There are certain things I haven’t eaten in Atlanta yet that I must eat before I leave for the Big Apple. Among them are fried chicken at this famous downtown place (I forget the name), real BBQ somewhere OTP (loyal site readers will know what that means), and–of course–country ham at the Silver Skillet.Today I…

I’m making a concerted effort not to be negative on this site (hence the removal of a gripe against a former employer), but it would be criminal not to point out the maddening fluff of today’s NYT Dining & Wine section story: What He Ate: A Food Diary From New York. This is an article…

Hello,This is Richard Clark, counter-terrorism czar, and catalyst for what is now a full-blown scandal regarding President Bush, 9/11 and intelligence.But that is not why I write to you today.I write to you on a matter much more grave, much more serious. I write to you because you are being deceived, and someone has to…

Why don’t vegetarians eat mollusks? I thought of this question at dinner with Lisa several weeks ago. Lisa, who is a vegetarian, couldn’t think of a good answer. I mean, there isn’t much of a difference between a mollusk (clam, oyster, scallop) and a plant is there? Neither have brains, therefore they do not experience…

As those of us who read our Bible and listen to our “Jesus Christ Superstar” know, Jesus took a loaf of bread and a fish and fed millions of people. Despite all the messianic implications, I took two loaves of bread and fed myself twice.Last night, there was salad, soup and bread. Pictured you will…

NYC Eats has taken the NYT Quick Guide List for NYC restaurants and added links to the reviews and videos. It’s organized by stars; so you can get tours of NYC’s top dining spots. My favorites were Alain Ducasse and Daniel. You can also tour two places my parents ate at on their anniversary trip,…

Service matters. You can have the best food in the world, but if it’s presented in a dry, humorless style (ahem, Charlie Trotter’s) your meal loses lustre.Good service is a complicated matter. A good server is a chameleon: if one table wants professional courtesy and another table wants to yuk it up, you have to…

Ladies and Gentlemen,I present to you my greatest culinary achievement. Two weeks in the making, this bread is the pinnacle of my young gourmet life. Here it is in its final form:To be honest, its beauty is still a bit staggering. Isn’t it gorgeous?Here’s how it looks on the inside:How amazing that flour, water and…

The oven is preheating to 500 degrees. The baking stone is in place. The bread is doing it’s final rise. The band is playing “We Will Rock You.” Lauren is purchasing soup and salad from Whole Foods. [What’s funny is as I wrote that, she called my cell to say: “Creole Seafood Gumbo?” I gave…

I have restrained myself thus far from revealing a family secret. But now the time has come, and here it is: my parents are celebrity hounds. Their affinity for a restaurant is based on the likelihood that they will see a celebrity there. Nevermind good food, give them:Sarah Jessica ParkerOr, Billy Joel (with my brother)Or,…