What passes for bad weather in Grand Cayman continues

and I continue to love it. 

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The high is only 77 or so, the skies are cloudy, and the water is cold enough that I don't go into it every day or for long.  For sitting on the beach and enjoying the ocean and sipping a virgin mango daiquiri, though, the weather is just fine.

I did exactly that today after a small but quite satisfying lunch at the club lounge.

Dinner was at Blue by Eric Ripert, this time the Blue menu.  It was, as always, superb.

Cayman beach life is relaxing life.

A windy last Cayman Cookout day

I absolutely love storms on islands.  The waves and the wind and even the rain fill me with happiness.  So, when I saw the rough chop and heard the breakers and the wind today, I was very pleased.

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Others on the island seem less happy, but for me, particularly on a day when events occupy most of my time, this weather is grand.

The big daytime event was the Bon Vivant Amateur Chef Competition and brunch.

As the amateur chefs on stage compete in a TV-style cooking competition, the judges (chefs Emeril, Irvine, Andres, Boulud, and Ripert) watch them work and eventually eat their creations.  Meanwhile, the huge crowd enjoys brunch from something on the order of two dozen stations scattered down a reception area and porch outside the ballroom.  I focused on not over-eating and on sampling only things I knew (from the reports of others or knowledge of the food and the chefs) to be good.  The approach worked well:  I enjoyed every dish and left full but not overly stuffed.

The next event, Rum and Robusto, is basically a drink-and-smoke-cigars gathering around a pool. I usually make only a quick pass through it, but today I ended up in a few interesting conversations and also just enjoyed the breezy weather--which served to keep the smoke away from me.

This guy had the best job of the event.

A nice addition was a pair of stations at which people could paint.

I liked more of the artwork than I would have expected.

All in all, the attendees seemed to have a good time,

and I enjoyed my brief visit to it.

The traditional final Cayman Cookout event is a dinner at Blue for which each major guest chef prepares a course.  This year, the tenth, brought a gala dinner with, naturally, ten courses.  The table settings were lovely,

and the menu promised amazing treats.

The chefs delivered on the menu's promises.  I enjoyed every single course, but the most amazing was the last, the dessert. 

By description and first glance, it was an apple with a side sauce.  After you pushed into it with your fork, though, it was so much more.

Sweet, complex, and entirely lovely, this dish was a complete success. 

Hats off to all the chefs, but particularly to Chef Thomas Raquel, the pastry chef of Blue, for this wonderful finale.

And so the Cayman Cookout event draws to a close.  I am fortunate enough to be staying here and enjoying this wonderful place until Friday, but I have to admit that I am both done with huge meals for a bit and also already looking forward to next year's Cayman Cookout.

Excess is now the norm

At least for the duration of the Cayman Cookout, too much is the baseline, and we go only up from there.

Today's events began with a caviar and champagne (I skipped the champagne, of course) lunch that Paramount Caviar hosted at Blue by Eric Ripert.  The menu promised many treats

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and the chefs delivered: every dish tasted great, including the dessert, which fortunately for me did not taste too strongly of coffee.  It's hard to complain about a lunch that includes a dish with Ossetra caviar.

Meanwhile, outside the weather rewarded the organizers with a perfect day.

After a short break, I spent an hour sitting under a tent on the beach, listening to and watching a demonstration from Chef Dominique Crenn and her team.  I've never eaten at one of her restaurants, but after tasting her food here, I will hope to do so the next time I'm in San Francisco.

On the way to her demo, a grackle in a nearby bush decided to announce her/his presence.

He clearly was not afraid of me.

Back at the room, the hotel had left this odd treat.

It proved to be surprisingly tasty.

Another break, during which I was lucky enough to enjoy this dusk view. 

It was then time for one of the many Cayman Cookout traditions: the auction and wine fair/buffet dinner.  This is the place at which years ago I bought the week in an Italian villa. The event was the most crowded I've seen it.

Fortunately, the food remained good--though not great--and I managed to escape without buying any stays anywhere in the world.  Though I would have preferred it far less crowded, on balance I have to call it a success.

Rain and sun and ocean and sand

Today brought rain and sun and despite it all was still beautiful. 

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Rather than risk my usual lunch outside, I grabbed a small plate of snacks and a Diet Coke from the club lounge.

I'll miss my privileges there, which vanish tomorrow and don't reappear until next week.

When the rain stopped, it was time to sit in a chair on the beach, sip a virgin mango daiquiri, and contemplate life.  After enough of a walk on the beach to heat me up, I worked up the stamina to go into the ocean up to my neck and then to dive underwater.  The water felt way better after the walk than it had before that time.  I followed this up with about two minutes in the equally cool pool and was completely refreshed. 

Dinner tonight was at the marvelous Blue by Eric Ripert.  I won't hit you with pics of all the courses, but I have to show off their signature tuna foie gras masterpiece, which was every bit as delicious as ever.

It's hard to explain this dish, but suffice to say that it's been on the menu at Le Bernardin and here at Blue since Chef Ripert first created it. 

A good day despite the rain.

The top five U.S. restaurants I'd most like to try

Today.  The list changes often.  Right now, though, it's easy and remarkably consistent.  I exclude from it all the restaurants where I've already eaten, because at least I've gotten to taste their food once.

5.  Per Se

Though Thomas Keller's New York interpretation of his flagship French Laundry has been the subject of some controversy in the last few years, it still makes my list.  I've been a fan of Keller's food for years, and my one meal at The French Laundry was exceptional, so I'm itching to try Per Se.

4.  Masa

I've heard so much about the sushi and service at Masa that I've wanted to try it for years.  Having experienced The Araki in London, I now understand just how amazing sushi can be. 

3.  Le Bernardin

It's a testimony to the top two places on this list that one of my dream destinations, Eric Ripert's amazing seafood restaurant, is in third place.  I've tremendously enjoyed Ripert's menus at the Cayman Cookout and at Blue by Eric Ripert, and Le Bernardin is supposed to be even better.

2.  Vespertine

This new restaurant made Grant Achatz grin like a kid on his Instagram.  Everything I've read about it sounds like it's both a strange experience and a source of amazing food.  I'm ready to go.

1.  Eleven Madison Park

Currently the number one restaurant in the world in the influential best 50 rankings.  Three Michelin stars.  Chef Daniel Humm, whose food I've loved at past Cayman Cookout events.  If I had the time and could get a reservation, I'd fly to New York City just for this one meal.

I hope one day to get the chance to visit all of these fine places.

A perfect dish

Behold the tuna-foie gras, an Eric Ripert classic that is permanently on the menu at Blue by Eric Ripert.

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I've eaten this dish more than a dozen times, and every single bite every single time has been delicious.  It used to be on the Le Bernardin menu as well,  but I've heard it no longer is--but is still available there if you ask.

Nestled under the incredibly thin sheet of tuna is a very thin strip of brioche coated with an even thinner layer of foie.

I cannot conceive of a way to improve this dish.  It is perfect, an amazing set of flavors unlike anything else.

If you ever get a chance to eat it, do so.

A typical day in paradise

Slept late, read, and headed to the beach.

Ate a grilled cheese sandwich, some salad, and a virgin mango daiquiri for lunch.

Splashed and walked in the ocean.

Moved to poolside and played in the pool.

Read.

Answered some email, wrote, and rested a little.

Enjoyed an amazing dinner at Blue by Eric Ripert.

Packed--tomorrow, I leave.

Watched some TV.

Read.

Crashed (that's coming next, as I write this).


I'm sure I'd get bored of this life in time, but it would take a while.

Two big meals

Today's main Cayman Cookout events--and the only two I paid to attend--both involved big meals, though in very different ways.

The first was the "Bon Vivant Champagne Brunch," which began at noon, ran for nearly three hours, and included a live cooking contest between two local teams of two people each.

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Around 500 folks attended this event.  We crowded around big tables to eat and chose dishes from two long rows of chef stalls in hallways outside the main room.  A caviar bar, a long cheese table, a charcuterie section, a big raw bar, and many stations with hot foods left even the hungriest diners with more to try than anyone could possibly fit into his or her stomach.  I enjoyed almost everything I sampled, with a chocolate and banana dessert--an iffy choice for me in the first place--the only dish I found truly weak.

The other meal, "Seven to Savour: An Evening with Eric Ripert & the Chefs of Cayman Cookout," is the showcase (and most expensive by far) event of the festival.  Despite its high price, this meal always sells out quickly, as it did this year.  Everyone dresses up, goes to an assigned seat in Blue by Eric Ripert, and enjoys a meal composed of seven dishes from the seven top chefs in attendance at the Cayman Cookout.

As one would expect, the menu for this year appeared marvelous.

It tasted even better.  Tonight marked my fifth such meal, and I have to declare this one the best yet.  Every single dish was excellent, delicious and complex and completely marvelous.  Each dish also contained surprises.

Consider Hubert Keller's squab breast.  At first glance, it is a very simple dish

with a squab breast and a small stack of tiny pieces of pineapple.  When I flipped one of the slices, however, it was clear that a skinless squab breast was sitting inside something that looked like but was not a skin.  When Chef Keller came by our table, he explained the amazing process by which he created this pseudo-skin, the very precise way in which he cooked the concoction, and the almost as complicated process of producing the sauce on the plate.  I can't remember everything he used in these two processes, but suffice to say that both the creativity and the skill necessary to create this dish were amazing.

And so the 2016 Cayman Cookout closed.  For the next several days, I will stay here and enjoy this amazing hotel and wonderful island.  I already hope to return for the 2017 Cayman Cookout!

The best grape juice I've ever tasted

I don't drink alcoholic beverages, which means I fail as a foodie in the eyes of some folks because I don't drink wine.  I'm okay with that.  Every now and then, though, a server who learns I don't want wine tries to persuade me to try something bottled and non-alcoholic.  I almost never bother, for it's usually too sweet to be worth the trouble.  During my second meal at Blue in January, however, I yielded to a very persuasive server because he was just so good and so nice that I decided to try some grape juice he offered.  This grape juice.

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Wow, was it good!  It was indeed very sweet, but somehow not as cloying as most grape juices I've tried, and it was a lovely complement to the meal.  I've since read several folks online praising the grape juices from Navarro, so I hope to get to try more.

If you ever get the chance to taste this one, I recommend it. 

Dinner at Blue by Eric Ripert

Back in my entry on my first day on Grand Cayman, I mentioned a wonderful dinner at Blue by Eric Ripert, Ripert's restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman.  I promised a more complete write-up of that meal, and I'm finally here to deliver on that promise.

The restaurant offers three dining options:  two tasting menus and an a la carte option in which you essentially create your own mini tasting menu.  Given only one visit to the place, which is what I thought I would be making when I ordered this meal, to me the only choice is the Eric Ripert tasting menu.

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This menu offers the most courses, and it is also the only one that features Tuna-Foie Gras, Ripert's signature dish from Le Bernardin, his flagship New York City restaurant.

Before starting that menu, however, I opted for the caviar addition.  Over the last several years, I've learned that I very much like caviar--as long as it's very good caviar.  As you might expect from Ripert, the caviar his restaurants serve is quite delicious.  

The little mother-of-pearl implements were both pretty and just the right size for assembling blinis covered in caviar.

The caviar presentation was lovely, and all of the accompaniments were delightful.

The caviar remained the star of the show, but pairing it with the various options enhanced its flavor beautifully.

Before the menu officially began, as is the custom in so many high-end restaurants, the chefs sent some tasty nibbles to the table.

Each of these combined seafood with other delights, from fruit to a rich fritter.

This bit of mahi (I think) crudo was sweet and wonderful.

The menu proper began with the tuna-foie dish I mentioned earlier.

This composition is one of the great all-time dishes.  About as thick as a piece of cardboard, it consists of an incredibly thin slice of baguette with a spread of foie gras on it and a paper-thin layer of tuna above it all.  Oil, chives, and salt cover the whole thing.  However odd it may sound, its taste is astonishingly good, rich and flavorful and not in the slightest bit fishy.

Up next was the shrimp tartare, one of the better shrimp presentations I've ever tasted.

What followed it, though, was so good that I quickly forgot the shrimp.  The scallop dish, which managed to include turnips, something I rarely enjoy, and to make me like them, may be the best scallop I have ever tasted.

Rich and evocative of both the sea and, thanks to the maitake mushrooms, the woods, this course was so very good that I was on the edge of licking clean the shell on which it came.

The halibut, striped bass, and monkfish dishes were all exceptional presentations of fish, each one flavorful and progressively richer than the one before it.

The monkfish satisfyingly held down the spot where a meat would appear in a traditional tasting menu. 

Lest anyone go home hungry, the chefs prefaced dessert with, well, another dessert, this one a rich chocolate treat.

The final and official dessert, "Caramel," delivered a delightful combination of sweet, rich, and clean tastes.

Sorry about the poor shot.

I have to confess that the last dessert was not the last sweet they served.  Before they brought the check, they served a plate with three small mignardises, all of which were delicious.

After the check, they presented this lovely folded box

in which sat two perfect chocolate macaroons--which taste as good as they look.

Yes, at Blue, as at many great French restaurants, nothing says dessert like excess.

I've never had the chance to eat at Le Bernardin, though I hope one day to do so.  Until that day, a dinner at Blue by Eric Ripert is both as close to that experience as one can come without being in New York and an absolutely wonderful experience in its own right.  I'm already looking forward to the next time I can eat there.

On the road again: Grand Cayman, day 6

On the days without Cayman Cookout morning events, I have been sleeping quite late and spending enormous amounts of time in bed.  Today followed that pattern.  As a result of this practice, I feel better than I've felt in some time, though my cough still annoyingly lingers and appears from time to time.

After a bit of reading, I headed to the beach for lunch and time in the ocean.  I'm on vacation, so I opted for the hot dog and side salad, which the very nice servers brought to my chair on the sand.

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A perfectly toasted bun, tart cheddar cheese, and way too much bacon--which is to say, just the right amount of bacon--made this Niman Ranch hot dog a real treat.

The fact that I'm at a foodie event doesn't stop me from enjoying the noble tube steak.

The view from my chair--I was too late for the first row and so had to settle for the second--was lovely.

After lunch, I splashed in the water, sat at one of the floating tables, watched the fish and the other tourists, and generally had a grand time being in the beautiful ocean.  I followed that with a dip in the pool and then some reading and relaxing back in the room.

It's an "and" world when you're on vacation at the Ritz-Carlton in Grand Cayman, so I used that realization to propel me to a second dinner at Blue by Eric Ripert, thus affording me the chance to try the tasting menu I've never gotten to.

I may do a separate entry on that meal later, but suffice for now to say that it was delicious.  Ultimately, though, I prefer the Eric Ripert tasting menu of my earlier Blue dinner to the Blue tasting menu of tonight's meal.

As so many folks around here are wont to say, another day in paradise.

On the road again: Grand Cayman, Cayman Cookout, day 0

After 80 quality minutes in my bed, I climbed out, showered, and headed to the airport for a six-something flight.  The two airplane trips passed in a daze of dozing and reading and working, and then I walked out into a gray, rainy day in Grand Cayman.

Fortunately, this place is beautiful even when in rain, because the ocean can't help but be lovely.

I ate a light lunch staring at the ocean, worked a while and napped a little, and then it was time for dinner.  Celebrity chef Eric Ripert operates a restaurant, Blue by Eric Ripert, here at the Ritz Grand Cayman, the host hotel for the Cayman Cookout.  With a focus on fresh and light seafood, Blue continues the tradition of excellence of Ripert's signature restaurant, New York City's Le Bernardin.  From the paper-thin tuna over an equally thin layer of foie,

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to the wonderfully delicious warm lobster,

and on and on, each dish in the tasting menu was a delight.

I spent the rest of the evening doing a variety of work, and now I look forward to sleeping a long time.