Great Foie Gras, Decent Cocaine... By Jason King

There is often a huge divide between chefs, and the ones that enjoy their creations. Sure, a great cook or chef has the palate of a refined, traveled epicurean. They usually, however, lack the time and or funds to have acquired that the way the guest in the dining room has.

A man so familiar with well sourced, properly cooked foie gras, just from buying it in restaurants, is likely in a different social strata. This diner and the ones who cook exist in this odd duality.  The cook, who also knows good foie gras, doesn't remember where he left his car last night.

The made for TV set up, that show chefs going out on the town to another chef's spot, enjoying this royal treatment, is rare in real life. Most good chefs and cooks are cooking on the nights other good chefs and cooks are cooking. Hence the ability to go out and enjoy each other's fare is limited.

Then you factor in the cost of going to a good restaurant and enjoying dinner. Assuming the chef isn't your buddy, you and a friend could run up a 200 dollar tab so quick. Do that with any regularity and you have spent your rent and bills on dining out. That leaves very little for PBR or ramen noodles.

So when asked by a dinner guest recently where my favorite spots were in town, I stuttered. Don't say McDonald's drive thru, I thought. I spilled rhetoric about places I know about from an operational stand point or I because I know the chef, not because I had eaten there.

This is the dichotomy of our industry. Bankers and people on their anniversary date know more about the experience of what we do, than we do. Luckily I was able to give the curious guest some good places, I was just caught off guard.

The one pub I told him about, frequented by some service industry folk, has some awesome eats even late.

I told him the bartender can get him good blow too, once he knows you. He was a bit put off by that last tip.