Speed dating in India

April 11

“Did you see that guy’s watch? That thing’s worth $300,000,” Jeff Sinelli, founder of the Which Wich? sandwich chain told me after a couple of potential franchisees left his table.

I hadn’t seen the watch, but I’d noticed his stylish cufflinks made out of string.

We had both observed his and his partner’s complete lack of a sense of humor.

What do you expect from financiers whose pride and joy seemed to be a distribution network for PVC pipes?

I’m in India, covering a trade mission organized by the United States Commerce Department’s Commercial Service. This particular mission is focused on franchisors, mostly restaurant companies, looking for Indian partners.

The mission is centered around what are essentially speed dates. They’re meetings between the franchisors and potential franchisees to do a combination of pitching themselves and getting acquainted with one another — almost exactly like first dates, really.

I’ve been sitting in on some of the meetings to see what they’re like — the pictures in this blog entry show you what they look like. 

What I’ve seen so far indicates that finding business partners through blind dating — even with dates who have been vetted by the Commercial Service — is about as tough and almost as grueling as finding a love match that way. I’m not sure what the equivalent of a one-night stand would be in this case, but please let me know if you can think of one.

The would-be franchisors, being Americans working in foodservice, would talk about having “passion” for the business. The potential franchisees — real estate agents, retailers, PVC pipe distributors with lots of money of unknown origin — would blink once or twice and stare back blankly.

But you never know. The McDonald’s executive in charge of western and southern India comes from the lubricant business, so maybe Mr. Fancy Watch will be the man behind Which Wich? India.

Personally, I liked the owner of The Devil’s Workshop, a bakery chain with the slogan “Food you hate to love.”

After the speed dates, we all went to the Residence of the American Consul General for a reception, and I learned that India is by far the world’s largest consumer of whisky. So after a glass of perfectly acceptable red wine I switched to nice single malts and chatted with Subway franchisees and politicians, commercial attachés and Assistant Commerce Secretary Nicole Lamb-Hale, who is on the trip with us.

Marketing consultant Jagdeep Kapoor explained to me the challenges of presenting the right message in India. He pointed out that standing in line to order food is insulting to many middle class Indians, because it seems like begging. Besides, they’re accustomed to having servants and like to be waited on.

But then for other middle class Indians, who studied in the United States, American fast food gives them a sense of nostalgia and they want to stand in line for it (“They feel like they’re in New York”) and then get exactly the same food that they would have in the U.S.

Others want food that reminds them of their mother’s home cooking, so it should taste completely Indian.

I asked Kapoor how you could do all of that with one brand while maintaining a single identity.

“Give the people what they want,” he said, which didn’t really answer the question, but it is indeed what a restaurant should do.

He also said that Indians love bossing people around, so that the model at Subway, or any chain where your food is assembled in front of you, appeals to them because they can tell the restaurant worker exactly how they want their food to be made.

Indeed, that seems to appeal to everyone.

Food Writer’s Diary readers don’t like to vote for Beard Award nominees

Okay, okay, I get it. You don’t want to vote for Beard Award nominees.

In the Rising Star category, which is really the only career-maker, a total of six people voted, one for each nominee, except for Momofuku Milk Bar's, Christina Tosi, who got two.

Given the geographical diversity of this category, it is hard to believe that many people are familiar enough with all of the chefs’ work to vote with authority, so let’s try something new:

A number of chain restaurants have been responding to pressure — from customers, government, public health advocates, what have you — to make kids' meals more healthful.

Some, notably IHOP, have swapped out fries as the automatic side dish and instead serve fruit or vegetables, with fries made available on request.

How do you feel about that?

Please vote in the poll, and feel free to comment below if you like.

Thank you.

For the record, the results of the last poll.

Aaron London, Ubuntu	1 (16%)
Thomas McNaughton, Fire + Water	1 (16%)
Gabriel Rucker, Le Pigeon	1 (16%)
Christina Tosi, Momofuku Milk Bar	2 (33%)
Sue Zemanick, Gautreau’s

Food Writer’s Diary readers pick Girl & The Goat as best new restaurant

March 28

Despite a mid-week rally in favor of Torrisi after Grub Street alerted New Yorkers that the Nolita hot spot was losing in my poll for best new restaurant, Girl & The Goat in Chicago still won handily.

Granted, only 26 people voted, but 30 percent of them picked chef Stephanie Izard’s Chicago eatery. Benu in San Francisco came in second.

Next, I’d like you to vote on your choice of Rising Star Chef from among the Beard Award finalists. Please click on a name in the poll to your right, or feel free to make comments below.

Results from the last poll:

WHICH BEARD NOMINEE FOR BEST NEW RESTAURANT WOULD YOU VOTE FOR?

ABC Kitchen: 5 (19%)
Benu: 6 (23%)
Girl & The Goat: 8 (30%)
Menton: 2 (7%)
Torrisi: 5 (19%)

Untitled: first look

March 23

Danny Meyer’s new restaurant at the Whitney museum, called Untitled, had a soft opening today, sort of.

“Soft is a malleable word today,” Richard Coraine, president of new business for Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group told me at 2:40 pm. "Because it was busy. Still is.”

I would have swung by the place myself, but I’m woefully behind in my work and shouldn’t even be writing a blog entry today. Call me a rebel.

Untitled wasn’t supposed to open softly this week. It was supposed to just open. But not all of the furniture has arrived yet (the picture illustrating this blog entry is a rendering from designer David Rockwell).

“We had everybody trained and ready to go. Just because we didn’t have furniture, it didn’t make sense to hold up the opening.” So this is a “sneak peak week” at the restaurant, with a limited menu and about 50 seats instead of 85.

Coraine said the missing banquettes actually gives the restaurant the opportunity to "take a few baby steps” and let the staff find their legs while seating is still limited.

Breakfast business was good: “A lot of eggs, a lot of pancakes, and a lot of people came for Stumptown coffee.” At lunch they sold a lot of hamburgers.

So, business as usual in Danny Meyer Land.

One of the highlights of the place as far as I’m concerned is the custom-made soda which they’re serving out of kegs.

Local boyfriend/girlfriend team Brooklyn Soda Works is providing root beer and apple-ginger soda. Coraine said the team makes the soda in their kitchen at home. “The cool thing about them is there’s no syrups. The ingredients are either steeped or macerated. The root beer is made from roots that they foraged,” he said.

The restaurant’s executive chef, Chris Bradley, gave me a rundown of what he had planned a couple of weeks ago. You can read that interview here.

Oh, and see that poll above and to your right, about which Beard Award nominee you’d pick for best new restaurant? Go ahead and vote on that.

Beard Handicapping 2011

March 21

The nominations for the James Beard Foundation Chef and Restaurant Awards were announced today.

So were nominations for cookbooks, journalism and broadcast media, but I don’t cover those and so I don’t care much.

Even the chef and restaurant awards are kind of, well, I mean it’s great for all the chefs and restaurateurs to come to New York and celebrate, and it’s even better that they get to publicize their nomination and maybe drum up more business, but so many nominees return each year that there are never any great surprises. These will be the 13th Beard Awards that I cover, and they have all started to blur together. 

Then again, why would there be surprises? The nominees tend to be talented chefs and restaurants that many people in their communities love, which is why they get nominated.

So I’m not saying that the awards necessarily need to be done differently. They are what they are; winners should use them for whatever they’re worth and those who don’t win shouldn’t take them too seriously.

This will be my fifth year predicting the winners, and I must say that I’m getting better at it. I guessed seven out 19 winners my first two years, then I bumped it up to eight, and last year I guessed nine winners. That’s practically half, almost.

My approach to these predictions is based on the idea that these awards don’t go to the best chef — I mean, “best chef”? What does that even mean?

They tend to go to those whose names are most easily recognized by the judges, who are food writers and past winners.

My predictions do not in anyway indicate who I would like to win. For the sake of propriety, I will keep that to myself.

And now onto my predictions.

Rising Star Chef of the Year:

I think Christina Tosi will benefit from the name of Momofuku, which introduced Asian food to many New Yorkers who had, it seemed, not bothered to walk a mile south of the East Village to Chinatown or two miles northwest to Koreatown.

Aaron London, Ubuntu, Napa, Calif.

Thomas McNaughton, flour + water, San Francisco

Gabriel Rucker, Le Pigeon, Portland, Ore.

Christina Tosi, Momofuku Milk Bar, NYC

Sue Zemanick, Gautreau’s, New Orleans

Best New Restaurant:

Torrisi’s the darling of New York gastroscenti at the moment, and although it’s possible that it and ABC Kitchen will split the New York vote and the award will go to Benu, whose chef Corey Lee won the Rising Star award a few years ago and who still shines in the glory of the Thomas Keller empire as The French Laundry’s former chef, I don’t think it will.

ABC Kitchen, New York City

Benu, San Francisco

Girl & the Goat, Chicago

Menton, Boston

Torrisi Italian Specialties, New York City

Outstanding Restaurateur:

The judges, feeling bad that they dissed Jean-Georges Vongerichten by not voting for his ABC Kitchen as best new restaurant, will give this award to his business partner, Phil Suarez.

Bruce Bromberg and Eric Bromberg, Blue Ribbon Restaurants, New York City

Tom Douglas, Tom Douglas Restaurants, Seattle

Pat Kuleto, Pat Kuleto Restaurant Development & Management Company, San Francisco

Richard Melman, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Chicago

Phil Suarez, Suarez Restaurant Grou, New York City

Outstanding Restaurant:

This one’s always a crap shoot, but if in doubt, pick the restaurant with the most famous owner. That would be Danny Meyer of Eleven Madison Park.

Blue Hill, New York City

Boulevard, San Francisco

Eleven Madison Park, New York City

Highlands Bar and Grill, Birmingham, Ala.

Vetri, Philadelphia

Outstanding Chef:

Paul Kahan is new to this category, and it usually takes a few years for a chef to win. Everyone loves José Andrés, but we’re in kind of a post-molecular gastronomy mood at the moment. I think this one’s a toss-up between Gary Danko and Suzanne Goin. I think I’ll pick the one with the homier reputation.

José Andrés, mini bar by José Andrés, Washington, D.C.

Gary Danko, Restaurant Gary Danko, San Francisco

Suzanne Goin, Lucques, Los Angeles

Paul Kahan, Blackbird, Chicago

Charles Phan, The Slanted Door, San Francisco 

Outstanding Pastry Chef:

Can Eleven Madison Park possibly win two awards? Well, yes, it can, but Mindy Segal’s the only chef in this category who also was nominated last year. I think that’s a sign

Joanne Chang, Flour Bakery + Café, Boston

Patrick Fahy, Blackbird, Chicago

Dahlia Narvaez, Osteria Mozza, Los Angeles

Angela Pinkerton, Eleven Madison Park, New York City

Mindy Segal, Mindy’s HotChocolate Restaurant and Dessert Bar, Chicago

Outstanding Service:

Emeril’s famous, but in my world I think Thomas Keller’s even more so.

Canlis, Seattle

Emeril’s, New Orleans

La Grenouille, New York City

Per Se,  New York City

Topolobampo, Chicago

Outstanding Wine Service:

San Francisco’s got to win something big, and Bay Area judges are used to voting for A16, whose Nate Appleman was named Rising Star Chef a couple of years ago. Appleman’s consulting for Chipotle now, but that’s his journey, not A16’s.

A16, San Francisco, Shelley Lindgren

Blackberry Farm Walland, Tenn., Andy Chabot

Frasca Food and Wine, Boulder, Colo. Bobby Stuckey

Picasso at Bellagio, Las Vegas Robert Smith

The Modern, New York City, Belinda Chang

Outstanding Wine & Spirits Professional:

So many ways to go with this one. The Beard Foundation is trying to shake its New York-centric reputation. In fact, it announced the list of nominees at a press conference in Portland, Ore., this year. It was a classy move, but still, if you wonder which city is going to take an award, it’s probably going to be New York.

Sam Calagione, Dogfish head Craft Brewery, Milton, Del.

Merry Edwards, Merry Edwards Winery, Sebastopol, Calif.

Paul Grieco, Hearth and Terroir, New York City

Rajat Parr, Mina Group, San Francisco

Julian P. Van Winkle III, Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery, Louisville, Ky.

Best Chef: Great Lakes:

Perennial favorites like Zingerman’s tend to linger as nominees, but they don’t win very often. I’m going to guess that Chicago will follow the lead of their new Michelin guide, which gave two stars to Avenues.

Michael Carlson, Schwa, Chicago

Curtis Duffy, Avenues, at the Peninsula, chicago

Bruce Sherman, North Pond, Chicago

Paul Virant, Vie, Western Springs, Ill.

Alex Young, Zingerman’s Roadhouse, Ann Arbor, Mich.

Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic:

You know what? Philadelphia’s a really great food city.

Cathal Armstrong, Restaurant Eve, Alexandria, Va.

Johnny Monis, Komi, Washington, D.C.

Peter Pastan, Obellisk, Washington, D.C.

Maricel Presilla, Cucharamama, Hoboken, N.J.

Michael Solomonov, Zahav, Philadelphia

Best Chef: Midwest:

I think the Midwesterners are going to vote classically this year, and that means a vote for L’Etoile.

Justin Aprahamian, Sanford, Milwaukee

Isaac Becker, 112 Eatery, Minneapolis

Colby Garrelts, Bluestem, Kansas City, Mo.

Tory Miller, L’Etoile, Madison, Wis.

Lenny Russo, Heartland, St. Paul, Minn

Best Chef: New York City

New York has an incredibly dynamic restaurant scene, and yet April Bloomfield’s the only newcomer on this list. With all due respect to the very deserving nominees here, that says something bad about something, but I’m not sure what.

That said, as much as food writers love April Bloomfield, I think they like Michael White even more.

Michael Anthony, Gramercy Tavern

April Bloomfield, The Spotted Pig

Wylie Dufresne, WD-50

Gabrielle Hamilton, Prune

Michael White, Marea

Best Chef: Northeast:

Tony Maws is the only returning nominee on this list and so I’ll follow the same logic I did picking outstanding pastry chef.

Tim Cushman, o ya, Boston

Krista Kern Desjarlais, Bresca, Portland, Maine.

Gerry Hayden, The North Fork Table & Inn, Southold, N.Y.

Matt Jennings, La Laiterie, Providence, R.I.

Tony Maws, Craigie on Main, Cambridge, Mass.

Eric Warnstedt, Hen of the Wood, Waterbury, Vt.

Best Chef: Northwest:

This list shows me that I need to get to the Pacific Northwest more often, because I am, quite frankly, at a loss as to who to predict. But I have to pick someone, so, congratulations in advance to Cathy Whims.

Matt Dillon, Sitka & Spruce, Seattle

Christopher Israel, Grüner, Portland, Ore.

Andy Ricker, Pok Pok, Portland, Ore.

Ethan Stowell, Staple & Fancy Mercantile, Seattle

Cathy Whims, Nostrana, Portland, Ore.

Best Chef: Pacific:

I’ve heard many good things about Daniel Patterson, and that means that judges in the Bay Area have, too.

Michael Cimarusti, Providence, Los Angeles

Christopher Kostow, The Restaurant at Meadowood, St. Helena, Calif.

Daniel Patterson, Coi, San Francico

Richard Reddington, Redd, Yountville, Calif.

Michael Tusk, Quince, San Francisco

Best Chef: South:

The Brennans are possibly the most respected restaurant family in the entire country, and this list indicates that New Orleans still is enjoying a post-Katrina bump. 

Zach Bell, Café Boulud, Palm Beach, Fla.

John Harris, Lilette, New Orleans

Christopher Hastings, Hot and Hot Fish Club, Birmingham, Ala.

Tory McPhail, Commander’s Palace, New Orleans

Stephen Stryjewski, Cochon, New Orleans

Best Chef: Southeast:

Bigger cities have more judges.

Hugh Acheson, Five and Ten, Athens, Ga.

Craig Deihl, Cypress, Charleston, S.C.

John Fleer, Canyon Kitchen at Lonesome Valley, Cashiers, N.C.

Linton Hopkins, Restaurant Eugene, Atlanta

Edward Lee, 610 Magnolia, Louisville, Ky.

Andrea Reusing, Lantern, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Best Chef: Southwest:

Remember what I said about the Southeast? It’s true of the Southwest, too.

Bruce Auden, Biga on the Banks, San Antonio, Texas

Bryan Caswell, Reef, Houston

Saipin Chutima, Lotus of Siam, Las Vegas

Tyson Cole, Uchi, Austin, Texas

Ryan Hardy, Montagne at the Little Nell, Aspen, Colo.

And that concludes my predictions. 

Please feel free to share your own observations in the comment section below.

Food Writer’s Diary readers vote differently from Beard Foundation judges

March 21

As you would expect, readers of this blog had a different notion of who should be Rising Star Chef of the year, an award the James Beard Foundation gives to chefs aged 30 or younger who show promise.
Of the five nominees, who were named today, only one, Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar in New York City, also was in the top five voted on by this blog’s readers from among the long list of Beard Foundation semifinalists for the award.

Not a whole lot of people participated in the vote, just 49, apparently many of them from the Twin Cities.
I’ll post the results below, and also point out that I have a new poll up with the finalists for Best New Restaurant on the right.

Vote away (write in your own candidate in the comments section below)!

MY CHOICE FOR RISING STAR CHEF OF THE YEAR IS:

Sameh Wadi, Saffron Restaurant & Lounge, Minneapolis — 10

Christina Tosi, Momofuku Milk Bar, New York City — 6

Jonathon Sawyer, The Greenhouse Tavern, Cleveland — 5

Kevin Gillespie, Woodfire Grill, Atlanta — 4

Nicholas Stefanelli, Bibiana, Washington, D.C. — 4

Anthony Martin, Tru, Chicago — 3

Sue Zemanick, Gautreau’s, New Orleans — 3

Andrew Ashmore, The Greene House, Scottsdale, Ariz. — 2

Clayton Chapman, The Grey Plume, Omaha, Neb. — 2

Sheldon Simeon, Star Noodle, Lahaina, Hawaii — 2

Benjamin Bailly, Fraîche, Culver City, Calif. — 1

Eric Gabrynowicz, Restaurant North, Armonk, N.Y. — 1

Will Gilson, Garden at the Cellar, Cambridge, Mass. — 1

Greg LaPrad, Quiessence, Phoenix — 1

Matt Lightner, Castagna, Portland, Ore. — 1

Jesse Schenker, Recette, New York City — 1

Bjorn Somlo, Nudel, Lenox, Mass. — 1

Blaine Wetzel, The Willows Inn, Lummi Island, Wash. — 1

Justin Aprahamian, Sanford, Milwaukee — 0

Sean Baker, Gather, Berkeley, Calif. — 0

Sean Ehland, Kaya, Pittsburgh — 0

Sam Gorenstein, BLT Steak, Miami Beach, Fla. — 0

Perry Hoffman, étoile, Yountville, Calif. — 0

Casey Lane, The Tasting Kitchen, Venice, Calif. — 0

Aaron London, Ubuntu, Napa, Calif. — 0

Thomas McNaughton, flour + water, San Francisco — 0

Paul Qui, Uchiko, Austin, Texas — 0

Dan Richer, Arturo's, Maplewood, N.J. — 0

Gabriel Rucker, Le Pigeon, Portland, Ore. — 0

Lee Styer, Fond, Philadelphia — 0

Michael Toscano, Manzo, New York City — 0

Total votes: 49

Preparing for a pop-up

March 11

Last night my evening really began, at least in my own mind, at around 4pm, when I saw the following tweet from Red Cat owner Jimmy Bradley:

“Feeling bitter? Stop by The Red Cat and drown your sorrows with one of Trace’s signature cocktails.”

I wasn’t feeling bitter, nor sorrowful, but I still felt like Jimmy was speaking directly to me.

Three months ago, when our offices were in Midtown East, a shlep to west Chelsea, when I had an event to go to later in the evening near Times Square, would have seemed ludicrous.

But since Nation’s Restaurant News was bought by Penton Media and we moved offices to central Chelsea (17th Street between seventh and eighth avenues, closer to eighth), The Red Cat is now just a slight detour.

So as soon as I could extract myself from the office I sauntered over to The Red Cat and had a couple of bracing drinks — Elixir No. 1 followed by a bourbon-based one that I think was called Old Pal — refreshing but bitter, and looked at my phone to see where I’d agreed to have dinner that evening.

It seemed I'd agreed to attend the opening night of The Feast, a three-day pop-up restaurant at the soon-to-open Sanctuary Hotel (where the Portland Square Hotel was until recently).

The chef: 15-year-old Greg Grossman.

“Oh, Bret, you stupid, stupid man,” I said to myself. “You have RSVPed in the affirmative to something ridiculous.”

But I’m a man of my word. If I can possibly make it to something that I said I’d go to, I go, except when I occasionally forget.

So I paid for my drinks and walked through the rain to the E train and took it to Times Square.

I was early as I walked toward the hotel, and my heart sank when I saw the searchlights in front.

Because an event at which you must endure the silly food of a child is bad enough. Having to do it in the company of scenesters and minor self-important celebrities — well, I wasn’t going to show up early, that was for sure.

I walked to Sixth Avenue in search of time-killing amusement and, realizing I was near Oceana, I walked in for another bracing drink — whiskey-based, slightly sweeter than the ones at The Red Cat; I think it was called The Dubliner.

Chef Ben Pollinger was nice enough to send out some oysters lightly dressed in pomegranate and some escolar sashimi with mango and macadamia.

With three stiff drinks and some fortifying marine protein under my belt, I was ready for the ridiculous.

It started with a fourth cocktail, as servers were handing out rocks glasses filled with dirty vodka Marinis garnished with blue-cheese stuffed olives and truffle oil.

It was, indeed, a scenester crowd with very minor slightly self-important celebrities, and also women dressed in skimpy white outfits, clearly hired for the titillation of the guests.

I don't think I’d seen anything like that since before 9/11, and I see nothing wrong with hiring consenting adults to be eye candy, and if it helps to usher in a new age of decadence, that’s fine with me.

Also, the truffle oil in the dirty vodka Martinis worked for me. So did the fact that the Martinis were on the rocks, which meant they were not in cocktail glasses and thus not nearly so hard to keep from sloshing.

I was seated next to someone who worked at a celebrity web site. He was on my right, and on my left was originally the female companion of one of the hotel owners, but over the course of the evening various other women rotated in there. I didn’t catch their names.

The guy from the celebrity web site seemed nice enough but wasn't interested in talking to me, and the House music was too loud for meaningful conversation anyway, so I mostly sat and let the evening sort of wash over me.

The theme of the Pop-up restaurant was Pop Art — in fact it was called the Pop Art Pop Up. The place was decorated in sort of  Warhol-era theme, and the dishes on the menu developed by our “Wunderkind Chef” — that’s what the menu called him, a Wunderkind — were each named after a work of pop art.

What can I say? I had a good time. The food was mostly delicious, the music was fun — between bursts of House music a diminutive singer, about my height, with great pipes sang songs from my formative years by artists such as Lionel Richie (Hello), Tracy Chapman (Talkin’ Bout a Revolution)  and Cyndi Lauper (Time After Time) — and I’d already had four cocktails by the time we sat down.

But I did notice that Greg Grossman had a surprising level of poise. He came out to talk about the food, described the first dish and realized the crowd wasn’t interested. So he told them all the pictures of the art were on the back of the menu and to enjoy their meal.

I wish more chefs knew to do that.

Oh! I almost forgot: Guess who was helping young Greg Grossman prep? Don Pintabona, former chef of Tribeca Grill and then chef-owner of Dani. Remember him?

Don’s freshly back from Asia (Sri Lanka, Laos and someplace else — I think Vietnam) where he was working on a project to help communities develop sustainable agriculture and such, but he also has known young Master Grossman since he was an even littler kid, and he always has been interested in cooking.

What I ate (with photos graciously provided by the Sanctuary’s publicists):

Jeff Koons “Balloon Dog (Orange)”
Carrot, Stilton, coconut, cardamom and lemon grass

Damien Hirst “Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD)”
Scallop, potato, apple, tamarind and Thai basil

Andy Warhol: “Marilyn Monroe”
Beef, lamb, salmon and bass in monochromes

Roy Lichtenstein:
“Meat”
New York strip steak, foie gras, cilantro and sherry

Takashi Murakami
“Flower of Joy”
Fennel, yuzu, mango, white chocolate and strawberry

And below, the back of the menu with a collage of all the works of art on which the food was based:

The food at the Gay Men's Health Crisis fundraiser

March 1

People don’t generally go to fundraisers for food, and for good reason. You just have to hope for good dinner conversation or a moving speech about whatever cause you’re there to support. Otherwise you’re better off mailing in your check and ordering pizza.

But Savor is different. The annual fundraiser for the Gay Men's Health Crisis is all about the food — and with good reason since, among the GMHC’s many services, is its meals program, through which it provides nearly 100,00 meals annually to low-income men and women living with HIV.

The focus of those meals is nutrition, but at Savor this year it’s all about showcasing New York’s chefs and food. The five appetizers to be served during the cocktail reception — created by Stephen Lewandowski of Tribeca Grill — are intended to represent each of the city’s five boroughs. Cute, right?

The event’s being held this Monday, March 7 at Gotham Hall.

You can buy tickets at gmhc.org

What they’re serving:

Cocktail reception:
Red wine braised short rib pierogi with caramelized onion sour cream (Greenpoint, Brooklyn)

Crispy curried pea samosa with green apple & kaffir lime ;eaf (Murray Hill, Manhattan)

Porcini & walnut baklava with white truffle honey (Astoria, Queens)
Dominican braised pork shoulder on crispy plantain chip (The Bronx)
Rosemary-scented Gulf shrimp with chestnut honey (Staten Island)

First Course, by Peter Hoffman, chef-owner of Savoy:

Winter green salad with Ascutney Mountain cheese, shaved fennel and puffed wheat berries

Second Course, by chef Carmen Quagliata of Union Square Cafe:
Bloominghill Farm Carnival squash brodo with chicken tortelloni, black truffle butter and sage

Main Course, by Peter Hoffman:
Braised lamb shanks with Swiss chard sofrito and rutabaga mostarda

Dessert, by François Payard of François Payard Bakery:
Crémeux of chocolate mousse and raspberry, raspberry jam and flourless chocolate cake topped with homemade raspberry marshmallows with a hint of olive oil

Pick your own rising star chef

February 17

Well, the James Beard Foundation released its list of 403 semi-finalists in its chef and restaurant categories (not including the design and graphics awards, which don’t have semi-finalists).

It’s a relatively fresh list, with only about half of last year’s semifinalists returning, which is about in line with the number of returning semifinalists last year, too.

For the most part, the Beard Awards are a nice feather in your cap that if marketed properly can help boos sales in restaurants, and that’s about it.

But the Rising Star award, given to chefs aged 30 or younger, can be a real career maker. Just ask Nate Appleman or Marcus Samuelsson or Chris Lee or David Chang or any of a number of other chefs who benefited from that nice piece of recognition.

Nominations of semifinalists for the Beard Awards is open to the public, but now the final determination of the finalists and then the winners will be determined by a few hundred food writers and past winners and other people-in-the-know in the restaurant world.

Except here. I’ll be keeping the poll to the right, listing all of the Beard Foundation’s “Rising Star” semifinalists, open until the day before the finalists are announced. So go ahead and vote.

Last year the winner of the Food Writer’s Diary poll, Jonathan Sawyer, didn’t even make it into the finals of the actual Beard Awards. However Food & Wine magazine did name him one of the country’s 10 “Best New Chefs,” which is arguably better than being a Beard Foundation rising star.

I doubt that had anything to do with this poll, but go ahead and vote anyway. Let your voice be heard.

What The Loop Pizza Grill has learned about Facebook

February 7

I just got off of the phone with Cathy Manzon, director of marketing for The Loop Pizza Grill, a 14-unit chain based in Jacksonville, Fla. Mostly I was talking to her about pizza trends for a story I’m working on for the magazine (available online for subscribers).

But I also asked her about how they get feedback from customers. She said they have comment cards, but people very rarely fill them out.

If they have something negative to say, they generally register their complaints on the web site.

If they have something nice to say, they say it on Facebook.

I thought that was interesting enough that it was worth sharing.

Why Domino’s Pacific Veggie pizza sells so well

February 3

Awhile back I was talking to an official at Domino's Pizza who expressed surprise at how well the delivery giant’s American Legends Pacific Veggie pie was selling. I mentioned that last November in a story on how chain restaurants are changing the ways they develop menu items.

You expect sausage to sell, and of course pepperoni, as this story in yesterday’s New York Times points out. That the Philly Cheesesteak pizza sells well is no surprise.

But Pacific Veggie?

It’s not like it’s even particularly good for you. Domino’s American Legends line has 40 percent more cheese than the chain’s regular pizza (the Wisconsin cheese producers helped to promote the line) — not that actual nutrition and what customers think is nutritious is necessarily related anyway.

Still, Domino’s executives wanted to offer a meatless option, but they didn’t expect it to sell well. Yet it did.

I mentioned that today to Joe Calcagno, the chef-owner of Capizzi Pizza, which opened quietly last October across the street from Port Authority, on 9th Avenue and between 40th and 41st streets, in New York City.

He said “of course it sells well.” Vegetarians make up a large contingent of pizzeria customers.

Think about it, he said. Pizzerias always have good vegetarian options — a cheese pizza, if nothing else, and very possibly pastas and antipasti and all sorts of non-meat things.

I’d never thought about that before.

Capizzi’s a serious little (35-seat) pizzeria. Joe built the oven himself (that’s a side business of his), and he dries his own oregano, crushes his own red pepper, found some sort of heirloom pepperoni.

I’d tell you more about it, but I have to write a story for our magazine in a couple of weeks, and I don’t want to give away all the good stuff.

In fact, that story will be in our subscriber’s-only section of nrn.com, so if you want to read it, you should subscribe.

Come on, almost all of the cool people already subscribe. Once you sign up, we’ll be all set.

Dantes, celebrities and Jumbos at the Beard House

February 2

Mario Cantone likes my wit.

I know he does because he told me so last night.

“I like your wit,” he said.

That’s right. Comedic performer Mario Cantone thinks I have wit. And he likes it.

I don’t know if he likes your wit because he didn’t say, but he likes mine.

We were at the James Beard House last night, having a dinner that had been dubbed “Battle of the Dantes” — later changed to “Dueling Dantes” which is equally Top Chef-like and not what chefs do when they cook together at the Beard House. Dual Dantes would have worked, or Dante Duo or even Dante Duet.

But when grown-up chefs cook together, they don’t fight. They collaborate, and that was clearly what Boston-based Dante de Magistris and Dante Boccuzzi, from Cleveland, were doing last night.

Mario Cantone doesn’t like Top Chef, by the way, because viewers can’t taste the food, and so they can't judge with any intelligence.

But his dining companion and former work colleague said she enjoys Top Chef. She gets into the food. She was seated between Mario and me. You might have heard of her, because she was Kim Cattrall.

She’s a nice person to have dinner with. She tells stories that are amusing and brief about travel and life experience. She graciously and politely answers questions about being a celebrity without droning on about it. She asks other people about themselves.

So we exchanged observations about restaurants. She had eaten a fair amount of Dante Boccuzzi’s food before because she lives near Aureole’s former Upper East Side location, where Dante was executive chef for a number of years.

“He’s cooked for me many times,” she said, showing an admirable awareness for the fact that it’s good to be a celebrity in a restaurant — although she later said it was a drag to go to places, particularly on Madison Avenue (who knew?) where fans are likely to harass you when you’d just like to have a meal.

Obviously, one must be grateful to fans, so she’s fine with signing autographs, but pictures are a drag because if one person sees someone having a picture taken with her then everyone wants to have a picture taken with her.

Anyway, she was nice. And she can eat.

So the celebrities were on my left. To my right: Jumbos.

Ben Bell, who does social networking at The Huffington Post, was there with Simone Press, who’s in an entry-level job at CBS (as is appropriate, since they graduated from college in, like, 2007).

We bonded quickly, because we all went to college outside of Boston.

No, we didn’t go to Harvard, we went to Tufts. Sure, I graduated 17 years before them, but we can still bond.

Especially since we didn’t just all go to Tufts, we all studied in China.

Well, sort of — they studied in Hong Kong, which was still a British colony when I was roughing it in Nanjing in 1988, but it’s certainly more adventurous then spending your junior year in London, say.

Did you know Kim Cattrall was born in Britain and grew up in British Columbia (Vancouver Island) as well as London?

She says she can totally walk around in London without anyone bothering her. New Yorkers take pride in leaving celebrities alone when they see them, but Kim says we’re not nearly as good at it as Londoners are.

Mario Cantone, a Massachusetts native, was the celebrity who was invited to the dinner, by Dante de Magistris’ publicists [or so I thought — it turns out that he was invited by Dante Boccuzzi’s people, because, like Kim, he became a fan of Dante’s at Aureole; see comment #1 below]. Kim was his guest. When the chefs came out with their crew at the end of the meal, as one does at the Beard House, Mario declared loudly — shouted, really — that he knew that the Dantes had just left their wives and were hooking up that evening in the St. Regis.

Kim bowed her head slightly, appropriately embarrassed.

“Write it up!” Mario said to me of his declaration of the Dantes' mutual love.

Sure, why not?

Consider it written up.

What we ate and drank:

Stuzzichini:
by Dante Boccuzzi:
Truffled mortadella panino (the best bologna sandwich I’ve ever had).
“Caviar in a cloud” (American sturgeon roe in potato foam over cooked egg yolk)

by Dante de Magistris:
“Vitello tonnato“ (but with a piece of raw tuna instead of the traditional sauce made from canned tuna) with caluiflower giardiniera
Candied guanciale and artichoke dip
NV rosé brut Conti di Buscareto, (Ancona, Marche, Italy)
Crudo (by Dante Boccuzzi):
Long Island fluke with octopus garnish, blood oranges, extra virgin oil Toscano, mustard greens
(2009 Anima Umbria Bianco, Arnaldo Caprai, (Umbria, Italy)

Trota (by Dante de Magistris):
Mafalde pasta Alfredo, smoked trout, trout roe and black radish
2009 Grechetto, “Grecante,” Arnaldo Caprai, (still Umbria)

Quaglia:

by Dante Boccuzzi: Black pepper seared quail, black quinoa risotto, leeks, rosemary toasted pine nuts

by Dante de Magistris: Chestnut and porcini stuffed quail Milanese with pomegranate molasses and pear mostarda

2007 Montefalco Rosso, Arnaldo Caprai (you know the drill)

Cinghiale:

by Dante Boccuzzi (who said he’d never cooked boar before): Confit boar shoulder and prosciutto, persimmon compote, green garlic chives, yuzu soy gastrique

by Dante de Magistris: Slow roasted boar loin, peperonata, vincotto, cocoa, hazelnuts

2004 Sagrantino di Montefalco, “Collepiano,” Arnaldo Caprai...

Dolce:

by Dante Boccuzzi: Chocolate hazelnut arancino with caramelized bananas and passion fruit syrup

by Dante de Magistris: Chocolate eggplant pasticcio, amarena cherries, cedro citrus

NV “Cardamaro,” Giovanni Bosca, Canelli (Piedmont, Italy).

Marion Nestle on the new USDA dietary guidelines

February 1

If you’re an avid follower of the quintennial release of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s dietary guidelines, then yesterday was a big day for you.

Or maybe it wasn’t. The guidelines were certainly released yesterday, but they weren’t earth shattering. At least that’s what Marion Nestle told me. I’m not an avid follower of the USDA’s five-year declaration, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services, of what we should eat, so I don’t really know.

But apparently it was the same perfectly reasonable guidelines that say, basically, that you should eat a balanced diet. That’s stated in 23 specific recommendations — an improvement over the 43 recommendations in the last set of guidelines, according to Nestle, the Paulette Goddard Professor at New York University's Department of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health (and the department's former chair).

But she was delighted by the press materials that accompanied it, which underscored the fact that obesity is a huge health problem in the United States, with more than one third of children and more than two-thirds of adults being overweight.

The first bullet point in the press release announcing the guidelines: “Enjoy your food, but eat less.”
“That’s fantastic,” Nestle said: Clear, concise, to the point.

She said she wished the guidelines themselves were so pointed.

Indeed, the guidelines themselves don't say to eat less, they say to “control calories.”

Nestle, author of ”Food Politics,” among other books, says politics is the reason the USDA doesn’t come out and tell Americans to eat less. They tell us to eat fewer of certain ingredients (she said “nutrients,” but I think that term could confuse a lot of people in this context), such as sugar, sodium and saturated fat, and more of such foods as vegetables and whole grains.

Foods are only singled out when the USDA says to eat more of them, when it comes to eating less, the guidelines get more abstract.

That’s because the USDA oversees all American agricultural products, including grains that are made into simple carbohydrates and animal products that contain a lot of saturated fat. The corn and beef industries would have a fit if Americans were told to eat less of their food, Nestle said.

I’m not sure she singled out corn and beef in this particular conversation, but I know those are some of the foods she had in mind — we’ve spoken about this topic at length.

The basic thesis of "Food Politics" is that the United States produces far more calories per person than we should healthily consume, and that that fact is a fundamental reason for the obesity epidemic.

Lotus of wine

January 28


Ben Weinberg expressed amazement at Lotus of Siam’s wine list.


My old high school friend and enthusiastic wine writer was in town for a big Italian wine shindig called Vino 2011 and wanted to have dinner.


I missed Monday’s report in The New York Times that the Chutima family, who founded Lotus of Siam in Las Vegas and recently opened an outpost in New York, had given up on the Big Apple venture, apparently as suddenly as they announced they were opening it a few months back.

What can I say? I have to write about the whole country, so I miss a lot of local news.


Besides, it's a big-name Thai restaurant within easy walking distance of NRN's new offices on 17th and 8th. Surely it was worth checking out regardless of the ownership.

Ben had two fellow wine people and a bottle of Franciacorta in tow.

Franciacorta’s basically the Italian answer to Champagne, priced similarly, accorded nearly as much respect by many wine experts, but not remotely as well known.

That, of course, means Franciacorta’s much cooler to drink than Champagne, because only people in the know have the wisdom to drink it.

I hadn’t looked at much of what the critics and bloggers had said about Lotus of Siam, because as a general rule New Yorkers don’t have the faintest idea what they’re talking about when it comes to Thai food, so their opinions do not interest me.

I’ve since glimpsed some of the reviews and comments and don’t understand why people think they should be comparing what’s basically a fine dining restaurant in an elegant space on 5th Avenue with hole-in-the-wall food in Queens. They’re different.

People don’t drop $200 per person at Daniel and say, “well, I could have had a croque madame at La Bonne Soupe at a fraction of the price.”

Of course you could have, and indeed you might have enjoyed it more — it depends on your mood, the occasion, what you’re trying to get out of the experience.


Compare Lotus of Siam to Kittichai if you like — both are fine dining, both have lost their original chefs as Ian Chalermkittichai left the restaurant at 60 Thompson years ago, both offer fine-dining trappings — but comparing them to Sripraphai or Ploy Thai or Pam Real Thai Food or Won Dee Siam is silly.

If you’re with wine people, Lotus of Siam is appropriate.

Typically I drink beer with my Thai food, but I must say that my dining companions’ choices were excellent and made for a really fun evening — at eight or nine times the price of many other Thai meals I’ve had in New York, but wine can do that. It was money well spent.

Before I list what I ate and drank I will take a moment to comment on the very nice staff’s odd persistence in getting us to try the Koong Sarong, which they insisted was fantastic. It’s shrimp wrapped in bacon, rolled in a spring roll wrapper and deep-fried, and that’s exactly what it tastes like. It’s fine, but it’s not Thai.

What we ate and drank:

Pik kha kra pao krob — crispy fried chicken wings tossed with chile garlic sauce & fried Thai basil
Nam kao tod crispy rice — crispy rice tossed with Thai sausage, fresh chile, ginger, peanuts & lime
Nam prik hed — roasted chile, garlic & onion dip, pounded in a mortar (it was similar to nam phrik noom)
Northern larb — minced pork with spices and Thai herbs (without lime, unlike Issan laab).
Tenuta Mazzolino Oltrepo Pavese Cruase DOCG  Franciacorta 
Vincent Mothe Chablis, 2008

Kaeng khiao wan (green curry) with chicken
Moo krathiam prik thai — stir-fried pork with garlic and black pepper
Braised short rib penang
Julienas 'Clos du Fief,' Michel Tete 2009 (a fun and inspired choice by Doug Cook, creator of a wine search engine called able grape)

Koong Sarong (remember? the bacon-and-shrimp dish)
Sua rong hai (it literally means “crying tiger,”  please let me know if you know why) — grilled, marinated rib eye with chile-kaffir lime dipping sauce
Pla koong — grilled shrimp salad with sliced red onion, lime, Thai herbs and lettuce
Donnhoff Riesling Spatlese ‘Norheimer Kirschneck’ 2002

Aaron Deal watch

January 13

Do you know why I report on every new job that Aaron Deal gets? Quite apart from the fact that he’s a talented chef who gets high-profile jobs, he tells me when he gets them. It’s a great way to get press, alerting the media.

Keep that in mind.

Anyway, Aaron, who most recently was in Chilhowie, Va., working at Townhouse for John and Karen Shields, has moved up to Boston, where he’s Tony Maws’ chef de cuisine at Craigie on Main.

There actually have been a number of high-profile chef changes recently, which, naturally, you can read about in Nation’s Restaurant News.

Bizarre coincidences from Andy’s birthday party

January 10

You might recall that I went to an Icelandic fashion show the other day. I neglected to mention that there was a singer at the show, too. He just sang one song and it was hard to hear over the audience, which completely ignored him. I didn’t catch his name, and so I just let it go.

Then, there he was, sitting across from me on Saturday at my good friend Andy Battaglia’s birthday party.

He was Andy’s house guest, you see.

It turns out that he’s Snorri Helgason, a musician of some note in Iceland, where he’s the lead singer of a bang called Sprengjuhöllin.

Snorri lives in London, released a solo album in late 2009 and is doing some performances in the U.S. I’m not sure why he’s staying with Andy, but Andy is a music writer of some note (and the proud owner of two ukuleles), so it all makes sense in a way.

After we finished drinking at The Roebling Inn (I drank a fairly dark IPA from the Hudson Valley called Hurricane Kitty), we went back to the apartment of Andy and his girlfriend, Jennifer Prediger, and Snorri and fellow band member Atli Bollason (sitting on the far left in the video), who was visiting from Montreal, performed a song that I managed to find on YouTube and posted here.

It’s called “Worry till Spring” in English, but in Icelandic it’s “Verum í Sambandi,” which consular official Hlynur Gudjonsson tells me means “let’s stay in touch.”

More small-world stuff from the party: Andy’s girlfriend Jennifer is a documentary producer, among other things, and at Andy’s party I learned that she produced my friend Rachel Wharton’s “Let’s Eat” spots on NY1.

I often say that it’s not really a small world. In fact, it’s a big world with more than six billion people and encompassing every experience that every human being has ever had. Indeed, the world is not just the world, for most practical purposes it’s our entire universe. It’s huge.

But really, it’s a small world.