Clark Wolf's Rants, Raves, Diatribes...and a few other Thoughts

Not My Cuppa Joe: A Bastianich Bust-Up

Joe Bastianich needs to lose a couple of stars – one at least to The New York Times and maybe one back to those nice folks with the tires.

Joe, son of the beloved Lidia and partner to gregarious and gifted Mario Batali, has written a book. That’s his right and I’m guessing, the result of a good sized advance. But it’s filled with the kind of banal vulgarities and score-settling that is not only sadly tiresome but more importantly, a breach of the sort of social contract that is reserved for the very top of our industry.

I would always trust – as we do when we put our fork to our mouth – the likes of Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, David Kinch, Eric Ripert and a few more, without hesitation. It’s a critical connection to all who feed us, but especially at the top level of the business and craft, it should be inviolate and quietly restrained. Joe is clearly not, to my mind, an advocate of what we often call the Hospitality Industry. He’s a vendor and a success, but this isn’t a quiz. The industry is a delicious social interaction that Joe has now soured.

Back when Joe and Mario opened Babbo they made a calculated decision to offer top notch food and world class service in a more casual environment (read: rock-and-roll music at the bar). The result was a glowing and money-in-the-bank three star review. It was a choice — and a very good one, too.

Perfect star ratings from Michelin, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle and other publications suggest that a restaurant is excellent, brilliant and more than the sum of its parts. Sadly, for me, Joe has rendered himself to be a slightly grim, bitter and vulgar fancy tavern keeper.

It’s his right and his business, but it’s also our right to tiptoe quietly past his doorstep and pop in somewhere more truly welcoming.

Full article here

 

Stop Calling Yourself an Expert, Food Consultant Pleads

It would be tempting to call Clark Wolf an expert in expertise if the restaurant consultant wasn't so wary of how food writers have cheapened the term.

Wolf, who next week is moderating a New York University Fales Library panel on knowledge and influence in the culinary sphere, says contemporary critics and bloggers are too quick to assign the "expert" label to themselves and others.

"It's OK to be a lover, devotee, whatever, just don't call them experts," Wolf says of enthusiastic eaters who visit every Thai restaurant in their hometowns or learn to make cheese at home.

The complication for serious food writers who aspire to earn expert status - and the clout that accompanies it - is there's no step-by-step guide to attain the insight, track record, culinary experiences, trustworthiness and vision of Ruth Reichl, Michael Bauer or Jonathan Gold, writers with spots on Wolf's very short list of legitimate experts. Food scholars, unlike sommeliers, can't take tests to prove their worth.

"I almost want an author to be dead," Wolf says, noting it takes a lifetime to eat enough meals to write intelligently about food and another lifetime to assess the writing's lasting value.

Since it's very difficult to pry a restaurant review from a deceased critic, I asked Wolf how much expertise a living writer should have to acquire before his or her opinions can be considered authoritative. My friend Daniel Vaughn -- a barbecue blogger who writes for Texas Monthly and is working on Prophets of Smoked Meat, one of the first three books to be published by Anthony Bourdain's Ecco imprint - recently criticized the Today Show for bestowing the title of "Texas barbecue expert" on a young woman who spent three days in the state. Wolf agrees that's asinine - but also questions Vaughn's credentials.

"I don't care what he says at all," Wolf says. "He's working on a book with a guy who's a careerist, opportunist sideshow. If his book stands up in five years, call me back."

According to Wolf, a barbecue expert should have logged time working a pit. And since "context is everything," a Texas barbecue expert should be familiar with South Carolina barbecue traditions, among others. That's why Calvin Trillin is a barbecue expert in Wolf's estimation (a claim that would ruffle Robb Walsh, author of the Legends of Texas Barbecue Cookbook.)

Vaughn points out the majority of pit masters who participated in last year's Texas Monthly BBQ Festival, a gathering of the state's most talented barbecue producers, haven't sampled barbecue outside of Texas.

"Do I know everything there is to know about Texas barbecue? Of course not," says Vaughn, who's visited more than 400 joints statewide. "At this point I know enough about Texas barbecue to be a one-man panel discussion, but I'm still curious enough to keep learning."

Wolf says he applauds the effort.

"(Vaughn) is a fairly experience barbecue investigator," he says. Like other writers intent on becoming true experts, he adds, "he needs to keep eating, keep traveling."

Full article here

 

THE MEAT OF THE MATTER

Our national culinary identity is all wrapped up in meat.

Meat has taken on such a prominent role in the American diet that it’s become so ingrained into our national identity that most Americans, when eating a steak or biting into a juicy cheeseburger on any given day of the week don’t give this delicious luxury a second thought.

But it’s worth some consideration as evidenced by the fact that restaurant consultant Clark Wolf recently convened a whole panel of experts to discuss this very topic. Wolf notes, “The drought in Texas causing prices to rise, a greater basis of sustainability in animal practice, a strong interest in community husbandry, and the start of the holiday season make this [American’s consumption of meat] an important timely topic.”

He continues, “In a different economy our iconic protein warrants discussion. Our job is to highlight the many viewpoints not always addressed.

Wolf led the spirited discussion titled “The Changing Center of the American Plate” at New York University’s Fales Library. Joining him was Jenifer Harvey Lang, food journalist and Managing Director of the renowned Café des Artistes in Manhattan, Dr. Marion Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University, Jeffrey Yoskowitz, writer and self-proclaimed Semitic Swinologist, Mark Gilman, cheese maker, and Betty Fussell, Food Historian & Author of Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef.

Full article here

Hungry Money and Mario

There’s no doubt that the oft-beloved Mario Batali made a Rick Perry-like blunder when he put an evil couple of faces on some very bad behavior by some very big and sometimes faceless companies. Banks are not Hitler and Stalin.

But this whole kerfuffle brings up some truly difficult issues for anyone who wants to own one or more high-end restaurants.

I’m all for capitalist success. I help people build businesses, for goodness sake, and I’m happy for people to be successful. That’s why it’s frustrating when we have an economic mess like the one we’re in and systemically flawed publicly traded and tax-payer supported institutions aren’t more carefully regulated and punished — and rewarded — for specific behavior.

When a restaurant caters to folks with pots of money — or anyone at all — you simply have to have the good manners to leave your opinions at the door. Lead by example. Use organic and sustainable foods if you can. Impose your values on some Masters of the Universe palatably. Maybe change a few minds and hearts at the table, or with a fork. Use the seductive powers at your disposal for the better. There are plenty of good people with money.  And plenty of people with money who may well do good.

It’s a little easier out here in the West where pots of cash have been made by high techie wunderkind billionaires who roll up on their Vespas to have major meals and let us all dip into some world class wines.  They’re rolling in it because they’re creating new possibilities, whole new industries, and along the way have helped get a lot of us out of suits and ties at so-called fancy restaurants.  They’re likeable for a lot of reasons.  It’s tougher in New York when some of the people in the dining room might be Bernie Madoffs in training, or just hyped up barbarians selling questionable “financial opportunities” and celebrating the demise of competitors.

We in the food — and yes, hospitality — world simply have to speak another language. When making strong statements, it’s important to be specific and careful. I know how easy it is to toss off a catchy, bitchy, mean snap but now that chefs have reached daytime TV notoriety, the game has simply changed.

Tell people what you’re FOR and how it might be good for them and everyone. Hitler is not a helpful food group.

I forgive Mario — and those angry Wall Streeters would do well to do so, too. He was just expressing the frustration of many about the excesses of the few. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and an emotional and philosophical bail-out.

C’mon guys. You want great food don’t you? Otherwise, why have all that money?! Don’t punish yourselves by punishing him. Bankers should not advocate boycotts of any kind. That’s a very last resort kind of thing that should rarely, if ever, be trotted out. Like comparing someone to Hitler.

Full article here

Foie Gras and the Ban’s Fight Against Finesse

The foie gras ban is about to kick in, on the first of July 2012, so this is perhaps the last FFF (freely flowing foie) holiday season in California. It’s a good time to reflect on food, politics, what feels like (or passes for) luxury dining these days and how it all connects to the greater focus on farming and cookery.

I have good friends and trusted colleagues who used to be vegetarians (I was, for a while in college, but just got cranky and sick), but they are now practitioners of a sensible nose-to-tail sort of thinking that makes good sense and good business, especially in these more difficult economic times. I haven’t asked them specifically about gavage or the coaxing of birds to eat like teenagers (which they do in preparation for serious migration in the wild, as the Egyptians discovered thousands of years ago), and I know things change – even in Egypt – as we make different choices and have evolving priorities. But I can’t imagine they’d want to waste any part of an animal sacrificed for food.

In fact, I’ve always been a very pro-choice kind of a guy, so this one has been a puzzle. From what I’ve seen myself and from what others have written (including Dr. Marion Nestle, as quoted in The New York Times on 10/15), the birds in question seem to head towards the feeding tubes, a fact that obviously offers something on the plus side of a complex equation.

I do appreciate that the bill gave farmers time to figure out how to get out of the business and into something else, or find a “more humane” way of treating what are not humans, but I still find the whole thing beyond ridiculous.

And if you’re an animal activist who sees this as part of the march to an all-veg diet, feel free to sign off now. You have the right to eat — and even advocate — what you want, but stop strong-arming and showing off. Have a piece of cheese and let others be.

Thing is, there has always been a need for luxury foods, even in tough times. It’s nature’s reward for hard life. Now, many types of caviar are deeply problematic, foie gras is controversial at best, and culinary pyrotechnics seem slightly unseemly, but just how much pizza can we eat? We have truffles, but even there, people are now trying to grow what for generations has been hunted. We really do seem to want to capture and control everything.

Along with taste and texture, some of the luxury of very special foods will always be the difficulty, the rarity, the challenge, and even the danger of bringing them to table. It’s why wine from a beautiful stemmed glass is more appealing than from a plastic tumbler. It’s why puffer fish appeals to some daredevil folks who hope the poison has been properly trimmed away.

And it’s why we’ll all probably head over to Las Vegas for foie gras. I’m thinking about a duck farm in Northern Nevada right now.

Full article here

Tomato Celebration at Santa Rosa Farmer's Market

 

Celebrations large and small are all about the tomato this year. Long, slow, cool summer and some early fall rains, between pops of Indian Summer, and we’ve had some amazing tomatoes.  These are from Redwood Empire Farm on Middle Rincon Road, in Santa Rosa, at their stand at the Saturday Vets Building Farmers Market.  Dry farmed and amazing. 

Don’t Take Wine and Cheese Pairings Too Seriously

They’re actually kinda lousy together. Here’s why, and how to deal.

by Clark Wolf August 23, 2011

Wine and cheese make a lousy match. There, I’ve said it. It’s sad, Iknow, but it’s what science tells us. I had to confront this unfortunate reality when I was writing a book about American cheeses. My editor wanted me to add wine and cheese pairing notes, and I had to tell the truth: That our obsession with the perfect wine and cheese pairing was always a kind of well-intentioned mistake.

 

Look at it this way: The end of a great meal, when the cheese course is served, is no time for new, big decisions. The best wine to round things out is almost always whatever’s left in the bottle already on the table.  

But here’s the bigger issue: We harbor the assumption that finding the right wine for your cheese will make them both sing. But really, much of the nuance and many of the most treasured flavor dimensions of a wine—berry, dried fruit, oak, mushroom, vegetal and bell pepper aromas—are actually greatly diminished (if not lopped off totally) when your mouth is full of butterfat. The proof comes from a 2006 study done at UC Davis, thrillingly titled, “Sensory Effects of Consuming Cheese Prior to Evaluating Red Wine Flavor,” which asked a panel of tasters to describe a variety of wines before and after tasting them with cheese. All the wines pretty much flattened out after getting cheesed, so a fine (and expensive) bottle tasted much closer to a cheap, decent one.  

And it makes sense, too, when you learn how cheese-folk learn to taste cheese. A classic English way to introduce yourself to a pushy, stinky washed-rind or blue-veined wheel of something sexy is to slather some black bread with unsalted butter, top it with a tangy chunk, and scarf. That is: Calm the wild beast, then chew, swallow, and repeat with less butter each time as you get acclimated to the cheese. The extra fat from the butter smoothes things over and makes nice, so you can ease your way into the cheese’s flavors. By that same logic, why wouldn’t cheese itself, which has 50 to 75% butterfat in the solids (not counting the water, which is about half of most cheeses) have a flavor-calming influence on a fabulous wine? Ask your favorite winemaker if he’d like you to try his vintage baby in a way that significantly diminishes the delicate details. Then duck.

So what does pair well with cheese? Beer, ale, hard or soft cider, pear juice, smoky single malt scotch…plenty of punch to go around. And port. The cheaper the better. In fact, toss a few walnuts into the mix and those hard edges get smoothed and the bargain porto gets silky and becomes a sexy two-stepper for a pungent, creamy blue.

That’s not to say that wine is never OK with cheese. Sauvignon blanc with goat cheese, oaky chardonnay against an aged sharp cheddar, sparkling wine with a creamy triple crème all work well enough, and there’s a broad range of combinations that anyone can enjoy. But it would be a shame to go all American Express Platinum on some extraordinary collection of handmade artisan cheeses, sport for a major bottle of world class deliciousness, and diminish both in the process.

Wine and cheese have gone together for hundreds of years, mostly because it’s what was on hand in the rustic agraria still living large in our fantasies of simpler (read: dead at 35) times long gone. Most wine is just fine with most cheese, but exhaustive, precise, and expensive pairings? Let those pass gently, if not quietly, into history too.

Full article here

Ubuntu: Devouring Veggie Benchmarks is better than Concept Dining

 

 

Wow, there really is a difference between eating a plate of ideas and enjoying a plate of actually delicious foods.  I’ve just gone to Ubuntu, that bastion of all things wholesome and vegetal, in the town of Napa, with a yoga studio upstairs, and I’m here to report that the new chef, Aaron London, who has actually been there in the kitchen – off and on – since the start, does indeed make some truly delicious and memorable foods that, while achieved with intention, are totally focused on making satisfying, nurturing and delightful plates of food I can’t wait to revisit.

I was at The Big U as I call it a while back with Marian Burros who was writing for the New York Times.  Needless to say, it was a no holds barred vegstravaganza.  The last time I’d had a meal that elaborate and protracted all vegetable focused was with this same Marian at the original (or first) Bouley where we had a fairly brilliant four hour meal of only veg foods that made me realize that Bouley wasn’t really good at meat.

That first U meal from aspiring celeb chef Jeremy Fox had some thrills and chills. When Fox and owner Sandy Laurence visited me in New York and talked about the possibility of opening a Manhattan outpost I tried to dissuade them, reminding that in the town of Napa, with Sandy’s own garden nearby, they had not only the brilliant ingredients critical to such a venture but the audience for the kinds of efforts that I felt where still in development.  A polite way of saying they’d flop here, for all the right and wrong reasons.

It didn’t surprise me when I read that Jeremy had moved on to the land of Tyler Florence  – now since departed that too. I wish him well but it’s nice to eat food that is the point, and not just a stepping stone to somewhere else.

And so back to Aaron.  The kid’s up for a James Beard Rising Star Chef Award even as I write this.  I’m guessing the Momofuku dessert person will win but this 28 year old with the hilarious haircut is happy and excited to be making some first rate offerings in concert with a charming, dedicated team and I not only salute him, I’m gonna go back and eat me more – once I’ve filled up on Black Pig Bacon at Zazu in Santa Rosa.

Oh, and Aaron’s personal pedigree? He’s from Graton, right outside of Sebastopol, so with all of that travel and stage time in Michelin starred European temples of gastronomy he also has the taste of real, peak Sonoma County grown food in his mouth and mind.  A winning combo if I ever heard one.

Full article here

Charlie Trotter Trounced in a Cautionary Tale

 

Not so long ago, when Chicago chef Charlie Trotter was defending the rights of geese and ducks to hold onto their engorged livers, a short term ban of foie gras ensued but I kept thinking, “I’ll listen to what he says about bird care when I hear he’s nicer to his line cooks.”

 

Really, the man’s a talented chef who has done a lot for his community but a recent profile by David Kamp (author of The United States of Arugula) was both fair and fairly devastating.

Chef Trotter is beloved by many of his colleagues and respected by many who have been through the ranks of his kitchens but he seems not to have outgrown that very last century notion of chef as humorless dictator and very loud screamer.

Or just rigid control freak.  Even those offered up to defend and promote his mellowed modern self seemed under pressure to please Chef. Add to that a pair of failed expansion attempts in New York and two more in Vegas and you begin to wonder – does he play well with others?

These days, and forever after, being a chef/restaurateur means many things, among them, master collaborator.

At the StarChefs Chef’s Congress a couple of years ago I got to lead a conversation about what American Cuisine might actually be.  My three panelists were Emeril Lagasse (with 11 restaurants, lots of books, those TV shows and, yes, that unfortunate but lucrative Crest commercial), Norman Van Aiken (with a couple of restaurants, some books and years of varied success) and Trotter.  Each was asked by a young aspiring chef where they got their inspiration and fresh knowledge.  Norman gave a studied and thoughtful answer about books and travel and tasting. Emeril gave an engaging, populist and modern nod to farmers, cheese makers, bread bakers and their artisan like.

And Trotter, true to form, talked about how he goes within (himself, that is) and searches until he finds the right answer.

His method is important from time to time, especially at the start of a career, as a person works to define and refine his offering, and occasionally important to refresh and reexamine.  But I couldn’t help thinking how much he might be missing by putting himself first, and always.

Is he stuck or just holding true?  Is his time passed or has he just not grown up, opened up and truly blossomed? Is he nicer to his cooks?  Gee, I hope so.

Full article here

I Want It My Way! What’s the right give and take for restaurants?

A journalist asked if I had any classic examples of restaurants that were intensely particular about how and with what they served certain foods – like the bagel place that refuses to toast, the spot selling fries that doesn’t allow ketchup or the so-called gastropub that serves a burger with blue cheese, no matter what.

The snappy story ended up on the front page of the New York Times on Saturday indicating just how top of mind this occasional but regular cultural struggle can feel.

The chestnut I proffered was of San Francisco’s very own Poodle Dog – a hot spot and society watering hole for something like a century. It got a complete, loving and expensive ($3.5 million, I seem to recall) facelift, only to go down quickly in flames, metaphorically and financially, which was in some large part attributed to the chef’s absolute refusal to put or allow salt and pepper anywhere in or near the dining room. He promised, through well trained staff and slightly beleaguered PR folks, that he’d achieved perfect seasoning in the kitchen. Many of us tipped our hats to his brilliance and proceeded to eat elsewhere.

But in these gently recovering still tough times, it’s not always easy to decide where to draw the line. Some tension or exclusivity can create and maintain the sort of dynamic that restaurants need to pull and sustain a crowd.  New Yorkers do love to try to get what it appears they can’t have, and – as I’ve always said – if you give customers everything they want, they’ll take your car, your dog and maybe your boyfriend.

But what’s the right give –and withhold?  Swan Oyster Depot keeps tight and tingly by having just 11 seats, Zuni Café makes you wait 48 minutes to get a whole roasted chicken, Rosso Pizzeria and Wine Bar in Santa Rosa bids you farewell by not serving any desserts at all. These all seems to work perfectly well for them.

I once helped alter a client mix at a beautiful spot on Lake Tahoe by simply removing the Budweiser and starting the beer choices at about $5.  It worked perfectly. The average check jumped and business boomed.

So how does a smart restaurateur make these critical choices?  Everyone loves a little rebellion, a little cheeky – especially if their target market is the slightly rock ‘n roll edgy of passionate foodists (many on tight budgets) that are at the forefront of a lot of restaurant development today. For example, I really do love that sign on the window of New York’s Zucco:  “Le French Diner – No Bud, no ketchup, no reservations, no Zagat” (!!).  But it’s not for nothing that they call this the hospitality business.  Remember, the number one reason people go to restaurants is to feel better.

So make us frown, then smile, then firmly seduce us into happy submission. And make sure not to give us indigestion.

Full article here