Friday, May 1, 2009

the new team at Gilt

May 1

Chris Day messed up his ankle. He was practicing some sort of Japanese sword play, as he does, and it gave out.
So he was hobbling around on crutches (quite ably, I must say) at Gilt, where he’s the restaurant director. He bound through the restaurant’s front door to greet me, escorted me to the bar, took my drink order (following his suggestion, I ordered the Mariposa, a sort of smoky Margarita made from high-end mezcal and flavored with candied violets).
I told him to get off his feet and go home. He could have told me that I’m not the boss of him, because of course I’m not, but he said he would leave soon. Then he continued to zip around the place, picking up dropped napkins and otherwise displaying considerable skill in maneuvering on crutches.
My guest, Yishane Lee, arrived 14 minutes late, except that she’d told me she’d be 15 minutes late, so she was right on time.
Chris escorted us to the dining room and introduced us to beverage director Patrick Cappiello.
Patrick had a lot to prove, because he was replacing the talented, engaging and quite tall Jason Ferris, who left to study for the master sommelier exam. I think he’s still looking for work, in case you’re looking to hire.
I think Patrick’s pretty tall, too, but I don’t really know because (a) I was seated most of the time when talking to him and (b) everyone seems tall to me.
Chris then took his leave, and I hope he went home.
Yishane — freelance writer, mom, and friend from my Bangkok days (which means we have known each other for 14 years, believe it or not) — and I were there to sample the food of Justin Bogle, who like Patrick had a lot to prove, as he replaces Chris Lee, a Food & Wine Best New Chef, James Beard Rising Star Chef, and fun person to drink with. He had been hired away to be executive chef of Aureole. Justin had worked under Chris Lee, and I expected his food to be similar, but it wasn’t, not at all.
Chris’s food, as I remember it, is comparatively earthy. Refined, but in an accessible, modern-American sort of way (click here if you’re curious to know what I ate at Gilt when Chris was the chef).
Justin’s food seemed more cerebral, with unusual flavor combinations and textures that in some ways harkened back to Chris’s predecessor, Paul Liebrandt, who is currently enjoying much more success as executive chef of Corton than he managed to do at Gilt.
Speaking of success, Gilt seemed to be doing fairly well. The dining room was about half full, which is good for New York these days, and the bar scene was hopping when Yishane and I left some time after 11.
11! you exclaim.
Well, we didn’t sit down until around 8:30, and Justin and Patrick (and pastry chef David Carmichael, who met Chris Lee when they both worked at Oceana) had quite an evening in store for us. So did Chris Day, who had left instructions to finish our meal with a tasting of five different teas. They were mostly oolongs, including an aged one, vintage 1994, but one was a Japanese sencha.
I’m not sure why Gilt’s tea menu hasn’t gotten more coverage than it has. It’s so much more extensive than any other tea menu I’ve ever seen, and that doesn’t even include the reserve tea menu, which they present if you ask for it. Chris Day is in charge of all of that.

What Justin Bogle, Patrick Capiello and David Carmichael did to us (I mean that in a good way):

Cured Wagyu beef with Parmesan gelato, pine nut dust and arugula
Crispy escargot with black truffle vinaigrette and parsley (and some sort of crushed mushroom and chocolate “dirt,” an addition that’s all the rage these days)
NV Pierre Peters Brut Blanc de Blancs, Le Mesnil-sur-Oger Champagne


Bay scallop ceviche with pink grapefruit, hearts of palm, ginger, yogurt and shiso
2007 Lafage Grenache Blanc, VDP, Roussillon, France (Patrick’s a big francophile, but he did serve us an Austrian Gruner Veltliner along with the Champage — a 2006 Sighardt Donabaum, “Aztberg” from Wachau)

English pea ravioli with ricotta, pickled ramps, speck, buttermilk and mint
2007 Weinbach Pinot Blanc reserve, Alsace, France

Halibut with spring vegetables, horseradish, oysters and American caviar
2007 Boisson Côtes du Rhone Villages Cairann “L’Exigence,” France

Pancetta spiced foie gras with kumquat mostarda, candied black olive, fennel and pine nut
2001 Cauhape Jurançon “Noblesse du Temps,” Southwest France

Lamb loin with wihte asparagus, Vadouvan, black sesame paste with squid ink, preserved lemon and duka flavored chick peas
2006 Luis & Michel Bronzo, Bandol, “Le Bastide Blanche” Provence, France

Strawberry sorbet with frozen buttermilk strawberries
Mint chocolate chip stacked with thin crispy meringue, topped with strega gelée and a fine mint chiffonade
Chocolate soufflé with caramelized chocolate almond cake
Neapolitan sundae
2006 Clos de Paulilles Banyuls, Roussillon, France

Tru dat

April 30

“The table doesn’t make you. You make the table.”
Isn’t that a good line? That was Penny Trenk quoting Myriad Restaurant Group grand poobah Drew Nieporent. Penny loves going out, she loves restaurants, she loves having a good time, and she's never sat at a bad table. She doesn’t know what one looks like.
Neither do I. If you get to sit down and people bring you food and drink, that, to me, is a good table.
Last night Penny, one of Drew’s investors and more importantly an all-around great dining companion, and I were having dinner with about eight other people at table #5 at the James Beard House.
I’m pretty sure that I’ve sat at all ten dining room tables in the Beard House — including the long table #1 on the ground floor, and table #10 in the room with mirrored ceilings that was once James Beard’s bedroom (if you think mirrored ceilings are weird, don’t even ask me about the bathroom). I’ve eaten in the board room, too, and at the supplemental tables sometimes set in the foyer (or is it a parlor?). But usually I am seated at table #5, which is generally reserved for the press and/or friends of the restaurant.
Last night I was there to enjoy the food of Tru restaurant in Chicago. Chef-owner Rick Tramonto was there, although his business partner Gale Gand was in Louisville, making desserts for the Kentucky Derby.
But we were there to sample the culinary stylings of the restaurant’s executive chef, Tim Graham, and executive pastry chef Meg Galus. Tim Graham, apparently being a good Chicagoan, likes to play with the molecular gastronomy quite a little bit, so the Margherita Martini cocktail had a spherified globule of mozzarella floating in it that exploded in the mouth. Also on offer was a creamy apéritif that was supposed to taste like an Alsatian tarte flambée.

What else we ate and drank:
tête de cochon with truffle powder and lentil salad
white gazpacho with grape
smoked dome (that molecular gastronomy again) with cauliflower and caviar
charred fluke sashimi with corn pudding, pickled leeks, popcorn and nasturtium
2007 Auvique Cuvée Hors Classe Pouilly-Fuisseé

Artichoke consommé with spring flavors (that included cinnamon and mustard and a variety of other things you wouldn’t have expected — but not in a bad way)
Lustau Papirusa Manzanilla Sherry

olive oil-poached salmon with daikon noodles and long peppercorn jus
Duchesse de Bourgogne Brouwerije Verhaeghe (that’s a rich Belgian beer, much loved at my table)

Braised beef short rib with unagi, miso emulsion and scallion pistou
2004 Cadozos Tinta Fina y Pinot Noir

Smoked Valrhona guanaja crémeux with mandarin orange, vanilla salted hazelnut and stout caramel
1999 Château Pajzos Takaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos

Mignardises, including salted caramel, macaroons and pâte de fruit

4ever...it's everything or nothing?




"forever come and go"


ur dearest men might said 'i love u forever'
ur close friend might said 'friends 4ever'


everything...seems 2 b 4ever.
immortal. eternity.


but u know. it's nothing. it seems imposisble.
yet, it is impossible. not 2 4get, a wise men once said
"nothing last forever"

love come and go. so do friends.
memories fade with time,
and that's y they also said
"if only i could turned back time"
it is 'IF'. because, time
passed by as we breathe.


but 1 things 4 sure, that remains 4ever.


ALLAH.



p/s; i believe in forever no more.


The Code

The Internet is an untamed beast. One capable of great things but a little rough around the edges at present.

Traditional print media has had a couple of hundred centuries in which to iron out the creases and develop its own set of rules and regulations, conventions and precedents, codes and guidelines.

As a result we have the rules of referencing, acknowledgement of sources, notions of plagiarism and the laws of libel to keep ‘the media’ in check.

Being but a mewling toddler, the Internet has no such guidelines.

So, it works to the benefit of all of us when someone pro-active decides to spend time drawing some up.

That someone is actually two people: Brooke Burton and Leah Greenstein of Foodwoolf.com and spicysaltysweet.com

Together they’ve created The Food Blog Code of Ethics.

And it’s good.

In short?

1. Be accountable
2. Be Nice
3. Be Honest
4. Practice good journalistic practice.

I encourage you to read the full code and spread the word.


Tweet me. Go on...

The Cheap Eats - Buying meat in a credit crunched climate

I recently wrote a piece for a regional magazine here in the UK about how tighter budgets don’t necessarily mean that we have to shelve our ethics when it comes to buying meat.

Here it is. Comments and thoughts appreciated.



With consumers having to tighten their purse strings thanks to the economic downturn, many of us might be tempted to head towards the budget aisles of the supermarkets and start filling our trolleys with meats of dubious origin in order to make savings.

Of course, thanks to Hugh and Jamie et al we know about the plight of the ‘three-quid’ chicken and continentally raised pork. But when it comes to the bottom line, many of us are hampered by simple economics.

But the answer doesn’t necessarily lie at this end of the market and the good news is that we don’t need to temporarily shelve our principles in order to enjoy meat on a budget. There is, in the words of chef Fergus Henderson – advocate of a more holistic ‘nose to tail’ approach to meat cookery – a world of delights ‘beyond the fillet’.

Before you switch off entirely, we’re not talking about offal here, although liver, kidneys and their ilk remain a very cheap option for those that aren’t squeamish about such cuts. The answer instead lies in the ‘forgotten cuts’ that for so long have been unfashionable but are making a swift and timely return to the fore.

‘There is some wonderful meat that is so cheap it is almost unbelievable,’ says Miles, head butcher at Gog Magog Hills Farm Shop. ‘For a while it has been hard to sell, but we’re finding that they are getting more and more popular.’ They are the cuts whose very names evoke an earlier age of cookery and thrift, ones that perhaps your grandmother would have made the most of.

Kevin from Andrew Northorp Butchers on Mill Road agrees: ‘The one cut we’re selling a lot of is pork belly, people love it and we’re selling more than ever. Brisket is brilliant as well, it makes a great and economical pot roast.’

Pork hand, cheeks (both pork and beef), beef shin, and chicken thighs are also all ideal for a credit-crunched menu. And what’s more, as well as being staggeringly cheap, they are supremely delicious: far tastier than fillet, loin or chicken breast in many cases.

Although they may lack the convenience of the more familiar pieces of meat – you certainly can’t cook beef cheeks as you would a fillet steak – they invariably lend themselves to near effortless slow cooking, a process as close to culinary alchemy as it is possible to get without donning a wizard’s hat.

The animal perhaps most synonymous with this time of year, though, is undoubtedly lamb and that too has no shortage of cuts ideal for those looking to cook on a budget. Lamb neck makes a better curry than almost any other meat and, left on the bone, adds an unsurpassed flavour and richness that lends itself beautifully to spiced dishes. Perhaps slightly more unusual is lamb breast which is the cheapest cut on the animal. Similar to pork belly, it is delicious rolled around rosemary and garlic stuffing and slow roasted.

Although they may be hard to find at the supermarket there are many excellent butchers throughout the region (see LocalFoodAdvisor.com for more details) that would be delighted to talk you through these wonderful pieces of meat that are well worth hunting out for both economic and culinary reasons.