jpschust

We're going to have to agree to disagree- it's clear you enjoy his cooking and think that he is bringing something to the DC area and the United States, but I just think he's producing corporate schlock that isn't particularly good or original. I don't find his openness a strength in particular, and I find his work lacking at best. I respect that people have had good experiences with his food, but I simply don't get it (not the food, the good experiences). For the money and the experience I find many places to be better, more chefs to have strikingly good talent, and more original food. Clearly he's made a boatload of money and people enjoy his creations, I don't and am fine with being an outspoken critic of what I consider to be mediocrity.

It's not the experience most have gotten, but I can assure you it was the service we got. The chefs were abrupt when they paid attention to us- which was rare- the runners didn't listen to us when we made requests and the wine pairings were terrible. To top that off on an extremely rude response from Andres about the whole thing reall soured me on the minibar experience. Add to that, for me, poor cooking at his other restaurants and I've written him off.

It was truly astonishing. We were in an early seating and from the moment we sat down it seemed as though they wanted us out. I was actually startled at points at how abrupt our service was.

Awful service, terrible wine pairings, chefs not paying attention to us and when they did simply not answering our questions, silverware not being replaced, it was a litany of issues, those being the core of it

Pretty much every fish works planked- trout works especially well. The key is getting thicker cuts if possible- that meatyness helps out a lot. I've planked scallops, tuna, trout, cod, and so on. If you all are interested I'll use my camera and do a step by step of planking some fish and some veggies. I may document the duck just for the heck of it.

If I can help in any way please let me know.

this just in- I'm sick of matzos.

I'd be happy to coordinate one with The Reef if people were interested. I'm happy to help out as much as some would like for this.

I never pretoast my planks like the article suggests- it would just zap the water out of the plank causing a flare up later.Anyways- it all depends on the size of the salmon. It takes my grill at full heat about 14 minutes to cook a 1lb side of salmon cut about 1.5"-2" thick. I'm really monitoring the internal temp using a thermometer to get it just right and moist. I always put some fresh herbs between the skin of the fish and the plank and then I just use lemon, salt & pepper on the fish if it's a really nice piece. Quick note- you can get KILLER salmon from whole foods if you're willing to buy a nice big side at once.

I'm not going to go deep into the details of it, but it stemmed from a terrible experience we had at minibar to which he sent a very rude response basically telling me to go take my business elsewhere and in essence to shove it (my words, not his). If those establishments set out to make underflavored overpriced junk in trendy atmospheres, then yes, they do an excellent job. He may be well respected, but I'll never understand why.

I try to keep mine covered, but that said as I mentioned above my cover is very light and comes off a lot- thus the grill ends up uncovered a lot.

I have cooked with the lid open and the lid closed- Sometimes a nice flareup at the end can crisp the fish nicely. The real key is to soak your planks a long time as you've noticed. Here's what I do when I'm grilling for a bunch of folks- I take my beverage coolers that I keep outside and put a few inches of water in them and put my planks in the bottom with some bricks on them to keep them down. An hour or so before guests come over I pull out the planks and just add ice to the cooler and voila- I can now store my beers and white wines in them.

well you lose the benefit of smoking the wood really if you put foil down- the direct heat of the wood is what moves it along for the flavor.Just salmon gets a 4-8 hr soak, but I've gotten away with a single hour before if I keep a close eye on it and a spray bottle close for flareups.

long story short, i ended up with a pair of these. they are damn comfy. that said, im not drinking hooch from my shoes any time soon.

My correction then- I've been to restaurants opened around the same time as Minibar who are cooking with more creative and unique techniques which Andres seems to be doing a poor impersination of at minibar (this qualifies as one of my more poorly written sentences)

I honestly feel like he's doing a lot of immitation of WD-50 and Moto- especially some of the things Moto is doing. I thought my dinners at these two were both more creative versions of similar dishes (things like using spun sugar, deconstructions, etc.) with better use of ingredients in better tasting dishes. If you want a real trip I'd highly suggest the 20 course at Moto.

Nope, but I've been to a variety of the other MG restaurants that have been around for longer than Minibar and whose chefs have been incredibly influential in the field. We attempted to get in last year and will continue to attempt to attend until we get in. Which at this rate may be 2030.

Andres' work in the DC kitchens is a repetition of mediocrity at best in my mind. Minibar is a shameful repetition and immitation of better work done elsewhere more creatively, Zaytinya is uninspired, underseasoned, flavorless mediterranian tapas being charged at shameful rates, cafe atlantico is just plain bad for a variety of similar reasons in my mind, and Oyamel is simply the worst mexican food I've had on the east coast. Forget Flay's TV show, though he often demonstrates amazing technique on often improvised grills, and go eat in one of his restaurants where the quality of the meats and creativity of the dishes is clever, and the food is made with love and tastes of it. Some may see Andres as having done a lot for the DC restaurant scene, but I think he's just turned the DC restaurant scene to a new level of mediocre corporate sludge no more worthy of praise than the "Chili's" you cite above.

avoid harry carry's at Chicago Midway- food poisoning on this past Thursday for me from the hot italian sausage. They do have potbelly sandwiches all through the airport- mediocrity abounds. Best thing about San Diego airport- Rubio's Fish Tacos ORD SAN

I think it helps having to identify yourself to a moderator before being able to post.

I havent though I'm about to try next week. I'm thinking of using cedar and actually doing a 36 hr soak because I know the plank is going to take more heat to cook duck through than fish or some of the cuts of red meat I've used. Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm addicted to planking.

The one year anniversary of my grill is in a few weeks. I use it at least 2 times a month, though during summer it gets a workout about 3 nights a week. If you get really good at planking salmon you'll never go back to eating salmon the same way again. It's very easy to put together from the box- so don't worry about that. The only very minor complaint I've had about this thing is that the cover tends to come off in a heavy wind, thus I've come to keep it without the cover on all that much. One of the nicest things is that it protects a bag of charcol in its bin very cleanly. It's an extremely well designed grill and it's pretty cheap on amazon.com

http://www.weber.com/bbq/pub/grill/2005/charcoal/cg_p.aspx This is the grill you want- all the benefits of charcoal, but with the ease of lighting of propane. Use a cheap disposable propane tank (I get mine for about 3 bucks from Ace hardware) that will last you quite a long time and fire your coals up for about 5 minutes- in about 5 minutes you have a smokin hot grill ready to go that can do anything you need it to. Oh and it's a lot cheaper than 500- I paid about 275 or so + shipping + 40 for a cover for it. I use cowboy charcoal in it or sometimes the whole foods brand hardwood.

BA/Gourmet are a pair that I've gotten for a while now and I figure they are relatively cheap, so I just keep them. I get about 2 useful recipes a magazine, so I figure from that it's worthwhile. A lot of times they don't get read from cover to cover like Saveur or Imbibe.

It seemed unclear as to which part he was talking about. That said, I offered if he was willing to do a charity for me that I'd match him dollar for dollar and he never replied, so I'll assume it's both.