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.

Click an image to see a larger version.

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. 

Click an image to see a larger version. 

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.

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.

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.

Click an image to see a larger version.

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!

So much delicious food

No matter how much food you can handle, a full day at the Cayman Cookout will test your limits.  You have to take it slow and easy, sample but not finish every single dish, and even then, plan to miss some delicious offerings.

Today's sessions began with a Cayman Cookout perpetual favorite:  "Ole Jose!"  Each year, they find a new way for Jose Andres, one of the three amigos (with the event's host, Eric Ripert, and their mutual good friend, Anthony Bourdain) and earliest participants in the event, to make a dramatic entrance.  Today, a boat roared to shore and from it leapt several men and women in pirate outfits, who led Andres to the tent where we awaited his session.

Click an image to see a larger version.

Andres was as entertaining as always, mixing drinks and telling stories while his team created two huge dishes of fideua, a dish that is basically paella but with small bits of pasta instead of rice.  For the first time in my five visits to this event, however, the team lost control of the dish and ultimately ended up burning the pasta.  It was still full of good flavors, but it was a far cry from the better versions they've cooked in the past.

Next up on my schedule--the Cayman Cookout folks run multiple sessions at the same time--was lunch at Blue by Eric Ripert, but with chef Tom Colicchio driving the menu.  (As it turned out, he and his team created the savories, but the Blue team did the dessert.)

The menu looked promising

and tasted better.  I particularly liked the squab, which was the most tender rendition of that bird that I've ever tasted.

From there I headed outside for "A Taste of Texas" with chef Dean Fearing.

Fearing, an affable fellow with a storytelling style a bit reminiscent of the late, great Bill Hicks, prepared three different types of tacos, all of which looked delicious.  The two that those of us in the audience had the chance to sample tasted even better than they appeared.

In the short break before the next session, I sat in the shade and dangled my feet in the pool; as I said yesterday, beach life is good.

The final cooking session of the day, "Craving Ludo Bites," featured chef and occasional TV personality (via The Taste), Ludo Lefebvre.  Ludo was fighting a cold and clearly in a bad mood, so he played the role of temperamental French chef to the max.

Despite tricky conditions and equipment that wasn't always working as he wanted, Ludo--all anyone seems to call him--created a lovely vegetable tart, a souffle, and, as a bonus, an absolutely perfect omelet in the classic French style.  Audience members were able to sample only a bit of crostini, but it was delicious.

After a couple of hours of time to read, relax, and do email back in the room, it was time for the day's final event, the evening Barefoot BBQ.  At this annual event, which takes place on a different beach on the island, groups of chefs at ten or so food stations prepare a wide variety of barbecued items.  In this shot, Anthony Bourdain is assembling and serving some delicious sliders.

An additional two dessert bars complement the savories.  At this one, guest chef and dessert specialist Florian Bellanger is side on to the camera behind a stunning display of macarons.

Even trying every dish and dessert at this event is basically impossible.  Nonetheless, I ate enough that I felt I had--even though I didn't touch half the savories and the vast majority of the sweets.

Fortunately, today's sessions are over, and tomorrow's do not begin until lunch.

On balance, a fine day at the 2016 Cayman Cookout.

On the road again: Las Vegas, day 2

I slept late today after a very late bedtime, and I enjoyed every bit of that sleep.

After some work, we headed out for a light lunch and a lot of walking, some of it through the shops in Caesar's.  Walking was a good thing, a bit of exercise in a trip with plenty of calories.

Dinner took our group of now four folks to China Poblano, a Jose Andres Mexican/Chinese fusion place.  The meal was good, though not exceptional.  That said, I sure would be happy to have one of these restaurants back home, where it would be a stand-out.

This evening, we went to see Rock of Ages, a play that was on Broadway, toured, became a movie, and now is an installation at the Venetian.  The play was very different from the movie, which I had very much (to my surprise) enjoyed, but I also had a grand time at it.  Like the musical, The Commitments, which I saw in London, the music and the sheer energy of the cast made this show a ton of fun.

Tomorrow, UFC fights!

On the road again: Cayman Cookout, Grand Cayman, day 2

The Cayman Cookout events began in earnest today.

As always, the signature first event, and the one I attended, was Ole Jose with Jose Andres.  Each year, Andres makes an unusual--and sometimes spectacular--entrance.  This time, he followed a group of dancers and drummers.  In this shot, he is standing with the dancers and co-hosts Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert.

Click an image to see a larger version.

Andres' presentation is basically the same each year:  He talks while his staff prepares some variation of fideua, a pasta-based dish that is otherwise basically paella.  This time around the fideua featured lobster and octopus.  The chefs cook it in huge pans over wood fires.  In this shot, the dish is nearly ready to come off the fire.

As Andres repeatedly (and correctly) reminded us, the star of this dish is the pasta, which soaks up the lovely juices of the seafood and the sauces with which the chefs began its preparation.  Each attendee received a small plate to sample--they served the fideua with aioli--and it was absolutely delicious. 

After a half hour break, the standard intermission between sessions, next up for me was a lunch at Blue featuring the food of hot young British chef Adam Handling.  Earnest and passionate, he came across as a talent to watch.  After eating four courses of his food, I resolved two things: 

1. I will absolutely seek out Handling's food whenever the opportunity presents itself.
2. I must prepare for huge portions. 

The menu promised four courses, already a lot for lunch at a cooking event.

As Handling warned us, however, four was not really the number of courses; it was more like seven.

We began with two "nibbles:"  a beet dish, and a donut stuffed with crab and dabbed with apricot jelly.

I do not generally care for the noble beet, but I loved this beet-filled tube.  The donut was a rich and savory treat with a hint of sweetness.

We also received bread and two spreads:  chicken butter and chicken liver mousse.

Forget how they sound or what you think you know about chicken liver; these were amazing.

The meal then began in earnest with a riff on the traditional English pub fare of fish and peas, this time with salmon and many variations on peas.

At a foodie event featuring some of the world's greatest chefs, it's no surprise that I will end up duplicating superlatives, so let me just say that this was some of the better salmon I've ever tasted, and the many takes on peas were fresh and delicious.

We moved then to the chicken and lobster course.

Note the two large chunks of lobster sitting in a rich sauce atop a layered chicken concoction.  This course was easily twice the size it would be in a high-end American restaurant, but that was not enough for Handling.  No, we also each received a small sandwich of crispy chicken skin.

If you think you don't like chicken skin, you need to try Handling's take.  Wow, was it great!

We finally hit the main course, which he called Piglet and Octopus.

The pork contribution was, of course, a massive chunk of pork belly.  Octopus appeared in two variations, and the raviolis were made of apples.  Delicious, all of it, and amazing.

At this point, everyone in Blue was crying surrender, but Handling was having none of it.  Dessert arrived.

A crispy chocolate shell covered a mixture of cake and mousse.  Rich, intense, and delicious, it was simply too large to consume after all the other food--and yet almost all of us managed to do just that.

Lunch ran late, so many of us had to scurry immediately to the next session, which in my case was Essential Acqua with Sven Elverfeld.  A German chef whose cuisine I did not know, Elverfeld proved to be a wonderful cook but a bit of a bashful, no-nonsense presenter.

(He's on the right in this shot, standing alone.)  He said that he knew himself and that his place was in the kitchen, not on television.  He nonetheless was an entertaining and informative teacher.  His dish

which looks like breakfast food, is actually called "Rice, different ways."  Four kinds of rice go into the sauce and the bit under the white sauce/foam blend.  What appears to be an egg yolk is actually an intense cheese that they turned into something with the consistency and behavior of a yolk.  The bit of "toast" to the side was a sort of chewy cracker formed entirely of intense cheese and black truffle.  The entire dish was amazing and delicious.

I filled my final time slot of the day with Daniel Boulud's DBGB on the Beach.  Boulud is back for a second year at Cayman Cookout, and the legendary French chef seems determined to become the fourth amigo (Ripert, Bourdain, and Andres being the original three). 

Boulud and his team demonstrated two dishes:  a tuna crudo, and a Thai sausage.  I managed to capture only a shot of the tuna.

After a few hours of break, I headed to the signature Friday evening event, the Barefoot BBQ.  After a short bus ride to nearby Tiki Beach, I spent a couple of hours wandering the many savory stations, where name chefs (including the three amigos) presented dishes that their hardworking staffs prepared.  I particularly loved the jamon slider with foie from Jose Andres and the jerk bacon from Marcus Samuelsson.

Samuelsson is as happy and fun in person as he is on TV.  (Next to Bourdain on The Taste, he always appears short, but he's actually somewhere around 5'll".)

Did I mention the three dessert stations, including all-you-can-eat truffles from Norman Love?

Another bus ride brought a load of Cayman Cookout attendees back to the hotel, but the live band and the party was still going at the Barefoot BBQ. 

Tomorrow morning, I board a catamaran.

On the road again: World Fantasy Con, Washington, D.C., day 2

Most of today's daylight hours went to work. 

I did get to spend a little time in the art show and the dealers' room.  The Virgil Finlay original art on display here really is fantastic.  I picked up a lovely book on his work, and I enjoyed getting to see so many originals.  I also found the rest of the art in the art show to be of a generally very high caliber; it is quite a treat to see such good work.

Dinner deserves its own blog entry, but it's three a.m., and I need to finish some work and crash, so I'm going to write that review another time.  I will say that the meal was at Jose's Table within minibar, and it was not only world-class, it was also one of the very best meals I've ever had the privilege of eating.

After the dinner, I spent time chatting with friends, both old and new, and then, as usual, worked into the wee hours.

A generally good day.

On the road again: World Fantasy Con, Washington, D.C., day 0

Driving in the D.C. metropolitan area sucks.  Most of the drive here proceeded uneventfully, the traffic never pleasant on I-95 but never horrible, either--until about 30 miles from D.C.  From that point on, it was unpleasant. 

Still, I'm safely at the World Fantasy Con in Crystal City, so I shouldn't complain.  The con cranks up in earnest tomorrow, but registration and the hospitality suite open today, and it feels like a good quarter of the people have already shown up.

Dinner tonight was a delicious meal with friends at Jose Andres' Jaleo in Crystal City.  We shared a wide variety of small dishes before waddling back to the hotel.  Any evening that includes Jamon Iberico de bellota Fermin is a very good evening indeed.

Work filled part of the drive and all the rest of my time except dinner.  Despite the timestamp on this post, it's after three a.m. in the morning, so I'm outta here.

Tomorrow, I will head into D.C. for some Global Entry paperwork, eat dinner with friends, and moderate a panel.  Oh, yeah:  I'll do a ton of work, too.

On the road again: Cayman Cookout, day 4

Today's first event began at the sane hour of noon, so I was able to sleep late--a blissful treat--work, and still arrive on time.

This was the view from my balcony as I headed out.

 As always, click on an image to see a larger version.

The champagne and cook-off brunch lasted over two and a half hours, during which time the audience grazed from around twenty different food stations.  Made-to-order omelets, cheeses of many sorts, caviar and fresh-made blinis, custom-grilled mini steaks, a huge raw bar, a long table of pastries--whatever you might want, a local chef and his team would serve it to you.  Meanwhile, on stage two local chef teams, a lead and a sous chef, competed to produce the best locally sourced dish for the panel of four judges: Ritz-Carlton VP of corporate culinary, Rainer Zinngrebe and the three amigo celebrity chefs, Ripert, Bourdain, and Andrés.  Spike Mendelsohn acted as the emcee.  The food was tasty, the show fun, and all in all it was a pleasant time.

Immediately after it ended, a small artisan market opened around the hotel's second, smaller pool.  I browsed it but bought nothing.

I spent the next few hours of free time mostly working, with a little reading and some ocean-gazing thrown in when I couldn't stand to work any longer.

As evening washed slowly over the island, this was the view from my balcony.

Evening brought the last Cayman Cookout event, the Gala Dinner. We filled Blue by Eric Ripert and then enjoyed a long dinner in which the guest celebrity chefs each prepared a course.  (Bourdain was the sole exception; he sat at the table with the chef's spouses.)  So, we enjoyed food from Ripert, Andrés, Bartolotta, Humm, Kinch, MacKay, Mendelsohn, and Yard.

Sorry the menu is tough to read; this was the best shot I could get given the available light.  The meal itself was excellent, a genuine treat and a fine ending to the 2013 Cayman Cookout.


Tomorrow, I will fly home in the late afternoon.  With luck, I'll get in a final dip in the ocean before I leave.

I wish I could afford the time (and cost, which is not inconsiderable) to come here every year.  It is a lovely retreat from winter.  

On the road again: Cayman Cookout, day 2

Today was the best of Cayman Cookout and the worst of Cayman Cookout.

The opening session featured Jose Andres and his team in a beach-side lesson on cooking paella.  Last year, he entered from the ocean in full scuba gear.  This year, he came roaring out of the sea in a jet pack.  Yes, a jet pack.  It was awesome.  Bourdain and Ripert joined a lot of attendees on the sand to get iPhone videos of Andres' entrance.  Once on land, Andres changed clothes as he talked, and for the next hour and ten minutes he was the whirlwind of activity he always is, entertaining and educational and funny and always watching the food.  He prepared a hard-liquor cocktail to start, and servers passed them among the crowd--at 10:15 a.m.  Wine followed, and then the paella, which was delicious.  Even though I'd seen last year's version of this show, I was never bored, and I learned several useful tips.

Next, many of us headed to lunch at Blue by Eric Ripert, where Chef Daniel Humm, of Eleven Madison Park, joined with the Blue team to show us the best way to cook a lobster and then to serve us a lovely, delicious, four-course lunch.  Here's the final lobster dish.

As always, click on an image to view a larger version.

Yes, those are black truffle slices.  Damn, that was tasty. 

So, the first part of the day ended in grand style, Cayman Cookout at its best.

The next session for me was The Art of the Pie with Spike Mendelsohn.  Mendelsohn is a young chef who's been on a few Food Network shows, is talented, personable, and into classic American dishes.  The pie in the session's title is pizza, and he is known for making great pizza.  He showed us how to make a mushroom pizza that, when we tasted it--yes, I had two very small slices--was easily the best mushroom pizza I've ever had.  The one problem was that his session ran only 40 minutes, well short of its scheduled hour.  I would have preferred he fill the hour with information.

Next up was Daniel Humm's "beach picnic."  He explained how to prepare a strawberry gazpacho that was brilliant and that I very much want to make--but he finished in 18 minutes.  I was very glad I hadn't paid the full fee for just that session.

Two chefs new to the event, two short sessions, two groups of quietly disgruntled foodies:  Cayman Cookout at its worst.

The evening was a mixture of the two.  On the one hand, we had Anthony Bourdain

making Texas-style brisket on white bread with beans and macaroni and cheese, Eric Ripert

preparing swordfish, and Jose Andres

making Catalan bread with buttered uni and cheese.  So, the big three were working hard--and working the crowds.

On the other hand, the other chef guests were either eating off on their own, away from the crowd, or nowhere in sight; last year, they'd also cooked.  Many folks had come for the chance to interact with and watch the chefs as they worked, and that was possible only with the big three.

To be fair, five or six other stations had lesser-known chefs preparing tasty small dishes, and there was a dessert assembly that looked good.  Sadly, the dessert quality was well below that of the savory dishes, a waste of calories.

The weather also presented challenges today, with big waves in the morning turning into bigger waves in the afternoon, so big they occasionally came all the way into the tents and soaked the feet of the attendees (I loved that, actually, but many did not).  The evening brought rain, but only for a bit; most of the barbecue was rain-free.  

On balance, I enjoyed the day quite a bit, but it could have been better with just a few changes. 

For what it's worth, I have to note that I'm talking here about how to make something great into something insanely great; it's still an amazing event. 

Why is this shoe on the table at Jaleo?

You have to wonder.

(Click on it to see a larger version.)

We did, but we didn't worry about it for long, because the croquetas in the paper in the shoe were so amazingly good that their container didn't matter.

I'm sure Jose Andres meant something by it; I just don't know what.

Perhaps we'll eat there again this coming weekend, when I will be back in Vegas.  I have to hope so.

On the road again: Las Vegas, day 4

A marathon shut down the Las Vegas strip for much of the afternoon and evening today, so getting about town was more than a bit of a struggle.  None of that mattered, however, because today's only travel challenge was one I was sure to meet:  Getting to the Cosmopolitan casino for dinner at e by Jose Andres. 

e is to Jaleo, where we ate last night, as minibar is to Cafe Atlantico: a restaurant within a restaurant, a small space in which a team of chefs perform feats of food magic using the latest modernist tricks.  In the case of e, the goal was to serve entirely Spanish cuisine while using all the techniques that Jose Andres learned at el Bulli--and more.  The space seats only eight diners, and e offers only two seatings a night.  As you can see from the Web site link above, you email for a reservation and then hope for the best.  I was lucky enough to get in tonight. 

The meal itself was 27 small courses, many of them only a single bite, each of them wonderful.  I didn't taste a single bad thing.  As modernist meals tend to do, this one surprised us and made us laugh even as we were oohing over how good each taste was.  From the first warm-up appetizer to the last of the several desserts, every single dish was delicious, beautiful, and surprising. 

I could go on and on, but I have work to do, so I'll end with a simple bit of advice:  If you're in Las Vegas and can possibly get into e by Jose Andres, do it.  The meal is not cheap, but it is worth all you'll pay for it and then some.  It's one of the very best dinners I've had. 

On the road again: Las Vegas, day 3

Any day that begins with brunch at Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bistro immediately has an edge over most other days.  Eating perfect eggs, some of the best bacon ever, delicious sausage, and amazing pastries was just a wonderful way to start the morning.  Of course, it also left us all insanely full, so we spent the next several hours wandering the high-end stores and watching people.  People-watching is amazing here.

We then taxied over to the Bellagio for more gawking and a small amount of tasty gelato.

Dinner was at the absolutely wonderful Jaleo, Jose Andres new restaurant here.  The food was beyond good; it was full of joy.  We found ourselves smiling uncontrollably.  Kyle likened biting into a croqueta to being hugged and made to smile by someone who loved you, and he wasn't exaggerating; it was that good.  I've tasted more different croquetas than I can remember, and this one completely redefined for me how good this wonderful little item can be.  The flan was similarly amazing, a dish I thought I knew redefined and made more perfect than I thought it could be.

More walking, a few art galleries, and then we hopped into a cab to the Rio to see Penn & Teller.  I've seen them multiple times before, but this might have been my favorite show.  They're both so very good and so very smart.  I highly recommend this show if you haven't seen it.

Tomorrow, I hope to sleep a great deal, because the downside of working and also sightseeing is that I am getting very little rest.  The results are worth the cost, but I do look forward to sleeping without an alarm. 

On insanely expensive meals

Regular readers will note that I write frequently about food, particularly about insanely expensive restaurant meals. Ticia asked recently how I got into the hobby of "collecting restaurants," as I often put it, and suggested that others might want to know. So, I'll do my best to explain.

I didn't grow up with fancy food; far from it. I was a very shy and conservative diner for quite some years. Over time, though, business travel took me to cities with restaurants far better than I had ever sampled before, so my palate grew both more discriminating and more adventurous.

A group of us began eating out most Saturday nights and trying different local places, and that helped me expand my dining horizons.

What really pushed me over the edge, though, was a meal at Minibar in Cafe Atlantico many years ago. Minibar, for those who don't know it, is a six-seat restaurant-within-a-restaurant that sits on the highest level of Jose Andres' Cafe Atlantico. Andres worked at Ferran Adria's El Bulli in Spain, and while there he learned a great deal about molecular gastronomy. The meal we enjoyed on that first trip (we've since gone a second time) involved many of Adria's now widely known techniques, including caviar made from the essence of peas, various deconstructed classic dishes, and so on.

The presentations were like nothing I'd ever seen--and they were all delicious and whimsical and fun. Like many types of literature, and like SF in particular, these dishes were more than food, they were the works of artists in conversation with their field's past and contemporary artists. I know that sounds pretentious, but it's true; a chef who deconstructs a classic dish, such as Caesar salad, into a new but tasty concoction that captures the essence of the classic in a new way is both commenting on and honoring that previous dish.

I finally got it: the meals were not just sustenance, and not just delicious, they were also art experiences, performance art of a very special type.

When you eat at The French Laundry or Alinea or Robuchon in Las Vegas, to name but three, you are not simply feeding yourself; you are experiencing the art of a chef and a style of dining that the chef has created and refined. You have the opportunity to learn and experience new things--even as you stuff your face.

A true foodie, I believe, is not just in it for dinner at these fancy places, of course. A true foodie should also love any food that tastes good or is inventive or is otherwise interesting. So, I'll happily enjoy a hot dog or macaroni and cheese, but I'll also crave these more adventurous offerings, even if they cost a small fortune, and I'll enjoy them both as meals and as the art experiences they truly are.