Out to Lunch

It felt a little strange, I must admit, to be picking up a hamburger in my hands and eating it . . . at the Maisonette.

But high-class burgers are the rage at fine-dining restaurants, including New York's Daniel Boulud's to the "21" Club. And there are certainly touches about this brand-new offering from Maisonette that make it seem appropriate under the crystal chandelier.

First, the well-seared burger is made from ground beef tenderloin. That makes it very tender and non-greasy. It's on a poppy seed bun, very artisinal, and sprinkled with Gorgonzola cheese.

The fried potatoes on the side are not the plebian pommes frites, but the uber-fries known as pommes. These are slices of potato twice-fried to make them puff and crisp up. The unusual pickles, made in the kitchen of Chef Bertrand Bouquin (right), are not a thing like a kosher dill. With a bit of a clovey overtone and a texture close to fresh cucumber, they seem rather French. Of course, the mustard, mayo and ketchup are served in a classy little plate. A glass of Burgundy would not be the wrong accompaniment (though you can also get Coke poured from a classic little glass bottle). The burger is one choice on the Maisonette's two courses for $20 lunch menu (or three for $30), which makes it a $10 hamburger, I guess.

Maisonette is open for lunch Tuesday-Friday. 114 E. Sixth St., 721-2260.

Required reading

Many cooks can't resist the latest fuzzy-logic rice cooker, marble rolling pin or gadgets that make hard-boiled eggs square. (I'm a sucker for those bundt pans in all kinds of shapes.) But the longer you cook, the more you want to just have good equipment that really works.

If you're serious about cooking and don't have a complete batterie de cuisine, it might be worth it to buy Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen (Stewart Tabori & Chang; $27.50) as a buyer's guide. Brown, host of the Food Network's Good Eats, takes a science-guy approach to how to buy gear.

This is a lot more than a list of equipment. If you read it, you'll understand about how pots, pans, blenders, etc., work, and therefore how cooking works. He speaks with great authority on which items are going to make cooking easier, and which are a waste of time. Plus, there are recipes.

Timely tips

Tidbits from Alton Brown's Gear for Your Kitchen:

• Why not use metal for cold stuff? Because metal is a good conductor and way too efficient at moving heat from the air into the food. That means that Jell-O, ice cream - any heat-sensitive food in metal - will start melting almost the moment they're removed from the fridge or freezer. Glass, on the other hand, is an insulator so it keeps hot hot longer and cold cold longer."

• Emergency medical technicians say the most dangerous tool in the kitchen is a dull knife. That's because dull knives require force to cut, and whenever force is applied, bad things tend to happen.

• A troubling question: "Why is it that blenders usually have 15 buttons but food processors only one?"