A Requiem and a Rant

I should note that today was the day I first found out that Fowler's Food and Wine has closed its doors after 82 years in the business. I can't express how sad and disappointed I am. Not only was the place somewhat of a home for me the past four years, I worked there and had friends there. They were great to me. They taught me about wine. I bought my first black truffle there for $40. Laney wrote me a recommendation for a grant. The last time I was in there Dawn gave me a huge bag of grits for free. Fowler's demise stands as another all too familiar reminder that the interest in sharing good food and good wine with others is something simply not embraced by our society. If it is appreciated at all, it's an afterthought. If you're a person who seeks those types of places out, you know what I mean. I've been in New England for five months and I haven't been able to find ANYTHING like Fowler's or A Southern Season. But that, I must say, is a testament to the curious nature of Durham residents and the appreciation of food in Southern culture in general. That community for years supported several genuinely fantastic gourmet markets whereas cities much larger and wealthier in New England can not. What made Fowler's special was that it celebrated food in an unpretentious way. Sure it had fancy imported foods and wines that were pricier than Whole Foods, but the atmosphere was noticeably low key and most customers were the eccentric sort of foodie who loved food, rather than seeing it as some sort of trapping of a financial or cultural aristocracy.

I remember talking to the head Goldman Sachs recruiting at Fowler's about this time last year. I sold wine at the time and he thought he was a true wine connoisseur (not that I am or anything. I have a lot of learning to do). He confessed to me that he thought Fowler's was a great place but they just didn't have any of the pricier wines he was interested in. He said he liked wines that cost around a hundred dollars. I wanted to punch him in the teeth... and then sell him a bottle of Charles Shaw for $100 (note that Fowler's didn't actually sell Charles Shaw). What a dumbass! We had several of the same bottles that I've seen marked up for over a hundred dollars in New York. We also had several bottles in that price range to begin with... but that's not the point. He saw value in the price, not the actual product. But sadly, people like him are dictating menus and wine lists in New York, Boston and, to a lesser extent, Chicago and San Francisco. If you have a clientele that simply wants expensive, exotic sounding food but who don't have enough actual interest in cuisine to tell when they're getting ripped off, the quality of haute cuisine in this country will suffer. This is where the Alice Waters style name dropping comes in. Alice Waters was a chef at Chez Panisse, and, from what I hear, a great one at that. But she made famous the way in which every product on the menu is pretentiously given its exact location of origin. You sound like Goddamn Rick Ross when you read off a menu nowadays. I eat my Kobe beef dipped in Hennessey, Word! Ever had Niman Ranch Pork? Hudson Valley Foie Gras? Maine Lobster? I'm sorry madam, where in Maine is this Lobster from? I mean is it closer to Portland or is it farther north? I only eat Lobsters north of Bangor, send this one back. The problem that this makes besides making me tired after I read a menu is that it causes exotification to take precedence over quality. I'm sorry, but you can't have fresh Maine lobster in Indianapolis or California for that matter. California is right next to the fucking Pacific ocean, why not eat out of it? In fine restaurants, the trend should be to eat locally: to use the freshest ingredients available prepared by the best chefs. This is not to say that any sort of culinary exportation should not take place. I'm not arguing against Chinese restaurants in the United States or any sort of culinary transplant; cultural exchange by way of food is one of our strengths. All I'm saying is that the tables in this country that are charging top dollar to provide the best food possible are doing a disservice by serving "fresh" Japanese oysters in the United States. I think New York is probably the biggest culprit of this crime. The glitzy metropolitan atmosphere lends to that sort of artificial exotification. In addition, there are virtually no local farms so everything has to be shipped in from far away... that and the fact that Wall Street is full of people who want to be sophisticated but probably couldn't cook a decent dish to save their lives, while, at the same time, are willing to throw down ridiculous sums on bullshit like Masa. Who pays $350 for sushi??? People that belong at the Ronald McDonald house, that's who. You bet this has an impact on the quality of the food in the city. The "eat local" difficulty can be worked around. The bankers sadly can not. Take Le Bernardin, for example, its a three star restaurant in New York run by a famous French chef. He did the smart thing. What does Le Bernardin serve? Seafood. Only seafood. New York is privy to an ocean and Eric Ripert was smart to capitalize on this fact. And due to his intelligence and skill its reputedly one of the best and one that I certainly am jonesing to visit. Or how about Peter Lugar Steakhouse in Brooklyn? That's a fabulous steakhouse and there sure aren't any decent cattle close to New York City. How do they get around this difficulty? They dry age their meat! It has to hang for around 60 days anyways, so freshness isn't an issue. These restaurants should be lessons for others aspiring to serve the best food. They've overcome the fact that they are essentially positioned on a rock in the ocean surrounded by hundreds of miles of farmless suburbs. If they can do it, so can others.

That being said, lets get back to what I call the banker problem. Say you're a person who rides a unicycle and you're decently good at it but it takes a lot of work to maintain your edge. Now you've performed for a large audience of connoisseurs in your home country for a while but you make the big time and move to New York. For some reason, no one here knows much about unicycles so you say "Fuck it" and parade around in a big wheel to a standing ovation of numbnut bankers who throw wads of cash at you, praising the magical streamers that flow from your handle bars. Who wants to bust their ass riding a unicycle, right? To me, this is why a reputable restaurant in France or Italy will kick the living shit out of the best restaurants in the United States.. and usually for the same price. There's something to say about a culture of people who cook from a very young age, are subject to the unwavering criticism of their peers and work with several others like them to produce the best food they can with the freshest ingredients. But Michelin gave 4 restaurants in the United States three stars you say? Ha, do some googling. People have already wrote about that. Even American critics will concede that Michelin was basically worried their guide wouldn't sell if the snubbed American restaurants. The French Laundry may be three stars, but that's about it. I've eaten at Daniel Boulud's, Charlie Trotters and several other well rated and received restaurants in the United States and the two Michelin rated restaurants in France I ate at were thousands of times better. So was the restaurant Ben, Ike and I ate at in Florence. It's simply a totally different playing field. And if you really want to know, I would take it as a huge source of national pride to say that a real American restaurant was worthy of three stars. But I can't delude myself. Right now all we have is a couple of fantastic French restaurants. We need to change our approach. We're currently trying our hardest to imitate French cuisine in our country. I hate to break it to you but do you know where the best French food will always be? France!!! We need to do something different and I think we're on the right track but the battlefield isn't in the air, its on the ground at the grassroots level.

I don't want people to think I believe that there's no merit in culinary invention in the United States, quite the contrary. I believe our finest tables don't cost $150 a plate but more like $8 a plate. There is substantial work being done in the United States today in smaller restaurants. We don't love food enough to give up the High Def Football watching machine for a year of great meals, but we don't like to eat shitty food either. This topic will be continued later but the culinary movement in the United States to refine comforting, cheap, lovely food is our version of the French Revolution. Bobby Flay may not have shit on Joel Robuchon but he's got the right idea: celebrate simple American food. I'm excited to see where this trail takes us over my lifetime.