A little over a week ago, I was sipping one last drink with Nikki in New York, feeling inspired and discouraged in equal measures. Over the course of the previous five days, during the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Annual Conference, I had been fed with incredible amounts of information about the state of the food writing world. My head felt heavy and clouded and I wasn’t sure what to do with all that newly acquired knowledge. I felt contradictory emotions: I’d had the chance to see and hear (and sometimes meet) many successful authors and writers, so I felt a little light-headed, like a star struck teenager; but what these professionals had to share didn’t amount to such a rosy picture, which made me a little queasy. Like all young writers (by young, I mean in the early stages of their career), I feel confident one minute and discouraged the next; writing is what feels like I’ve always been meant to do, yet I can’t help but notice what a bad time I have chosen to take this turn in my career.
Category Archives: New York City
A Chocolate and Pastry Tour in New York City {And a Signed Book Giveaway!}
If you’re following me on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, you know that I was in New York last week attending the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ Annual Conference. It was an amazing culinary, educational, and inspirational experience, which I still need to decant to assimilate. I will read the many pages of notes I jotted down over the weekend, and I promise to concoct a write-up that should honor the incredible experience it was.
In the meantime, I have to tell you about the Chocolate and Pastry Tour I chose as an optional activity on the day I arrived in New York. The IACP program provided over 20 different optional tours, all of which looked fantastic. But I was immediately drawn to the Chocolate and Pastry Tour when I saw that pastry chef and author of Les Petits Macarons, Kathryn Gordon, would be conducting it.
4-Star Dishes… Served in New York’s Gourmet Grocery Stores
When visiting one of the great capitals of gastronomy, who would ever think to sit down to eat in a grocery store? Yet there is fierce rivalry in New York’s gourmet markets in terms of diversity, refinement and quality, with some places even calling on the services of famous chefs to conceive their dishes. I took a tour of New York’s best East Side gourmet grocery stores, Eli’s Food Market, Agata & Valentina, Citarella, Grace’s Marketplace, The Food Emporium, Dean & Deluca and newcomer Eataly, and I soon discovered that they cater for all tastes…and all budgets too.
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Eli’s Food Market
Founded by Eli Zabar, a member New York’s influencial Zabar family, this store shows a modest decor but an impressive diversity. In the basement is the grocery store with its impressive vertical produce displays and then, on the first floor, there’s the bakery, pastry and chocolate shops as well as a buffet of ready-to-eat dishes and even books and kitchen accessories.
Review: Wylie Dufresne’s WD-50
Last on our list of New York City restaurant visits was Wylie Dufresne’s WD-50. Located in Lower East Side, I wouldn’t say the neighborhood was the most enjoyable to walk through on a Friday night, but the unpretentious location hints at the chef’s character. Dufresne is a leader in the molecular gastronomy movement, and he has won numerous prizes and much recognition over the years. He’s frequently been on Top Chef, either as a contestant or a judge, and he is highly regarded by his peers. Even so, he still has only one restaurant, he’s never published a book and he seems resolutely to want to keep a low profile. His public persona is borderline mysterious, and that intrigued me a lot.
After visiting three of New York’s top restaurants without any of the celebrity chefs in sight, I was close to concluding that once a chef becomes a celebrity, he’s no longer in the kitchen.
Review: Susur Lee’s Shang / Recipe: Singapore Slaw
I wanted to love Shang, I really did. Susur Lee is one of the most well-known Canadian chefs, and I’ve been following his career for a long time. When I lived in Toronto, I dreamed of going to his restaurant as I read his fascinating memoir/cookbook, Susur: A Culinary Life. Recently, millions of people were able to witness his incredible abilities in the kitchen on “Top Chef Masters” and the show boosted his popularity in America, something well deserved after a life dedicated to modernizing the classics of Chinese cuisine.
Our visit to New York City’s Shang was the meal I anticipated the most. I was so happy that Lee had had the chance to open his own place in the Big Apple and I couldn’t wait to finally taste his cuisine. I could just imagine him running around in his kitchen, and chopping faster that what most thought humanly possible.
Review: David Chang’s Mà Pêche
Going to New York, I was determined to try one of David Chang’s restaurants. I had read extensively about this somewhat elusive “culinary bad boy” – certainly one of the most talked about chefs in New York for the last five years – and was torn between dismissing this Momofuku-frenzied foodie hype and hopping on the fan train.
My quest to go and judge for myself began with a subscription to Momofuku’s online reservation system. I discovered that some of two of Chang’s restaurants don’t take reservations, except for special menus served to groups (the Noodle Bar and Ssäm Bar), while Ko, his two-Michelin-starred restaurant, took reservations only a week in advance. Ko’s reservation system is notoriously difficult: opening at 10am daily, the few available seats fly off in a matter of minutes. I chose to go to Chang’s newest restaurant, Mà Pêche, which is bigger, so it’s much easier to get a table.
Review: Harold Dieterle’s Kin Shop / Recipe: Spicy Thai Laab Salad
Our visit New York in the first week of January was organized like clockwork. I had a “celebrity chef” week in mind and I knew we couldn’t improvise as most of the places I wanted us to go to are fully booked weeks in advance. Turns out right after New Year’s was a good time to dine in New York: healthy 2011 resolutions made tables easy to find at the city’s big name restaurants.
Here’s what our schedule looked like: Try one of David Chang’s restaurants to see what the hype is all about, go to Wylie Dufresne’s WD-50 to refresh my molecular memory, visit Susur Lee’s first restaurant in the US to make sure he does Canada proud and try Harold Dieterle’s new Kin Shop because… Well, just because I like the guy and I was curious to see how he manages to pull authentic Thai off.
I loved our four celebrity-meals for widely different reasons and I will tell you more about it in the next few days.
Haute Dining in New York
New York City is most certainly the US’ food capital. It seems like all of the greatest and most well-known chefs, those I’ve watched on TV for many years, whose books I’ve read or whom I admire for their achievements have one (or more!) restaurants in the Big Apple. Wolfgang Puck, Mario Batali, Daniel Boulud, Alfred Portale, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Eric Ripert, Thomas Keller, Anthony Bourdain are all synonymous with great food here. I have to admit I’m a bit of a chef groupie (ask E who once pointed behind me exclaiming Jamie Oliver was right there at a tradeshow in Europe – I almost fainted), so when I go to New York, I bring my “to-try” list of the city’s greatest restaurants. I may be guilty of planning my meals more than my visits!
My list is long, but I’m crossing the names one by one. I had the pleasure to eat at the following two restaurants in 2007, and they remain among my absolute favorites.