Bouchon

Authors note: After I read this I realized how pretentious I sound. Apologies in advance.

Will and I are foodies-in-training. Will would probably say that we actually are foodies, but I'm going to keep us in the "in training" category for the time being. We did eat at Iggys over the summer when we were in Singapore, which was ranked the 45th best restaurant in the world in 2009, so there's that. We are also big fans of Tom Collichio's Craft (though I did get really sad when pasty chef Catherine Schimenti left - to the point that I found out her name so that I could see if she was working somewhere else, because I REALLY miss the Peanut Butter Cup dessert she made), and have gone to Gordon Ramsay at The London West Hollywood a couple of times. The one time we went to Mario Batali's Osteria Mozza we were less than impressed, but we loved Brandon and Moye's wedding reception at Christophe Émé's Michelin-starred Ortolan (we were with them at their initial visit to the restaurant, a year prior to them getting married). Michelin-starred Joe's is another favorite of ours (though we haven't been there in a while - Will, let's change that), and I'm pretty sure I got a glimpse of heaven when we had a 12 course meal at Providience (which currently has TWO Michelin stars). Guys, one of the first courses were these upscale jello shots with liquor INSIDE the jello. And a cheese course! It doesn't GET better than that.

Have I dropped enough big names yet? (The self-conscious part of me wants to point out that we've had 2 1/2 years to do this tour of foodie LA.)

One time, when we were at Gordon Ramsay at The London West Hollywood there was a couple next to us who were probably new to this fancy eating thing (I can understand that, having once been a newbie myself) and I heard one quietly ask the other "Where's the salt and pepper?" I rolled my eyes and whispered to Will "Did you hear them? They're looking for the salt and the pepper!" Because, seriously, you you don't season your food. Your food came the way Gordon Ramsay wanted you to eat it, so eat it that way! And then I was immediately mortified at myself for being such a food snob.

I don't know how these things happen! Just 3 years ago I was irritated that Will took me to Spago when I really just wanted an In-n-Out burger. The last time I was home I was talking about one of my friends about all these nice restaurants we were eating at and she reminded me that before I'd moved out here I SWORE up and down that I didn't understand eating fancy food. I mean, it's only in your system for what, 24 hours? Why not just have a good burger? Oh, how things change.

ANYWAYS. One of the things we've said we want to do is go up to norCal for norCaly-type stuff, but also, The French Laundry. I mean, Thomas Keller's restaurant is pretty well known even among non-foodies, moreso than Per Se, even though in recent years that one has become more popular among some foodies. So when we found out that Thomas Keller was bringing a restaurant to LA, we were crazy excited.

Bouchon is opening the 18th, and after some persistent phone calls, Moye managed to get us a reservation for the 29th. I know it won't be the same as The French Laundry or Per Se (the latter of which Brandon and Moye actually went to when they were in NYC earlier this year), but I'm still really excited to go.

I don't know when I became such a food snob, but I think I'm okay with it.

Oh! And since this is an LA thing, I can even say that this post goes along with the original theme of this blog! Sweet!