soupnancy

Bits and Bites March 2007

March 16, 2007

Toronto ’s turn next year . On the heels of New York as the spotlight city for the Montreal Highlights Festival, Toronto is announced to be next year’s city vedette from February 21- March 2, 2008 , with Susur Lee as honorary president. Should be interesting. Will it be another channel for the TO-Montreal rivalry to play out? Or just warm and fuzzy fun. Hopefully, it will be a surprising and bridging experience, and good for our culinary Canadian identity. I think it’s about time both chefs and eaters foster more connections Canada wide.

Bacon popcorn . Everything is better with bacon, as I’ve been saying for years.

http://nosheteria.com/2007/02/snacking-thy-name-is-decadence.html

Popcorn with truffle à la Thomas Keller, now popcorn in bacon fat; why not popcorn with truffle AND bacon? Over the top.

'The truth about saturated fats’, speaking of fat. Most of us are screwed up about what is good and bad when it comes to fat. Now trans fat is the enemy and olive oil is holy, margarine is bad and butter coming back. Is it really Ok, and how can it be? What about all the different vegetable oils that surround us? Many don’t know that these can be as dangerous as heart clogging animal fat was supposed to be. Don’t you want to get to the bottom of this? Well.. This is long and detailed, but when you have the time to read, it will give you the lowdown. In the mean time, don’t judge bacon too fast. See misc. article, ‘The truth about saturated fat’..

http://soupnancy.squarespace.com/the-truth-about-saturated-fat/

Truffles in Tenessee , the real deal… Very interesting! See misc. article, Cultivating truffles.. http://soupnancy.squarespace.com/cultivating-truffles/

Epynord . Finally.. The ‘cordonnier mal chaussé’ gets a neat pair of shoes.

Check out some friends’ new company website, Graphic and web design for restaurants.

http://www.epynord.com

Forbes food trends . Forbes cites the 10 most influential chefs in America today, and the trends that follow, nothing new but a good overview..

http://www.forbes.com/wineandfood/2007/03/13/tastemaker-chef-food-forbeslife-cx_mm_0314chef.html

Kitchen Gadgets. I’m not very into gadgets, but I kind of like this work-table scoop, although I could never actually rationalize buying it. It’s just a fancy dust pan, but it’s nice. There are some other cool things on this site too.

http://www.chefsplanet.com/prep_taxi.shtml

Jeffrey Chodorow , a NYC restaurant magnate, took out a full page ad in the NYTimes in response to his zero star review by Frank Bruni.. Good on him for speaking out, not because he is ‘right’ but because he can, and we rarely hear the other side of the story. I don’t know how many stars his restaurant deserves; who can say what he’s really like or what the critic’s experience was. There are always many sides to any one story, and a review is a very subjective thing based on a particular performance. The critic is doing his job by picking things apart based on his knowledge and experience, and the restaurateur is doing his job by trying to make a living by making his clients happy. You’d think this would all come together, but it doesn’t always. What matters to the critic might not make a difference to the devoted diner. What creates fireworks for ‘M.- Mme. Tout le monde’ that don’t get out much, is boring, passé for the critic. Friendly for one is unprofessional to another, and on and on. A restaurant is always many stories, like a movie with parallel plots, their lives converging, diverging, many happy, others annoyed or oblivious. It’s hard to make generalizations, to find the truth. But critics are more schooled in this than most of us. However, critics do seem to take on a disproportionate importance, mainly because we hear their stories more than any others..

I’m all for dialogue. http://gawker.com/assets/resources/2007/02/pete_wells_ad1.php

Chefs work hard for their money in case you didn’t know..

For salary averages in the U.S. , see the A Star chef’s salary survey lists averages in the U.S. , much higher than here: http://www.starchefs.com/features/editors_dish/salary_survey/2006/index.shtml

But before you follow the doctors, don’t forget that cooking school and the cost of living are significantly higher in the States..

Calling on Chefs to do their part to support sustainable fish and seafood , (60% of fish is consumed in restaurants).. http://www.starchefs.com/features/sustainable_food/html/2007_02.shtml

And by the way, here in Montreal, ‘on fait dure’; there is swordfish and tuna, Chilean Seabass and every other endangered species on menus about town, and no one seems alarmed!

Ruth Reichl’s Garlic and Sapphires –the movie . This book should make a great movie.. and I think Julia Roberts would be right. http://www.adweek.com/aw/magazine/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003553495

I’m a fan of everything she’s a part of, can’t wait.