Thursday, July 10, 2003


pitiable weeping

this is the only way to describe my state today. you see, i received in the mail a copy of the famed newsletter written by celebrity foodie david rosengarten.

long time readers know i loathe most celebrity chefs and foodies. that's an old rant.

so i think you know already i'm going to deeply disagree with the statement on his home page -- "i think you'll love my print-only periodical, the rosengarten report, as much as the food insiders do."

i'll drink folgers before i ever allow myself to become a food insider or follow those who are. the whole point is to create your own real situation with your own good food from your own community in your own home with your own family.

yours, not rosengarten's. here's my beef with the foodie-porn star newsletter:

"italy's best coffee. . .the result of frasi's fanatical devotion is a finely-ground powder that comes to you, vaccum-packed, in a turmeric-colored bag. i've been using it to make regular coffee in my electric drip machine and enjoying spectacular results."

spectacular only if you have no idea what real coffee is, david! real coffee is fresh coffee. aren't modern foodies supposed to be into freshness, local ingredients, all that?

this old (who knows when it was roasted?), stale (pre-ground coffee stales in minutes, meaning it's probably lost precious aromatics by the time it's packed), vacuum-sealed (the high heat used in most vacuum-brick packing is detrimental to the coffee). . .it's just a nightmare.

but this is what foodies think is great. this is why you can't trust foodies about coffee! they just don't know -- it's really not their fault.

they are seduced by trends, by rarity, by the lust to run after something exotic, hard to get, foreign. they need to feel like they have found the secret, the inside, the mystic club handshake. when in fact the best coffee is no secret!

dear readers, the best coffee will be freshly roasted, fresh-ground coffee; coffee you buy from your local independent roaster/coffeehouse on your way home from picking up the dry-cleaning, and grind at home yourself just before you brew.

coffee you buy online, if correctly roasted to your order and most carefully packed, will be good too. i realize many people still don't have access to a high-quality roaster/retailer nearby.

wonderful online coffees are their best resource -- see gillies, caffe orsini, wholelattelove, caffe d'arte, batdorf, etc. -- if they can't roast their own at home.

not to boast, i finally managed to prove the importance of fresh coffee freshly ground to the charming writer deborah baldwin by inviting her to my kitchen, grinding fresh, and showing her the shots, shots which had as much crema as coffee.

(look at the pic accompanying the times article online [log your bad self in: bccy1, password] and see the espresso in shot glass on top of my silvia for proof!)

look, it's nothing about frasi himself. i'm sure his coffee, fresh-roasted in verona from his little boutique, is just heavenly. even if it is based in karnataka coffees. . . .note that none of these as coffees reviewed by ken davids get a 90.

and as i understand it, if it doesn't get a 90 in cupping points, it's likely not what i would call specialty coffee. . .

in fairness, i must point out that this last statement is somewhat controversial. as one friend of mine is wont to state, a specialty coffee is any coffee with an extraordinary thing going on, anything that stands up in an interesting way and waves at ya. . .


posted by fortune | 9:22 AM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments