In lieu of our usual round up of reviews and restaurants, here’s some Thanksgiving reading, some with a Paris connection, some not. Break out the decorative gourds, put on your loose pants and dig in.
François Simon has reservations about reservations, Pudlo visits planet Passard, and Caroline Mignot cracks for a 2€ dessert.
Gaudry calls Alain Passard a “living God,” Wayda says that Jacques Genin is trying to out-do nature itself, and lots of other meals take place without any blasphemy whatsoever…
- P-Wells puts Passard against the wall and warns that ”anyone who serves langoustine carpaccio should be shot.” She goes on to say that L’Arpège is no better than a hospital cafeteria or a “vegetarian cult restaurant of the 1970s.” Her fighting words put us in the mood to revisit Scandal’s The Warrior (it totally holds up), and now we can’t stop imagining that Patricia Wells and Patty “Smyth” might actually be the same person. As Barbra said, “has anyone ever seen them in a room together?” [Patricia Wells]
- I mentioned this on Friday, but now that we have accompanying art we’d like to once again congratulate PbM contributing advisors Dorie Greenspan and Alexander Lobrano for their fine showing at the IACP awards last week. Dorie’s Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours
was named Cookbook of the Year, and Alec won a Bert Green award for and article for Saveur called Spirit of the Bistro.
Accolades
- Bruno Verjus sends a report from Stockholm, where he was on hand to see L’Arpège chef and vegetable fetishist Alain Passard named Best Chef by The White Guide for his “considerable influence on young chefs around the world.” Congrats, Al! [Food Intelligence]
Down the Hatch
- Aaron Ayscough visits the Renaissance des Appellations biodynamic wine tasting and stains his teeth with the wines of Nicolas Joly and other Steiner devotees. [Not Drinking Poison in Paris]
- Stuart Smith, in his latest post “Why I Resent Biodynamic Farming!” explains that vintners like Joly are trying to belittle him, divide the industry for marketing purposes, and that he didn’t want to go to their stupid party anyway. [Biodynamics is a Hoax]
- The Chinese government, which doesn’t give a Year of the Rat’s ass about any of this biodynamic stuff, has just purchased a château in Bordeaux and is setting up its own distribution network to ensure the supply from its favorite French wine region. [Wine Spectator]
Upcoming Food Tours
Taste of Paris
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Cherry tomato salad
22 May 2012
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Cherry tomato salad
(Delicious) Things to Do
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Paris Food & Wine Events
1 May 2012
Le Fooding’s Veillées Foodstock festival and another stellar (and free!) wine tasting at Caves Augé.
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Paris Food & Wine Events
