A Man's Got to Know His Dinner Reservations Quiz

Answer: Delmonico's

New York City during the "Gilded Age" of the late 19th Century established itself as an international culinary center. No restaurant was more famous or influential than Delmonico's. The eatery was opened in 1827 and moved to its most prominent location at 2 South Williams Street in Midtown Manhattan in 1837. Already considered one of New York's best, Delmonico's made Charles Ranhofer its executive chef in 1862. The hiring proved significant as Ranhofer remains one of the most renowned chefs in culinary history.

Under Ranhofer, Delmonico's flourished. The restaurant created the Delmonico steak, a thick sirloin or rib-eye aged and trimmed then cooked to perfection. Ranhofer first served the delicious lobster dish called Lobster a la Newberg, as well as Eggs Benedict and Baked Alaska. In addition, Ranhofer is credited with first serving Chicken a la King and the tomato based Manhattan Clam Chowder. While recreations of the Delmonico's menu and style remain in cities like Las Vegas and New Orleans, the original Delmonico's closed in 1923, a victim of declining popularity and the impact of Prohibition.

Answer: Rules

At the risk of alienating my English friends food critics often don't consider London one of the world's great culinary cities nor English food the epitome of haute cuisine. However, London is a city with a deep history and respect for tradition. Rules UK in Covent Garden is considered to be the oldest continuously operating restaurant in London, having first opened its doors in 1798.

The menu has not changed dramatically since the 18th Century where fresh oysters, game meat and steak and kidney pie remain popular. Vegetables, beef and lamb are sourced from local British farms and much of the game served at Rules comes from their large North Yorkshire farm called The Larrington Estate, Rules' location, is close to London's theatre district and has remained popular with performers and patrons. Famed actor Lawrence Olivier was a frequent guest at Rules during his long career.

Answer: Duck

Canard is of course French for duck. At La Tour d'Argent you can have your duck prepared in a myriad of sauces and styles. The house specialty "a la presse" literally means pressed duck. Pressing a duck first requires the duck be slaughtered by asphyxiation so as to retain the blood. The duck is then roasted and the internal organs are removed and ground. The legs and breast are removed for further cooking. The carcass, including the bones and skin, is put in a specially-designed type of press. The pressing extracts the duck blood and other juices from the carcass. The liquid is thickened with the ground duck organ meat, butter, and cognac before being poured over the breast and leg then returned to the oven to finish cooking.

La Tour d'Argent has served well over 1,000,000 duck dishes. The classic pressed version can cost upwards of $200 a serving. In addition, the restaurant boasts a 400,000-500,000 bottle wine cellar worth in excess of $30 million.

Answer: Los Angeles

One of the joys of a Fun Trivia education is learning origin stories. In this case it is the origin of certain food. Having grown up in Los Angeles, I learned at an early age that the "French dipped sandwich" (roast beef on a French roll dipped in meat juices) did not come from France, but rather was created in downtown LA. Two local eateries, Philippe the Original and Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet, claim to have created the dish around 1908. Tuna tartare was first served on the menu of the Beverly Hills Chaya Brassiere in 1984 by Chef Shigefumi Tachibe. Tachibe combined the French steak tartare with the fresh tuna popular in sushi to create a new sublime taste.

In 1982, Wolfgang Puck and his pizza chef Ed La Doux revolutionized the way pizza was viewed when they created the smoked salmon and caviar pizza at Puck's Spago restaurant. Chopping salad greens per se is not something that was invented in Los Angeles, but the combination of flavors in a classic "chopped salad" was created at La Scala's in Beverly Hills in the late 1950s. The salad mix of lettuce, cheese, salami and garbanzo beans was chopped into small pieces to make it easier to eat.

Answer: Fettuccine Alfredo

Almost any Italian restaurant in Rome (or all of Italy) will whip up a delicious dish of fettuccine noodles in a butter and parmesan sauce. However, the dish will likely be called by the more generic name "fettuccine al burro". Chef Alfredo di Lelio popularized the dish in 1908 at a restaurant owned by his mother and later at his own Rome establishment called "Alfredo's". As the dish became popular people would request Alfredo's pasta with fettuccine. Eventually the dish became known as fettuccine Alfredo. Di Lelio did not "invent" the fettuccine dish now named for him. As far back as the 15th century there are references to a pasta, butter and cheese dish known as "Maccheroni Romaneschi" or macaroni from Rome.

American style fettuccine Alfredo uses heavy cream to augment the butter and less parmesan cheese. Alfredo's original version was made with triple butter and cheese and relied on vigorous whisking of the ingredients to form the mixture into a sauce.

Answer: Oysters Rockefeller

Antoine Alciatore opened Antoine's in the French Quarter of New Orleans in 1840. Antoine's sublime food and celebrity clientele made the eatery a New Orleans institution. Antoine and his son Jules are created with creating such dishes as Pompano en Papillote, Eggs Sardou and most famously Oysters Rockefeller. The cooked dish was created in 1898 and named for industrialist oil tycoon John D Rockefeller, at the time the richest man in the world. According to Chef Jules Alciatore, naming the dish after Rockefeller exemplified the dish's rich flavor of thick oysters baked in their liquor with an herb onion mixture (but never spinach) topped with bread crumbs.

The mixture of French, Spanish, African and Caribbean indigenous people make New Orleans cuisine unique amongst US cities. Cajun foods, such as heavily spiced fried (blackened) fish or meats, reflect the more rural lifestyle of the French Canadian (Acadian) settlers that moved in large numbers to Louisiana in the Mid-18th Century. Creole cooking grew from the dishes popular with the French and Spanish elite tempered by influences from the indigenous Caribe and imported African population that prepared much of the food.

Answer: A Figueira Rubaiyat

The Portuguese word for "fig tree" is figueria, while Rubaiyat is the name of the farm where the restaurants vegetables and meat comes from. Taken together the combination means a sublimely delicious restaurant in the heart of Sao Paulo's exclusive Jardins district. The fig tree at issue is estimated to be over 150 years old and is magnificent, spreading a canopy that covers hundreds of square feet and provides natural shade and privacy for dining patrons. On selected days the chefs prepare feijoado. The hearty stew of black beans, salted beef or pork trimmings (ears, tail, and feet), bacon, smoked sausage and jerked beef loin and tongue is often referred to as Brazil's national dish.

In unbiased reviews (ok fully biased as it is mine), A Figueira Rubaiyat is one of the world's great restaurants and is a "can't miss" when in South America. However if you want to settle for a restaurant that is consistently named to the world's top lists then Chef Alex Atlana's D.O.M. is only a two minute walk around the corner. If you go to A Fiqueria Rubaiyat or D.O.M. make sure you have reservations and leave at least 3-4 hours for your meal.

Answer: elBulli

elBulli or "the Bull" in English was located in the tiny town of Roses some 150 kilometers from Barcelona along the Spanish coast. The eatery opened in 1964 and earned its first Michelin star in 1976. However the restaurant climbed to the pinnacle of world food in 1987 when Chef Ferran Adrià was given control of the kitchen. By 1997, elBulli had earned its third Michelin star. elBulli was named the number one best restaurant in the world by UK based Restaurant Magazine five times in 2002, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, before placing second in 2010. Dinner at elBulli was expensive, costing nearly $300 per person if you could even get a table. Reservations for the entire six month season sold out in hours. Despite the massive success and high cost elBulli did not turn a profit and Chef Adrià was forced to close elBulli after the 2011 season.

elBulli was perhaps the most famous example of the exotic mix of science and cuisine that is generally termed molecular gastronomy. A molecular gastronomist's kitchen is as much a laboratory for research as a place to prepare food. The chef uses a knowledge of how food will taste and experiments with temperature, pressure and chemistry. The chef strives for unique presentations, flavor profiles and unexpected imagery, so as to engage all of the patron's senses during the meal. The amazing creations in a restaurant kitchen like elBulli's bring to life the seemingly fantastical ideas from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory".

Answer: Jules Verne

It seems only fitting that the 19th Century Parisian monument to the future would house a restaurant named for the 19th Century French writer that wrote so eloquently about the future. The Jules Verne is located 125 meters high in the middle of the Eiffel Tower and offers unparalleled views of Paris during your meal.

The food is classic French and has earned a Michelin star for a kitchen run by celebrity chef Alain Ducasse. Despite the base cost of $250 per entrée, reservations are booked months in advance and window tables may require as much as six months' advance booking.

Answer: Soba

Soba is made from buckwheat grain formed into flour making a rich nutty flavored noodle. The Buckwheat based soba is distinguished from wheat flour noodles that are called "udon" in Japanese. Buckwheat is an ancient grain that grows well in both higher altitudes and colder climates and is believed to have been first harvested in Asia as far back as 6000 BCE. Most Japanese soba noodles are made from buckwheat flour harvested on the island of Hokkaido. Soba noodles are often cooked then served chilled forming a light refreshing spring or summer dish. Hot soba noodles cooked in variety of tsuyu broths are a stable of Japanese quick food stops and are often found at train and bus stations.

Kyoto served as Japan's capital from the 8th Century until 1869. Since 1465 the unassuming noodle restaurant Honke Owariya (the "original Owariya") has served traditional soba noodles to Shoguns, monks and tourists. Honke Owariya started out as a bakery and still makes their own desserts. The owners learned quickly that emperors and pilgrims need heartier fare than just sweets, so noodles were added to the menu and a legend was born that has survived for 15 generations.