Time to start a thread on great chefs and their restaurants. I enjoy watching travel/cooking shows on chefs and their places. I also enjoy reading bio's on chefs. Keller, Ramsay, Bocuse, Trotter, Ripert, Batali, Adria ect.ect... My list could go on and on. Also, the restaurants. I have a list of places I want to experience. The Fat Duck, French Laundry, El Bulli, Le Chateaubriand, Pierre Gagnaire, Le Bernardin, El Celler de Can Roca,........

Anyway, I'll start with Marco Pierre White. He doesn't cook fulltime anymore, but is a legend. He changed my perception on restaurants and chefs. His bio is amazing and I would recommend reading it. http://www.amazon.com/Devil-Kitchen-.../dp/1596913614

His restaurant, Harveys, was legendary. Marco had Gordon Ramsay, Eric Chavot (The Capital), Heston Blumenthal (The Fat Duck) working for him there.
Here Marco cooks for Albert Roux at Harveys- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfbbY...eature=related
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The one thing I'd really like to try one day is Gordon Ramsay's beef wellington and risotto.
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We had dinner a few years back at The French Laundry. Incredible experience. Nine courses, took about 3 hours. Had a nice pre-embargo RyJ (on the cigar menu) after dinner, in the courtyard, with some port. Also have been to his, Thomas Keller, restaurant in Vegas, Bouchon I think it is. NO comparison.
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We have dined at several of the Jose Garces restaurant here in Philadelphia, Chefa, Distrito and Amada. I believe the only other major restaurant of his we haven't tried is Tinto.
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Also, last summer, we had a great meal at Bar American in NY, Bobby Flay's flagship. The summer before that, also in NY, we dined at Becco, which is one of Lidia Batianich's.
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The only famous chefs restaurant I've ever dined at was Morimoto in Philadelphia and I'm going back , again . Bobby Flay has a burger joint in Philly now but I heard the burgers are average . Bobby may need to visit to straiten things out .
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Sounds like an awesome time.

I went to Queue de Cheval (Montreal) with 9 friends around 1999 when smoking was allowed inside. The exchange rate was in favor of USD big time. We were like Arabs ordering whatever we wanted. 5 count shrimp like nothing, BDX like water… They had a cigar cart with port that rolled out after dinner. A dozen or more vintages and stacked with Habanos to dream about. All of us had Habanos. It was like we were so full and could not think of anything else we could order even for just laughs. Burning 100’s just for laughs. This is one of Canada’s premier steakhouse’s to boot. Well, the exchange is not the same and QdC only has smoking at the bar. I remember that one night, eat and smoking like sheiks.
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