Posted on 05/01/2012 1:22:10 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Chef David Kinch's Manresa is world-class in Los Gatos.
The food isn't good at Manresa in Los Gatos. It's world-class good -- the 46th-best restaurant on the globe, as a matter of fact.
Chef David Kinch's spin on local California cuisine -- where ingredients come from a Santa Cruz farm that grows vegetables exclusively for the roasted stone fruit or the slow-roasted duck in a hay-and-salt crust -- last made the list in 2006, and is one of only two California eateries to make the exclusive list, compiled by sparkly-water purveyors San Pellegrino, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
The French Laundry clocked in at 43, though chef Thomas Keller's New York effort, Per Se, was deemed sixth-best restaurant, according to reports.
Keeping its strangehold on the top spot at www.theworlds50best.com is Noma, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based eatery where the ingredients are all classic Nordic products, like moss. Really.
Kinch's status as a premier purveyor of food products is merely due to the hard work of his staff, he said in an e-mail.
Who the hell has ever heard of sea bream? If I want good grub, I’ll go to Berns in Tampa and get a fat assed steak or better yet, cook at home..
How much for one that's never been broken?
I don't remember the last time I paid for a restaurant meal. If I'm going to have to pay, I'd rather hit the markets and cook for myself. Saves lots of $$s. There are advantages in having a live-in chef in the house. ;)
At most, trying a restaurant where I'm not owed a comp, I'll hit the bar, and order a drink and a couple of amuse bouche to try the food. That can still run $40+ in some places.
/johnny
And people that know about sea bream have heard of it.
But I think this thread is about fine dining and not grub. ;)
/johnny
No, no, no. On the current *50* list, and counting the last eighteen months, I've eaten at #6 (Per Se), #19 (Le Bernardin), and #25 (Daniel - like Per Se, a definite keeper). Of course, the food always tastes better with good friends instead of clients, and when somebody else is paying.
I don't live on the West Coast (haven't since junior high), but when I'm in Northern California I've tried unsuccessfully to get a reservation at The French Laundry ever since The Soul of a Chef: The Journey to Perfection was published. It's the book that introduced the ordinary world to Thomas Keller.
I dined at the Quilted Giraffe during its flash-of-glory days, and likely another dozen restaurants that flashed onto this list, flashed off it, and closed. I dined at Lutèce back in the early 1980s, when it was still, well, Lutèce (and still open).
However, some of the finest meals - or specific appetizers, entrees, or desserts - came from restaurants or even diners that will never gain recognition on lists like these.
“The luxe of the table is the joy you find around it.”—Michel Bras Smoked avocado ceviche
Haven’t been but I’m going snowboarding in Europe this season so I’ll try to make there.
Haven’t been but I’m going snowboarding in Europe this season so I’ll try to make there.
Go for it. That’s why there are so many choices. And people that know about sea bream have heard of it.
But I think this thread is about fine dining and not grub. ;)
Lighten up there Francis. I don’t know how in Obamas world people can afford Outback. I’ve been to fine dining. Its sad most aren’t afforded those opportunities. Quit bogarting the thread dude. You look like an out of work sous chef. Guarneschelli is a personal friend who has cooked in my home, but I wouldn’t pay her prices.
I have worked in a restaurant, but I never realized how hard the work was in a GREAT restaurant until I wanted Anthony Bourdain try to do his old job at Brasserie Les Halles (I think...) on “No Reservations.” He was too soft!
Apparently, you make your name at a young age, or not at all.
At Per Se, yes. However, dessert was a dozen or more courses, despite being listed on the menu as one. One dessert course was a single perfect kernel of popcorn, enveloped in a ball of fresh, homemade, salty butter, covered in a thin shell of homemade vanilla ice cream, dipped in frozen nitrogen so the whole thing crunched in your mouth as it melted. You didn't know what it was until you bit it.
And before you could say 'I'd like another," some other marvelous creation was being served to you.
Would you want that every day of your life? No. Is the food incredible, the service incredible, the presentation incredible (and the place a relative bargain in the world of Manhattan fine dining and Carnegie Deli $20+ dollar sandwiches)? Yes.
When I was doing business frequently in Manhattan in the early-mid nineties, I had the opportunity to try many of the then-hot places, plus some highly regarded old standards. Delmonico out near Wall St., that was enjoyable. Gotham was an experience, can't say it was among the best but the presentation was very unusual and artistic.
Hate to admit it, but the best meal I had there, bar none, was a tremendous Sicilian lasagna brought in by the stylist's mother, very unusual, it had green peas in the marinara.
As far as steak houses, Morton's in Chicago would have to top my list.
/johnny
Do you know what a “shoulder chip” is? Because I certainly haven’t displayed it. No mirroring here.
Poor attitude displayed from the start. You came in with an axe to grind, so to speak.
Enough said.
“Poor attitude” Oh my! Not on FR! And on a food thread?
Silliness. Whatever...
I’m going to make myself a grilled cheese sandwich, a personal favorite by the way of “Top World Chefs” according to one my isues of Saveur magazine.
But then, its only the 147th “Greatest Dish in the World”, up from 238th just a year ago....
Oh... ‘nuff said.
Ya’ll are a bunch of prissy fags. You go to Dodge’s Store in Bassett, Va and get the fried chicken and the fried potatoes. Now that is fine dining. The eggrolls are good too.
Love The French Laundry, small restaurant in Yountville in the Napa Valley of California . Very expensive but worth every penny.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-french-laundry-yountville-2
“Carnegie Deli $20+ dollar sandwiches..>>”
Yeah, but I got three meals out of one of those stacked beauties, (I think I had “The Rudy”), and I am not a small guy.
On this thread, I better not EVEN bring up the magnificence of NYC street food....
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