So there's Chef John Besh, feeding people during the dark days immediately post-Katrina, just hauling out jambalaya and anything else he can cook up in volume, and helping to bring back the venerable Willie Mae's Scotch House, proving he's as much about local indigenous cooking as he is about fancy-pants frivolity. Then he hauls off and wins the 2006 James Beard Award for Best Chef Southeast, plus scads of other gourmet praise. And here we are, having eaten here several times . . . never really being all that excited by the experience. We feel like heels, but we just don't get it. Too much use of foam and other nouvelle gimmicks, too dainty and fussy, too many flavors and ingredients crammed on a plate -- or the opposite problem, work that is all construction and no flavor. Or the menu is misleading, such as the Moroccan-spiced duck, which was largely enjoyable, but not in the least bit Moroccan, or a dessert that comes out in a form distinctly different from what was described in print. We've never had a bad meal here, but we've never been other than underwhelmed. On the other hand, reliable foodie friends dream about that degustation menu (chef's choice and he varies it from table to table) as one of the highlights of their dining lives, while others say the place is the best the city has to offer. Your mileage may well vary.
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