Bye, bye, Grand Cayman beach

Today, I travel home, so today I also say goodbye to this wonderful place.

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The weather remains bad by local standards and great by me.

I cannot recall when I felt so relaxed and energized and healed.  I'm sure I'll turn into a stress monkey quickly enough, but right now, I feel great.  I'm going to hold onto the feeling as long as I can.

I love being at home, so I'm looking forward to that, but I found this vacation so great that I am already planning to be back at the 2019 Cayman Cookout for the same amount of time.

Bad weather makes for great walking

What passes for bad weather here--seventy-five, overcast, windy--is still so lovely I could sit on my balcony and stare at it for hours.

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Walking on the beach is particularly fun when the waves are crashing a bit and the sky is constantly changing.

Sunset was beautiful both from my room

and from inside the Seven restaurant.

I accept that my love of this place is irrational, but I do love it here.  Having a vacation of this length has been wonderful, and I will enjoy every moment until I board the plane tomorrow.

A lazy Cayman day

After a delicious long sleep and a bit of futzing around, and despite all the clouds and the strong breezes, the ocean beckoned.

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Lunch was in a Ritz chair on the sand, a lovely tradition.  A grilled cheese sandwich with tons of bacon and a side salad, along with my frequent beverage, the virgin mango daiquiri, made a delicious feast.

After getting quite warm--temperatures were in the high seventies and the sun was peeking through the clouds a lot--I spent some time in the chilly water enjoying the waves, then repeated the process in the much calmer pool.

A red sno-cone was a nice treat along the way.

The rest of the day proceeded similarly:  slowly, lazily, and entirely, for my purposes, perfectly.

Cayman beach life is easy 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.

Way too much of everything

was the Cayman Cookout's motto for today, or so it seems.  Way too much beauty and sun. 

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Way too much fun, with Chef Jose Andres arriving in a helicopter, from which he leapt into the ocean, where a jet-ski picked him up and dragged him to shore.  He made his hour presentation as much fun as always, his manic energy both boosting the crowd and feeding off it.

He also had his team prepare and share with us an absolutely sinful creation:  Jamon Iberico with Ossetra caviar.

Wow, was it delicious.

Way too much food at Chef Sean Brock's delicious but heavy four-course lunch at Andiamo.

His country ham--a special one he'd started some time ago--with local fruits and heirloom peanuts he brought with him was the lightest of the three savory courses, and it was filling.

Way too much heat under the pavilion tent for Chef Daniel Boulud's presentation, which despite being oceanside managed to wilt many of the audience members.  Despite that, Chef Boulud himself stayed calm and gracious throughout the hour. 

I'd like to say Chef Rick Bayless' presentation had way too much information, because he shared an enormous amount of data with us--as well as serving us a great taco--but it really wasn't.  Chef Bayless is a great communicator who comes across as an amazingly nice guy. 

Way too many people at the Barefoot BBQ on the beach, where a wide assortment of food stands served freshly made delicious small treats while a live band played and people ate, drank, and mingled.  Oh, and we watched a guy in a jet pack perform in the dark over the ocean for us. 

All in all, it was a typically great Friday at Cayman Cookout, which is to say, quite an amazing day.

A trip to Caymana Bay

All the usual weather sources forecasted rain for today, but they were all wrong; it was absolutely beautiful.  This late-afternoon shot shows about as bad a sky as we had today, and no rain fell from it.

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Almost all day, the sky was sunny and mostly clear, with only lovely white cloud tendrils ambling overhead.

Instead of sitting oceanside, I opted to go into Caymana Bay, enjoy some Indian food for lunch, walk a bit through the small local farmers' market, and eat a cup of gelato.  A rooster and hen were also taking the air; you see a lot of chickens around here.

A few folks enjoyed the fountains whose sole purpose seems to be to let people choose to get wet.

After some time doing email and reading, I walked over to Andiamo, the resort's Italian place, for a lovely waterside meal of Caesar salad and pasta.

I love being here, doing little, and (mostly) not feeling guilty about it.

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.

Out came the sun

Clouds still littered the sky, and occasionally gray fingers of dense clouds raced across the beach, but overall today was a much prettier day.  I took advantage of the weather to move to the beach for a chunk of the afternoon.  I forgot to bring my phone, so you'll have to settle for this view of the beach from my room in the later afternoon.

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I enjoyed lunch--sliders, side salad, water, and a virgin mango daiquiri--from a covered chair facing the ocean.  I walked into the ocean only up to my knees, because the water was so cold, and then it was back to the chair.  I dipped only my feet in the pool as I enjoyed the late-afternoon tradition here of shaved ice, in my case a cone with half raspberry and half strawberry.  Eating it was almost as much fun as watching the many kids enjoy theirs.

My capacity and need for resting and sleeping continue to amaze me, but I'm indulging them and doing very little here.  That seems to be just about right.

The club lounge continues to be a nice retreat for snacks, healthy and, in this case, otherwise.  After dinner, dessert was two nibbles from the offerings on display there.

Being here makes for a very easy life indeed, and I am doing my best to relax all I can.

Back in Grand Cayman

It's Cayman Cookout time--well, it will be in a few days--so I'm back in Grand Cayman to enjoy this beautiful place, relax, write, and attend this wonderful foodie event. 

The view from my hotel room window is spectacular, as always. 

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It even looks great at night. 

With the door open, the sound of the waves is a soothing lullaby that turns me first contemplative and then sleepy, in rapid succession. 

This time, I even have access to the hotel's fancy Club Lounge, where food and drinks and quiet are available much of the day.  Here's just one of its several areas.

If you zoom in on the mini-fridge, you can see it's full of Pepsi products.  Fortunately, the hotel knows I prefer Coke Zero and Diet Coke, so they stocked some for me and keep it behind the counter.  It's not that I'm particularly special; it's that the service here is that good.

Just off the lobby, the hotel is keeping the holidays going to the very end.

Dinner was sushi at the hotel's own sushi place, which is a better than average but not outstanding restaurant.  Oddly, the highlight was the miso soup, which is one of the better renditions I've tasted. 

Adding the lime further improved it.

Tomorrow, my plans include sleeping late, eating brunch, going to the water, and not accomplishing much.

I do love this place.

Home

I woke up after a long sleep, threw open the blinds, opened the door, and listened to the ocean.  I ate lunch on the beach, waded in the ocean, and walked in the pool, saying my good-byes to this beautiful island and amazing resort.

The bulk of rest of the day went to the usual travel rituals.

And now I'm home.  As always, I'm sad to have left the island, but I'm happy to be home.

Next year is the tenth Cayman Cookout.  I definitely hope to attend.

In which I actually leave the resort property

In all the years I've been coming here for the Cayman Cookout, I've never left the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman property except to attend Cayman Cookout events.  Today, just to do it, I spent the middle of the day elsewhere, specifically at Caymana Bay, a collection of shops, restaurants, and apartments.

Wednesdays bring the local farmers' market there, so I wandered and admired the small collection of local produce.

Lunch was at the Waterfront Urban Diner, where I enjoyed a tasty and definitely spicy Thai salad beef salad

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and shared a quite decent truffle mac-and-cheese.

As is common in these parts, a few chickens were on hand to provide added scenery.  This particular one knew no fear and wandered among the tables with nary a fuck to give.

The local iguanas were also fun to watch, including both this one hiding in plain sight on a rock

and meta-iguana, riding his giant metal counterpart to victory (or something).

As good fortune would have it, Caymana Bay also offers Gelato & Co., an artisanal gelato shop.  I sampled three flavors--dark chocolate, mango, and passion fruit--and all were very good, with the mango and passion fruit particularly strong.

I also have to commend the wonderful Books and Books bookstore at Caymana Bay.  I spent a fair amount of time wandering their stacks and admiring their curation.  Any community would be happy to have this bookstore.

All in all, a simple but satisfying adventure.

Re-evaluating Emeril

What little I've known about celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse has come from catching snippets of his early TV shows and eating in two of his restaurants, one in New Orleans and one in Las Vegas.  My overall impression from the few minutes of television was negative; I felt he came across more as huckster than as chef.  The food in the Las Vegas restaurant was good but not great, though its banana cream pie remains by far the best I've ever eaten in a restaurant.  The food in the New Orleans restaurant was quite good and made me wonder if I had misjudged him.

Here at the Cayman Cookout, I chose to attend a session of his to learn more about him.

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Though the first dish he made--salmon cheesecake--struck me as not my type of food, the others intrigued me more, and his command of flavors and textures was superb.

When he opened the session to questions from the audience, though, he really won me over.  In person, he's a quiet man who speaks in carefully considered and measured sentences, with no hyperbole and a great deal of passion for both food and his charitable foundation, which focuses on helping children.  A man from New Orleans took the mic and told a story of meeting Emeril when he was first at Commander's Palace and of how great a guy Emeril had been then and still was, and how proud all the people from that neighborhood were, and Emeril teared up a little.

On Sunday night, he worked outside with his team preparing the appetizers for the finale dinner.

I caught him here in a rare moment looking away from the food.  He very politely turned down multiple photo and autograph requests until his team was done cooking all the appetizers and he had individually thanked all of the chefs working there with him.  He was gracious with the servers and praised them and the importance of what they were doing.  Then, he posed as much as people wanted, smiling the whole time--but the only times he looked genuinely happy were when he was working on the food with his team.

I leave the Cayman Cookout determined not only to seek out more of his food but also with the conviction that this is a decent man of great talent, a man I'd like to get to know further.  That's quite a change for me, and one I would not have gotten the chance to make without being here, so I am again grateful for the opportunity to attend this event.

I also learned again, as if I should need the lesson, that seeing only one aspect of a person is almost never enough to make a valid judgment about the person.

Not that this will ever matter to him or even reach his eyes, but I feel obliged to say it nonetheless:  Thank you, Chef Lagasse, for what you did here, for being a trailblazing chef, and for your charity work.

From Cayman Cookout: Something I loved, something I despised

Something I loved:

Christina Tosi, the chef and owner of Milk Bar Bakery, possibly the most interesting bakery in the world right now, gave a presentation yesterday that I very much enjoyed--even though I don't bake.  I chose to attend her session so I could hear her talk about her work and the philosophy behind it, and I was not disappointed; she is an amazing and visionary chef.

What I didn't expect was to like so much her philosophy of business, which in many ways reminded me of PT.  She talked a great deal about her team as a team, and all the people from Milk Bar in attendance regularly nodded agreement.  At one point she talked about creating opportunities for her staff, paying people well, and providing them with benefits.  She said,

I want to create a business where no one ever has to sharpen their resume again.

Later, in discussing how we can have more businesses like hers, businesses that grow but that never lose touch with their roots and that will never be huge, she said that it's possible for those businesses to flourish if we will do one thing:

Support what you love.

I like that.  I like that a lot.  I do it to some degree by instinct, but I could do better.  When it's time to spend money, I should think a great deal about spending it with businesses I love.

I came away deeply impressed by Tosi and wishing I could sit and talk business with her for a while.

Something I despised:

Today at the brunch and cooking competition, Anthony Bourdain praised Jose Andres for being about to be the first chef sued by a sitting U.S. President.

A woman sitting next to me asked what the comment referred to, and I explained briefly, in the process noting Trump's many negative comments about Hispanics and other groups.

She responded,

[Trump's] only saying what everyone's thinking but are too afraid to say.

Wow.

I most deeply hope she is wrong, and I am sad that she clearly agrees with Trump's awful comments.

Most of the foodies I have met share the same perspective on Trump, but clearly all do not.

In lieu of a narrative blog entry

please accept this photo of five varieties of jamon iberico bellotta

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and this napkin, notable for the Bourdain quote (he was on hand, assembling steamed buns full of Korean barbecue).

All of this from tonights' Barefoot BBQ event at Cayman Cookout.

Just my usual day

Today was just my usual sort of day.

Woke up after nine hours of wonderful sleep in an amazing resort (Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman), stepped onto the balcony, and basked in the sound and smell of the ocean.

Flew with a group of about a dozen, including chef Eric Ripert, in a private jet (courtesy of the fine folks at Craggy Range wines) to Cayman Brac, a nearby sister island, for a two-hour special lunch at the incredible Soleil d'Or resort.

Flew back to the hotel in time to do a little email and nap.

Attended a wine and art auction that culminated with what the auctioneer, who was in the luncheon group, had called her greatest challenge:  a large chocolate helicopter handmade by a local master pastry maker.

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The man to the right provides a sense of how big this insane thing was.

Headed offline and to bed early to sleep a ton before a morning event.

Yup, just my usual day.

The view from my hotel room

is, predictably, as beautiful and perfect as ever.  Here's the version right after I hit the room in the late afternoon.

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A few hours later, as I was heading to an early dinner, the view was this.

Yeah, it's pretty darn great here.

I was in the bed only three hours last night, so now it's time to crash.

More tomorrow.

Where I'm headed in the morning

Yup, it's Cayman Cookout time again.



Feel free to be jealous of me. I'm jealous of myself, and I get to go!

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!

Food and celebrity

The Cayman Cookout exists because it carefully harnesses three different forces:  the drawing power of a beautiful Caribbean island during the heart of winter, the ever-larger group of people who follow celebrity chefs, and the even bigger group of people who to some degree consider themselves foodies.  Today's events contained examples of all of these.

The biggest traditional Saturday gathering at Cayman Cookout is the beach bash, an event that for most attendees includes a boat trip to Stingray Bay and then a visit to a distant (for this area) part of the island for various grilled foods from chef-staffed stalls on a gorgeous beach.  I've attended this session in each of my previous four years here, but this time I opted for variety--drawn by the power of a chef whose food I've long enjoyed.

My choice for lunch was "Blending Cultures and Flavors with Chef Hubert Keller," a wonderful meal that took place in Blue by Eric Ripert.  Hubert Keller, no relation to the even more famous celebrity chef Thomas Keller, runs multiple restaurants, including Fleur de Lys, the Las Vegas version of which was where I enjoyed some of my first serious forays into haute cuisine.

The menu for lunch was classic Hubert Keller, a blend of local ingredients and traditional high-end French dishes.

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All of the dishes were absolutely delicious, but the last two stood out for completely different reasons.  The beef cheek with foie gras was an absolutely perfect version of a stunningly rich classic.

Every single bite of this plate was an exercise in luxury and decadence.

The dessert, by contrast, tasted light in every bite--and yet was amazingly delicious.

The cilantro granite and crystallized cilantro chips were revelations, two uses of the ingredient I've never seen before--and incredibly tasty in their own right.

Next up for me was "Sweet Secrets" with famous dessert chef Florian Bellanger.

Bellanger demonstrated how to make macarons and served us a couple of them, along with a raspberry sorbet.  He provided recipes and a great many useful tips, with almost all of his focus totally on the food.  Everything of his that I've tasted has been delightful, and these macarons were no exceptions.

My last session before the evening's dinner event was "The Adventures of Eric and Tony," a gathering that was almost entirely about celebrity and one that has been a Cayman Cookout staple for at least as long as I've been coming here.  Basically, chef and Cayman Cookout host Eric Ripert stands with his even more famous friend, chef, author, and TV personality, Anthony Bourdain, and the two of them tell stories and poke fun at each other.

While doing this, they also typically make some dish; today's was a delightful bouillabaisse.  The two genuinely care for each other but also have some areas of serious disagreement, so their banter is always interesting and enjoyable.

The Cayman Cookout folks have tried a lot of different approaches to Saturday night's dinner, and tonight's was another new one:  "Meat and Greet by Niman Ranch," which took place in the hotel's "culinary studio," basically a teaching kitchen and function space.  As you'd expect from the sponsor, the emphasis was on meat.

The main steak course was the star of this particular meal, with incredibly tender and delicious meat.

The final event of the day was a party featuring Hubert Keller as DJ.  I listened for a few songs and enjoyed a couple of them, but ultimately it wasn't my scene; no surprise there.

Overall, another good Cayman Cookout day with a great many wonderful flavors.