The Vanishing Restaurant Owner-Host

I've always found something incredibly charming about a restaurant owner who doubles as the host, welcoming you as you enter and/or stopping by your table to check on how your meal is going. As the N.Y. Times notes, this owner-host situation is increasingly rare.

Noting the death of one such person (restaurateur Elaine Kaufman), the Times explores the rapidly disappearing joint role of owner-host in this article. By the way, Woody Allen was one of the regulars who dined at her restaurant, Elaine's. In its article, the Times writes:

... the notion of the host as the most important person in a given restaurant’s success is wavering.

Chefs are the draw in this modern age, and the more famous and customer-accessible, the better. Former line cooks now walk dining rooms like kings, celebrities from television, whose every utterance is recorded on blogs.

The business of restaurants is no longer so dependent on the presence of an owner in the dining room to dispense favors or act as gatekeeper to a private club. (Let us not forget: For every person who recalls Ms. Kaufman’s kindness at Elaine’s, there are others who remember her rudely barring the door or telling someone to get out.)

Powdered Sugar? No Thanks

What is this strange love affair that so many restaurant chefs have with powdered sugar? You can't go to brunch and order pancakes, French toast or waffles without seeing your plate arrive with a thorough dusting of powdered sugar. Yuck.

I have nothing against sugar, but there are so many better ways to enjoy the sweet stuff. Granulated sugar, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup and molasses all provide better, richer tastes and more interesting textures than powdered sugar. Besides, given that diners who order pancakes or French toast are already planning to pour syrup over them, powdered sugar is superfluous.

In my view, the only reason to buy powdered sugar is to make cake frosting.

Food Safety Bill Coming to a Vote

In Sunday's New York Times, Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser co-wrote this op-ed urging the Senate to approve the proposed FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. Here are some excerpts from their column:

The bill would, for the first time, give the F.D.A., which oversees 80 percent of the nation's food, the authority to test widely for dangerous pathogens and to recall contaminated food. The agency would finally have the resources and authority to prevent food safety problems, rather than respond only after people have become ill.

The bill would also require more frequent inspections of large-scale, high-risk food production plants.

And if you believe food safety worries are a thing of the past, consider this egg scare, this nut scare and this beef scare -- all within the last 18 months.

The Right Pies to Make

I am on "pie duty" for Thanksgiving, so I need to figure out which pies I will make.

Someone else is planning to bring an apple pie, so that base is covered. My plans for the moment are:

• cherry pie
• pumpkin pie (it is Thanksgiving after all)
• lemon chess pie

But I have never made lemon chess pie before. Sure, I understand that it's pretty easy to make one, but I'm finding different recipes that call for varying amounts of corn meal or lemon juice. There is this recipe from AllRecipes.com, and then there is this one from the Food Network. Even the amounts of sugar are different.

Decisions . . . decisions.

Turkey Tips

In this New York Times article, Bobby Flay and other celebrity chefs offer some tips for Thanksgiving Day cooking. One of Flay's tips is incredibly simple:

Have an abundance of chicken stock on hand, bubbling warm on the stove all day. "You slice the turkey and put it on a platter to serve it," he said, "and then right before you go out to the table, you ladle some stock over the top to warm it and give it a little moisture, too. You do the same for the stuffing. You make the gravy with it. You go through a lot."

Sounds like a smart approach to me.

Who Does Paula Enjoy Cooking for the Most?

This is from a column that Paula Deen wrote for Esquire magazine in September 2009:

Men use food to try to outdo one another. It's okay for a man to say, "I ate that whole damn pie." Now, a woman isn't gonna want to say that, but for a man it's a badge of honor: Look how tough I am. It's almost like an attack thing, the way they eat.

I'll tell you what it comes down to for me: I would rather cook for a man than for a woman on any day. It's those noises [men] make.

... men dive in without guilt and enjoy their food like there's no tomorrow. And that feels good when you're the one who cooked it.

Triple Berry Muffins Don't Taste the Same

Both Au Bon Pain and Caribou are coffee chains that sell something called the Triple Berry Muffin. Both advertise that their muffins are low-fat.

But does either one of these muffins taste good? In my experience, the answer is "yes." Au Bon Pain's Triple Berry Muffin is quite tasty. But the version of this muffin sold at Caribou is terrible. Last week, I tasted Caribou's version for the first time, and it was pretty inedible.

A Better Cranberry Condiment

Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away, and it's time to think about the cranberry options we cooks and diners have. I agree with this writer at Serious Eats who much prefers cranberries served as a thick or chutney-type consistency, instead of the gelatinous "cranberry sauce" that comes out of a can. SE's Kerry Saretsky admits that the latter is "iconic Americana" but the former is tastier.

His observations are followed by this recipe for cranberry chutney with crystallized ginger.

This recipe is another one of my favorites -- cranberry sauce with dried tart cherries. (You can use canned tart cherries if you can't find the dried variety.) The cloves in the recipe add a nice twist.

Eats in D.C.'s Atlas District

Last weekend, I visited Washington, D.C.'s H Street corridor -- a neighborhood in the N.E. quad known as the Atlas District. The area is definitely gentrifying, and the city has committed to run an electric streetcar down H Street. But my reason for visiting the area was to check out a few new eateries that I'd heard about.

First, we had brunch at the Liberty Tree, on the north side of H Street between 10th and 11th Streets. It was cozy, and they had an awesome selection of beers on tap. If wine is your thing, they've got it, but the choices are fewer. They serve a brunch on Saturday and Sunday that runs until 3 p.m. That's a nice option to have: sleep in and eat whenever you want.

The food at Liberty Tree was good -- nothing fancy or refined, but good. I had the lobster benedict, and it was quite tasty. My friend had pizza, and he gave it a grade of B-.

For a sweet conclusion to our brunch, we walked a few blocks east and then across the street to Dangerously Delicious Pies, located at 1339 H Street, N.E. This place sells entree-style pies as well as dessert pies. The dessert pies include multiple kinds of chess pie (chocolate and coconut, for example) and the other standards: apple-crumb and pecan, for example. They also sell quiches. You can buy any of these by the slice or by the entire pie.

Although most of the buzz about Dangerously Delicious Pies has been positive, one of the knocks against the place is the prices. It's true that $6.50 per slice of dessert pie is on the high side. But the pecan pie I tried was excellent. The savory pies (entrees) are $7.50 per slice, which is the same or less than what you'd spend to get lunch at a Cosi or Au Bon Pain.

And here's a piece of good news: Dangerously Delicious Pies is open 7 days a week for those of us who need to regularly get our pie fix. If there is one gripe I have about DDP, it's that they should have at least 1 or 2 more fruit pies to choose from. From what I've seen and heard, pies such as blueberry or peach don't seem to be on the menu. Maybe it's a seasonal thing or maybe I've been looking at the wrong times.

The Pizza Penalty

Joseph Jacobbi, who operates a restaurant called Casa-di-Pizza, gave a judge an opportunity to deliver a one-of-a-kind verdict.

In the wake of Jacobbi's conviction on sales tax fraud, a state supreme court judge ordered the Buffalo, N.Y. pizzeria owner to provide 12 free pizzas once a week to a homeless shelter in the city. And to keep providing the gratis pizzas for one year.

"I will leave the choice of toppings to you," the judge told Jacobbi.

Not Just for Breakfast Anymore

No, I'm not talking about a glass of orange juice.

Scrambled eggs are the dish that I'm dishing about. I've enjoyed them for dinner a number of times, and I never felt like I was slummin' when I devoured them. As this article reveals, the New York Times' Martha Rose Shulman also thinks scrambled eggs make for a tasty supper.

I'm particular about how mine are cooked -- "exactly 30 seconds beyond salmonella," my spouse sarcastically declares. That's an exaggeration, but I do want my scrambled eggs to be moist, not as dry as the Sahara desert. I hate it when I get served eggs that are dry.

Fresh chive and tarragon are marvelous herbs to add. But pick only one of them.

Chefs Don't Earn Impressive Salaries

With fewer Americans eating out at fine-dining establishments these days, it's not easy for people to find jobs as restaurant chefs. And even those who already have those jobs may not be doing all that well financially.

The website Chow produced this bar graph listing the average salaries of three workers -- a school bus driver, a trash collector and a chef de cuisine. The chef's estimated salary ($56,868) looks pretty decent. Until, that is, you divide that salary by the total number of hours that a chef de cuisine works.

Yikes! This has me feeling more sympathy for the executive kitchen staff at such restaurants.

Review: Bistro Cacao

This week, I finally got around to trying Bistro Cacao, located on Massachusetts Avenue in D.C.'s Capitol Hill neighborhood. On the whole, I was pleased.

The menu offers many of the entree choices you'd expect in a French bistro. The menu isn't large, but my fellow diner and I enjoyed everything we tried. I ordered the onglet (hanger steak) with a shallot and wine sauce. The beef was of a high quality and properly cooked, and it was superbly complimented by the sauce. The wine list is large enough without overwhelming a diner. Bottles are priced fairly; some are expensive, but most are within reason.

The ambience of Bistro Cacao has a Victorian style without being too frilly. It's especially nice for people who are taking someone out on a date. Couples can dine seated on nice wing chairs from tables flanked by classy red curtains. One complaint I have is that the restaurant's menu is choices are not accessible via its website.

The bistro has plans to open a wine bar soon, although it's not clear to me where within its current premises, the wine bar would be situated -- so stay tuned.