So anyway, on to the question at hand. I’m not sure this would work as a cookbook per se, but I want a book that interviews today’s top chefs (Keller, Achatz, etcetera) speaking about lessons learned from failed attempts.

Let me give you a scenario:
The other week I tried to braise short ribs for the first time. My plan was to serve them with a mint-cauliflower puree, and over sweet-potato mashed potatoes. Let me just say, it was a total disaster. The lesson learned was that although in theory this dish should work, I hadn’t done any of the three parts before, and therefore had no basis on how to make any one of them good on their own let alone put together.

Make sense?

I think you would be a choice writer for a book like this. You seem to be someone who might be able to bring out the most embarrassing stories of failure from these chefs and somehow turn these horror stories into something that makes said chefs look like culinary heroes. Exploit the humble mistakes, therefore giving the home cook something to empathize with.

What do you think?

By the way, really looking forward to Ratio. My mind works in building blocks. My favorite book as a child was “The way things work by David Macaulay, which demystifies the workings of many everyday mechanical utilities such as the toilet. If Ratio breaks down food into the mix of simple math (function) with great taste (aesthetic), like so many of my other passions (aka music, architecture), I’m sure to have my first born memorize it like an orthodox Jew memorizes the Torah.

https://www.eventier.com/events/calendar/purchase.aspx

Can you confirm or deny the possibility of NR Austin? We are somewhat californicated, hipster-dufussed, but still a great food town.

The martini issue is still up in the air. I find it a matter of mood. Sometimes your in the mood for dirty, sometimes your not.

No new orifice for Tony either.

However, I thought about it some more because I think too much. I decided that just because some women choose to wear heels and can function in them in the workplace, that doesn’t mean that a woman is somehow lacking because she isn’t accustomed to wearing them for long periods. If the evening had indeed been a night on the town, and not a TC ambush, and she had complained about hurting feet, then she could be accused of having made a bad footwear choice for going out on the town. If she had chosen to wear heels knowing she was in for a night on her feet in a kitchen, then that would be different too. But none of that happened.

Having thought about it even more, I’ve decided that I would love to see one of the men serve any meaningful function in a kitchen sporting a pair of pointy-toed 2″ pumps. As someone famous once said, “If high heels were so great, men would still be wearing them.” And no, even though I’m a woman, and I love pretty things, the longest I can stand in heels is for the duration of Mass. Maybe it’s because Stacy and Clinton haven’t taken me by the hand and offered $1k to buy some really good shoes, the wearing of which would not equal self-mutillation. Dunno. I’ll have to think about it some more.

Regardless, I love everything Anthony writes because it gives me even more to think about and I can hear his voice narrating it. Also, thanks to Michael for the link to his blog.

As for the vodka/gin debate, for martinis, I will leave it up to you connoisseurs. However, I will always choose vodka over gin in other areas of the arena.

As for the gin/vodka thing. I have a hate-hate relationship with gin in my martinis. I was at a wedding at The Breakers in FL. and I had a gin martini, got sick from it, and had to leave early thereby causing me to miss out on the main course….South African lobster tail. Damn you gin…damn yoooou.