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A bit of breaking food news: Doug Psaltis has left the Executive Chef position at Country restaurant after three years. Word has it that the 33 year-old chef has parted ways with chef/owner Geoffrey Zakarian to pursue other restaurant plans. While there’s no official word from the chef yet, chances are his next kitchen won’t be doing molecular gastronomy: Psaltis told Metromix in September that “I think we are getting too far away from our roots with food that is unidentifiable.” Expect no “soils,” “airs,” “fantasias,” or that kind of stuff from the chef wherever he turns up next.
Earlier this year, Psaltis won a StarChefs Rising Stars award for Best Hotel Chef. Country, which is inside The Carlton Hotel, received a 1 star Michelin rating for the last 2 years. The restaurant is 1 of 50 that carry a 3-star or higher New York Times review. A few fine dining restaurants on the list, however, such as Alain Ducasse’s outpost at the Essex House (and where Psaltis once worked), have since closed. Psaltis wrote about his mentor Ducasse in his 2005 book The Seasoning of a Chef, which was considered controversial by some.
Photo: Antoinette Bruno courtesy of StarChefs.com
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I'd hate to be a firebrand, as I'm a big supporter of the site, but though this article is somewhat interesting, I don't think it will attract any relevant comments.
So, I'll talk about something else, since we have no other means to communicate with our fellow members.
Let's talk NYC education.
I am very upset with the school system here. The teachers are poorly paid, the kids aren't learning, and parents don't seem to care. In fact, parenting is a rarely carried out duty these days among many "families".
The biggest sign of the complete collapse in government and family involvement was maybe a decade ago (not sure the exact year) when the city started building trailers in schoolyards to act as classrooms.
So, the state of our school is in that of such disrepair, they can't cough up the dough to build new schools, so kids have to forego their schoolyard space and attend a classroom that's fit for the back of a tractor trailer.
Am I the only one that was outraged?
How parents did not march to City Hall and camp out in a Columbia-style hunger strike to fight this is beyond me. Parents all across the city have failed.
I actually DO have a relevant comment, you stinking comments hijacker.
I am very happy that Psaltis is criticizing "molecular" gastronomy and will be returning to the roots of cuisine in his future ventures. While the foams, airs, gels etc are fun and can make for a little surprise here and there with plays on texture and temperature, the fad has seriously gone too far. Even Gothamist's resident cook has decided that she needed to use thickening agents TO MAKE CARAMEL. I mean come on, it's getting a bit ridiculous.
The problem is, a couple people show us some neat tricks which used sparingly create great effects, then everyone jumps on the bandwagon and feels the need to add all sorts of potentially carcinogenic powders (carrageenan for example) to our foods just for the fun of making shit like fried mayonaise.
Two minutes after I post that, there's a new article about education. I will copy and paste.
As for this article, it makes me want to get a colonoscopy.