Results tagged: Thomas Keller

Tomorrow evening Per Se kicks off its An American Table at Per Se dinner series with special guest Wells Guthrie of Sonoma County's Copain Wine Cellars. The series will allow guests to experience limited production American wines alongside a seven-course tasting menu, "specially crafted to highlight the old world nuances and flavors reflected in the wines." In addition, each guest winemaker will lead a discussion around their techniques, influences and personal winemaking style.

We spoke with Guthrie recently to learn about Copain, his background and his past experience working with the team at The French Laundry and Per Se.

How long has Copain been around?

1999 was our first vintage. We did a whopping 300 cases.

How much are you producing now?

For our vineyard designated wines, we do about 4,000 cases. That's split over six different Pinots, a few Syrahs, so about 10 wines. We have an appellation wine called Tous Ensemble, which means "all together." The appellation wines that we make are more readily accessible.

How did you get into winemaking?

I started working at Wine Spectator. I worked there for two years as their tasting coordinator in San Francisco. I set up all of the tastings for the domestic wines. I got to taste all of the wine, which was cool. Getting to taste 3,000 to 4,000 wines a year gets your palette honed for what you do and don't like.

As part of its "New York Diet" series New York Magazine recently invited James Beard Foundation Outstanding Chef Dan Barber to chronicle his meals for a week. Aside from learning that Dan does most of his eating in the kitchens of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, we also discovered that he consumes a remarkably consistent, and simple, breakfast: a mystery power shake mixed up each morning by his girlfriend, writer Aria Sloss.

The International Association of Culinary Professionals announced the finalists for its 2009 Cookbook Awards today and a number of top chefs are in the running in various categories.

In the Chefs and Restaurants category David Waltuck's (Chanterelle) Chanterelle: The Story and Recipes of a Restaurant Classic of is facing off against Eric Ripert's (Le Bernardin) On the Line.

Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren (A16, SPQR) are up for The Julia Child 'Best First Book' Award for their excellent A16: Food + Wine.

In the Food Photography and Styling category it's Waltuck again vs. Thomas Keller (The French Laundry, Per Se, Bouchon, Ad Hoc) for his Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide. Under Pressure is also a finalist for Best Single Subject book.

Sara Jenkins (Porchetta) along with Mindy Fox are finalists in the International category for Olives and Oranges: Recipes and Flavor Secrets from Italy, Spain, Cyprus, and Beyond.

Scott Beattie, whose cocktail menu at Cyrus in Healdsburg, CA is a masterful, encyclopedic document, is up for the Wine, Beer and Spirits award for his book Artisanal Cocktails: Drinks Inspired by the Seasons from the Bar at Cyrus.

View the complete list of finalists on the IACP website.

[Via @aldenteblog]

It's been a while since we've published a list of our top videos so we thought it would be fun to have a look and see what's popular so far this month. It's nice to see a mix of destination restaurants and neighborhood spots along with a casual, but serious, pizza place thrown in for good measure.

Savory Cities
Matsugen - NYC
Una Pizza Napoletana - NYC
Alinea - Chicago
Gramercy Tavern - NYC
L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon- NYC
The Little Owl - NYC
Gottino - NYC
Prune - Prune
Al Di La - Brooklyn
Blue Hill - NYC

In addition to posting videos on the Savory Cities web site we also upload them to YouTube. As you can see the big names garner most of the attention, though it's nice to see that another great pizza place made the list there too.

YouTube
Alinea - Chicago
L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon - NYC
Per Se - NYC
The French Laundry - Napa Valley
Moto - Chicago
Angus McIndoe - NYC
Restaurant Daniel - NYC
wd-50 - NYC
Serious Pie Pizza - Seattle
Rover's - Seattle

In addition to finding our videos on YouTube you can also find them in Google Maps. Next time you click on the 'more info' link for a restaurant listing check to see if we have a video listed. Check out an example.

Let the kids have the mini Snickers Bars and Almond Joys this year while you stock up on a box of Thomas Keller's bat-themed Halloween cookies instead. The Michelin 3-star-crushing master chef has taken the classic Oreo as his reference point and sandwiched a velvetty buttercream filling between two rich chocolate cookies to create this tasty Halloween treat. Keller's bat shaped cookies are available for $3 each at Bouchon Bakery in the Time Warner Center through October 31st.