McGuire of The Palm said the restaurant had its busiest week three weeks ago since its opening in May, "with record takings." Sam Hart, of Fino, Barrafino and Quo Vadis, on the other hand, calls the improvement "fragile."

Nonetheless, this is a far cry from the angst that characterized the fine dining world a year ago. When people start to eat well, you know that things are turning for the better.

Dinner and a movie takes a new twist at the a/k/a a bistro in St. Helena, California. The movie "Where the Wild Things Are" will be screened at the local Cameo Cinema and the bistro has created a dedicated WIld Things menu. The movie inspired menu includes freshly pulled made to order warm mozzarella with pickled wild mushrooms, roasted pearl onions, smoked paprika vinaigrette; a second course of penne with wild boar ragout and warm wild huckleberry clafoutis with lemon verbena sorbet in a wild rice tuile for dessert. This menu costs $35 and will continue every Tuesday until the end of 2009.

The restaurant also offers the Tasty Tuesdays series. Winemakers or winery principals circulate through the dining room chatting with guests, who can sample a flight of three or more of the winemaker's wines for $9 alongside any items from the menu. "The idea is to meet and get to know wine people you may not have met yet," explains owner Robert Simon, "and taste their wares at the same time and spend only a fraction of the published price for that opportunity." In October and November the wineries include Bourassa, Bravante, Turnbull, Broman, Cakebread, Luna and Swanson. The Tasty Tuesday series runs from 6:30 until 8:00 p.m. every Tuesday evening.

The restaurant also offers customers specialties on specific nights: Wednesday is handmade pasta night; Thursday is 'slow food;' Friday is fish and Saturday is coq au vin, although the menu offers a wide range of small and large plates across a modern reading of California bistro cuisine. The restaurant offers unlimited free corkage Sunday – Thursday. The complete menu can be found at www.akabistro.com.

From toast in the morning to sandwiches at lunch and freshly baked French and Italian loaves served at dinner, bread is a foundation of almost every meal these days. Storage is important if you don't plan to eat the bread immediately after it's baked, but not all breads can be stored the same way if you want to maintain optimal flavor and freshness.

Different breads have different shelf-lives, but as a general rule the more moisture a bread has in it the longer it will keep.

• 1-2 days French and Italian loaves
• 2-3 days White, Wheat, and Sourdough
• 3-5 days Rye breads

Bread Storage Basics:

• Breads with a hard, crispy crust should be stored in paper.
• Breads with a softer crust and more moisture should be kept in a plastic bag or other airtight container.
• All bread should be kept in a cool, dry place.
• Bread should never be kept in the refrigerator (actually makes it go stale faster)
• Bread should be allowed to sit in the open until completely cool or mold growth will be accelerated
• Bread can be frozen and will keep for several months. Just wrap tightly in plastic and freeze.