Kermit Lynch on French restos!

originally posted by Claude Kolm:
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
The East Bay gets pretty grim east of Walnut Creek.
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That's East Bay? I thought it was Folsom suburbs.

East Bay does get pretty grim south of Oakland, though.
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Yes, although there are regular reports of good South and Southeast Asian restaurants in Fremont and Hayward. Haven't done the research myself.
 
I had a very different experience last year in Brittany (great food), yet Michael Steinberger, in Au Revoir to All That, makes accusations that are broadly similar to Lynch's (worse ingredients; shoddy preparation). And, don't blame that accusation on Lynch alone: he is repeating what was told to him by esteemed producers.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
You know, it's all so local and so quickly changing. Easy to eat really well in Piemonte, not so easy in Venice unless you have a good list to choose from; by reputation, Rome possibly not even if you have a good list unless you are local and known. Tain-l'Hermitage/Tournon used to be a real dump for eating, then suddenly within a year or two there developed many spots to eat (and drink) well.
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Tuscany is dangerous too.

Unless I know the area, in Italy I use the Slow Food edited guide 'Osterie d'Italia' to choose restaurants. I don't like to promote the Slow Food movement, but in this case I think they do a good job. I hate having a bad meal in Italy when you can be sure that there's something good around the corner or in the next village.
 
Random selection? You guys are courageous to the point of foolhardiness! I don't think I've gone out to eat randomly in the past 40 years or so, in Spain or anywhere else...
 
Steinberger's book has a fairly obnoxious political axe to grind and given his clearly limited knowledge of gastronomy is IMO not to be taken seriously. There has been awful catering style food in France for a very long time and in general one does badly following one's nose in the way that pays off so richly in Italy and Spain. There are still pretty decent places, and the next person who tells me that Britain has overtaken France as a gastronomic destination is in line for a thump.
 
originally posted by VS:
Random selection? You guys are courageous to the point of foolhardiness! I don't think I've gone out to eat randomly in the past 40 years or so, in Spain or anywhere else...
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You may be an outlier, informationwise.
 
originally posted by Tom Blach:
Steinberger's book has a fairly obnoxious political axe to grind and given his clearly limited knowledge of gastronomy is IMO not to be taken seriously. There has been awful catering style food in France for a very long time and in general one does badly following one's nose in the way that pays off so richly in Italy and Spain. There are still pretty decent places, and the next person who tells me that Britain has overtaken France as a gastronomic destination is in line for a thump.
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No disputing Steinberger's political axe, but here's the full quotation from Lynch's newsletter:

"While enjoying a home-cooked meal with Pierre and Catherine Breton in
Bourgueil, I started venting and was told that, in fact, the majority of French
restos today dont cook. Dont cook, folks. They buy frozen meals sous vide and
heat your orders in hot water or a microwave. That would explain why the meals
Id had reminded me of airline fare."

I think folks reading Wine Disorder have a lot of respect for the Bretons, and that is their judgment, as well.
 
What Kermit needs is an intercessor of some sort, one that can weed through the wild forest of French restaurants and select the best, then present them to him (while perhaps tacking some sort of profit for the undertaking). It's a shame that sort of job doesn't exist in any field with which he's acquainted.

Also: as Victor noted, dining without recommendations isn't the best idea. And if one is already moved to complain about what one is encountering, it seems ludicrous. Doesn't Lynch know any French people who can point him to some decent addresses? (Where's that sarcasm emoticon?)
 
Having just come back from a trip through Piemonte and Liguria, after having been to Paris and Provence last fall, I definitely would agree that it is much less likely to have a bad meal in Italy than in France. We did our homework for both trips, but the hit rate in Italy was higher, on all levels.

Even more striking the difference in wine prices. We always could have fantastic local bottles for barely over ten Euros in Italy, and for 40 and up it would be top notch. We saw Pergole Torte and B. Mascarello for 60 Euros on several lists. In France, prices are like Germany: Retail x4.
 
originally posted by georg lauer:
Having just come back from a trip through Piemonte and Liguria, after having been to Paris and Provence last fall, I definitely would agree that it is much less likely to have a bad meal in Italy than in France. We did our homework for both trips, but the hit rate in Italy was higher, on all levels.
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Well, just to take the other side, if you REALLY do your homework, I'm not sure you can do better than Provence. My GF, a huge Italophile, and I went to Liguria, Cte d'Azur, and Provence spring of last year. She was out to prove the superiority of Italian food (I didn't realize it was a competition until I got back, but I do know some pretty good places in Provence based on many years' visiting), and to my surprise, she conceded that the best food we had was in Provence. YMMV, but I'm a big vegie guy, and they pay attention where I go in Provence, less so in Italy.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
originally posted by georg lauer:
Having just come back from a trip through Piemonte and Liguria, after having been to Paris and Provence last fall, I definitely would agree that it is much less likely to have a bad meal in Italy than in France. We did our homework for both trips, but the hit rate in Italy was higher, on all levels.
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Well, just to take the other side, if you REALLY do your homework, I'm not sure you can do better than Provence. My GF, a huge Italophile, and I went to Liguria, Cte d'Azur, and Provence spring of last year. She was out to prove the superiority of Italian food (I didn't realize it was a competition until I got back, but I do know some pretty good places in Provence based on many years' visiting), and to my surprise, she conceded that the best food we had was in Provence. YMMV, but I'm a big vegie guy, and they pay attention where I go in Provence, less so in Italy.
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I visit Europe far less frequently than most of y'all in this thread, but in my recent experience the most interesting and enjoyable food was had in Spain, whether eating pintxas in Bilbao or mariscos in Barcelona. I found the quality of the ingredients to be high, the preparations to be fresh and interesting and the prices to be breathtakingly reasonable on the whole. I love French and Italian cooking, too, but my restaurant dining experiences in both places have been less outstanding overall.

YMMV, of course,
Mark Lipton

p.s. It isn't all about the jamn Ibrico de bellota, though that certainly doesn't hurt one bit.
 
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
I've had trouble finding a decent restaurant in certain parts of the Bay Area in the past. SFJoe full on mocked me when I texted him requesting Sausalito restaurant recomendations.
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Sushi Ran (which I learned about from skraft)?
 
originally posted by Bwood:
originally posted by Levi Dalton:
I've had trouble finding a decent restaurant in certain parts of the Bay Area in the past. SFJoe full on mocked me when I texted him requesting Sausalito restaurant recomendations.
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Sushi Ran (which I learned about from skraft)?
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We met friends for dinner in Sausalito a few weeks ago and they'd made reservations at Il Poggio; the food was pretty nice, a most pleasant surprise. Some of it was really good.
 
We ended up having lunch at Il Poggio, actually. It was fine. But it was probably the weakest link in the chain of meals we had on the SF trip. I think it would have been a better idea to just suck it up, stay hungry through the ferry ride to SF, and then go to the Ferry Building.

But we didn't know about Sushi Ran. Sushi can be a difficult proposition for myself and my girlfriend, however, because I can honestly say that we have been lucky enough to have a lot of amazing sushi, and we are snobs about it way above our actual ability to pay for it.
 
I think it would have been a better idea to just suck it up, stay hungry through the ferry ride to SF, and then go to the Ferry Building.
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The better plan is to go from the Ferry Building in which one has already acquired the ingredients for lunch, then picnic in Sausalito.

That way, lunch is included.
 
originally posted by Thor:
I think it would have been a better idea to just suck it up, stay hungry through the ferry ride to SF, and then go to the Ferry Building.
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The better plan is to go from the Ferry Building in which one has already acquired the ingredients for lunch, then picnic in Sausalito.

That way, lunch is included.
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We were coming from the Muir woods, and I'm afraid my foraging skills don't amount to much.
 
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