Well, I got my rezzies…95 days out. Wasn’t that bad afterall.
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Wow, no Noma? Osteria Fancescana? Arzak? Cellar de can Roca? Etc…?
Do you just not like Spanish/Scandanavian food?
More on topic to N/Naka. I came late to watching the episode of Chef’s Table while locked away in the hospital as I watched the series. I felt super upset about the episode. It focused at least 75% on the weird social politics of her being a woman chef. They spent almost more time explaining why she doesn’t cook with an open kitchen than they did about any food… It was outrageous. Every other episode focuses somewhat on the lives of the chefs involved obviously, but along the way it focuses heavily on ingredients used in the food, where the food comes from, what makes the dishes wholly unique, etc…
The only thing I came away with from the N/Naka episode is that her kaiseki is unique because she serves pasta courses that don’t adhere to the tradition… they show her shopping for some ingredients, but don’t highlight what is being bought, or the reasoning really, or anything. I was hoping to get to see her buying unique ingredients, to understand what makes her cooking special, etc… it seemed like the big selling point was just that she is a woman who cooks.
I’m surprised that that episode managed to make the place so booked… whether the cooking deserves it or not, there was virtually nothing in the episode that gives you much of a reason to want to eat there. The abalone pasta looks fascinating, but in comparison everything else looks very…normal, even when they focus on it.
Doesn’t every high-end sushi place, even in LA, use better fish for their sashimi and sushi? She’s not a trained sushi chef…surely Mori/Shunji/Zo/Q etc… blow the sashimi and sushi courses of the N/Naka menu out of the water? And don’t most of those places also serve A5 Miyazaki Wagyu just as well, or better? The stupid episode makes it look like you are just getting second-hand versions of specialized Japanese cuisine from around town.
If anyone else cares to explain what makes the cuisine there special beyond the very pretty plating, and the abalone pasta it would be an appreciated read. Obviously they don’t need it since they’re booked up forever, but perhaps someone with more experience and passion can explain it better than the crappy episode.
She trained as a sushi chef at Takao in Brentwood. IIRC
The taste.
As in, the food tastes good.
Shocking, I know.
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I love Spanish food.
Frankly I’m tied of molecular gastronomy. It’s soulless to me and tastes the same regardless of country of origin. You’ll see once you start doing them.
As for n/naka it is not sushi but kaiseki so that’s what sets her apart from the sushi places you listed. Sushi is but 1 of 10 or so courses.
You mentioned sushi was a weakness in your appreciation of fine. I recommend you start that portion of your cuisine exploration because there are subtleties that can’t be explained via discussion or reading.
Hope your recovery is smooth and you get back to more eating and less rhetoric.
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Not really the same as training in Tokyo though, is it? Has anyone even mentioned Takao as a top-tier place in LA on these boards before?
The food tastes good at about 1,000 other places in LA, none of them with waitlists 95 days out, or $185 price tags.
So basically you would advise ignoring the place?
“Hope your recovery is smooth and you get back to more eating and less rhetoric.”
idk what rhetoric you’re talking about. Asking for actual descriptions of a restaurant’s food that makes it special is not rhetoric. In theory, that’s what these entire discussion forums are for… er… discussions about food…
Until someone directs me to a page in the rules of the forums that says “No discussion of food may take place on these forums”, I will continue trying to discuss food on here.
Maybe I’ll celebrate getting out of hell with some sushi, who knows. I still feel like I need to dedicate at least a year to studying knife techniques and fish types before I can even walk into a place like Mori though.
Do you not like Saison?
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Rhetoric as in you’ve never been to Spain and list a couple of restaurants off Pellegrino’s Top 50 and ask me if I don’t like Spanish food. The restaurants you’ve listed have little to do with Spanish food.
I replied to you because you posted a recent useful review with pictures (VACA). Your poorly drawn conclusions are clearly based on lack of experience (eg n/naka, Spanish food, fine dining, molecular gastronomy, sushi, etc.) yet you make some pretty absurd statements.
All I am saying is that you should get out and travel and eat more instead of just talking theory and quoting lists/blogs. It’s like sex. You can talk and guess based on things you’ve read, but until you’ve actually experienced it, no one can explain to you what it’s really like and there is no substitute for your own experience. Not to mention too much talk and not enough actual experiece starts to become pathetic.
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Yes, don’t go.
I’d concur. It might be because I don’t elevate kaiseki to the sublime art form that many do. It might be because I just caught her on an off night. Either way, judging based on taste relative to expense, I feel there are far better ways to spend this much money on LA dining.
(hangs head in shame)
i not only walked into mori, i ate the food, too.
i didn’t study.
sigh.
please don’t drop a dime on me to the po po.
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Not weird. Oppression is not weird. The glass ceiling in Niki’s story is so glaring that it can’t hide. I think the filmmaker’s did a great service in bringing these issues front and center.
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[/quote][quote=“Porthos, post:27, topic:2189”]
I replied to you because you posted a recent useful review with pictures (VACA). Your poorly drawn conclusions are clearly based on lack of experience
[/quote]
I literally qualified my review with that, never tried to hide anything. The photos are right there. Go eat at the place yourself if you want to judge it.
Proof:
[quote=“Aesthete, post:1, topic:2233”]
For now it seems like very tasty cooking, if not super refined, or necessarily as strictly authentic as their website claims to be, but then again perhaps they are without my knowledge[/quote]
You made statements specifically about $400++ places. Bringing up some small bistro in Spain would be ludicrous in such a context…
If you feel it’s offensive to have someone merely wonder why no restaurants from Spain, or Scandanavia appear in your top list of $400++ places, that seems absurdly insecure. You’re under no obligation to respond to my questions. To say places like like Cellar de can Roca have nothing at all to do with Spanish food would be interpreted as absurd by most food critics in the world…
Food critics literally make a living explaining what restaurants are like to people who have never been, in order to guide people to them. So you are 110% wrong that no one can communicate anything about food in restaurants. If no one can, then there’s no reason for food forums like this to even exist. But lo and behold, they do!
Why does people being interested in food upset you so much?
You mistake my comments.
Your VACA post was useful because it was actually based on experience. Photos were wonderful. Thank you for that.
All your other conclusions on restaurants you’ve never been to are poorly drawn conclusions and based on lack of experience.
Any attempt at “food discussion” is inevitably lost on you because of the frustratingly incorrect conclusions that you generate. Reading comprehension and logic seem to be the cause. Coupled with lack of experience it makes actual meaningful discussion difficult.
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[quote=“djquinnc, post:31, topic:2189”]Not weird. Oppression is not weird. The glass ceiling in Niki’s story is so glaring that it can’t hide. I think the filmmaker’s did a great service in bringing these issues front and center.
[/quote]
Who in this world doesn’t have some type of family issues to overcome?..very few I venture.
I found it weird, because Niki says explicitly in the episode she really hates having puff pieces written/made about her that focus just on the fact that she is a woman chef, and not on her cooking/food. And then the episode focuses mainly on how she is a woman and a chef, and hardly at all on her cooking/food. Seemed incredibly insulting to me. It also made it seem like people in Los Angeles don’t care about food as much as people in the rest of the world, but rather just heartwarming stories about the chefs, but I thought it was way more offensive to her.
Literally all of the chefs in the series faced hurdles and challenges to overcome in their lives, but they weren’t the prime focus of their episodes… what they ended up producing through their cooking because of their struggles was the focus. I found it tragic.
It seemed that the final message was that you ought to go eat at her restaurant mainly because she is a woman that cooks…which seems hopelessly patronizing to me. I don’t personally believe having one set of genitals or another makes one’s cooking better or worse…I found it immensely depressing to see her reduced to that, when she clearly didn’t want to be.
Ultimately this is just my opinion, obviously, I was just hoping someone might offer more information about the nuances of her actual cooking… no one is under any obligation to provide such information though.
Mostly people have stepped up and said they agree the food isn’t that compelling, leading me to believe that it really is her story that is more interesting than her food, which may be fine for most people, but not for me. I love good stories behind chefs, but only if they translate to the plate. Thus I have learned something about the place.
I didn’t just wander in there though, I read several bio articles on the chef, checked out the launch menus, photos, investors, location, menu, etc… pretty extensively before making a decision to go try it out. There are too many places out there to waste time eating poorly if the information isn’t promising. There are thousands of restaurants to explore, and I am looking for the best ones to explore and report on, which means research is needed.
How do you pick which restaurants to go try? I am sure you didn’t stumble into Hanjip randomly, since you drove from OC to Culver City specifically to go there…right?
I come here not just to contribute, but also hopefully to learn; I freely admit I don’t know everything, and seek to learn from those that know more than me… I remain mystified at the chastisement for wanting to learn.
I assume if my conclusions are wrong, people with more knowledge will be able to explain why to me with some coherent argument, or relevant facts.
I don’t see how anything is lost on me. I asked for an explanation for Mori, and once provided with one, changed my entire stance/opinion on the place.
I therefore don’t know where I have displayed any unwillingness to change my opinion based on information.
I used to loathe Saison’s aesthetic, until people on food forums convinced me that I was conceiving of it wrongly, which made me go back and examine it. I ended up eating there recently and having one of the most life-altering meals ever.
I would suggest I have a solid history of assimilating solid advice dolled out by people that know more than I do.
With all due respect, I would suggest that you come across as a dick on the forums and that is why you get the responses that you get.
Nothing against you personally, just your forum persona.
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Feel free to name some actual examples.
As far as I can tell, some people get pissed off when I try to discuss food on a food discussion forum.
No food or meal is life-altering. But that is just me.
Based on this lenghty discussion, looks like I need to watch this Netflix episode again. I must be missing something.
I hope you’re kidding.
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“No food or meal is life-altering.” - Couldn’t agree more