Chocolate, cheese, macaroons, butter, bread. France does them about as well as anywhere. Using davidlebovitz.com as our guide, we sought out some of the best in each category. Below are two of the more famed chocolatiers – Patrick Roger and Pierre Marcolini.

If nothing else, Patrick Roger is worth the visit for the stunning air conditioning that is so rare in Paris. The shop was quiet, pristine, tended to by a single petite woman, hair tautly pulled back as so many French women do, wearing a black leather get-up, complete with black gloves when handling the chocolates. There is also a giant gorilla made of chocolate in the corner, watching your every move. This place mean business.

We tried some of the classics, but also sampled some of their speciality flavor like like lemongrass, orange peel, and verbena with yuzu. The lime caramel served below was stunning, complete with it’s own little box with a magnetic seal. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the chocolates weren’t priced in the stratosphere.

Patrick and I have similar taste in color.

Pierre Marcolini is within walking distance of Roger, perfect for burning those newly acquired calories. We got a few chocolates here as well, more classic in nature, and Katie got ice cream. I didn’t pull the trigger on their famous chocolate covered marshmallow, opting for a few macaroon instead.

Perfect little cookies; everything at these shops were almost too stunning to eat.

Almost.

It’s tough out there for a blogger. You visit a restaurant in the opening days, you’re a glory-seeker and the pros roll their eyes at you, especially if you pan the place. Wait a few months, and those writing for a living have already provided their official starred review.

It makes me wonder about the value of my blog; if it’s already been thoroughly covered by the press, what can I add to their generally excellent summaries?

Besides being a source for early intel, I like to think a blog can survey a more casual approach, without word count limits and maybe a few more photos than a newspaper can provide. One can also begin to associate with a blogger, identifying with their habits and tastes, and maybe learn a few things. Are these assumptions delusional?

Though I, myself, am still on an educational culinary journey, I do receive a fair amount of inquisitive emails and I do my best to respond. I’ve learned a considerable amount about cooking pizza from Jeff Varasano’s website, and about fried chicken and Sichuan cooking via emailing back and forth with Rowdy Food. The first time we were introduced, I left Rowdy’s home with an armful of Jacque Pepin cookbooks, Sichuan peppercorns, and Maldon salt. There are lots of kind people eager to talk about what they’ve learned, and a blog is just a different form of that. Sharing the gospel, according to Escoffier.

I do wonder if people associate with my eating obsessions, if they find themselves at a similar point on the learning curve. More than likely they just want a few sometimes-pretty pictures. Either way, it’s still fun for me, I just feel dumb when posting on restaurants that have been reviewed and blogged a dozen times over.

If I haven’t lost you yet, onward with the post!

A couple of weeks ago was my first visit to Double Zero Napoletana, where I was especially nervous about taking good photos as our dining cohorts were the uber-talented Scobey wedding photographers. Unfortunately it’s somewhat dark in the unexpectedly large restaurant, and I don’t have the bucks for a big boy blogger lens yet. You know, one of those that make everything look ridiculous even with it’s pitch black.

It’s been routinely chronicled that one of the biggest issues with Double Zero is that they over do it. Too many elements to the dish, too many sauces, just too many conflicting or cloaking flavors in general. I found that the service was the same. Numerous people came to our table to chat (whether we were talking or not), including the owner, and our waiter was of the super stoked “Hey guys and gals! What can I do ya for?!?” varietal. Of all the things to gripe about, overly attentive service isn’t really a big deal, but it’s noticeable and sometimes broke conversation.

We started with arancini, fried risotto. A good place to start. They lack the finesse of the light and aromatic version at Cakes & Ale, but they weren’t too heavy or full of mushy rice, the only way I can see screwing this up, save for burning them in the fryer.

The octopus definitely succumbed to the habit of over-doing it. I could barely taste the arthropod amongst the red pepper sauce and the white bean pureee. It was also a smaller piece than expected for $12.

The pork belly with polenta and egg was everything it should be - gluttonously rich and full of calories. It’s heavy, but when sharing it’s very manageable. It’s not a must order for me as I don’t want an appetizer to put me down for the count, but I was happy to try it.

Our first pizza, the classic Margherita, arrived quickly. Basil, sauce, and cheese coverage were proportionally excellent, and the crust was sporting a very promising set of leopard spots on the crust. We cut our pizza with the scissors provided to us and dug in. Except for a slight gumminess in the interior of the cornicione, and a dough flavor that doesn’t quite compare to the sourdough I’ve come to love at Varasano’s, I found it to be delicious. It wasn’t soggy, or soupy, though it could have probably used another 10-30 seconds in the oven to finish off that crust. The toppings and the sauce (my favorite part other than the crust), were quite good.

We were having no problems attacking the first pizza when the Affettati with soppressata, sausage, and pancetta arrived. This one was even crisper, with just the right amount of salty cured pork on it. Though at $17 I think it’s priced $2-3 too much for the size.

I shared the rapini and sausage pasta with Katie, though I was directed to eat all the sausage. It’s not the prettiest of pastas dishes, in fact, I might call it homely, but I mean that in a good way. It felt like how I’d make this dish at home. Not perfect, but satisfying.

The Scobey’s paglia e fieno (“straw and hay”, so named for the colors of the tagliatelle) had a similar rustic look, and while I didn’t taste it, they seemed to enjoy it.

I was quite full at this point, but when the ladies insisted on dessert I didn’t put up much of a fight. I just had an espresso and pushed through. The Nutella terrine was easily my winner from the dessert flight. The hazelnut rich chocolate flavors with banana gelato are right in my wheelhouse.

Truly, I don’t remember much of my one bite of the ’00′ chocolate cake. Though, I do know it satisfied the cake/chocolate tooth in one gal.

They brought us a few cannoli, either because we spent a bunch of money, or because I was taking photos, moving dishes around to stage shots and what not. They also waived the $15 corkage fee for the two bottles that I brought. Blogger benefit? Maybe. But I also ensured to share my wine with the wait staff, and I’ve found providing alcohol to weary (or overly excited) waiters is a sure way to earn some brownie points.

We had a very enjoyable meal overall. A few misses that I wouldn’t expect at this price point, and the staff is a bit too chummy for my tastes, but we had a lot of fun and I left full and happy. The menu is large, and having a selection of cheeses, meats, pastas, and pizzas that range from good to very solid is going to please a lot of people. Their location on the edge of the ‘burbs (but still only 15 minutes from my house on the Westside) is sure to attract both ITP and OTP crowds, so it’s easy to see them being a success. I’d like to see them nail down a few dishes and maybe adjust the price point on a few items but I’d definitely go back.

I made this pie for Thankgiving, my first pie ever. I added a few drops of vanilla and then tied up some cardamom seeds in cheese cloth to add more flavor to the filling. I probably overworked the pie dough a bit too much, but I’ll get the hang of it. I also didn’t do the proper over/under lattice pattern, but no one complained. Fresh cranberries, frozen blueberries.

I’d give it an A-, very solid and worth the effort.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, now I’m already thinking about Christmas food. We’re considering a fresh ham from Caw Caw.

The food and wines were excellent. Biskuit went so far as to repeatedly email the head sommelier at Le Bernardin to obtain wine pairing selections for each of the four courses. The wagyu beef and escolar (“surf and turf”) and the chocolate tart were my personal favorites. Fantastic. This cookbook gets added to my Amazon wishlist, which currently looks like a library of cooking resources and gadgets.

Click on an individual photo in the slideshow to view the details of each dish.

My newest post in the By the Glass series for Creative Loafing is up on Omnivore. I visited Tierra, a restaurant that had been on my “to-visit” list for quite some time. It was super dark so photos were challenging, hence the extremely limited depth of field in the photo above.  We had a really enjoyable meal. The dulce de leche cake and ice cream is as good as everyone says.

Last weekend I did something I’ve been itching to try; I cooked a challenging meal with another person. I’ve slightly assisted people in the kitchen before, or vice versa, but I wanted to take on an ambitious undertaking from recipe creation to plating with someone else and see how successful we could be. When Biskuit was willing to participate, and offered up his very dining-party-friendly home, I jumped at the chance.

One of my faults in the kitchen is that I often take on too much and I often run out of time or get frazzled when it comes time for the final push to put everything out on the table. Trying to finish a sauce, sear the meat, warm up a side dish, and not forget that I have bread in the oven all at the same time can be challenging and I tend to screw one or two things up.

For this meal we took on a six course menu from Thomas Keller’s French Laundry Cookbook. Anyone familiar with this book knows his recipes are neither quick nor relatively easy, so they would be a good test to see how the two of us would work together.

I couldn’t have been much happier with the results.

Each dish was planned out better than I’ve ever done on my own. Grocery shopping was quicker. Doing our prep on Saturday and Sunday, glass of wine in hand, Beastie Boys blaring, was fun.

When it came time to plate, dishes came together fast. Every garnish was remembered. I was less stressed, and the meal was delicious.

– THE MEAL RUN-THROUGH –

Plating was set up ahead of time for each dish. I don’t do this enough, but now know it’s a must-do.

We started with the gruyere gougeres. Super easy, they’re fantastic right out of the oven.

Next up, the famous salmon cornets. Creating the cones was a cumbersome task, with multiple failures along the way. Then once they were done, when it came time to fill them with the creme fraiche, followed by the sashimi grade salmon from BHFM, many of the delicate cones fell apart.

I had the cornets at Per Se a few months ago, and only now do I respect the effort involved in this tiny, beautiful dish.

(This photo, and a few others are by Rowdy Food, as I couldn’t take many photos while we were working).

Next up – cucumber “cappellini” (cucumber strands textured like pasta), pickled Kumamoto oysters from Star Provisions, caviar, and dill.

Very briny and acidic, with nice texture, it was probably better looking that it tasted, but it’s worth it for presentation value alone.

The lobster crepe with carrot-ginger emulsion and pea shoots (Peas ‘n Carrots) may have been the star of the evening. The mascarpone rich lobster filling flavor could have been lost in the sweet sauce, had the mixture not been fortified with the lobster glace we made by boiling the stock of three lobsters down from roughly one quart of water to three tablespoons.

This dish is a keeper.

Next up – rack of lamb (double cut, frenched) with bean cassoulet. It took me roughly an hour to butcher three racks into this cut, having to remove every other bone in the rack, then clean (french) the bone end. It was a new process to me, and I was glad I did it. I would feel much more comfortable doing it again. The first rack took me forever, but I got progressively faster.

The lightly cooked beans consisted of wax, beans, October, fava, marrow, and adzuki beans. The first four were quickly blanched, while the latter two were dry beans that were gently simmered until al dente. The dish is finished with rosemary oil and a lamb “quick” sauce, which actually took Biskuit numerous hours late into Saturday night to complete. When Thomas Keller writes “quick” in quotes, it’s a tongue in cheek notion.

I love beans, so I was a big fan of this dish.

Cheese course – Monte Enebro from Star Provisions, golden beets layered on both sides of matchsticks of red beets, beet reduction, and radish micro greens.

The lady at the juice bar at Whole Foods Buckhead looked at me like I was crazy when I said I wanted a full 20oz cup of plain beet juice, but the reduction was worth it. The whole dish was amazing, another keeper.

Dessert – strawberry and champagne terrine (separate layers) with creme fraiche and mint. We were interested to see how this one would turn out, and I thought it was surprisingly refreshing and enjoyable.

While this meal was obviously an undertaking, I can’t get over how unstressed I was when everyone arrived. I totally attribute this to working with Biskuit, and thank him immensely. He definitely did more work than me, especially in terms of cleaning up, so I owe him one. I can’t wait for the next cooking marathon with my friends.

Thanks to the famous Savory Exposure for taking photos with our cameras while we worked.

Also thanks to everyone that brought some nice wines.

Yay for summer tomatoes. And gazpacho.

I’ve been browsing a lot of gazpacho recipes, and I decided to make this one. I like gazpacho when it doesn’t taste like bloody mary mix. Some aspect of it needs to say “soup” to me.

Before

After

I served it with a cucumber granita. It was really good. Everyone seemed to like it a lot. Creamy, with loads of basil flavor.

Dinner was chorizo, bacon, jowl, and clams with linguine. The hog pen meats the sea.

Dessert was grilled peaches over local honey, Rainier cherry and grape granita, sliced cherry. Really good.

Grilling peaches is a great way to use peaches if you have some that aren’t quite ripe and don’t have time to wait (like me, who was going out of town for a few days).

Last night I had every intention of getting appetizers at Bacchanalia, then moving on to Miller-Union to do the same thing, but the Bacchanalia portions were very substantial and we ended up full after just two appetizers and a salad.

Bacchanalia is generally a $75 prix fixe menu, but if you sit at the bar you can order ala carte. The restaurant was jammed full, but the bar was mostly empty, save for a 15 minute stretch where it was slammed with diners waiting for their tables. We easily found somewhere to sit, perused the drink menu, and asked the bartender, Seth, for a half bottle of Ployez-Jacquemart Champagne. It wasn’t stunning, but decent bubbles for under $50 is always a fun start to a meal. But we actually stretched this half bottle out through the whole meal, which ended up taking almost two hours.

Considering we were sitting at the bar and only ordering appetizers, I didn’t expect that they would offer us the whole routine afforded to those in the dining room. But immediately after we ordered, the bread arrived, then the warm gougères, followed by the cauliflower soup amuse. Shortly after, our appetizers arrived.

I had the butter poached lobster in risotto for $16. At first I thought the only lobster in the dish was the claw meat on top, and I wasn’t too shocked at that fact considering the locale and the price, but in fact there were five large bite sized pieces underneath the risotto, a pleasant surprise. The dish was probably too buttery (note the slightly coagulated butter ring around the risotto), but the risotto was cooked perfectly al dente, the lobster was wonderful, and the dish was filling and satisfying.

Katie got the Yukon gold gnocchi with royal trumpet mushrooms and shaved parmesan, also $16. My photo is poor, but we liked how the dish was presented in the small country style pot. The gnocchi were very tender, soft and giving to the touch, without being mushy. I really liked the crunchy mushrooms in this dish too. This was also a hearty dish, and a very large portion for an appetizer. Someone was a little heavy handed with the salt, but not to the point were it was a major turn-off.

After the appetizers, our salad arrived. It was roasted beets with beet sorbet and amazing goat cheese. I had this dish the first time I came to Bacchanalia a few years ago, so it must be a mainstay on the menu, and for good reason. The beet sorbet is unexpectedly refreshing, the goat cheese is fantastic, and I love how it all mixes up together to create a cold, blood stained cheese and roasted beet mixture. Again, I was surprised at the size of the portion for $12.

For dessert we ordered the apple buckle with cardamom ice cream. Though before this arrived, we were served yet another amuse from the kitchen – a candied lemon fizz drink, which was superb.

But our dessert was definitely the right choice, I only wish there had been more of the cardamom ice cream. I first had cardamom ice cream at Dynamic Dish, and it blew me away. I’m surprised I don’t see this combination more often.

At this point we were thoroughly stuffed, but the kitchen kept sending us out “gifts”. First came the macaroons, chocolates, and short breads, followed by the warm, puffy madeleines (not pictured). The madeleines pushed me over the top, from full to, OK now we waddle out to the car. But in a great way.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call this meal cheap, but it was a hell of a value. For two people I spent about $140 with tax and tip, which is less than what I spent for one person on my last visit to Bacchanalia, and I could have easily spent less on alcohol. I also had more fun on this visit – it was less up tight, I got to watch the dining room, chat with Seth, and view the kitchen staff working fervently; I highly recommend visiting this way. And if it’s not your thing, just get your check and hit up the next place on the Westside, there’s definitely a lot of options these days.

Notable: Bacchanalia now has a published vegetarian tasting menu, also $75. I believe they have been able to do this for quite a while, but a few years ago I know they didn’t have one published on their website. Also, shout out to RowdyFood.com, who gave me the idea for hitting up the bar at Bacchanalia.

When Eat Buford Highway made his recent visit to Sublime as part of his donut week, the pictures were too much to resist and I made my way over there this past Sunday.

The owner, Kamal, was there to guide us through all of his offerings, but don’t ask him to help you choose between two different donuts. When Katie asked which of the two she was thinking of ordering were best, Kamal replied, “It would be unfair to ask me to choose, I love them all the same”. It’s clear that this CIA Hyde Park graduate is proud of every offering on the menu, something I respect.

We each chose two donuts and a cup of coffee, which Kamal makes to order in a French press. I’m a sucker for anything with peanut butter, so the favorite donut I had was the Reese’s with peanut butter. Incredible. The s’mores (with burnt marshmallow of course) was also insanely good.

I fear that I’ve found a new place where I’ll be a regular…I’ll go ahead and apologize to my waistline now.

More on Kamal and the story of Sublime Donuts can be found in this AJC article by John Kessler.