I make my living in food service, hospitality, and financing people involved in these businesses. We tend not to dislike wealth or hold a grudge or judge.

Ripert is a dapper dresser, I can personally attest to that, but it's also highly likely he was modeling the items in the article. Maybe that helps. I don't know. He is a successful man - both financially and artistically. How he squares that with his religion, if it needs squaring at all, isn't any of my business.

I can tell you that if you show up at a Michelin starred restaurant (and most others) in NYC and are legitimately hungry you'll be fed. But, also know you're showing up at places that can read people like a book.

Most restos also have a fund, sort of like a rector's discretionary fund at a church, that's used to give a cash handout to people who show up at the kitchen door needing something other than a meal. People in legitimate need in cities like New York are aware of this - battered women, battered men, mothers who've just been evicted. I've seen it all. We lend help. The rest is in God's hands.

Oh Good Lord. I wish I had picked any of the other five dozen articles to post. What I thought was interesting was him not expanding his restaurant 'empire' like Danny Meyer, Daniel Boulud, et al. and why I posted that particular column. The article specifically mentions him probably leaving 'millions of dollars on the table' and you can't get past a nice watch and expensive clothes.

The man earned it.

I don't judge how people practice their particular brand of religion. That's a minefield I won't enter. You're welcome to.

Wondra is used all the time in very high end kitchens and by food stylists to impart that perfect looking crust and browning you see in fine food photography and food on the plate. You can see Eric Ripert using it in his cod saute' video on YouTube. I've posted the link before -- he does the fish in a Teflon pan. The color on the fish is perfect, and the whisp of a dusting with Wondra helps make that happen. Then, of course, you can bake with it. 3/4 T45 and 1/4 Wondra makes the perfect, tender tart shell - firm enough to do its job, but just almost vanishes in the mouth. It'll stand up to a vigorous fraisage and also makes it a lot less temperamental and 'shrinky.' Many, many more uses than just grandmaw making gravy with it.

When you see photos of a dish in a magazine, or online, and it looks impossibly, perfectly browned -- a browning you've never quite been able to achieve on the same or similar dish, there's a decent chance Wondra was involved. People eat with their eyes as much as they do their mouth, as we all know. It takes very little product to achieve effect, and it won't alter taste profiles hardly at all, if any at all. You gain way, way more than you'd ever lose by using it. Models are beautiful without makeup, but with the right makeup and makeup artist -- well, those are the pictures that end up in magazines and put money in the bank. Same goes for food.

It's no big deal. I could probably have used a little more fat and hit a tighter temp window and they wouldn't have stuck, or stuck as much. We were laughing and talking and having a great time and the last thing I was worried about was the eggs. I mean, how bad can extremely fresh eggs scrambled in a little bacon fat really be? And I of course left the stuck eggs on the pan. I didn't scrape them up and serve them. If she hadn't been in the kitchen she'd never have known - an obvious corollary if you're serving a paying clientele or guests in your home.

Absolutely on the frittata - they were probably 30 seconds away from not sticking but what the hell? It's not the end of the world. Nobody nails it every time.

Some of the posters here give me a mental image of total grimness in the kitchen -- just automatons having no fun at all, and making it harder on themselves than it needs to be and doing it on purpose, perhaps for bragging rights on this and/or other forums. Really sad.

I keep wondering when somebody is going to bring up seasoning their metal spatulas, and crap like that, so nothing will stick to them.

It's an endless source of amusement to read posts by those who think they've arrived in the kitchen as long as they can produce food that doesn't stick in a pan.

I made my daughter scrambled eggs this morning, and in a stainless steel pan. There was some sticking. The eggs were delicious, I left a little bacon fat in the pan from having used the same pan to fry bacon. I washed the pan, it would have needed it regardless. I guess my testosterone level must have dropped a little when I realized the eggs were going to stick, thankfully I think the level has recovered.

Now, about lunch...

When I've done some of the vintage woodworking tools I own (some are only available as vintage), I only clean away what 0000 steel wool and a little oil will remove, and that's not much. It just gets rid of surface grunge that might transfer to the wood. Deeper patina is still very much there. Nobody would ever think the tool was anything close to new.

Might be middle ground worth your consideration.

If you decide to go this route, give it a little test rub using cooking oil and the 0000 steel wool, in a small spot, to make sure the steel wool won't take it down to total brightness, though if it does what you're looking at is very much surface patina and it really might need to be cleaned off regardless of original intentions.

The potatoes and leeks basically make their own stock, so what one is really enjoying is a vegetable stock along with the vegetables used to make it. Starting with a very light chicken stock or a vegetable stock wouldn't hurt the dish too much, but the point of a lot of these soups is for them not to be too brooding in the eating or their preparation. This was a French peasant dish, and should be enjoyed on those terms. Anything can be tarted up to the point of absurdity, and this soup is certainly susceptible to that, and it's somewhat a shame when it happens.

What people call "cheap" is remarkably effective if the person standing in front of it knows what they're doing. And if you don't know what you're doing, no cookware in the world will save you. This is pretty much like all craft.

Here's an oldie but goodie - Eric Ripert doing fish in Vollrath nonstick, the other dishes appear to be in Vollrath SS, though it could be any decent kitchen supply brand:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aupPm...

I guess those of us who've eaten at Le Bernardin should make sure our affairs are in order and wills up to date.

Not exactly sure when the video was shot, but I do believe this is Le Bernardin with its three stars.

Hi, that sentence wasn't in response to any particular post -- yours or anybody else's. Cheers.

Most home cooks fail to bring enough heat to the party, or start with a nice hot pan and then drop too much product in the one pan. The first thing you need is a strong vent hood so smoke doesn't scare you, the next thing you need is a pan that matches burner size - either cook on two burners simultaneously or on one in series. Most home cooks are also suckers for sales on large pans, large dutch ovens, large everything. This is almost always a mistake. The home cook's cuisine suffers because of it. Thirdly (or fourthly, forgot where I am) is applying perfect procedure and technique to specious product. Some classic dishes from Europe fall flat on their face with ingredients shopped from the typical supermarket.

Just random thoughts...