Daniel Boulud on Mojo

By: Chris Greacen - 11/26/2007
We've been religiously watching the second season of After Hours with Daniel Boulud after our Sunday-night sit-down dinners with friends. The celebrity cocktail-party chit-chat mixes perfectly with Kitchen Confidential-esque stories from James beard award winning chefs and Chef Boulud's masterpieces.

While some eaters debate about the merits of apps vs. entrees Boulud's mastery of large-format dishes is refreshing. Think: whole lamb (butchered and trussed to ensure even cooking) carved tableside, tete de'vaux, all produced from scratch, from memory -- no cookbooks on these counters.

In Season 1 Daniel introduced us to restaurants and friends in New York. Season 2 is all about LA. Most of the this season's chefs have worked for DB at some point in their careers. Season 2's menus seem to go above and beyond most of the New York episodes (except maybe the season 1 finale).

I can't wait to try Michael Cimarusti's salt-cooked shrimp dish sometime soon: table side preparation of fresh shrimp buried in 500 degree salt and fresh herbs. See Russ Parsons' description in the LA Times. I can't wait to have some budget to throw at a trip to visit some of these places.

Whether you're in the biz or are a diner, if you're into 'da foodz' you'll want to throw down the $$$ for a HD Plasma and upgrade your cable. Check out the vids on the mojo site. There should be 1 full episode and a few selected scenes.