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apicius

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Everything posted by apicius

  1. apicius
    All the taste are in the nature and one of the quality I find in Mark's bread is to be crusty. Maybe it is because I am French and we love crusty bread in France. I don't like very soft bread I also think the difference of texture between the crust and the inside makes a bread more interesting. It is simply my opinion.
  2. apicius
    Cleveland Park is simply not a very good location for an upscale restaurant. It is too far from Downtown with business account and the people living in Cleveland Park are not the same age group that 14th st or Pen n quarter and have a tendency to eat out only on week-ends. Simpler eatery are doing OK for more sophisticated restaurant you need to go downtown.
  3. apicius
    I am reorganizing the Malmaison restaurant and I will be the chef from now on, we are open only four nights a week Wednesday through Saturday and I will do a price fixe menu with choices like Obelisk does. It will change every week. We will do the corkage free evening on Wednesday. I am happy to come back to cooking. Here is the menu for the first week. Price : 4 courses $55, 3 courses $45 Course 1 Asparagus, Baby arugula, Parmesan cookie emulsion of Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar Or Spring fava Beans Soup with Lemon Thyme, served with Roasted Garlic Toast. Course 2 Seafood Sausage with a Shellfish coulis, Ragout of Sauteed Spinach Or Flan of Wild Mushrooms with Watercress Sauce Or Spring Risotto with Spinach, Fava beans, Peas and Fried Artichokes Course 3 Alaskan Halibut with Fresh morels, potato Gnocchi and Watercress Puree Or Breast of Duck with Cherries, Shepper'd Pie of Duck Confit and Sauteed Spinach Or Open Raviolo of Spring Vegetables, Artichokes and Preserved Tomato Course 4 Mango Tart Tatin with Passion Fruit Sauce Or Vanilla Crème Brulee Or Warm Valrhona Chocolate Cake with Pistachio Ice-cream
  4. apicius
    I am working for the Popal family and I work Monday and Friday evening at Malmaison and Thursday at Napoleon in Adams Morgan. On Monday you can bring your own wine without any corkage fee like I used to do at Gerard's Place. I can prepare you a menu you like. I never lost my passion for cooking but I lost any interest in running a restaurant, it was time for me to have a life and yes sobriety makes me a wiser person. I don't try to reinvent the wheel here but to cook very good food. Like my mentor Jean Troisgros used to say: If you buy a good product, cook it well and season it perfectly you are already a great chef. We are in a world where people are more interested in what's new more than what's good, people never ask me for a good restaruant but a new one. I would be more than happy to cook for you at a reasonable price, food does not need to be expensive to be good.
  5. apicius
    I live around the corner of Slate and I went to visit Satruday a week ago. First for a wine bistrot I would say that the price of ythe wine by the glass is prohibitive. My wife got a glass of Bourgogne Blanc Bzikot for 15 dollars !!!!! three days later she get a (larger) glass at Central of exactly the same wine for 12 dollars.The pricing by the glass is really expensive and they need one or two wines really unexpensive. There is no problem to charge 15 dollars for a hamburger if you get a fresh organic ground meat, not if you use a frozen angus burger which I ordered medium rare and I got medium well (when you use frozen burger you cannot make them MR) so I got a very pedestrian (at best) burger. Theycharge $9 for an ordianry bowl of soup and $11 for a pear salad with 2 slices of pears and very small pieces of garnishes. Everything is overpriced for the quality of what is served so they should lower the price or make the recipe better and more appealing (the pear and goat cheese salad was not very good with so much arugula), I was served by accident pure balsamic vinegar instead of balsamic dressing. People are nice, friendly but they should be aware that there is competition out there and so far their value is not very good.
  6. apicius
    Do you need to be an ipscale restaurnt to get three stars? it is a 3 stars restaurant; neighborhood venue don't pour wine by teh glass at the table after giving you a taste. The food is really outstanding.
  7. apicius
    On Saturday night I went for dinner at Farah Olivia with a group of friends and I did not taste the food of Morou in a while. I was pleasantly surpriised. Very good food, good product and all the temperature were closed to perfection. I had a white tuna appetizer and a salmon tandoori which was one of the best salmon I had in a long time. The food is as pleasant to teh eyes than teh palate. This is a discreet and talented chef and I encourage everybody here to try Farah Olivia. I will go back pretty soon. in addition you have a free public parking next door which is rare those days.
  8. apicius
    People outside of DC knows as much about food as in DC; the difference most of them do not go out during the week and there is no "visitors" to fill the restaurants.
  9. apicius
    I did not close my restaurant, it was doing fine till I left; I chose to have a life and to leave the restaurant business. My ex wife was running it the last two years.
  10. apicius
    The Armstrong had to have two different restaruants in the same building and the fine dining is smaller than the casual ones. L'auberge chez francois is less and less busy since ten years. Now it is a casual restaurant.
  11. apicius
    The only high end restaurant succeeding in the DC suburbs are steak house. One of the problem of sophisticated fine dining outside of the city is the life style of people living around; they do not go out during the week and you don't have the high revenue single crowd you find in town. You also have less lobbyists. People in the suburbs are going out only on Friday and Saturday because they get up early during the week. and you cannot have a successful restaurant based on two days. There is not attraction like theaters, Verizon center or so on. All high end restaurants failed in Bethesda as well. The only exception is 2941 where the owner owns the building and could afford for 2 or 3 years to lose money. Few people can do that. If Marriott at the Ritz-Carlton were looking to rent the space and not operating it there is a good reason. They lost a lot of money with Maestro; I went to Maestro a Wednesday night there was exactly 23 people. To have a great restaurant in the suburbs you need someone with deep pocket who can afford to lose money for several years, I don't know any candidates.
  12. apicius
    You can add the well-known chef asking their kitchen staff to work 50 or 60 hours and clock only 40 hours!!! There are quite a lot of those. I was not easy in the kitchen but I always paid my employees what they worked for.
  13. apicius
    I tasted Moorenko's Ice-cream with a group of friend and we were disappointed. I prefer dense old fashion ice-cream to a aerated ice-cream (the weight of Moorenko's ice cream is roughly 1/3 less than other ice-cream) and I feel we don't reach the density of taste we do in a unaerated ice-cream; a good idea is to try different vanilla ice-cream. I don't say it is bad but I would say it is not my taste and my idea of an ice-cream.
  14. apicius
    I live 5 minutes walking and I don't know when it is going to reopen. I just hope the food will be better than before !! went there twice for dinner a year ago; One experience was really not good and the other one just below average. I am craving for a good restaurant next to home; I had hope for Blue Ridge but a pretentious not well executed menu ruined it. Maybe the new formula will be better.
  15. apicius
    I went to Trummers last night for the first time (living in the district makes the trip difficult during the week) and like the review before me it was a mixed experience. After we sat down I asked for the wine list and ordered a bottle of Champagne which stays in ice next to our table for a while before we asked to be served (the waiter said it needed to chill) The Champagne was on ice without water then the waiter served my make friend before the two ladys!!! he also poured the champagne to the top of the glass. Then we sere served the (underbaked) bread which had almost no color. We got our appetizers which were good but not great.The best being a main course scallops dish that we split, it says U8 on the menu but last night it was not U8, they were too small for that. For main course we had two snappers which were excellent (the fish was a little overcooked) a pork which was good and I had the lamb which was served not lukewarm but cold. The garnish looked like it came from the refrigerator; I even asked my friend to taste the vegetables. The waiter did a good job and took the plate back and the manager came to apologize; I understand that a problem can happen. My comment overall is the lack of vegetables on the main courses. there are side dishes but we are not in a steak house and the dishes should have a better balance.I had a big piece of lamb and few parisienne balls of vegetables. The dessert were disappointing and with a recurring of chopped garnish or powdered garnish, the portion of ice-cream are really small!!!! I hope the management read this review, it is intended for them to improve and becoming better; I am sure they can. At this point they are good but not worth the trip from the district with more attention to details maybe they will in the future. BY the way I had a good time, I understand how difficult it is to run a restaurant.
  16. apicius
    I had dinner last Monday and I thought it was the best bistrot food in the city with Central. Everything is good quality and well prepared. The French fries are great, the profiterolles are perfect, the mussels great and the beet salad perfectly seasoned. I was looking for a regular spot not far from my house, I just found it.
  17. apicius
    Jonathan worked for me for several years and even we had our differences in the last few years I feel really sad about the closing of his restaurant; I am sure they put a lot of effort and money in this venture. I am sure in the future he will rebound from it.
  18. apicius
    Saturday night my wife and I had dinner at the Jockey-club and we had a pleasant surprise. A beautiful and elegant restaruant where the noise level is good and also a great dinner. My wife had a simple endives salad and a sea bass and I had a crab salad with a very interesting granny smith aspic then a pork chop perfectly prepared. I was less thrilled by the dessert but I was told taht a new pastry chef started 2 weeks ago. I would say that the first two courses were among the best I tasted in the last few years in DC. Now I cannot wait to go back when the new dessert list will be in service.
  19. apicius
    I really like the restaurant and the food nonetheless I probably won't go back because the music is so loud that we feel more in a disco than a very nice restaurant. My best friend stopped going for the same reason and he loves the food. You can have a more loud music at the bar but in the dining room I am missing the point. I go to a place to talk and to relax. It is a constructive criticism because the experience was pretty good. Too bad.
  20. apicius
    it is one of my favorite restaurant in DC. I went there several time and each time I get salads which are perfectly seaoned and small plate which shows a lot of attention and talent. The dessert are beautiful. It is agreat concept and the execution in the kitchen is great. Foe me one of the greatest quality of arestaurant is consistency and Coco Sla is one of the few consistent restaruant in Washington DC . GREAT JOB
  21. apicius
    The salmon tartare has ginger,lemon grass and lime. The halibut has a Malaysian influence. You probably have 7 or 8 dishes with Asian influence and some sauces which goes with the steak as well. Try you will not be disappointed.
  22. apicius
    Last night, I went for dinner at J&G and it was a great experience. The dining-room is elegant but at the same time casual and also has a perfect sound level. Enough to feel in a public place but also you can have a conversation. The menu is much more than a steak house with Asian influence and the salmon tartare is one of the best appetizer I had in a while followed closely with Shrimp wrapped in bacon. The halibut is great with a spicy sauce and my wife had the BBQ lamb chops. It was almost full on Monday because the food is good but also the pricing is very reasonable. Except the Foie gras (19$) all he appetizers are under 14 dollars, the fish entrees are between 22 and 26 $, the hanger steack is 22. There is a big choice of wine by the glass at reasonable price and the service is smiling and efficient. It is refreshing to see a steak house which is not overpriced with an innovative and clearly very good cooking. My wife and I will go back there soon.
  23. apicius
    I have the chance to work 5 minutes from the general store and I feel lucky! The sandwiches for lunch are exquisite, made to order with very fresh ingredients. The fried chicken is one of the best in the Washington area. I also love the selection of sodas. Maybe some people don't understand that a simple food very well prepared with good ingredients is what food is all about. The ones who don't understand are probably the same ones who think Mini-Bar has a great food. I will keep going for my lunch and I was happy to notice that there are more and more people. So they must do something right!!!!! Congratulations!!!!!
  24. apicius
    This is a subject I love. My father was from Limousin (Limoges area) and my grand-mother was an expert in clafoutis and she would be horrified if you pit the cherries It takes a lot from the taste. In the real world of restaurant we pit them so we don't have to face law suit of people who need a complete dental work. At home I never pit them and I also try to use small black cherries.
  25. apicius
    No to make good macarons you don't make a meringue. You mix the confection sugar with the almond flour, you have to be sure that they are well sifted before. Then you whip your egg whites not too hard. You had the egg whites to the sugar-almond powder mix 1/3 by 1/3, the first 1/3 is to lighten the preparation. It is a kind of meringue if you want but with less egg whites and more sugar with almond powder. Then you pipe the macarons on a parchment paper. The temperature depends of the size of the macarons but you need a hot oven first. then you lower the oven. It seems simple but you need to see it done.
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