tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87503518817593260702024-03-12T16:10:40.508-07:00The Eye in Dining<br>Author of SMART CASUAL: The Transformation of Gourmet Restaurant Style in America + MAY WE SUGGEST: Restaurant Menus and the Art of Persuasion considers the social significance of contemporary food and restaurant aesthetics.
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Copyright © Alison Pearlman since 2009. All rights reserved.Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-30746124694846693582020-05-09T13:54:00.002-07:002020-05-09T13:54:27.920-07:00NEW RESERVATIONS: REFLECTIONS on NEWS of a TASTING MENU in the COVID ERA<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq3d__BZJPaR3X9fsd4F5TVSdPPFA8Js6cpEJ5VhF8e2I-2aSrvV2jAsYjyUCD99z-cd8-kRzYD_2oHISVvT8PEGZrmpltzUG9NzNgvHaRaH8VLbiEmeYUziEwA6CPexWEK4AsA0m24DM/s1600/Dialogue-pumpkin-ice-cream-sandwich-blogspot-theeyeindining.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1278" data-original-width="1600" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq3d__BZJPaR3X9fsd4F5TVSdPPFA8Js6cpEJ5VhF8e2I-2aSrvV2jAsYjyUCD99z-cd8-kRzYD_2oHISVvT8PEGZrmpltzUG9NzNgvHaRaH8VLbiEmeYUziEwA6CPexWEK4AsA0m24DM/s400/Dialogue-pumpkin-ice-cream-sandwich-blogspot-theeyeindining.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dialogue restaurant, Pumpkin Ice Cream Sandwich, from THE BEFORE.</td></tr>
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This week, I read that restaurateurs of a fine-dining restaurant in Austin, Texas, planned a novel idea for "service" during our collective state of COVID confinement. They would provide their tasting menu to reserving guests by virtually gathering them from scattered home kitchens to follow along and cook the menu in that "alonetogether" patchwork of screen boxes we've learned to substitute for a shared table.<br />
<br />
I figured that the synchronous preparation and enjoyment of the same menu was meant to recoup not only some of the restaurant's revenue but also one of the fine-dining restaurant's profound services to humanity: I mean its ability to enhance civilization by offering a communal aesthetic and social experience that enlivens the senses and expands the imagination. Check and check. (And "Check, please!")<br />
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Upon reading this news, I was touched by the resourceful creativity of the restaurateurs. I marveled at their tenacity. I understood that doing anything other than adapting--however imperfectly, however not like it was--under today's dire circumstances might be far worse. Something had to be done, right? Leave it to restaurateurs to find imaginative solutions. I admired these people in Austin trying to make it work.<br />
<br />
I also felt depressed. The news of this creative solution only highlighted the loss of what makes me want to visit a restaurant. The transformation of the restaurant into a home-cooking experiment might mean the financial survival of some business models (and I support any effort, really, at this terrible point), but it means losing what I love about restaurants. I love the kitchen staff's cooking and want to experience that, not mine. I love the ambiance. For this reason, I leave my home. I love the privilege of being served by competent, graceful servers. I appreciate what it takes to execute good service, and when I choose to go to a restaurant, especially a fine-dining establishment, I am willing to pay--and tip--well for it.<br />
<br />
What can I do to get the restaurants I love back to what I loved about them? So far, all I've managed to do is get lots of takeout, donate whatever I can to the legitimate causes, including some Gofundme pages for specific beloved places, and calling and emailing Congress to fix the sorely lacking PPP bill so that it benefits restaurants. I follow Independent Restaurant Coalition and #saverestaurants (saverestaurants.co) and post what they suggest I post. I applaud my local government's employment of restaurants to help feed seniors and those too much at risk to venture out to get their own food.<br />
<br />
If I can do more, I will. I want my beautiful, bountiful restaurants back. I don't want them permanently transformed into home-cooking courses and curbside pickup joints.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-71392526018428992112018-10-13T16:31:00.003-07:002018-10-13T16:33:59.501-07:00Book Release: MAY WE SUGGEST: RESTAURANT MENUS AND THE ART OF PERSUASION<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Years in the making, it has finally arrived! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Get yours at your favorite book store or directly via this link: </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/May-We-Suggest-Restaurant-Persuasion/dp/1572842601/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538363629&sr=8-1&keywords=May+We+Suggest+Restaurant"> https://tinyurl.com/ydz3cyyr</a></span></span></div>
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<div class="ydpddc796afp1">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We find restaurant menus everywhere. But we know little about how they
work. In <i>May We Suggest,</i> I investigate how they try (and sometimes fail)
to influence what we buy, how we dine, and how we feel about both. </span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<div class="ydpddc796afp1">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In 77 visits to 60 restaurant brands of all types throughout the
greater Los Angeles area, I asked: How does a menu’s size, structure, imagery,
language, materials, and pricing dictate what we buy or how we compose a meal?
Does a fine-dining table menu try to hook us the same way as a signboard over a
fast-food counter or a mobile-ordering app? What convinces us that one menu has
enough choice and another too much or not enough? Along the way, I show how
menus of differing styles operate. I also uncover what rhetoric works when,
where, and why. </span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<div class="ydpddc796afp1">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">You will not find a book about restaurant menus quite like this. I define
restaurant menus in an expansive way, considering spoken variants,
displays of real food, and digital varieties--not just sheets of paper and signboards. My study
draws on an unprecedented range of disciplines, from experience design to
behavioral economics. It is also the first book about restaurant menus to explore how, in their efforts to persuade us, menus seldom act alone. I show how they cooperate with restaurant décor, service, and other
merchandising devices. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dear reader, if you are a restaurant-goer, a restaurateur, or a student of either, join me to find out how it is that, while we order from menus, menus try to order us. Anyone interested in the workings of restaurants, the experience of dining out, the rhetoric of things, and the subject of consumer choice will find the read enlightening and even amusing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-size: small;">Copyright 2018 Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved. </span></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-30319975124528903002017-08-17T22:38:00.003-07:002017-08-17T23:10:58.474-07:00THIS HIDDEN PLACE<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKd-b1xwuF-imOhAgikuvSpOhYOlFgmzPR_P8VPVte-9ol8c3HhPy97CJFXLn6OINpHUeslJ1PjXcfLhObTc_D7CxbTF6BWBk3ofFOuErBkpcLnJehU6BtEBaumgjhD587CxaS63eR2QA/s1600/Vespertine.la-Eric-Owen-Moss-bldg-1MB-8-15-17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKd-b1xwuF-imOhAgikuvSpOhYOlFgmzPR_P8VPVte-9ol8c3HhPy97CJFXLn6OINpHUeslJ1PjXcfLhObTc_D7CxbTF6BWBk3ofFOuErBkpcLnJehU6BtEBaumgjhD587CxaS63eR2QA/s400/Vespertine.la-Eric-Owen-Moss-bldg-1MB-8-15-17.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vespertine, Los Angeles. Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Before my meal at Vespertine, chef Jordan Kahn’s fantastical
restaurant in Culver City’s Hayden Tract, I savored
anticipating it. In a blog post of July 9, I appreciated the beguiling pre-opening
hype. Now, a few days since my visit, I can say that the aftermath is richer still.
Some meals you digest mentally long after your stomach does its part.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Partly because I’m still processing the five-hour
extravagance, and partly because I have a pressing work deadline and can’t
write as in-depth as I’d like, it’s premature for me to speak about my visit. But I feel an urgency to stick up for Vespertine in the face of negative
commentary, especially by one <i>Hollywood
Reporter</i> critic and a snarky Instagramer, whose conclusions about the
place have received outsize attention.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The <i>Hollywood Reporter</i>
said Vespertine was “intentionally joyless.” I’ll never know if the staff corrected
attitude after that review. All I can say is that every member of Kahn’s team
was warm and gracious to me and my companion, and generous and knowledgeable when
asked about the food. Never were they cold or overly solicitous.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The <i>Reporter</i> went
on to say that the seating in the dining room somberly faced people toward the
center of the room and each other. I thought the furniture was smartly designed
and configured for privacy and splendid views. Tall, curved booth backings encased the banquette seats, separating the dining parties
visually and aurally just enough. The curving backs allowed me to twist inward,
better facing my companion, or outward, to take in the restaurant’s spectacular
architecture and surrounding industrial park. Through the glass-and-steel grid
on three of the building’s four sides, we saw a campus of warehouses, the afterhours and back doors of our “creative economy” and
imaginative buildings by Eric Owen Moss for which the area is renowned.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">As if it was an undue affront, the Instagramer complained of being berated for taking
pictures. That person clearly provoked his or
her own bad time by fighting the premise of the restaurant.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">If we want to enjoy them, it's best to understand that restaurants
exist on a spectrum. At one extreme, we diners are the stars of our dramas, while
the restaurant staff and décor play supporting roles. At the other end, we have
places like Vespertine, where the restaurant is the main player and the guests
take in what should be a unique and worthwhile show. For this, as on a night at
the opera, we ought to accept the house terms: in this case, no taking pictures once
inside. They do ask nicely.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">It’s hard for me, as one who writes about restaurants, to
refrain from the photography that helps me remember details or to accept what
sometimes seems like an undemocratic restriction of my pictorial “speech.” But,
after visiting Vespertine, I understand why the no-photography rule stands. So
much delight depends on surprise in every space and moment of the meal that
to proliferate images, beyond the teasers the restaurant metes out to press,
would deprive future diners of something vital. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">In these early days of the restaurant, I don’t mind being an
accomplice, keeping Vespertine a little hidden. That way, others can enjoy the
experience as I did. For that reason, I won’t get too detailed when describing the experience, revealing in words what pictures threaten to do. But,
to give the restaurant the credit it deserves, I must convey at least in general
terms what impressed me most.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">At every restaurant, architecture shapes the event of the meal.
But the role the Eric Owen Moss building plays at Vespertine is well beyond the norm.
Our meal progressed in multiple phases and settings, which took us through
every interior floor—even dramatic parts of the building’s exterior.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">When I arrived early, I waited in the outdoor garden behind the
building and marveled at the manufactured pond along the entrance side. Paved with
puzzle pieces of geometric white “rock,” it reminded me of another planet on
Star Trek. I admired this scene from my petite concrete chair,
among other uniquely proportioned chairs, benches, and tables landscaped over
and under by little green hills and stalks of bamboo, giving semi-privacy to anyone there. While I waited for my friend, a swelling abstract soundtrack surrounded
me, perfectly calibrated to advance and recede at the rate of my attention. (Here,
I was served water and a juice I will only say involved a tree in striking glassware). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">From this vantage point, I could see the party who arrived before me as well
as servers ascending and descending stairs suspended from an upper
level of the building’s exterior. This foreshadowed our journey to the first
phase of our meal and the reason the reservation system asked if anyone in my
party had extreme fear of heights.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Once my friend arrived, we were escorted to the ground-floor
elevator, which took us to the second, kitchen, floor, where chef Kahn graciously
greeted us. From there, a staff member led us up those external stairs to a
magical rooftop haven where we enjoyed our first five courses. (If you can choose your reservation hour, time your visit a half hour before the sun sets. The sky up there is at its most royal blue, and the temperature is ideal.) The meal
proceeded on another floor, beneath, in the official dining room.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">At every point, the building asserted itself. I
took to it immediately and remained enraptured by it at every turn. What Eric Owen Moss
did to create fluidity between inside and out, to frame
views, and give a perpetual sense of openness—with multiple parts of the
building visible in every part of the building—was ingenious. Putting the bathroom—and
what a bathroom!—at the bottom and rear of the building showed even a sense of
humor. After dining at Vespertine, I felt an anthropomorphic affection for the structure.
Look at my picture of it, and maybe you can understand that. It even has
a human scale.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Kahn’s cuisine and its artful presentation also stand out.
I don’t want to say too much. I hope these notes will suffice: Few ingredients
take the form you think they will when the servers point them out. Undoubtedly, Chef Kahn uses the full range of contemporary culinary technique and technology, and his
artistic sensibility is second to none. I admit that most of the time I didn’t
know what I was eating—the staff’s spare introductions, citing
approximately three ingredients, served more to cast a poetic spell than to explain what
were obviously complex and intricate dishes—and I didn’t care. The thrill of
unexpected flavors, textures, temperatures, and weights in the food and its vessels and platforms was great enough for me on a first visit.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Nevertheless, my friend and I did notice certain patterns in
the chef’s aesthetic. Over five hours, we had plenty of time to discuss them. Kahn
conceived of the food inseparably from the service wares. Dish
components lodged in crevices, and hid color-camouflaged among raised
or concave surfaces of unique trays. Some adhered to sides of a bowl. Kahn likes vertical plinths and containers that rest on more than one side. We saw well-paced contrasts of color and texture; some like asphalt, others like cream. Kahn switched up cool and warm, temperatures
we could taste in the food and feel in the ceramics. Certain vessels not only looked stunning
but were functional, their thickness holding heat and cold. If you dine
at Vespertine, you’ll spend a lot of time fondling and peering into bowls as if you discovered a stalagmite-filled cave. Food may be horizontal,
vertical, tucked, layered. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Kahn is clearly a student of gastrophysics, the multisensory
science of how we perceive food and drink. Not every dish came with a metal utensil. Sometimes a spoon was not just a spoon. He overlaid some elements
just so their scent could contribute to taste. And he experimented with different
weights of the dishes and utensils we held.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Near the end of the meal, before one last visit to the garden for postprandial drinks, we were brought back to the ground
floor to pick up a gift from the so-called “table.” I won’t ruin it by telling
you what the resinous thing was. In any case, the real gift is what Kahn has
brought to the L.A. restaurant scene.</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-449113118472863182017-07-09T13:41:00.003-07:002017-07-09T21:46:28.312-07:00ANTICIPATING VESPERTINE<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdAobTCEhh3_z5blWc9oC-tvM6oZ1kQca9SJqqIBsM4IqOonG7wyRUUH4Lh_c8kyrFupkOU7P1n3vzskia4hXqX7Jch0Z8aYhW9nUJKj0EArOEu-vaPxUZgCOxQOuEt5gDkzfkag7zpn8/s1600/Vespertine-Los-Angeles-Culver-City-Jordan-Kahn-Eric-Owen-Moss.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdAobTCEhh3_z5blWc9oC-tvM6oZ1kQca9SJqqIBsM4IqOonG7wyRUUH4Lh_c8kyrFupkOU7P1n3vzskia4hXqX7Jch0Z8aYhW9nUJKj0EArOEu-vaPxUZgCOxQOuEt5gDkzfkag7zpn8/s400/Vespertine-Los-Angeles-Culver-City-Jordan-Kahn-Eric-Owen-Moss.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vespertine, Los Angeles. Still from trailer on the restaurant's website, vespertine.la.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">I read about it. I went to the website. I watched the trailer four times. When the ticketing system finally went live, I made a
reservation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">It’s hard for a restaurant to live up to a lot of pre-opening
hype. In this case, the hype is for savoring all by itself. It is, at least, by
thrill-seeking aesthetes like me. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">From the restaurant’s website
and advance press, here's my summary of the concept: Vanguard chef Jordan Kahn, whose previous ventures in Los Angeles include Red Medicine and Destroyer, intends to create an ultra-fine-dining experience
that departs from today's mainstay of locavore rhetoric
and aesthetics radically. He wants diners to feel transported beyond any known place. To banish signs
of Earth, he has marshaled a cadre of kindred designers. The website credits Eric Owen Moss for the architecture, musicians This Will Destroy You for the "score," Ryota Aoki for "ceramics," and Jona Sees for "textiles and garments." Kahn's total theater--buzz-killers say, of the absurd--will
take diners through many courses and several spaces in the
building. Each space will have its own sonic ambiance. Kahn has kept the style of his food semi-veiled. What I've glimpsed seems so alien among existing forms that even a sharp photo of a dish doesn't clarify what it is. No shapes on the "plates" resemble known edibles. Hints of Vespertine's food appear sparingly in press and the trailer. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">Oh, the trailer. It's the restaurant’s tone poem. The main mood is part
early Alinea, where Kahn once worked, a study in luxury grays, and part
otherworldly Bj<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">ö</span>rk, whose 2001
album is named Vespertine. It conjures an ambient music video on another
planet, where a simple walk along the hills turns up transparent spiny things and geometric
white flora. I think these are foretastes of Kahn's cuisine. Scenes follow a wandering waif, half hidden under a hood, who periodically
fondles dirt and strange plants. Shots of the restaurant’s building, a wavy
postmodern grid in dark glass and red metal, splice in toward the end,
suggesting the waif’s destination. Because we never see the ground that it
stands on, the structure looks like a floating world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">The branding is novel, and so I’m seduced. I have Vespertine
day dreams. In one, I am swaddled in gray felt, placed by a glass wall, and
allowed to marvel at sculptures they call food brought by servers in silent
slippers. I imagine not moving my own body, but being transported from one room
and soundscape to another as the courses of the meal progress. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">My cossetting fantasy is no accident. Leading up to the
opening, Vespertine has promised a kind of escape. The illusion of placelessness
is temporarily
unburdening. It suggests relief from a nagging conscience about exploiting Earth's creatures just when other restaurants in Vespertine's class have intensified it.
Even today’s most extravagant places remind diners of food shortages and
inhumane practices by citing their sustainable methods and virtuous sourcing. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">The Vespertine aesthetic also removes the onus of considering labor
just as the troubles of restaurant work have confronted diners via new tipping policies and surcharges for employee healthcare. In
her <i>GQ</i> preview of Vespertine (June 7, 2017), Marian Bull reported that Kahn trained his servers to seem invisible and charged designer Aoki with making
their shoes inaudible. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">As long as Kahn’s labor practices really are fair, I don’t
think self-effacing service is bad. On the contrary, the commitment to
hospitality and fidelity to theatrical concept is admirable and consistent with good craft. Still, there’s no denying that, in Kahn’s
dining drama, labor--at least of the physical kind--is a background actor.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">Even the chef’s culinary aesthetic, as tentatively revealed, avoids signs of handicraft. You won't find the plate-scattered look of so much contemporary high cuisine,
which at least vaguely shows evidence of handling. The glimpses I’ve
gotten of Vespertine’s food suggest architectonic objects by way of CAD and
the 3-D printer. Here, labor seems purely conceptual.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">As with all earnest and ambitious attempts at
total theater, Vespertine’s will be vulnerable to parody, camp, and unwitting pops
of the proverbial balloon. I don’t see how it’s possible to avoid some
glitch in the matrix—like catching the Ronald McDonald you hired for a kid’s birthday
taking a cigarette break. There’s bound to be something like a dropped glass or
passing glimpse of routine Earth life out the window.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">But I respect the extent and courage of Kahn’s imagination,
and his willingness to take the financial risk of bringing a grand fiction to life. In recent memory, I've seen no offering like it in Los Angeles--really, and that's saying a lot. The aesthete and
the contrarian in me want Kahn to pull this off.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">Phase one of my Vespertine experience--making the reservation--has ended. Reserving through a ticketing website is nothing new for venues with high-end tasting menus. But never before have I been asked, as I was in the final screen of the process, if anyone in my party has extreme fear of heights. A message warned that part of the evening will involve traveling to the top of the
tower. (I thought I read “tower.” I was in a hurry to fill out the
form before the impatient Tock system could boot me out, rescinding my hard-won reservation slot, for a second time.) Yes, I mused, take
me to the tower! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: small;">Maybe, like the spaceship I have in mind, it’ll take flight. If not, I'll always remember how good was the hype.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-58180777356760118642017-04-02T14:46:00.001-07:002017-04-02T14:46:15.099-07:00THIS WEEK'S MENU<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIF8Q4B6477xUBBlF_Clmp8bCokV6-DGpq2e0uURmCSYEVkHUN5eomkrmoZHQ0fZw23iX4xhyg2mh3kGyc7iUR-29a-3baRlD-NnhNwdB-eobBTEHLcr10-37DWV8umJv8_QNR8ijgIFw/s1600/Gwenla-knife-a-presentation-for-main-course-smaller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIF8Q4B6477xUBBlF_Clmp8bCokV6-DGpq2e0uURmCSYEVkHUN5eomkrmoZHQ0fZw23iX4xhyg2mh3kGyc7iUR-29a-3baRlD-NnhNwdB-eobBTEHLcr10-37DWV8umJv8_QNR8ijgIFw/s400/Gwenla-knife-a-presentation-for-main-course-smaller.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gwen restaurant, Los Angeles. Photo by author.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Normally, when we think of a restaurant menu, we picture the list of dishes and drinks. But restaurants may be full of other kinds of menus, which may take unexpected forms. At Gwen in Los Angeles, for example, the food menu gives way, just prior to the service of the meaty main course, to a novel sub-menu: the presentation of a choice of knives. Thus, as the meal progresses, one set of choices yields another.<br />
<br />
To be sure, the knife menu at Gwen is a novelty and therefore a conversation piece. As such, it's a neat bit of experiential marketing. Gimmicky, perhaps, but not pretentious because the choice has legitimate weight. Have you ever tried to eat a steak with a knife too light or too dull? If you do, you won't enjoy the steak anywhere near as much as if you'd equipped yourself with a sharp and solid tool. The choice of knife really does matter.<br />
<br />
Of course, Gwen could have made this decision for you, providing you with a recommended blade. Why create an unnecessary ritual?<br />
<br />
In its defense, I would say that the knife menu isn't just experiential marketing. It's also experiential design. It modifies our experience of the food. By making us mindful of the choice of knife, we become more attentive to the multiple dimensions of artistry behind our culinary pleasure in the restaurant. Even if we don't realize this consciously, we've gained an appreciation for the meal, and the restaurant, as a total work of art. We've picked up on the fact that our experience of the food is affected greatly by the myriad other sensory inputs in its vicinity.<br />
<br />
(I wonder, too, whether our awareness of these dynamics makes us more or less or differently affected than we would be if left in the dark. Cognition is powerful, too.) <br />
<br />
Those who want to study the effect of our other senses on our sense of taste will enjoy further research into a relatively new field known as <i>gastrophysics</i>. Look into it. Go down the rabbit hole.<br />
<br />
http://www.alisonpearlman.com<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-57939088494918200262017-02-19T22:14:00.000-08:002017-02-20T17:04:39.064-08:00THIS WEEK'S MENU<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJzHa0izQc2nrb1Ey_SOfGz-aWg3psr46kbR_hMdRDF3iAE95s8yotHWu1NDsLmVcEEbkUtKUVG9mh-JuNSEFZWfHp3DVqfaqvABeccwguDUP_lijaNQ1aUARaD398GJgvj-2tD4Luoxk/s1600/Gwenla-view-of-fire-grill-to-right-of-chef%2527s-counter%252Bcenter-of-back-wall-of-dining-room-b-best+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJzHa0izQc2nrb1Ey_SOfGz-aWg3psr46kbR_hMdRDF3iAE95s8yotHWu1NDsLmVcEEbkUtKUVG9mh-JuNSEFZWfHp3DVqfaqvABeccwguDUP_lijaNQ1aUARaD398GJgvj-2tD4Luoxk/s400/Gwenla-view-of-fire-grill-to-right-of-chef%2527s-counter%252Bcenter-of-back-wall-of-dining-room-b-best+copy.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gwen restaurant, Los Angeles. View of open-fire grill at the back wall of the restaurant interior. Photo by author, 2-18-17.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In the main dining room at Gwen restaurant in Hollywood, there's a cunning presentation of choices. It starts with a look at one of the tasting menus. Will you have the three-course or the five? The prices seem low. $85 for the five? A bargain, you think. This can't be all.<br />
<br />
It's not. That is just the overture. The tasting menu is the baseline. Then comes a "supplements" list. But it's no mere addendum. It seems more like the main event. The list is as long as the longest tasting menu, and parades a tantalizing selection of eminently distinguished meats. The prices reflect that. Some, like the 80-day dry-aged beef from Creekstone Farms and, of course, the top-tier wagyu, are over twice the cost of the entire five-course tasting menu.<br />
<br />
You go for it. "Go big or go home," you toss caution, and half a month's rent, to the wind. Once ensconced in the dining room at Gwen, even before your platter of meat arrives, there's a good chance you'll feel that the splurge is worth it. Why?<br />
<br />
The decor has you in a decadent mood. A restaurant menu never had a conspirator so good. See for yourself. The full-length view of ravishing embers, and the platform above it for specialty cuts, continuously jostled into a sequence of stations based on doneness and resting phases, will rile you. The action never gets dull. And you can't miss it. It's the visual anchor, literally the central feature of the restaurant.<br />
<br />
Do you have the choice to abstain? Of course. But people say the same about sex.<br />
<br />
www.alisonpearlman.com<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-19205928201620001712017-01-22T13:31:00.005-08:002017-01-22T13:32:56.091-08:00THIS WEEK'S MENU<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw2wmkOVHnhpSvustGEywh2pQu5kLJVdvFgOCjB07BYU5PJEM9rePhgSxALhzFDP5y2x80x5X-seTbe9H7ODgAesf7MRovH_oy0ehUPg4uKsgFPYlL19L9n4p20LUie6KftLvi1gH5dBM/s1600/Neri%2527s-Restaurant-Koreatown-L.A.-digital-menu-board-Filipino-Cuisine-1-7-17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw2wmkOVHnhpSvustGEywh2pQu5kLJVdvFgOCjB07BYU5PJEM9rePhgSxALhzFDP5y2x80x5X-seTbe9H7ODgAesf7MRovH_oy0ehUPg4uKsgFPYlL19L9n4p20LUie6KftLvi1gH5dBM/s400/Neri%2527s-Restaurant-Koreatown-L.A.-digital-menu-board-Filipino-Cuisine-1-7-17.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Digital menu board at Neri's Restaurant, Koreatown, Los Angeles. Photo by Jamisin Matthews.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Digital menu boards have been slower to launch in the United States than in Europe or Asia. It's unclear to me exactly why. Perhaps there's a cultural dimension relating to differences in taste. Perhaps it has to do with business structures and startup costs. Dear readers, what do you think?<br />
<br />
The matter is complicated by the fact that digital systems can vary greatly in capabilities and cost. Some are just TV screens showing a digital file of a static menu. The menu changes only when you revise the digital file. If you go with this cheaper option, you'll get the up-to-date look of a digital menu. But you'll sacrifice some of the fancy dynamics you can get with systems for which you'll pay high startup costs and monthly maintenance fees. These might include moving or rotating images; real-time variable pricing, whereby prices change throughout the day in response to ebbs and flows in consumer demand; and the capacity to change offerings and promotions as often as the weather or current events. As you might guess, the most complex systems are more likely to be adopted by large chain restaurants. They have the budgets to start and sustain them and the impetus to vary menu contents and prices by hour and region. <br />
<br />
http://www.alisonpearlman.com<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-28264145819109299482017-01-14T18:29:00.003-08:002017-01-14T18:30:10.719-08:00THIS WEEK'S MENU<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWDjMyZi47peS2olLF2cyzWOzIWuCkoJsM9Ol25KNlzSUK7E_R_3JgoCaMLBEE0S87z4nNY7Sk22p79v6W60q6KqV8ytSOIHyEUDZYM6eRtv4iwq2tXexmi30nSyPiUKyyrQ5xsbNX9Yg/s1600/Cake-Monkey-WeHo-12-31-16+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWDjMyZi47peS2olLF2cyzWOzIWuCkoJsM9Ol25KNlzSUK7E_R_3JgoCaMLBEE0S87z4nNY7Sk22p79v6W60q6KqV8ytSOIHyEUDZYM6eRtv4iwq2tXexmi30nSyPiUKyyrQ5xsbNX9Yg/s400/Cake-Monkey-WeHo-12-31-16+copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cake Monkey, bakery, Los Angeles, 12-31-16</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
To pick up some mini-cakes for a New Year's Eve celebration, I stopped into Cake Monkey. The bakery is as full of menus--above the counter, on the counter--as it is the sweets they advertise.<br />
<br />
As a merchandising effort, this one impressed me the most. The full mini-cake lineup had a heart-warming <i>esprit de corps</i>. Even more savvy was the partnership forged between the cross-sectioned cakes and their corresponding labels.<br />
<br />
They are ideal complementaries. Look, for example, at the <i>Black and White Cakewich</i>. The verbal description informs you that "Chocolate Crunchy Pearls" are included. I never would have guessed from a view of the sliced cake itself. Meanwhile, there is nothing in the label that conveyed the cake's moist texture and deep color or the mid-line position and satisfying thickness of that buttercream slab.<br />
<br />
Bravi, and Happy New Year, Cake Monkey design team!<br />
<br />
http://www.alisonpearlman.com<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-75229809064623898082017-01-07T13:29:00.003-08:002017-01-07T23:00:04.045-08:00INTRODUCING "THIS WEEK'S MENU"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9sXl3jrWl6WuzIxVY1Dd6mBv0KfDPJvEjHmPcSn2LX7KnWieWgF3IxZ7NxirRVBFVzsaXEfD6KDxkz4GmsFycmwscXAjRkKiN2VOBlVHcPDMPMktx2koQ1Z1Sc2kq74H-QD71kjSUYHY/s1600/Rivera-restaurant-2014-spicy-chocolate-cake-w-avocado-cream.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9sXl3jrWl6WuzIxVY1Dd6mBv0KfDPJvEjHmPcSn2LX7KnWieWgF3IxZ7NxirRVBFVzsaXEfD6KDxkz4GmsFycmwscXAjRkKiN2VOBlVHcPDMPMktx2koQ1Z1Sc2kq74H-QD71kjSUYHY/s640/Rivera-restaurant-2014-spicy-chocolate-cake-w-avocado-cream.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
The presentation clinches the deal here, doesn't it? To my eye, it's a stunner. At the very least, can you admit this <i>Spicy Chocolate Cake with Avocado Cream</i>, cradled in a green glass that shows off the item's vertical layers and hypes the avocado hue, is an artful effort?<br />
<br />
All menus are presentations designed to entice--like this palmed offer from a dessert cart at the now (sadly) closed Rivera restaurant in downtown Los Angeles, like the cart it came from, and like the restaurant housing the cart.<br />
<br />
With this post, I present something hopefully appealing to you. It's the start of a new blog series for <i>The Eye in Dining</i>. Under the title <i>This Week's Menu</i>, I'll bring you brief annotations on noteworthy features of restaurant menus I've encountered. I hope it gives you a sense of menus' rhetorical wiles.<br />
<br />
Like restaurants themselves, some succeed; others fail. But how they do either is not always "by the book." (There are countless books on restaurant menu design.) As people say, it's complicated.<br />
<br />
Alison Pearlman<br />
http://www.alisonpearlman.com<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-88789421963353450002016-12-27T22:20:00.000-08:002016-12-27T22:26:36.192-08:00A NEW BOOK IS BORN: ON RESTAURANT MENUS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieM1Am-AOt-FS1WkTFEUAVWQSMaB3BsSjiqeqS9rbRxvl7GrQNrfTx52FxCQT98MAnoAqBPmew0mXQUZh9by3EGhCN9CEn39SiHQjIsUw8i6nwqatiXW5WGZtMvoRCuxC9ObyEjoJGnqY/s1600/In-N-Out-Burger-restaurant-menu-POS-8-20-14+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieM1Am-AOt-FS1WkTFEUAVWQSMaB3BsSjiqeqS9rbRxvl7GrQNrfTx52FxCQT98MAnoAqBPmew0mXQUZh9by3EGhCN9CEn39SiHQjIsUw8i6nwqatiXW5WGZtMvoRCuxC9ObyEjoJGnqY/s400/In-N-Out-Burger-restaurant-menu-POS-8-20-14+copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I promised I would post when I finished my manuscript on restaurant menus. I am a woman of my word. It is complete, at least until an editor gets hold of it....</div>
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<u>The book in brief:</u> A thoroughly researched, socially observant, and entertaining firsthand account of how restaurant menus design consumer choice and the experience of
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The work is based on my documentation of 77 encounters with menus at 70 restaurants throughout the greater Los Angeles area, which span all restaurant genres and menu formats. But my insights about menus are not just the product of personal experience. They are enhanced by investigations in a wide range of disciplines, from experience design to behavioral economics. Decoding menus demands a diverse set of tools! </div>
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This book represents the next adventure in a series in which I seek understanding of the social significance and rhetorical wiles of restaurant aesthetics. It started with <i>Smart Casual: The Transformation of Gourmet Restaurant Style in America</i> (University of Chicago, 2013). Check out the description at http://www.alisonpearlman.com</div>
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Stay tuned to this blog for updates on the menus book. Other posts about the book may be on Twitter @theeyeindining, Instagram @alisonpearlman, or Facebook under my name.</div>
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Cheers, and best wishes for 2017!</div>
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Alison Pearlman</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-24948158834129130082014-04-13T19:51:00.000-07:002014-04-14T12:24:09.868-07:00PARDON ME WHILE I STUDY THE MENU<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Salt's Cure, Los Angeles. Chalkboard menu of April 12, 2014. Photo J. Matthews.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those of you who have been with this blog since I started it in 2009 know that, from time to time, I've commented on the design of restaurant menus. It was a post entitled "Menu Minimalism" (1-10-09), in fact--a cultural interpretation of the syntactical habit so many gourmet menus then had (and still have) of describing dishes by lists of principal ingredients with only commas between them--that launched <i>The Eye in Dining</i>. Since then, I've penned a couple of commentaries on menus. I didn't plan it this way, but they both deal with questions of size ("Big Menu, Small Menu," posted 6-25-09, and the more recent "Sizing Up the Menu Size" of 7-20-12). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lately, things have gotten more serious between me and menus. The more I study restaurants, aesthetically and operationally, the more I see the key role they play. Menus are, after all, much more than lists. They are among the most powerful mediators of restaurant experience. I am now hard at work writing a book about their designs and functions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My apologies in advance to readers of this blog as I devote the considerable time needed to produce this book. On <i>The Eye in Dining</i>, I hope to share, here and there, related musings and status reports as the project matures. These will take time. Pardon</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> me while I study the menu….</span><br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-44078484682322286852013-10-28T21:16:00.002-07:002013-11-04T14:58:29.902-08:00ABOUT FEAST<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5S5tMYaKLAPm0n407MgqxJEVV5IlwsuUv4__uUpDyPE45OCmKtDykX4nQvkaOWL4F5bsNPjGCELTagcghynUBfC4HzfohDaANZMwHygMsUyt5WqWkPbJ4zsIp_KluTsDQbACnXpeUYEc/s1600/1-Wolvesmouth-Matthew-Bone-Alison-Pearlman-SMMoA-Cut-Your-Teeth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5S5tMYaKLAPm0n407MgqxJEVV5IlwsuUv4__uUpDyPE45OCmKtDykX4nQvkaOWL4F5bsNPjGCELTagcghynUBfC4HzfohDaANZMwHygMsUyt5WqWkPbJ4zsIp_KluTsDQbACnXpeUYEc/s400/1-Wolvesmouth-Matthew-Bone-Alison-Pearlman-SMMoA-Cut-Your-Teeth.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Exhibition antechamber to the <i>Cut Your Teeth</i> installation by Wolvesmouth + Matthew Bone @ SMMoACarolyn </td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;">In "Feasts and Philosophers," her essay for the exhibition catalog </span><i style="text-align: center;">Feast: Radical Hospitality in Contemporary Art </i><span style="text-align: center;">(Chicago: David and Alfred Smart Museum, 2013),</span><span style="text-align: center;"> Carolyn Korsmeyer makes a key distinction between hospitality at home and hospitality presented as art: </span><span style="text-align: center;">"Offering up a cup of coffee to a guest is a hospitable act; offering a bite of food as part of an exhibit is a vivid comment upon hospitality....As such, it demands reflection and interpretation--of the gesture and its intent, of the privacy of the sensation and the public nature of the act." In the museum, therefore, objects and actions not only are. They exemplify. </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">How is a dinner party in a museum substantially different from a dinner party in a home? Consider the case of </span><span style="text-align: center;">Craig Thornton--a.k.a. Wolvesmouth, the underground-dinner-party-chef-turned-cult-hero of the vanguard food world whose richly creative and visually stunning multi-course dinners, served at an undisclosed loft in downtown Los Angeles, have brought Thornton sold-out traveling gigs, a profile in <i>The New Yorker, </i>and made his dinners among the hardest to book. The Santa Monica Museum of Art invited Thornton and artist Matthew Bone for a residency over two weeks in October. Thornton and Bone collaborated on <i>Cut Your Teeth</i>, an installation where they served a series of the sort of multi-course dinners for which Thornton has become known. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGiqyvJoWsW54ktFP0BVqFVXpMiHqGofy34fC0tDMbsyTq3pS472v15vb2qpY8K_jInVnoKhIz9IMo7BZrp1NE-hpdoLP-C09S0Vob08u_4Zbs06RXLEwDY-nEH54N39V1Xzj0KgRGbXI/s1600/2-Wolvesmouth-Matthew-Bone-Alison-Pearlman-SMMoA-Cut-Your-Teeth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGiqyvJoWsW54ktFP0BVqFVXpMiHqGofy34fC0tDMbsyTq3pS472v15vb2qpY8K_jInVnoKhIz9IMo7BZrp1NE-hpdoLP-C09S0Vob08u_4Zbs06RXLEwDY-nEH54N39V1Xzj0KgRGbXI/s400/2-Wolvesmouth-Matthew-Bone-Alison-Pearlman-SMMoA-Cut-Your-Teeth.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Communal dining table with chandelier made from 7500 coyote teeth. <br />
Diners exploring the installation before taking their seats.</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;">What does Thornton gain by performing his loft dinners in a museum? The cultural prestige associated with art museums is always a temptation. But is there an advantage artistically? </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">I haven't been to a dinner at the loft, but I've heard from those who have and, as a member of the Wolvesmouth mailing list, I'm familiar with the basic terms and conditions. In important respects, the dinner party at the museum was similar. The guests were strangers, paying customers, and welcome to bring their own drinks and share them. The meal convened around a communal table. Thornton served a set multi-course tasting menu. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4AtNxibavacL-Uk_LPKD_L6Potzl8tw-gR6QPSj_4nZj2-nfyYvXCG5UgU_VvNEbuDPlrbnU8blW8FSCf7izLF7vwyeje1sLqXEe4iafhtDW9-_Un5KHDGTJjk_OuBHuxEKMfxF4ShIU/s1600/3-Wolvesmouth-Matthew-Bone-Alison-Pearlman-SMMoA-Cut-Your-Teeth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4AtNxibavacL-Uk_LPKD_L6Potzl8tw-gR6QPSj_4nZj2-nfyYvXCG5UgU_VvNEbuDPlrbnU8blW8FSCf7izLF7vwyeje1sLqXEe4iafhtDW9-_Un5KHDGTJjk_OuBHuxEKMfxF4ShIU/s400/3-Wolvesmouth-Matthew-Bone-Alison-Pearlman-SMMoA-Cut-Your-Teeth.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The diners take their seats, across from a dramatic diorama installation featuring various taxidermic specimens.</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Hearing Thornton chat about his residency at intervals throughout the evening, I gathered that the differences he intended between the loft and the museum dinners are largely aesthetic. </span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQjLG3KYfulSojQ5bikyTfuTt8keMvXjfgfF_afmHeHS3RlIXtdCTFphaIedGQwAGpVGC8_aeWUhi0AlGFHAgarmOHAgsxhNfLedX3DUKdikKfWvxDpUZ8VD_jLRzHp6HWwSqZnvRhaRk/s1600/4-Wolvesmouth-Matthew-Bone-Alison-Pearlman-SMMoA-Cut-Your-Teeth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQjLG3KYfulSojQ5bikyTfuTt8keMvXjfgfF_afmHeHS3RlIXtdCTFphaIedGQwAGpVGC8_aeWUhi0AlGFHAgarmOHAgsxhNfLedX3DUKdikKfWvxDpUZ8VD_jLRzHp6HWwSqZnvRhaRk/s400/4-Wolvesmouth-Matthew-Bone-Alison-Pearlman-SMMoA-Cut-Your-Teeth.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A fine example of taxidermy among various in the life-size diorama installation by Wolvesmouth + Matthew Bone.</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;">I could see them for myself: <i>Cut Your Teeth</i> was an elaborate multi-sensory event. Thornton and Bone, who was present and helping with the dinner service, built an enchanting, and at points humorous, installation. There was a marvelous array of North American taxidermy in a lush, life-size woodsy diorama bathed in the violet light of a concert stage. Predator or prey? Some animals snarled at us, on the attack. Others were poised in flight from us. The animalia trailed on, over</span><span style="text-align: center;"> the long table setting, where twenty-six diners sat beneath a chandelier made of 7500 dangling coyote teeth; and overhead, in a wave of taxidermied black birds. At the gallery's back wall, a massive video projection of a wolf devouring a carcass in the snowy woods played continuously as we dined in contrastingly refined style.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Venison--pine gelee, blackberry meringue, cauliflower puree, hen of the woods, soil, blackberry beet, purple cabbage.<br />
The sort of painterly presentation for which Wolvesmouth is well known. <br />
We were instructed to eat this first course with our hands. </td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;">My dining companions and I saw the humor in the "wild" way we were supposed to enjoy the first course (pictured above). "Eat with your hands!" The composition of the plate was similarly ironic in this context. As "wild" as a painting by Jackson Pollock. As "wild" as a reference to a Jackson Pollock painting in an art museum. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheO7JjuIxxIz0TcXJFIBL1BLD_vYrIJy6Ak0zRJ6z_zA7yCOr6aaMMoyMUB2dFUWvAazPyjlKaAskl901RCU7Hbe3ur7HlPodT4EyAEaG-eQIeaVRNybFtxS6_qfUKMr912MxNGnw1Orw/s1600/6-Wolvesmouth-Matthew-Bone-Alison-Pearlman-SMMoA-Cut-Your-Teeth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="333" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheO7JjuIxxIz0TcXJFIBL1BLD_vYrIJy6Ak0zRJ6z_zA7yCOr6aaMMoyMUB2dFUWvAazPyjlKaAskl901RCU7Hbe3ur7HlPodT4EyAEaG-eQIeaVRNybFtxS6_qfUKMr912MxNGnw1Orw/s400/6-Wolvesmouth-Matthew-Bone-Alison-Pearlman-SMMoA-Cut-Your-Teeth.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wolvesmouth + Bone in the kitchen prep area between courses.<br />
On the back wall, a continuous video projection of a wolf feasting on a carcass.</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;">Thornton and Bone also curated the event's narrative dimension. The nine-course feast gave the experience the skeletal structure of a conventional tasting menu, but there was much more. Diners were invited to also wander, take photos, talk to the chefs, explore the installation on our own between courses. A smart idea: let people weave their own tales, don't hold them "captive." Let them pace. Stake out their environment. Near the woods, I had an eye-opening conversation about the art and subculture of taxidermy with Bone. Apparently, it's customary to separate the squirrel's front and back sides. I enjoyed my talks with the diner to my left. We went down a rabbit hole pondering how many components are too many on a plate. I never came to a conclusion.</span><br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">I overheard Thornton saying that this, to experience the dinner just this way, was what they were aiming for. He spoke of creating the conditions for a memorable narrative, one that would engage all senses and yield stories from our interactions with the setting and each other.</span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A detail of the kitchen set-up at the back of the gallery.</td></tr>
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Speaking of the temporal dimension: a reminder (above) of the organizational skill required to pull off a nine-course feast with the impeccable timing we experienced. Pacing is everything when telling a story.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Course 5 of 9, a knockout beauty:<br />
Pork Belly--squid ink aioli, squid ink sabayon, blue lake, parsley, potato, almond<br />
The taste of unctuous pork belly with crunchy candied almond was as memorable as the visual presentation.</td></tr>
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Technically, an iteration of the same event could have taken place somewhere else, not in an art museum. But where else is it the norm for every detail of the environment and the performance to be taken as intentional communication? Where else will the duality of nature and culture be so readily converted into a commentary on that duality? Where else will a feast so easily become about the feast<i>?</i></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-16213438745022473672013-04-21T00:00:00.000-07:002013-04-22T15:14:42.837-07:00DINING AFTER 'SMART CASUAL' PART IV: If You Can't Stand the Heat (or the Meat), Don't Sit Near This Kitchen<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7DeYx9ltXqPhkC6NLb7WeDT8IGUA5kFz3gy8LXHa9fqMVAa-C92L9ec9IisZcojd_e9TIUVXP_TxBz0bWLGWuDv3wW9ABWn2IlH1tNrRvMf6Y7PTk_JpPeWDbzpinW1YYXTT8uRfW3iE/s1600/counterside+view+of+woodburning+grill.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7DeYx9ltXqPhkC6NLb7WeDT8IGUA5kFz3gy8LXHa9fqMVAa-C92L9ec9IisZcojd_e9TIUVXP_TxBz0bWLGWuDv3wW9ABWn2IlH1tNrRvMf6Y7PTk_JpPeWDbzpinW1YYXTT8uRfW3iE/s400/counterside+view+of+woodburning+grill.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Counter-side view of open kitchen with wood-burning grill @ Chi SPACCA. April 2013. Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial;">To pair with this month’s release of my book, SMART CASUAL: THE
TRANSFORMATION OF GOURMET RESTAURANT STYLE IN AMERICA (University of Chicago
Press), I reflect in a series of blog posts on “dining after </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial;">SMART CASUAL</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recent encounters with new and
notable restaurants in my home city of Los Angeles and media on food fads have
got me thinking about how the trends I discuss in SMART CASUAL are faring….</span></i></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_6i2TzzESi6Pzm-vB4Ff-4PaGKQHiQLhVHbSBo_qNRgYdO2c5gY3qid_9CuUKV19hPin-J7bH6ulkIeLskurGMAecK5D6AN-B1fLhUcmsZNJtvBUAKbwPIRfJKExM7uTn_OFRpSY85r0/s1600/Santa+Barbara+Spot+Prawns+on+the+flat+top+grill.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_6i2TzzESi6Pzm-vB4Ff-4PaGKQHiQLhVHbSBo_qNRgYdO2c5gY3qid_9CuUKV19hPin-J7bH6ulkIeLskurGMAecK5D6AN-B1fLhUcmsZNJtvBUAKbwPIRfJKExM7uTn_OFRpSY85r0/s400/Santa+Barbara+Spot+Prawns+on+the+flat+top+grill.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Santa Barbara Spot Prawns" sizzling on the flat-top grill in front of my place setting at the counter. Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">If Chi SPACCA had opened before I had finished writing <i>Smart Casual</i>--instead, it started taking reservations this February--it might have made a great poster child. It's an intensified version of nearly every trend in gourmet restaurant style I discuss. Open kitchen: check! Kitchen-side dining counter: check! Gourmet plays on traditional dishes that highlight the chef's creativity: vis-a-vis the "rustic Italian" genre, naturally! Nose-to-tail, locavore, sustainable, humanely raised, and house-made-product cuisine: yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! And does it also feed</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> the gourmet duality of ethical virtuosity and
self-indulgence? No question.<i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">For this latest restaurant addition to the corner of Highland and Melrose--filling up, Monopoly style, with the properties of Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali, and Joe Bastianich under the "Mozza" imprint--chef machers Nancy Silverton and Matt Molina got behind executive chef Chad Colby's panegyric to the finest in flesh and hearth. To my fiendish delight, they devised a very visceral way to deliver it. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBmd6jypv7CQVb0Qdmi3DXYYpO_50L1S_2aZBEWq5AlnyeldfW20eBuLmqhAlxmbjIllmMiGQ7kr_1PxDKSNO6ltbC8M8omWTWhI99ZjYiApJffUbLq_bbOqkX92YfCbc46IW91hXumW0/s1600/Tomahawk+pork+chop+on+the+grill+w+arm+for+scale.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBmd6jypv7CQVb0Qdmi3DXYYpO_50L1S_2aZBEWq5AlnyeldfW20eBuLmqhAlxmbjIllmMiGQ7kr_1PxDKSNO6ltbC8M8omWTWhI99ZjYiApJffUbLq_bbOqkX92YfCbc46IW91hXumW0/s400/Tomahawk+pork+chop+on+the+grill+w+arm+for+scale.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Tomahawk Pork Chop"--all 42 ounces--on the wood-burning grill, with arm included for scale. Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Without question, </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Chi SPACCA is the blu-ray of open-kitchen dining. Up close and lurid. It's a tiny restaurant. There is a smattering of tables in the space but the real focus is a dining counter where six people can look directly--I mean, smoke-inhalation directly--over a wood-burning grill and a flat-top grill next to it and the cave of a wood-burning oven behind those. From time to time, the middle cook of three behind the counter takes logs of almond wood stacked under the oven and feeds the beast of a grill. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Apparently, almond is mild enough to not interfere with foods' flavors. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">On a cooler side of the counter, another chef composes salads and paper-lined planks of house-made charcuterie. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">The source of the salumi and terrines, of which the restaurant is justifiably proud, is also, of
course, on display: behind a glass-walled refrigerator next to the open
oven. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDgPDjOQn-3RsbnT2GJOFZIOsvJlRcQUavfIQhUXyedq1qFrJSCNramBTDNIKd-1NXLE2bU5_HpXDy4lWNdZoKgf8GXMksoWr1DxU-mt-fQ4Bi_VONZn_j2JnbEZcFJQfEPxrRJDZ7wV4/s1600/IMG_0687.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDgPDjOQn-3RsbnT2GJOFZIOsvJlRcQUavfIQhUXyedq1qFrJSCNramBTDNIKd-1NXLE2bU5_HpXDy4lWNdZoKgf8GXMksoWr1DxU-mt-fQ4Bi_VONZn_j2JnbEZcFJQfEPxrRJDZ7wV4/s400/IMG_0687.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Single serving of the "Affettati Misti." Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The scene of meat meets fire is enhanced by seductive bouts of seasoning and dressing cuts of meat and seafood in large platters or deep pans. When I say "meat," imagine the shapes and sizes of various United States. Look at the picture I posted of the "Tomahawk Pork Chop." I can tell you it's forty-two ounces, but you might not fully grasp the import of that until you compare it to the arm of the towering chef. I included it in my photo for scale. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I've eaten at many a kitchen-side dining counter. By far the majority puts the cooler action of plating dishes right in front of counter-sitting customers. Chi SPACCA has counter diners almost as close to the grills as the chefs, within catching distance of sparks from the fire flying up into the exhaust hood. The chefs and we practically shared the hood as if it were a large umbrella. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">At first, sitting at the counter feels surprisingly HOT. But one gets used to it and settles in as at a campfire. My spellbound experience of the meal in this position was pure hominid: drawn to flame. I'm not surprised that the original setup in this space was for cooking classes, where students could directly observe cooking over heat. Now, in restaurant form, the arrangement is engaging in a similar way. One can watch the cooks season and dress and cook the various cuts of meat and seafood and actually learn something. (Not everything one learns is pleasing, however. For example, I already know that the amount of cream that goes into restaurant mashed potatoes is heart-stopping. But facing the truth stirring in the pan in front of me was still a shock.)</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrwya3iQdlXm5ZW7TlX6T1TE6zGAEVHL2kTXo7fdK28858BiaRy1gIqMKFL382UvjefC3pHwsXfZtHcYL3DWKkaThnN_uwcq4KWBqtpJOxBsE2JqsIQqInZ_eh1eZr72UJjcEibnL4Pt8/s1600/Beef+&+Bone+Marrow+Pie+%28serves+two%29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrwya3iQdlXm5ZW7TlX6T1TE6zGAEVHL2kTXo7fdK28858BiaRy1gIqMKFL382UvjefC3pHwsXfZtHcYL3DWKkaThnN_uwcq4KWBqtpJOxBsE2JqsIQqInZ_eh1eZr72UJjcEibnL4Pt8/s400/Beef+&+Bone+Marrow+Pie+%28serves+two%29.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Beef & Bone Marrow Pie (serves two)" with velvety mashed potatoes. Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The cuisine at Chi SPACCA represents the smart-casual trend of chefs appropriating traditional, regional cuisines, and then tweaking them. In this theater, the basic script is rustic Italian, but Colby departs freely from it. In a recent review in the <i>Los Angeles Times</i> (www.latimes.com, 4-5-13), Jonathan Gold pointed out that the beef and bone marrow pie, which I ordered and pictured here, is reminiscent of Australian meat pies (not Italian), yet Colby's version is not exactly like the Australian classic, either. Chi SPACCA varies from tradition in many ways besides, including its creative offerings of salads. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">And then there is the portion sizes. Everything from the custom cuts, as in the "Tomahawk" chop, to the columnar bone rising from the center of the beef and bone marrow pie take the rustic Italian aesthetic and remake it as Flinstonian spectacle. This tendency toward the oversize cut reminds me of the gourmet duality I write about in <i>Smart Casual</i>. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">On the one hand, we are made to feel virtuous about the fact that the meat is humanely raised, from an organic farm, being thoroughly used (all parts of the animal) throughout the menu, and raised not too far away; on the other, we are happy to consume like Roman emperors. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1LWLQEDMwf0ppo4gNTY66Fsf0YWIUZcL9ftqYMnKtTEswWwCqcYApfvHlAWsQqqT3B1F8zLU_86WtDLMd27xOSX8k1UEAyflWO3-mdDuEVixg7kDBkcU3j8LoLN5x6GJyinl90sZpx3U/s1600/Warm+Squash+Blossoms+Ripiene-ricotta+&+tomato+vinaigrette.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1LWLQEDMwf0ppo4gNTY66Fsf0YWIUZcL9ftqYMnKtTEswWwCqcYApfvHlAWsQqqT3B1F8zLU_86WtDLMd27xOSX8k1UEAyflWO3-mdDuEVixg7kDBkcU3j8LoLN5x6GJyinl90sZpx3U/s400/Warm+Squash+Blossoms+Ripiene-ricotta+&+tomato+vinaigrette.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the menu of "Contorni" (sides): "Warm Squash Blossoms Ripiene--ricotta & tomato vinaigrette." Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">We can count on places like Chi SPACCA to give us the most gorgeous expressions of our ethical striving as well as our appetites. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I would be remiss in talking about Chi SPACCA's achievement in stoking these values if I didn't recognize the key role played by contrasting elements in its meat theater. Aesthetic success often relies on a play of contrasts. This is no less true of cuisine than the other arts. In Chi SPACCA's case, the meat would be meaningless without the gorgeous cornucopia of plant matter. Salads and vegetable sides are so stunning and lovingly prepared. Above is a picture of the side dish of warm squash blossoms that I ordered that I would like to remember to look at whenever I'm feeling down. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The two images below show my "Insalata Misticanza." Clearly, this mountain of salad is designed to stand up to the Jurassic chops. Mine was so wondrous on every layer that I had to include two photos of it: the first, of the salad as presented; the second, revealing the interior in a spectrum of colors, textures, and shapes. </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Let's face it: no pastoral dream is complete without flora and fauna.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-F0QTwybGsSutJWQAnnlZOd6fYm4toBLUCdkPoC_tOhHZ54sfWPrOdwZsdmL8dUupsM9rH6ZAR551qICN8Ihc_83Fi8dK4yIHcQWaF2Hp1Z-31jckfpFBEn4pwV0ICgDvDnwKGSdRatQ/s1600/Insalata+Misticanza-English+Peas,+Beets,+Carrots,+Asparagus+&+Spring+Onions.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-F0QTwybGsSutJWQAnnlZOd6fYm4toBLUCdkPoC_tOhHZ54sfWPrOdwZsdmL8dUupsM9rH6ZAR551qICN8Ihc_83Fi8dK4yIHcQWaF2Hp1Z-31jckfpFBEn4pwV0ICgDvDnwKGSdRatQ/s400/Insalata+Misticanza-English+Peas,+Beets,+Carrots,+Asparagus+&+Spring+Onions.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Insalata Misticanza--English Peas, Beets, Carrots, Asparagus & Spring Onions." Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimGBe8ymZK696rVeYG5JOvBT_T5EzoeNcNsIUD6sVqharGvhlTzRhkCS-Y2jdcrLRQf0h6ZqmtjuXUi38UX1AmuP5YLuSu15lKKqWY_Hbl40OMBdSSQftyf173-dSzZo86XbXVUcCnbYc/s1600/Insalata+Misticanza-English+Peas,+Beets,+Carrots,+Asparagus+&+Spring+Onions+%28half-demolished%29.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimGBe8ymZK696rVeYG5JOvBT_T5EzoeNcNsIUD6sVqharGvhlTzRhkCS-Y2jdcrLRQf0h6ZqmtjuXUi38UX1AmuP5YLuSu15lKKqWY_Hbl40OMBdSSQftyf173-dSzZo86XbXVUcCnbYc/s400/Insalata+Misticanza-English+Peas,+Beets,+Carrots,+Asparagus+&+Spring+Onions+%28half-demolished%29.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "Insalata Misticanza" half-eaten, showing the many layers of wondrous color, texture, shape. Vibrant and delicious. Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-66703038451709856542013-04-17T00:30:00.000-07:002013-04-17T00:30:02.032-07:00DINING AFTER 'SMART CASUAL' PART III: Small Plates, Big Clatter<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5u_bwChRFfoeJIA91FljpYqd2n5ttbAdk5MDY2TgHTAOOGCc12U9cxe8oGrtaE7gKPcc53io5wDe4DizSVj8pBZae_PIEtrBBxXzDCBhFj9D9VCeg9HAgxOVV5Iwo5uWdVliRlR-dIdY/s1600/Lobster+Roll-green+curry,+thai+basil.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5u_bwChRFfoeJIA91FljpYqd2n5ttbAdk5MDY2TgHTAOOGCc12U9cxe8oGrtaE7gKPcc53io5wDe4DizSVj8pBZae_PIEtrBBxXzDCBhFj9D9VCeg9HAgxOVV5Iwo5uWdVliRlR-dIdY/s400/Lobster+Roll-green+curry,+thai+basil.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"LOBSTER ROLL green curry, Thai basil" @ Hinoki & the Bird. March 2013. Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial;">To pair with this month’s release of my book, SMART CASUAL: THE
TRANSFORMATION OF GOURMET RESTAURANT STYLE IN AMERICA (University of Chicago
Press), I reflect in a series of blog posts on “dining after Smart
Casual.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recent encounters with new and
notable restaurants in my home city of Los Angeles and media on food fads have
got me thinking about how the trends I discuss in SMART CASUAL are faring….</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">In “The Backlash Against Entrées Rages On”
(Eater.com, 3-26-13), Hillary Dixler reports on the further erasure of main
courses from trendsetting-restaurant menus and the latest flare-up in the controversy
over it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Those who’ve insisted on the superiority of the
tapas-style all-small-plates format include chef Alex Stupak, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bloomberg</i> critic Ryan Sutton and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Esquire</i>’s Tom Judot. Other chefs are
mentioned as defenders of this position in practice, even if not on Twitter and
the like. In the middle of the debate, there are those, such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Los Angeles Times</i> critic Jonathan Gold
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Washington Post</i> writer Tom
Sietsema. They haven’t been particularly sanguine on the matter, but have still
declared the death of the entrée a near <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fait
accompli</i>. Still standing up and fighting for the entrée, against the tide,
we find current <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> critic
Pete Wells and former <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i>
critic Frank Bruni.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj93BG6RSn3sQE3irFWZrigt6tpV6w-w-Wv-IfUQFr8y9vKaKHhtEApyxk-xTrgwgaSoI9PIEWoJIlUF7jry9B_Aw-paQ3Xyj0QlMM97L1eiTf9rbK9GJ_ctteNJ3H97Tn8Igz-LGH33Bg/s1600/Kale-crispy+and+raw,+curried+almonds,+pecorino,+red+wine+vinaigrette-my+portion+as+served+by+waiter.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj93BG6RSn3sQE3irFWZrigt6tpV6w-w-Wv-IfUQFr8y9vKaKHhtEApyxk-xTrgwgaSoI9PIEWoJIlUF7jry9B_Aw-paQ3Xyj0QlMM97L1eiTf9rbK9GJ_ctteNJ3H97Tn8Igz-LGH33Bg/s400/Kale-crispy+and+raw,+curried+almonds,+pecorino,+red+wine+vinaigrette-my+portion+as+served+by+waiter.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My serving of "KALE Crispy and Raw, Curried Almonds, Pecorino, Red Wine Vinaigrette" @ Hinoki & the Bird. Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">On the debate that Dixler deflty describes, I
have my own view: Notice that no chefs are on the
side of the entrée and that the reasoning used by chefs is unique to them. They
like small plates because they spur their own creativity and prevent them from
getting bored. Witness a tweet Dixler quotes from chef Stupak in response to a
question about whether or not his restaurant Empellon is serving entrees: “[N]o
longer. I can’t stand them so I’m never cooking them again.” In another tweet
quoted by Dixler, the chef stated that small plates “are more fun to work with
then [sic] 6-8 ounces of clunky protein.” Apparently, chefs David Myers and Kuniko Yagi of the Los Angeles restaurant I recently visited, poetically named Hinoki & the Bird, agree. Their menu has no entrees but instead novel categories such as "Fun Bites" and "Inspiration." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Meanwhile, those who have strong feelings in
the opposite direction, Wells and Bruni, make arguments that represent interests
of diners that conflict with chefs’ desire for attention and creative
development. They dare to suggest that they, as diners, would like to be
satiated by a meal. They entertain the idea of being able, when dining, to
relax. As Wells points out, small plates can create stress: “[J]ust as you
realize how much you’re enjoying a dish [at a table for four], the person next
to you has managed to stab the last forkful.” </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZiMvZUrnIx-q1mqdj28V8fylGNzQI_8NOa_4jRDt2Ok3pdPZvEpR1dbiR2SOFpZxzVP8EMjrxBdkNXSeuJPXIb1VZ3p_4s7jf4Ma9WUYbrlys7Fm1LycFjZwbvh8pO0ZktL71CQVrNLw/s1600/Sambal+Skate+Wing.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZiMvZUrnIx-q1mqdj28V8fylGNzQI_8NOa_4jRDt2Ok3pdPZvEpR1dbiR2SOFpZxzVP8EMjrxBdkNXSeuJPXIb1VZ3p_4s7jf4Ma9WUYbrlys7Fm1LycFjZwbvh8pO0ZktL71CQVrNLw/s400/Sambal+Skate+Wing.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Sambal Skate Wing" @ Hinoki & the Bird. Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The extreme ends of this debate reveal a tug of
wills between chefs and diners. Small plates, which arrive piecemeal in more
informal situations and in a tight orchestrated succession in more ceremonious
cases, constantly interrupt diners to pay attention to chefs. Entrées, in the
old-school sense, buy the diner some time to ignore the chef, to put the chef
in the background while the diner focuses on their company at the table or—god
forbid—ponders matters unrelated to food. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">This debate, the power of chefs it
represents, is deeply relevant to the story I tell in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Smart Casual</i>. The rising economic and taste-making influence of
star chefs has resulted in a wide variety of contemporary restaurant features
from exhibition kitchens to the elaboration of tasting menus. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">This latest kerfuffle over the death of the
entrée shows that the power of chefs shows no sign of diminishing. It also reveals
that, as with every imposition of will by one faction of a pluralistic society,
there’s bound to be a counterpoint.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-39471653742904894332013-04-08T00:00:00.000-07:002013-04-08T02:41:14.054-07:00DINING AFTER 'SMART CASUAL' PART II: Spago Reboot<style>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgINGZzQybQGhW8JN9HsvsNyrdyKQ0tLyRnJyKp5SwOpEd_kdSJ85s08KO0BPQaXZ1pyHhVX-chwBvChIsvMv-Wfu3wvLdz7XePoOl5RBvdIMp7QIiZyyQC-veN3vNwyN7rsd7b0rgovls/s1600/19-view+of+open+kitchen+after+service+at+10-15+PM-use+for+blog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgINGZzQybQGhW8JN9HsvsNyrdyKQ0tLyRnJyKp5SwOpEd_kdSJ85s08KO0BPQaXZ1pyHhVX-chwBvChIsvMv-Wfu3wvLdz7XePoOl5RBvdIMp7QIiZyyQC-veN3vNwyN7rsd7b0rgovls/s400/19-view+of+open+kitchen+after+service+at+10-15+PM-use+for+blog.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spago Beverly Hills, view of open kitchen from dining room. March 2013. Photo by author<i>.</i></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial;">To pair with this month’s release of my book, SMART
CASUAL: THE TRANSFORMATION OF GOURMET RESTAURANT STYLE IN AMERICA (University
of Chicago Press), I reflect in a series of blog posts on “dining after </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial;">SMART CASUAL<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recent encounters with new and notable
restaurants in my home city of Los Angeles and media on food fads have got me
thinking about how the trends I discuss in SMART CASUAL are faring….</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Chef Wolfgang Puck’s original
Spago on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles (1982-99) is one of the bedrock
examples in my book of “smart-casual” dining. It represents every major
transformation in gourmet restaurant style that I find paradigm changing. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Spago mixed elements of
“fine” and “casual” dining and broke with the former’s Francophilia—upsetting
the definition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fine dining</i>. The
original Spago had chairs that looked like they belonged outside on a deck, a
provocation to formality. It dressed wait staff in pastel Oxford shirts and
aprons, not suits. It put the kitchen proudly on display and spotlit the chefs,
not hiding kitchen labor. Culinarily, Puck broke the mold by combining Italian,
Chinese, and Japanese ingredients and techniques along with the expected
French. In the early eighties, pastas and pizzas were highlights of the menu,
and even these came with ingredients, such as smoked salmon and dill cream, not
traditionally Italian. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ7RbimAkepBxjlHuKpLT7fECn-w360BfKfay0Hm3f_wc9HJOXi5n8uUFFy2n2clIK_Nyyj4mpR-zfu8IQeY3KQG0P8zFkAdrSLbkH33J55udCA5LKAIXAdTj3CQGLhUcZKGVJ_tW_Ysk/s1600/4-tablescape+with+menu-use+for+blog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ7RbimAkepBxjlHuKpLT7fECn-w360BfKfay0Hm3f_wc9HJOXi5n8uUFFy2n2clIK_Nyyj4mpR-zfu8IQeY3KQG0P8zFkAdrSLbkH33J55udCA5LKAIXAdTj3CQGLhUcZKGVJ_tW_Ysk/s400/4-tablescape+with+menu-use+for+blog.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tablescape with menu, prior to ordering. Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Among the first of the
Spagos built after the original Spago was Spago Beverly Hills. Opened in 1997, it
was grander in scale and no longer stylistically provocative. But it stayed
faithful, as did most of Puck’s subsequent ventures, to Spago’s originally edgy
features. The open kitchen remained, albeit sonically buffered behind glass, and
there continued to be multicultural touches on the menu, which eventually
included dishes influenced by Puck’s Austrian childhood. Beyond that, the place
didn’t see major changes for sixteen years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">So when Puck and company declared
that Spago Beverly Hills would undergo a complete renovation in setting and
menu, over three months starting July 2012, I considered the import. One thing
was obvious: Puck and his dining group had assessed that Spago was losing relevance.
Puck needed to salvage Spago’s reputation as one of America’s best restaurants
and as a cornerstone of the Puck brand. He needed to look around, gauge Spago’s
competition, and adapt or die. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">What would the results show
Puck and company thought needed updating? What would the changes say about
Puck’s place in the field of top tables today? </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQ9PVAf7WTBjtoK5_twFZhHS72irB5tlguwAoRaGbOv4agqC68nMSjstPNA_v5CpIOAr5WN0_9vFCMZApTH2getnycvMFApvQlm983AI6CvMIbmorJtRmRARWy8mz2u2bUzw3LLyHtrE/s1600/9-%22Chirashi+Sushi%22+Blue+Fin+Tuna,+Hamachi,+Salmon+Pearls,+Sea+Urchin-closeup-use+for+blog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivQ9PVAf7WTBjtoK5_twFZhHS72irB5tlguwAoRaGbOv4agqC68nMSjstPNA_v5CpIOAr5WN0_9vFCMZApTH2getnycvMFApvQlm983AI6CvMIbmorJtRmRARWy8mz2u2bUzw3LLyHtrE/s400/9-%22Chirashi+Sushi%22+Blue+Fin+Tuna,+Hamachi,+Salmon+Pearls,+Sea+Urchin-closeup-use+for+blog.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First course: "Chirashi Sushi": Blue Fin Tuna, Hamachi, Salmon Pearls, Sea Urchin. Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The results I found when I
dined at Spago this March were enlightening. A sign of their resilience over
the last several decades, certain trends Spago helped foster in the first place
were further advanced. Not only was the open kitchen behind glass still there.
The pristine wall of clear glass in the new design gave an even clearer view of
the kitchen. The obscuring overlays of colored glass in the previous design had
vanished. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZUvmDu6l2xizg-qHYy6nZ6S3sSHakA8pVm6WupMd9pSv4LQxG68crtc3eItvkEGjpuZR4ZyUJ2nm4ZFGB_9zIdwzH4sd6A9RfGdMtuWEikH4l9ozAUit4b29rUSsn3NSkhrPNfOxuPU8/s1600/10-Fusi+Istriana+Pasta+with+Main+Sweet+Shrimp,+Fava+Beans,+Preserved+Lemon-use+for+blog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZUvmDu6l2xizg-qHYy6nZ6S3sSHakA8pVm6WupMd9pSv4LQxG68crtc3eItvkEGjpuZR4ZyUJ2nm4ZFGB_9zIdwzH4sd6A9RfGdMtuWEikH4l9ozAUit4b29rUSsn3NSkhrPNfOxuPU8/s400/10-Fusi+Istriana+Pasta+with+Main+Sweet+Shrimp,+Fava+Beans,+Preserved+Lemon-use+for+blog.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Second course: Fusi Istriana Pasta with Maine Sweet Shrimp, Fava Beans, Preserved Lemon. Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">In terms of cuisine, I found
the global culinary influences Puck helped proliferate in the 1980s, which his
head chef Lee Hefter had continued, accentuated. In ingredients and
presentations, the Japanese influence was most pronounced. My first course, “‘Chirashi
Sushi’ Blue Fin Tuna, Hamachi, Salmon Pearls, Sea Urchin,” was an elegant version of a familiar Japanese dish served with Japanese-style accoutrements: pointed chopsticks next to an ice-filled round lacquer container set with a shallow rectangular
wooden box for the fish and rice. My third course, “A-5 True Japanese ‘Wagyu’
Beef Filet Mignon (Saga Prefecture),” boasted the finest in Japanese
ingredients. In keeping with Puck’s global sensibility, however, the steak came
with a “bordelaise” sauce.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfmiw56nJ_B1IH_onPY7ISv8eT8chYMQJdkL4VJ5WCjxs-KypEqIqFDSdHAix-q6deFp2NwJXPNzNy9tt7Fzb-R82Ax557Q2bh5evYfsH2iVufW75LoR_xtyxyxLTKAXITip8at2C_Ve8/s1600/14-A-5+True+Japanese+Wagyu+Beef+Filet+Mignon+%28Saga+Prefecture%29+with+potato+bacon+cake+accompaniment+%28minus+little+spout+with+bordelaise+sauce+for+steak%29-use+for+blog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfmiw56nJ_B1IH_onPY7ISv8eT8chYMQJdkL4VJ5WCjxs-KypEqIqFDSdHAix-q6deFp2NwJXPNzNy9tt7Fzb-R82Ax557Q2bh5evYfsH2iVufW75LoR_xtyxyxLTKAXITip8at2C_Ve8/s400/14-A-5+True+Japanese+Wagyu+Beef+Filet+Mignon+%28Saga+Prefecture%29+with+potato+bacon+cake+accompaniment+%28minus+little+spout+with+bordelaise+sauce+for+steak%29-use+for+blog.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Third course: A-5 True Japanese Wagyu Beef Filet Mignon (Saga Prefecture). Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Some elements of the Spago
reboot, however, were a break with Spago’s past. The décor, unchanged in its
essential architectural bones, sported a thoroughly remade skin. Its new look
reminded me of other currently celebrated dining rooms—including Alinea in
Chicago and Benu in San Francisco. In contrast to the folksy figurative
paintings and colored glass accents that prevailed before the renovation,
Spago’s new interior seemed in tune with a current style of minimalism. I
noticed stark interior lines and a muted palette of browns, greys, blacks, and
whites. The main dining room offset this simplicity on one side by a wall of
all glass showing a neat grid of wine bottles. The opposite wall sparely
dispersed black-and-white photographs mounted in light boxes. Adjacent to that
was an open interior dining garden fit with a fireplace and a retractable roof.
(The wall opposite that gave way to the aforementioned glass-encased open
kitchen.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Staff—some wearing severe
black Nehru jackets and slacks, others charcoal vests and subdued off-white
dress shirts—were in sync with their subdued and elegant surroundings. So was
the menu, a modernistic exercise in tidy left-justified, <i>sans serif</i> one-liners that
deferred to the white space of the page. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjamvK2dbWoqLBS5jHbv5p5IHfM9MeJg8yTjb9CkgBVUZUjMNKDoqyt8MYsGrsB0sxHLNur_mAaMRbdhT_cSgdf_nUhy7rNeUiK0CPtCWjBhAVhnvGIv0-JIYU7xtKCLSagDF28kjQ0nFM/s1600/15-A-5+True+Japanese+Wagyu+Beef+Filet+Mignon+%28Saga+Prefecture%29+closeup.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjamvK2dbWoqLBS5jHbv5p5IHfM9MeJg8yTjb9CkgBVUZUjMNKDoqyt8MYsGrsB0sxHLNur_mAaMRbdhT_cSgdf_nUhy7rNeUiK0CPtCWjBhAVhnvGIv0-JIYU7xtKCLSagDF28kjQ0nFM/s400/15-A-5+True+Japanese+Wagyu+Beef+Filet+Mignon+%28Saga+Prefecture%29+closeup.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close-up view of the wagyu. Photo by author. Beyond delicious. Still craving it. A-5 is the highest grade.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Further in keeping with
trends at top restaurants, I found a menu syntax I named in an earlier blog
post (January 2009) as “menu minimalism.” This is a way of listing dishes so
that only commas separate the components, and conjunctions—with, and—are
dispensed with as unnecessary clutter. For example, to accompany my wagyu
steak, I had something described as “Roasted Maitake Mushrooms, Yuzu Citrus,
Spring Onions.” (I did find one place where Spago's new menu deviated slightly from this format--an errant <i>with</i> in my second course, "Fusi Istriana Pasta with Main Sweet Shrimp, Fava Beans, Preserved Lemon"--but this seemed accidental in context.) In the 2000s, the modular menu syntax became prevalent in experimental
restaurants that could assume a clientele food-savvy enough to leave the
details to the chef. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The division of Spago’s new
menu by nontraditional terms for courses—namely, “one,” “two,” “three,” and
“from the garden”—likewise struck me as an adaptation to the increasing
tendency of trendsetting restaurants to get rid of entrées--or, in Spago's case, to pretend dishes on the menu with noticeably larger portions and higher prices aren't what we think they are. The pre-renovation
Spago menu listed “main courses” outright. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXkurW7Gz96isEGHrnd_jCO9DYZs8MGsTzCvO84rkyBh98rGPCj5B8iJFGy7jOINk0zYsIQ6pr3dxtjK2fDyv9dBhqPy1EM6iqEzLmmsX83rKxcsquxaNrU3V4vqxzcWRkgbVNiwo1fy0/s1600/13-Roasted+Maitake+Mushrooms,+Yuzu+Citrus,+Spring+Onions-use+for+blog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXkurW7Gz96isEGHrnd_jCO9DYZs8MGsTzCvO84rkyBh98rGPCj5B8iJFGy7jOINk0zYsIQ6pr3dxtjK2fDyv9dBhqPy1EM6iqEzLmmsX83rKxcsquxaNrU3V4vqxzcWRkgbVNiwo1fy0/s400/13-Roasted+Maitake+Mushrooms,+Yuzu+Citrus,+Spring+Onions-use+for+blog.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"From the Garden" to accompany the third course: Roasted Maitake Mushrooms, Yuzu Citrus, Spring Onions. Photo by author.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">It’s tempting to see the
Spago redesign as a case of yet another aging, yet shrewd, rock star—who once
led in the field—now staying current by picking off what the younger innovators
are doing. But the reality isn’t so simple here. Even the newer traits I
noticed in the design of Spago Beverly Hills have actually already appeared as
parts of other Puck-owned restaurants, and well before this renovation. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The most comprehensive precursor
to the Spago revision is Cut, a modern take on a steakhouse he opened in the
same part of town in 2006. Cut had (and has) every one of the traits the new
Spago traded its former glory for. And it had them before Alinea became the number-one
US restaurant to watch and while Corey Lee of Benu fame was still <i>chef de cuisine</i> at
The French Laundry. Was Cut an imitation of restaurants that opened before it?
Perhaps. I can’t be absolutely certain of how much it owes to precedents outside the Puck group.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">But one thing is clear: While
Puck updated Spago to keep up with today’s best-restaurant Joneses, he has all
along been one of those Joneses. Question: What is Puck's place in the field of gourmet restaurant style today?
Answer: Chicken and egg.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-89429326480956502652013-04-01T12:31:00.002-07:002013-04-02T00:01:30.979-07:00DINING AFTER 'SMART CASUAL' PART I: The Intimate Kitchen<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhboVEmh31uLUJAqlAjaYdTrSKzfgGecOfP3lRUypiXecPxQj8YpPctrKLWJ8d8j3Z3J4JXdsB7xyr-1_KofY9rvjArWaUfIOW0O8P0mV9pgDlD3p-QmN8kf8WKPfQi3D9v1NlulkSfYNg/s1600/Alma+chefs+counter+view+of+open+kitchen+1+use+for+blog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhboVEmh31uLUJAqlAjaYdTrSKzfgGecOfP3lRUypiXecPxQj8YpPctrKLWJ8d8j3Z3J4JXdsB7xyr-1_KofY9rvjArWaUfIOW0O8P0mV9pgDlD3p-QmN8kf8WKPfQi3D9v1NlulkSfYNg/s400/Alma+chefs+counter+view+of+open+kitchen+1+use+for+blog.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">View of open kitchen from dining counter @Alma. Photo by author.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i> To pair with this month’s release of my book, SMART
CASUAL: THE TRANSFORMATION OF GOURMET RESTAURANT STYLE IN AMERICA (University
of Chicago Press), I reflect in a series of blog posts on “dining after S</i><i>MART CASUAL.” Recent encounters with new and
notable restaurants in my home city of Los Angeles and media on food fads have
got me thinking about how the trends I discuss in SMART CASUAL are faring….</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">In a chapter on the rise of
gourmet display kitchens, I note that the closer foodies have been able to get
to chefs—physically and through personal attention and customized meals—the
more they’ve prized kitchen-side dining. Prices have tended to agree. The chance to have
a special menu at a “chef’s counter,” bar-style seating overlooking the
kitchen, or at a “chef’s table,” adjacent to or inside the kitchen, has often sold
for over $100 more per head than dinner elsewhere in the same place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Eating around lately, I still
find things where I left them in SMART CASUAL—but with a twist. Exhibition kitchens are now so ubiquitous—every
new place I’ve been to this year features one—that new niches of open-kitchen
dining are opening up. I find this especially in small start-ups run by ambitious,
up-and-coming chefs. To wit: a couple of hours interacting with a rising star can
be had for a lot less money. </span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWzLe1aSAkZg1CcYMKq-qhyphenhyphen5bpVOYlOG3bp8x74hOWJwJBcK7qeS-JFxAdiXQEDcMcmewUX1mcfSrlco4Haej6td74lUNcAiZgmFdOUYBTg2ltwkPzOZvayHRPuv6QOzMJwyXP2y9vVNw/s1600/plate+2+tasting+portion+of+sweaweed+&+tofu+beignet,+yuzu+kosho,+lime.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWzLe1aSAkZg1CcYMKq-qhyphenhyphen5bpVOYlOG3bp8x74hOWJwJBcK7qeS-JFxAdiXQEDcMcmewUX1mcfSrlco4Haej6td74lUNcAiZgmFdOUYBTg2ltwkPzOZvayHRPuv6QOzMJwyXP2y9vVNw/s400/plate+2+tasting+portion+of+sweaweed+&+tofu+beignet,+yuzu+kosho,+lime.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sweaweed & tofu beignet, yuzu kosho, lime @ Alma. Photo by author.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Consider my experience of
Alma, a newcomer to downtown Los Angeles. Approaching from the street, I could already
sense its warmth. The crate-like façade framed a wide rectangle of glass showing lights on tables inside. Inviting amid the dark and wizened high-rises
of Broadway. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Inside Alma, an
L-shaped dining room wrapped around an open kitchen, my relation to the kitchen
at the counter was not just close in the physical sense. But that’s worth
noting: About four feet to my right stood the refrigerator. Maybe twelve feet
in front of me, the kitchen’s back wall. Between my seat and the wall weaved
four cooks, including chef and co-owner Ari Taymor. They harvested the
finishing touches for their dishes from glass jars of flowering herbs—sorrel,
mustard, cilantro, and radish—which were almost close enough on the counter for
me to smell. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8bg4KcGUYLiYmt0_w02moqvYMtPf73lhWN0n-X7B8cTZEohegQygIDToQZJHygHCRInSS0qd90_hF38Ti1GkWPOuRjzdicU5Ma4K2xxzbnEjkJq_ZY8KR_l1D7q33llrh8g9XD4zOvm0/s1600/plate+5+spring+onion+and+sunflower+seed+soup,+burnt+orange,+flowering+coriander-use+for+blog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8bg4KcGUYLiYmt0_w02moqvYMtPf73lhWN0n-X7B8cTZEohegQygIDToQZJHygHCRInSS0qd90_hF38Ti1GkWPOuRjzdicU5Ma4K2xxzbnEjkJq_ZY8KR_l1D7q33llrh8g9XD4zOvm0/s400/plate+5+spring+onion+and+sunflower+seed+soup,+burnt+orange,+flowering+coriander-use+for+blog.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Spring onion and sunflower seed soup, burnt orange, flowering coriander @ Alma restaurant. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo by author March 2013.</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The cozy quarters themselves,
however, weren’t as novel as the service performed there for the price. As soon
as I began to peruse the menu, chef Taymor stepped around from behind the
counter and began conspiring with me. Picking up on his willingness to indulge,
I expressed a half-kidding desire to try everything from the first, small-bites
section of the menu. Taymor, perhaps eager to show a game diner his range, took
up the challenge. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">For the $6 of just one item,
he orchestrated a sampling of each in miniature. A parade of four “bites” flowed
my way—one delivered by the chef himself, who again “broke the fourth wall” of
the kitchen theater; others came from the equally warm general manager and co-owner,
Ashleigh Parsons, and one of the other chefs. As the meal progressed—delightfully,
by the way, including a savory seaweed and tofu beignet for dipping in a lively
yuzu kosho and lime emulsion and a spring-onion and sunflower-seed soup
accented by aromatic burnt orange and flowering coriander and topped with a “chicharon”
made resourcefully of onion—I had the chance to converse, in slower moments of
the Friday-night hustle, with Ashley and Ari. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMg9aPjGwRAvUPDbd_s8iFbhnjc451SP1iwjJdy_HsDtciE2us3zo90ub4JymnjHMXsexWH6i25WbN9AIa4rTeletRQBqPZw59NDIojhvdZFu6DVO8YvfoWSYS9syQsNihfsP1bM8eHPw/s1600/plate+6+grass+fed+boulder+valley,+celery+root,+smoked+potato,+chanterelle-use+for+blog.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMg9aPjGwRAvUPDbd_s8iFbhnjc451SP1iwjJdy_HsDtciE2us3zo90ub4JymnjHMXsexWH6i25WbN9AIa4rTeletRQBqPZw59NDIojhvdZFu6DVO8YvfoWSYS9syQsNihfsP1bM8eHPw/s400/plate+6+grass+fed+boulder+valley,+celery+root,+smoked+potato,+chanterelle-use+for+blog.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Grass fed boulder valley beef, celery root, smoked potato, chanterelle @ Alma. Photo by author.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">How is it that I was treated
to such a personalized tour of a vanguard menu, accompanied by two glasses of boutique
cider, and, after a 25% tip, wound up spending less than $100? I have had similar
experiences for three times that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Alma’s younger-leaning
market might be a clue. The twenty- and thirty-something crowd I found at Alma might
have lighter wallets than their parents. At the same time, their tastes have been
shaped by the trends their forebears have cultivated over the last few decades.
I am on the look out for more of Smart
Casual’s children.</span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-85995281825235223662013-02-01T15:16:00.002-08:002013-02-01T23:37:50.186-08:00THE "CAN FOOD BE ART" QUESTION<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKE3qUIzi_Wi08WZ91ddJj0KmZVkbAxTrHKxR4FCtFhciOGRPAOro4o5pJWlOB7pBgRAeHRXWDQHj27T2uiMiK_vT-MRjeegHNHIwgXWdFq57P9jTyrmgrrgcxusmxkwiMNgORli_VgIg/s1600/baco+%27el+toron%27+4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKE3qUIzi_Wi08WZ91ddJj0KmZVkbAxTrHKxR4FCtFhciOGRPAOro4o5pJWlOB7pBgRAeHRXWDQHj27T2uiMiK_vT-MRjeegHNHIwgXWdFq57P9jTyrmgrrgcxusmxkwiMNgORli_VgIg/s400/baco+%27el+toron%27+4.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Baco "el toron" at Baco Mercat in Los Angeles. Photo by author, December 2012.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In recent years, critics of food and art alike have been asking, can food be art? As a historian of contemporary art who regularly gets--and deeply dreads--questions from students, friends, and relatives about whether or not this or that contemporary practice is really "art," I consider the question a tired beast. The beast keeps getting fed, however, so now I have to respond.<br />
<br />
My problem with the question, can food be art, is not just that I'm a culture snob impatient with uninitiated folks who can't see what's obvious to me--namely, that food, or, rather, cuisine, can be art. It's that the arguments inspired by the question rarely get past a certain stalemate.<br />
<br />
A recent example of the logjam is the dialogue between Jacquelyn Strycker, in "From Palate to Palette: Can Food Be Art?" (createquity.com, 1-7-13), and William Deresiewicz, in "A Matter of Taste" (nytimes.com, 10-26-12). Deresiewicz sparked the dialogue by claiming that food--while similar to art in the sociological sense that it offers foodies a means of social competition through knowledge, connoisseurship, and conspicuous consumption--can't be art because it doesn't possess art's essential traits. These include, he says, the capacity for narrative or representation, for tapping into emotions precisely, and for rich symbolism.<br />
<br />
Challenging this argument, Strycker insists that food indeed is art. Food, after all, does what all of the arts do. It creates sensory experience--if anything, even more richly than the other arts owing to food's engagement of all the senses--and cuisine can be creative, it can express philosophies, evoke narratives, and allude to complex ideas. What's more, food can inspire multiple interpretations.<br />
<br />
I'll admit that I'm partial to Strycker's essay. Her criteria really do apply to both food and art, as we know them historically. I am flummoxed by Deresiewicz's claim that food doesn't evoke specific emotions or narratives. Don't we regularly speak of "taste memories" a la James Beard, and hasn't smell, which is approximately 90 percent of taste, been long understood as having memory-evoking (that is, narrative and emotional) powers? The idea that food doesn't have a rich symbolism misses the fact that cuisine, like any human manipulation of materials, has a communicative dimension or that foodstuffs and cooking methods and culinary genres, not to mention the rituals surrounding meals, don't themselves come loaded with symbolism. <br />
<br />
But to fixate on the criteria is to get stuck on the very impasse that is the problem with the debate.<br />
<br />
Both arguments stake their claims on what aestheticians call "honorific" definitions of art. These classify objects as art based on a fixed set of attributes. They also imply that giving something the title "art" bestows judgment that it is good art.<br />
<br />
Honorific definitions won't lead us to much understanding of
either food or art. I say this based on my background as an art historian.
Artworks testing the limits of prevailing notions of art have driven the story line of art history for nearly a century and
a half. It's axiomatic among art historians that the definition of
"art" is ever
evolving. Honorific definitions don't hold up over time.<br />
<br />
Also, they yield little insight into the things that really matter,
even to those making honorific definitions. Arguments based on them tend to get passionate. That's because they aren't really motivated, as they pretend to be, by academic concerns about taxonomy. At stake instead is whether or not something deserves to be valued and, therefore, to enjoy all of the recognitions and resources accrued to things so classified. Honorific arguments hide social agendas.<br />
<br />
What do we or should we value in food, whether or not we call it "art"? This is the real question.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-63043209964846665832012-10-21T15:08:00.001-07:002012-10-21T18:29:59.545-07:00BITTER<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPcDHyAkNRyIygjyRoG_vNkpSRKUpjFfO-chmlZK4vtNCDGO1tn0BYjOZjQQD4awmur_Xgjat-DHr-w-PHYwDDWRrCKudhI6iI6aPjgHcmIzO3MABLQ3UgAnPC5JdurT3FJaTFjvvv0sQ/s1600/Fearless+brand+chocolate+packaging+front+lower+Oct+2012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPcDHyAkNRyIygjyRoG_vNkpSRKUpjFfO-chmlZK4vtNCDGO1tn0BYjOZjQQD4awmur_Xgjat-DHr-w-PHYwDDWRrCKudhI6iI6aPjgHcmIzO3MABLQ3UgAnPC5JdurT3FJaTFjvvv0sQ/s400/Fearless+brand+chocolate+packaging+front+lower+Oct+2012.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by author of chocolate-bar packaging, front lower portion, October 2012.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLE5ps4T6AaodzKlsqii4q-phfrv_EAXbyfD9uCrXtQNuNQlQjUk-ELGSRrav4KmDPgtpwjrebpznSGsdLd4J21CtOUkm-2tUWj4mzgByFC9clUc3EgkMwLaUmwv5c3gzlWn_8fShQ8sg/s1600/Fearless+brand+chocolate+packaging+back+upper+Oct+2012+(1).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLE5ps4T6AaodzKlsqii4q-phfrv_EAXbyfD9uCrXtQNuNQlQjUk-ELGSRrav4KmDPgtpwjrebpznSGsdLd4J21CtOUkm-2tUWj4mzgByFC9clUc3EgkMwLaUmwv5c3gzlWn_8fShQ8sg/s400/Fearless+brand+chocolate+packaging+back+upper+Oct+2012+(1).JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by author of chocolate-bar packaging for Fearless brand, back upper portion, October 2012.</td></tr>
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I am bitter, perhaps, but so is the chocolate. Could it be that today's chocolate is more bitter the more it's trying to do good? I'm beginning to think so. That's my (admittedly impressionistic) conclusion after (unscientifically) sampling over ten brands, what I roughly guess is just under half, of the chocolate bars lately sold at my local Whole Foods.<br />
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An admirer of good package design as much as a lover of indulgent chocolate, I found myself drawn to trying as many brands of bars as I found flavors and visuals to intrigue me. I was also tempted by the eminently Whole Foodsian prospect of reconciling my hedonism with my desire to do good. Save the world by eating the best of it? Win-win.<br />
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Almost all of the chocolate brands now available at Whole Foods have some ethical angle. And the angles are gorgeously wrapped. Since nearly all brands print company stories on the verso--a packaging quirk chocolate shares with specialty juice and water drinks--the consumer "experience" of chocolate brands has a literary layer. So much care is taken, as well, with materials that to hold the narrative tablet is as texturally thrilling as a trip to a handmade-paper boutique. <br />
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For some of the exquisitely swaddled, it's enough to be organic. However, these bars are starting to seem like dinosaurs in a market where the social causes are multiplying. I see brands that save rainforests and endangered species. Others assure me they are "fair trade." The brand I've pictured above crowdsources for its causes. Organic is merely a baseline.<br />
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Still, every such brand that I've tasted is overwhelmingly bitter. Of course, I expect dark chocolate to be more bitter than milk, and I recognize that, in recent decades, there's been a mainstreaming of this more "adult" (read: bitter) taste for dark chocolate. But these facts still beg the question of why so many do-good brands fall into the bitter camp and are intentionally more bitter than commercial brands (e.g., Dove) of dark chocolate.<br />
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I associate this bitterness with medicine. I then associate medicine with something that's not pleasant but is supposed to be good for you. Could the bitterness of so much "ethical" chocolate be engaged in a kind of moral-sensory trade off, and could it be that fans of these bars, however few there may be, want their chocolate to taste of piety?<br />
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Do the bars have a puritanical streak...on purpose? I'd like to know what do you think.<br />
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<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-87446952531510083242012-07-20T18:09:00.001-07:002012-07-20T18:32:25.460-07:00SIZING UP THE MENU SIZE<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjGjEW_Ck05fTqeJD39oxqQKV8MgyT5CvLzuUT0Ym2Zk9omFWbxRPy86acpvnuqCx4ler0y0wl0iA0pIuE9UTkT7f-bOvcGht6rtF9ov7QygsWP5X-zILk5uoUiBwi8PzMnBhfWCAEtZc/s1600/59000067.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjGjEW_Ck05fTqeJD39oxqQKV8MgyT5CvLzuUT0Ym2Zk9omFWbxRPy86acpvnuqCx4ler0y0wl0iA0pIuE9UTkT7f-bOvcGht6rtF9ov7QygsWP5X-zILk5uoUiBwi8PzMnBhfWCAEtZc/s400/59000067.jpg" width="276" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">JoAnn Stougaard, featured with Jitlada's dishes for article by Betty Hallock, "Food Blogger's Extreme Eating Challenge," <i>Los Angeles Times</i>, January 27, 2011. Photo by Anne Cusack.</td></tr>
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From a variety of food media, I gather that the expansive restaurant menu arouses starkly opposing responses.<br />
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Admirers of the restaurant Jitlada, arguably the most celebrated Thai place in Los Angeles, gush on at least as much about the astonishing breadth of the menu as they do about the quality of the food it begets. In this case, the long menu is taken as a sign of ambition and skill. More astounding still, this wealth of offerings comes from a kitchen so small that the owners were compelled to put signs up in the restaurant warning diners that their food will take a while. Some, like the always-on-trend blogger JoAnn Stougaard, mylastbite.com, have declared a desire to try everything on Jitlada's menu as if to do so might garner a gourmet prize (see Betty Hallock, "Food Blogger's Extreme Eating Challenge," <i>LA Times</i>, January 27, 2011).<br />
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At the same time, short menus are all the rage at trendy restaurants born of creative chefs that the food bloggerati also seem to enjoy. Apart from the separate beer and wine lists at these places, a single page on fine stock presenting a smartly limited list is the preferred solution, giving the suave impression of judicious "focus."<br />
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The small menu also gets support from other quarters. Take, for example, Gordon Ramsay's BBC show <i>Kitchen Nightmares</i>. Time after time, Ramsay excoriates the failing restaurateur for clinging to his long menus. Ramsay gives us plenty of justification for his wrath, repeatedly revealing the myriad horrors lurking behind long menus. On his show, they are the most dubious of documents, shields hiding scoundrels--undeservedly proud restaurateurs and cowardly cooks keeping molding herbs in undated containers in back cupboards, trays of long forgotten fish, and other soggy hashes that await their turn to be ordered but never will so long as the menu is...so long. Ramsay invariably rescues these establishments by making over their menus into something a lot more manageable--meaning, brief. <br />
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Based on the above, I'm going to guess that there's no one answer to the question of whether long menus are a good or bad sign. I imagine it might depend on the management skills of the kitchen, including the ability to buy one ingredient and generate at least ten distinct dishes from it. I suspect this kind of smart shopping might be the case with Jitlada. Giang Nan in the San Gabriel Valley is a personal favorite I like to think, based on the delicious results, belongs in this category. Examine the long menus of these establishments and you might notice plenty of repeating ingredients, used in seemingly endless combinations. <br />
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But a mystery remains. I appeal to the restaurant-kitchen savvy to answer this: Is there a reliable way for diners to tell (without a full-scale investigation of the back of the house) when a large menu is a good or bad sign?<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-87584468510037217532012-06-01T23:08:00.002-07:002012-06-16T22:03:33.629-07:00OF LOFT APARTMENTS AND RESTAURANT OPEN KITCHENS<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJixUTICKXfjWqcTBY9RyQ7FMOiK2uvNfs5EQ9b_Yc894EogZTZTzkO35dpEfUelg_T4SPWbqW6_Bs12XTyjTaFmLi5Dq_H62a2w101z7BG3qTQ08_xIJDGe8_y23uA70WALMyf6Lvppo/s1600/Andy+Warhol%27s+Factory+1964-68+b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJixUTICKXfjWqcTBY9RyQ7FMOiK2uvNfs5EQ9b_Yc894EogZTZTzkO35dpEfUelg_T4SPWbqW6_Bs12XTyjTaFmLi5Dq_H62a2w101z7BG3qTQ08_xIJDGe8_y23uA70WALMyf6Lvppo/s400/Andy+Warhol%27s+Factory+1964-68+b.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Andy Warhol in the "Silver Factory" loft, 1964-68. Photo probably by Billy Linich.</td></tr>
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Can anyone think of another <b>workspace</b> besides the artist loft and the restaurant open kitchen that, in recent decades, has become so ubiquitous as a chic, upscale commodity?<br />
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I will be speaking about the appeal of both spaces as ideal models of "creative-artisanal" labor on the "Food and Arts" panel of the "Global Gateways and Local Connections" food-studies conference. The event is jointly hosted by NYU and The New School this June. Come by if you are in town and have interest in the topic!<div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-79211821665848494822012-04-02T15:12:00.004-07:002012-04-02T15:13:03.938-07:00ANNOUNCING "SMART CASUAL"<br />
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"Philly Cheesesteak" at minibar, Washington, D.C., 6 August 2010. Photo by author.</div>
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Dining counter at Saison, San Francisco, 8 September 2010. Photo by author.</div>
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Terrific news: The University of Chicago Press will publish SMART CASUAL. It's an ideal read for anyone interested in the history and fashions of restaurants and gourmet dining. There'll be something new to chew on for the seasoned professional and the foodie novice.</div>
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SMART CASUAL is an in-depth look at how the fine-dining restaurant in America changed from a hushed scene of chandeliers and closed kitchens, strict dress codes and Continental cuisine, to a clamorous place where diner-style decor and hamburgers are no longer impediments to a Michelin star...or two. It also recognizes the simultaneous rise of new formalities, such as the elaboration of tasting-menu rituals. While they may seem contradictory, I consider these tendencies as part of a cohesive "omnivorous" turn in gourmet taste. The book uncovers the key dining rooms and trends that mark the rise of "omnivorous" preferences, and considers the changes in taste in light of broader shifts in the definition of elite social status.</div>
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The book has academic rigor, but jargon-free prose. It draws on extensive archival research as well as participant-observation and interviews with major players. It considers the cuisine as much as the environments of restaurants. SMART CASUAL picks up in time where Patric Kuh's THE LAST DAYS OF HAUTE CUISINE (2001) leaves off, but, unlike it, puts the focus on visual aesthetics.</div>
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I will post updates here and via my Facebook page (The Eye in Dining) and Twitter (theeyeindining) as soon as I have further details to share related to the project and its release. Thank you for your interest.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-32191674850981978562012-03-03T13:10:00.000-08:002012-03-04T20:00:29.929-08:00Special Post: VOSS for DINNER?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> On leap day--February 29, 2012--a panoply of Los Angeles food bloggers and magazine writers gathered at FIG restaurant, in Santa Monica, for a special chef's tasting menu. Sensory pleasure and good company were not, however, our only motives. The festivities were designed to benefit the VOSS Foundation's "Give a Drop" campaign.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLsWZVvTJv2-wC8-sTFA-E1XIJsYa1yd-51sV5zQq2mk-393jLGBgiv2gpKDEM3q8gCNNq2uX332BiFEUjX_srekw0FNsafaI666kKSR3tQgm395dALYDdnktUQ7Op6PdEToaCppR0GXI/s1600/All+at+table+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLsWZVvTJv2-wC8-sTFA-E1XIJsYa1yd-51sV5zQq2mk-393jLGBgiv2gpKDEM3q8gCNNq2uX332BiFEUjX_srekw0FNsafaI666kKSR3tQgm395dALYDdnktUQ7Op6PdEToaCppR0GXI/s400/All+at+table+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Company at table</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8it6-FCbjegdAHbBicSYiYHnp1euHnzGFljlz_5iJdqUZzpVRYE6RHrLoXy0-cy0toNyXHSihrWx3qloyMozyvETu9mye5hy8vtj8E5fEgV-Hc4KXl9rR0BIbu99cCgnrZvY5w4FpYog/s400/farm+egg+course+1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glaum Ranch Hen's Egg with Truffle and Asparagus</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The event was a reminder of cultural contrasts. Chef Ray Garcia is well known for highlighting, with a spare grace, local and bountiful foods. He stocks his walk-ins from the overflowing Santa Monica Farmer's Market, and, through the restaurant's regular forager, taps other fecund fields in California. Note the captions under the special-tasting-menu items pictured here. They all emphasize the local origins of ingredients.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL97J_26C-SvgR76hE2jlrGu0zUV8mGWglrkHSIKpWxGTZOfLAmnVhUuUz4P9JkYTN70kYMWYNlyUNoR1ZtC5Zs6WXwYfU6rWx5cyR7ojEF4xLcyd2V2H1a9_zvhsUMsHDR2vJq02gGZQ/s1600/rabbit+course+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL97J_26C-SvgR76hE2jlrGu0zUV8mGWglrkHSIKpWxGTZOfLAmnVhUuUz4P9JkYTN70kYMWYNlyUNoR1ZtC5Zs6WXwYfU6rWx5cyR7ojEF4xLcyd2V2H1a9_zvhsUMsHDR2vJq02gGZQ/s400/rabbit+course+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rabbit with McGrath Farm's English Peas</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKYg1XeTueoatgIj6UL2h0HOPcAf28Uk16K82y_03YzP1n-pAhshDSavcpZYr4y05zPj1R8MYA-aM0Ysc-qJQxu3D7mmYitgKSF1k51HSI7l0ZeCQy2b2v8SW0IR4uEiIg3AwgufGJFR4/s1600/Lamb+course+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKYg1XeTueoatgIj6UL2h0HOPcAf28Uk16K82y_03YzP1n-pAhshDSavcpZYr4y05zPj1R8MYA-aM0Ysc-qJQxu3D7mmYitgKSF1k51HSI7l0ZeCQy2b2v8SW0IR4uEiIg3AwgufGJFR4/s400/Lamb+course+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sonoma Lamb with Carrots and Harissa</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgy76UQzQWt-N6v5aISTqwvWTIsqDJgSUV_YAlUOBh7l_cKwhIDSkd8hDQZKa1Qihha5sqFYrEb8-wpFDEMRBdP-veO9WqD5d7FCM9uo4wzciw2hkJwA_-V0jIkfxbctjoKgFqIt6e3rM/s1600/dessert+course+4+closeup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgy76UQzQWt-N6v5aISTqwvWTIsqDJgSUV_YAlUOBh7l_cKwhIDSkd8hDQZKa1Qihha5sqFYrEb8-wpFDEMRBdP-veO9WqD5d7FCM9uo4wzciw2hkJwA_-V0jIkfxbctjoKgFqIt6e3rM/s400/dessert+course+4+closeup.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pudwill Farm's Blackberry Pavlova with Vanilla Mousse</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Contrast this situation of local abundance and easy access to high-quality foods with the focus of the dinner's sponsor--the distant and unyielding terrain of Sub-Saharan Africa. There, even access to clean water, never mind the likes of humanely raised lamb, is a daily challenge. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6pGPxSOw_LRHK8xT_koieK1sBgEiyORcAN9vM6qSSXKJ6fL_RofY9A9APV8ZyjVoxhkPcohgV-NIYXpsRsIYt7kG6Wuj7qggAaHTG3qpxSgOJ6u6Q49F5DeFlk5GInEfV515IEAuOj5Y/s1600/VOSS+31+days+promotional+banner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6pGPxSOw_LRHK8xT_koieK1sBgEiyORcAN9vM6qSSXKJ6fL_RofY9A9APV8ZyjVoxhkPcohgV-NIYXpsRsIYt7kG6Wuj7qggAaHTG3qpxSgOJ6u6Q49F5DeFlk5GInEfV515IEAuOj5Y/s400/VOSS+31+days+promotional+banner.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">VOSS Foundation banner</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> VOSS has been addressing this discrepancy. Since 2008, VOSS has helped construct thirty-two water access points in five African countries. With their "Give a Drop" campaign, you can help the cause by texting DROP to 89544 on any U.S. mobile phone. $5 will be donated automatically to the campaign. See? Even <i>this</i> is easy-access for many of us over here!</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-42397013717672694932011-08-30T23:41:00.000-07:002012-04-02T15:18:51.057-07:00LQ@SK IS "SMART CASUAL"<div>
The pop-up restaurant LQ@SK epitomizes the trend toward an "omnivorous" taste for combinations of informal and formal style I discuss in my forthcoming book, <i>Smart Casual</i>. Starry Kitchen's mod chalkboard-menu digs set the relaxed stage for chef Laurent Quenioux's refined six-course menu. Knowledgeable and on-point servers wore t-shirts, cargo shorts, sneaks, and smiles. Starry Kitchen's Nguyen Tran made me feel so welcome with his disarming unpretentiousness! He offered his cell phone light for my photos of dishes. He could see that my too-weak Flashlight app in the corner table wasn't going to cut it. Here's a quick rundown of the place and the night's menu post Flashlight-app fiasco:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA32imQm2f0xSrR1H122WhoPek7-zS-I504fV9aPYBIQX2LKho0hgUZg95xOvKKSR6TLyCs6a2D76ywKC7tyyOP3mZEF2MwhgURK_scP2kZlypFAjiBaVrqITmIMDrWfCO_mdEcd6mlxo/s1600/Starry+Kitchen+sign.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5646914392190415730" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA32imQm2f0xSrR1H122WhoPek7-zS-I504fV9aPYBIQX2LKho0hgUZg95xOvKKSR6TLyCs6a2D76ywKC7tyyOP3mZEF2MwhgURK_scP2kZlypFAjiBaVrqITmIMDrWfCO_mdEcd6mlxo/s400/Starry+Kitchen+sign.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk8wQh4mn6fFTt9w9annzVaXOrUzgXY5zvFr1xW77tdwKSeGBzmOEiTbi8d6BqBNAdm2hu3FL5NuJ4BJqhZZRIF57Gb3HzeEqEfciAkYWuwpE_7Ph9UZOXJVsx-zv0RZvqxcfLheOUpHE/s1600/Starry+Kitchen+interior.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5646914098642357586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk8wQh4mn6fFTt9w9annzVaXOrUzgXY5zvFr1xW77tdwKSeGBzmOEiTbi8d6BqBNAdm2hu3FL5NuJ4BJqhZZRIF57Gb3HzeEqEfciAkYWuwpE_7Ph9UZOXJVsx-zv0RZvqxcfLheOUpHE/s400/Starry+Kitchen+interior.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifkOEDZXi6zHgOxPvgftNI6CEIXj2DVLNqsbV5l5u-XqzneN9nji6fd2keglHkmqz5o9CzOw49zcA02mxvDWVpPj_q2oOgyYKQKqUHE8dhVLzAIZKWyS7mKA2gpNLNx8jdbGEQFutP4Mc/s1600/Starry+Kitchen+tablescape.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5646913825016789794" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifkOEDZXi6zHgOxPvgftNI6CEIXj2DVLNqsbV5l5u-XqzneN9nji6fd2keglHkmqz5o9CzOw49zcA02mxvDWVpPj_q2oOgyYKQKqUHE8dhVLzAIZKWyS7mKA2gpNLNx8jdbGEQFutP4Mc/s400/Starry+Kitchen+tablescape.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLv0laYSjJncwdOGwvQw7F41JdcHAnhEbGRtI9OIqWYrsnpUHiQrgiRU-BPvZrU79B2h04494aJdMCtBmcBSAUeUefN8Nnow_kw0HZuhF1ljJs0jvaVFf6vlamayJYSIlwZKeY2hWXIy8/s1600/Nguyen+Tran+in+front+of+Starry+Kitchen+menu.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5646913485771850194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLv0laYSjJncwdOGwvQw7F41JdcHAnhEbGRtI9OIqWYrsnpUHiQrgiRU-BPvZrU79B2h04494aJdMCtBmcBSAUeUefN8Nnow_kw0HZuhF1ljJs0jvaVFf6vlamayJYSIlwZKeY2hWXIy8/s400/Nguyen+Tran+in+front+of+Starry+Kitchen+menu.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>Hi, Nguyen! Thanks for your hospitality and that of your staff.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLXMGLKhxLwHuElDuwE6W_wC-3DvDlBG9UD65JaQUXxUarFBNZWZ8eng5x62_DSzFoQIIO7xC0RZwdDgT59Ol0RKKpHufEGWunT1kIqlkceRckLZdbYN5hAIScDBHCff4nxtoGMvufUCU/s1600/Amuse+Bouche+Cocks+Comb.JPG"></a><br />
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Not pictured:</div>
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Course #1: Amuse Bouche: Cocks Comb Tempura, Chipotle Lamb Kidney, Clementine, Vanilla. <br />
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Bold beginning. Concentrated, rich flavors, almost like mole or gumbo in intensity. Tender cocks comb. Delicious.<br />
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Not pictured: </div>
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Course #2: Hamachi, Black Sesame Panna Cotta, Soy Gel, Avocado Smear, Pickled Cucumbers, Black Sesame Powder.</div>
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Suprising that second course was so subtle in flavors. Unusual tactic, not proceeding from lighter to bolder. Black Sesame Panna Cotta was out of this world. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMM27gBlr6f9mLtl1Nztfjsud6ViGTRVgnvOzTJcQhJjPtqiO6oew29kAjkZiTyQuXgsy7yv1PI5yrI8tEoXB0cYMGw-dzY7QyvPzxFKdx5DQTF_im_jSWmsCjPuxs9tKmAWO12kDS4l0/s1600/Third+Course+Salmon+Ham+Hock.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5646912543526392402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMM27gBlr6f9mLtl1Nztfjsud6ViGTRVgnvOzTJcQhJjPtqiO6oew29kAjkZiTyQuXgsy7yv1PI5yrI8tEoXB0cYMGw-dzY7QyvPzxFKdx5DQTF_im_jSWmsCjPuxs9tKmAWO12kDS4l0/s400/Third+Course+Salmon+Ham+Hock.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>Course #3: Ham Hock Bouillon, Cabbage, Poached Smoked Salmon in Lard, Lentil Creme Fraiche.</div>
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I love chef Quenioux's decadent streak. More please!<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2dipBiW-417VhBX0KF11aZTpLd3d5VXlEYEV4V4-xJvGdDRgKI243mrFVuxhWbjSVsrftPaCSYDertxKE1mBXV_WNK17nk1Zy4Tw_wUxjxBz-UktfskLTVgR3Kifymj7gUsIcGaAtlWM/s1600/Fourth+Course+Declination+of+Peas.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5646912255751712770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2dipBiW-417VhBX0KF11aZTpLd3d5VXlEYEV4V4-xJvGdDRgKI243mrFVuxhWbjSVsrftPaCSYDertxKE1mBXV_WNK17nk1Zy4Tw_wUxjxBz-UktfskLTVgR3Kifymj7gUsIcGaAtlWM/s400/Fourth+Course+Declination+of+Peas.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>Course #4: Declination of Peas: Pea Guacamole, Pea Gazpacho, Pea Bacon Ragu, Sauteed Foie Gras.</div>
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The declination, I believe, was in intensity of flavors, so goes counterclockwise. Every dish in this meal was a success. More declination, peas!<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFInCCvSAWK3ORkziQjZg7Sxswu6a6TkkJIuubjJSVk3zrROAPajBCv7O_oHNt68S5AA34KvDigeavsuFPLAGXQ0_-g0PGwaH73wa7lAZIbGwRPmDRtxn_w7i3YTr0nxb3UuLI9ConPS0/s1600/Fifth+Course+Veal+2+Ways.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5646911997149074930" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFInCCvSAWK3ORkziQjZg7Sxswu6a6TkkJIuubjJSVk3zrROAPajBCv7O_oHNt68S5AA34KvDigeavsuFPLAGXQ0_-g0PGwaH73wa7lAZIbGwRPmDRtxn_w7i3YTr0nxb3UuLI9ConPS0/s400/Fifth+Course+Veal+2+Ways.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>Course #5: Veal 2-Ways: Veal Tenderloin Tartare Tonato Style, Veal Sweatbread, Clear Watercress 'Spaghetti,' Uni Lobster Coulis.</div>
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Chef is so far including most of my favorite ingredients. Uni with sweatbreads really works. The veal tartare was a play on the classic Italian dish. It also showed the dish's renewed relevance today, as it upends the vegetarian/vegan tendency to fake the forbidden foods with mock versions. The fakery is in reverse--veal mocking tuna.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_lnageertey5ats7SnuYShmDC7hsBxNG6LMSBOAXSd7K2zmTYGAlHlA9_J5cTNMYlF0lCW8kkmUcuFWh-y5pppfrmJcGRVwsC1mQqb7glM7x3N5IRQPQzkGcfgBOa9VHnMCcbirA548/s1600/Dessert+Course.JPG" style="text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5646911578538119970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_lnageertey5ats7SnuYShmDC7hsBxNG6LMSBOAXSd7K2zmTYGAlHlA9_J5cTNMYlF0lCW8kkmUcuFWh-y5pppfrmJcGRVwsC1mQqb7glM7x3N5IRQPQzkGcfgBOa9VHnMCcbirA548/s400/Dessert+Course.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
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Dessert Course: Pandan Coconut Tapioca, Guava Gelee, Passion Fruit, Green Tea Emulsion.</div>
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Every element sung here. That edible flower, BTW, tasted like a watermelon. No joke.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh7Y6K1PjyoIxneyxT5J48TGYxcGjOYmqJTwdGvJCgwI8zYrW1z2cR0IIXpgskU-Bg0trjCBk8GJLjz1jL6grjjhM6pHyMHgnczuo6swaUhjQmxaRK5Mt3p_Z7ArIdsXYMI3j3KeMnx4c/s1600/Laurent+Quenioux+birthday+cake.JPG"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5646909832558868994" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh7Y6K1PjyoIxneyxT5J48TGYxcGjOYmqJTwdGvJCgwI8zYrW1z2cR0IIXpgskU-Bg0trjCBk8GJLjz1jL6grjjhM6pHyMHgnczuo6swaUhjQmxaRK5Mt3p_Z7ArIdsXYMI3j3KeMnx4c/s400/Laurent+Quenioux+birthday+cake.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>It happened to be chef Quenioux's birthday on this evening. The Starry Kitchen team has a good camp sense of humor. I love the juxtaposition of this dessert with chef's!<br />
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Copyright 2011 Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.</div>
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</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-69226004117502899002011-02-10T09:08:00.000-08:002011-04-15T00:54:41.593-07:00EATING HISTORY<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhtSEKggm2hOGCaktdBWl7z9GUFdqvDjJz1LXnNLXwnJXSUAwwSM2xyxvp6NlQJVp4xFi0iKEDz6wjvCLs_awiX1U_o1sd0j8J45QMx4SwvBcABUiN3uGZn0ulkwQS9pJcrXzDC3_lsrw/s1600/Heston+Blumenthal+Dinner+accessed+fr+wbste+2-10-11.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 196px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhtSEKggm2hOGCaktdBWl7z9GUFdqvDjJz1LXnNLXwnJXSUAwwSM2xyxvp6NlQJVp4xFi0iKEDz6wjvCLs_awiX1U_o1sd0j8J45QMx4SwvBcABUiN3uGZn0ulkwQS9pJcrXzDC3_lsrw/s400/Heston+Blumenthal+Dinner+accessed+fr+wbste+2-10-11.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572110073629925954" /></a>Heston Blumenthal with Dinner head chef Ashley Palmer Watts. From http://www.dinnerbyheston.com/.<div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNypCJPkEkBe22hcfrAhlPBUJsQKHn0XrA4mIwCNacn8wQHkNbHdYc1hskiPeATN6ToL2aaRId8ie0ZyO2kBV8IQeOR6z_m-_cGwJGITzlnd_4GVFbjqrA1jyVCtPh7c0Z5S9oWporCVw/s1600/Achatz-Beran-Schoettler2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 228px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNypCJPkEkBe22hcfrAhlPBUJsQKHn0XrA4mIwCNacn8wQHkNbHdYc1hskiPeATN6ToL2aaRId8ie0ZyO2kBV8IQeOR6z_m-_cGwJGITzlnd_4GVFbjqrA1jyVCtPh7c0Z5S9oWporCVw/s400/Achatz-Beran-Schoettler2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572109973477835010" /></a>Grant Achatz with chefs Craig Schoettler and Dave Beran--creators of Next restaurant, Chicago. From Facebook.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>In Venice, Italy, there's a superb and very old haute-cuisine restaurant, Le Bistrot de Venise, whose specialty is a menu of dishes based on historical Venetian cuisine. The items on this special menu, served in modified form to suit contemporary tastes, are accompanied by the dates of recipes from which they are drawn. Some go back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I thought this restaurant had a fairly unusual concept. Lately, however, historicity is <i>in</i>.</div><div><br /></div>Two recent developments have gotten me wondering about the significance of historicity as an avant-garde food trend. One is the recent opening of Heston Blumenthal's restaurant Dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London, a restaurant inspired by historic British gastronomy. Go to the website (www.dinnerbyheston.com) and you will first encounter a brief history lesson in a typeface and layout that vaguely conjures old newspapers: "In the past, the main meal--dinner--was eaten at midday, before it got dark. But affordable candles and, later, gaslight saw dinner shift." Check out the menu on the site and, in the appetizer section alone, you will find the items accompanied by dates that range from "c. 1390" to "c. 1820." Blumenthal and Dinner's head chef Ashley Palmer-Watts don't intend these dishes to be faithful copies of historical dishes. They are "inspired" by them. If not actually historical, the concept of Dinner is saturated with the <i>idea</i> of historicity.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another case is the almost-opened and fiercely hyped Next restaurant. Chicago's Grant Achatz and his chef team of Craig Schoettler and Dave Beran describe Next as a restaurant designed to represent world cuisines from various great moments in culinary history--and the future. They will present four menus per year, each one dedicated entirely to a specific period and place. Unlike Blumenthal, Achatz intends to present dishes in historically authentic form--true to Paris, 1912, say, or Sicily, 1949. But, of course, like Blumenthal, Achatz can't help but be inventive. One of the options advertised for Next is Hong Kong, 2036. Even these masters of culinary history can't have much evidence to go on for the recreation of this one! </div><div><br /></div><div>Indeed, Next bubbles over with experimental quirks. Achatz will not sell traditional "reservations" but rather all-inclusive "tickets" for particular, differentially-priced time slots at the restaurant. Though little different from a reservation in actual fact, the ticket's association with film or theater changes the psychological game. In that spirit, Achatz has promoted the restaurant through a film trailer that, like film trailers, encapsulates a narrative (in this case, of time travel) and fills the viewer with a sense of mystery and anticipation. </div><div><br /></div><div>Why have two of the world's most avant-garde chefs made history the theme of their newest ventures? Why are these ambassadors of the hyper-new looking back? </div><div><br /></div><div>First, let's acknowledge the fact that Blumenthal's and Achatz's concepts and menus are faithful to the past only to the extent that it "inspires" their creativity. They are launching something new in the process--a new restaurant format or an original interpretation of an historical dish. Is history just the latest frontier to excite an ever-jaded audience for the new?</div><div><br /></div><div>This may be true, but I think it's not the whole story. I would argue that these chefs' choice to put history in the foreground is really an overdue revelation of their culinary practices so far. Every one of the chefs associated with the so-called "molecular" or "techno-emotional" cuisine, as are Blumenthal and Achatz, when charged with culinary futurism, has insisted on their work's profound connection to memory. They take tried and true dishes and "deconstruct" them. Or they take traditional ingredient combinations and alter their relationships in texture, temperature, proportion, etc. The historical reference is integral. The very intelligibility of these chefs' far-out cuisine depends on their experiments' grounding in tradition. It seems only right, then, that their historical aspect become overt.</div><div><br /></div><div>Copyright 2011 Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.</div><br /><br /><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><br /><a class="addthis_button" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pubid=ra-4da7f8f21534d094"><img src="http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/v2/lg-share-en.gif" width="125" height="16" alt="Bookmark and Share" style="border:0"/></a><br /><script type="text/javascript">var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};</script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-4da7f8f21534d094"></script><br /><!-- AddThis Button END --><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8750351881759326070.post-26721309374611111392010-07-17T15:55:00.000-07:002011-04-15T00:57:24.056-07:00THE FRESH FACE OF THE FOOD NERD<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipCubWz7vIq6sekDQiadTsfV03x-HOQZJUDT7VmP3d5PBHsd99F5kck4uLgkzrd9q6SWUmLHrs7nCf9JRn9i0bOecEFuz6MWRB_qxyoikp_3EIwVpqOzkcey5cBj-VWlMLDVDQG1LGh2g/s1600/Food+Jammers+photo+on+frecklednest.blogspot.com++from+4-10.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 230px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipCubWz7vIq6sekDQiadTsfV03x-HOQZJUDT7VmP3d5PBHsd99F5kck4uLgkzrd9q6SWUmLHrs7nCf9JRn9i0bOecEFuz6MWRB_qxyoikp_3EIwVpqOzkcey5cBj-VWlMLDVDQG1LGh2g/s400/Food+Jammers+photo+on+frecklednest.blogspot.com++from+4-10.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495019101688649218" /></a>Photo of Nobu Adilman, Christopher Martin, and Micah Donovan (left to right) from Frecklednest.blogspot.com.<div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB2hdgVrG7wKMRAL_NV6Y1hE5odwAnTqj5v_IYK3ySOhX19tOUNdLIA2dCo_pLnbQdUMy0qLkQdm7_K9hUmVVmwpxcy90LyqYsF4rBjdYP1-DF7zZeHriNgwvNmdmgonH1jURvr_WRruw/s1600/www.foodjammmers.com:pasta:pastamaker.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 260px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB2hdgVrG7wKMRAL_NV6Y1hE5odwAnTqj5v_IYK3ySOhX19tOUNdLIA2dCo_pLnbQdUMy0qLkQdm7_K9hUmVVmwpxcy90LyqYsF4rBjdYP1-DF7zZeHriNgwvNmdmgonH1jURvr_WRruw/s400/www.foodjammmers.com:pasta:pastamaker.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5495018889278138658" /></a>Photo illustrating the pasta machine constructed from a car jack from www.foodjammers.com. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /><div>Until this summer, one could say with confidence that the ultimate contemporary American media icon of the "food nerd"--a super-foodie dedicated to acquiring culinary knowledge impressive to average foodies--was TV Food Network's Alton Brown. His cooking show, <i>Good Eats</i>, amazed us with this non-chef's grasp of food science. We were also wowed by the imagination and wit of set demos and costumes he used to make gastronomy and food anthropology entertaining. </div><div><br /></div><div>His simultaneously lowbrow and eruditely ethnographic <i>Feasting on Asphalt </i>added a further dimension to the Brown persona. This miniseries followed Brown's cross-country biker ride through the landscapes, architectures, and dishes of myriad roadhouses, donut shops, and diners. Riding and maintaining a motorcycle, joking with his crewmates, and taking one road accident in stride made him seem no ordinary nerd with ordinary nerd limitations. His ruggedness and social skills made him transcendent, a real-life superhero.</div><div><br /></div><div>As of May 31, Brown has company. The Food Network's offspring, The Cooking Channel, has spawned its own, next-generation, foodie meta-nerds. Meet Micah Donovan, Christopher Martin, and Nobu Adilman (pictured above)--simply known by the name of their show, <i>Food Jammers</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you simply watch their show and don't investigate the jammers' backgrounds (they're all artists, according to bios on the show's website), you wouldn't know what their occupations or training consisted of. They seem capable of everything. In one episode, they made their own sodas in a fleet of flavors. Are they cooks? Food scientists? Their precise commentary throughout the show about flavor profiles and their subtle adjustment of recipes showed command of flavor science and aesthetics. They also constructed the soda dispensers themselves--from scratch, like the sodas--and fashioned awesome themed handles that represented each flavor. Wow! Are they carpenters? Engineers? Artists? They dress like artists who are in graduate school. Or musicians. The title <i>Food Jammers</i> suggests they are some sort of band. Their hair styles suggest they are bringing the old look of Beck back.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Food Jammers are Alton Brown on overdrive...and in triplicate. All three are equally knowledgeable, handy, and creative. But, unlike Brown, they are also all clued in to historical youthful pop culture and street culture and capable of campy plays on these. Yes, Brown got into Americana (<i>Feasting on Asphalt</i>), but this generation has a more street-fashion-conscious flavor.</div><div><br /></div><div>Theirs is a new twist on the food-nerd persona. Two things have merged that used to be separate: youth- or street-culture cool and hardcore food nerdism. The ultimate convergence of this was the <i>Food Jammers </i>episode in which the guys constructed a "low-rider birthday cake" that involved not only making a top-notch cake by bakers' standards but also, inside and under the cake, functioning hydraulics. In addition to food knowledge, carpentry and engineering skills, a sense of multicultural and retro-cultural awareness manifested. </div><div><br /></div><div>I suppose the combination of youthful meta-cool and food nerdism is the inevitable result of the popularization of foodism, its increasing penetration of Americans and their young via the multiplying food media and exposure to greater numbers of foodie parents. The evidence is everywhere on social networking sites, where ever younger people are "geeking out" on food. </div><div><br /></div>The Cooking Channel folks undoubtedly have a grasp on this growing demo. The very existence of the channel is testament to Food Network's popularization as well as its increasing potential to turn off younger audiences post-2006 with its heightened emphasis on Paula Deen-style caricatures of middle-aged homey home cooks. The Cooking Channel steers clear of this. The majority of programs feature younger hosts with pre-children lifestyles or shows with older hosts shown not alongside children or families.</div><div><br /></div><div>Market researchers must have also discovered that some young people are even more hardcore food geeks than their parents. Many of the new shows--including <i>Food Jammers, Cook Like an Iron Chef, Drink Up, </i>and<i> Food Crafters--</i>feature in-depth ingredient information and younger food experts dishing it out. <i>Drink Up</i> has introduced me to a new crop of mixologists and sommeliers who must be described as scholarly. This is not noteworthy in itself. What's new is the stylistic dissonance. Fresh faced, dressed in circa-1900s or steam-punk vintage, and discoursing on liquors with all the seriousness you imagine of an economics professor, I feel I'm in a malfunctioning time machine. I've landed where past and future, old and young, got scrambled.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>I must be enjoying this place, though. I'm watching. Alton Brown, TVFN...you started it. And I think my inner food nerd likes it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Copyright 2010 Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.</div></div><br /><br /><!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><br /><a class="addthis_button" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pubid=ra-4da7f8f21534d094"><img src="http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/v2/lg-share-en.gif" width="125" height="16" alt="Bookmark and Share" style="border:0"/></a><br /><script type="text/javascript">var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};</script><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-4da7f8f21534d094"></script><br /><!-- AddThis Button END --><div class="blogger-post-footer">Copyright Alison Pearlman. All rights reserved.
alisonpearlman.com</div>Alison Pearlmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01170890952676422564noreply@blogger.com15