Category — news

The 2008 winners of the James Beard Awards Foundation have been announced. The only one I saw coming was Grant Achatz for Outstanding Chef. 

JBA are a little like the Golden Globes – not quite authoritative enough to get all worked up about. But, still. The sheer number of chefs at the top of their game that failed to win in numerous categories is a little surprising.

I think David Kinch is the best chef in the country today. Yet the award went to the guy from Delfina, a glorified neighborhood Italian joint. Really?

The Southern half of the US is equally perplexing. Sharon Hage and Andrew Weissman delivered some of the best meals I had in 2007. Neither won. Not a single chef from New Orleans even got nominated…

Graham Elliot Bowles and Michael Symon both got dissed, while Sean Brock got beat by some guy at Cafe Boulud.  I haven’t been to any of these restaurants, but can you really be an outstanding chef if all you do is execute someone else’s food all night?

Maybe DIY is the future. Chefs get together, get crunk and stroke each others egos. Everyone gets a trophy. Just like in T-ball. We’ll see what happens with Randy’s effort, I suppose.

P.S. – I am sitting on a pile of dusty photos and uncompleted posts about Manresa, Le Reve, Alinea, Nana, York Street and Restaurant August. I’ll try to write them up before I head out to Europe in August. Let me know which of those sound most interesting and I’ll work on those first.

P.P.S. I recently had the pleasure of visiting Tres Agaves, a San Francisco based Mexican restaurant nominated in the JBA Outstanding Graphics category. This has to be one of the more bizarre (gratuitous much?) awards in any category, especially given the blandish design I saw at Tres Agaves.

Now, how about the food? Well… Hit and miss, run of the mill Mexican fare made California fresh. Chiles rellenos were completely naked and roasted, rather than fried. Carnitas looked like a huge chunk of braised meat that was then flash fried and blow torched.

If you are really curious about San Francisco inflected Mexican cuisine look no further than Ninfa’s on Navigation, where Alex Padilla is tweaking the classics with refined west coast "technique".  Bleh.

I didn’t really think much of Bistro Toulouse on my first visit when I had a soggy mac and cheese overloaded with stringy cheese and heavy cream, but completely changed my mind several months later when I stopped by again and had the stellar Pear-Y Winkle sandwich. 

Irritating name aside, this thing was absolutely awesome. More of a burger than a sandwich, it was built around a perfect medium-rate lamb patty with a good bit of crust as a centerpiece and finished off with a goat cheese, poached pears and field greens. All the flavors combined in a really nice way, blowing away countless burgers with far more serious names and intentions. 

Within days Bistro Toulouse was closed, to be replaced with yet another Barnaby’s. As if what Houston needs are more restaurants named after deceased dogs that serve badly prepared food.

Meanwhile, Michael Scott Castell, the chef who owned Bistro Toulouse, has taken a job as a head chef at Brenner’s Steakhouse. The same Brenner’s bought out by Tillman Fertita as he continues his push upmarket, assumingly to wash away the sins of Joe’s Crab Shack and Rainforest Cafe.

So I am having trouble deciding. A great independent spot closes, an insipid mini-chain takes it’s place and the chef/owner is now grilling steaks for Tillman Fertitia. Is the world really a better place? And where am I supposed to get my lamb burgers now?

Fascinating bit of news today – Albert Roux will soon open his first US restaurant and he will be doing so in Houston. Chez Roux will anchor a collection of 10 restaurants at the La Torretta Del Lago Resort & Spa, a $130 million project that will incorporate an 18 hole golf course, a upscale spa, fine dining and a luxury hotel.

La Torretta will be located on Lake Conroe. While not exactly in Houston, it’s no further than certain destination restaurants are from San Francisco. I’d say an hour is more than a reasonable drive for a Michelin star level restaurant.

According to the release Albert Roux has no plans to become a full time Texan, but will pay special attention to the project as his first entry into the US market. Some stories mention Michel Roux Jr, Albert’s son and current chef de cuisine at a two Michelin star rated Le Gavroche in London, as a possible executive chef. Albert Roux himself will be appearing in the kitchen regularly and stage special culinary events throughout 2009 (awesome!).

Albert Roux and his brother are considered luminaries of French cuisine in England, opening Le Gavroche in London in the 60′s and single handedly putting England on the culinary map. The restaurant received the first three Michelin star award in the UK and has placed regularly on the Restaurant Magazine Top 50 list since.  

The Le Gavroche influence on food in London is profound – it’s kitchen has produced some of the biggest names in food, including Gordon Ramsey and Marco Pierre White among many others.

I visited Brasserie Roux in the Sofitel St. James Hotel (located next to the Texas Embassy, strangely enough) last August and had one of the most memorable meals I had in London. Brasserie Roux is an upscale, but casual restaurant with relatively simple, almost rustic food. Despite being a rather low key outpost of the Roux empire, the quality of cooking and freshness of the ingredients were higher than I encountered in many upscale restaurants in London.

Lunch at Brasserie Roux begins in a most civilized way – with an basket of crusty bread, soft butter and a plate of absolutely pristine radishes. In addition to classic brasserie dishes, the menu had an all-French section that roughly translated to a "taste of the times gone past", featuring forgotten recipes served in brasseries of old.

I opted for the duck liver terrine and the stewed rabbit leg served over pasta, off the old school menu. The terrine was incredibly smooth and had a much more pronounced liver flavor than commonly found in upscale French restaurants. The rabbit was even more impressive. Although I was questioning whether pasta dishes in fact appeared on brasserie menus in the past, and have since disappeared, it was a near flawless dish served with a sauce that was decidedly French in preparation and was a perfect backdrop for the rabbit and finely cubed vegetables from the braise.

If the quality of cooking I encountered at Brasserie Roux is any indication of what Chez Roux will deliver when it opens in Conroe, the restaurant will be a most impressive addition to the dining scene in Houston.