Sea Change

There are many things to like about Sea Change, the main restaurant at the Guthrie theatre complex, that will shortly celebrate its first birthday. The space is spectacular with large windows, plenty of light, generously spaced tables and great views of the Mississippi river. It has a lively modern bar and a wonderful section with stool seating around the raw bar and kitchen. The wine list is carefully chosen and fairly priced. The focus on sustainable fish and shellfish is admirable though there are some non fish choices.

I first ate at Sea Change shortly after it opened in 2009 and visited it again recently. On neither visit was I impressed by the food. Although the food is good, it does not measure up to the standard set by Chef Tim McKee at La Belle Vie, his other high end restaurant. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly the problem though I think that for many dishes it may be related to an heroic effort to camouflage that one is actually eating fish. For example, the octopus starter, which has become something of a 'signature dish', is more reminiscent of a chicken wing with a sweet glaze, than the briny chewy delicacy it can often be. On one visit, I had halibut wrapped in prosciutto which had lost its identity completely and tasted as if it had sweated to death. Sometimes there are just too many contrasting tastes and textures as was the case with salmon belly in a Japanese preparation of noodles, vegetables and pork. Where the restaurant does excel is in much simpler preparations such as the Loch Duart salmon and the yellowfin tuna both on the current menu. In summary, Sea Change is a very pleasant place to eat where one can find good food but below the level achieved by Chef McKee at some of this other restaurants.

Alle Testiere, Venice, Italy

Eleven years ago Alle Testiere http://www.osterialletestiere.it/ had convinced me that one could find good food in Venice. On a return visit, I was even more impressed. The restaurant is on a tiny street near the church of Campo S.Maria Fermosa and very easy to miss. There are only seven tables which can accomodate not many more than twenty diners thus reservations are essential. It is run by an ebullient host, Luca. The philosophy of the kitchen is to cook simply using fresh local ingredients almost exclusively fish and shellfish.
The room is small but cosy; the combined area of the dining room and kitchen is perhaps smaller than that of many domestic mega-kitchens in the U.S. We went for lunch and therefore did not sample the full range of the menu. The fillets of turbot in a caper and wine sauce was superb, as was the spaghetti with clams and the shellfish antipasti. The wine list is small, well-selected and well-priced; Luca can provide wonderful advice as the sommelier. If you happen to be in Venice, this restaurant should not be missed.

Met, Venice, Italy

The city of Venice has an undeservedly poor reputation for food. In my two visits to the waterlogged art lovers paradise, I have been favorably impressed by the quality of the cuisine as long as one avoids the restaurants in the immediate vicinity of St. Marco and Rialto and those pushing pizza and 'menu touristico'.

The Met, with Corrado Fasolato in the kitchen, is the restaurant at the Metropolitan Hotel and the only two star Michelin establishment in the city. The dining room itself is sumptuous, as is the hotel lobby, with a small number of widely-spaced tables. We sampled the five course tasting menu ($130 per person) though one could also choose an eleven course 'surprise' menu or order a la carte. The wine list which focused primarily on Italian wines was extensive and as one might expect expensive. The service was flawless and the sommelier quite knowledgable. The amuse bouche was an outstanding tuna 'hamburger' smothered in a variety of foams of different temperatues, flavors and colors; one of the best tiny morsels I have experienced. Another course was a very original version of beef cheeks based on a sweet and sour theme; in this instance, the sweet and sour tastes were provided by vegetable purees and foams. The dessert courses were also excellent. The only culinary disappointment of the evening was a dish with salt cod which was bland in the extreme. Overall, this was one of the best meals I have had in several years and I plan a return visit when next in Venice.

Per Se, NYC

We ate at Per Se in early December 2009. It is a wonderful space with panoramic views over Central Park, high ceilings, enormous windows and an inviting fire. The tables are generously spaced. The service was excellent but not exqiusite. The food was outstanding but not sublime as one might expect given the reastaurant's three star Michelin rating.

The choices at Per Se are usually among a number of different tasting menus: chef's, vegetarian, and one specializing in offal. We both had the chef's tasting menu which comprised about eight separate courses with some additional courses at the discretion of the kitchen. Although I enjoy both the convenience and surprise of tasting menus, I get jaded at about course number six. The standout courses on this particular evening were the very substantial salmon amuse bouche, winter vegetables in a deliciously light broth, and the lamb. The two dessert courses were unremarkable as was the oxtail meat course. We had a Condrieu to accompany the earlier courses and then an excellent Chateau du Tetre 2004.

While the food was outstanding, there was nothing I ate that was especially memorable, in fact not one dish that has not already faded from my gustatory memory. I expected better of Mr. Keller but perhaps it is unfair to judge on the basis of one meal.

My rating
(Michelin scale) **
(NYT's scale) ****

Best restaurants in St. Paul and Minneapolis for the Republican National Convention (RNC)

I was prompted to post this list having read the very inadequate overview of restaurants in the Twin Cities by Raymond Sokolov recently published in the Wall St. Journal. While the Twin Cities cannot be reasonably compared to New York, San Francisco, London or Paris, the general quality of restaurants at the higher end compares very favorably to most U.S. cities of similar size. I have listed the restaurants in order of merit for each city and also used a star rating system (Minnesota stars) loosely based on the Michelin ranking of New York City restaurants. To standardize my rating scale, I have used recent meals I eaten at Jean Georges (3 Michelin stars), Le Bernadin (3 stars) and Daniel (2 stars). In general, there is more breath and depth to the restaurants in Minneapolis than in St. Paul.

St. Paul

Heartland (*). Excellent regional cuisine featuring elk, bison and venison in addition to the usual suspects. The food is inventive and the wine list excellent. The only potential drawback is that it is located about 5 miles from downtown St. Paul.

Meritage (*). Comfortable bustling bistro located about 2 blocks from the convention center serving meticulously prepared bistro food. The predominantly French wine list is good and the food is reasonably priced. Downtown.

I Nonni. Located in Lillydale next to MSP airport so perhaps not a realistic option for most conventioneers. Serves good basic Italian food in an attractive. They have an excellent wine list almost exclusively Italian and a superb sommelier. 10 miles from Downtown.

St. Paul Grill. I think of this as a steak/chop house rather than a full service restaurant. It is a warm bustling downtown establishment with a very lively classic bar. Stick to the grilled meats. The hash browns are excellent. Wine list is good and predominantly American. Downtown.

Restaurante Luci. This is a small noisy but very enjoyable Italian trattoria located about 5 miles from downtown.

Other downtown restaurants worth a visit.
Sakura. Basic Japanese food in comfortable surroundings. Good sushi. Rudimentary wine and sake list. Pazzaluna. Attractive central location about 1 block from convention center. Pleasant place to eat though the food is neither inventive nor exciting. Kincaids. It is not clear whether the owners of this establishment want it to be a bar or a restaurant.

Minneapolis

La Belle Vie (**). Opulent setting, wonderful service and superb food. Both the menu and the wine list, which is excellent, have a distinctively southern French character. If you cannot get a reservation in the restaurant, the bar, in which you can sample the restaurant menu, a special tasting menu or the regular bar menu, is a great second choice. Close to Downtown.

D’Amico Cucina (**). This has been a Minneapolis culinary landmark for almost two decades. Inventive modern Italian food and excellent service. The wine list, which is almost exclusively Italian, is superb. The tasting menu is both a bargain and a real treat. Downtown

Vincent (*). Located opposite Orchestra Hall in Downtown. This French restaurant is actually owned and operated by a Frenchman. Excellent food served in a very convivial setting. The bar with its special menu is also well worth a visit. Downtown.

Fugaise (*). Imaginative food with a French influence served in a somewhat stark dining room. Both the food and the excellent wine list are competitively priced. Located about 1 mile from Downtown.

JP American Bistro (*). Very under-rated establishment. Interesting America take on bistro food. I have never had a bad meal here. Good reasonably priced wine list. Located 2-3 miles from Downtown.

Heidi’s. Reasonably priced neighborhood restaurant in south Minneapolis. Excellent imaginative menu and a good wine list. 12 miles from Downtown.

Restaurant Alma. Both the food and the wine list are good at this neighborhood restaurant near the University of Minnesota. 4 miles from Downtown.

Cue at the Guthrie. Although I would generally rather fast than risk a meal in a theater restaurant (DB Bistro Moderne expected), this restaurant is well worth a visit. The food is excellent and the expansive dining room of the Jean Neuvel designed Guthrie theatre is spectacular. About 1 mile from Downtown.

Saffron. If the though of Middle Eastern food makes your eyes glaze over you should try this restaurant. Very imaginative menu and a good wine list. Downtown.

Solera. Wonderful Spanish tapas served in a dining room at the back of a very lively bar. Excellent mostly Spanish wine list. Try som of the large selection of sherries. Downtown.

Cosmos. Modern restaurant and menu in a new downtown hotel. The vertical food is so close to the edge that it sometimes falls off. Interesting dining room and a very lively bar. Downtown.

Chambers. Good ‘international’ food served in the very noisy dining room of a newly opened and fashionable hotel. Downtown.

Murray's Steakhouse. Minneapolis culinary institution. Decor and service are both a little retro but good.

Manny's Steakhouse. Recently relocated to a new location. This is a steakhouse with attitude which is sometimes better than the food. Excellent wine list mostly U.S. Downtown.

Oceanaire. Original establishment in what has now become a seafood restaurant mini-chain. Fresh fish and excellent wet bar. Very large pours for wine by the glass. Good wine list. Downtown in the Hyatt hotel.

Dakota Jazz Club. Deceptively good food for a jazz club. Worth a visit. Downtown.

Lucias. Another very popular neighborhood restaurant. The food, which might be described as regional, is good and the wine list adequate. Located about 3 miles from Downtown.

112 Eatery. One of the most popular restaurants in Minneapolis. Though I do not share in the general enthusiasm for this restaurant the food is good, the prices very reasonable and the surroundings pleasant. Downtown.

Kitchen Knives and Other Weapons

There is nothing more frustrating than trying to work in the kitchen while handicapped by a set of bad knives. You may remember the last time you tried to cut and chop with the knives provided at a holiday rental property. Good knives are expensive but they are a joy to use and last for decades. Also, contrary to the impression given by many knife manufacturers, one does not need a large butcher's block filled with them. In fact, those of us not in the restaurant business rarely need more than five different kitchen knives: (i) chef, (ii) carving, (iii) boning, (iv) paring and (v) bread. One could even dispense with the boning knife and get a combined carving/bread knife which would reduce the number of essential knives to three.
(i) The chef's knife is the most important knife in the kitchen and usually has a blade between 8" and 10" in length. This knife is used for most general purpose chopping of vegetables and cutting of meat, fish and poultry. If you are going to spend money on any kitchen knife, this is the one. (ii) The functions of the carving knife are obvious. The carver is usually longer than a chef's knife. If you want a combined carver/bread knife you will need a knife with a serrated edge. However, in my experience, a serrated edge does not make for a good carving knife and I recommend buying a dedicated carving knife with a straight edge. (iii) The boning knife is relatively short and is used for meat and poultry; its edge is concave as opposed to the convex shape of most other knive blades. (iv) A paring knife is between 3-6" long and is useful for a variety of kitchen jobs. (v) The bread knife is long, serrated and sharp; it can also be used for cutting soft fruit and is ideal for tomatoes.

How to choose a knife. As with most kitchen equipment, you get more or less what you pay for and it is well worth making an investment in a tool that with proper care will last for decades. I suggest that you confine your choices to products made by reliable and high quality manufacturers of which there is no shortage. Until relatively recently, the majority of high quality kitchen knives sold in the U.S. were made in either Germany or France. With the increasing popularity and availability of Japanese knives, the first major decision one now needs to make is whether one wants a European or a Japanese knife. It is important to distinguish between the western-style Japanese knives discussed here, which are based on the familiar European model, and 'original' Japanese knives that are used in Japan and by sushi chefs around the world. European knives tend to be heavier, not as sharp, and less expensive than their Japanese counterparts but have the great advantage of being relatively easy to maintain. Japanese knives are usually light, delicate, esthetically pleasing, and with a very sharp blade which holds for a long time; however, these knives are expensive, need special care because of a tendency to chip, and are difficult to sharpen properly. Therefore, if one wants a good knife that requires minimal care and attention, I would recommend buying a European knife. The following manufacturers all make good quality knives: Wusthof, Henckels, Victorinox, Merrermeister, Sabatier, Viking, Chicago Cutlery, Culinary Instituate of America. My personal favorites are Wusthof, Henckels and Merrermeister. On the other hand, if one places a high value on esthetics, one is willing to expend the effort required for proper care and sharpening (ideally with whetstones), and comfortable with forsaking the dishwasher entirely, then the Japanese knife is the way to go. There is a bewildering number of manufacturers that produce Japanese knives including: Shun, MAC, Hiromoto, Masamoto, Global, Hattori, Misono, and Tojiro. For those new to Japanese knives, the MAC Professional, Shun Classic or any of the excellent value Tojiro knives would be a good place to begin. My favorites manufacturers are Hiromoto, Masamoto, and Misono. Additional information on Japanese knives can be found at www.japanesechefsknife.com or www.korin.com. Ultimately, one's choice of knife is on the basis of personal preference and there is no substitute for handling several different knives in a good kitchen shop before making a decision. One should take note of the weight and balance of the knife and whether the handle is comfortable; a knife that feels perfect to one may appear too heavy or awkward to another. I do not advocate testing knives in a kitchen shop and then making your purchase on the internet (as suggested the the host of a popular radio food show) though one may save a little money. If we were all to behave like this, kitchen shops would disappear and we would never have the opportunity to test the product before purchase. Good knives should not be put in the dishwasher though most European knives are forgiving if one forgets.

Cookware (Pots and Pans)

Unless one insists on cooking using a skewer over an open fire pit, it is impossible to avoid the necessity of cookware. We all need pots and pans of various types. These vessels hold food as it is boiled, sauteed, fried, roasted or steamed. Proper cookware should have the following characteristics: excellent heat transfer, easy to clean, relatively light, pleasing to the eye, and not outrageously expensive. This usually translates into a pot with aluminum and copper in the base, and an otherwise stainless steel construction. Steel is relatively easy to clean and copper has one of the highest heat transfers of any metal. Of course, one can get pans made completely of copper with a stainless steel interior, which in many ways represent the zenith of cookware, however, the outside is difficult to keep clean, the larger pieces are quite heavy, and they are very expensive. If you happen to employ a strong-armed cook, and have both a diligent housekeeper, and a significant income then I would recommend nothing other than copper cookware in the kitchen. For most mortals, however, a few copper pieces, a casserole perhaps and one for delicate sauces, are more than adequate.
The most common quality pot in the US market has an aluminum core in both the base on the sides, and is lined with stainless steel but has no copper. Among the best manufacturers are All-Clad, Viking, Kitchen Aid; Calphalon is a little less expensive (though they do a cheaper line for some discount stores), however, many of their products do not have stainless steel lining and in my experience are difficult to clean. Most of these manufacturers also do a pot with a copper base but these tend to be quite expensive. A personal favorite of mine for both price and quality, which does have a copper base, is the Sitram “Catering” product line, which is available in some specialty stores and on the internet. Cookware made from cast iron is also excellent for heat retention and slow cooking. Cast iron frying pans can be bought quite inexpensively but they need to be “seasoned” with oil and frequent use before they acquire a patina that will reduce sticking; otherwise they will be the bane of your life. Le Creuset is a high-end manufacturer of cast iron cookware products that are lined with enamel and are relatively low-stick. These pans are quite expensive and heavy but work wonderfully well as casseroles or stewpots.
You may wonder why anyone in the 21st century would cook with anything other than a non-stick pan. These pans are not durable, generally have poor heat transfer and recently there has been some question about the health safety of the non-stick surface. Although every kitchen should have one non stick pan for cooking eggs, or frying fish and potatoes, for most other uses a stainless steel lining, which is generally low-stick, is far preferable. In fact, when frying meat or poultry you often want some sticking as this will form the basis of any sauce that you will subsequently make. It is incredible to me that approximately 85% of frying pans sold in the US are non stick; it makes no little sense for anyone who is even moderately interested in cooking.
Now that we have discussed the best type of pots and pans, how many of them do you need? Obviously, this depends to some extent on cooking preferences, and the size of the family. For the average household in which cooking is an important part of family life, one will need two regular frying pans of different sizes, one non-stick frying pan, one or two saute pans, three or four saucepans of varying sizes (consider 1 quart, 3 quart and two 5-6 quart), and one large casserole. A roasting pan is also essential in every kitchen. Most manufacturers and specialty cookware stores offer sets of cookware of a particular type at a reduced price; this many be a good way to start if you are beginning to outfit a kitchen or replace what you already have. A good set of cookware will be a significant investment but one that you can use for several decades.

The Baked Potato

A complete meal in one. Crispy on the outside, warm soft and floury on the inside. It is cheap, nutritious, and is suitable for any variety of toppings such as chili, cheese, and meat or vegetable stews. It goes particularly well as a starch with roast beef or steak as well as hamburgers. If one wants to keep it simple, it is delicious just with butter.

Given the advantages of taste, nutrition, versatility and economy why is this food item so poorly prepared, particularly in restaurants but also in many households? This humble tuber often sweats to death surrounded by tin foil in the oven and arrives at the table limp, wet, and smelly.

The following is guaranteed to produce the perfect baked potato. Set the oven to 400 F. Pierce the skin of a washed potato once or twice with the tines of a fork. The potatoes should be done in about hour but you can check for doneness using a fork or skewer after 50 minutes. Do not leave the potato in the oven too long as it begins to collapse, looses its crispness and becomes wet. Do not coat the potato with oil before cooking as this leads to a rancid, unpleasant taste from the skin. Ideally, baked potatoes should be served when they are just cooked; if they are left sitting around they become soggy and wrinkled.

Tips. Any type of potato can be used though Russets or other large oval potatoes tend to work best. I also like Yukon Gold potatoes which have a very different texture from the usual baked potato. Chose potatoes of a uniform size, otherwise, the cooking times may vary quite a lot. Make sure that you buy firm potatoes without sprouts and store in a cool place (45-55 F). Unfortunately, the refrigerator is not an ideal place for long term storage as the temperature is too low though for most households the alternative, which is to store at room temperature, may be more injurious.