Have you ever been to a famous chefs restaurant?

[amerikat]

Like Emeril,or Bobby Flay or Wolfgang Puck. I haven't. Just wondering if it was all that it was cracked up to be. What did you have? What set it apart(if anything) from the local restaurant that you frequent?

[Warpy]

1. I once tried a Wolfgang Puck frozen dinner

and wondered how the hell he'd managed to stay in business. Ugh.

No, the closest I've come is having chefs from famous restaurants who were friends do some of the cooking at very informal parties.

[The empressof all]

2. I've been to a few but I guess they're second string famous

I've been to Les Halles but didn't see Tony Bourdin. The fries were very, very good. I was trying very hard not to do the creepy stalker thing with him but you all know that he is my secret boyfriend.

I've been to Tom Douglas's Etta's ---Very good Seafood. (Not the best for fish in Seattle area but in my top ten for fish)

I've been to Salumi many times. (Mario's fathers joint in Seattle)



We also visit Cafe Juanita several times a year. It's our favorite go to place for special occasions; birthdays, anniversaries, pre-make up sex. Holly is somewhat famous in Seattle and has been on Chef's a field.

http://www.cafejuanita.com/

It's my very favorite "top tier" restaurant in Seattle.

[wiggs]

14. If you like Bourdain, be sure to read "Kitchen Confidential"

Funny, clever, insightful.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. I've been to many of them .......

..... and some have been my clients. I won't mention those because it wouldn't be ..... uh ..... nice.

The best story I can tell here is about Jean Louis Palladin's 'Jean Louis' at the Watergate Hotel in DC. Jean Louis, sadly, is no longer with us and I have no idea what became of his restaurant. The kitchen was the smallest I've ever seen apart from the original Palm in NYC (the kitchen there was, literally 7 feet by 9 feet!). And, relatively speaking, he had an army of cooks in there. Watching them work was a study in organized chaos. This was a very high end, low volume place. Everything was scratch prepared except desserts, which came from an equally high end French patisserie, also in the Watergate complex, or, by train, from another one in NYC.

Jean Louis was very old school and very talented. His food was second to none. But this was his only place and he was there, on the range, every day, all day.

That restaurant was worth it.

Some of the others .... not so much. The chains with the famous chef names (you know who they are) are .... chains. Good enough, but often eclipsed by some no-name places run by concerned, talented, but uncelebrated chef-owners in cities and towns across the country.

Celebrity chefs are also just people. And, as people, they vary. Many are, in plain words, egotistical, arrogant assholes (with American born chefs being the bigger assholes than many of their supposedly haughty European born bretheren). Among the assholiest is a certain redhaired glam-guy who does a lot of teevee. Not to be confused with another red-haired guy who is not an asshole, but is an Italian chef who also does a good bit of teevee.

The most regular guy type? Probably the most visible on teevee. Emeril. He's just plain folks. Really. I had the pleasure of dinner with him at an event my professional association held several years ago. He was a guest of honor, not the chef.

The better places, as in all things, are those where the chef is actually there. True enough, most train very talented chefs to work for them and the food is indistnguishable from that prepared/supervised by the rock star chef, but there's a difference - undefinable, kinda - when said rock star is off rock-starring.

But most of all, keep this in mind. These rock star chefs are not better chefs. They just play well on teevee. There are many, many, many equally or more talented working cooks out there who ply their craft nightly and have very satisfied customers who keep coming back for more.

So .... to your original question ...... are these places all they're cracked up to be? In my view ........ no, not usually.

[Shakespeare]

4. ooohhhh...that patisserie in the Watergate...I KNOW THAT PLACE.

It's been almost ten years ago (tempis fugit!), but I used to work in one of the Watergate office towers. For the working clientele like myself, there was (in the Watergate complex) a mediocre coffee shop that tried to present itself as Euro-trendy, a serviceable Safeway, a predictably OK Chinese takeout place that was super-inexpensive, and....the Watergate Bakery. My god, did I love that place. They do (I assume they still do) a white chocolate mousse cake that is lighter than air--white sponge cake with white chocolate mousse filling between the two layers, with some variation on whipped cream frosting, and covered entirely with delicate shaved white chocolate. It's the best dessert I've ever had. Anywhere. They also do the same cake as a regular chocolate/chocolate mousse, but the white chocolate was something straight from heaven.

I've scoured the internet for YEARS now trying to find a recipe for that cake, but to no avail. Sigh. I miss that place.

And I loved Les Halles in DC (the first of LH's satellite locations, I believe) when I lived there--long before I had an inkling who Anthony Bourdain is. Great, hearty food.

[Warpy]

6. I've sort of found the same thing to be true

especially with my crowd back in New England, which ran heavily to art school graduates who got tired of starving and went into food. They were wonderful when it came to putting things together in fancy presentations and some of the towering edifices they'd bring to table were truly remarkable in their engineering, but the food itself wasn't all that spectacular.

Good food, simply presented, is more my style, anyway. However, the conspicuously consuming seem to demand the "tall food," the taller the better. I guess that's why I'm a cook, not a chef.

[anitar1]

20. Glad to hear that about Emeril. I have tried some of his

recipes and have not been disapointed. I like his "Essence of Emeril" show.I think I know the first redhead you spoke of. I have eaten many great meals at local places where I have lived.

[wryter2000]

5. Chez Panisse

I've been to the cafe at Chez Panisse. Good food. Tiny portions. Extremely overpriced. I'd rather eat ethnic restaurants.

[GoneOffShore]

23. Went there 15 years ago

And haven't been back since.

The food was good, apart from the string in the salad.

The service sucked.

Wrote a letter to Alice Waters and got our money back(apart from the wine), although I didn't ask for it, plus an apology.

[lavenderdiva]

7. I moved to Houston from New Orleans back in 2001....

I consider New Orleans to be my home, having lived there for 30 years previously. While living there, I had the pleasure of being able to dine at some absolutely wonderful establishments. Emeril's, NOLA (owned by Emeril), DelMonico's (also owned by Emeril), Bayona (owned by Susan Spicer), K-Paul's (owned by Paul Prudhomme), Upperline, Arnaud's, Christian's, Commander's Palace, Palace Cafe, Bacco, and other locally renowned restaurants. The restaurants I have listed have known national acclaim.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't like I dined there on a regular basis. Perhaps, when celebrating a birthday or other special occasion, we would take advantage of the wonderful selection New Orleans had to offer.

The only negative experience my family had was at K-Paul's. My parents were asked to leave the restaurant after my father asked for his blackened steak 'medium-well done'. My father was told that he could not have the dish prepared this way, as Paul Prudhomme only prepared it 'rare'. They went back and forth, and finally the conversation degenerated to where my mother called Prudhomme a 'little fat b-----d'. They were asked to leave, and then my mother called him a 'BIG fat b-----d'. Looking back now, its a funny story, but then I was embarrassed to death.

Emeril's original restaurant, while absolutely delicious, and service fantastic, was extraordinarily LOUD. It had extremely high ceilings, with cement floors, and everything just reverberated around the room, to where you could hardly hear your dinner companion's conversation. That was the only drawback there... Delmonico's and NOLA's were very different in that regard, and most enjoyable.

Every other place I mentioned, brings back wonderful memories of the food, the service and the atmosphere. Each was outstanding in every way you can imagine, and the menu selections were just amazing.

Unfortunately, with Katrina having had such a devastating effect on the New Orleans restaurant industry, I am not sure that all of these restaurants will be back in business. Most cannot find enough waitstaff to support them.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. I think NOLA and San Francisco represent the highest state of the American

culinary arts. That's not to exclude other cities in any list of great food towns, but NOLA and SF have, what seems to me, their own indigeonous cuisines. New York is probably the very best restaurant city in the US, if not the world, but the food there is very cosmopolitan. NOLA and SF truly have their own cuisines.

Of the two, my personal taste runs toward NOLA.

[supernova]

9. The only places I've been to

are the two local places with some national notoriety:

Magnolia Grill.

Southern contemporary cooking and desserts to die for! I haven't been there in a while but both times I went it was extremely good. And the service was wonderful. Although, the last time they had gotten so popular they were sqeezing people into the dining room like mad. It was originally a small cottage house.I did have the feeling of sitting on top of other diners. I hope they've gotten enough money by now to expand.



Momma Dips:

Traditional Old South cooking. If you want collards and hamhocks, grits and gravy, and coconut pie, this place is for you. Really good always. Again, desserts to die for!



There are a couple of others, notably Crooks Corner, but I haven't been there yet, so I don't know what it's like. :-)

[amerikat]

11. I always wanted to go to NOLA not for Mardi Gras but to eat

from one end of the city to the next. I guess I'll never get the chance now.

[Tab]

10. It wasn't a restaurant

but a frat house in Oneonta, NY, in the early 80's. I had tutored someone there, and in thanks he invited me to some special Friday night dinner they were having for some event. I didn't know what to expect, but I wasn't too psyched (I mean, dinner at a frat house? How good could it be?).

Indescribably good, as it turns out. We hung out in the kitchen with the chef, and old-school chef from Germany. I guess you could call him famous, or at least within the industry he must have been, because he was the former head chef for the Waldorf-Astoria. Apparently he retired but still just loved to cook for lots of people and have people love his cooking, so the frat adopted him (and vice versa).

The meal was prime rib and onion soup and I forget what else. I never liked onion soup previously but I fell in love with it that night. The prime rib was superb. I forget the veggies, but I ate them, which for me is saying a lot as I don't care for cooked veggies myself. The dinner was over 20 years ago, and although I don't remember all the details, I remember it as a lifetime meal. I also remember standing in the kitchen with him watching him make the croutons for the onion soup (anyone was allowed in the kitchen to join in the atmosphere).

If he was alive and working there now, I'd go back to school there just to join that frat and hang out in that kitchen.

[NashVegas]

12. Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant (Cornwall)

http://www.rickstein.com/restaurants_theseafoodrestaurant.htm


The bill came to about $450 US dollars for three people.

The really funny thing about it: the seafood dishes were nothing to write home about, but everything else was amazing.

[amerikat]

13. For that kind of money I want to be wowed.

I get the feeling that a lot of famous chefs restaurants are a lot about novelty and presentation. I'd rather just have great food.

[NashVegas]

17. Yeah, Me Too

I was wowed by the steak, by the desert, and by the wines that were chosen to accompany the courses.

[tenshi816]

25. Rick Stein's Cafe in Padstow, Cornwall

is much better value. You still get the Rick Stein touch, but in a slightly chaotic and very casual atmosphere. After comparing the prices for the two Stein establishments, the cafe won with us hands down and we ate there every day for a week!

I don't know if you can get it in the States (from Amazon, maybe?), but Rick Stein has a really good seafood cookbook that came out a year or so ago.

[wiggs]

15. For Angelenos

Border Grill in Santa Moncia is good and fun. Finegar and Milliken (used to be Two Hot Tamales)

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

16. Caprial's.

I don't know how famous it is. She & her husband have a cooking show on PBS. I thought the food was very good, but there are several in Portland that I think are better.

[NMDemDist2]

18. I used to go to Biba's a lot in Sacramento

it was owned and operated by Biba Caggiano

it was pretty good and the wine cellar was excellent

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1557883807.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

[GoneOffShore]

19. Have been to several

Mostly in France - Yves Camdeborde - La Regalade and Le Comptoir. Georges Blanc, Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, Auberge d'Il in Illerhausen, Les Boquinistes in Paris. The Fountain at The Four Seasons in Philadelphia - Jean Marie LaCroix. Le Bec Fin in Philadelphia - George Perrier, and Chez Panisse in Berkely - Alice Waters. Probably a couple of others but it's been awhile.
Couldn't tell in detail now what we've eaten at those places without going back and consulting notes. Mostly have been worth the money, though Chez Panisse was not the best experience nor was Le Bec Fin. Les Boquinistes was a bit disappointing, but it's a second string restaurant.
George Blancs in Vonnas was probably the best, followed by Le Comptoir.

[Mojorabbit]

21. I've been to emerils here in Fl

The lobster cheesecake is to die for
on edit I found the recipe on line
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_10435,00.html

[Tab]

22. Lobster cheesecake??

Wow.

Can you spell "decadence"?

I'd love to give that a try.

[TaleWgnDg]

24. America invents celebrities. Why chefs? Seriously? Why?

How stupid is it to invent someone then pay extra for their services?