Best Chef Cathal Armstrong

Best Chef Profile: Cathal Armstrong

Today's featured best chef is Cathal Armstrong, Dublin-born chef now living in Virginia as chef-owner of Restaurant Eve. Cathal Armstrong was named Food & Wine's Best New Chef of 2006, Best Rising Star Chef December 2007 from StarChefs, and was nominated for the James Beard Foundation's Best Mid-Atlantic Chef nominee in 2007 and 2008. Currently, he is nominated for Eater's Hottest Chef of 2013 (vote here). For complete info on Cathal Armstrong, including his bio, interviews, and recipes, check out:
Cathal Armstrong Biography
Cathal Armstrong Interview
Cathal Armstrong Recipes
Cathal Armstrong

Molecular Gastronomy Chefs

Molecular gastronomy chefs have taken the world by storm, using the principles of science as well as new culinary technology to present some of the innovative dishes ever conceived. Also known as avant-garde cuisine, modernist cuisine, new cookery, the molecular gastronomy revolution was spearheaded by chef Ferran Adria at his 3-Michelin starred restaurant El Bulli, who would close his restaurant for 6 months every year to conduct thousands of molecular gastronomy experiments to create the menu for the following year. Although Adria is the orginator of this style of cooking, an entire movement of molecular gastronomy chefs have followed his lead, including El Bulli alumni Andoni Luis Aduriz, Jose Andres, Paco Roncero, and dozens of other chefs around the world including Heston Blumenthal, Grant Achatz, Homaro Cantu, David Chang, Wylie Dusfresne, David Kinch, Yoshihiro Narisawa, Rene Redzepi, Seiji Yamamoto, Bruno Chemel, Davide Scabin, Sat Bains, Richard Blais, Marcel Vigneron, Sean Brock, Homaro Cantu, Michael Carlson, Wylie Dufresne, Pierre Gagnaire, Will Goldfarb, Adam Melonas, Randy Rucker, Kevin Sousa, Sean Wilkinson, Will LaRue, and Laurent Gras.

Of all the talented molecular gastronomy chefs who have embraced molecular cooking, which chef do you think is worthy of the title of 'World's Best Molecular Gastronomy Chef'?

Vote for your favorite molecular gastronomy chef
Molecular Gastronomy Photos on Pinterest

Blueberry Muffin Hall-of-Famer

An unexpectedly amazing house-made blueberry muffin from the new morning cafe at Salt House. Fresh, moist, blueberry-chocked-lemon-zesty goodness drizzled with just the right amount of glaze. Even more impressive when paired with a cup of their Ritual coffee.

First the soft shell crab BLT from Anchor & Hope, then the BBQ from Town Hall, these guys continue to impress me over and over and over...

Bucatini alla Carbonara at 54 Mint

Restaurant: 54 Mint (San Francisco)
Food description: Durum grain pasta with pork cheek, egg, and parmesan
Food rating: 9 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

This is my new favorite pasta dish, hands down. Yes, I'm aware of the current love affair we all have with the pasta at Incanto, but the bucatini alla carbonara from Mint 54 has completely blown me away. It's one of the tastiest pasta dishes I've had in ages and screams perfection, a carbonara finally done right: tasty bits of pork cheek lardons-style with a touch of smokiness, that stays delightfully crispy until the last bite. Bucatini cooked perfectly al dente coated with a thick eggy-creamy-parmesany carbonara that binds everything together without being overly creamy while refreshingly salty (though some might disagree)--all in a perfectly sized portion. To make things even sweeter, everything else about my dining experience was almost equally impressive, from perfectly crafted focaccia, octopus carpaccio, homemade limonata, and chocolate cake to impeccable service. Ok, so I was slightly unimpressed with the gnocchi, but then again anything would suck next to the bucatini. I predict 54 Mint will go really far, and far exceeded my experience at their sister restaurant Il Buco in NYC. Nicely done, 54 Mint, see you again! See all photos

Town Hall's BBQ ribs To-Go

Hot damn! Town Hall's BBQ ribs: The best takeout lunch in San Francisco by far. Available on random days behind the restaurant, follow @townhallbbq on twitter for updates.

Food review: Paris burger

Restaurant: Bistro Burger (Mission St., San Francisco)
Food description: 6 oz. Niman Ranch burger with brie cheese, sautéed mushrooms, lettuce, and tomato, side of curly fries
Food rating: 6 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

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Food review: Spicy string beans (dim sum)

Restaurant: Canton Seafood & Dim Sum Restaurant (San Francisco)
Food description: Sauteed stringbeans with onion, soy sauce, and chili oil
Food rating: 6.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

A little overcooked, patches of extreme spiciness, sitting in puddle, decent flavor

Food review: Steamed meat dumplings (dim sum)

Restaurant: Canton Seafood & Dim Sum Restaurant (San Francisco)
Food description: Chinese steamed dumplings with pork, beef, and shrimp (dim sum)
Food rating: 6.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Meat flavor clashed together too much, nothing distinct about it.

Food review: Memphis sweet-smoked pork

Restaurant: Memphis Minnies (San Francisco)
Food description: Barbeque pork shoulder smoked for 14 hours, side of macaroni and cheese
Food rating: 7.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Food review: Fire ball nigiri

Restaurant: Sushi Delight (San Francisco)
Food description: Spicy tuna deep fried and topped with maguro tuna sashimi and spicy sauce
Food rating: 6 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Calf's brains

Restaurant: Incanto (San Francisco)
Food description: Calf's brains with white chanterelle mushrooms, capers, and lemon
Food rating: 8.5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Sorry if brains gross anyone out, but I think it's fun to get a little avant-garde with my cuisine. I had all these bad brain jokes lined up for this post, but then I remembered I actually want to keep my readers. So for those of you who never had brains, here's your chance to live vicariously through mine (I couldn't resist). I've been dying to try them for a while but was advised against it by a chef friend of mine cuz of all the mad cow nonsense, not to mention my organ of choice has typically been sweetbreads, which I thought would be hard to beat. But dowse anything in chanterelles & gravy and it's tough to go wrong, no? Anyway, after first cutting into a brain, the inside was white and soft like silken tofu--no muscle fibers to speak of. The texture was incredibly smooth and basically melted in your mouth the same way uni does. It's extremely fatty and rich like pâté, but milkier and only a tad livery. With the wonderful chanterelle gravy and a little lemon and capers to cut the heaviness, it turned out fantastic! I'm sure there's places where you should and shouldn't order brains, but Incanto can definitely be trusted with a tricky dish like this. I encourage all you squeamish ones to try it just once here. Just close your eyes and you won't be disappointed!

Braised pork shoulder

Restaurant: Incanto (San Francisco)
Food description: Braised pork shoulder with grilled watermelon, tarragon, and onion
Food rating: 6 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Food review: Andouille sausage eggs benedict

Restaurant: Maverick (San Francisco)
Food description: Two poached eggs atop grilled andouille sausage, crawfish and jalapeno hollandaise, English muffin, side of home fries
Food rating: 9 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

Wow--what can I say--yet another superb brunch dish from Maverick. Not only did it taste amazing, it was inventive and I'd say the best seafood eggs benedict I've had in San Francisco. I loved the creole flair of this dish, and the meticulously-balanced ingredients. To allow the crawfish to really shine, the chef knew exactly how much to tone down the smokiness and spiciness of the andouille and jalapeno. The creamy hollandaise and egg yolk brought out the flavor of the crawfish and tasted like fresh crab drenched in butter. Add a little kick to that plus some smoked meat, and life is good. I've been looking for a loooooong time for an eggs benedict that's worthy of a 9.0. I wouldn't change a thing about this dish aside from maybe the home fries. They were just slightly crispy and not greasy, but just a tad dry here and there. That's just filler anyway and I'm not really rating those. But as far as eggs benedict is concerned, this is the reigning champ. Anyone up for a challenge?

Food review: Duck confit hash

Restaurant: Maverick (San Francisco)
Food description: Two poached eggs atop duck confit with crisp hash browns, oyster mushrooms in a mushroom cream sauce
Food rating: 9 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

How 'bout I cut to the chase and just say 'Holy crap! This dish was f*#&n incredible!' Definitely the best breakfast hash dish I've had in San Francisco. It's what happens when chefs put the same about of effort into brunch as they do for dinner. In case you didn't know, mushrooms and duck melt together like hot-butta-on-a-breakfast-toast. Something about the gameyness of the duck and the funginess of the mushrooms really work amazing together to create this deeply rich and hearty flavor without the grease of fattier meats. To make things even better, they threw in some crispy hash browns which retained their crispiness despite being drenched in mushroom sauce. This is a feat very rarely accomplished in a hash brunch dish! And mix all that together with the two poached eggs and it's simply perfection. Ok, nothing's perfect, and I'll admit that one of my eggs was slightly over-poached, but I'm a forgiving person and they can get another chance at that. There were also pieces of duck here and there a tiny bit dry, but it wasn't a big deal after the mushroom sauce kicked in. What really amazed me about this dish is that, given how heavy the ingredients were, how non-greasy the whole thing tasted. It was nice to finally eat a hash where your face and didn't end up covered in grease. Absolutely loved it, and what a 180° from the donut holes!

Food review: Maverick donut holes

Restaurant: Maverick (San Francisco)
Food description: Five doughnuts dusted with cinnamon and sugar
Food rating: 5 out of 10
Times ordered: 1

After just eating at Maverick for dinner, I remembered someone telling me their brunch was rumored to be great, so I made a second trip to scope it out. As I walked up, I noticed a 7x7 award for "Best Brunch" in the window, which typically is a good sign, not to mention the exiting restaurantgoers raving about how awesome it was. I perused the menu and, after resisting donuts all week after a workout marathon, I finally caved and ordered the donut holes. Now that my expectations had been all built up, I was assuming they'd be amazing, but sadly, that was not the case. I was expected an airy, light-and-fluffy donut that was delicately dusted with powered sugar. What I got was a heavy, doughy, 1/4 inch-of-granulated-sugar-coated donut hole--well actually...five of them! They were so dense that they were scalding hot in the center, so I burnt my fingers pulling it apart! Ouchie! I had to brush off a good portion of the sugar before they could be in edible form. There was also too much cinnamon for me (I'm not a huge fan). So the donuts ended up being a total upset and wasn't a very good start to brunch...