fine dining

World's Best Chef To Open A Pizza Place

Filed under: Dining

What does the chef at the world's best restaurant do for an encore? How about opening a pizza joint? The LA Times reports that El Bulli chef, Ferran Adria has been in Italy studying pizza making. it's quite a change in direction for a man famous for his devotion to molecular gastronomy. But Adira has promised that his planned pizza restaurant in Barcelona, Spain will be a straightforward affair, no foams, no liquid nitrogen or strange balls of flavor, just your basic pizza pie.

Some Italian chefs are skeptical about the pizza skills of Ferran Adria and his pastry chef brother Alberto feeling that pizzamaking is more of a calling than something you can just quickly pick up. But for the Adrias the new planned venture offers a chance to cook for far more people than the small amount who eat at El Bulli each year. Let's just hope we don't see Adria frozen pizzas in the market in a few years right next to the Wolfgang Puck boxes.

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Tags: el bulli, ElBulli, ferran adria, FerranAdria, fine dining, FineDining, pizza

El Bulli Is The Top Restaurant Yet Again

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Once again the molecular gastronomy stylings of chef Ferran Adria have pushed Spanish restaurant El Bulli to the top of another world's best restaurants list. El Bulli won the top slot in the San Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants 2009. The list is the result of a poll of more than 800 chefs, critics managers and others done for Restaurant Magazine.

According to the AFP, Adria is quoted as saying it was an important night for Spain (in addition to El Bulli, two other Spanish restaurants, Mugaritz and El Celler de Can Roca were in the top five). He dedicated his award to Heston Blumenthal, whose restaurant, The Fat Duck was in the second position. Adria praised Blumenthal for his honesty. Blumenthal closed his restaurant briefly over a potential food poisoning scare earlier this year. Restaurants in the top ten from the U.S. were Thomas Keller's Per Se and Grant Achtaz's Alinea in the US.

Off the list this year was Gordon Ramsay's flagship London restaurant. Bloomberg reports that it was in 13th place last year but didn't even crack the top 100 for 2009. He did squeak onto the list in slot 91 with his restaurant Maze.

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Tags: el bulli, ElBulli, ferran adria, FerranAdria, fine dining, FineDining, heston blumenthal, HestonBlumenthal, restaurants

Per Se Offers A La Carte Dining

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

At the start of March, one of New York City's priciest restaurant's Masa dropped its menu price. It's a good time to eat in New York City for less because, as the Wall Street Journal reports, another of the city's premier dining destinations, Thomas Keller's New York restaurant, Per Se is introducing an à la carte menu. Since the restaurant opened, Per Se has only offered two multi-course dinner tasting menus at $275 a pop.

The à la carte menu which is served only in the restaurant's lounge, lets customers sample a few of the famed chef's dishes. You don't even have to make a reservation months in advance, you can simply walk in. The menu changes nightly and includes items that are part of the tasting menu served in the dining room. Of course you'll still be spending quite a bit, wine and cocktails start in the $15 to $20 range and most dishes are around $30 to $40.

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Tags: fine dining, FineDining, new york city, NewYorkCity, per se, PerSe, thomas keller, ThomasKeller

Spice Market Opens In Doha

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Jean-Georges Vongericthen has become the latest high-profile chef to take restaurants to the Middle East. Culinary Concepts by Jean-Georges has announced the opening of Spice Market and Market by Jean-Georges at the new W Hotel Doha. The restaurants are part of a partnership with Starwood Hotels & Resorts and represent the chef's first foray into the Middle East. "Doha is a region full of exotic spices and rich delicacies and I'm eager to infuse some of the signature dishes found at Spice Market and Market with the indigenous flavors of the region and a wealth of new ingredients," said Vongerichten. He also blogged about the experience last week.

Vongerichten is famous for eschewing the use of meat stocks and using vegetable juices and fruit essences for a light and fresh flavor. His most recent cookbook focuses on his love of Asian flavors. The decor for Spice Market at W Hotel Doha includes handcrafted screens and a series of clustered bespoke lanterns. Jean-Georges Vongericthen will be in good celebrity chef company, Nobu is also opening up a restaurant in Doha at the Four Seasons next year.

Gallery: Qatar On The Rise

Tags: doha, fine dining, FineDining, jean-georges vongerichten, Jean-georgesVongerichten, qatar

Masa Drops Set Menu Price

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

We all define the term discount differently. At Masa, Manhattan's ultra-pricey temple of sushi, the cost of dining has dropped from $450 to $400 for the set menu. This may not seem significant but it may be the first time that the Michelin-starred restaurant at Time Warner Center has ever dropped prices. Masa's business manager Veda Nishikawa told Blomberg's Ryan Sutton that the recession had nothing to do with the price drop. A reduction in the cost of freight to fly in Masa's fresh fish daily inspired the restaurant to pass on its savings to the consumer. As oil prices drop the cost of global air shipping is reduced. Of course if Masa really wanted to impress diners they could roll the prices back to the $300 the set menu cost back in 2004 when the restaurant opened.

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Tags: fine dining, FineDining, manhattan, masa, restaurant, sushi

Vivat Bacchus �1000 A Head Dinner

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Even though economic woes are reverberating around the world that doesn't mean rich bankers have to go without a good meal. The Scotsman reports on the £1,000-a-head menu at Vivat Bacchus. The restaurant is offering the Bonus Tasting Menu which is seven courses. It starts with champagne, caviar and vodka, moves on to lobster linguini, Wagyu filet steak, a cheese course, a chocolate souffle and coffee with fancy cakes. The meal is accompanied by some delicious wines including a glass of Chateau Lafite Rothschild, at £650 a bottle with dinner, a 45-year-old Port with the cheese course, a glass of Chateau d'Yquem, at £495 a bottle with the chocolate souffle and a glass of Martell Cordon Bleu brandy to finish things off as you get ready to roll your way home. So far the restaurant has had six bookings. I is available for a minimum of two people and must be booked two days in advance.

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Tags: fine dining, london, restaurants, vivat bacchus, VivatBacchus

Would You Pay For A Restaurant Reservation?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Trying to get a table at a hot restaurant is often an exercise in frustration. But what if, instead of making the calls yourself, or paying a concierge to try and get you in, you could log on to a website and buy the reservation. That's the basic idea behind TableXchange. The service offers reservation for a fee in New York City, San Francisco and the Hamptons and already has around 1,000 members. For example, for $25 you can get a table for two at Jean Georges this Friday. The idea is already causing controversy. Some in the New York hospitality industry find it manipulative and distasteful. Many people find it similar to the process of ticket scalping in which tickets to hot events often sell for far above their face value. The main difference, of course, is that restaurants reservations don't usually come with a price tag, although certainly money has been used to obtain reservations and/or hot tables for years, just through more oblique methods. TableXhange makes its money by taking a commission from each sale as well as through advertising revenue.

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Tags: fine dining, new york, reservations, restaurants, tablexchange

Crystal Cruises Ultimate Vintage Room Dinner

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Yachts & Sailing, Wine

How's this for a booze cruise, sampling a nearly impossible-to-get 1961 German Riesling and a 1959 Chateau Mouton Rothschild, Pauillac and five other rare wines while cruising from Istanbul to Athens. Crystal Cruises' second Ultimate Vintage Room Dinner will take place on Crystal Serenity's October 6, 2007 voyage from Istanbul to Athens. The seven wines are Krug, Vintage Brut, Reims, France 1990 - Riesling, Auslese, Wehlener Sonnenuhr, J.J. Prum, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Germany 1961 - Chevalier-Montrachet, Grand Cru, Domaine Leflaive, Burgundy, France 1998 - Barbaresco, Angelo Gaja, Piedmont, Italy 1989 - Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, Pauillac, Bordeaux, France 1959 - Grange Hermitage, Penfolds, South Australia 1986 - Graham's Vintage Port, Portugal 1955. The seven-course menu features warm oriental duck salad; Goutte d'or, coriander and ginger; steamed scallops Maitre Lurkin; risotto al funghi; mignon of angus beef, shallot sauce, market vegetables; vacherin cheese; and mille-feuilles with red berries and cardamom ice cream. Nice pairings but personally I never miss the chance to pair Port with chocolate. The meal costs $1,250 per person.

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Tags: cruise, crystal cruises, CrystalCruises, fine dining, wine

El Bulli Named The World's Best Restaurant

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

What are the 20 best restaurants in the world? According to Restaurant magazine, El Bulli, Ferran Adria's iconic restaurant in northern Spain is now top on the list, upsetting last year's winner the U.K.'s Fat Duck (shown here), which is now number two, where El Bulli was last year. Both restaurants specialize in experimental cuisine. French Laundry was tops in the U.S. at number ~~three~~ four and Thomas Keller's New York restaurant Per Se ranked eighth.

1. El Bulli (Spain)
2. The Fat Duck (U.K.)
3. Pierre Gagnaire (France)
4. French Laundry (U.S.)
5. Tetsuya's (Australia)
6. Bras (France)
7. Restaurant le Louis XV (Monaco)
8. Per Se (U.S.)
9. Restaurant Arzak (Spain)
10. Mugaritz (Spain)
11. Can Fabes (Spain)
12. Nobu (U.K.)
13. Gambero Rosso (Italy)
14. Gordon Ramsay Royal Hospital Road (U.K.)
15. Restaurant Alain Ducasse (France)
16. Jean Georges (U.S., New York)
17. Le Cinq (France)
18. Daniel (U.S., New York)
19. Oud Sluis (Netherlands)
20. Chez Panisse (U.S.)

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Tags: el bulli, fat duck, ferran adria, fine dining, food and drink, gourmet, jean georges, per se, restaurants, thomas keller, top restaurants

Wolfgang Puck Joins The Newseum Project

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

The Newseum project on Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. is more than just another museum in Washington D.C. The project will have 135 apartments, retail space and, as was just announced, a new Wolfgang Puck restaurant to be named "Source by Wolfgang Puck." The Newseum located on Pennsylvania Avenue will replace the old Newseum which was in Arlington, Virginia. The complex will open in 2007. The building includes a large facade which looks out on Pennsylvania Avenue and the National Mall while letting the public see inside to the visitors and displays. It will be Puck's first foray into high-end dining in Washington.

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Tags: fine dining, food, newseum, restaurant, spago, washington dc, wolfgang puck, WolfgangPuck

Corkage Fees, How Much Is Too Much?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Wine

The San Francisco Chronicle asked people an interesting question this week: What's the most you'd pay for restaurant corkage fee? Most people seemed to find that $25 was the highest price they would be willing to pay for the privilege of drinking their own wine at a restaurant. Some restaurants set the corkage fee deliberately high to strongly discourage bringing your own (the famed French Laundry has a $50 corkage fee). After all, creating a wine list for a restaurant is an art all its own.

If you are planning to bring your own wine to a restaurant it makes sense to call in advance as the prices for corkage vary wildly depending on a variety of factors including the fanciness of the restaurant, whether or not they have their own sommelier and/or carefully crafted wine list and to some extent, how nice you are about it. If you have a reason for bringing a specific wine and explain it to the staff and if it is clear that you plan to spend a lot of money on the food and other cocktails corkage fees are sometimes waived (but don't ask for that specifically). An article in Food and Wine has some decent rules for bringing your own wine including perhaps the ultimate rule: don't bring cheap wine. I've searched in vain for a U.S. database of corkage fees but there doesn't seem to be one (although there is a Canadian list). Slashfood's own Sarah Gim has a list of Los Angeles corkage fees on her blog The Delicious Life but we need a nationwide list.

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Tags: corkage, fine dining, food and wine, restaurant etiquette, restaurants, wine

Dom Perignon Celebratory Meal Served at The Fat Duck

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Wine

I never know what to make of experimental cuisine, part of me wants to embrace the inventiveness of the cook, the other part of me says brings me the classics instead. Decanter covers a meal made by Heston Blumenthal of The Fat Duck to celebrate the release of the Dom Perignon 1996 Rose. The Fat Duck has been named the world's best restaurant and serves unique cuisine that is famous for its wow factor. The five hour dinner included snail porridge, bacon and egg ice cream, oyster and passion fruit jelly, mustard ice cream, jelly of quail and langoustine, truffle toast and oak moss film, foie gras with cherry and chamomile, and salmon and licorice. The 1996 Rose was served as an apertif and several other Dom vintages accompanied the meal. It doesn't sound like my dream menu but as one of the writers who attended the dinner said "it was a performance, not a meal."

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Tags: dom perignon, fat duck, FatDuck, fine dining, restaurants

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