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Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Au Revoir to Joel
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AT RIGHT: Joel Antunes. He’s good looking AND he can cook.
I’m sad to report today that Joel Antunes, chef and restaurateur of Joel, will be leaving Atlanta for New York. He has accepted a position at the Oak Room, inside the Plaza Hotel. He will leave sometime mid-summer, to start when the Oak Room reopens, according to an article in the New York Post. The Oak Room owners are apparently trying to spit shine the antiquated Oak Room’s dusty reputation as one of the city’s dinosaurs of dining.
The 45-year-old chef won the James Beard award in 2005 for best chef Southeast, but his restaurant has never met the numbers anticipated by him and his partners. Joel recently underwent a massive renovation that literally cut the size of the space in half, but created a dining room with something Joel hadn’t experienced before — warmth. Menu changes made the food more approachable, too. So much so that in a rereview of the restaurant last fall, it finally garnered a fifth star from me.
The plan is for Joel to remain open, under the same name, with Cyrille Holata, Joel’s right hand man for 18 years, at the helm in the kitchen. Nicolas Sangros, the restaurant’s general manager, will remain in the dining room as well.
God I will miss this man’s cooking. Here’s a snippet from last fall’s review: “buttery pink salmon, beautifully sliced, rests over a small square of rice in a milky dashi broth, with a bright quenelle of mustard ice cream to offset texture, temperature and flavor. One small bite feels like a small, tasty firecracker wrapped in velvet went off in your mouth. But then homier sides of buttered parsnips, beautifully dressed with salt and butter in a tiny copper pot, are unbeatable —- and the grits? Made with cream and truffle oil, they’re the height of indulgence —- such a seemingly effortless dish elevated so simply to creamy, savory transcendence. A bowl of fleshy chestnuts with porcini ravioli in a light cream sauce seem like the evening’s peak, until a tiny tian of meringue arrives swimming in a creme anglaise (like a tiny oeuf a la niege).”
Why is Atlanta losing its best chefs to New York? I’m beginning to feel like we’re the NYC farm team for the restaurant industry — first Soto, then Seeger and now Joel, who is, like Seeger, one of the most talented chefs in the country. It’s no surprise that he might seek out greener pastures elsewhere. But what does the exodus of these three talents say about the Atlanta dining public?
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Do batter-dipped green beans count as a vegetable?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I went to a school food vendor show yesterday in Cobb County. Makers of barbecue and whole-grain French toast, chocolate-chip cookies and trans-fat-free biscuits, were handing out free samples of their food and talking with children, parents and school lunch administrators about what made their product special.
Many of the vendors talked about working to reduce sodium levels, or adding more whole grains to products. I munched on delicious 100 percent whole wheat cinnamon rolls and talked with a pork processor who’s experimenting with a lower-sodium barbecue. I saw turkey sausage and chicken egg rolls, fizzy juice and water drinks that are low in sugar and high in juice content, and other steps toward meeting tougher nutritional standards. I wondered where the fruit and vegetables were in this array of corn dogs, pizza and chicken nuggets.
Then I saw the batter-coated green beans. A sign at the booth noted that they could be fried or baked.
They were soggy and salty, and tasted nothing like green beans. Yet, according to a story that colleague Dianne Stepp wrote in today’s AJC, kids loved them.
Some adults view this type of product as a good way to get kids to eat vegetables. I looked at the sodium content - 620 milligrams per serving, about 26 percent of an entire day’s allotment - and checked again to make sure I was reading it correctly. It’s higher than some entrees I saw.
Green beans are so bland, that even many kids who don’t like vegetables will eat them. Why is it necessary to disguise them under layers of salty, onion-battered breading?
Of course, it’s not just salt. This morning I’m testing a carrot souffle dry mix that lists sugar and flour as the primary ingredients and calls for a half-stick of butter, which works out to about a tablespoon a serving. The label promises that kids will love these carrots. I’m sure they will; they’re closer to carrot cake than a vegetable.
What does it take to get children to eat vegetables? Have you found a secret to convince picky kids to try an unfamiliar vegetable? Or does it really take a spoonful of sugar (or salt) to get the healthy stuff to go down? If you want to weigh in on what foods schools serve for lunch, feel free to leave your comments here, or check out the Get Schooled blog, which also addresses this topic today.
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