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			Playa Minitas, Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic

	22 April 2007 Casa de Campo Dominican Republic For years, thinking this resort had no beach, I had passed it over. But, searching recently for a quick family getaway for myself, my daughter, her husband, and my grandchild, I decided to take another look. I am glad I did. We have always managed to eat well in the Caribbean by adhering to one simple rule: Never eat in the hotel restaurant(s). Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic has a host of restaurants (a sports bar, a Mexican joint, a place purportedly serving Chinese food, a requisite pizzaria, etc.), none of which appealed to us—except one, El Pescador.


	Recent Posts 11 October 2006 The discussion following Meg Hourihan's megnut.com post in response to Pete Wells' article New Era of the Recipe Burglar in Food&Wine, November 2006, includes an interesting comment by Anthony Bourdain. Shaw's comments reflect a shocking degree of self-importance and detachment from the real world of cooking. -- says bourdain on 10/11/06 at 9:05 AM. The NY Times has forgotten la Mère Brazier again as they credit Thomas Keller as the second chef to to achieve three stars for two separate restaurants. NJ State Assemblyman, Michael Panter, proposes introduction of a bill to ban the distribution and sale of foie gras in New Jersey. Comments on Bill Buford's Notes of a Gastronome, in the 2006-10-02 issue of The New Yorker. The University of Bread. The fall schedule for Jim Lahey's baking classes at Sullivan St Bakery. Gramercy Tavern's new Executive Chef will be Michael Anthony, formerly Executive Chef of Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Les Galettes Cancalaises d'Olivier Roellinger. Breton butter cookies from Brittany's most respected chef. InTent. Our initial impressions were quite favorable. It's clear we will return and will be bringing friends. Foie Gras Redux. Response to Jeffrey Steingarten's excellent article, stuffed animals. Signs of the Times Saxelby Chesesemongers. We were most favorable impressed by this shop at the Essex Street Market. No Reservations with Bourdain returns to the Travel Channel for a second season Dinner at Il Rigoletto in Reggiolo, Italy La Vrai Andouille Truffles for Thanksgiving Recipe for canelés Barça 18 first impressions and an update Dinner at Calandre in Padova, Italy A Birthday Lunch for Daniel Boulud Dinner de Chasse et de Chefs On choosing a wine from fancy lists in Europe. Other Contents France Links Start your France trip research here. Travel Links & Foreign Currency information A few interesting and essential travel links updated September 2006. *N.B.: RISING FEES FOR USE OF CREDIT AND DEBIT CARDS ABROAD.* Note also the new attempts by overseas banks to cash in on fees for currency conversion by converting your charge to dollars at a rate that may be far less favorable than the one your own bank offers. Archive Some earlier gastrotravel reports. Paris July 2001 A great meal at L'Astrance and other highlights of our visit. Posted on 9 September 2001. Brittany July 1999 A couple of excellent meals at reasonable prices capped off a trip to Brittany for a family wedding. Posted on 15 Jan. 2000 Foie Gras A defense of foie gras and an introduction to Foie Gras...A Passion, by Michael A. Ginor. Posted on 29 Aug. 1999 Brittany Jul. 1997 A week of driving and eating in Brittany culminating at Olivier Roellinger's Les Maisons de Bricourt in Cancale. Posted on 15 Apr. 1998 Gascony, Sep. 1996 The first part of our trip to southwestern France including dinners in the restaurants of André Daguin, just before he retired, and Michel Guérard. The Basque Coast, Sep. 1996 The second part of our trip to southwestern France including the Basque Coast and a detour for a three star lunch in San Sebastian Spain. Gascony, Jan. 1996 An introduction to the 13th and 14th century fortified towns of the region and a report on our visit to an artisanal distillery of superior eaux-de-vie.		News and Media 16 February 2007 Dorie Greenspan recently announced the launch of her blog, which, among other things, offers tempting recipes both sweet and savory along with dispatches from Paris. 15 December 2006 What's cooking in the media since Ferran Adrià said Molecular Gastronomy doesn't exist? From the international agenda for great cooking written by Ferran Adria of El Bulli, Heston Blumenthal of the Fat Duck, Thomas Keller of the French Laundry and Per Se, and writer Harold McGee as posted on Observer.co.uk on 10 December 2006, we have this Statement on the 'new cookery.' The fashionable term "molecular gastronomy" was introduced relatively recently, in 1992, to name a particular academic workshop for scientists and chefs on the basic food chemistry of traditional dishes. That workshop did not influence our approach, and the term "molecular gastronomy" does not describe our cooking, or indeed any style of cooking. On the other hand we have by Hervé This' viewpoint [EMBO reports 7, 11, 1062–1066 (2006), doi:10.1038/sj.embor.7400850]. In the most recent ranking of the world's top 50 chefs—by the British magazine Restaurant—the top three chefs were Ferran Adria from El Bulli in Rosas, Spain; Heston Blumenthal from The Fat Duck in Bray, UK; and Pierre Gagnaire from his restaurant in Paris, France (Restaurant, 2006). In 2005, Blumenthal was first and Adria came second. What is remarkable is that all three of these talented and popular chefs have been inspired by molecular gastronomy. 28 November 2006 It's always good news to learn one's elected officials are not idiots, or at least to learn that one of them is not. I'm greatly relieved to read that my city councilman no longer intends to introduce legislation tomorrow that would ban foie gras from NYC restaurants and markets. You can read the latest story at The NY Sun web site. Alan Gerson, who I've generally found to be the right side of most issues in the past and whose campaign we supported, "said that a phone call he received from a constituent aided in his decision not to introduce the legislation." I'll take credit for that call although I was only able to reach his voice mail yesterday morning. I did follow up with a stongly worded e-mail which some of you may have read here, or received as a copy. Apparently the League of Humane Voters of New York City got a bit of Gerson's ear at a weak moment. There really ought to be legislation introduced to ban the hypocritical use of "humane" and "ethical treatment" in naming controversial organizations devoted to propaganda supporting fringe concepts. As for their frivolous law suit filed in Albany, I understand that foie gras meets some lay people's idea of a diseased duck, there has been considerable refutation of this by the medical and scientific communities and there is no evidence to support any contention that the fattened livers or the ducks themselves represent any sort of health hazard to consumers, the general community or the environment. The same can't be said for battery raised chickens or grain fed cattle. 21 November 2006 In An Owner No More, Alpha Dog Prowls, an article about Jim Leff, founder of chowhound.com, in tomorrow's NY Times, David Hochman says: Chowhound's popularity—800,000 users viewed the site in 2005—has also dispossessed its early adopters. One result is that Chowhound has spawned more splinter groups than the old Bulgarian Communist Party. Ms. Sheraton, along with others including Anthony Bourdain and Russ Parsons, a food writer for The Los Angeles Times, gradually disappeared from Chowhound and joined the conversation at egullet.org, a site started by several disaffected Chowhounders. "We wanted a higher level of culinary discourse," said Jason Perlow, a founder of eGullet, who recently decamped to his own blog, Off the Broiler (offthebroiler.wordpress.com). I find it curious that Hochman chose to mention Bourdain in that light after Tony's public thoughts last month on what eGullet has become. I, too have become utterly disenchanted with eGullet. It;s become the domain of "Comic Book Guy" from the Simpsons—basically talking to himself. A real pity to see what's become of it as it once showed such promise. -- Anthony Bourdain, posting on eGullet founder, Jason Perlow's offthe broiler.wordpress.com blog. Bourdain's post was in response to a few other comments on the subject at offthebroiler.com, including a post of mine noting that it had been just about a year since I resigned from management in protest of what I saw as a pattern of disingenuous misuse of the forums by the executive director with the support of other top management personnel. At that time, my posts debating the executive director's editorial position on a thread were repeatedly removed. After I tended my resignation in protest, I was barred from posting on the site while my name was kept on the staff list for seventeen days encouraging readers to assume I no longer had contrary opinions to express on the thread and was still participating as a manager. 8 November 2006 As reported on 3 October, Michael Ruhlman has started his own interactive blog. It's been rewarding reading and I recommend it. From reading Ruhlman's blog, I learned that Harold McGee has also started a blog where he's "filing brief reports from the intersection of food and science." Those familiar with McGee's work (notably his recently revised On Food and Cooking/The Science and Lore of the Kitchen) will understand the potential value of his blog. Those who are not familiar with the work and the author, should be, if they are interested in food. His comments on omega 3 fatty acids in grass fed beef, especially those in response to my "skeptical response" to McGee, depart from what Michael Pollan has written about grass fed beef and are noteworthy. 25 October 2006 In Ferran Adrià, Molecular Gastronomist—Who, Me? an interview by Robin Raisfeld & Rob Patronite in the October 30, 2006 issue of New York Magazine, Ferran Adrià says Molecular Gastronomy doesn't exist. Unfair. I've been eating molecules since I was a kid. That makes it a nasty rap on my mom's cooking which, in all honesty, probably didn't qualify as worthy of gastronomy. What I guess Adrià is saying is that plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose which reminds me that one major change in the field is that gastronomists are looking at Spain with greater interest than at France these days. Nevertheless, writers, journalists and historians need labels that chefs don't need or want. Creative people often find those labels offensive. Barnet Newman once said something to the effect that "art history is for artists, as ornithology is for the birds," implying that as far as artists were concerned, art history might also be for the birds. Ferran and Barney make good company. Adrià mentions going to eat at bistro db with Daniel Boulud which reminded me that when we first ate at elBulli (this is Adrià's preferred spelling of the name of his restaurant near Rosas, Spain) and toured the kitchen, we were told that Adrià looked more to the U.S. than to France and valued the freedom of American cooking. Daniel Boulud was mentioned as an example, although to be fair, we had already introduced his name into the conversation. Adrià doesn't like bell peppers. I hope that doesn't apply to pimiento del piquillos as well. He also doesn't like blood sausage. Strange. If there are three things I treasure in Spain, they are blood sausage, piquillo peppers and elBulli. There's no accounting for subjective taste. The interview moved from issues of personal taste to sending dishes back at restaurants. Has anyone ever sent anything back at El Bulli? Yeah, it happens. There are people who may like one dish more than another. If I were a customer, and I was given a dish with peppers, I would hate it. I also don't like blood sausage. Would you send it back? Depends on where I am. If I was in a high-cuisine restaurant, I'd probably go for it and eat it. I'd want to see the concept. It's the second answer that caught my focus. Most things are relative. There are general guidelines to eating in restaurants, but there should be few hard and fast rules regarding dining out. I'm not even sure haute cuisine, or "high cuisine," as Adrià puts it, is the all encompassing term for restaurants where one should strive to overcome one's own subjective tastes. Perhaps "high cuisine" denotes that level of chef involvement with the food, without the necessity of all the trappings of classic dining. ElBulli is quite an informal restaurant although the service itself matches that of any Michelin three star restaurant in Paris. Many of today's restaurants with destination food are deceptively casual. Blue Hill and WD-50 are good examples here in NYC. Both are excellent examples of chef driven restaurants, something I find more important than linen tablecloths or even fine service. I've often made the distinction between luxury temples of haute cuisine such as le Bernardin, Daniel, Per Se or Jean Georges for examples, and The Four Seasons. I've seen a similar distinction made in the NY Times. All of those offer excellent food and service and will look to cater to a diner's needs, but the latter is a restaurant that will cater to his whims, while the strength and appeal of the former group is that they are chef driven and offer the chance to experience a personal cuisine. There is a concept to the food and if you don't want to see and experience the concept, you're in the wrong place, in my opinion. If a diner is not open to learning what the chef has to say about food or at least curious, why would one dine at Per Se and not at The Four Seasons? Money (disposable income), a basic lack of interest in fine food and guide books with star, diamond or number ratings are bad bed fellows. It's clear that some diners are at these restaurants simply because they are the highest rated restaurants and these same diners are used to having the best of whatever it is they are having. It's a shame because they might really be happier elsewhere and leave a table for those who really appreciate the chef.
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Art Fair Travel & Accommodations

As in the past, we've secured an allotment of rooms in several hotels for a number of upcoming contemporary art fairs. We also have some very special airfares

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