Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Silly me, I always forget that restaurants & bars are really just an elaborate welfare scheme and the customer OWES the server/ tender as much money as possible.

Isn't this the same thing (or similar to?) an Alaska cocktail?

Goose Island Nightstalker is fantastic, but hard to find.

I think that their Fleur would be a nice choice with appetizers, it has bit more fruitiness than the Sofie, though neither are sweet.

How the frig do you confit a tomato soup?

It's pretty good. It tastes somewhere in-between a regular bourbon and a rye whiskey. The finish is spicy but not overpowering.

Very tasty and very filling for being almost meatless.

Went from good to great with the addition of some sherry vinegar at the end to add some balanced acidity.

keithlewis has the right idea with the turkey-fryer-burner. It's a great way to approximate those insane burners from Chinese restaurants. I believe Alton Brown has done that on a few episodes of Good Eats as well.

Some great french fries

Agreeing with Malecki - Chicken Paprikas uses sour cream, not heavy cream. I learned this recipe out of my mother's ancient Gourmet cookbook from the mid-70s and the recipe is fantastic.

(I cannot vouch for the lard instead of oil, though this would probably be more authentic.)

That being said, now I'm insanely hungry for this dish.

But do these get better as they age?

Focaccia, either with rosemary or a bit of red onion. Very hard to screw up!

Grilled, maybe a little butter & lemon

Ugh, so tired of Leah's moping. I think that she should have been booted over Jamie. Jamie knew exactly what she did wrong and how she could have fixed it given more time. Leah just had no idea how to make that sauce (though it WAS a complicated dish).

Eric Ripert is always great, he just seems to have fun. (Check out the toaster-oven cooking on his website if you haven't.) Tonight's challenge was a REAL challenge, testing both palette and technique. Not some contrived time-based rush.