Best Restaurants in the World

I'm a few days behind on this, I did see it when it came out earlier this week but I suppose it's no longer "breaking news". However, I still wanted to mention it. Restaurant Magazine (a British publication) put out it's annual "S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants" list for 2010 just a few days ago. Without further adieu, here's a taste of the list - the top 10:

1. Noma (Copenhagen, Denmark)
2. El Bulli (Roses, Spain)
3. The Fat Duck (Berkshire, UK)
4. El Celler de Can Roca (Girona, Spain)
5. Mugaritz (Errenteria, Spain)
6. Osteria Francescana (Modena, Italy)
7. Alinea (Chicago) *yeah Chicago!!*
8. Daniel (New York)
9. Arzak (San Sebastian, Spain)
10. Per Se (New York)

These restaurants are without a doubt, the best of the best. I'm sure I'll never see the inside of 99% of them. I remember hearing about how crazy it is to get a reservation at El Bulli, something about writing handwritten letters a year in advance...I don't even know. Thomas Keller's The French Laundry fell to #32, and there are entire websites dedicated to explaining the best methods for securing reservations there. Even if I had the money to buy meals at these places, I don't think I could get in.

Big news of the year was that Noma knocked El Bulli down to #2, after four years atop the list. This list is a bit different in that unlike Michelin stars, there are no criteria the restaurants have to meet. There is simply an international voting panel that makes the decisions.

Here is a tasting menu from Alinea's website. I would LOVE to go. Maybe someday...

Ratatouille

Ratatouille is a French dish made of stewed vegetables. Ratatouille is also a 2007 Pixar movie about a rat who wants to become a chef in a Paris restaurant.


Photo courtesy: Pixar

Ohhh, I love that movie. As I was doing a little research before writing this post, I found out that Thomas Keller worked as a food consultant on Ratatouille. How cool is that? I also found out that the ratatouille dish that Remy makes at the end of the movie - the really pretty one with alternating slices of vegetables - is in fact a real recipe, thought up by Thomas Keller.

Back to my dish. Some definitions of ratatouille say it's a baked dish, some recipes call for it to be only cooked on the stove. I don't know which way is the true, original French way but this version that I make is just cooked on the stove and is very similar to the dish served at Le Gamin (one of my favorite restaurants that is now closed. R.I.P.). This is a recipe I copied into my recipe book years ago so I don't remember where I found it, or how I changed it from the original.



1/4 c olive oil, plus more as needed
1 1/2 c small diced yellow onion
1 tsp. minced garlic
2 c medium diced eggplant, skin on
1/2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
1 c diced green bell peppers
1 c diced red bell peppers
1 c diced zucchini
1 c diced yellow squash
1 1/2 c peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes
1 Tbl. thinly sliced basil leaves
1 Tbl. chopped fresh parsley leaves
salt and pepper

Set a large saute pan over medium heat and add olive oil. Once hot add onion and garlic. Cook onions, stirring occasionally, about 5-7 minutes. Add eggplant and thyme, stirring occasionally until eggplant is partially cooked, about 5 minutes. Add peppers, zucchini, squash, and cook for additional 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, basil, parsley, salt and pepper to taste, cook for final 5 minutes.

I actually like to use a can of diced tomatoes instead of chopping fresh ones because it makes the dish a little more stew-like rather than a bunch of cubed vegetables, it kind of makes everything stick together. If you really stick to the recipe, the dish only cooks for about 20 minutes. Mine ended up cooking for more like 45 minutes to an hour. I think the best way to attack it is NOT to chop up everything first, but as you go along. Start with the onions and garlic, and as that cooks chop up the eggplant. Once the eggplant is in, start chopping the zucchini, peppers, etc. and just put them into the pan as you chop them. It's pretty hard to mess up, the dish is just vegetables so as long as nothing burns you'll be ok. You'll probably want to turn the heat down a bit from medium at some point so it doesn't burn. Just make sure all the vegetables are cooked through and soft, but not mushy. And allowing it to cook longer gives the herbs and garlic a chance to spread throughout the dish. I like to turn the heat off and let it cool a bit before serving it, the flavors taste better warm rather than steaming hot.

"If you are what you eat, then I only want to eat the good stuff." -Remy

Roasted Chicken

Thomas Jefferson once said, "a roasted chicken is a thing of great beauty." Just kidding, he didn't say that. But I did!



With the arrival of daylight savings time winter is finally drawing to a close, and so I feel like this is the last hurrah of winter dishes. I guess roasted chicken isn't really a winter dish, like chili or chicken pot pie or soups/stews, but anything that cooks in the oven for over an hour isn't very appealing to cook in the summertime. I'm sure by even saying the word "summertime" I've jinxed everything and we'll get a snowstorm this week.

This roasted chicken recipe is from the introduction of Thomas Keller's Bouchon cookbook, which I kind of like - it's like he's saying that a roast chicken is so fundamental it needs to appear in the book before any of the other recipes.

2 1/2 to 3 lb chicken
kosher salt and pepper
thyme (optional)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Rinse the chicken, then dry it very well with paper towels, inside and out. The less it steams, the drier the heat, the better.

Salt and pepper the cavity, then truss the bird. **He gives directions on a separate page for trussing the bird. I think I'm doing it pretty much how he says, but I kind of do it my own way. Ina Garten says you don't have to put the bird in bondage, just tie it so the limbs are tucked in so it cooks evenly. And that's the whole point - to bring the wings and legs in close to the body so everything cooks well.




Tuck the wings underneath the bird. Take a 3-foot piece of cooking twine, and start by putting the middle around the neck (at the top of the breast) and bring it down across the wings and across the back of the bird. Bring it back up around the bottom of legs and tie the legs together. Think of it as a figure 8, with one loop around the neck and one loop around the legs. That should do it. I go with one more step though - I loop another piece of twine through the bottom the drumsticks, and pulling the legs in toward the body even more, tying it to the X on the back. You don't have to do this, but sometimes I do if i feel like I haven't gotten the first piece tight enough. I'm sure none of that makes sense, but it's hard to explain.

Salt and pepper the rest of the bird - lots of salt and pepper. And sprinkle the breast side with thyme (this is the side that will be up when you cook it). Cook for 50-60 minutes, or until golden brown. Once it achieves that color on the outside it should be done. If you want to be extra sure, use a meat thermometer - it should read 165 degrees. My chicken was a little over 3 lbs so I cooked it for 1 hour 15 minutes. Baste the chicken with the juices in the pan, and let sit for a few minutes before cutting.

The chicken was delicious. Peter said it was "restaurant caliber". The skin was so crispy and salty, and the meat was perfectly cooked and very moist. Thomas Keller says to "slather the meat with fresh butter". I skipped that idea, but did take his suggestion of serving it with Dijon mustard on the side, which is very good. Drying the chicken off before cooking it is really important, so it achieves that golden color and stays crisp on the outside. I served it with sauteed spinach, and roasted potatoes.



15 red creamer potatoes
olive oil
salt and pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 Tbl chopped pancetta
1 stem fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Chop the potatoes into bite-size pieces - probably into quarters. Toss in a bowl with enough olive oil to coat, and add salt and pepper. Put into a 8-inch glass baking dish, and sprinkle garlic, pancetta, and leaves from the rosemary stem. Cook 45-50 minutes, stirring halfway through.

I used red creamer potatoes. You can use white creamer potatoes, fingerling potatoes, small purple potatoes, or just regular red potatoes which are a little bigger so will need more chopping.