Drum roll, please

I've paced a hole in my office cubby, reddened my ear from checking the phone's dial tone. Finally, the news I've been awaiting.

Bern's has hired a new chef.

Kinda, sorta.

After Jeannie Pierola's departure in early November, Bern’s owner David Laxer has decided to promote from within. Former sous chefs Andy Minney and Habteab Hamde will share the title of chefs de cuisine at Bern's, while at SideBern's Chad Johnson moves into the role of executive chef and Courtney Orwig has been promoted to chef de cuisine.

This apparently is something of a trend, following on the heels of the Vinoy's recent decision to do the same thing. Time will tell if this is a good move (the move being: replace the big cheeses with the big salaries with smaller cheeses who already know their way around the menu, kitchen and management). I worry that this tendency doesn't draw new talent from other urban centers, nor does it necessarily bring fresh ideas, techniques or trends to the Tampa Bay area. Chefs tend to be fairly transient--something that must be rough for their spouses but means the dining public benefits from a fluidity and cross-pollination of new concepts and innovations.

Resolutions?

Wanna be all pious and goody-goody in the new year? Cooking Light just came out with its list of the top 8 must-eat foods for 2008. It's a pretty thought-provoking list, so I offer it to you below:

1. Coffee: Caffeine consumption not only increases alertness and improves performance but may also protect memory.
2. Farmed Atlantic Salmon: Salmon ranks highest in omega-3 fatty acids, shown to lower the risk of fatal heart attacks, rheumatoid arthritis, depression and cognitive decline.
3. Milk: Dairy products offer a package deal of phosphorous and calcium to benefit hair and skin.
4. Edamame: Soy protein, such as that contained in edamame, has been shown to boost collagen levels and improve skin elasticity.
5. Kale: Those leafy greens deliver plenty of vitamin K in addition to vitamins E, C, and folate, all of which help promote strong bones.
6. Chocolate: Crave-worthy cocoa and dark chocolate are both good sources of beneficial antioxidants.
7. Flaxseed: Adding a tablespoon of flaxseed instantaneously adds omega-3 fats, lignans and fiber to any food, such as muffins, salads or yogurt.
8. Eggs: Eggs are not only high in calcium and quality protein, but also provide biotin, a structural component of both bone and hair.  

Amazingly, most of these things are already in heavy rotation in my world (had kale last night, as a matter of fact). Well, maybe not the flaxseed. I'll have to work on that one.

Wish list for 2008

Janet Keeler, Chris Sherman and I spent a few idle minutes musing about trends we'd like to see in the coming year. Realistic things (as opposed to, say, "I'd like George Clooney to be my waiter at a naturist resort"), things that might actually come true if we put our collective minds to it. I'd be interested to see what readers wish for in terms of restaurant and food trends. Here's an interesting set of trend projections about the meat industry, sent to me by my buddy John (thanks, John) that corroborates a lot of what I've been thinking.

What say you, all? Restaurant trends on the horizon?

A year of what I ate

It was the year of the food memoir, 2007. Even Camilla Parker Bowles’ son, Tom, wrote one. Let me give you a peek: “I look down at my belly. Never taut, it has taken on a worrying wobble.”

Ugh.

Everyone wants to remember meals beloved and reviled and, perhaps more importantly, they want to tell you all about it in lavish detail.

Here are my own personal favorites from the year.

Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love is a book club staple at this point, the audio version narrated by the author herself (who, through some cruel twist of fate, I have yet to meet and become best friends with). As the title implies, the first third of the book is food memoir, the other two thirds given over to more boring stuff like spiritual enlightenment and romance. But whoa, is that first third good, wandering through Naples eating pizza. Noodles, gelato and sloe-eyed Italian men are packed onto every page.

And I can’t help it, but celebrity stunt eater Anthony Bourdain definitely gets my motor running. His new one, No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach, is pure macho swagger with good pictures. Beirut, Singapore, Uzbekistan—with all their attendant organ meats and gustatory madness.

At the end of October I read a great piece in the New York Times about Judith Jones, the legendary Knopf editor who introduced Julia Child, Marcella Hazan and Madhur Jaffrey (oh, and Anne Tyler, William Maxwell and John Hersey) to the world. She was spicy and opinionated and seemed to know everybody. You get the full measure of all this in her recently published The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food. A good view into how the average American cook owes her a lot.

Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, the story of her family growing their own food in southern Appalachia and "putting food by" for a year could make you feel lousy about how/what/where you eat. This eating locally, minimizing-your-carbon-footprint thing has room for snobbery, but the book is inspirational--a family's team effort with great essays and recipes contributed by her kids.

Close, but no cigar:

Phoebe Damrosch's Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter had a lot of room to be funny. Fundamentally, a behind-the-scenes look at the megalomaniacal people in the kitchen (and, come to think of it, probably the megalomaniacal customers) at New York's Per Se (Thomas Keller's East Coast blockbuster), could be mighty titillating. This fails mostly because the nuts and bolts of waiting tables aren't universally interesting (serve on the left, clear from the right, yada yada).

In a similar vein, Kathleen Flinn's The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World's Most Famous Cooking School just didn't knock my socks off. I think I've hit the wall on those culinary memoirs that are like this: "I was in a career that was insanely lucrative, but it just wasn't my passion. I found food, and now I'm poor but happy."

Not a memoir, but reads like one. A good one:

The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones is a novel, but it's a novel about a food writer who is widowed and goes to China for a variety of strange reasons. There, she meets a guy/chef, falls in love with him, falls in love with China and--most importantly--falls in love with Chinese food (convincing us that we should be smitten, too). It has all these lovely food history bits that give context to dishes and traditions we are familiar with.

Loco for locavores

I like to fish. I don't hunt, but mostly that's because no one has ever invited me (hint, hint). I think I'm fairly honest with myself, as an omnivore, about where my food comes from. I eat meat. Therefore I eat animals. Ones that walk and swim and fly and maybe even dream. An op-ed piece in the New York Times today caught my eye. Essentially, it was talking about how hunting is about as p.c. as it gets in terms of eating:

"free-range, grass-fed, organic, locally produced, locally harvested, sustainable, native, low-stress, low-impact, humanely slaughtered meat."

The agenda of author Steven Rinella was to get people comfy with the idea of venison shoots (heck, there are lots of places in the country that have a massive glut of those antlered guys). Here in Florida, white-tailed deer and wild hogs are the most commonly hunted game. Feeling squeamish about that? I guess buying (or catching) Florida fish as often as possible would have you basking in the smug aura of locavorism.

Recent trips to Publix, Whole Foods (Wild Oats? whatever) and others make me realize that consumers have to push the envelope on this front. Asking, "what fish is from Florida?" often elicits blank looks. Do it often enough and things will start to change. Do it in restaurants and the same holds true.

U.S.'s priciest restaurant. Been there, kinda.

Forbes has announced its list of most expensive American restaurants here. The most expensive by a good bit is Masa at the Time Warner Center in New York, at $400 a pop without wine, tax or tip.

Years ago I had to review a place in Beverly Hills called Ginza Sushiko. It was the same chef's previous restaurant. Click at the bottom to see what I said about it.

Here's Forbes' list (I've only eaten at two of these. Now, how do I get the SPTimes to authorize a major dine around?):

L'Espalier, Boston
French Laundry, Napa Valley
Masa, New York City
Alinea, Chicago
Canlis, Seattle
Joel Robuchon At The Mansion, Las Vegas
Urasawa, Los Angeles
Inn at Little Washington, Washington D.C.
Antoine's, New Orleans
The French Room, Dallas

Obviously, none in the Tampa Bay area. If we had to do our own priciest list, what would be on it? Bern's, Chateau France, an array of major steakhouses--what else?

I can't believe it's not...

I'm of two minds about Brian Ries, the local restaurant critic for Creative Loafing. On the one hand, he seems to be knowledgeable about food and wine. On the other, he always manages to review the same restaurants as me, his reviews coming out a day before mine. What a jerk. But anyway, I was noodling on his blog last week and he had a delicious little harangue about olive oil. He's tired of the ubiquitous bowl of olive oil with little bits floating in it served with bread at restaurants. Maybe Italian restaurants get special dispensation, but he's pulling for the return of butter.

I have got to agree with him on this one. For about five minutes many years ago, I dated a French chef. He was nuts about butter. He made me taste butters from Normandy and elsewhere (nothing kinky), heaping big slabs on crusty bread. Good butter makes even bad bread taste pretty good. Butter matters. Some say sweet butter, some say salted butter, but either way many restaurants would be better off ditching the mediocre-quality oil in favor of a little bovine beneficence.

And now for something totally different...

Stepping away from food for a second, these toy recalls are really a killjoy, no? Here are some resources for you this weekend when doing holiday shopping for the young peeps in your life.

This is a site about lead and other toxic stuff in toys

This one is about recalls

And this is an online store where you can find safe toys (it tells you country of origin on each product)

Review preview

I'm thinking about what's to come in the next weeks and months. Here are some of the new and/or interesting restaurants that have come to my attention. If anyone has strong feelings--as in, "absolutely not, this place is revolting" or "run, don't walk to this one"--I'd love to hear them. Some of these are reader recommendations, some my own thoughts.

Pinellas County:

Saimira European Grill, 38501 US 19 N. in Palm Harbor, (727) 939-4700, Italian

Fuji Yama in Seminole, right on the corner of Park & Starkey

Matchstick Grill, 10500 Ulmerton Road Suite 476, Largo, 727-585-1816

Hammerheads, where Julian's at the Heritage was in St. Petersburg

Taste, Safety Harbor on Main St., sandwiches

Sneaky Pete’s, 4300 Park Blvd., Pinellas Park, 727-541-6356, family-friendly, darts, pool

Brunos Italian Restaurant, 432 75Th Ave., St. Pete Beach. 727-367-4420

Hillsborough County:

Chez Bryce on Davis Island

Cafe Kita 1155 S Dale Mabry Hwy, Tampa, (813) 286-8187, Indo-fusion Cuisine, breakfast and lunch

Ceviche Fresco, Hillsborough/Memorial in a Home Depot shopping ctr., Tampa, Peruvian 

Sabor Sensations, 4020 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa, (813) 286-2434, Colombian crepes

Pho Brandon Asian Cuisine, 109 W. Bloomingdale Ave., Brandon, 813.643.5165

Chateau SoHo where Chateau France was in South Tampa

Elsewhere:

Bare Bones Fish & Steak House, 3192 Shole Line Blvd., Hernando Beach (Spring Hill), fine dining

More on latkes

My latke story in yesterday's paper generated a bunch of good e-mails. Thought I'd share a couple of the tips and suggestions.

"Great recipe, but forget the towel and use a leg from clean pantyhose. Works great, easy even for people with arthritis. Also maybe a tablespoon or two of flour or matzo meal, and a pinch of baking powder--light fluffy latkes. Of course, much like spaghetti sauce, everyone has their own recipe or touches."
--Bob Barnum

"No way is this recipe worth guarding.   
1. How do you make Latkes without matzo meal?
2. Olive oil, you must be kidding.
3. Why no fresh black pepper?
4. Why would you want to grate potatoes and then wash off starch by putting them back in water?
 
Do it this way, quicker better.
 
2 lbs russet potatoes peeled
1 medium onion
2 large eggs beaten
half cup matzo meal
half tsp cracked black pepper
2 tsp kosher sallt
veg oil
 
Grate by hand using box grater. Put graded potatoes in a strainer on top of a bowl. Take hand and squeeze out liquid and RESERVE liquid. Wait 3 minutes and pour liquid from starch that is in bowl and use starch in next step. Place strained potatoes in medium bowl. Fold in eggs, matzo, salt, pepper, and RESERVED potato starch. Mix well. Heat oil in cast iron skillet over medium heat, one inch vegetable oil, or canola oil. Spoon half cup dollops into hot skillet, press down with back of spoon. Cook gently for 6-7 minutes or until golden on one side. Flip latkes and cook another 6-7 minutes. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately. Source: "Jewish Holiday Style" by Rita Bronstein
 
This is worth guarding. Happy Holidays."
  --Fred Johanson

Dogs runs circles around us

We just don't have that many words for tastes and smells. As a species, we're crazy visual. We describe things' tastes in terms of other things. Consider wine speak: a cabernet sauvignon can taste like eucalyptus, like bell peppers, like pencil shavings or cigar boxes. Adjectives that really describe how things taste and smell are scarce.

But restaurants, listen up: You sell more product with froufrou adjectives. It's fact. There's a guy named Brian Wansink who heads up the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab and wrote a great book called Mindless Eating. He's done a study that says tasty descriptors help condition reluctant eaters to accept new foods.

He says, “If you say something is juicy, people almost unconsciously turn up their ‘juicy sensors’ when they taste the food. Once these taste sensors are activated, people become preprogrammed to think a dish tastes good."

At the Cornell lab, Wansink and his colleagues offered six different foods to cafeteria diners on different days for six weeks — but they changed the names. Sometimes they served “red beans and rice” and “seafood fillet.” Other days they served “Traditional Cajun Red Beans With Rice” and “Succulent Italian Seafood Fillet.”

What happened? You guessed it. For more about this study, go here.

For all you Food Network devotees out there

I just wrote a story for the paper about local restaurateurs, chefs and restaurants that have been featured on the Food Network. Not sure when it's running, but I came upon this in my surfing. It's a quiz that tells you which celebrity chef you'd be. Who are you guys?