195
MARIANI’SVirtual
Gourmet
October 23, 2011
NEWSLETTER
Ad for Postum Coffee Substitute (1938)
ANNOUNCEMENT
The 5th Annual Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival will take place this year from Dec. 9-13, with a star-studded, epicurean extravaganza hosted on the resort island playground of Palm Beach. Join James Beard Award-winning chefs, Food Network personalities, authors, winemakers, mixologists and a plethora of local talent in an unforgettable series of dinners and parties that will saturate your senses in the most anticipated culinary event of the season. Chefs include Michelle Bernstein, Daniel Boulud, David Burke, Clay Conley, Scott Conant, Dean Max, Michael Schwartz, and many more. John Mariani is proud to be Honorary Chairman. For info click here.
❖❖❖
THIS WEEK
LUXURY TRAVEL: DO YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR?
by John Mariani
NEW YORK CORNER: LE BERNARDIN
by John Mariani
MAN ABOUT TOWN: BOND 45, NYC
by Christopher Mariani
WINE: WHAT'S IN A NAME? WINE REGIONS CALL FOR LEGAL RECOGNITION
by John Mariani
❖❖❖
LUXURY TRAVEL
Do You Get What You Pay For?
by John Mariani
And yet. . . I had a very hard time finding a hotel in Amsterdam, Brussels, Antwerp, and Ghent this past month, the restaurants everywhere were jammed, even at lunch. Meanwhile, in Paris, there is always a line of at least 20 people outside the door of Louis Vuitton trying to get to buy their signature
handbags.
My wife and I were approached by two Japanese women
who had apparentlty bought their limit of bags and
begged us to go into the store and buy two more for
them. We refused and bade them "Sayonara."A friend of mine was in Santorini recently and said he paid the highest price ever in a restaurant, and the place was packed. The Greek government boasts that in 2011 there will be a 12 percent rise in foreign tourists, but, Dakis Joannou of the Guggenheim Foundation told Bloomberg News, “The tourists who come to Greece go to the sunny islands [like Santorini], making any rise in visitor numbers pathetic in comparison to our assets.”
A report on CNN recently explored the world of the "gigayachts," defined as anything more than 200 feet long, costing a standard no-frills $1.36 million per meter. The largest afloat? Roman Abramovich's Eclipse (below), at 535 feet, with 24 guest cabins, two swimming pools and a mini-submarine, and rumored to have cost between $540 million and $1.1 billion. Just the setting for a James Bond movie!
have the best," said
Jonathan Beckett, CEO of Burgess Yachts.
"There
is nothing standard when it comes to this area of
our market. But if you are purchasing a superyacht
you would want a vessel that was transglobal and
you'd want a reasonable speed. You'd probably want
at least two helicopter platforms, so you can land
your own helicopter and visitors can also land
theirs, cinemas, hospitals, spas, large
entertainments areas and hairdressing salons.
These vessels have anything from 80 to 120 people
onboard including the crew, so it's a little
town."
Still, there has been something
of a slowdown: "No one's looking to pay a strong
price for a yacht, as they were pre-2008," Beckett
told CNN. "Then it didn't matter how much you
paid, it was cool to pay top price, now it matters
a lot. In today's market it is cool to be paying a
low price."
This last
puzzle is easily solved: In a USA Today
article entitled, "Don't
look for an empty middle seat on a flight anytime
soon. And don't hold your breath waiting for a cheap
fare." High fuel prices and an uncertain
economy have caused airlines to scale way back on
flights. Delta has reduced flights 5 percent through
December, despite, says spokesman Eric Torbenson, "We've
seen very strong bookings." Delta is cutting
back on its flights, he says, as a way of being
"cautious about fuel prices." The
article also quotes Matthew Jacob, senior airline
analyst for ITG Investment Research, who said,
"lower supply means higher prices," noting that
planes on average have been flying 80% to 90% full.
"Paying more to fly on fuller planes is going to be
the norm for at least the next couple of years,"
Jacob says. "I think the days of lying across a row
of three empty seats on a transcontinental flight
are really behind us." American airlines have made reductions in flights, despite boasting of their recent purchase of 260 fuel-efficient Airbus planes and 200 from Boeing, with the prospect of buying an additional 465 planes through 2025. According to Tom Horton, president of American Airlines, speaking to CBS News, "We wanted to do this big and we wanted to do it quickly. . . . Our needs were just so great, and we wanted to do this in such a big way, that one company, one manufacturer couldn't fulfill our needs in the timeframe."
Nevertheless, American, of all the major carriers, is set to report a quarterly loss and, according to the NY Times, there are "growing concerns that [American] cannot weather yet another slump in travel and may have to file for bankruptcy protection."
But how does that explain the extravagance in other sectors? An article in Bloomberg this week reported that D&D London Ltd., which owns 20 restaurants in the city, saw sales rise by 6 percent last month and by 5 percent in the six months up through September 30, "as poor weather, riots and volatility failed to damp demand." Their events business at Guastavino's in NYC surged 50 percent. New York Magazine's Grub Street blog called ten high-priced steakhouses ranging from BLT Steak to Craft, from
Minetta Tavern to Peter
Luger, to try for an eight o'clock table
last Friday and the best available was either 5:30
PM or after ten or none available at all.There are, too, still a lot of people flush with doh-ray-mee--decadently so--not least the scads of Russian and Arab rich, along with an increasing number of Chinese, who are flooding into major European and American capitals. Consider that in a Chicago club named the Board Room this month, a Russian billionaire's son sent over a $100,000 Nebuchadnezzar-size bottle of Armand de Brignac Champagne to actors Zac Efron and Heather Graham's table. The man also left a $22,000 tip to a waitress named Jasmine (right). I wonder what daddy had to say.
Back at the beginning of 2009, high-end restaurants in the San Francisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles reported business down 45 percent, and the
"I think there are a lot of people who are spending the money they have and enjoying it, because they don't know if it will last," David Levin, owner of The Capital Hotel in London told me. "Business has actually been quite strong."
"The cruise
business increases every single year because cruises
offer terrific value," says Larry Pimentel,
President and CEO of Azamara
Club Cruises, whose eight-night Titanic
Memorial Voyage next spring is already almost sold
out, with cabins beginning at what seems a very
reasonable $4,900 for a centennial event. This is a recession?
If I can make any sense of what seems an economic dichotomy, I would say that people who do have money or are still on expense accounts are being careful in the sense of spending it where it counts and where the value is unquestionably there, in spades. Thus, booking a hotel room for $700 or more at, say, The Pierre in NYC or Le Bristol in Paris, or The Capital (junior suite, left) in London, is a sure thing, which is to say that there is more than good value for money. At such hotels everything is up to date, up to speed, and usually goes beyond expectations. Cleanliness is taken for granted, so is the service staff, the check-in procedure, and the concierge services. Then there are those artful touches that we might in fact take for granted and never even notice. Look at the photo of a hallway in Le Bristol, Paris (right). It's just a hallway, a pleasant, sunny hallway, but notice that every small table has a pot of roses on it, and I bet every one is right smack in the center. (Fortunately the newly renovated hotel has its own florist.)
Book a table at the Bord'Eau restaurant in the new De L'Europe Hotel (left) in Amsterdam, where the finest linens, stemware, silver and vases are arrayed, where yours is the table for the evening, with no on else scheduled for a late dinner. The cuisine, by Chefs Richard Osterbrugge and Thomas Groot is among the finest in Europe, backed by a superbly selected wine list.
The service
staff throughout is always there: lift an eyebrow,
and a captain or waiter will be at your side in
seconds. You expect that; you are paying for it;
those who can, will.The agonies of flight have become so indelible and of such magnitude, that the security checks alone can add hours of abject embarrassment to travel, clear evidence that the terrorists have in fact done precisely what they intended--wreck worldwide travel by costing airlines and airports and hotels billions upon billions of dollars.
When speaking of value on airlines, the elimination for all practical purposes of so many First Class cabins in airplanes shows that more than ever the debatable comforts of such sectioned-off cabins is rarely justified by business travelers anymore who must pay an unconscionable $10,000 and way up from there for a fully reclining seat and the same old reheated grub and mediocre wines. Depending on the distance, even Business Class can cost that much. Which is why many airlines have switched to all Business Class or enhanced Business Class with names like Elite, but even then prices can be astronomical.
I cannot
even dream of paying such prices, so I was happy
when invited to try out the 12-seat Biz Bed section
(left) on OpenSkies
airlines to fly from Newark to Paris, Orly. From
Washington DC-Paris, at an October special rate,
you'll pay only $630 round-trip in business class;
from NYC it's $1,400. These prices may vary
considerably throughout the year but they beat every
one of OpenSkies' competitors. This month economy class
on Air France to Paris is $1,600; Business is
$8,030; First Class a whopping $15,668. Then
think about the Delta Shuttle--a 35 minute
flight--from NYC to DC is now $625 roundtrip! (By
the way, in case you'd like to rent a mid-size
private jet for the trip from DC to Paris on
Flex-Jet, the fee would be $76,935.)Launched in June 2008 as a premium subsidiary of British Airways, OpenSkies acquired L’Avion, the 100 percent business class French airline that flew between Paris-Orly and Newark, in July that year. (British Air only flies to Paris after stopping in London first.) At that time, then managing director Dale Moss told me, "We don’t need a huge amount of market space because we have only 54-84 seats per plane. We just want the right numbers to differentiate their experience that feels exclusive and priced so competitively well. A road warrior has to travel at some level of comfort. You can’t do that three abreast in coach."
OpenSkies' Boeing 757s have a maximum of 84 seats (most other airlines' 757 configuration has close to 200), so getting onboard and off takes less than ten minutes.
They also
have a lounge at Newark (now quite cramped but due
for a change to larger space) and at Paris Orly, an
airport extremely accessible to Paris on the
Metro. There is no charge for up to three
bags, whereas some airlines charge $50 a bag each
way. There are 12 fully flat Biz Beds, with a
73-inch pitch, in a separate cabin, and 60-72
Biz Seats with a 50-inch pitch, all set in a
two-by-two configuration. The amenities on board are all very good, very sleek, with soft colors, the food about average for business class, the wines well chosen and all is served by a very attractive, well-dressed, young crew--none of those rumpled chinos, polyester vests and ugly neckties. And the personal on-demand entertainment system has just been replaced by an effortlessly easy iPad, packed with nearly 30 movies.
I had a seamless crossing, sleeping my usual two-and-a-half hours, no matter how much I drink or take a pill, but it was not the usual shiftless, restless sleep; it was sound, and I felt a lot better the next morning upon arrival at Orly than I might otherwise. On the way back I flew Biz Seat, as did all but one passenger, who was alone in the Biz Bed cabin. I asked about this and a flight attendant told me that a lot of travelers want the bed to fly overnight but going back west, they take the less expensive Biz Seat, which to me makes good sense. You get into Newark in the late afternoon. I still slept two-and-a-half hours, dropping off about midway through "Midnight in Paris."
FLYING THROUGH THE TURBULENCE
For this article, I interviewed OpenSkies' Paris-based CEO and Commercial Director Western Europe, British Airways, Patrick Malval, 43 (right), about the challenges of servicing the luxury market in stormy economic conditions.
Q.
A. It's been difficult after
2008, when we began, but we think 2011 is going to
be much better. We have seen an improvement
in the economy in both our European and U.S.
markets, especially the Paris-New York Route.
Competition has increased on the DC route,
especially with Air France, and there is a greater
number of seats in that market. So we're
going to see what happens through the winter,
which is traditionally a slow period, and make a
decision about whether or not to continue DC-Paris
service in 2012. It's a wait-and-see situation.
A. It's a very mixed clientele.
Our customers are very, very loyal, going back to
when they flew L'Avion. We are atypical
among the airlines serving the luxury market
because we have not tried to court the corporate
market as much as others have. We certainly
have corporate travelers, but we work more with
individuals, to build loyalty. We have a lot of
customers in the luxury industries, many
celebrities, sports figures, politicians and their
families, and commuters who have to fly to Paris
and New York nearly every week or two. They know
exactly what they will get by flying OpenSkies.
A. It's all about our costs. We watch them very, very carefully. For one thing, our costs are cheaper than what we call the `legacy' carriers because we don't have cabin crews with 25 years of history. Our staff is paid fairly but they make less than at the legacy airlines. But our staff also prefers the atmosphere and conditions we provide on our flights. We don't have grand offices. By the same token, because we are part of British Airways, we enjoy their purchasing power. If we need to buy 10,000 items of something, we can take advantage of the fact that they are buying 10 million.
We bought four Boeing 757s, which are fairly fuel efficient, but they were not brand new, so we didn't pay a fortune for them and our costs are all in maintenance. Our estimates are that if oil can stay under $120 a barrel, we are okay, but if they rise above that for a long period, then we will have to consider what to do and what our next fleet will be three years from now. (BA is very good at purchasing fuel at good prices.) Also, most carriers' 757s carry up to 200 passengers and their luggage. We fly a maximum of 84, so our planes fly much lighter, and that saves a great deal in fuel costs.
So, take your
pick and sing a little! A-One! A-Two!
|
We're in the money, we're in the money; |
Every morning,
Every evening, Ain't we got fun? |
NEW
YORK CORNER
Le
Bernardin
155
West 51st Street
212- 554-1515
www.le-bernardin.com
While
we're on the subject of luxury, the very biggest
joke about America's contemporary dining scene is
that fine dining is dead, an ill-informed idea
held by those who have either never set foot in a
true fine dining restaurant or haven't tried to
make a reservation at one recently. It
reminds me of Yogi Berra's assertion about a
restaurant that "Nobody goes there anymore. You
can't get into the place."
The fact is, fine dining in
the USA and everywhere else is doing amazingly well.
As Daniel Humm, Chef and soon-to-be owner of the
illustrious three Michelin star Eleven Madison Park
has noted, "There will always be a need
for luxury, for the people that can afford to
experience it all the time, and for those that save
up their money so that they be pampered every so
often. I don't believe fine dining will ever die, so
long as it evolves with the times." Pick up
the phone and try to get a rez for a table at Eleven
Madison Park tomorrow, or at Per Se, or at La
Grenouille, or Babbo, or Le
Bernardin, this last a French seafood
restaurant that opened in 1986 and has rarely had an
empty table since. 
Le
Bernardin's menu has certainly always evolved, yet it
is still devotedly in a style that preserves the
original precepts of Chef-founder Gilbert Lecoze and
his sister Maguy, which were based on those set years
before at their original (long closed) Le Bernardin in
Paris. Gilbert, who sadly died young some years
ago, was both rigorously classic in his French
techniques yet always inventive, not least by treating
American seafood species with respect and by
eliminating heavy, cover-all sauces from his dishes.
His fish carpaccios were copied worldwide by other
chefs. And since Gilbert's passing, Chef and now
co-owner Eric Ripert (with Maguy, right) has never veered
far from those precepts while making his own indelible
mark on every dish.
Photo by Brigitte Lacombe
Pretty much
all I said about the quality of service at La
Grenouille last week applies to Le
Bernardin. A woman opens the door for you, you
are asked if you wish to check your coat, you are
greeted by a smiling hostess and longtime maître
d' Ben Chekroun, shown to a table and seated and
greeted still more by of the staff that will serve
you, including head sommelier Aldo Sohm, who has built
Le Bernardin's wine list into a model of small estates
of unique character. Put yourself in his hands
and you will discover how fine a new wine from a
region you thought you knew can be so impressive.
Eric, whom I know well enough to
call by his first name, offered to do a tasting menu
for my wife and me, and, wanting to taste as many
different dishes as possible, I asked if he could do
two separate ones, which he was delighted to create.
And so we began, nine courses each, with paired wines,
and each dish was designed to capitalize on the one
before in terms of tastes, texture, and seasonings, as
were the wines. It would take another whole issue of
this newsletter to describe each and every dish, so I
shall list more than I shall describe. I will
note that Eric's cooking has evolved in a deceptively
more complex way, with more flavors, aromatics
and spices
added to each dish but never assertive enough to
disturb the essential flavors of the seafood species
used. Working six days a week, he seems more animated
than ever, tantalized by ingredients and what he can
do with them without doing too much.
It is a very , very rare thing
when, after a meal of such dimensions I have not felt
overwhelmed, overstuffed or disappointed by several
dishes. At Le Bernardin I was reeling not only
from pleasure but by the realization that no chef I
know cooks with such focused invention. And so,
the meal: We began with a trio of amuses, shaved geoduck clam; smoked
edamame mousseline with wasabi-citrus emulsion; and a
devastatingly delicious small cup of lobster bisque,
accompanied by Dom Ruinart 1998. Next came
Nebraska wagyu beef, langoustine and osetra caviar
tartare with black pepper-vodka crème
fraîche and a single pomme gaufrette;
Butter-poached lobster with
spiced celeriac and an Earl Grey-citrus sauce
followed, the lobster of exceptional tenderness, which
took well with an unexpectedly fine Grüner
Veltliner Federspiel "Burgberg" 2010. Just as tender
was octopus, this time charred, with fermented black
bean-pear sauce
vierge with purple basil and an
ink-miso vinaigrette, and a Sauvignon 
Blanc Cantina Tramin
2010. You can taste how the flavors were
becoming more accented, little by little.
Lacquered hiramasa
with chayote squash and a sofrito broth matched well with a
bold Auxey Duresses, Leroy 2000, which also went with
rich baked lobster with a bittersweet caramelized
endive-pear terrine and a whiskey-black peppercorn
sauce.
We were far
from done, yet our appetites raced (portions are, as
you'd hope, small). Next up was barely cooked wild
Scottish salmon with an assertive wasabi-laced bean
purée and yuzu emulsion, a spicy dish well
connected with a Mâcon, La Roche Vineuse
"Vieilles Vignes" Olivier Merlin 2008; Eric had some
fun with halibut steamed "Borscht" style with golden
beets and horseradish crème fraîche,
matched to Château Grillet 2005; monkfish
was roasted to succulence and paired with Brussels
sprouts, and a slightly sweet parsnip and Pata Negra
ham emulsion, which demanded a light red wine--Pinot
Noir, Dr. Heger, Baden 2005, as did crispy black bass
with pickled
cucumbers and a black garlic-Persian lime sauce, which
took on a Pinot Noir, Copain, Tous Ensemble, Anderson
Valley 2009 with ease.
After a few breaths we summoned
the desserts, which came in waves--yuzu
parfait with crispy sesame rice, 
ginger, green
tea ice cream; an elderflower crème mousseline,
crunchy choux,
apricot coulis, with blackberry powder with a sip or
two of Château La Rame Reserve,
Semillon/Sauvignon, Saint Croix du Mont 1999; then
came "The Egg"--a pot de crème of chocolate
with caramel foam, maple syrup, a "Grain of Salt" and
a Belgian Westmalle Dubbel Trappist Ale, which we
found too bitter with the dessert; a sweeter beer
would have been better. Then there was peanut
and salted peanut caramel, Maralumi milk chocolate,
malted milk crunch chocolate and an olive oil-infused
chocolate crèmeux
with toasted bread, brown butter, and Marcona Almond,
all courtesy of pastry chef Michael Laiskonis. These
were accompanied by the luscious Passito de
Pantelleria Sangue d'Oro 2009. Of course, there were
petits-fours and chocolates.
It is
rare when I don't return home from such a lavish meal
with a package of food I intend to give my
ever-ravenous son or to feast on the next day, but
there was not a morsel left of anything. We left Le
Bernardin smiling and beyond contentment, assured that
Le Bernardin has evolved so beautifully and very sure
that this is still one of the greatest and most
influential restaurants in all the world.
Whenever I read that chefs in
the "modernist" movement insist on throwing out
tradition by treating their food to chemical
enhancements and torturous techniques designed to
dazzle their customers--usually with menu prices far
beyond Le Bernardin's--I invite them to have Eric
Ripert cook for them and learn that all that is
deliberately, radically new in cuisine is usually
the result of ego not talent.
❖❖❖
by Christopher Mariani
154
West 45th Street
New York, New York
www.Bond45.com
212-869-4545
I can
only assume that within ten years most restaurants
across the country will utilize iPads to perform
almost every function of a restaurant service staff,
except actually carrying the food to one’s table. But
who knows, by then, that may be possible too. I’ve
already witnessed iPads replace lengthy wine lists in
multiple restaurants across the country, one of the
first, Tony and Marisa May’s SD26 in NYC. As of now,
this technology is sheer convenience, but down the
line I foresee the crumble of what I most enjoy when
dining out, the relationship between my waiter and
myself.
This past week I dined at Bond 45,
reclaimed from Bond clothiers whose big neon sign
still glows, 
located in NYC’s vibrant
Theatre District, on 45th
Street directly across from the famous Lyceum Theatre.
Bond 45 is an old-fashioned Italian steakhouse--a NYC
invention and the basis for most every other
steakhouse in America now--doing exactly what they do
best, offering great food in full-size portions, a
traditional steakhouse décor with leather
banquettes topped with low-lit red lamp shades and,
most important, amiable service that begins the moment
you walk through the restaurant’s revolving glass
doors.
Our waiter’s name was Jeremiah and he approached the
table with a big smile and a gracious hello. After
handing us dinner menus and starting us off with a
cocktail, I knew we would be in good hands for the
remainder of the meal. Throughout the evening he made
it obvious that he was there to make our dining
experience as pleasurable as possible. His table
upkeep was subtle, among the best in the city and his
timing couldn’t have been more perfect, whether it was
stopping by to clear an empty glass or simply lay down
a crisp white linen to cover up any mess left on the
table.
Jeremiah went on to recommend
dishes he personally vouched for and couldn’t have
been more helpful with our deciding what to order when
faced with Bond 45’s broad menu. The only decision I
made was ordering a 20-ounce T-bone steak, the rest of
the meal was in the hands of Jeremiah, and he chose
very well.
We started off with an order of fried artichokes alla giudea, a
Roman specialty, made from entire artichokes sliced in
half, fried, and sided by a thick wedge of lemon. The
artichoke leaves curl backwards and begin to fray as
they are fried, creating a satisfying crunch with each
bite, softened only by the tender heart of the
vegetable. Housemade burrata cheese hit the table next,
creamy and rich, almost the size of a man’s fist. The
tomatoes placed next to the cheese were pale and firm,
one of the only disappointing ingredients served all
night. Tiny golf ball-size meatballs swam in a pool of
thick, chunky marinara sauce, topped with fresh basil
leaves and grated parmigiano cheese.
For
entrees, do not miss the famous veal chop parmigiana,
a 12-ounce veal chop pounded pencil thin and served
with the bone still attached. The veal spanned well
over one-foot wide and tasted just as great the
following day for lunch. The 20-ounce bone-in ribeye,
although full of flavor, owing to a coating of butter
and salt, was lacking sufficient natural fat, making
the meat a bit too lean. French fries were of
the crisp shoestring variety.
Desserts included a massive cut of velvety NYC-style
cheesecake and properly made profiteroles, packed with
hazelnut ice cream and topped with warm chocolate
sauce.
The wine list, although packed with
fine wines, could use some improvement and variety,
not too mention more wines under $50.
Unlike so many trendy joints in Manhattan, all serving
tapas-size portions and offering small plate menus,
Bond 45 stays true to its generous New York roots and
most guests will surely go with a doggie bag filled
with first-rate items that would be a sin to leave
behind; I brought home about three.
The combination of good food,
terrific service and a nostalgic NYC location make
Bond 45 a great choice for any true New Yorker or an
out-of-towner who wants to get a real sense of the
city's Broadway largess.
I don’t know about you, but I’d
rather dine at a restaurant that serves me a real
meal, rather than an array of tiny appetizers,
typically not all that good, a fad I thankfully see
diminishing quickly. A good restaurant will woo you
with solid service and dish up a satisfying meal, not
a dorky waiter wearing a T-shirt who believes acting
rude is hip and then telling you that you can choose
from a selection of mediocre appetizers that look like
hors d’oeuvres. Oh, but I forgot, that’s cool though,
right?
To contact Christopher Mariani send an email to christopher@johnmariani.com
by John Mariani
79 percent consider the region where a wine comes from
an important factor when buying a bottle of wine;
75 percent report they would be less likely to buy a
wine if they learned that it claimed to be from a
place like Champagne, Napa Valley or Oregon, but in
actuality was not;
84 percent think that the region a wine comes from is
extremely important in determining its quality;
96 percent say that consumers deserve to know that the
location where wine grapes are grown is accurately
stated on wine labels; and
98 percent support establishing worldwide standards
for all winemakers that would require that they
accurately state the location where wine grapes are
grown on wine labels.
The study also indicated that, when
presented with two labels to compare side by side,
most U.S. consumers were unable to determine the
correct origin of the wine. As a result, the
leadership from 15 of the world's premier wine regions
gathered in NYC this week with eminent chefs to
call on policymakers to heed growing consumer demand
for wine truth-in-labeling. The coalition hopes that
the clear and resounding results
of consumer survey data, combined with the
accelerated interest on the part of chefs and other
food and wine experts and an overwhelming majority of
the world's leading wine regions 
now working in
unison will push lawmakers and others around the globe
to better protect wine place names in the U.S. and
beyond. The wine region participants are currently:
Champagne, France; Chianti Classico, Italy; Jerez,
Spain; Long Island, New York; Napa Valley, California;
Oregon state; Paso Robles, California; Porto,
Portugal; Rioja, Spain; Sonoma County, California;
Tokaj, Hungary; Victoria, Australia; Walla Walla
Valley, Washington; Washington state; and Western
Australia.
Chefs and
sommeliers lending their support included Thomas
Keller from Per Se and the French Laundry; Ferran
Adrià from El Bulli; Daniel Boulud from Daniel;
Alexandre Ferrand from Alain Ducasse; Wolfgang Puck
from Wolfgang Puck Restaurants; Antoine Hernandez from
Joël Robuchon; Michel Richard from Citronelle;
José Andrés from Jaleo and minibar;
Pontus Elofsson from Noma; Charlie Palmer from Charlie
Palmer Group.
Douro
River in Portugal
According to the declaration, the 15
wine regions have collectively affirmed that
geographic names are fundamental tools for consumers
to identify the wines from specific wine-growing
areas. "The research released today shows
consumers are more focused on product origins than
ever before and it isn't just a passing concern, but
one they feel extraordinarily strong about," said
Linda Reiff, executive director of Napa Valley
Vintners. "When a place name is misused, a part of the
identity of that distinctive wine region is lost and
consumers can be misled. This poll shows that U.S.
consumers understand this and are looking for clear
labeling of wine place names when they purchase
wines."
Bruno Paillard, representing Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne, said, "The 15 regions gathered here today agree that great wine is made in unique places all over the world and that these unique place names must be protected. A failure to do so undermines all of these wine-growing regions and, as the research shows, runs counter to the expectations of the consumer."
The poll was released
by the signatories to the Joint Declaration to Protect
Wine Place & Origin, a coalition first formed in
2005 when the initial global declaration was signed.
The organization has since doubled in size, welcoming
its two newest members - Rioja and Long Island - at
this year's meeting.
❖❖❖
THE WORLD IS GOING TO THE DOGS
Gualtiero
Marchesi (right),
one of the founders of ultra-expensive nuova cucina
and the first chef
in Italy to get three Michelin stars has entered into
a
partnership with McDonald's by
creating two "refined" hamburgers and a
tiramisù for McDonald's in Italy. "I simply asked
what and where young
people were going to eat,"he told the
press. "They were very simple
questions which led to my decision to team up with
McDonald's."
HEY, NOBODY'S PERFECT
"An article last
Wednesday about the
United States Farmers and Ranchers Alliance, an
agricultural industry promotional organization,
described the National Milk Producers Federation, an
alliance member, incorrectly. It is a lobbying group,
not a marketing group. The article also misidentified
the sponsor of the `Got Milk?' advertising campaign.
It is the California Milk Processor Board, which is
not an alliance member — not the milk producers
federation. The article also misidentified another
alliance member. It is the American Meat Institute,
not the American Meat Producers Association, which
does not exist. And the article misstated the name of
a Web site run by the institute. It is
meatmythcrushers.com.--NY TIMES Correction.
Any of John Mariani's books
below may be ordered from amazon.com.
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My latest book, written with Jim Heimann and Steven Heller, Menu Design in America, 1850-1985 (Taschen Books), has just appeared, with nearly 1,000 beautiful, historic, hilarious, sometimes shocking menus dating back to before the Civil War and going through the Gilded Age, the Jazz Age, the Depression, the nightclub era of the 1930s and 1940s, the Space Age era, and the age when menus were a form of advertising in innovative explosions of color and modern design. The book is a chronicle of changing tastes and mores and says as much about America as about its food and drink.
“Luxuriating vicariously in the pleasures of this book. . . you can’t help but become hungry. . .for the food of course, but also for something more: the bygone days of our country’s splendidly rich and complex past. Epicureans of both good food and artful design will do well to make it their cofee table’s main course.”—Chip Kidd, Wall Street Journal.
“[The menus] reflect the amazing craftsmanship that many restaurants applied to their bills of fare, and suggest that today’s restaurateurs could learn a lot from their predecessors.”—Rebecca Marx, The Village Voice.
“Restaurateurs, take note: A resurgence in thoughtful, artistic menus is past due.”—Bon Appetit Magazine |
"Eating Italian will never be the same after reading John Mariani's entertaining and savory gastronomical history of the cuisine of Italy and how it won over appetites worldwide. . . . This book is such a tasteful narrative that it will literally make you hungry for Italian food and arouse your appetite for gastronomical history."--Don Oldenburg, USA Today. "Italian
restaurants--some good, some glitzy--far
outnumber their French rivals. Many of
these establishments are zestfully described
in How Italian Food Conquered the World, an
entertaining and fact-filled chronicle by
food-and-wine correspondent John F.
Mariani."--Aram Bakshian Jr., Wall Street
Journal.
"Equal parts
history, sociology, gastronomy, and just
plain fun, How Italian Food Conquered the
World tells the captivating and delicious
story of the (let's face it) everybody's
favorite cuisine with clarity, verve and
more than one surprise."--Colman Andrews,
editorial director of The Daily
Meal.com. "A fantastic and fascinating
read, covering everything from the influence
of Venice's spice trade to the impact of
Italian immigrants in America and the
evolution of alta cucina. This book will
serve as a terrific resource to anyone
interested in the real story of Italian
food."--Mary Ann Esposito, host of PBS-TV's
Ciao
Italia. "John Mariani has written the
definitive history of how Italians won their
way into our hearts, minds, and
stomachs. It's a story of pleasure over
pomp and taste over technique."--Danny Meyer,
owner of NYC restaurants Union Square Cafe,
Gotham Bar & Grill, The Modern, and
Maialino.
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Everett Potter's Travel Report: 
Eating Las Vegas
is the new on-line site for Virtual Gourmet
contributor John A. Curtas., who since 1995
has been commenting on the Las Vegas food
scene and reviewing restaurants for Nevada
Public Radio. He is also the
restaurant critic for KLAS TV, Channel 8 in
Las Vegas, and his past reviews can be
accessed at KNPR.org.
Click on the logo below to go directly to
his site.
Tennis Resorts Online: A Critical Guide to the World's Best Tennis Resorts and Tennis Camps, published by ROGER COX, who has spent more than two decades writing about tennis travel, including a 17-year stretch for Tennis magazine. He has also written for Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, New York Magazine, Travel & Leisure, Esquire, Money, USTA Magazine, Men's Journal, and The Robb Report. He has authored two books-The World's Best Tennis Vacations (Stephen Greene Press/Viking Penguin, 1990) and The Best Places to Stay in the Rockies (Houghton Mifflin, 1992 & 1994), and the Melbourne (Australia) chapter to the Wall Street Journal Business Guide to Cities of the Pacific Rim (Fodor's Travel Guides, 1991).
The Family Travel Forum - A
community for those who "Have Kids, Still Travel" and
want to make family vacations more fun, less work and
better value. FTF's travel and parenting features,
including reviews of tropical and ski resorts, reunion
destinations, attractions, holiday weekends, family
festivals, cruises, and all kinds of vacation ideas
should be the first port of call for family vacation
planners. http://www.familytravelforum.com/index.html
ALL YOU NEED BEFORE YOU GO
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John
Mariani.
Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani, Robert Mariani,
John A. Curtas, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein,
Suzanne Wright, and Brian Freedman. Contributing
Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery,
Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.
© copyright John Mariani 2011