Resident Foodies say: Egg Harbor Cafe is the brunch spot to go to on Main Street in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Today’s special (pictured above) is a scrumptious combination of Fuji apple and cinnamon pancakes topped with Graham cracker crust (whipped cream if you want it), plus two eggs made to order plus potatoes (substituted for bacon or sausage). The Graham cracker on the pancakes were delightful, as were the fresh Fuji apples. One of the best pancakes we’ve tasted all year! Loved it.
Resident Foodies say: We just tried out Ann Sather, a Swedish brunch place in Lakeview. The place is known for its cinnamon rolls, which are decadent and extremely gooey and sweet. If you have a sweet tooth, then this is your place. The Swedish waffle is very light and tasty, but we heard the French toast is also pretty decadent (filled with marscapone). Ann Sather is definitely different from your standard fare brunch place. In Lakeview, we still prefer Nookies, but Ann Sather is a great place to try out for variety. The kids seem to love it!
Swedish waffles with strawberries.
Signature cinnamon rolls by Ann Sather.
Resident Foodies say: Our biggest disappointment this year came, much to our surprise, when we visited The French Laundry in Yountville, California. Owned by Thomas Keller, one of the best chefs in America, The French Laundry is supposed to be one of the best restaurants in the U.S., if not the entire world. Michelin awarded The French Laundry a rare 3 stars — something that no other restaurant in the food-obsessed Bay Area attained this year. In a recent Food Network poll, chefs around the U.S. most often picked The French Laundry as the best restaurant in the U.S.
We love Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc restaurant right down the street, so we all were anticipating a quite enjoyable meal at The French Laundry. Unfortunately, that’s not what we got. Far from it. The meal was, sad to say, downright forgettable. So much so that we don’t recommend this restaurant — a first in the short history of our blog.
So what went wrong?: First off, even though The French Laundry takes only a very limited number of people each night, the kitchen was really backed up. We were seated at 7:30 p.m. in a very warm, somewhat uncomfortable center room and didn’t see one morsel of food–not even bread–until after 8:30 p.m. Where else would you ever tolerate waiting for 1 hour at your table without any food? The restaurant was full that night, so our guess is that the kitchen got really behind and then started rushing to get plates out after people had to wait for more than 1 hour. But we shouldn’t have to make up excuses for the restaurant. Whatever the reason, the slow service really got our night at The French Laundry off to a very rough start.
But then we thought the night would rebound after we tried The French Laundry’s famed salmon tartar coronets, pseudo ice cream cones. These were delicious and whetted our appetite.
1. Our first course was also very good — the famed “oysters and pearls,” sabayon of pearl tapioca with Island Creek oysters and white sturgeon caviar. A good start!
2. Our second course — salad of Hawaiian hearts of palm (nantes carrots, medjool dates, cilantro shoots and madras curry gastrique) — was good, but pretty basic, as you can tell from the photo. So-so.
3. We did enjoy our third course — sauteed fillet of Atlantic halibut . It wasn’t the best halibut dish we’ve had, but it was still a decent dish.
4. The night came to a screeching halt, however, on the fourth course. The dish was so forgettable we actually forgot what’s it called. Throw lobster, corn, cherry, and bread on a plate, and you get a mess. To make matters worse, the lobster was overcooked and chewy. As Tom Colicchio of Top Chef would say, the dish didn’t work. The ingredients were random. There was no execution. Overcooked lobster ruined the dish. Without a doubt, this was the worst dish of the night.
Stay tuned for the rest of our review…
UPDATE: We were told that we ate at the French Laundry during the transition period after Chef de Cuisine Corey Lee left to start his own restaurant Benu. A person in the know suggested that the kitchen probably was still working out all the kinks when we dined there. That helps explain why our meal was so bad, and the service so slow.
Here’s a blast from a few years back in Season 3. If we’re not mistaken, this is the first and only time Bobby challenged another Food Network celebrity–Paula Deen–to a throwdown. He lost!
Throwdown: In this week’s episode of Season 8, Bobby Flay challenged Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, owners of Brooklyn bakery Baked, to a banana cream pie throwdown.
Food Network describes the challenge: “Tired of the rat race, friends and co-workers Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito left the grind of jobs in advertising to follow their tasty dream of opening a bakery. This led to the creation of their Elvis-inspired banana cream pie that has fans flocking from all over to their Brooklyn bakery to get a taste of this dessert that is fit for a king! Can Matt and Renato cream the competition with their heavenly dessert, or will Bobby’s take on the classic pie reign supreme?”
Dishes: Matt and Renato made their signature peanut butter banana cream pie, inspired by Elvis’s love of peanut butter banana and bacon sandwiches. (No bacon in the pie!) You can get the recipe by clicking here.
Meanwhile, Bobby made a traditional banana cream pie, but caramelized the bananas and added hazelnuts on top. You can find the recipe by clicking here.
Judges: Ron Silver, chef and owner of Bubby’s Pies in NYC. Rose Levy Beranbaum, author of 9 baking books including Rose’s Heavenly Cakes.
Winner: Bobby Flay! Judges liked both pies, but Ron Silver found the peanut butter too overwhelming to taste the banana flavor.
Bobby improves to 4-3 for the season and has a shot at finishing over .500 for the first time ever at the end of Season 8. Good luck, Bobby!
Wow. Season 8 of Throwdown is starting out well for Bobby Flay. Tonight, he won the chicken tikka masala Throwdown against Marianna from Venezuela (who married an Indian man who turned her on to Indian cooking). Bobby thought he was going to lose after he put too much cumin spice in his chicken, but apparently the judges had “asbestos” tongues, according to Bobby. Marianna was gracious in defeat, but added at the end that she knows her dish is better than Bobby’s! Bobby improves to 2-1 for the season.