Food Nerd TV

The local nominees for Best Chef: South in the 2012 James Bear Foundation Awards.

Tonight, in a ceremony which has been often described as the "Oscars of the food world," the James Beard Foundation will hand out awards to the nation's best chefs and restaurants. Among the nominees are a handful of locals, and we wish them all good luck.

In the category of Outstanding Chef, Donald Link has been nominated with other industry heavyweights such as David Chang, Gary Danko, and Paul Kahan. I'd say that Chef Link deserves the award based solely on the spaghetti with guanciale and fried poached egg at Herbsaint, but no one asked my opinion. For the fourth year in a row, Chef Sue Zemanick from Gautreau's is nominated for Rising Star Chef of the Year, an honor bestowed upon chefs 30 years of age and under. Chef Sue is aged out of this category after this year, so let's hope that she brings home the prize.

But the most watched contest of the evening will likely be in the category of Best Chef: South, where 4 of the 5 nominees hail from New Orleans. Justin Devillier of La Petite Grocery, John Harris of Lilette and Bouligny Tavern, Tory McPhail of Commander's Palace, and Alon Shaya of Domenica have all been nominated for the award, along with some guy from Birmingham. And no disrespect to Chris Hastings and the Hot and Hot Fish Club, but losing this one tonight would be more disappointing than Union Rags' performance at the Derby on Saturday.

In today's poll in the top left hand corner, you can cast your vote for the New Orleans chef most deserving of the award for Best Chef: South. At the time of publishing, Vegas has Alon Shaya listed as the 5 to 2 favorite. You can catch the awards live today at 5:00CST on streaming video.

Dueling Bloggers: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Last Saturday while poking around the Farmer's Market, a devoted reader who is not related to either of us, asked, "You guys should debate restaurants that never change their menus." The reader went on to note that they had gone to Lilette the night before "for about the thousandth time" and that the menu never changes. "We really like Lilette, but come on!" he implored. So without further ado, let's debate menus and restaurants.

Rene: The idea of the ever evolving menu at a restaurant is a relatively new one. Well, that is not entirely true. Places like Chez Panisse and the thousand of French restaurants it was inspired by have served different menus everyday. Certainly a restaurant with an ever changing menu has become very popular in the last ten years. This is mostly due to the proliferation and abundance of farmers markets along with a growing sense of seasonal based cooking. All of which is a long winded way of saying, while I enjoy restaurants that are always challenging themselves to work with what God gives them, I am not sold that a restaurant has to use that formula to be considered great. The idea of a restaurant constantly changing its menu is more a reaction to what the consumer wants. Through magazines, shows, etc... the way a restaurant appeals to consumers is by being "market inspired". While it is a noble and delicious goal, it tends to make many restaurants seem monotonous. I want more personality out of a restaurant.

Peter: You know what lacks personality? Tomatoes in December and oysters in July. Should a chef force himself to use scientifically altered produce and frozen seafood just because his customers want to eat the same crawfish etouffee in November that they did in May? Or does it make more sense for a chef to talk to his suppliers, figure out what the harvest brought this week, and decide what to tailor his menu toward the freshest ingredients available? Changing your menu to reflect the seasons is not monotonous; serving Oysters Rockefeller and Baked Alaska everyday for 170 years is.

Rene: Distilling it down even further, there are chefs the world over who have created dishes people travel to taste. I am thinking of bites like Robuchon's pommes puree, Thomas Keller's Oysters and Pearls, or Drago's chargrilled oysters. Dishes define restaurants. No trip to Herbsaint is complete for me without an order of spaghetti with guanciale and fried poached egg. There is no reason for a menu to change completely when there are dishes that can stand the test of time. I don't begrudge either tactic a restaurant may take, but I get cravings for specific dishes or specific approaches to food more than I get cravings for a specific restaurant. Imagine the horror if you walked into La Boca and learned they had become vegetarian?

Peter: My worst nightmare is walking into La Boca and having Jared tell me that the sweetbreads and hanger steak have been replaced by watermelon carpaccio and eggplant stuffed with bulgur wheat. That being said, I understand that sometimes I can order flash fried brussels sprouts with my skirt steak and other times I have to settle for asparagus. Just as the crops change with the seasons, so do my tastebuds, which is why I'm more likely to opt for a restaurant that serves vichychoisse in the summer instead of one that insists on serving gumbo even when its 110 degrees outside. And maybe if we as consumers are more willing to accept the fact that we can't always order what we want, then our ecosystem will become more sustainable and less reliant on foods with artificial preservatives.

Rene: Take for instance, Boucherie which is always cycling in new dishes, cuisines, and techniques into their repertoire. Go there this month and Indian may be the theme. However, one is always guaranteed to find a few select dishes - the boudin balls, the grit cake with blackened shrimp - never leave. They don't leave the menu because they are an anchor to the chef's vision. A constantly changing menu is a sign of a chef who is both continuing to learn and also unsure of his or her food personality. I don't mean to say a chef should ever stop learning and expanding, but rather I like them to know a hit when they taste it.

Peter: You have enunciated what is known as the Great Compromise, a/k/a the Three-Fifths Compromise. If a restaurant allocates 60% of its menu to the greatest hits and the other 40% to dishes comprised of seasonal ingredients or the chef's own innovations, then harmony is achieved both by giving the people what they have come to expect from the kitchen and by allowing the chef enough room both to stay creative and to take advantage of nature's cycle. Boucherie and Herbsaint are great examples, but Susan Spicer has it down to a science at Bayona. On the left side of the menu are the signature dishes - goat cheese crouton, garlic soup, sweetbreads with sherry mustard - and on the right side of the menu are the nightly specials that change with the chef's whim and whatever raw ingredients are available. A little something for everyone.

Hey Weekend, You are Looking Good

It's the freaking weekend. You likely have big plans tonight. But let's say you don't 'cause you are a loser. Or you and your special friend want to stay at home and play Scrabble. First off, good call. Second, if the game gets too heated and you need a break, Chef Tariq Hanna is on TBS's Dinner and a Movie. The movie this week is Talladega Nights, and as Tariq is a confessed "Amateur Motor Sports Freakazoid", he will likely spice up the evening with anecdotes about cam shafts and being clutch.

Now onto our junk. This month we reviewed Bouligny Tavern in offBEAT Magazine. Our overall thoughts are this: Bouligny is a really cool space, the food more than passes muster, and the cocktails kick arse. Bouligny Tavern fits a nice need. One it is a great place for a quick drink and snack before heading somewhere else. Two, it is a good spot to have a light meal with a few drinks. Three, it is one of the most well-designed spaces in the city. We really like the place. So you can stop here. If you keep reading, know the rest of this incoherent rambling rant is directed at pretty much every wine bar in the city, and is not particular to Bouligny Tavern. Sorry they had to be the catalyst.

Numerous wine centric bars have opened in the city over the last few years, but especially recently. What do all of these have in common? OVERPRICED wines by the glass. Look, I get it. You want to have a cool bar with interesting wines by the glass. Part of your business model, I assume, is attracting sophisticated diners and winers.

Well, guess what? That segment of the population is often more knowledgeable about wine prices. So when you have a glass of wine on your list for $9 they know immediately that the same bottle of wine costs $12 at Elio's. So the precise people you want to attract, you have immediately ticked off. We know you bought that bottle for $5-6 bottles wholesale. We know you have overhead. But listen, if you charged $5 a glass, I will order two glasses instead of one. Shoot, put the bottle at $22 and I'll just order the whole damn thing. A bar is a volume based business, seize that volume.

Secondly, in Louisiana we drink a lot of beer, there is nothign wrong with this. I assume part of your goal is to introduce the largely beer drinking public of Louisiana to some wines you really like. Well, if a beer is $4 and a glass of wine is $9 it doesn't take a math minor long to figure out: "For the price of one glass of wine, I can get two beers and tip the waitress." Now you are just another bar where half the orders are for longnecks, twenty-five percent for cocktails, and the rest wine and shotzzzzz. Congrats, drop the wine from your marquee, you are a bar.

Finally, a great wine bar should change people's attitudes about the role wine can play in a happy lifestyle. Wine is not an extravagance, it is not for special occasions, and it is not solely at home in a fancy restaurant with a sommelier calling the shots. Wine is a simple luxury that people should enjoy daily for the health benefits and structure it brings to society. By charging a premium on participating in this basic enjoyment of life in cultures around the globe, you have not changed anyone's attitude about wine. So for the guy who thinks wine is "elitist, snobby, and fussy", you have just affirmed that stereotype for him. Good wine and affordable wine are not mutually exclusive.

Someone open a wine bar that has wines by the glass that are not outrageous examples of highway robbery. Don't make me get off my high horse.

End Rant.

Lilette

John Harris has once again been nominated for a James Beard Award, and the food coming out of his kitchen deserves all the accolades, Grammys, and honors one can bestow. The service, however, needs a serious kick in the ass.

The interior of Lilette presents one of the most charming restaurants in New Orleans. Big, plate glass windows surround cozy white booths and intimate tables. There is a bar along the back wall which looks right out of an ad for the finer things in life.

Upon sitting we ordered a bottle of Rene Barth 2007 Pinot Gris, a wonderful easy drinking white with a touch of sweetness. We also tried to order a half-dozen Kumamoto oysters to nibble on as we perused the menu. "No, sorry. You have to order everything... all food at once," was the answer we received. ("What about dessert?" was the smart ass remark I withheld).

Eventually we were allowed to order the oysters. And when they arrived, they were worth their wait in scold. These tiny, jewels of the ocean exploded with minerality and the taste of the icy seas.

Choosing from the menu at Lilette will prove daunting. Do you go with the duck confit or escargots in Calvados cream? The truffle toast or the raw fish? The pork belly or the bouillabaisse? My best answer for you is to go with a group and try everything.

We started with the boudin noir and chicken soup. The boudin noir arrived wrapped in a crisp shell, while inside the pudding-like meat exploded with flavor. Lindsay stole most of the cornichons, but they along with the mustard provided a wonderful balance to the richness of the sausage.

Lindsay's chicken soup went in an entirely different direction. The broth had the lusty body of a supermodel. Under the surface of the soup floated a delicately poached egg, the yolk of which burst from the whites to mingle and thicken the soup. Just a delicious, soulful bite of food, and an intelligent take on chicken noodle soup.

"Could you please leave the wine out, it is getting a little cold," I asked nicely.

"Why? There is barely anything left," the waiter dismissed.

Ok, then.

Onto the mains. Lindsay was very pleased with the Hawaiian spearfish with braised escarole and sunchoke puree. But no bite of food, I have had in the last twelve months compared with the pork belly dish. Tender, salted cubes of pork belly nestled alongside bright, juicy cubes of melon, slivers of onion, mint, and baby arugula. If you go to Lilette, this dish needs to be ordered.

Complaining about service is not something I like to do, and the two above passages may not seem like much (and in the grand scheme of things are not). But snooty service really chaps my ass. I don't snap fingers, yell at waiters, or tip poorly. I am not asking for you to address me as sir. I appreciate how hard you work. So please quit acting like you are doing me a favor, or else I can and will take my business elsewhere.

Can you tell I should let it go?

Lilette - So close to Eagle, but Birdie.