"Homey with a touch of mad science"

... That's how Kenji Alt described Chef Tony Maws' style in a recent Boston Phoenix article highlighting the Bistrot's Spanish Octopus à la Poêle. The "mad scientist" thing is fair enough, but let's not get hung up on that. As the article points out, "attention to detail" is also about the sourcing of ingredients. To me, as someone who -- shall we say -- lacks precision when I'm cooking, this is the more compelling point. It is not necessarily scientific wizardry and obscure kitchen appliances that produce beautiful food -- although it is certainly fun to read about the levels of insanity that can go into one single dish when it is Tony doing the cooking.

The topic of sourcing ingredients also raises another interesting point for thought. Although Craigie Street Bistrot, as you probably know, is a strong proponent of buying local ingredients, this principle has to be balanced with generally making informed decisions about sourcing the best products. This article points out that the octopus comes from the Mediterranean -- hardly local, but Tony likes to think that this is an example where making an exception is worth it. If you are going to cook octopus, cook really good octopus. (This is in contrast to simply inexcusable uses of food miles like apples from New Zealand -- as Ariane points out in her post below on "Local-vorism").

Anyway, thanks to the Phoenix for the nice write-up. I think I've now written more about the octopus than they did.