Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
I live in Idaho, which is one of the biggest Basque communities in the
world, and a lot of food I'd been told was 'Spanish' is actually
Basque.
  

    
The only Basque food I ever had was many years ago at the Basque Hotel
in San Francisco. I think that's what it was called, though there were
several Basque hotels in North Beach.  The food was served family
style and was very simple and very delicious.  I believe that that
hotel is long gone.  I would love to try Basque food in Paris the next
time I get there.
  

    
While waiting for Paris, go to Bakersfield, which has a profusion of
totally agreable Basque restaurants, many with an all-you-eat policy.
  

    
I think barst is in Chicago and I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to make 
a trip to Bakersfield instead of Paris (or le pays Basque) in that 
circumstance!
  

    
Then scribble the post. But wait - maybe a few WELL subscribers are in
California and might be interested, and are a little sort of the Paris
airfare. Could that conceivably be?
  

    
Bakersfield is a real possibility.   My favorite mexican seafood restaurant,
Marisicos Puerta Vallarta is there as a fallback, if necessary.
  

    
Why would I scribble your post? First of all, I'm not a host of this 
conference. Second of all -- WTF?  In any event, I wouldn't send anyone 
to Bakersfield, not even someone in Fresno. 
  

    
I remember that there is also town in Nevada on I80 that has a lot of
Basque restaurants.

I looked it up. It's Winnemucca, but it also looks like Elko does as
well.  Sorry for the topic drift, but this is kind of interesting. 
There seems to be many towns in Western U.S. with a lot of Basque
restaurants. Yes, I live in Chicago, and I would rather go back to
Paris than Bakersfield or Winnemucca

http://www.buber.net/Basque/Food/charley.html
  

    
I didn't mean to post a blank post there, and I certainly didn't mean to 
insult stet. Anyway, there are Basques in Reno too -- I came across a 
small Basque festival there but it was too early to get any of the 
delicious food they were cooking, including barbeque. 
  

    
Yeah, one of these days I need to hit the Basque festival in Gooding
and check it out. 
  

    
Meanwhile - Alec, it's a long way from Paris, but I assume you've been
to El Bulli in Roses, Spain. If so, what did you think?

also -- speaking of Basques -- this guy's brother lives in Nevada:
http://www.well.com/user/stet/francepage-Pages/Image38.html
http://www.well.com/user/stet/francepage-Pages/Image39.html
  

    
As a sometime restaurant reviewer myself, albeit one who wasn't able
to get a reading copy of your book because I live overseas, I'm
wondering how you set up your criteria. 

For instance, I assume that there are some areas where burger joints
and star-chef restaurants are judged alike (sanitation, service), while
obviously there are others where they're not. 

If you've already addressed this in the book, sorry for the
repetition, but for the general public who many be reading this, maybe
a short recap might help.
  

    
Re El Bulli, Roses, Spain

I was one of the first to write about Ferran Adria's resto for the US
press (it was for DEPARTURES magazine, article is probably still out in
cyber world somewhere). So the gig was that I was anonymous, of
course, and ate dinner; lunch; dinner; lunch and then had a day off
before interviewing him. First two meals were amazing, 3rd meal okay,
4th meal, I asked if we could order 'normal' food, and here-in lies the
truth. Adria is a brilliant chef, but this isn't a place you'd want to
become a regular, which would be sort of like seeing the same magic
show everyday. Once a year is perfect.
  

    
Hey Kayo,

French Cheese by publisher Dorling Kindersley is a great reference
book on French cheese.

My two favorite cheese shops in Paris are Barthelemy and Quatre
Hommes, both in the 7th arrondissement. And the best place to go all
out for cheese in Paris is Montparnasse 25 in the Meridien Montparnasse
Hotel; their cheese man has pin-up type photos of cows, goats and
sheep he's met during his cheese-hunting travels around France on the
walls of his office. The rest of the food there is pretty good, but you
go for the cheese.
  

    
To Michael C. Berch

Agree with you that world or fusion food doesn't usually come off very
well in France. They're some great exceptions, though--L'Astrance
(chef Pascal Barbot is Auvergnat but was in Pacific as part of French
navy--brilliant Franco-Australian-Polynesian cooking), William ledeuil
at Ze Kitchen Galerie does fascainting Asian-Italian-French, and Inaki
Aizipitarte at the uber trendy Le Chateaubriand is a genuis with
Franco-Japanese cooking. I also like La Gazzetta, where a Swedish born
chef riffs on French, Italian, Scandinavian and Moroccan food; All of
these places are in my book HUNGRY FOE PARIS.
  

    
Alec, do you have any wine bar recommendations? And when is the right time 
of day to go to a wine bar, anyway?
  

    
Here's a general question: you establish personal relationships with
restaurateurs, and then write critiques about their work. How do you
deal with potential conflicts - do you avoid posting problems because
of your personal relationships? 

All food writers have to deal with this in some form - what's your
strategy.
  

    
Good question. During the 20 years that I've lived in Paris, I've
always maintained a cordial arm's length relationship from my
colleagues, restaurateurs and chefs. Sure, I know many of them, but
I've worked really hard to establish the fact that a friendly rapport
will never prevent me from being honestly critical. And when I have
been critical, I've often had to spend a lot of time explaining my
point of view, which I'm happy to do because I think criticism should
be a dialogue. Ultimately, though, my job is to make sure you eat as
well as possible when you come to Paris, so I have no sacred cows. In
fact the very last chapter in HUNGRY FOR PARIS, "But What About...?",
in which I kill off a lot of sacred cows (lousy famous restaurants) is
making waves in Paris right now.
  

    
 I agree with your But What About chapter for the most part.  Been to some
"great" restaurants that were good at beseg Rostang).  I have always loved
Apicius and have never been ignored.  That being said, I have not been there
for several years.

 Looking forward to July when my wife and I attend Alain Ducasse Formation
for 10 days.
  

    
It was good to see Ze Kitchen Galerie in your book, Alec - I had a
great meal there two trips back.  (It does seem to me that if there's
fusion involved it's more likely to be Indochinese, which I guess is
historically somewhat inevitable, even if no one cooking today was an
adult at the time of French colonialism. That said, I've had some
decidedly unsuccessful Viet-French meals in Paris over the years.) 

One thing I did want to mention is that I really enjoy the
conversational tone of HUNGRY FOR PARIS. I have a stack of PAris
guidebooks ranging from the pedestrian (Frommer's) to the focused
(Sandra Gustafson's GREAT EATS PARIS) and most of them try to pack in
the maximum information per page, which is OK in the bang-for-the-buck
department, but I have to say that after a number of trips and books,
the stories behind the restaurants and chefs are more rewarding than
the capsule reviews others offer.

But speaking of Paris guides, what books do you like and recommend on
other topics, like hotels, attractions, shopping, art, architecture,
and so forth? 
  

    
PARIS INFO: They're lots of good places to stay up-to-date with Paris.
I like the magazine FRANCE TODAY, LA BELLE FRANCE and PARIS NOTES, and
the best all-purpose Paris only website is bonjourparis.com. For
shopping, I think Suzy Gershman's BORN TO SHOP Paris is good, and for
food, please stop by my website, www.hungryforparis.com or
www.gourmet.com. I also think that www.concierge.com, the all-purpose
travel site of Conde Nast generally does a good job with Paris, along
with www.cntraveller.com (Conde Nast Traveller, UK).
  

    
Pour Michael Berch,

I was gladdened to hear that you like the tone of HUNGRY FOR PARIS,
and this isn't only for a vain quickening of the pulse. I travel about
150 days a year for various magazines and newspapers and so am
constantly on the consumer end of the travel info flow, which is
exactly why I decided to write HUNGRY FOR PARIS. They're scads of Paris
food books, but I wanted to cough up the one I'd be happy to find as a
very knowing traveler to Paris. Fact is, in 2008, why should I assume
you'd want to tote a pound of paper with you if it isn't all purpose.
So you be the judge, but my intention was to serve up a solid reference
source, a good read, and a portrait of Paris as seen through its best
restaurants, or to wit, something it'd be worthy lugging around during
a trip. This being said, I'd probably buy the Kindle version through
Amazon these days.
  

    
I think the Kindle is probably the perfect travel accessory these days. 
  

    
Can't wait to get a hold of Kindle. Have ordered one that I'll pick up
when I go back to the US in late June to be a judge on the IRON CHEF.