—Tony. Since he left Cleveland, he never writes, he never calls. I guess all that good will in Cleveland wore off. Ever in love with his own presence, he's blogging on his appearance in Top Chef.
—Good post on vodka and gin and martinis: bottom line “vodka is for twats and wankers.” Crude, I know, but straightforward and I like that. (Moments after posting this I got an email from this blogger, Chris Walker, who'd been emailing me with questions, saying a new post was up, between me and him on the lost art of tending bar.)
—I’ll be making a lot of custards next week so I was delighted to have read david lebovitz’s post on what to do with leftover eggwhites. Those chocolate macaroons are definitely in my future.
parkbench
Self centered swine though he may be, Bourdain's "Cleveland" T-shirt on last week's NR *was* a nice touch.
--parkbench
Kansas City rube
I too have abandoned vodka for gin but my mom still swears by Dirty Ketel One Martinis. I inevitably end up making one for myself when I make one for her and I still love them.
Uncle Hulka
It's simple.
There are Martini's and then there are Vodka Martini's.
Like Van Halen and Van Hagar, the former is real, the latter just a pretender.
Marty
Actually, I think Bourdain was busy with this: http://www.seriouseats.com/required_eating/2007/09/anthony-bourdain-and-qotsas-rockin-holiday.html
sorchar
And I bet Bourdain didn't respect you in the morning, either. Men. Hmph.
Skawt
Ruhlman:
Tony blogging elsewhere? Did Bravo offer him actual money to do it? What a whore. God bless him.
Shannon
I think Tony was traumatized by filming the Cleveland episode and wants to do everything he can to forget the whole thing. I know it traumatized me just by watching it.
As for the gin/vodka thing. I have a hate-hate relationship with gin in my martinis. I was at a wedding at The Breakers in FL. and I had a gin martini, got sick from it, and had to leave early thereby causing me to miss out on the main course....South African lobster tail. Damn you gin...damn yoooou.
artnlit
Tony is just busy being all fluffy again as you can see in that blog. Butterflies make another appearance and his comments re: his wife remind me of when one drinks a few too many and starts hugging everyone. I suppose that is better than trashing the place though. This is not a snub to the man, so don't get all riled up you Bourdain defenders; I'm a member of the club and thus, have privileges. However, I really would feel better if we saw a photo of his little tike in a Ramones onesy or something. He's starting to scare me. And what's this about having a home in Connecticut??
As for the vodka/gin debate, for martinis, I will leave it up to you connoisseurs. However, I will always choose vodka over gin in other areas of the arena.
artnlit
Alas, Tony has denied (sort of) that he has a place in CT (see the NR site). Well, IF you DO end up there Tony, at least move next to Keith Richards who has managed to seduce his neighbors with his charming pirate personality!
bourdain
Unfair to call me out like this, Ruhlman. As you well know, I am in Macau, supervising the casting of our Golden Clog Award statuettes. During the few breaks on the production line, I've been on the phone to the South Beach Food and Wine Fest people, making "arrangements" for your appearance.
They've never seen a rider so long--or so frightening. All those hair products..the mechanical bull...They have a very hard time believing FN ever actually countenanced this kind of stuff.
Re: "The punch bowl--to include a festive blend of......for Mr. Ruhlman's guests" Apparently, you need a prescription for some of that shit.
You can at least compose a press release, Writer Boy. Do I have to do ALL the work?
gailsie
You know what they say, if you love something set it free...Tony was sporting a Cleveland shirt on last week's NR, so I suspect he still thinks of you. Give it time, old boy.
Susan
And he speaks... not to turn this into a Bourdain referendum, has anyone seen this bizarre setup on the TC site called the NR Wiki? I thought a wiki was a Native American abode. They actually have an area where you can post pics of AB sightings, sort of like bigfoot. Ruhlman, if you miss him too much, visit the wiki.
sorchar
At least he doesn't have performing monkeys on the rider. I hear the ASPCA got after him the last time.
Frances
I was all ready to chew Anthony a new one for his remarks about Sara N and the high heels (in spite of the nod to Traffic). Then I thought, well, I didn't see that episode and I don't know why she was wearing heels in the first place, and then there was his reference to his personally witnessing other female chefs serving up 150 meals in stilettos and still having the energy left to kick Howie's ass. Okay. So those are all good reasons for Anthony to not have a new oriface.
However, I thought about it some more because I think too much. I decided that just because some women choose to wear heels and can function in them in the workplace, that doesn't mean that a woman is somehow lacking because she isn't accustomed to wearing them for long periods. If the evening had indeed been a night on the town, and not a TC ambush, and she had complained about hurting feet, then she could be accused of having made a bad footwear choice for going out on the town. If she had chosen to wear heels knowing she was in for a night on her feet in a kitchen, then that would be different too. But none of that happened.
Having thought about it even more, I've decided that I would love to see one of the men serve any meaningful function in a kitchen sporting a pair of pointy-toed 2" pumps. As someone famous once said, "If high heels were so great, men would still be wearing them." And no, even though I'm a woman, and I love pretty things, the longest I can stand in heels is for the duration of Mass. Maybe it's because Stacy and Clinton haven't taken me by the hand and offered $1k to buy some really good shoes, the wearing of which would not equal self-mutillation. Dunno. I'll have to think about it some more.
Regardless, I love everything Anthony writes because it gives me even more to think about and I can hear his voice narrating it. Also, thanks to Michael for the link to his blog.
Susan
Great post, Frances. The shoe issue is something most men don't understand. I do love the baby blurb in Bourdains latest post. Ruhlman, is he all soft and smushy with your kids also?
Can you confirm or deny the possibility of NR Austin? We are somewhat californicated, hipster-dufussed, but still a great food town.
The martini issue is still up in the air. I find it a matter of mood. Sometimes your in the mood for dirty, sometimes your not.
Susan
YIkes...correction, sometimes you're in the mood for dirty, sometimes you're not.
Skawt
One of these days we're going to find Tony facedown in a bowl of Skyline chili, with a sprinkle of virulent yellow cheddar cheese on his head, and it will come as no surprise to anyone.
Frances
Thanks Susan. 🙂 I thought about it some more, and realized that I mispelled "orifice" (and a couple of other words).
No new orifice for Tony either.
Claudia
Artnlit, I can guarantee Bourdain's bambina is about to acquire a Ramones onesie, but I don't think we'll be seeing a picture of her in it any time soon. Bambina does appear in Gourmet's Gourmet Institute calendar 2008, though - sans onesie of any kind (!) Don't worry, old boy. He's not getting over-fluffy. Yet.
Susan
Daddy and Baby's pic really sweet. She almost fits in his hand.
sorchar
That picture is the whole reason I ordered that calendar, though all the pics are good.
Frances
That is a lovely photo! Thanks for posting that info Claudia. I'm going to order a calendar for myself and a couple of them for my clients. I don't do calendars for my business. I mean, I guess I could do 12 months of lamps or throw pillows for the seasons of your life or something. Or 12 months of me - well that would just be plain wrong. And the Gourmet Institute calendars are for a very good cause.
chefwannab
I must also urge a NR episode in Austin. Particularly during the Austin City Limits Music Festival, which just wrapped for this year. All of the food vendors are independent and local, an amazing feat for a three-day event with approximately 65,000 ticket holders. Tony would love the event, the food and seeing the bands. Plus Austin has lots of other great food to explore and interesting people.
Claudia
I should've reiterated that the Gourmet Institute calendar money IS going for a good cause, benefiting City Meals-on-Wheels, which delivers meals to the homebound (elderly, sick, etc.)
https://www.eventier.com/events/calendar/purchase.aspx
Frances
And here is a link to the Citymeals-on-Wheels online donation page:
http://www.citymeals.org/support
Aaron
Not to kiss your ass or anything, but Charcuterie is my favorite cookbook right now. I had no idea who you were until I opened it at Barnes and Noble one day. I guess I can't say I didn't known anything about you, I had already purchased Bouchon (and made the brined roast chicken) and read Tony's Nasty Bits, before realizing you had in some way been a part of both, but I hadn't really taken notice. Kinda like when you realize the new band that you liked on the radio is an amalgamation of your favorite musicians from bands-past, I opened Charcuterie, read the first chapter, and finally put two and two together. I just started reading your blog a couple weeks ago and I've read it clear through to this post written in 2007... (side note: I'm two days into my first home cured pork belly and my wife defines my enthusiasm as a "man-crush").
So anyway, on to the question at hand. I'm not sure this would work as a cookbook per se, but I want a book that interviews today's top chefs (Keller, Achatz, etcetera) speaking about lessons learned from failed attempts.
Let me give you a scenario:
The other week I tried to braise short ribs for the first time. My plan was to serve them with a mint-cauliflower puree, and over sweet-potato mashed potatoes. Let me just say, it was a total disaster. The lesson learned was that although in theory this dish should work, I hadn't done any of the three parts before, and therefore had no basis on how to make any one of them good on their own let alone put together.
Make sense?
I think you would be a choice writer for a book like this. You seem to be someone who might be able to bring out the most embarrassing stories of failure from these chefs and somehow turn these horror stories into something that makes said chefs look like culinary heroes. Exploit the humble mistakes, therefore giving the home cook something to empathize with.
What do you think?
By the way, really looking forward to Ratio. My mind works in building blocks. My favorite book as a child was "The way things work by David Macaulay, which demystifies the workings of many everyday mechanical utilities such as the toilet. If Ratio breaks down food into the mix of simple math (function) with great taste (aesthetic), like so many of my other passions (aka music, architecture), I'm sure to have my first born memorize it like an orthodox Jew memorizes the Torah.