Robert Brown

Before this past Monday and Tuesday, we had a hard time remembering the last time we had back-to-back essentially perfect meals at two restaurants. As I mentioned previously, my wife and I drove from Nice in time for lunch at Antica Corona Reale di Renzo (“Renzo”) near Cuneo in Cervere, the leek capital of Italy, if not the world. After spending the first of two nights of the Albergo dell’ L’Agenzia in the palace complex that houses the home of Slow Food’s University of Taste (the hotel doesn’t have much of that), we ate lunch the following day at Ciau dei Tornavento (“Ciau)’ in Treiso, which

Have you met her? As for all those chefs you mention, I'm willing to cede you 10-11 months of the year unless, of course, the Alba truffles have an off-year. That's being kind because I'm just as happy to go to a handful of Piemontese restaurants at any time of the year.

We're talking white Alba truffles, which are never cooked, Who knows if a French chef hasn't already thrown a summer, Burgundy, Perigord or Tricastin one in a bag already. Probably by now. Chambolle, my trip is history. More about it soon. Chiara is spoken for, even has a kid or two by now.

Are you talking about Lorenzo's daughter Chiara? She was, last time I saw her in her shop now almost five years ago, one of the great pieces around.

I had to delay my visit by four days. When I am back in Nice tomorrow so that i can write on a computer instead of a tablet, I will give details on why I feel Piemonte in the fall provides the best eating in at least the Western world.

I should have said that La Table du Chef, La Merenda, Le Virginie, Nuovo Piccolo Mondo, Le Petit Darkoum and Le Mandarin are modestly-priced restaurants. My "canteen" is Lou Pistou, two doors from La Merenda. It's just that the last meal we had there wasn't up to snuff. Perhaps the next one will be. If you order the ratatouille and the nougat glacée, you're half-way home. We like Isabelle and her husband Michel who does the cooking. It has lots of joie-de-vivre and reminds me of the bistrots I used to go to in Paris a long time ago.

Thanks for the leads. There is a fair turnover in Nice with lots of restaurants coming and going. These are new on me, although I pass the latter every time I go out. One that looks interesting is Le Sejour I even wrote them to ask if they have sous-vide apparatus. They don't. We had a pretty bad rib steak at Vinovor last night.

Steve and Rails, these are big shoes to fill, but I’ll try my best, realizing that all I have to offer is owning a place in Nice for 16 years. Abra, what you should in general is that dining on the Cote d’Azur isn’t a whole lot different in many ways than dining in major US cities. It has gotten worse as such atrocities as farmed fish, truffle oil, sous-vide cooking, no-choice tasting menus, the cheapening of ingredients and lack of generosity ( I wish those dishes with pockets would disappear) are proliferating rapidly. Every time I go to a new Young Turk, shoestring restaurant on the Cot

Chambolle, I'll be up there next Thursday for just two nights. How did you know that I wrote to Renzo about sous-vide? Did I post it elsewhere in Mouthfuls? Anyway, they don't use it. I admit to a few trepidations about Renzo. They charge 60 euros each time they put truffle shavings on a plate. I see nothing about the bringing of truffles in a box to the table so that the customer can chose a truffle, have it weighed before and after, and then be charge accordingly. But Vedat Milor from eGullet and Gastromondial days told me that he gets that service. We'll see. I also plan to ask them if and

Most exacting technique, ...anything more ambitious.

Pasta, vegetables, smoked meats, etc. are cheap eats. When I come back from Europe and it's dinner time, I burst into tears.

With the exception of a recommendation from a trustworthy restaurant-goer, I can only decide to go to a restaurant by what I read. Maybe the food at Fanny's would be to my liking, but maybe not. What I get most from reading its website is that it’s a cheap eats place on one hand and offering in their words “the highest qualtity and most consistent food experience possible” on the other. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. However it’s difficult to envisage their hopes and dreams as standing up to hundreds of other restaurants elsewhere. I, and likely all the gastronomes I know (mili

I like the quote from the website. Not a word about how they might prepare memorable, or even good, food. It's one reason why I think twice about going toe, these farm to table restaurants because of what most of them do to the food from the time it leaves the farm to when they bring it to the table. And those people don't even capitalize "Fanny".

The Grinch has the most famous stollen recipe of all.

Regarding Pithecanthropus Erectus, "Love Chant" is for me the greatest Mingus track of all. I love Jackie McLean, and you have to wonder why J.R. Monterose of Albany NY never got more recognition.

Royal Roost.

I figured that, but I couldn't resist.

Any relation to Eli Zabar?

What did you order? I may be back there in seven months. We need two people to order the poulet Souvaroff as it's made for four.

Sophie Bise is not so good when left to her own devices, but if you order the four or so dishes from the Golden Age, you should be very happy at one of the best-situated restaurants in the world. Because I was on the lake for a decent period, I got the kitchen to make me more of the historic dishes from there. The chef-de-cuisine knows his stuff.

Pere Bise is one of the greatest visits for dining you could possibly make these days.

Did you get a car and driver?

Has anyone been to Liebman's in Riverdale now that it got a write-up in Sunday's NYT? The article didn't pass judgement on the pastrami as I recall, but is the deli worth the schlepp?

Ask Daniel Spoerri or Dider Rot about the limits of food as an esthetic experience. Okay, not the latter who is dead. Still, a good frame of reference, Adrian.

I can guess where this is leading, which is the "Is food art?" argument. I think it is also about can eating evoke emotions and responses as do music, visual arts,etc. it does in me, but that does not make cuisine art. I think it is the overly-preciousness that Ozersky doesn't like, which is why, I am guessing, he prefers Steingarten, Trillin, and others who take it less seriously. Maybe Proust got away with it, but just him. Roy Andries deGroot?