apicius

When I first visited the USA in 1977 in New York I needed to order shallots 2 days in advance to cook a dinner!!! So in less than 30 years we went a long way!!!! If you take "foodies" people interested in food who cooks and patronizes restaurant I think american people are as sophisticated than french. In many case they are more open minded and know more about world food than french who know only about french food. A sign: Do you know the name of a very good restaurant in France which is not french!!! I don't!!! It is interesting to see that restaurant like Nobu in paris were not successful. Where there is abigger difference it is more in the regular people; in France they still eat well and don't eat much fast food. you also have access to more quality ingredients. Whole food,balducci or dean and deluca are still only for a group of privileged people. it is also a fact that the general us public is addicted to sugar. The consumption of sugar per capita is 4 times more important in the US that in France. With the apparition of farmer's market, cooking class,a generation of talented american chef an increasing number of good restaurant we are on our way to become a leading nation in food. I would say by 2020 we will become a gastronomique country. Like Alice Waters said something has to be done at the level of school which served terrible and unhealthy food. Food is an education and it starts at school and one of the most basic fo the human action is ignored in teaching. I go to france twice a year and I love going to see my friends; there are also things I don't like there and I am perfectly happy here. Maybe it is time for me to use my knowledge and love for food to make things better? I have the chance to have two cultures and it helps me understanding things better. I became american 10 years ago, I am proud of it and I am working in building a better american food culture.I am not here to complain about the food in america and repeat all day loong how better it is in France!!! When two chefs like Ducasse and Robuchon are opening restaurant in the USA it means that there is a sophisticated public here. If you are curious you will also see that in a book written 15 years ago Joel Robuchon is using ketchup! I use ketchup in some sauce!!!! The only thing I wish american public behave better is to honor reservations they make in restaurant.It is a problem and frustrating for us. It is a way to show that you respect a restaurant.

Dear Mike, I think it is very importatn to sear a meat before cooking it! You can sear it on top of the stove in a pan, in a boiling liquid or in avery hot oven. Why it is SO IMPORTANT? To keep the blood and the proteins inside the meat. I give you an example: what is teh difference in the recipe of a pot au feu and a beef consomme? It is exactly the same except that you put the meat in boiling water for the pot au feu ( to keep the proteins inside the meat) and for the consomme you cover with cold water so the proteins will go into the liquid. After it is seared I am for a slow and long cooking.A longer ttime of cooking break more fibers and make the meat more tender. A pork roast is better cooked at 300o than 450o. I have an exception: birds, birds need a very hot oven for the crispness of their skin. one of my former chef used to say: " I want to hear the chicken singing in the oven" A cooking class? I would love to do it, to meet people I am talking to. I think 15-18 people is fine if we have more candidate we can do two. Maybe Don can organize that?

Dear Heather, At home I just enjoy myself, I keep the experiments for work. I have a weakness for Moroccan cooking; I also love vietnamese cooking which the only natural "fusion" cooking (french and asian) I admire Picasso for his immense talent;he could draw,paint,sculpt with an equal talent.There is a painter I really like her name is Joan Mitchell. I am moved by teh painting of Claude Monet and I grew up not far from teh Marmottant museum in Paris. I love opera and classical music but I enjoy listening to U2 or miles davies as well. I would say for music what I said about food; teh style is not important but teh quality is. To my knowledge in DC in Dc only Carol Greenwood is involved in art.She is a veery talented sculptor and pottery artist. Michel Richard went to Les beaux Arts in Paris and is very talented in drawing, it also shows in his cooking.

I came to the USA to open a restaurant with Jo Baum but the life of New york was not for me. I wanted to stay in the USA and Washington was a good compromise. At that time jean-louis was here and he gave mme good informations. A chef now cannot open a restaurant and get 3 stars. Most of the 3 stars in France are either in hotel (le cinq,Ducasse) or are second or third generation of restaurateur (Troisgros, Blanc,Bocuse,Meneau etc,,,) To cook well I need to be happy and I am happy in Washington.

There was a time when I was cooking for glory ( Michelin stars) now I cook by pleasure and love; I built a loyal following and please people is very important for me. I also think the Michelin guide is very predictable (especially in New York) A restaurant like Gramercy Tavern deserved much more than a one star. It is the great example of an excellent modern restaurant. Of course I am happy I got two stars in the past but I am also happy to have found a balanced life in DC.

If someone is interested why not???

Passion fruuit and caramel is a GREAT Combination! you can even do a dry caramel and then deglaze with passion fruit juice. I like to roast Pineapple with a caramel of spices (vanilla,clove,cinammon,star anis)You need patience it roast for at least 2 1/2 hour and you need to bathe every 10mns. I love floating island and my mother used to do it a lot. I love it and I still do it sometimes for the lunch menu or for myself. Don't be shy but proud of serving it.

When I was working at Troisgros; Bernard Loiseau,Guy Savoy and me were working together. Later we were at the same time chef of respectively La barriere Pocquelin,La barriere de Clichy and la barriere vaugirard. I knew very well bernard Loiseau and my parents had a house 30 miles from his restaurant.

Dear Heather, Cooking is my passion and sometimes I like to invite a group of friends for dinner during my day off. I also like to cook for myself. I like to stay in bed and read the paper or a good book! I paint and draw for my pleasure, I take classes at the Corcoran college of art. I play golf not as much as I used to do. I love music and enjoy going to a concert. I love hiking or biking and I keep myself in very good shape; I work out almost every day. I like to go to NY for a week-end. I also work on my book talking about taste and everything which influences your taste. It is diificult to talk about other restaurant but there are places I like .There are two restaurants I think are underated in Dc : Corduroy and la Taberna della Allaberdero. If I want a very special dinner I go to Citronelle. I like the restaurant Matisse because i think it is the most beautiful restaurant in DC. 2941 is the restaurant of my sous-chef of 4 years Jonathan Krinn. I like a pizza at Pizza Paradiso; I like Palena Frank Ruta loves his job and shows it. I like Bistrot d'Oc for a simple french bistrot cooking.

I would love to do a class for people from dr.com. Chose a date!!! Saturday or sunday morning

Maybe we can organize a dinner an early sunday evening when my restaruant is closed!!! Gerard Pangaud

Try celery root with hazelnut oil, Beet with walnut oil, cook butternutsquah or sweet potatoes with citrus,turnips with butter. There are endless possibilities.

Apicius wrote the first two cookbooks 100 years BC; Some of his recipes were modernized by modern french chef like Alain Senderens. He had a very good sense of using spices. One of his two books was exclusively about sauces. I chose the name just because i like it and it is relatied to food.

I went to the Ecole Hoteliere of paris to start learning cooking; I stayed there for 3 years and I had to do 3 externship then I went to work fro several famous chef. I was influenced by my mother who was a very good cook (home) and by the brothers Troisgros in Roanne. I learnt from them to respect the ingredients and to even make it better, it probably why I have a hard time with the cooking of El Bulli in Spain which in some case transform the ingredients. I try simplify my cooking it does mean it is simple, it is like a painter who takes the uneccesary things from a master piece. They taught me the quality of execution and to be simple you have to be flawless. I sometimes say that simplicity is the ultimate for of sophistication. I never work for a female chef because in my time of apprenticeship there was almost none. I appreciate a lot women in the kitchen and I had women as sous-chef at gerard's Place. I think women are more precise and more organised than men. I think women are as capable than men to be chef and the main reason there was not much was mostly a social reason when women were staying home raising kids. Most of the work happens in the evening and it is diificult for a woman to raise a family if she has to work 5 or 6 nights a week. I amire Alice Waters as a chef but also for her influence on american cooking, I had a great diinner at bayona with chef Susan Spicer; in a more casual setting Ann Cashion is a very good chef.The chef at Enottecca Pinchiorri the 3 star Michelin outside of Florence is a woman. Yelling in the kitchen: There is two Gerard Pangaud; I am a recovering alcoholic sober since 9 years and the time I was drinking I was not a very nice man in the kitchen. I am sorry and and I have a lot of regret about it. Since I am sober I became not quite a pussy cat but a much nicer person. I am going to make an a comparaison: I have a lot of friends who are very nice but when they start to drive they become aggressive and verbally abusive; I would compare cooking in a professional kitchen to drive. Did I answer all your questions? I will just add one thing: One of the sexiest thing for me is a woman cooking for me.

I really enjoy your question and it si one of my favorite subject!! When we speak about globalisation of the world it also affects food! First in France 200 years ago you had a regional cooking, the food was very diiferent from Alsace to Provence or from Brittany to basque country with the development of transportation we saw the creation of a national french cooking. Now the best french chef in america is american (Thomas Keller) Michel Richard who is french is opening an american brasserie in Dc this year. When I taste the food of Thomas Keller,Charlie Trotter or David Bouley I sincerely think that it si french food. French food using american ingredients ( like I do) It is true that the food critics and a part of the public is more interested by what is new more than what is good; and not only about food. El Bulli in Spain is praised mostly by food critics less by regualr customers. It is always dangerous to bring too much science to an art. I believe more in execution than anything else anfd before Picasso made his master pieces he learnt to be one of the best drawer of all time. I cook lobster with ginger since 25 years, serve a coffee sauce with duck since 20 years, finish my venaison sauce with chocolate,serve avocados sauce with a chocolate sauce and people say he cooks "classic french"!!!! For a while I voluntarily kept a more conservative menu, I started in the last few months to be more innovative, it is more fun for me and I also think now there are more people interested in DC. You have to know that the two most poular dishes on saturday night are green sald and salmon!!! To be honest I did not see anything new in DC since1991 ( date I arrived here); What we have is a bigger choice of different cooking. French cooking is separate in two the home cooking (bourgeoise,bistrot) and gastronomique. The biggest problem of french gastronomique cooking is the fact that it is very expensive:you need skilled employee ( and a lot of them)and expensive ingredients. It is more and more supported by hotels (Citronnelle,City Zen,Maestro which is italian with afrench accent). I am able to do what I do because it is small and I work myself in the kitchen, I am more of a cooking chef than an executive chef. We will still have french gastronimique restaurant in the future but less and more expensive ( they are alredy very expensive). Like my mentor Jean Troisgros used to say there is only two kind of cooking: The good one and the bad one.

Dear Barbara, Yes it is messy to make duck confit but it is worth making it! Like a lot of food preparation (smoked salmon,prosciutto) it was first a way to preserve meat before the invention of the refrigeration. We render our fat from cleaning the duck breast of legs and we can use it several time. First you need to use mullard duck ( the one producing the Foie Gras) and you put rock salt on both side of the legs, some cracked pepper, few crashed garlic cloves and few sprigs of thyme. You keep it 24 hours in the fridge. Then you clean each leg with a paper towel. you melt the fat and put the legs in it and put in an oven at 250-300 for several hours (between3 and 4) when the legs are tender put in a terrine and cover with the fat. it id better if you wait one week and if it is very well covered you can keep your legs for several months.

Dear Chris, All the preparation are made with roasted beets. In the case of my plate fourways I have 4 preparations: A salad with shallots,home made vinegar,olive oil and chives. A Carpaccio of golden beets with a passion fruit dressing and olive oil ( feel that the passion fruit brings a more settle acidity that the lemon or vinegar) A mousse which i finish with a hazelnut oil. A napoleon of slices of beets and a mousse of goat cheese with walnuts. I make a decoration of beet oil and chive oil. I am willing to send you all the recipes if you want. GP

Interestingly most of the people think it is more difficult to cook in winter than other seasons.First because it is cold and we have more appetite and also more time ( we don't do as many things outside). During a recent cooking class I taught, we made an inventory of winter vegetables and we found more than in the summer. There are a lot of options: Celery root, rutabagas,butternutsquash,salsyfys,endive,black raddish,turnips, in fact most of teh root vegetables. It is also the season of the king of vegetables: Truffles. It is also the season of stew,braised dish,soup;It is the seaqson of chocolate and caramel dessert. In fact i think it is easier to cook in winter than in summer.

The problem for duck is not really the way you cook it but the quality of it! In fact duck has a very lean meat, the skin is fat! you can perfectly cook it and eat only the meat and discard the fat. I suggest thast you cook the duck in a very hot oven (450O) it sears well and also the fat will drain faster. you also have the solution to use wild duck(mallard duck) it is more gamy but leaner. If you need more information I will be please to answer it.

We unfortunately live in a world were people have less and less manners. It is not too much a problem to have people showing up without a reservation, it is a bigger one to have people making reservations and not showing up!!!! In my restaurant we can estimate at 15% the number of No Show!!!! It is a lot! If everybody would show up no restaurant would overbook!The service would go smoothly and it would be a win-win situation! One of the most common "bad manner" is the "large table syndrome", it happens every week! Let's take a table of eight people at 7pm; the first couple arrive at 7pm, the next one at 7.05 then we wait for the 3rd one around 7.30pm, usually the last one had a problem of either car or baby sitter and arrived at 8pm. They made their friends waiting for them for one hour!!!! It why in most restaruant with a bar they seat you only when the table is complete! I cantell you more about the bad behavior of customers but it is a two way street and sometimes we have to control the bad behavior of our staff!