What's up with buying tickets to Next instead of just making a reservation? That's creativity as well. Nick, my business partner, said, "you know, Chef, this doesn't make any sense to me. Everybody that opens a restaurant does it exactly the same way. Why don't we identify the elements of operating a restaurant that clearly don't work, rip the whole thing apart and put it back together in a way that makes sense as a business, then maybe we'll have something."
So having five reservationists—a grand total of $175,000 a year—to answer the phone from 9AM to 6PM, and tell people they cannot come to our place to spend money, because we're full, that makes absolutely no sense.
For Next you will have four menus a year, and each one is a different time and place. How much poetic license are you going take with those menus? We're starting out with Paris 1912 Escoffier. Anyone who has read any of Escoffier's cookbooks knows they are incredibly vague. Back in the early 1900s, they didn't have a VitaPrep blender. He pushed everything through a fine screen. Do we use a screen to uphold the authenticity of Escoffier? Or, do we use a blender to uphold Escoffier's philosophy about using the technology we have? Of course you'll use the blender.
When we go into the future, Bangkok 2060, obviously nobody knows what it's going to be like in 2060. So, sure, we're going to take some poetic license. But you can bet we'll do our homework and look at where Thai food has been the last couple of hundred years, identify the way it's swung, and try to extrapolate what WE think it might be like in 2060.
It looks like the Modernist Cuisine cookbook is going to have some adapted Alinea recipes. Do you align yourself with the Modernist movement? I will by no means parallel myself with the Beatles, but they went through their career, starting off in Liverpool playing one kind of music, then came to the States. By the time they did the White Album, stylistically, they were executing from a far different place. Alinea is aligned with the Modernist Cuisine movement but me, personally, I have the opportunity, to be at one time a modernist chef, then over at Next, I can be something entirely different.
Who do you consider to be the target audience for cookbooks like Modernist Cuisine or Alinea's? Do you see the future American kitchen incorporating dishes like these? We understood when we published the Alinea book in 2008 that a small handful of people would cook out of it. But we also know, because that book was published, it lends a little more credibility to the movement. Ten years from now, it might be more popular for people to cook like this at home, for the very reason that we printed those books.
What's the best thing you've recently eaten for under $20? We were in Tokyo about six months ago and had the most amazing bowl of ramen. It was bigger than my head. It would be like four meals for under $20, if you don't count the flight.
Over $150? It was in Sapporo, Japan. When the chef came out at the end of the meal, I felt like I already knew him. I had never met him before, nor could we communicate, but I felt like there was this connection after eating his food. And to me that's magical.
Pizza pizza!
At Slice we profile pizza obsessives with the following question: The Pizza Cognition Theory states that "the first slice of pizza a child sees and tastes ... becomes, for him, pizza." Do you remember your first slice? Where was it from, and is the place still around? Not my very first slice, but I could probably tell you where it was from. It was literally Little Caeser's pizza in my tiny hometown. Every Friday night that was like the go-to in my house.
Are you into deep dish? I am, but I prefer thin. I had the best pizza experience in my life about 3 weeks ago. It was at Great Lake, here in Chicago. It's a tiny little place, husband and wife team, BYOB. They have one pizza they make a night. You walk in, you get your salad, you get your pizza—whatever they're making that night. It's freaking awesome, man.
UPDATE, my original post is below. I tuned in for the Charlie Sheen show, but only about 200,000 people were in the channel at peak and the show was very boring and viewers quickly went away. So, this won’t be the “event” that proves this post’s thesis right.
UPDATE2: Ustream now claims that more than 666,000 views were generated during the course of the hour last night. Wild.
+++++++++++++++
Tonight Charlie Sheen will be on Ustream.tv in what could be a massive night for that video network. How massive? Sheen broke all records on Twitter, gaining 1.78 million followers in less than a week. No one else, not even Oprah or Obama or Beiber, has gotten so many so fast.
I talked with one of the guys involved, Barry Schuler, who told me his partner, Brad Wyman, is the one who convinced Sheen to tweet and convinced him to break all the rules, get rid of the press and PR, and go directly to his fans. Sheen’s show is part of “WyTV” on Ustream.
But that’s all fun and games compared to what YouTube is facing tonight.
See, YouTube looked like it was going to score the final touchdown in video. One where they were running down the field 50 yards ahead of the opponents, but 10 yards from the goal line it looks to me they are stumbling and fumbling the ultimate goal: where the entertainment comes over and starts making the real money.
See, as Apple’s Steve Jobs has shown the rest of the tech industry that we can live in a world without Microsoft (even Microsoft’s biggest partner, HP, shows off devices that don’t have any Microsoft code on them now) Charlie Sheen might be the guy who shows the entire entertainment industry that they can live in a world without YouTube.
Fumble!
See, we all know YouTube can stream live content. We’ve seen them do it with FarmAid, Haiti, and U2.
But they don’t let US live stream. Why? The entertainment industry lawyers hate that idea. They know that thousands of people will turn on live streams of the Oscars, of the SuperBowl, of their movies, and other things.
That is a box that they don’t want opened.
But Charlie Sheen might, tonight, open that box anyway and BLOW IT UP!
This is the day that YouTube could end up fumbling on its most important goal right before the REAL money starts coming to the Internet.
Winners?
Ustream, who should be counting their lucky stars (if their service stays up, already, with hours to go there are 650 people in the chat on Sheen’s channel).
*Amazon, who is ready with live video streaming service to jump in and compete with Netflix.
*Netflix, who already demonstrates to me every day they can stream live content and make money doing so.
* All these services need to do is let US stream and they win and knock YouTube’s ball right out of their hands.
It’s too bad that the Google of new isn’t as brash and fun to watch as the Google of old. The Google of old would have turned on video streaming long ago.
By the way, Google, this is one HUGE lever you have to get us all interested in owning a Google TV box and also getting us onto Android.
See, my iOS device isn’t very good at playing Ustream’s live streams.
But if you did live YouTube streams, I bet my Android devices and my Google TV would view those, right?
Now THAT is how to make my “apps are the only thing that matters” argument go away quickly!
But, instead, it looks like you’re fumbling the ball.
Go Charlie Go!
Photo credit: Leann Arthur (thank GOD for Creative Commons licensed images!)
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