“We were hoping to open a dialogue with Sam [Sifton] and say, ‘Thank you for the three-star review. What do you think we could do to improve? If we were to improve do you think we could maybe be reconsidered in another year?’ Or something like that. We never thought that it would actually happen.” —Del Posto chef and vintage-silverware collector Mark Ladner on his surprise at getting four Times stars. [Capital NY]