Monday, February 17, 2014

Project Cubbins: Hat 267 - French Laundry List Edition

Clockwise from left: me (obvi), front embroidery detail, back embroidery detail. 

Day 267 . Hat 267: Black baseball-style cap with embroidery detail of a white clothespin, the blue capital letters "F" and "L" to the left and right respectively against a circular embroidered background of gray. Additional detail includes the words: "The French Laundry" in white embroidery on the back of the hat and an interior tag that reads: "Headmaster, Inc. one size fits all (59 cm), 100% cotton, made in Bangladesh."

This is from a fresh-from-the-oven (OK, they're not really from an oven) bag o' hats (BOH) that I found sitting on my desk when I returned from NYFW, courtesy of Food section editor Russ Parsons,
The French Laundry, as foodies the world over know, is chef Thomas Keller's famed Yountville, Calif., restaurant (so named because it had been, back in the 1920s, a French steam laundry).

I had the good fortune to dine there once and have been a fan of Keller's restaurants ever since. The Bride took me to his New York City restaurant Per Se for my 40th birthday and it was such a gastronomic high point for me that ever since I've been slowly trying to eat my way through the remainder of Keller's edible empire. To date I've added Bouchon  restaurants and Bouchon Bakery locations in Yountville, Calif., Las Vegas and New York City to my Keller dance card.

(I did not know this, but apparently he is the only American chef to have been awarded simultaneous three star Michelin ratings for two different restaurants.)

By my reckoning, that leaves just one restaurant -- ad hoc in Yountville -- to go. And if the restaurant's got hats for sale I can probably kill two squabs with one pizza stone.

Road trip, anyone?

Related:
PC 266: One Shade of Gray
PC 265: Harley Hat
PC 264: Vermont Bucket

Q: OK, nice hat -- but what exactly is Project Cubbins, anyway?

A: One man's homage to Dr. Seuss and his second book, "The 500 Hats of Bartholemew Cubbins," which is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its publication in 2013, Project Cubbins is an attempt to document the wearing of a different hat or piece of headgear every day for 500 consecutive days. No do-aheads, no banking of hats, no retroactive entries. PC started on May 27, 2013 with Hat 1
Got hats? If you loan 'em, you'll get e'm back safe and sound!

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