Whole Foods Quickfire Challenge

Chefs cheffed, judges judged, and the crowd crowded in for a pressure-packed quickfire challenge at Whole Foods last weekend pitting Rene Lenger (Switch), Jet Tila (Wazuzu), Bianca Freeny (Whole Foods), Kuldeep Singh (Origin India) and Jean Paul Labadie (Marche Bacchus) against each other in a throwdown over who could cook think up and cook the tastiest dish (from a randomly selected protein) in 45 minutes.

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POSTRIO, DELMONICO, and SPAGO – A Fish, A Steak, And A Choucroute

Yeah, it was just another day and night at the office for ELV, as he traipsed his way across our unassuming village’s better addresses, seeking the best in food and drink. And this is what he came up with in one weekend:

A Fish:

Postrio’s new design is a winner, and the re-designed menu (and smaller, less expensive, more eclectic wine list) should garner raves as well. Here was our modest loup de mer (“wolf of the sea”), grilled to a fare-the-well (by Chef Mark Sandoval) and filet’d tableside with the grace worthy of a Michelin 3-star.

A Steak:

We’ve known Chef Sean Roe since the early 90’s….when he first showed us around Emeril’s Fish House in the MGM. He’s still hard at the stoves, and now does a wonderful job keeping Delmonico near the top of our steakhouse food chain. This beauty was a bone-in rib-eye, dry aged (although not nearly enough to suit ELV), and as full of beef flavor as a carnivore could want. It was the perfect amuse bouche for ELV before he ventured into the netherworld of the Venetian Convention Center — to spend an evening listening to political speeches (and pushing rubber chicken around his plate) whilst pretending to care who was going to win this pesky election thing (that has been distracting us from our food and wine habit for much too long).

And A Choucroute:

After premium fish and a prime steak, sometimes a little pork is called for. That’s when Eric Klein’s choucroute garni at Spago really fills the bill. Choucroute garni stands for the spiced sauerkraut underneath the sausages, bacon, pork belly, chops and potatoes that “garnish” the fermented vegetable. Leave it to the Alsatians to “decorate” their veggies with two pounds of pork products….but the result is just delicious if you ask us…and surprisingly light and digestible.

He Was A Great Chef As Chefs Go, And As Chefs Go, He Went

Jean-David Groff-Daudet is no longer at the stoves of Marche Bacchus. Jean Paul Labadie is the restaurant’s new Executive Chef.* Labadie previously worked in various Emeril (Has He Jumped The Shark Yet?) Lagasse’s restaurants — including Emeril’s (New Orleans), Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House (MGM Grand) and most recently, Table 10 (Palazzo).

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