2012 Wine Spectator Grand Award Winners

The 2012 Grand Award Winners...
We've managed to get to 17 of these...how many have you been to and which was your favorite?

Restaurant	Location	Country	Cuisine
21 Club	New York, NY	USA	Contemporary American
A Voce Columbus	New York, NY	USA	Italian
Acquerello	San Francisco, CA	USA	Contemporary Italian
Addison	San Diego, CA	USA	French
Alain Ducasse	Paris	France	French
American Hotel, The	Sag Harbor, NY	USA	Contemporary French
Angus Barn, The	Raleigh, NC	USA	Steakhouse
Antica Bottega Del Vino	Verona	Italy	Italian
Athony's in the Catalinas	Tucson, AZ	USA	Continental
Atrio	Caceres	Spain	Spanish
Auerole Las Vegas	Las Vegas, NV	USA	Contemporary American
Bern's Steakhouse	Tampa, FL	USA	Steakhouse
Billy Crews Dining Room	Santa Teresa, NM	USA	American
Bistro a Champlain	Ste. Marquerite-du-Lac-Masson, QC	Canada	French
Blackberry Farm	Walland, TN	USA	American
Blantyre	Lenox, MA	USA	French
Canlis	Seattle, WA	USA	Pacific Northwestern
Commander's Palace	New Orleans, LA	USA	Creole
Crabtree's Kittle House	Chappaqua, NY	USA	Contemporary American
Daniel	New York, NY	USA	French
Del Posto	New York, NY	USA	Italian
Delmonico	Las Vegas, NV	USA	Steakhouse
Don Alfonso 1890	Macao	China	Italian
Eleven Madison Park	New York, NY	USA	American / French
Emeril's New Orleans	New Orleans, LA	USA	Contemporary American
Enoteca Pinchiorri	Florence	Italy	Italian
Flagstaff House Restaurant	Boulder, CO	USA	American / French
French Laundry, The	Yountville, CA	USA	American / French
Gilt	New York, NY	USA	Contemporary American
Graycliff	Nassau	Bahamas	French / Italian
Greenhouse, The	London	England	French / Contemporary
Il Poeta Contadino	Alberobello	Italy	Italian
Inn at Little Washington, The	Washington, VA	USA	American
Joel Robuchon Restaurant	Las Vegas, NV	USA	French
La Pergola	Rome	Italy	Mediterrean
La Tour D'Argent	Paris	France	French
L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon	Las Vegas, NV	USA	French
Le Cinq	Paris	France	French
Le Louis XV - Alain Ducasse	Monte Carlo	Monaco	Mediterrean
Left Bank  at Stonehedge Inn & Spa	Tyngsboro, MA	USA	Contemporary American
Les Amis	Shaw Centre, Singapore	China	French
L'Escalier at the Breakers	Palm Beach, FL	USA	French
Marinus Restaurant	Carmel Valley, CA	USA	California
Michel Rostang	Paris	France	French
Montagna at the Little Nell	Aspen, CO	USA	Regional
Opus Restaurant on Prince Arthur	Toronto, ON	Canada	Continental
Palais Coburg	Vienna	Austria	International
Pappas Bros. Steakhouse Dallas	Dallas, TX	USA	Steakhouse
Pappas Bros. Steakhouse Houston	Houston, TX	USA	Steakhouse
Park & Orchard Restaurant	East Rutherford, NJ	USA	International
Patina	Los Angeles, CA	USA	French / California
Picasso	Las Vegas, NV	USA	French / Mediterranean
Piero Selvaggio Valentino	Las Vegas, NV	USA	Italian
Pluckemin Inn, The	Bedminster, NJ	USA	Contemporary American
Post Hotel Dining Room	Lake Louise, AB	Canada	Contemporary
Restaurant 301 at Hotel Carter	Eureka, CA	USA	French / California
Restaurant Gary Danko	San Francisco, CA	USA	French / California
Restaurant Guy Savoy	Las Vegas, NV	USA	Contemporary French
Restaurant Jorg Muller	Sylt-Westerland	Germany	French / Italian
Restaurant Latour	Hardyston, NJ	USA	French / American
Restaurante Rekondo	San Sebastian	Spain	Basque
RN74	San Francisco, CA	USA	Contemporary
Robuchon Au Dome	Macao	China	French
Rockpool Bar & Grill	Sydney, New South Wales	Australia	Steakhouse
Sierra Mar	Big Sur, CA	USA	California
Spago	Beverly Hills, CA	USA	California
Taillevent	Paris	France	French
Topper's at the Wauwinet	Nantucket, MA	USA	Contemporary American
Tribeca Grill	New York, NY	USA	Contemporary
Tru	Chicago, IL	USA	Contemporary French
Valentino	Santa Monica, CA	USA	Italian
Veritas	New York, NY	USA	Contemporary
Via Allegro Ristorante	Etobicoke, ON	Canada	Italian / French
Wild Ginger	Seattle, WA	USA	Asian
WineSellar & Brasserie, The	San Diego, CA	USA	Contemporary French

Halibut and Corn Hobo Packs with Herbed Butter

Looking for something new and easy for fish the other night, I tried a recipe from the August 2012 edition of Food & Wine magazine. It was quick to prepare and we loved the grilled bread with herbed butter that accompanied the dish.

Halibut and Corn Hobo Packs with Herbed Butter

Chives and tarragon are fantastic with both corn and fish. Here, Grace Parisi folds the herbs into softened butter and grills them with a mix of corn and halibut in a foil hobo pack.

1. 1/4 cup snipped chives
2. 2 tablespoons tarragon leaves
3. 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
4. Salt
5. Freshly ground white pepper
6. 2 ears of corn, kernels cut from the cobs
7. 4 large shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and caps thinly sliced
8. 4 skinless halibut fillets (6 ounces each)
9. 8 baguette slices, cut on the diagonal

1. In a mini food processor, pulse the chives and tarragon leaves until chopped. Add the butter and a pinch each of salt and white pepper and pulse just until the butter is bright green with flecks of herbs. Transfer the herb butter to a sheet of plastic wrap and form into a log. Freeze for about 5 minutes, until the butter is slightly firm. Cut the butter into 16 pieces.
2. Arrange four 12-inch sheets of heavy-duty foil on a work surface and spray evenly with vegetable oil spray. In a medium bowl, toss the corn with the shiitake and season with salt and pepper. Mound the mixture in the center of the foil sheets and top each mound with a piece of the herb butter. Top with the halibut fillets and another piece of the herb butter and season with salt and pepper. Fold up the foil on all sides and pinch the seams to seal.
3. Light a grill. Place the foil packets on the grill, close the lid and cook over high heat until the fish is cooked through and the mushrooms are tender, 8 to 10 minutes; let the packets rest for 2 minutes.
4. Grill the baguette slices for 2 minutes, turning once. Top with the remaining herb butter, allowing it to melt. Open the packets and serve the fish and vegetables with the baguette toasts.

Make Ahead The herb butter can be wrapped in plastic and frozen for up to 1 month.

Father's Office, Los Angeles, CA

Touted as one of the best burgers around, I was looking forward to trying out Father's Office. Located in the Culver City neighborhood of LA this is a go to place. We got there very early having just flown in from New Jersey and starving, we arrived at 4pm. It was quiet at that point which let us grab a great picnic style table and benches outside while we ordered burgers, wine and microbrewed beers.

The place filled up rapidly starting at 5pm and was still packed when we eventually left at 9pm. Through the evening many different friends and co-workers of Alan and our host for the evening, Nick, arrived. Almost everyone ordered the burger even though there were about a dozen things on the menu including crab cakes, salads and even bone marrow.

The burger is the star here and the only choice really is how you want it cooked - opting for medium rare is the popular choice. The burger came on a French demi-baguette with carmelized onions, blue and gruyere cheeses and a heaping pile of arugula. This was served with shoestring potatoes and a garlic aioli dipping sauce.

The Father's Office policy is no condiments - no mustard, ketchup, mayo...nothing but the garlic sauce which was fantastic by the way. So once I knew that after making the mistake of asking (such a Yankee tourist), I bit in and sighed with happiness. It really was a fantastic burger. To start with - the baguette held up really well against the dripping juiciness of the meat and cheese. The combination of bite from the blue cheese, the tang from the arugula and the mellow creaminess of the Gruyere blended together to make for one damn good burger.

Zagat: 23-16-14
Jenn's Rating: 84
Rated Top 12 Burger's in America by Gourmet Magazine
4 out of 5 stars on Yelp.com

SAAM, chef's tasting room at Bazaar, Los Angeles

Alan and I have just returned from a week on the west coast. We split time between Los Angeles and San Diego and ate well in both places. One of our dinners was with a group of Alan's colleagues at SAAM, the chef's tasting room at Bazaar in the SLS Hotel, Beverly Hills.

We arrived early to the hotel to have drinks. If you haven't been to or experienced The Bazaar, its unlike anything I've ever seen before. With five different themed areas all bleeding into each other, it's a dizzying array of colors, sights and sounds. There's Bar Centro ~ literally a bar in the middle of the space ~ packed with decked out LA'ers in couture and tourists watching them. We sat at this long, raised bar table for a little over an hour having drinks and people watching.

Around us there was also two main dining rooms called Rojo Y Blanca decorated as you can imagine in red and whites serving ala carte and tapas.

There's a dessert room with an open kitchen called Patisserie which we were told is where you are "taken" after you finish dining to enjoy evening sweets. Then there's this odd store without walls tucked up in the front of the space called Regalo. And finally, there's SAAM; the private chef's tasting room in the back of the restaurant secluded away from the bustle of the other scenes. SAAM is where we ate dinner.

We had an 8pm reservation and eight people seated against the wall in a lovely, comfortable table with cushy seats and understated decor. The tasting menu consists of 22 small bites showcasing fresh ingredients and the chef's work with molecular gastronomy.

So here we go!
Course #1:  Kaviar Kir Royale; a champagne cocktail with "caviar" eggs made out of liqueur at the bottom of the glass. It didn't have nearly as much flavor as I was expecting.
Course #2:  Beet & Yogurt; a roll of soft beets and creamy yogurt encased in a flaky, simple pastry. Much lighter than expected but not a flavor combination I enjoyed.

Course #3:  Oyster & Jamon and Course #4:  Parmesan Macaron; served together, the oyster was a fresh little bite that went well with the salty ham. The Parmesan dish had herbs in it and both of these dishes complimented the sparkling wine (2008 Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc) we were having with the beginning of the meal.

Course #5:  Seabeans in Tempura; a fabulous preparation of a simple vegetable, the tempura was warm, crunchy and light with a natural saltiness. Seabean is actually Glasswort, a plant growing in Europe in salty marshes and sea coasts.

Course #6:  Jose's Combination; yep, that's prosciutto with caviar and it tasted as good as it looks.

Course #7:  Patatas Bravas (fried potatoes with allioli and chili sauce). I don't think I liked this course very much...it was a little spicy but otherwise pretty bland.

Course #8:  Chicken Skin & Cigala (langostine): this dish was AWESOME. But I mean, come on! It's fried chicken skin (think pork rind only with chicken) with a langostine over it and then a green cucumber foam. What's not to love?

Course #9:  Not Your Everyday Caprese: another knockout course. These mozzarella balls were extremely delicate and you needed to pop the entire thing in your mouth so it didn't break. Then when you did, with some of the tomato and fresh basil puree it was like an explosion of Caprese in a liquid happy bomb. Really amazing.

Course #10: Crispy Nigiri: no picture and can't remember anything about it.

Course #11: Uni & Eel: done like a risotto of eel with Uni on top this was crazy rich and decadent. It made me very happy though a bit heavy on the palate considering we were only halfway through. But loved this course.

Course #12: Chipirones (Northern Spanish style of cooking squid in it's own ink): I'm a pretty big fan of squid thanks mostly to Marea in NYC. This was a nice little course - the squid was pleasantly chewy, especially the body portion which so often is too tough. Nice one overall.

Course #13: Banh Mi (Vietnamese baguette sandwich): Not for me...I didn't like this sandwich at all. It was bland and filling and I didn't finish it. Could have skipped this course altogether.

Course #14: Carrots: Blue Hill at Stone Barns has taught me to never take a carrot for granted. Thank goodness I didn't dismiss this course before giving it a try (since I don't like raw carrots, was a possibility). Really superb. The sweet carrots and bitter edible flowers were simple and complimentary to each other.

Course #15: Mirugai (geoduck or large saltwater clam): I really thought this was some sort of white fish since the taste was rather mild and the texture delicate. To find out it was actually some creepy looking giant clam thing makes me even more impressed with this dish. Excellent taste.

Course #16: Wagyu & Mushroom Escabeche: Yummy! Is that enough of a review? And the broth was made of bone marrow so double yummy!!

Course #17: Mushroom & Duck Liver

Additional Course #17A: Wild Mushrooms & Black Truffles: this course was probably the hit of the evening for the rest of the table and I really, really, really wanted to eat it and love it. But I had hit the food wall to quote Adam Richman of Man vs. Food. I literally couldn't eat it - it was so rich and I was on the brink of total stomach shut down.

Course #18: Japanese Baby Peaches: no picture and I skipped this one too still reeling from food overload.

Course #19: Dragon's Breath Popcorn: no picture but honestly there wouldn't have been a way to capture the coolness of this course. We each popped a frozen piece of "popcorn" in our mouths and were told to breath out of our noses. The reaction was a stream of "smoke" looking like a fire breathing dragon exhaling. So very cool. The taste itself was not the highlight of this course. Watching each person in turn breath fire was frigging awesome.

Course #20: Frozen Apricot Timbale with Amaretto

Course #21: Desert Dessert
Course #22: Sexy Little Sweets

Summary: I really enjoyed this entire experience. Most of that had to do with the fun group of people and lively conversation. Most of the dishes were interesting enough or downright fabulous to overshadow the few misses they served. The service was attentive and fun and our head server dealt with this rambunctious crowd very well. I loved the intimate feeling of this private room and felt comfortable and not rushed. While I personally had a hard time handling this many courses (unusual for me, but it can happen), I do like it when high end restaurants do lots of little bites or plates. It's worth the trip and probably one of the better truly "foodie" experience to be had in Los Angeles. Final note - at $120 per person fixed cost this comes in as a moderate priced dinner (not nearly as scary as some of the NYC chef's tastings) with a pretty good wine list.

Zagat's Rating: 27-26-25
Jenn's Rating: 92

Arugula Pesto

This past Thursday marked our first CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture) delivery of the season and we were very excited to put together our vegetable-heavy menu for the week.  After determining what we would do with the collards, swiss chard, bok choy, broccoli, lettuce, & radishes, I was left with a bag of arugula and no ideas.  While I've made quite a few different arugula salads of late, I wanted to try something different this time and came upon a number of recipes for a pesto using arugula rather than basil.  The below is the one I tried:

Arugula Pesto Recipe

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups of packed arugula leaves, stems removed
• 1/2 cup of shelled walnuts
• 1/2 cup fresh Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 1/2 garlic clove peeled and minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

METHOD

1 Brown 6 garlic cloves with their peels on in a skillet over medium high heat until the garlic is lightly browned in places, about 10 minutes. Remove the garlic from the pan, cool, and remove the skins.

2 Toast the nuts in a pan over medium heat until lightly brown, or heat in a microwave on high heat for a minute or two until you get that roasted flavor. In our microwave it takes 2 minutes.

3 Combine the arugula, salt, walnuts, roasted and raw garlic into a food processor. Pulse while drizzling the olive oil into the processor. Remove the mixture from the processor and put it into a bowl. Stir in the Parmesan cheese.

Aside from the beautiful bright green color, my first impression after tasting the pesto was the immediate strong peppery flavor.  However, the taste it left in your mouth was absolutely fantastic.  As I'm typing this, my 1 1/2 yr. old is downing a bowl of pasta with arugula pesto & meatball!  We plan on using the leftovers later this week on a baked potato.  I believe you can make this ahead and freeze the pesto but you will need to do so before you add the cheese.  I will definitely be making this one again.