"michael schlow" news and stories

In uncertain times, we count on simple pleasures: Home cooking, unemployment checks and the heady mix of ego, chutzpah and alcohol-fueled drama we have come to anticipate from "Top Chef."

So when Bravo announced that "Top Chef Masters," the show's latest iteration (hosted by Kelly Choi, right), would be given over to established culinary superstars, fans had reason to worry: Would decorum and professionalism win out over brash experimentation? Would upstart bickering be replaced by upper-crust camaraderie? Would the fauxhawk go the way of the dodo?

The answer after the inaugural hour is a qualified "yes." But what "Top Chef Masters" loses in amateur hour enthusiasm it gains in hyper-astute commentary. It is a knowing look at what it means to be a celebrity chef in an era when celebrity chefs are often made overnight on cable TV. Every week, by stripping four different "masters" of their sous chefs, sommeliers and Cuisinarts -- in one instance forcing them to make do with nothing more than a dorm room's toaster oven, microwave and hot plate -- it resets the bar for gourmet ingenuity.

Read on to learn about the Girl Scout mafia's dessert tastes and prosciutto-popcorn risotto.

Interesting piece over at The Boston Phoenix. The writer asks several chefs what dish they order in a restaurant to see if the kitchen knows what it's doing. That one meal that you would judge the entire restaurant by.

Rialto chef Jody Adams orders a simple pasta dish, because she says that if a restaurant can screw that up, then they'll probably screw up a more complex meal. Michael Schlow (who is chef at two Boston restaurants, Radius and Via Matta), has a different dish for each type of restaurant. At Japanese restaurants, it's the rice. At steak houses, he goes by the side dishes and the wedge salad (what the heck is a wedge salad?). Michael Leviton over at Lumiere goes by the simple dishes at Asian restaurants: Shrimp and broccoli, drunken pasta, and for Italian restaurants it's the risotto.

I'll have to agree with the author of the article and say I often go by the chicken dishes, since they're a pretty basic dish, and I also go by the salads. But then again, I've had some awful meals at some restaurants where everything else I've had is first-rate, so I go back. Readers, how do you judge restaurants overall?