Results tagged “frenchlaundry”

Can't swing New York's top rated restaurant, Per Se, for Thanksgiving? Enjoy chef Thomas Keller's cuisine at a fraction of the cost with this selection from his cookbook, The French Laundry. Some of these meals can take hours of preparation and require obscure ingredients and advanced cooking techniques, but there are also plenty of simpler, shorter recipes here; you just need to know where to look.

• Over 120 waiters from Sparks Steakhouse, both current and past employees, have been permitted to join a class-action lawsuit in federal court over money alleged to have been deducted illegally from tips. The plaintiffs' lawyer classified it as "the largest class-action ever against a restaurant." [NY Post]
• Pete Wells chimes in on the lobster roll legal battle between Rebecca Charles and Ed McFarland, and focuses for a moment on the fiduciary duty aspect of the claim rather than the intellectual property issues: "In legalese, a 'fiduciary duty' is like a kind of loyalty that you owe somebody who places their trust in you. You’re not supposed to put your own interests above theirs. . . . Ms. Charles’s lawyers are arguing that as sous chef of Pearl Oyster Bar, Mr. McFarland had a fiduciary duty to the restaurant." [NYT Diner's Journal]
• A former executive from Cipriani got sent back to the slammer yesterday for filing false insurance claims. He had previously served time for tax evasion and racketeering. [NY Daily News]
• The sushi spreadsheet has been updated for 2007! [Snack]
• And food-lovers are going crazy for Ratatouille, Pixar's latest animated blockbuster, featuring a rat (modelled after the likes of the French Laundry's Thomas Keller) who dreams of being a chef. [NY Daily News]
Continue reading "Tidbits: Litigious Edition"

Earlier this year when Gothamist visited executive chef Doug Psaltis at Geoffrey Zakarian’s Country, we learned that French Laundry vet Hsing Chen had just been named Executive Pastry Chef for the fine-dining restaurant upstairs, as well as for the downstairs, more casual Cafe. “My focus is more on light, fruit based desserts, with different textures and temperatures,” Chen told Gothamist. She also mentioned her desire to locate, soup up, and outfit a dessert cart from Country’s vast arsenal of fine dining service ware. Laden with sweets and confections, the cart would make after dinner stops at every table upstairs at Country; customers could pick and choose anything from lemon macaroons to miniature pots de crème, in addition to the regular dessert course.

We love Fresh Direct for its convenience, if nothing else. They've taken it one step further by incorporating a new feature called One-Click Recipes: over 400 recipes from 53 cookbooks including The Silver Palate, The New Basics, The Barbecue Bible, the French Laundry and Bouchon cookbooks, and, one of our favorites, the New York Cookbook. Fresh Direct plans to add new recipes to the site regularly. Not only is there a great search feature -- you can search based on main ingredient, level of difficulty, type of event (date night, cooking for a crowd, etc.), number served, or cuisine, but once you hone in on that perfect recipe, you can quickly and easily add them to your cart. They'll even tag some items as "You May Already Have," just so you don't inadvertently buy yet another bottle of olive oil, and will warn you if you add an ingredient that's already in your cart. On top of all that, certain recipes have tabs that let you make it organic or kosher. Not bad, huh?

New Yorkers may think we're the best in the world generally, but as far as restaurants of the world are concerned, we only made it to number eight. Thomas Keller's Per Se was the only New York restaurant to make the top ten of the world's 50 best restaurants, as named by Restaurant magazine, although his West Coast restaurant, French Laundry, came in at number four. Other New York eateries on the list include Jean Georges, Daniel, Le Bernardin, and Gramercy Tavern. As the New York Post notes, you're going to have spend a decent chunk of change to sample the world's best -- approximately $95 and Jean Georges, $100 at Daniel, and $210 at Per Se (prices have gone up since our visit). Not that reservations will be any easier to come by, thanks to the honor.

Per Se's Creamy Tapioca Pearls

Bouchon by Thomas Keller (Artisan, 2004)

Gothamist Eating In: Cooking Our Favorite Restaurant Dishes at Home

The nicotine-fits smokers have at bars or restaurants remind us how chef Thomas Keller made a tobbaco-y treat for Anthony Bourdain when Bourdain visited The French Laundry. You can read about in A Cook's Tour.

Gothamist wonders how Thomas Keller (pictured, right) feels about being fate's bitch, but we guess he's probably cool with it since French Laundry was named the world's best restaurant by Restaurant Magazine (although we feel the list is definitely UK-biased). [via kottke]

Ladies and gentlemen, gourmands and those with expense accounts: The [AOL] Time-Warner Center Restaurant All-Stars! The Times' restaurant critic William Grimes looks at the wealth of cooking talent the new AOL Time-Warner Center boasts (but the Time Warner Center is NOT A MALL - it's One Central Park, okay?). The breakdown: