MARIANI’S
Virtual
Gourmet
"Tables for Ladies" (1930) by Edward Hopper
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IN THIS ISSUE FOOD, BEAUTIFUL FOOD! By John Mariani NEW YORK CORNER Catch By John Mariani ❖❖❖
By John Mariani
Last week in New York magazine’s Grub Street food section, the editors asked more than 100 chefs to plate their most beautiful dishes, to be photographed to “look as drop-dead gorgeous as possible.” The editors “were looking for splendor, eye-popping precision, and the kinds of dishes that remind you what happens when very smart, hyper-talented people spend every waking moment thinking about ways to push things forward.” The results were stunning, though many were gussied up beyond what the chefs actually create in their restaurants. Many had edible flowers or made the food ingredients look like flowers; one looks like a bird’s nest (Aquavit, NYC, left), made from a brownie and blueberry sorbet; some foamed and bubbled; many were overwhelmed by the plate or bowl itself; one (Elizabeth, Chicago) was presented on a found deer skull; and some looked a lot like road kill. There are many books and whole magazines devoted to this kind of food art--which is not the same as food as art, which I discussed in an article some weeks ago--and chefs comb them for ideas and inspiration, in the long tradition of creating extravagant dishes that goes back to the Renaissance, when four-and-twenty black birds baked in a pie really were set before the king. In the 18th century, showpiece foods were used for one-upmanship among the aristocratic class--200 dishes spread over two days of feasting--and in the 19th, Marie-Antoine Carème established the standards for haute cuisine with his elaborate pièces montées for his benefactor Talleyrand (right). Extravagance never left haute cuisine, although in the latter part of the 20th century elaboration and showmanship--like flaming cherries jubilee at the table--gave way to a simpler beauty, whereby the main ingredient was the focus and the surrounding drips and drops of sauce and arrangement of baby vegetables soon became a cliché of la nouvelle cuisine. (Except for a handful of modernists, Italian chefs care little for gorgeous presentations, allowing the food itself to rouse a powerful desire to eat it with dispatch.) This all led me to thinking about the role of beauty in food presentations, for beauty and taste are not at all the same thing. I’ve had hundreds of beautiful dishes that tasted dull and I’ve had very humble dishes that were dauntingly delicious. Exquisitely mounted dishes can be like exquisitely decorated Christmas presents whose recipient exclaims, “Oh, this is just too beautiful to open!” and whose contents may not be nearly as impressive as the wrapping, just as so many gorgeously dressed women might better stay that way all night. The whole idea of beauty
in food is illusory, of course, because the most
unadorned dish may be as appealing and
sensual-looking as something far more extravagantly
decorated. The
naked porterhouse on a thick plate, the golden Dover
sole drenched in butter, the simple bowl of bucatini all'
amatriciana (left),
and a slice of cherry pie à la mode can send shivers
down the spine and cause the mouth to water. The photo
below is of nothing more than scoops of Carvel
vanilla ice cream with Eclipse coffee syrup, yet it
seems at once both completely decadent and
charmingly childlike. The response of most
people to the dish would probably be, "Oh, that
looks so
good!" And that’s one of the problems with artfully plated food: It looks very beautiful but does it really look delectable? If you actually have to wonder what in God’s name the dish is, or need it explained to you in a 45-second spiel by an idolatrous waiter, has the wow factor overcome the taste factor? Such dishes also take an amazing amount of time to plate, usually with tweezers and espresso spoons in hand. The micro-greens are placed just so, the exact number of pin dots of sauce set at intervals on one side of the plate; a puree is smeared into a squiggle; ingredients are set on billowing dry ice; sprigs of things that are not supposed to be eaten shoot up from the plate; dustings of something or other stretch to the rim; a dozen or more items are composed on one plate—all of it taking time, while the hot food gets tepid and the cold food gets warm. More often than not, the tiny bits and pieces and dribbles and dots amount to nothing in terms of taste. How, for instance, are six pin dots of a sauce supposed to influence a whole quail that has been marinated, seasoned, grilled, sided with a puree of sweet potatoes and doused with chives and nasturtiums, with a smoking pot of ash on the rim? My first rule of good cooking--and plating--is that everything on the plate should be edible, and, second, that every element truly enhance the flavor of the dish instead of being merely decorative, like the silly slice of twisted orange they put next to pancakes at a hotel breakfast. Back in the 1950s at Chicago’s Pump Room, restaurateur Ernest Lessing Byfield used to say, “We serve almost everything flambé in that room. It doesn’t hurt the food much.” And Robert Benchley quipped of the restaurant, “Any minute now they’ll be bringing in the manager on a flaming sword.” Such flourishes used to be called--or were--gimmicks: the “spinning salad bowl” at Lawry’s Prime Rib in L.A.; the Polynesian ceramic cocktail glasses with flowers and paper parasols at Trader Vic’s in San Francisco; the baked Alaskas with sparklers in them carried around the room at Antoine’s in New Orleans; the spider web sauces on oversized Villeroy-Boch plates at every nouvelle cuisine imitator; and, of course, the ridiculous Viennese dessert tables displayed at weddings and on cruise ships. All for show, and if taste was there, too, all the better. Recently
I dined at L’Épicure, the elegant, Michelin
three-star restaurant at Le Bristol in Paris, and,
while every dish I had was very lovely, none
of the plate decoration was merely for the sake of
dazzling the guest.
Even the most extravagant dish--a poulet de
Bresse steamed in a pig’s bladder--was not
only based on classic tradition (en vessie)
but on the idea of intensifying the flavor of the
chicken. That
it came to the table looking like a balloon mounted
on its own sterling silver platform was duly
impressive, but when the bladder was cut open, the
aroma was almost inebriating. The
tender chicken breast was then sliced and simply
plated with its sauce, followed, after further
cooking in the kitchen, by the dark meat. Everything
was delicious, everything on the plate was meant to
be eaten, and the showiness of the presentation
merely a wonderful, even amusing, backdrop to a
superb dish--every morsel and soupçon meant to be
enjoyed.
❖❖❖ NEW YORK
CORNER
By John Mariani CATCH
NEW YORK
I had my
reservations about visiting Catch, the huge
three-story seafood restaurant in NYC’s
Meatpacking District. In fact, it was its
huge-ness—275 seats, plus a new addition of 70
seats on the redesigned roof— that put me off
dining there ever since it opened several years
ago. I simply couldn’t believe a place of this
size or capacity (800 dinners a night) could
possibly obtain and carefully cook enough
first-rate seafood day after day. (The
owners, the EMM Group, have just debuted a branch
of Catch in Dubai.) There
is, of course, a cocktail program, and, even
though Catch gets a high-octane, big spending
crowd, the prices for drinks are well shy of the
most expensive places in town, with most cocktails
$14-$16. The wine list, with recommendations for
“raw,” “cooked” and other options, is remarkable
for its size and selection, with both reasonable
and high mark-ups. A $20 Livio Felluga Pinot
Grigio 2013 in the store shouldn’t cost $72 at
Catch. The
more prestigious “Captain’s Stash” wines actually
have lower mark-ups, like a $200 Peter
Michael “Les Pavots” 2011 that the restaurant
sells at $390. CATCH is open daily for
lunch and dinner.
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DEPT. OF
REALLY BAD IDEAS
Edgar Antillo, co-owner of Rubbin' Butz BBQ in Milliken, Colorado, posted a window sign that read "White Appreciation Day! June 11th. Because all Americans should be celebrated!!" when all white people would get 10 percent off their bill. "We have a whole month for Black History Month," said Antillo, who is Mexican-American, "we have a whole month for Hispanic Heritage Month, so we figure that the least we can do is offer one day to appreciate white Americans."
OPENING LINE OF A TRAVEL ARTICLE
Illustration by Yuda Onoda ❖❖❖
Any of John Mariani's books below may be ordered from amazon.com. I'm proud and happy to announce that my new book, The Hound in Heaven (21st Century Lion Books), has just been published through Amazon and Kindle. It is a novella, and for anyone who loves dogs, Christmas, romance, inspiration, even the supernatural, I hope you'll find this to be a treasured favorite. The story concerns how, after a New England teacher, his wife and their two daughters adopt a stray puppy found in their barn in northern Maine, their lives seem full of promise. But when tragedy strikes, their wonderful dog Lazarus and the spirit of Christmas are the only things that may bring back his master back from the edge of despair. WATCH THE VIDEO! “What a huge surprise turn this story took! I was completely stunned! I truly enjoyed this book and its message.” – Actress Ali MacGraw “He had me at Page One. The amount of heart, human insight, soul searching, and deft literary strength that John Mariani pours into this airtight novella is vertigo-inducing. Perhaps ‘wow’ would be the best comment.” – James Dalessandro, author of Bohemian Heart and 1906. “John Mariani’s Hound in Heaven starts with a well-painted portrayal of an American family, along with the requisite dog. A surprise event flips the action of the novel and captures us for a voyage leading to a hopeful and heart-warming message. A page turning, one sitting read, it’s the perfect antidote for the winter and promotion of holiday celebration.” – Ann Pearlman, author of The Christmas Cookie Club and A Gift for my Sister. “John Mariani’s concise, achingly beautiful novella pulls a literary rabbit out of a hat – a mash-up of the cosmic and the intimate, the tragic and the heart-warming – a Christmas tale for all ages, and all faiths. Read it to your children, read it to yourself… but read it. Early and often. Highly recommended.” – Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling author of Pinkerton’s War, The Sinking of The Eastland, and The Walking Dead: The Road To Woodbury. “Amazing things happen when you open your heart to an animal. The Hound in Heaven delivers a powerful story of healing that is forged in the spiritual relationship between a man and his best friend. The book brings a message of hope that can enrich our images of family, love, and loss.” – Dr. Barbara Royal, author of The Royal Treatment. ❖❖❖
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FEATURED
LINKS: I am happy to report
that the Virtual
Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites: Everett Potter's Travel Report: I consider this the best and
savviest blog of its kind on the web. Potter is a
columnist for USA
Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury Spa Finder,
a contributing editor for Ski and a frequent contributor
to National
Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com
and Elle Decor.
"I’ve designed this site is for people who take
their travel seriously," says Potter. "For
travelers who want to learn about special places
but don’t necessarily want to pay through the nose for
the privilege of staying there. Because at the end
of the day, it’s not so much about five-star
places as five-star experiences." THIS WEEK:
Eating Las Vegas is the new on-line site for Virtual Gourmet contributor John A. Curtas., who since 1995 has been commenting on the Las Vegas food scene and reviewing restaurants for Nevada Public Radio. He is also the restaurant critic for KLAS TV, Channel 8 in Las Vegas, and his past reviews can be accessed at KNPR.org. Click on the logo below to go directly to his site.
Tennis Resorts Online: A Critical Guide to the World's Best Tennis Resorts and Tennis Camps, published by ROGER COX, who has spent more than two decades writing about tennis travel, including a 17-year stretch for Tennis magazine. He has also written for Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, New York Magazine, Travel & Leisure, Esquire, Money, USTA Magazine, Men's Journal, and The Robb Report. He has authored two books-The World's Best Tennis Vacations (Stephen Greene Press/Viking Penguin, 1990) and The Best Places to Stay in the Rockies (Houghton Mifflin, 1992 & 1994), and the Melbourne (Australia) chapter to the Wall Street Journal Business Guide to Cities of the Pacific Rim (Fodor's Travel Guides, 1991).
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John
Mariani.
Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani,
Robert Mariani, Misha
Mariani,
John A. Curtas, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein,
Andrew Chalk, Dotty Griffith and Brian Freedman. Contributing
Photographers: Galina Dargery, Bobby
Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.
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