apicius

If you want to learn to make the same macarons as Laduree I would be please to teach you (for free).

I love macarons and I often make them for myself.

It is in fact very simple.

Two keys for the success; don't whip too much the egg whites and an accurate electric oven.

The reason for the price of macarons in a store is teh fact that only 2/3 are good enough to be sold.Even made by an expert.

At home even if they are not perfect they taste as good.

I never been to Inox and I will not judge the restaurant by itself but I would like to bring several points:

First: two and a half stars is not a bad review and in fact it is a good one.

Second: both publications gave the same rating!!!!!! I would understand if some people are upset at one reviewer but both had the same evaluation of the place.

I will add that among my friends there was different opinions about the level of Inox and we make a poll of let's say 10 different people who have been there we are close to a 2 1/2 stars rating.Some raved about it and some were not very enthusiastic.

Third:For many years the Post was criticized for not giving any ratings in their restaurant review, now they get criticized for giving one; the review is more important and people should take time to read it and see the positive side of it.

Fourth: Consistency is one of the top quality of a restaurant; Usually a guide or a reviewer gives a lower rating and wait to see if the restaurant is consistent and improves.

For instance the Washingtonian never gave four stars at the opening of a restaurant.

So be patient if Inox is good and consistent they will get the stars.

For the one interested I am teaching at culinaerie.

I have generic classes and some evening I demonstrate my specialties.

I also will oragnize some chefs table where you eat and see how the food is prepared.

It is more interesting to find great wine which have a great value than keep buying well-known (from everybody) expensive wines.

I am sure Mark will have at least more pleasure to find those wines .

Maybe he got tired of the wine's snob?

I am Gerard and I want to clarify some points:

I already changed the menu and we are doing a smooth transition for several reasons.

The building is being sold and the landlord delayed the release of the funds agreed upon the extension of the lease. So the the construction is delayed.

The canopy is ordered and the restaurant will be named Gerard Pangaud Bistro not Adeline.

This week I am in vacation from the school and I am training people.

I will be at the restaurant on a regular base especially for dinner.

The price of he entrees is between 18 and 28 dollars.

I kept the Foie Gras on the menu (it is bistro food look at l'Amis Louis)

It is my food, the food I love and I cook at home and my mother was cooking when I grew up.Just using good ingredients and cook them well.

If you are looking for very imaginative and sophisticated you will be disappointed if you are looking for good and REAL food you will enjoy your experience.

So in many ways it is open and I want a smooth period where my staff is adjusting.

I hope to see you soon all of you.

Gerard

It is interesting for me to read the comment on some restaurants and I see that the way people are eating changed a lot in the last ten years.

Reading the comment of PS7 I see only comment about the bar and teh bar food, not much about his restaurant, the same way that it seems that the only food prepared by Frank Ruta at Palena is roasted chicken.

There are numerous other examples.

More and more restaurant are doing it including the best ones (CitronelleCityZen).

It is difficult to have a "classic" restaruant in DC you need either a bar or a privcate dining-room to make your operation profitable.

The casual dining and small plates is growing, the old fashioned dining is not dying but changing.

What do you think?

Last night I went for dinner at Citronnelle where I did not go for at least 2 years!

I always loved the restaurant and I always admired Michel Richard but yesterday I saw that Michel reached the pinnacle of the profession.

It relatively easy to be very good but it is very difficult to be great and it needs a lot of talent,work and passion to reach this level.

It was a perfection of cooking and seasoning!

I would say after having eaten in all the 3 michelin stars in the last 20 years that this dinner will be among the top ten best dinners I ever had.

The brillance of the innovations using fundamental techniques makes me think of Picasso!

The quality and efficiency of the service makes Citronnelle as good as any great restaurants in the world.

Thank you Michel to give us so much pleasure!!!!

Gerard Pangaud

(Still a chef but no longer a restaurateur.)

Looks like the website for Gerard's Place is no longer around.  That one was beyond belief-- there was a big picture of a hot dog on it (?!?).

I never had a website!!!!

It is under construction!!!

I try to be at my restaurant most of the time and in fact I am most of the time.

We are opened 5 lunches and 6 nights a week and it represents a certain number of hours.

Some times you get sick ( I have a ear infection),you do a charity event or you have vacation.For economical reason I cannot afford to close my restaurant for several weeks.

What I know is the fact that even when I am in my kitchen I don't cook everything;but it is true that being around I can check everything coming out of the kitchen.

We are like a conductor be sure that the music is played well.

I agree it si our duty to be in the kitchen or our restaurant but sometimes (rarely) we cannot be present.

I don't pretend to be in my restaurant every night but I am there at least 5 nights out of 6 and all lunches.

Sometimes when I go in the dining room people ask me for a cup of coffee,more bread or the check!!!

If I could I would close the weekend and have a normal life; I can't but I do my best to respect my customes.

Gerard pangaud

To Everybody,

I want to thank everybody about this chat, I had a great time and I will be participate to this website.

Feel free to ask m any questions you want in the future.

Gerard

Oh-Oh, be careful what you say on this board. I would love to take you up on this offer!

Edited to add this:

So as long as a Foie is large and blemish free, it would be the same as a US Grade A?

What a differance in price between here and France!

Raisa

I would say it is 30 to 40 % less expensive in France.

Chef Pangaud-- thank you for taking the time to "speak" with us, and I look forward to perhaps getting into one of your cooking classes.

Have you ever had the roast chicken at Palena? A few of us are trying to decode Chef Ruta's recipe, so I was wondering if you might have any input on how we might best replicate this amazing dish at home. If you haven't tried it, perhaps you could share a roasted chicken recipe of your own with us?

There is a thread devoted to this recipe:

The Palena Chicken Project

Thank you,

Mike O.

Chef Ruta is a wonderful chef especially for home made cooking.

I don't know how he does his chicken but I will go to taste it.

Here is the way I would do mine.

You need a very hot oven 450o; one of my former chef used to say I want to hear the chicken singing in the oven.

I will put inside the chicken a head of garlic cut in two, 2 or 3 sprigs of thyme, salt and pepper.I will brush my chicken with butter and UI will bathe it every 5 mns while cooking so the skin is very crispy and golden!!!

It is the way I do it.

I hope you like it.

Don's question about Foie Gras is close to mine. How thick and how long should you slice andcook it so it doesn't melt away? I find I lose more than half of my foie gras when I cook it.

BTW, I bring mine in from France and it doesn't have a grade on it? Is this correct?

The foie gras here are as good as in France.

For cooking read the answer I made to DON.

Chef, I'd like to get one more question in if I may (if anyone else has any, please feel free to chime in now as well!)

I've often thought you're somehow able to make sauteed foie gras better than just about everyone.  (As an aside, I had a piece masterminded by Nathan Anda at Tallula last weekend that blew me away.) 

Where do you source your foie gras?  What exactly is the definition of "Grade A?"  And how do you make it so consistently good?  Is there some hidden trick that you learned under Troisgros?

Also, when's the last time you've made a mango tarte tatin?

Thank you again for doing this chat - based on the amount and content of feedback I've gotten from people, you've won the hearts of everyone here.

Cheers Gerard!

Rocks

I buy Foie Gras from D'artagnan the Hudson valley Foie Gras.

I buy exclusively grade A.

You have 3 grades A,B and C, this is an american classification we don't have that in france.

A is the best it is big, not bruised with very few nerves.B is usually smaller with some bruises and more nerves.C is exclusiviely to make some mousse.

My secret?

I don't think it is a secret but it is in the execution!

A very hot (fuming) pan no fat, notjing in the pan.It makes you sear the foie gras;so the fat stay inside.If is color too fast slow down but don't cook more than 45 seconds on each side. You don't cook the Fopie gras you warm it!!!

It is EXTREMELY important to cut teh foie gras 1/3 of an inch (1cm) if it is too thin it dries out and lose all the fat, if it is too thick you lose teh balance between teh crisp part of the foie gras and the inside.

Also you need to cook it more and lose more.

If interested anyone can swing by my restaraunt and I will show you.

Chef,

Do you still allow your customers to bring their own wines for a corkage fee?  I know you used to (by the way, Per Se charges SEVENTY-FIVE-DOLLARS PER BOTTLE!), but I called a couple of months ago and a gentleman told me you no longer do.  What are your feelings towards this in general?

Thanks so much for all the wonderful answers so far!

This a touchy subject!

No we never charged 75 usd but 45 dollars.

Some restaurateur started to be annoyed about the corkage fee situation.

I used to allow people to bring their own wine on monday night and it was a success and fun for a while then people started to be very demanding!

I have Riedel glasses that we wash by hands; I remember the last two mondays of the free corkage fee where we had one day a table of 6 with 6 bottles of wine and the following monday a table of 8 with 9 bottles of wine. Those people made a big scandal because I did not want to provide those glasses.

The same people expect an impeccable wine service for 9 wines X 8= 72 glasses and it requires almost a waiter which is usually not tip on the wines brought.

I also got tired of people going to buy wine to the liquor store next door and coming to my restaurant.

If people bring a nice bottle of wine I have no problem with it, if they order a bottle of wine from the list I don't even charge for a corkage fee.

The budget of a restaurant depends on the sale of food and wine, it is the risky and difficult business( the highest rate of bankrupcy in any business in the USA)

I think corkage fee should be adjusted and calculated on the average sale of a bottle of wine.

If I charge 15 or 20$ or corkage I am losing money on a potential sale.

Some restaurant like Citronelle refuses to allow people bringing their own wine, we allow it on case by case because too many people abused the system.

Yes I had people who brought a White Zinfandel!!!!!!!!

I am accomodating and nice I just don't want that people takes advantage of me.

I buy an average 1000 glasses a year.

There is a liability issue as well, I pay 1000 dollars a month of insurance in case someone who drank too much in my restaurant has an accident.

If it is a legitimate special or old bottle of wine I understand and I am very cooperative but if it si only a way for some customer to buy a regular wine and pay less in a restaurant it is not fair!

For you information at Gerard's Place I have 2000 sq Ft and I pay close to 80 000 dollars a year of rent.

I hope nobody is offended I just try to be fair here.

Chef Pangaud, thanks for doing this chat!  What advice would you give to somebody just starting out in professional cooking?  Do you feel that stages are worthwhile for the new cook and aspiring chef?  How about travel and work in France?  Is there still value in that, or is it an outdated practice?

Thanks!

Yes you should go to France.

To see the techniques, the variety of ingredients,the lifestyle of people, the amazing different style of cooking in a small country like France.

You drive 200 miles you are in Burgundy, 100 miles further you are in Lyon tehn 200 more miles you are in Provence!!!!

It would help you to understand better cooking in the future.

Chef Pangaud,

In France your style of cooking would be considered Haute Cuisine along with those of Guy Savoy, Marc Meneau, etc...

But in the past 15  years or so, Paris has seen many sous chefs leave the Michelin race and start their own Gastro-Bistros,starting with Yves Camdeborde, Thierry Breton, Thierry Faucher etc. Now their sous chefs are starting their own bistros (namely Yves Camdebordes').

Why is it (in your opinion), that we do not have in our country the true bistro style without the Haute Cuisine Prices?  (Even though our prices are substantially lower than a similar restos in France for the higher cuisine such as yours) Are chefs afraid to experiment? (I do not mean you of course, but newer chefs, starting out).

Thank you for all your responses.

The main reasons that we don't have too many good simple restaurant is the cost of teh rent.

Rent are much cheaper in Europe, the labor is cheaper as well(it is less true now)

Also in Washington we have a unique situation for a reasonable price restaurant.

It has to be a neighboroughed restaurant where unfortunately you don't ahve much lunch business.

The rent downtown are too expensive and people would probably not go downtown for dinner.

So you have to make your money on one service.

Except friday and saturday you cannot expect too much business after 8pm.

So it is difficult.

Chef Pangaud,

Many thanks for joining us; your thoughts in this thread--especially on the culinary/cultural differences between France and America--have made interesting reading.

My question is about sauces and their current role in French haute cuisine. The prevailing wisdom seems to be that the old esteemed role of the saucier in the kitchen has faded, that the best chefs no longer use the traditional sauces, and that things like espagnole, velouté and demi-glace have been replaced by pan reductions, essences, "foams" and other lighter concoctions. While I know this to be true to some extent, how do you see this development? Has traditional sauce-making become a purely academic exercise taught in the cooking schools, never to be repeated in a chef's career? Do you know any top-flight chefs who adhere to the old sauce-making traditions?

Again many thanks for your time here.

When I go to serious restaurant or read cookbook from good chef I see taht we still have sauces in french cooking!!!

Robuchon,Ducasse,Meneau,Gagnaie are all making sauces.

With an evolution for sureThey adapt to the modern life!

When I go in a restaurant now waiters are aoplogizing for a cream sauce and say it is a "light cream sauce".

I want a real cream sauce, I want a real icecream even I eat less often of those.

They are different more a jus than a thick sauce they are also shorter.

In fact I see even more sauce in american cooking where a lot of chef are abusing "beurre blanc".

To make my cook understanding the amount of sauce or spices ( I have a hard time to restrain their enthusiasm with safron!!!) I say that the sauce is like the dress of a woman, it should be fit the right way and spices are the make up, you don't want to put too much.

There is an evolution but like music cooking does not forget its tradition.

Chef, thank you for taking our questions. This has been a very informative discussion so far.

What do you think is the most important skill for a home cook? Knife skills, or the ability to identify good ingredients, or something else? Does it differ from the most important skill for a restaurant chef? Do you think that anyone can learn to make delicious food or that some inborn talent is required?

Dear Jael,

I think the most important thing for a home cook is to follow your instinct and taste.

I see too many amateur cook "obsessed" with recipe!

Try to cook with emotion and just look at recipe for guideline.

If there is no snapper use seabass, no basil use tarragon, no fennel use celery.

To cook professionnally is a little the same teh difference is to manage a kitchen.

My mom never used a cookbook and was a great cook.

Don't chose a menu looking at nice pictures on a cookbook, chose your menu in finding the best ingredients available.

Chef Pangaud,

Your answer on what your best dish is, for lack of a better word, excites me. I believe the best dishes are the simplest, with not too many tastes involved! I look forward to trying your scallops! Your restaurant was the first "fancy restaurant" I tried as a newlywed, when we could only afford to go out like that once a year.  I am sad to say I have not been there in quite a few years.

My question is: learning to combine foods for the simplest but coordinating tastes, is that something you learned, or does it just come natural? Is it something I can learn?

I have a very old copy of Escoffier's book and will look through for more inspiration!

Je vous remercie, ceci est un discours très éclairant!

Thank you for your comment.

To understand teh combination and coordination of taste I am going to give you an example:

In painting you have 3 major colours blue, red and yellow and when you combine them you produce more colours.

in cooking it is the same:

You have four major taste: sweetness,saltness,acidity and bitterness.

You need to learn few bases.

In fact I am writing a book about taste and combination.

I talk about everything influencing your taste: mood colour,upbringing,age,gender,race,religion,lifestyle,temperature.

Combining different taste you are changing it! for instance a dessert wine seems very sweet but is light if it has a lot of acidity.

Chef,

One of the many things that made the Troigros brothers exceptional was that they were three star chefs that cooked themselves with a relatively tiny brigade of cooks as opposed to acting as expeditors for a large brigade of cooks.

What does the structure of your kitchen staff look like?

What are your thoughts on the chef as cook v. chef as expeditor?

Dear Joe,

You are right we were only around 12 at troisgros for 7 days a week of operation.

I have only 4 cooks and I cook myself; in fact I am the "tournant"

I enjoy cooking.

You've got a lot of heads nodding in agreement with this.  Is this not a problem in France?

I don't know if you remember but there was a time when top restaurant in france were not taking reservations from american.

To my knowledge it is not as bad as here.

When i was in France I did not ahve the problems except........

Chef, thank you very much for taking the time to visit. Your answers are very witty and make lots of sense!

Here is my question, I threw it out before and it still stands in my mind.  Like you, I grew up in Europe, and I'm sure you know that putting down American cooking, restaurants and cuisine is as customary among Europeans as wearing black on a Saturday night Every time I go back to visit, I have to hear about how Americans don't understand food, eat and cook lousy, and on and on.  But whenever I want to defend the dining scene and food here, which I think is wonderful, creative, diverse and improving every single day, I get stumped for words.

"So what IS your so-called American cuisine?", my fashionable friends across the pond will inquire, squinting their eyes at me, as if I was a retarded child to be pitied.  "Are you telling me you are calling a hamburger "food"? That's not food. What do you people eat there? Steaks? Some gastronomie. "

So I wonder how you would a) describe the concept of American cuisine, and explain how the U.S. dining scene stacks up to European standards? How is it different? How is it the same? Just would really, really love to hear your perspective as a European working in the U.S. 

Thank you! I cannot wait to eat at your restaurant.

A lot of European are ignorant and judge America through Hamburger!

It is true that most hamburgers we can buy are not very good but it could be also very good! ( I make one and I chnge the bread with head of porcini)

Tell your french friend that "croque-monsieur" is exactly like a hamburger: two pieces of bread with meat (ham) and chesse in the middle.

Ask them about softshell crab!!!! corn! tomatoes ( they are better here)

Thomas jefferson was a great american and a gourmet!!!

We are a new country and there was other priority before making this nation a "food" nation now that we have money,knowledge and interest

we are going to build our own identity.

Befoe we had exclusively great european chefs,now we have great american chef cooking french (Keller,Trotter) the next step is great american chefs cooking with american ingredients and revisiting what was done in the past!

Remember fashion; 30 years ago it was a french italian monopoly, now we have Donna Karan,Calvin Klein,Ralph lauren,Isaac Mizhrai.

I used to be avery good golfer and I used to say:

It is not because you are french that you cook well and it is not because you are american that you play well.

We live in a world where there is a lot of information and we have a lot of people of passion in this country to build a real "school' of american cooking.

I wonder if you have seen the exhibition currently at the National Gallery of paintings by the seventeenth century Dutch master Pieter Claesz? His most important subject is food and the pleasures of the table. The oysters are glistening with brine, the fruits are succulent, the wine goblets sparkle and glow, and you can almost smell the herring and the cheese. The skill of this man absolutely takes your breath away and he obviously had a passion for food. Every food lover who is interested in art will appreciate this show.

Yes I did and i really enjoyed it!

Thank you for mentionning it!

GP

Chef;

What's the best dish you've ever had, and if not from your hand, what's the best dish you've created?

Do you see a danger in the avant-garde, that young chefs learn to make red wine air before fond de veau?

Thanks for your time, I look forward to seeing you soon.

The best dish I ever had?

Sometimes it is related to a very emotional event.

I waited two years before being hired by Troisgros and my father drove ne there and we had dinner.

We hate a hare saddle with a peppercorn sauce!! it was so well balanced, it is like I still have the taste in my mouth.

My best dish:

Scallops with parsley mousse, it looks great, seems sophisticated but it is only 3 ingredients:Scallops,butter and parsley!!!! ( salt,pepper and lemon juice)

I love the purity of this dish.

My cooking is based on the balance of the four major taste which interfere at different part of your mouth.

Here I use the sweetness of the scallops,the bitterness of the parsley,Saltness of the salt and acidity of the lemon juice.

Provocation is part of every art and cooking is not different of others.

We have a chef in town ( who is very talented) amnd I think is making the mistake to "clone" the food of El Bulli; he should find his own way.

There is one thing I am proud is the fact that I have a "style" of cooking like Michel Richard has one and Jean-louis before.It is very difficult to have your own style.

Young chefs don't want to spend the time to learn the basic and it is why so many are inconsistent.

I have great hope with jonathan Krynn, he spend 4 years with me and he learnt all the basic; he has the talent to be the best chef in DC.

Last year I cook a Pheasant with green tea,orange juice,walnuts and carrots.

it seems very new? no it is the a recipe you find in Escoffier book.

So learn the technique and tehn do what you want.