Restaurants | Food Nouveau

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.

Posted on April 5, 2012 • Category: Giveaways, New York City, North America, Restaurants, Shopping • 45 Comments

What to Eat in Sicily

While 5 days in Sicily was certainly not enough to experience all the deliciousness the Italian island has to offer, I went prepared (and hungry!) and was able to taste lots of local gourmet foods and dishes – enough to fill many notebook pages with recipe ideas to make at home. Here’s a pictorial of my best and most delicious discoveries.

Pesce e Frutti di Mare (Fish and Seafood)

This one should be obvious since Sicily is an island, but I didn’t expect fish and seafood to be such a staple. I actually wonder if even one of the meals I had in Catania didn’t have fish or seafood in it. I loved it, especially since it gave me the opportunity to try many new things and because it’s so hard for me to get my hands on a variety of fresh seafood at home.

Of course, I visited Catania’s famous fish market, La Pescheria, which is set up daily (except Sundays) in and around the city’s central Piazza Alonzo, just a couple of steps down from the well-known Piazza Duomo.

Posted on March 15, 2012 • Category: Europe, Italy, Restaurants, Shopping • 7 Comments

Memories of Nantucket / Lobster Mac & Cheese

Just saying the word “Nantucket” makes me dreamy. I’m not sure why I’ve been infatuated with this little East coast island for so long; I can’t remember how or where I first heard of it, and I can’t remember anyone talking to me about this place. It seems to me that I’ve been in love with Nantucket since my teenage years, so I can’t really explain why it took me so long to visit.

Stopping by Nantucket on our way from Rhode Island to Cape Cod was the best move of our entire road trip. The only problem was that we didn’t stay long enough! Still, because the island is so small and it’s so easy to bicycle around it, we left with a sense that we had come to know the place well and with a deep longing to return for a week, at least.

As soon as we set foot in Nantucket’s small harbour at the very bottom of Main St., we were overwhelmed with the impression that we had just stepped onto a film set.

Posted on September 16, 2011 • Category: North America, Restaurants, US East Coast • 2 Comments

Pork Love in Providence, RI

As we left for our summer vacation on the East Coast, we planned on making the most of the sea’s bounty. It’s no secret that New England has some of the best seafood and fish the US has to offer, most of which we can only enjoy defrosted at home. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity of enjoying some of our favorite foods, fresh as we rarely get to enjoy them.

We started our trip in Providence, Rhode Island. I enlisted the help of two friends, Karen and David, residents of the area, to recommend great restaurants, markets and gourmet shops to visit. David’s expertise is evident through his blog, Eat Drink RI, which chronicles the state’s food news and events as well as the restaurant and bar scene. Karen, a food blogger and recipe developer, treated us to tons of suggestions for Rhode Island and Cape Cod as well.

Posted on August 24, 2011 • Category: North America, Restaurants, Shopping, US East Coast • 2 Comments

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.

Posted on March 22, 2011 • Category: New York City, North America, Restaurants, Shopping • 5 Comments

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.

Posted on February 1, 2011 • Category: New York City, North America, Restaurants • 5 Comments

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.

Posted on January 27, 2011 • Category: New York City, North America, Recipes, Restaurants, Salads • 6 Comments

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.

Posted on January 26, 2011 • Category: New York City, North America, Restaurants • 0 Comments

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.

Posted on January 25, 2011 • Category: Appetizers, Meat, New York City, North America, Recipes, Restaurants • 4 Comments

Shops, Restaurants, Gelaterie, Tours and More: Favorite Addresses in Rome

A couple of weeks have gone by since I came back from Rome so I’ve had some time to digest all the information I gathered and to sort out my pictures. Before flying to the Eternal City, I did extensive research; reading guidebooks, food essays and cookbooks about Roman cuisine, as well as countless websites and blogs. While I cannot aspire to publish an “Ultimate Rome” list (which would probably take a lifetime to achieve!), I’m confident that this is a list of places where foodies visiting Rome simply must go. When I go to a new city, I like to have a shortlist of sure shots, places to go where I know I won’t be disappointed. This is such a list: start with these fantastic addresses to get a taste of Rome, then stray your own way and discover your favorite spots. You’ll come back dreaming of the next time you can walk and taste your way through the streets of Rome again.

Posted on November 11, 2010 • Category: Europe, Italy, Restaurants, Shopping • 14 Comments

Category Archives: Restaurants

Pesce e Frutti di Mare (Fish and Seafood)

Eli’s Food Market