Bouley Restaurant

Bouley Restaurant in Tribeca gets rave reviews from all the major food guides - Zagat rates the food a 28 out of 30 (extraordinary to perfection) while the Michelin Guide has awarded Bouley 2 Stars.

That said, we were looking forward to a wonderful meal we went for a special birthday celebration on Friday night. When we arrived, they said our 8:45pm reservation was running 15 minutes late and that we could sit in the lounge and enjoy a drink. 35 minutes later, we were still in the lounge waiting for our table. By the time we sat down and started to look over the menu, it was 9:30pm and we were famished. Our waiter asked us if we wanted to start with a cocktail while we decided on our food. Needless to say, we declined graciously.

We decided on the 5-course tasting menu which would let us sample a wide array of Bouley's food. The procini flan, dungenous crab and truffle dashi was flavorful and rich, but the oysters served as the other starter were a bit fishy. As each dish came and went, there were highs and lows, but nothing close to extraordinary or perfection. The best part of the meal was the dessert course, which included a warm, chocolate souffle, a fruit tart, a bonus creme brulee for Sharon's birthday and two side trays of mini sweets. Sadly, we weren't able to finish all of the desserts, but would have skipped the main course and gone straight to the sugar, had we known how lackluster the entrees would be and how divinely sweet dessert was.

Overall, our Bouley experience was forgettable and not worth repeating. If you do choose to try out Bouley Restaurant (and I'm hoping we had an anomalous meal) I hope you all have a better experience than we did.

Life's too short for disappointing meals, so we'll have to make up for it this week.

Bouley Restaurant
163 Duane Street
Tel: (212) 964-2525

Julia Child and Jacques Pepin

I remember seeing Julia Child cooking classic French food on TV when I was a little kid. I didn't really understand what she was doing, nor did I understand half of what was going into the dishes, but I knew that she was entertaining. In her distinctive voice and pearl necklace, Julia Child definitely had a presence in front of the camera. Quite likely, it was simply her stature, but there was something fun about watching her cook her way around the kitchen. In later years, it was hard not to notice that she often drank alcohol during each show. One particular show that I remember distinctly, was a Julia Child and Jacques Pepin episode where Julia had a large beer stein full of booze which, by the end of the episode, was empty and Julia was tipsy. Amazing! To watch a grown adult, drink on TV while cooking French food and be drunk by the end.

Many years later, I saw an episode of Julia and Jacques' Cooking at home where they made a wonderful looking fish stew served in large artisanal bread. That one show inspired me to buy my first cookbook, "Cooking at Home" by Julia Child and Jacques Pepin. I've only tried a handful of recipes from the book (including the puff pastries), but it sits faithfully on the shelf as constant inspiration to keep cooking. Unlike Julie Powell (from Julie and Julia), I don't know whether I'll get through all the recipes, but I'll certainly keep working on it.

Thanks Julia, you've inspired many generations of food lovers.

Julia and Jacques cookbook can be found on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Julia-Jacques-Cooking-at-Home/dp/0375404317