Summary of 2009

2009 was actually an amazing year for me, even if it was not for the rest of the United States and the rest of the world.  It was a year of extreme growth and I entered uncharted territory on numerous occasions.  I had a lot of successes and faced many challenges.  It was also a [...]

Two amazing books

So Christmas brought me a few new books.  My mother in law Lucy (also my wife’s name) brought me a signed copy of Thomas Keller’s new book Ad Hoc.  She works at a Williams Sonoma where he came to a book signing. My brother sent me Heston Blumenthal’s new book “the Fat Duck Cook Book” [...]

The inside scoop on the Michelin guide’s standards

My father gave me this article that appeared in the New Yorker in November.   Everyone that follows the Michelin guide wonders about how carefully the analysis is made to determine whether a restaurant gets or loses a star.  No one has gotten to see inside that process, until now.  It is clear that Naret the [...]

180° Dining, French Christmas Celebration Menu

We just completed the 2nd 180° Dining event for this class and the last one for the year.  The theme was Reveillon or a French Christmas celebration menu.  When the French set out for the preparation of a Christmas or New Year’s dinner they pull out all the stops.  Oysters, smoked salmon, caviar, foie gras, [...]

My students get creative

I can’t believe we have begun a new class at Cook Street.  On November 30th, 20 new students began the wine portion of the program.  On January 4th in 2010 we will have a student who pulled out of our present program join us again which will make it 21 students or 7 students for [...]