MARIANI’S
Virtual Gourmet
HAPPY
NEW YEAR! ❖❖❖
IN THIS ISSUE NEW ORLEANS, Part Three By John Mariani NEW YORK CORNER 33 REASONS WHY NEW YORK IS AMERICA'S BEST FOOD CITY By John Mariani NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR CHARLES HEIDSIECK CHAMPAGNE CAREFULLY CLIMBS BACK TO THE TOP By John Mariani ❖❖❖ NEW ORLEANS, Part Three By John Mariani "Mademoiselles Dansant" (1978) by Owen Murphy, Jr. As
has been noted everywhere, there are now more
restaurants in New Orleans than before Hurricane
Katrina hit the city a decade ago, although not all
are of a stellar stripe. Two new ones that have
distinguished themselves show not only the
resilience of the restaurant sector but of a
continual evolution within it.
SHAYA
I think
I’m on safe ground in asserting that New Orleans
is not a hotbed of modern Israeli cuisine, so the
opening of Shaya by Israeli Chef Alon Shaya
(with partner John Besh) marks a singular moment
in the city’s post-Katrina history, showing the
kind of fresh new thinking and flavors the city
needs. Shaya describes his food as “a grand
mosaic, drawing influence from North Africa, the
Middle East, Eastern Europe, Turkey and Greece,”
which is very true of contemporary cuisine in
Israel, which bears no resemblance to the largely
eastern European food of New York Jewish culture.
Compère
Lapin
The new Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery
was once an 1854 warehouse, so the developers,
Provenance Hotels, have kept its rustic charms of hard wood
floors and exposed brick walls throughout,
including inside Compère Lapin, where the
inventive chef Nina Compton (formerly of Scarpetta
in Miami) has been at work since June.
Open for
lunch Mon.-Fri.; brunch Sat, & Sun., dinner
nightly. ❖❖❖ NEW
YORK CORNER
33
REASONS WHY NEW YORK
IS AMERICA'S BEST FOOD CITY By John Mariani "Broadway Danny Rose" (1984)
I wouldn’t say the ground shook, but when my
friend and colleague, long-time Washington
Post food critic Tom Sietsema,
recently declared Portland, Oregon, to be
America's best food city among ten ranked,
Facebook and the food media’s collective
eyebrows shot through the roof, followed by a
good deal of sputtering derision.
Sietsema says he ate, drank and shopped at 271 “restaurants,
bars,
food stores and farmers markets” in 60 days--that
works out to a dyspeptic 4.5 per day and suggests
an expense account overload that perhaps only the
Post’s new owner, Jeff Bezos, could float
(although Amazon’s founding city, Seattle, didn’t
even make the cut).
In Portland Sietsema “relish[ed] the
abundant quirks: lines for (stellar) breakfasts,
even midweek, and strip clubs inclusive enough to
offer vegan fare,” along with raspberry milkshakes
and Walla Walla onion rings, while admitting that
fine dining in Portland is as rare there as Maine
lobsters.
To each his own, but for Sietsema to rank New York
at number 8 on his list is nothing short of an
astonishment, as if he’d said Marseilles was
France’s best fashion city, or Pisa was the center
for Italy’s auto industry. Of NYC he writes, “New York just has
more, not better. I found some egregious examples
of what was called 'fine dining' there that were a
huge rip off," though his three-dollar hot dog at
Gray’s
Papaya made “a lasting impression.”
Let me count the ways in which NYC reigns supreme
as America’s greatest food city, where: • There
have been more master chefs whose influence has
been greater than anywhere else, including
Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the late Gilbert
Lecoze, André Soltner, Wiley DuFresne, Larry
Forgione, Daniel Boulud, Michael White, David
Bouley, Dan Barber, Mario Batali, Alfred Portale,
David Chang,
et al. • There have been more
restaurateurs whose influence has been greater
than anywhere else, including John Delmonico, Pio
Bozzi and John Ganzi, Joe Baum, George Lang, Nick
Valenti, Sirio Maccioni, Warner Leroy (left), Keith
McNally, Charles Palmer, Tony May, Danny Meyer,
Buzzy O’Keefe, Alex von Bidder, and Drew
Nieporent. • The
first restaurant opened in America
(1831)—Delmonico’s (below)—and it’s still thriving.
The Delmonico steak, Eggs Benedict, Lobster
Newberg and many other dishes were created here.
Samuel F.B. Morse sent the first cablegram across
the Atlantic from a table at "Del's," and in 1868
the restaurant gave the stamp of approval to the
idea of women dining unaccompanied by men,
which created the "ladies lunch." • The
first pizzeria in America—G. Lombardi’s in the
Village, still going strong on Spring Street. • There are,
for what they’re worth, more Michelin stars than
any other American city--77, with six awarded
three-stars; Chicago has 22 total, San Francisco
50, including wine country restaurants--and eight
of the San Pellegrino "100 Best Restaurants
in the World." (The
Michelin Guides do not cover Portland, OR.) • More
promising cooks studied and staged before gaining
national reputations as eminent chefs
elsewhere—not least as graduates from the kitchen
of Le Cirque, whose alumni include Daniel Boulud,
David Bouley, Terrance Brennan,
Alain Sailhac, Rick Moonen, Jacques Torres, Sottha
Khun, Sylvain Portay, Michael Lomonaco, Alain
Allegretti, Pierre Schaedelin, Bill Telepan, Alex
Stratta, Geoffrey Zakarian, et al. • There
are more notable woman chefs, including Zarela
Martinez, April Bloomingfield, Gabrielle Hamilton
(left),
Daniela Soto-Innes, Lauren DeSteno, Melissa
Weller, Angela Dimayuga, Ann Redding, Anita Lo, et al. • Not
just one
Little Italy, in Manhattan, but another in
Brooklyn, and—the best of all—Arthur Avenue, in
the Belmont section of the Bronx. • Italian-American
cuisine was born in the kitchens of the millions
of southern Italians who immigrated to NYC from
1880 to1920; so-called “Northern Italian Cuisine”
was pioneered at places like Romeo Salta, Il Nido,
Parioli Romanissimo, Il Monello, Orsini's,
Gianmarino, and Il Menestrello. White
truffles were first introduced at Barbetta. The
first upscale Italian groceries were in NYC,
including Balducci’s and the Arthur Avenue Food
Market. The first EATaly outpost was also here.
Dishes like melon and prosciutto, penne alla
vodka, spaghetti alla Caruso, shrimp scampi, steak
pizzaiolo, veal parmigiana, spumoni, Italian ices,
and lobster fra diavolo became Italian-American
standards for menus both in the U.S. and Europe.
• Not
just one
Indian food neighborhood—“Curry Hill” in
Manhattan—but many flourish, especially in Queens,
along with America's largest Chinatown, Korean
grocers everywhere, Russians in Little Odessa,
Ukrainians and Uzbeks in Brooklyn, Haitians in
Flushing, Dominicans in Washington Heights,
Chino-Latino in Cuban neighborhoods, and every
other kind of food culture imaginable. • Many
of the most legendary saloons in America reside in
New York, including P.J. Clarke’s, McSorley’s Old
Ale House (right),
the White Horse, the King Cole Bar, ‘21’ Club Bar,
the Blue Bar, the Oak Bar, the Landmark Tavern and
Pete’s Tavern. • Hunt’s
Point Terminal Market in the Bronx stretches across 113 acres and
is the largest food exchange in the world, with
50+ merchants,
10,000 employees, sales of more than $2.4
billion a year, catering to more than 22 million
people worldwide. •
Citymeals-on-Wheels began in NYC in
1981, last year delivering 2 million
nutritious meals to more than 18,000 frail, aged
citizens in every borough of New York. In
addition, nearly 19,000 volunteers collectively
spent 67,397 hours visiting and delivering meals
to their neighbors. •
More notable New York eateries are in
movies and TV shows than anywhere else, including
Hollywood. To name a very few: P.J.
Clarke’s, `21’ Club, Luigi’s, The Russian Tea Room
(left),
Minetta Tavern, Carnegie Deli, Katz’s, Elaine’s,
The Modern, The Rainbow Room, The Stage Deli,
Delmonico’s, Café des Artistes, Capsouto Frères,
Chumley’s, Il Cantinori, Tavern on the Green,
Market Diner, Café Carlyle, the Oak Bar, Raoul’s,
Serendipity 3,
and many more. • The
most fine dining restaurants—every one packed
every night, despite the foodie media saying fine
dining is dying—are in NYC, including Gotham Bar
& Grill, Eleven Madison Park, Le Bernardin,
Masa, Per Se, Del Posto, Marea, Daniel, Aureole,
Lincoln Ristorante, Gramercy Tavern, La
Grénouille, Gabriel Kreuther, Bouley,
Jean-Georges, more than all other major USA
cities combined.
• The first
delis, where Jewish-American food was born, and
bagels, knishes, the Reuben sandwich, blintzes,
pastrami, bialys, and other dishes became NYC
standards. (To this day, it is impossible to get a
good bagel outside of NYC, with the exception of
one or two spots in L.A.) Both Jewish
and Italian cheesecakes were perfected in NYC. • The
Manhattan, the Cosmopolitan (right), Long
Island Iced Tea, the Bloody Mary,
the Rob Roy, and the Daiquiri were
introduced to America in New York. • Where,
as in Napa and Sonoma Valleys north of San
Francisco, there are 25 wineries in the Hudson
Valley and 50 on Long Island within two hours’
drive north of the city. • Hot
dogs were, if not created in NYC, first promoted
in Coney Island at Nathan's. • Chocolate
fondue
was created at Chalet Suisse. • Pasta
primavera was created at Le Cirque, which also
made crème brûlée an international staple dessert.
• The
Power Lunch was established at The Four Seasons
Grill Room (left)
and The Power Breakfast at the Loews Regency
Hotel. • The
singles’ bar was born at places like Maxwell’s
Plum, Yellowfingers, O’Neal’s Balloon, The Ginger
Man, and T.G.I. Friday. • Although
invented
in Philadelphia, the Automat had its greatest
success and influence in NYC. • Japanese
negimaki was created at Nippon, and Rocky Aioki
opened the first Benihana
of Tokyo teppanyaki concept here.
• The
template for the New York-style steakhouse was
created at Palm, Christ Cella, Pietro’s, Peter
Luger, Bruno’s Pen & Pencil, and Spark’s. Every
steakhouse in America now copies them. • The
template for French restaurants was set at the
1939 New York World’s Fair at Le Pavillon, copied
and carried further at places like La Caravelle,
Le Lavandou, La Côte Basque, La Grénouille, Le
Chambertin, Georges Rey, Les Pyrenées, Le Quercy,
Le Lavandou, and Le Périgord. • Le
Bernardin (below)
introduced seafood “carpaccio,” which became the
basis of all crudi and
raw fish dishes outside of
sushi on menus. Vichyssoise was created by Chef
Louis Diat at the Ritz-Carlton. • Food
and restaurants critics began in NYC newspapers
and magazines, including Clementine Paddleford of
the Herald-Tribune
in the 1950s, Craig Claiborne in the 1960s, and
Mimi Sheraton of The Times
and Gael Greene of New York
Magazine in the 1970s. • Though
born in Portland, OR (!), James Beard, the “dean
of American food writers” made his career and
reputation in NYC as of 1947.
❖❖❖ NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
CHARLES
HEIDSIECK CHAMPAGNE CAREFULLY
CLIMBING BACK TO THE TOP By
John Mariani
As difficult as it is
to believe but the illustrious house of Charles
Heidsieck Champagne had been allowed to flounder
over the last two decades. Indeed,
despite
its reputation as one of France’s finest, sales
had dropped 90 percent from 1990-2011, a fall
due more to neglect than to any decline in
quality.
It
was fortuitous, then, that a new owner, Christopher
Descours, Chairman of EPI (Europeenne
de Participations Industrielles SAS), known for investing in
long-term growth of prestigious properties,
brought the Champagne company in 2011 and brought
in Chef des Caves Cyril Brun this past year,
formerly enologist for Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin, to
guarantee that the heritage of the Heidsieck
family’s style of Champagne be maintained. He also
appointed a new Executive Director, Stephen Leroux
(in 2013), most recently Director of Sales and
Marketing at Bollinger, to oversee a long-term
strategy to increase Charles Heidsieck’s market
share without compromising quality. The new
ownership and appointments are already showing
significant upward mobility in sales for the Grand
Marque.
The House traces its history to 1851 when Charles
Heidsieck (left),
at the age of 29, founded the brand and was the
first to see a larger market for Champagne in the
U.S.—he earned the nickname “Champagne Charlie.”
For 125 years, through all the wars that raged in
France, his family carried on his legacy before
selling the brand to Remy Cointreau in the 1980s,
which led to a fallow period for the Grand Marque. Now,
EPI has already reversed the effects of that
neglect.
(Piper-Heidsieck is a wholly different Champagne
company, founded by Charles’ uncle Florens-Louis
Heidsieck, so there has long been confusion in
many consumers’ minds about the two names,
especially now that EPI owns both labels.)
I had dinner in NYC at Café Boulud with Stephen
Leroux earlier this month, and I sensed that
whatever heavy lifting he has to do, EPI has given
him the carte blanche and resources to do it. Leroux
is committed to the amount of travel to restore
old and make new connections necessary to bring
the name of the brand back to prominence. Eminence
has never been the problem.
I tasted several of Charles Heidsieck's
current releases over a three-course meal, where
everyone at the table choose different dishes, so
the point Champagne producers love to make—that
bubbly goes well with everything over the course
of a meal—was well taken, even if I was dying for
a glass of good red wine with a main course of
roast breast of pheasant. Still
with an array of other dishes that ranged from a
coddled egg with white truffle shavings to a cardamom-scented
kulfi
pistachio cake with pomegranate coulis,
the Champagnes showed to be beautify; match-ups.
Remarkably,
the non-vintage Brut Réserve (right)
retails for just $65, which is a bargain for a
Champagne of such enchanting complexity and
sophistication.
The marque’s style has long been to blend
reserve wines (which can be 15 years old, with an
average of ten); the current non-vintage is 40
percent each of pinot noir and percent chardonnay,
and 20 percent pinot meunier, with one-third of
each new harvest representing 60 percent of the
total blend, so that there is both a heritage and
a stylistic consistency in each non-vintage
bottle.
Charles Heidsieck 2006 Rosé Millèsime (left; $150),
just
released, comes from a vintage of very ripe fruit
and lower acidity, and again the three-wine blend
of 63 percent pinot noir, 37 percent chardonnay,
and 8 percent addition of red wines was aged for
more than seven years. It has marvelous body,
creamy, with just the right amount of sweet
undertones and ripe fruit.
The company’s promotional tasting notes for
Charles Heidsieck 1995 Blanc des Millenaires (below; $250) runs to purple prose—“A unique
emotion, the impression of eternity” and so
on—does nothing to detract from the serious
refinement of this superb vintage, which has spent
20 years maturing at the marque’s Gallo-Roman
chalk cellars in Reims that generate delicate
bubbles. The
wine is then disgorged and spends an additional
year of aging, as it acquires the finesse and
dimensions that distinguish a great vintage.
❖❖❖ PAGING WILLY
WONKA!
FOOD
WRITING 101: BLOCK THAT METAPHOR!
❖❖❖
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LINKS: I am happy to report
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Gourmet is linked to four excellent
travel sites: Everett Potter's Travel Report: I consider this the best and
savviest blog of its kind on the web. Potter is a
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Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury Spa Finder,
a contributing editor for Ski and a frequent contributor
to National
Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com
and Elle Decor.
"I’ve designed this site is for people who take
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places as five-star experiences." THIS WEEK: NECKER
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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).
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John
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