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The Cutting Edge
By: Barbara Tasch
The tabletop trends in our favorite restaurants are
coming home with us, according to San Juan kitchen supply
specialist, John Napoli.
"For one thing, the trend is going away from colored patterns
in dishes, and going back to white," he told
TABLES Magazine. "Colors conflict
with presentation and people tend to pay more attention to the
plate instead of the presentation."
In addition, with larger (12-inch) white dinner plates the
rage, there is more room for "center of the plate"
presentations, with lots of white around it. And frequently now,
the center of the plate contains meat. Veal, lamb, steaks... we
still eat fish but the trend is definitely towards meat. Just
look at the growing number of steak houses attracting islanders
and visitors: Ruth's Chris, The Palm, Che's, Uno, Buenos Ayres,
Longhorn, Outback, Coachman, Morton's, and the Steak Company,
are all popular. And many now offer something new with their
steaks.
The heavier steak knives that were introduced by the
Argentinean restaurants on the mainland have really taken off,"
Napoli saidpointed, serrated knife. The blade goes into the handle and is
riveted there. Ten years ago, these were not available. But they
have a better grip and cut very nicely. People see them in
restaurants and buy them for their homes. If you want to cut
meat in slabs, it's a perfect knife They last long and are very
hard to abuse."
At most upscale restaurants, you'll see a complete place
setting when you are seated: dinner and salad forks; dinner and
bread and butter knives; teaspoons. But, like the soup spoon,
the steak knife is not brought to the table until you order the
steak.
We checked out the steak knives at John Napoli's store in
Puerta de Tierra; you can buy them at prices that range from $13
to $46 a dozen. Some match other knives that a cook will want in
the kitchen, such as boning, paring and chefs' knives. There are
also fish knives and cleavers. A fish monger knife, used to
clean fish, can be as large as 12-inches wide, with a curved
blade. The model made by the firm, Arcas, is awesome.
A good knife makes food preparation a pleasure. The modern,
heavier steak knife is perfect with the perfect steak.
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