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Here’s what ELV learned from his taping of Battle __________! at the Food Network studios in New York two days ago. (Of course, we can’t tell you what the secret ingredient was, nor who won, but we can say it was a battle royale, a fight to the finish, with a whole heap of great dishes that had us judges dropping our forks and howling with appreciation.):
Monta – The Raku of Noodle Soups
Less is more when it comes to restaurant menus. A restaurant specializing in a certain cuisine (or even a single dish or two) is always better than a place trying to be all things to all people. For years I’ve chanted this mantra, and advised, cajoled and screamed at chefs to cut their menus in half (it doesn’t really matter which half) if they want to improve their cooking and streamline their operations. In America though, nothing seduces like excess, so this truism usually falls on deaf ears.
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Dining rooms don’t get much more gorgeous than Jasmine in the Bellagio. We’re told the space was originally planned for Le Cirque, but somehow it ended up as a greatest-gourmet-hits-of-southern-China spot, surrounded by windows on three sides and jutting into the Bellagio fountains, giving diners a superb view of the water show.
Equally superb is the food, and the service, all held together by Hong Kong native Chef Phillip Lo — one of the few executive chefs remaining at the hotel from when it opened twelve years ago. Twelve years ago? It seems like only a few, but as ELV always says: Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.