Stress in the Pit: Doctors Recommend a Month of Rest for Muti

Riccardo Muti, the new music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, has flown home to Italy for further consultation with doctors following the cancellation of two weeks of concerts. Exhaustion and stress were behind the stomach pains that caused Muti to cancel the concerts at the CSO, the orchestra said on Tuesday. Mr. Muti, who is in his first season with the orchestra, left for Italy on Oct. 4 to consult with his doctors in Milan and undergo tests.

“It was determined that Maestro Muti is suffering from extreme exhaustion as a result of prolonged physical stress,” the orchestra said in a statement. “In this case, as often happens, the exhaustion manifested itself in abdominal pain and other physical symptoms.” Doctors prescribed a month of rest. Mr. Muti is scheduled to return to Chicago to conduct the orchestra in February.

The Not Amused Bouche

Until the scream punctured the air at roughly 9 p.m., patrons and executives of the restaurant said, Monday night was quiet and glittery as usual at Jean Georges, Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s four-star kitchen and dining room on the first floor of 1 Central Park West. Diners were tucking into yellowfin tuna ribbons or gently smoked squab, talking cheerfully as staff members padded silently through the elegant, carpeted room.

Then a cockroach appeared on the ironed white cloth of a table of five diners.

The visitor’s effect was immediate and terrible, said Lois Freedman, a spokeswoman for Mr. Vongerichten, who was not in the restaurant at the time. “A woman at the table screamed and the whole restaurant went quiet,” she said.

Roach! It is both a diner’s and a restaurateur’s worst nightmare, say both groups: a cockroach or water bug making its presence known in a restaurant or private dining room in the middle of a meal, inserting creepy and crawly into an experience that should have neither. Some people grimace, others scream. Acute embarrassment rises in the breast of the evening’s host. For professionals and amateurs alike, there is always some question about what exactly to do.

At Jean Georges on Monday night, waiters and captains moved to the table with grim alacrity, said people who saw them whisk the aggrieved customers to a new table. Attempts to dispatch the insect in a folded napkin were ineffective, Ms. Freedman said. The four-star roach escaped into the night. (The restaurant’s exterminator was called in on Tuesday morning.)

Champagne was brought to the table of the woman who had screamed, Ms. Freedman said, and further treats after that: an additional course was added to the restaurant’s three-course, $98 prix fixe dinner, and desserts, and dessert wine. The restaurant’s captain kept a close eye on the table. At least one other table received a round of free drinks as a way of thanking them for their forbearance.

“It’s always awkward,” said Ms. Freedman. “You don’t want another mistake to happen. You don’t want them to wait. You want the food to be perfect.”

On Sept. 1, Jean Georges received an inspection score of 23 from the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, according to the department's website, with two sanitary violations. The restaurant’s letter grade for a 23 would ordinarily be B, the department says. Restaurateurs may contest violations, however, and receive a “grade pending” card until they face an administrative tribunal of the department. The current grade for Jean Georges, also issued on Sept. 1, is “pending.”

There are six other restaurants with four-star ratings from The New York Times. Their most recent inspection scores and Health Department grades are as follows: Le Bernardin, 10, A; Daniel, 15, not yet graded; Del Posto, 9, A; Eleven Madison Park, 15, not yet graded; Masa, 9, A; Per Se, 0, not yet graded.

By Sam Sifton

Diner's Journal, NYTimes.com

Ooh That Smell: Kimchi Crisis in South Korea

Koreans eat kimchi--the spicy, fermented cabbage-based dish--at nearly every meal. But an unusually long stretch of bad weather nearly halved the latest cabbage crop, causing prices to soar. At markets in Seoul, shoppers were up before dawn fighting to buy heads of napa cabbage that once cost about $4 but now go for as much as $14. On Thursday, NPR reported that the government temporarily suspended tariffs on Chinese-imported cabbage and other produce this week, part of a plan to rush an additional 100 tons of the staple into supermarkets and stores. The Seoul city government, meanwhile, is providing the busiest markets with 300,000 heads of napa cabbage at just 70 percent of the market price — enough to feed 10,000 households. Kimchi (cabbage fermented in white radish, garlic and chili paste seasoning) is low in calories, rich in vitamins, and like pickles or coleslaw in this country, in South Korea it appears as a free side dish in local restaurants from steakhouses to pizzerias.

Here's a traditional recipe.

Taxi! Americans Don't Walk Much

A study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise finds that Americans only take an average of 5,117 steps per day.  This figure is low in comparison to Australians, who average 9,695 steps a day, the Swiss, who average 9,650, and the Japanese, who tally around 7,168.

The data taken from 1,136 American adults by researchers at the University of Tennessee, shows that men, on average, take more steps daily than women.

"The health benefits of walking are underappreciated. Even modest amounts of walking, if performed on a daily basis, can help to maintain a healthy body weight," lead author Dr. David R. Bassett, Jr., of the University of Tennessee Obesity Research Center in Knoxville, said in an American College of Sports Medicine news release.

The study's findings give insight as to why there are more obese people in the U.S. than in other developed countries, the researched noted.  In the U.S., 34 percent of the adult population is obese, compared with 16 percent in Australia, eight percent in Switzerland and three percent in Japan.