Today I received an announcement for the re-opening of a restaurant here in L.A.  I was kind of excited to try it, but then I got to the part where they list the menu items designed to entice you… Fois Gras Terrine with Prosciutto, Black Fig Purée, Orange Gelée and Campari Gastrique. REALLY?!?  The first thing that came to my mind was that’s a lot of flavors I don’t want to experience together and I’m betting it could use an actual acid component to counter the melt-in-your-mouth, velvety, buttery deliciousness that is fois gras.  But I haven’t tasted the dish and it’s beside the point.  I read on and just about every dish on the menu included more gelées, glacées, purées, gastriques, and foams.  UGH!  BTW – this restaurant is a gastro-pub; not a fine dining restaurant.  Remember the the first couple seasons of Top Chef when every dish had a a damn foam on it?  Chances are 95% of the viewers had probably never had a foam on anything, except for a latte, and initially they were intriguing.  But didn’t you get tired of them?  Just a little aside: a foam is now being called “air”. WTF?!? Understandably, chef contestants are trying to impress the judges with their “cutting-edge” technique.  However, it now seems that every young chef and new restaurant feels the need to impress the FOODIOTS out there with ridiculous menu descriptions.  Don’t muck up my plate with unnecessary lumps of jelly and brush strokes of syrupy reductions just to prove you can.

I guess if you can’t dazzle your customers with culinary brilliance, baffle them with jellies, reductions, and glazes!

There, I said it!