Good morning, it’s Thursday.
Not too long ago, I experienced for the first time the magic of a tableside Caesar salad. I am a big Caesar salad fan – I probably have consumed many dozens, if not hundreds of them over the course of my adult life.
But until this one, none of them were actually composed in front of my eyes, which is an old-school tradition that has fallen out of favor in a culinary world dominated by fast casual experiences.
Food composed tableside was once a stalwart of fine dining, combining skill, culinary excess, and a dash of theater that made eating out exciting. These days, you’re lucky if a human even comes to your table at all, with robots replacing chefs and iPads replacing waitstaff.
According to the interwebs, the practice of serving food tableside dates back centuries – at least to the Middle Ages – and was likely born of servants delivering food to royals in a ritualistic way that made them feel particularly special. Not surprisingly, the tradition was very popular in France, which is a country that feels a certain kind of (very strong) way about food.
Tableside preparation is not only about theater, but also can enable a diner to see exactly what is going into a dish and allows a restaurant to showcase the freshness of its produce. It also takes a certain degree of skill – especially when it comes to delicate or multi-step preparations like deboning a fish or creating the perfect Caesar dressing.
Something about watching your food get prepared right in front of you elevates the meal and makes it extra special.
Aside from Caesar salads, other well-known tableside dishes include but are not limited to appetizers like steak tartare and guacamole, drinks like the Bloody Mary, entrees like pasta in a parmesan wheel (AKA ), Peking Duck, Dover Sole, sushi (if you’re sitting at the counter), and Teppenyaki (Japanese grilled meat, fish and vegetables), and any number of (usually flaming) desserts including Baked Alaska, Bananas Foster, and Cherries Jubilee.
Setting a dish aflame is a culinary technique known as flambe, and it is achieved by adding a small-ish amount of high-proof alcohol to a hot pan and then igniting it to add a unique flavor to the food. This is rather dramatic, creating impressive blue-orange flames that burn off quickly (when done right). Both sweet and savory foods can be flambed, but it’s an approach more typical for the aforementioned desserts.
Today happens to be National Cherries Jubilee Day, which highlights a dish that was reportedly invented by the great French chef Auguste Escoffier in honor of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, celebrating 60 years on the British throne (or maybe it was her Golden Jubilee in 1887? the interwebs can’t quite decide).
Queen Victoria was known for her fondness for cherries, which makes this dessert kind of a no-brainer. The warm, sweetened, brandy-soaked cherries were originally served on their own, but these days, the dish is usually topped with vanilla ice cream.
Apparently, tableside dining is making a comeback -perhaps due to the fact that we are all obsessed with doing it for the gram? – and I, for one, am here for it.
It will be partly cloudy today with highs in the mid-60s. But some very unsettled weather could be on the way.
A powerful storm that formed off the coasts of the Carolinas midweek, is expected to move up the East Coast this weekend. While the storm is expected to intensify, forecasters warned that there was still significant uncertainty about its path and potential impacts.
In the headlines…
A federal judge has ordered the White House to immediately restore the press credentials of three news organizations after President Donald Trump barred their reporters from the complex last week.
In a major setback for Trump in one of his biggest battles with the media, US District Judge Tim Kelly ordered the Trump administration to immediately return the outlets’ press passes and blocked officials from enforcing the ban for 14 days.
Kelly, a Trump appointee, also rejected, for now, the administration’s argument that revoking the outlets’ press credentials was necessary to protect national security.
“This is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law. We greatly appreciate the court’s swift action,” Theodore J. Boutrous, a lawyer representing the media companies, told CNN.
Scott Bessent, the Treasury secretary who is leading trade talks with China this week, said Wednesday in an interview on Fox News that the United States and China had agreed to extend a trade truce for two more months past a November deadline.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the United Nations on Wednesday that the Ukraine War — and all current wars must end — before artificial intelligence is deployed to the battlefield to make life-and-death decisions.
Lawmakers are pushing for a ban on diesel exports, seeking relief for truckers and farmers who are paying record high prices for the crucial fuel. But economists and oil experts say the plan could backfire — and lead to higher costs at the pump for Americans.
After a summer spent out of the public eye, the enigmatic first lady, Melania Trump, popped up in New York City this week with a few autumnal announcements.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is maintaining a decent but far from commanding lead over Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman, according to a Siena University poll released yesterday morning.
Hochul was ahead of Blakeman 50-41 among likely voters, Siena found. That’s similar to the 49-39 lead she had in Siena’s August survey.
On the heels of the Siena poll, Quinnipiac University released its first survey of gubernatorial race Wednesday afternoon that showed Hochul leading Blakeman by a whopping 19 points.
Blakeman has discussed his ex-wife’s marriage to Paul McCartney – a topic he rarely broaches in public – as records show she donated $18,000 to Hochul.
“Certainly she’s free to contribute to any campaign that she wants to contribute to, but my understanding is she made that contribution six months before I got into the campaign against Kathy Hochul,” Blakeman told reporters at an unrelated press event.
Former Democratic Queens Councilmember Bob Holden endorsed Blakeman over Hochul, saying his decision was motivated by concerns over public safety.
“I haven’t met a Democrat that told me they want to pay higher utility bills, but I’ve met a lot of Democrats who said they’d like their utility bills cut, which I will do,” Blakeman said.
Hochul says she’ll be out on the campaign trail with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the darling of the left who is kicking off a statewide tour this week ahead of the November midterm elections.
Amid heightened concerns regarding the potential threats of artificial intelligence, Hochul is out with a new TV ad touting her moratorium on data centers as she enters the home stretch of her reelection bid.
The data center spot will run through Election Day as part of a multimillion-dollar, statewide ad campaign on cable, broadcast, digital and streaming platforms.
The race for New York State attorney general is tightening, with Democratic incumbent Letitia James’ lead over Republican Saritha Komatireddy shrinking by 5 points, according to the Siena poll.
Hochul abruptly fired the Empire State’s top tech official but the reason for the pink slip remains a mystery.
New York sucks the most money from taxpayers’ pockets out of any state in the nation, using the windfall to fund its massive spending programs, a new report found.
The developer behind the NESE pipeline that would bring natural gas from Pennsylvania to downstate New York is appealing a decision from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals that vacated a key permit for the project issued by New Jersey’s DEP.
Two of the key faces of the left in elected office, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, met at an economic event in Manhattan on Wednesday, as world leaders gather in New York for the U.N. General Assembly.
Mamdani welcomed Spain’s controversial prime minister to Gracie Mansion Wednesday as the foreign leader contends with accusations of “overt antisemitism” as corruption scandals embroil his administration.
Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to use his UN address today to berate Mamdani for calling him a war criminal, a feud that highlights the Israeli leader’s growing isolation ahead of elections at home that he may lose.
Mamdani in 2025 vowed to carry out an international arrest warrant against Netanyahu the next time he visited the city. But when protesters fill the streets to oppose Netanyahu and Israel’s war in Gaza today, the mayor won’t be there to make good on his promise.
City workers took down a gritty homeless encampment near NYU dorms — only to have it move down the street, as one vagrant griped, “I thought Mamdani was supposed to be supportive of the homeless?”
Mamdani is the most popular elected official in New York City, a new poll from Quinnipiac found, with his statewide popularity on par with that of Gov. Hochul.
Mamdani is reportedly barring New York’s Finest from responding to any 311 complaints about the Big Apple’s homeless encampment mess, putting the entire burden on understaffed and overworked homeless and social services staffers.
The NYPD increased security around the headquarters of the United Nations yesterday after people emerged from a manhole on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where many world leaders are staying to attend the General Assembly, the police said.
The elevated section of Park Avenue that snakes around Grand Central Terminal would get a bike lane under a design floated by the city transportation department this week.
The son of a hero firefighter who died on Sept. 11 says in a lawsuit that the city’s archaic age restrictions have kept him from following in his dad’s footsteps — because a last-minute delay to the FDNY test meant he turned 29 by the time he was able to apply.
Bellevue Hospital’s busy adult psych ward is getting a renovation and 40 additional beds, under an upgrade backed by $25.6 million from the City Council, hospital officials and councilmembers announced Wednesday.
A group of city councilmembers wants to turn areas across the five boroughs into “low-traffic neighborhoods” — and is pushing legislation that would mandate minor changes to the streets to discourage driving.
Harvey Weinstein was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006.
Former Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano was resentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday after several delays.
Moments after the results were certified Tuesday night in a contentious election for Suffolk County Democratic Chairman, Rich Schaffer confronted the next challenge: uniting a fractured party six weeks before a general election.
Rep. Pat Ryan contends a recent ethics complaint questioning is his primary residence is in his Hudson Valley congressional district or in Washington, where his children may attend school, is a desperate attempt by his challenger to revive a struggling campaign.
The Capital Region and Hudson Valley are unlikely to see the flash flooding and high winds expected in New England and farther down the Atlantic coast, but the areas could still be drenched by the weekend nor’easter.
Albany Police Chief Brendan Cox said the 31-year-old suspect allegedly shown in a video montage randomly beating people in the city was brought by police to Albany Med for a court-authorized mental health evaluation under state Mental Hygiene Law.
Two Capital Region landfills will serve as the final resting places for the Albany Central Warehouse, which began coming down in earnest this week.
After what the mayor called “years of neglect,” Ballston Spa’s courthouse on Bath Street is closed.
Many Capital Region Catholic schools may keep the graduation requirement of passing five Regents exams, even as the state is dropping it for public school students.
A GoFundMe page was launched to help chef Brady Duhame, a Saratoga Springs native known for his work at The Patio at 15 Church, Sperry’s Restaurant, Jack’s Oyster House, Buddha Noodle, among others, pay for hospice and other end-of-life treatments.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
