Our first award of the night, Rising Star Chef of ...
Over the course of five days in mid-March, more than ...
Chris Cosentino is passionate about pig. At his San Francisco ...
The creamy avocado, sweet mango, and bright citrus in this salad make a refreshing counterpoint to Senegal’s rich and savory stews. This recipe first appeared in our May 2012 issue along with John O’Connor’s story A Feast For All.
via Saladu Awooka ak Mango (Avocado-Mango Salad) Recipe – Saveur.com.
Hyderabad, India, doesn’t have an official city-wide barista competition, but if it did, I’d put my money on Hardik Bali at Spice Junxion, a well-known Indian restaurant in the heart of Banjara Hills, inside the posh Taj Deccan. In Hyderabad, the making of South India–style “filter coffee” has been elevated to the level of performance art (see photos below), and at Spice Junxion, the baristas are bone fide chefs. Bali is one of the best. Maybe even the best. (Note: You can find this style of coffee sold by street vendors throughout the city, but the water at those carts is highly questionable. At Spice Junxion, it’s perfectly safe.)
Tv chef Rachael Ray has asked staffers to perform a wacky exorcism ritual while planning her move into arch rival Martha Stewart’s Chelsea studio, ordering them to burn bundles of sage to chase away negative “spirits.” “She ordered her staff to ‘sage the place” a source told us yesterday, adding that Ray has openly told friends and aides of her plan.
via Rachael Ray asks for “sage exorcism” ahead of moving into rival Martha Stewart’s studio – NYPOST.com.
My Q and A column in the San Francisco Chronicle appears on the first Sunday of every month. This one is about safety problems with tuna scrape.
via Tuna Scrape: The Food Safety Risk Lurking in Supermarket Sushi – Atlantic Mobile.
First off, we just found out that Jean-Georges Vongerichten has an Instagram account. Now if that isn’t proof that this social network has blown up, we don’t know what is. Forget being acquired for $1 Billion by Facebook: @chefjgv is putting up photos of Eric Ripert and Martha Stewart toasting each other.
via 15 Best Instagram Accounts for Food-Lovers: BA Daily: bonappetit.com.
Many of San Francisco’s finest chefs and restaurant people are currently in New York for the James Beard Awards. For San Francisco chefs, the trip to New York is an opportunity to see what their counterparts on the other coast are doing, and the extended weekend is basically an eating (and drinking) tour de force.
On Sunday afternoon, many of the Bay Area nominees (and then some, like Katie Couric) were at Barbuto, toasting rosé in the annual SF gathering; the photos started snapping in full when the above chefs posed for a Mount Rushmore-like shot.
Below is a snippet of just a fraction of the restaurants that some local folks are eating in the Big Apple.
Jeremiah Tower: Le Bernardin, Marea, Tertulia, and the “flawless” Il Buco Alimentari, home to the porchetta sandwich that Tower calls “one of the best things to eat in New York.”
Emily Luchetti, Waterbar/Farallon (“Who’s Who” induction): Salumeria Rosi
Daniel Patterson, Coi (Best Chef: Pacific): Empellon, Roberta’s, Momofuku Ko, Per Se for lunch, Le Bernardin for lunch
Christopher Kostow, The Restaurant at Meadowood (Best Chef: Pacific): Del Posto
Gary Danko, Gary Danko (Outstanding Chef): Nomad, Marea, Annisa
Victoria Libin, A16 (Outstanding Wine Program): Le Bernardin, Red Farm, Peasant, Il Buco Alimentari, Taim
Mark Liberman, AQ (Best New Restaurant): Marea, Katz’s, Eataly, Nomad, late night places.
Nancy Oakes, Boulevard (Outstanding Restaurant): Brushstroke, Nomad, Momofuku Ssam
Michael Mina, Michael Mina (Outstanding Service): Marea
Shelley Lindgren, A16 (Outstanding Wine Program): Il Buco Alimentari, Le Bernardin, Peasant, Locanda Verde
Chris Cosentino, Incanto (Best Chef: Pacific): Tertulia, Russ & Daughters, Takashi, Spotted Pig with two guys named Fergus and Mario
Not long ago, I mentioned the Lamb Melons I saw at a butcher stand at the Marché d’Anvers in Paris. Since it’s an afternoon market, I thought it might be fun to mosey over there at my leisure and pick one up for Sunday lunch. However I was surprised to see the market completely packed. Since there are less than a few dozen stands, it’s not surprising I suppose. Plus we had a holiday weekend ahead of us.
To read my full recap and see a huge slideshow of photos, head over to my article on Serious Eats. Above: Watching Masaharu Morimoto make sashimi and sushi from whole fish from the side lines.
Behind the Scene at Austin Food & Wine Festival | Melody Fury Food Writer and Photographer.
A couple weeks back we headed down to Austin, Texas to participate in the first annual Austin Food & Wine Festival — hosting a Test Kitchen and Interview Lounge at the W Austin.
When talking about the Austin restaurant scene, be it the rarefied high-end to the exploding food truck scene on the city’s Eastside, it’s pretty much essential to include the guys behind Uchi, Uchiko and East Side King in the conversation. Here’s a clip from a conversation with Tyson Cole, Paul Qui and Philip Speer. A more extensive video with drop later this week. (Video by Stephen Sprague.)
via Video: Team Uchi At The FR Interview Lounge & Test Kitchen | Food Republic.
Daniel Humm, the chef and an owner of Eleven Madison Park and NoMad, was named Outstanding Chef for 2012 on Monday night by the James Beard Foundation at its annual awards ceremony. The title, and its accompanying medal, were handed to him after chefs, restaurateurs and others trooped onstage at Avery Fisher Hall for hours to receive their laurels at the ritual — which is sort of like the Oscars without the dance numbers.
via Eleven Madison Park Chef Leads Beard Award Winners – NYTimes.com.
Gavin Brown and Mark Ruffalo cooking up sausages supplied by Brooklyn’s own Meat Hook at Frieze. Linda Yablonsky
Art fairs are supposed to whet appetites for art. But if they fill eyes with either wonder or disgust, they do little or nothing for rumbling stomachs. Whether in Basel, Miami, London or New York, a fairgoer made ravenous by an overload of visual information and intense negotiations can always expect the worst: long lines for horrible food tossed over a counter by inefficient servers at double the price of a decent meal anywhere else.
via Artifacts | Frieze Fare – NYTimes.com.
Our first award of the night, Rising Star Chef of the Year, goes to: Christina Tosi Momofuku Milk Bar, NYC
Pastry chef Christina Tosi started dessert programs in three Momofuku restaurants before opening Milk Bar. But if she could cook anything for James Beard, it would be turkey pot pie. via James Beard Foundation.
Walking down the rue Mouffetard in the early Paris morning is a completely sensual experience. This time of year the street is perfumed with strawberries and the fat white asparagus are everywhere, poking up with a curiously aggressive air. Meanwhile the cauliflower curl shyly into their protective green leaves, as if reluctant to emerge and face the sassy herbs in their bold bunches.
On the eve of the 2012 Luckyrice Festival, Marlow Stern spoke with five acclaimed chefs—Eric Ripert, Masaharu Morimoto, Todd English, David Chang, and Ming Tsai—about why Asian food is all the rage stateside.
via Five World Famous Chefs Give Their Take on the Asian Food Craze in America – The Daily Beast.
COOK IT RAW is an amazingly low key gathering of some of the best and most creative chefs in the world. For the last few years, people like Rene Redzepi of Denmark’s NOMA (recently named best restaurant in the world for the second year in a row), Alex Atala of Sao Paulo’s DOM, Albert Adria (El BULLI, TICKETS), Mauro Collagreco, Massimo Bottura, Daniel Patterson, David Chang, Magnus Nilsson and others have been getting together in various remote and fairly off the main grid locations where they challenge each other to forage, improvise, figure out what’s good in each location—then, using non-traditional methods—make the most seriously ****ed up creative single plate their fevered imaginations can muster. The result does not have to be usable in a restaurant setting. It is not supposed to be a fully realized dish. It is definitely not something that any of the chefs have ever served or even tried before. It should be something so wild, so out there, so purely creative and exploratory that the other chefs will suck wind and issue a collective “wooaaahhhh.”Anthony Bourdain, RAW.
For this week’s Observer cover story—a profile of New York City restauranteur, cultural gadabout, and rising food personality Eddie Huang—we spoke with someone well-acquainted with Huang, the world of food celebrity, and the perils of speaking without reserve: Anthony Bourdain.
Mr. Bourdain, who recently signed famed Olive Garden reviewer Marilyn Hagerty to his publishing imprint, expressed dismay at not being able to sign Eddie Huang to his own imprint for our piece. While there’s only so much wordage room in one profile, given the wealth of quotables we received from Bourdain, some things are just too good for the cutting room floor. The interview, in full:
A former US Navy warehouse in Brooklyn will soon be home to the world’s largest rooftop garden — joining a growing trend of commercial and nonprofit farms sprouting up citywide.
Manhattan-based BrightFarms will announce a deal today to build a sleek, 100,000-square-foot, commercial greenhouse atop the city-owned Liberty View Industrial Plaza on Third Avenue in Sunset Park.
via Rooftop produce farm in Brooklyn planned to open in 2013 – NYPOST.com.
Over the course of five days in mid-March, more than 2,500 people visited a government building in Dafni to order cheap potatoes. Young couples, pensioners, and families showed officials identification proving they lived in the Athens suburb and handed over cash in return for a receipt entitling them to up to two 20-kilo sacks of spuds. On March 17 farmers arrived with three truckloads of red mesh bags filled with potatoes and dispersed 75 tons to the buyers, some of whom arrived with carts. “Greeks find themselves in a situation where we don’t have enough to survive,” Vasiliki Kladia said after placing her order. Kladia has three children and has been unemployed for four years. “There are no jobs anywhere. Wages and pensions are very low, and everyone is in debt,” she said.
The idea is to link consumers with farmers, who sell the potatoes for an average of about 33 euro cents (44¢) a kilo. That’s half the price charged at supermarkets and grocers, which are cut out of the picture. There have been potato sales in dozens of communities, as local governments and in some cases students and other volunteers hear about them and contact the Agricultural Association of Nevrokopi, a farmers group in northern Greece where the movement started, clamoring to participate. “People can’t hold out for very long, especially when new austerity measures now are implemented,” says Michalis Stavrianoudakis, mayor of Dafni, which has a population of 35,000. “The success of the program has led to people asking if we can do the same for olive oil and even for lamb, which is traditionally eaten at Easter.”To Cut Costs, Greeks Line Up for Potatoes – Businessweek.
Peter Meehan, the editor of Lucky Peach and co-author of the Momofuku cookbook, says Tokyo’s cuisine is unknowable, compared to New York City’s. I think I know why.
Peter Meehan wrote restaurant reviews and the “$25 and Under” column in the Dining Section of The New York Times for four years, but I feel like I’ve gotten to know him better through his more recent articles in Lucky Peach.
Here’s what he wrote after spotting an image of himself on film during a trip to Tokyo with Peach co-creator and chef David Chang. Meehan was wearing his hair in a ponytail at the time.
I beat myself up for a while, then resolved to get my hair cut off when I got back to the States, and tried to remind myself that I was in the middle of the JR subway station at the center of Tokyo and had just eaten the best bowl of ramen I’d probably ever consume. Then my Catholic upbringing kicked in and I started to feel bad again for being upset at how stupid I looked.
via Tokyo: An Unknowable Feast – WNYC Culture.
