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Roscoe, sure most Americans eat fast food, like brits eat fish & chips, but that doesn't mean you have a clue what your talking about, particularly since your US experience is clouded by owning a house in the Redneck Riviera. Try lecturing Darina Allen instead.
It's not yet 15 years since Michelin published its first US restaurant guide (NYC 2005)), and NYC has already overtaken London (1st published 1926) with the number of starred restaurants. Check it out, eat some humble pie. The US currently has three cities in the top 12 globally. After just 14 years US now has three times as many three stars as the UK has accumulated in 93 years.*
As I said in an earlier post I've eaten excellent meals in the UK and USA and it's fatuous to make any comparison between the two countries.
My observations are more about the quantity of food in restaurants, the speed at which Americans consume it and what constitutes " fine " dining.
And they all started because someone was waxing lyrical on here about a fast food restaurant.
It's chicken in a bun dude ...
I have family members who enjoy cooking shows, so they are often on in my house, and I have never heard Gordon Ramsay called anything but Gordon Ramsay.
It's sweet of you to say Roscoe is cute, but I find his Eurosupremacism extremely boring.
Oh, naturally the people who are actually producing and appearing on those shows try to create a certain reverential aura by referring to Ramsay and others by their titles. I thought we were talking about human beings in their ordinary lives. No one goes around saying, "Did you hear Chef Ramsay tear into that contestant on the show last night?" No, they call him Gordon Ramsay, of course.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Roscoe Conkling
Golden rule of restaurants.
You ask wait staff what they'd recommend and usually it's the slow-moving dishes.
And " some chefs are better at some dishes than others " is a new one on me.Either the restaurant can cook what's on the menu or it can't.
Chefs get sick and/or have family emergencies. The customers don't know if there's a stand-in. The waitstaff does. Customers also don't know if there's something of note that's come in. This is particularly applicable with farm to table restaurants, whether it's fine dining or just a better restaurant. Now if Spike is correct and you are condemning the whole country based on the redneck riviera, that's pretty silly.
If someone is going into Waffle House or Denny's and asking for a recommendation, that's on them. They deserve what they get.
If you are not all that familiar with the farm to table restaurants, there was a PBS series about one called A Chef's Life. It ran for 5 seasons. It showed the interaction with the farmers. The restaurant specialized in regional cooking, not fine dining.
We aren't all clods. I've yet to find any person who can't tell the difference between fine dining and fast food. If that's what you've found, well, you need to find more people.
Those shows are geared to drama, real or manufactured.
I saw less than 5 minutes of a show with Gordon Ramsay once, then changed the channel. I do enjoy the PBS cooking shows, whether it's American cooks or imported shows, usually from Ireland or the UK.
There's a PBS show called A Taste of History which includes the head chef of City Tavern in Philadelphia. He's an older gentleman, born in Bavaria, who travels around showing mostly 18th & 19th century recipes, mostly cooking over open flames and woodburning ovens. I've never heard him yell, not once.
As I said in an earlier post I've eaten excellent meals in the UK and USA and it's fatuous to make any comparison between the two countries.
My observations are more about the quantity of food in restaurants, the speed at which Americans consume it and what constitutes " fine " dining.
And they all started because someone was waxing lyrical on here about a fast food restaurant.
It's chicken in a bun dude ...
But YOU were making comparisons.........and you're now a day late and a dollar short with a claim that comparisons are fatuous......
It's also clear that you fundamentally misunderstand the dynamics of US dining....
This far from comprehensive wiki will enhance your dining education.
I am not sure how this went from fast food to Michelin Stars.
I would however be careful of throwing figures around, or claiming the US has more Michelin Stars, as the UK now has 186 Michelin starred restaurants compared to the last figures available for the US which was 148.
As for three starred Michelin restaurants NYC has five, London has three, however there are a further two just to the West of London near Windsor.
The rest of Americas three starrred Michellin restaurants are on the West Coast, meaning that there isn't a vast amount of three star restaurants inbetween.
So I don't think a much smaller country such as the UK needs to eat any humble pie in resect of Michelin, although Michelin itself has been the subject of much criticism with it's preference for fussy food and maticulous OCD type preperation that has even seen people hand their stars back. Michelin likes French and Japanese cusine in this respect however you will find few Indian restaurants or other cusines on the Michelln lists of starred restaurants, and apparently even Italian food lacks the complexity that Michelin craves, so even Italian restaurants and Italian cusine is notably underrated by Michelin.
America has some superb restaurants as does the UK, however to just use Michellin, a rather biased guide to try and prove a point is not proving anything, as it's a highly cricised guide to start with.
You need to pay more attention we migrated to "fine dining" because Roscoe raised the issue.......
Well threads like this do tend to go off in different directions sometimes - after all you were the one who brought a politicial dimension into the discussion regarding your dislike of Chick-fil-A over what you considered to be their anti-LGBT stance.
You do seem quite miffed old chap - this is just a mild and generally good-natured discussion about the merits of certain fast-food joints and dining habits of different countries.
Could I suggest you approach it in the more relaxed manner of the delightful KathrynAragon who, by her posts, sounds like a lady who could be fun to break bread with ...
It's also clear that you fundamentally misunderstand the dynamics of US dining....
Dynamics of US dining ?
I thought the dynamics were " I'm hungry, let's eat.What do you fancy tonight ? Me, I'm in the mood for some pasta.Let's try that Italian place on Main Street,USA. "
I didn't realise there were dynamics about eating out ...
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27,187 posts, read 13,477,157 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SpikeMilligan's Alter Ego
You need to pay more attention we migrated to "fine dining" because Roscoe raised the issue.......
I would take heed of the criticism of the Michelin guide.
As for the US and UK both have very good restauraunts.
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