September 19
I meant to sto`p by the International Chefs Congress at some point over the past couple of days, but it proved to be impossible. I worked all day Monday but wanted to at least stop by the evening reception, but first it made sense to make an appearance at a reception in the Sutton Place home of Jan and Mitsuko Shrem, who own the Clos Pegase Winery in Napa and, it turns out, the best view of Midtown Manhattan and the East River I’ve ever seen.
I ran into Crain's New York writer Louise Kramer on the way to the party and we caught up during the ride to the 32nd floor (don’t pass up time to chat in elevators; time is money).
Publicist Michael Gitter opened the door for us and I looked to the left to see a painting of a woman in profile, but with two eyes.
And I said to myself, “No, that’s not a Picasso. Are you crazy? It’s probably just a Braque or something."
But Braque did cubist stuff, not two-eyed profiles. Of course it was a picasso. I felt like a bumpkin.
Then I glanced past the painting to the windows and saw the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Sutton Place and the rest of New York south of 58th Street stretching gloriously before me, the stately East River flowing by its side.
The East River is, too, stately. Don’t be such a snob. And in my view were at least two of the engineering triumphs that span its width to connect Manhattan and Brooklyn.
I’d meant just to pop my head in, sip a glass of wine, say "hi, hi," and go on either to the Chefs Congress reception or The Tasting Room, whose owners were celebrating the restaurant’s first anniversary in its new space. But as Jan Shrem began to hold court and the hors d'oeuvre from Le Périgord were passed, I realized that I was where I needed to be for the evening.
So the press party at The Tasting Room was over by the time I got there, but the family-and-friends party was going on and I ended up staying for that.
Wine was being served, but the food was gone, so I went from there to a Chinese hole-in-the-wall for noodles and got home at around 1 a.m.
I checked my e-mail and learned that the culinary pages in Nation’s Restaurant News would be closing on Tuesday instead of the usual Wednesday.
So the Chefs Congress for Tuesday was out and I was actually at my desk at 8:45 Tuesday morning.
If you don’t work with me, you don’t know how rare a thing it is to see me sitting at my desk at 8:45 a.m. (8:45 p.m. is less rare), but it had to be done.
It had to be done partly because I’d RSVPed for a lunch at the ‘21’ Club (I don’t know why the 21 is in single quotation marks, but it always is) featuring Bob Waggoner from Charleston, whom I hadn’t seen in awhile.
My table was awesome, with Regina Schrambling and Arlyn Blake and Laurie Woolever all seated there.
Laurie was at the Shrem’s party, too. All the more reason to stay.
I still had pages to read at 6:30 that night, but there was a lull in activity in the office, so I popped up to Daniel, which happily is just half a mile away from NRN’s offices, for a party that Evian was throwing.
They’d sent me an invitation in one of those fancy wooden boxes in which good alcohol is often sold, which was a mistake: If you’re going to send someone a fancy wooden box of the sort in which good alcohol is often sold, there’d better be good alcohol in it or the recipient will be disappointed.
Still, I went to the party (free hors d'oeuvre at Daniel? Of course I’ll go), just as I would have if they'd just e-mailed me an invitation.
The invitation in the box said the hors d’oeuvre would be infused with Evian, and I asked Daniel about that as I didn't know what that meant, and he said that they had planned to cook some of the appetizers in Evian, but ultimately he decided to use regular water, as Evian, as he said it, is for drinking, "not for playing."
I was still in the office at around 9 p.m., and decided that enough was enough and I should go home rather than to any International Chefs Congress parties, especially since I had lunch today at Nobu with a bunch of visiting chefs from Singapore who were being hosted by the American Egg Board. I’m not exactly sure what I was doing there, but I enjoyed myself, and was told from one of the chefs that Daniel was hosting a Fiji Water party later this week.
I don’t know if that’s true, but I hope it is.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Farmer Daniel (no, not that farmer Daniel)
September 18
New Yorkers might remember Daniel Orr either as the executive chef of La Grenouille or, later, as the executive chef of Guastavino, Terence Conran’s failed experiment under the Queensboro Bridge.
Guastavino was open for quite a few years, but it never really found its way, and Daniel eventually moved to the tropics, where he worked in Antigua for a time.
He has now returned to his native Indiana to open a local-produce-oriented restaurant in Bloomington, called Farm.
He grew up in nearby Columbus, Ind.
I reported this fact in Nation’s Restaurant News a little over a month ago, but I just got a press release reminding me of it, so I thought I’d pass the news on.
But you might consider subscribing to NRN. It’s a good read.
New Yorkers might remember Daniel Orr either as the executive chef of La Grenouille or, later, as the executive chef of Guastavino, Terence Conran’s failed experiment under the Queensboro Bridge.
Guastavino was open for quite a few years, but it never really found its way, and Daniel eventually moved to the tropics, where he worked in Antigua for a time.
He has now returned to his native Indiana to open a local-produce-oriented restaurant in Bloomington, called Farm.
He grew up in nearby Columbus, Ind.
I reported this fact in Nation’s Restaurant News a little over a month ago, but I just got a press release reminding me of it, so I thought I’d pass the news on.
But you might consider subscribing to NRN. It’s a good read.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Foxwoods
September 16
“Welcome to Aspen East!” one of the publicists for the Foxwoods second annual Food & Wine Festival said as she greeted people on Friday.
You gotta love plucky marketing.
The event, like Aspen, was something of a reunion, and I had yet to put down my bags when I ran into Steve Shipley from Johnson & Wales and minor celebrity chef Michel Nischan (minor but as warm and good-natured as any chef I know).
Here he is (on the right), with chef Jean-Pierre Vuillermet.
But Aspen’s Food & Wine Magazine Classic is the mother of American food and wine festivals, and the town itself is a luxurious resort in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.
Foxwoods is a gigantic casino for the masses. It’s in the pretty countryside of the Mashantucket-Pequot nation’s section of Connecticut, and it was the largest casino in the world until recently, when a bigger one opened in Macao, but it ain’t Aspen.
Still, the turnout wasn’t bad. Exhibitors in the banquet hall where the “grand tasting” was held said attenance was way up from last year. And the event did draw some big-name celebrities in the food world.
I heard two things over and over again: “Mutton Man!” from Grub Street’s Josh Ozersky, who calls me that for reasons lost to history; and “This is off the record!” from chef agent Scott Feldman.
Scott is my networking role model. He’s a genius and, it turns out, old high school friends with my freshman year college roommate, Michael Yudell, who now is a professor of public health at Drexel. Roslyn, N.Y., raised some good people. Better than you’d expect, really.
Not off the record and from Scott: Rocco Laterzo no longer works for American Express.
I had my first dinner of the festival at Al Dente, an old school American-style Italianish restaurant, with journalists, mostly travel writers, whom I hadn’t met before, except for Andrew Linick of The Practical Gourmet, whom I’m pretty sure I met many years ago at the opening of Lundy’s in Times Square (which closed shortly thereafter).
I had arugula salad with endive, lemon and olive oil topped with Parmesan cheese, followed by halibut sautéed with lemon, capers and shaved fennel, while sharing life stories with Los Angeles-based freelance writer Earl Heath and his wife (I think wife; I don't really know) Rita. He’s from nearby Waterford, Conn., and she’s from Wyoming, so we had amusing high-altitude stories to share.
Then at the afterparty that night I reconnected with some more New England chefs, like Andy Husbands, the chef of Tremont 647 in Boston, whom I’d met some years ago when he was one of the “celebrated chefs” of the National Pork Producers Council, a year-long gig that by all accounts is a lot of fun.
Here’s Andy (on the right) with restaurant consultant Ed Doyle
Michael Schlow, one of the featured celebrity chefs of the event, was there and confirmed a rumor that he was opening a restaurant in Foxwoods. It will be an incarnation of Alta Strada, his Italian restaurant in Wellesley, Mass., and will be at Foxwoods’ MGM Grand, which is slated to open in May.
I was wondering why Michael Schlow was listed as a celebrity chef and Michael Symon, whom I think enjoys about similar celebrity, was just listed as a chef, but the Foxwoods connection kind of explains it I think. And Mr. Schlow probably is more of a celebrity in New England, since Michael Symon is based in Cleveland and his New York venture, Parea, didn’t last too long.
New York Restaurateur Jimmy Bradley was there, too, and I learned that he and Danny Abrams were no longer partners — something I apparently should have known a long time ago.
In fact, it was reported in The New York Times in May of 2006. But hey, you can’t remember everything.
One of the very nice things about the Foxwoods festival is that nothing much was scheduled before noon. So I slept in until it was time to go to the Grand Tasting, which mostly featured wine and spirits, and beer, including a gluten-free sorghum beer which Ming Tsai’s chefs found interesting.
Ming Tsai’s big on catering to customers with allergies, because his son has many of them. I learned this later in the afternoon when I wandered into the press room while he was being interviewed. What else I learned: Iron Chef provides contestants with three possible mystery items, so they have some warning of what they might have to work with. When Ming Tsai had to cook duck on the show, he knew it would be duck, chicken or squab.
Squab. I used to see squab on a lot of menus, I really did, just a few years ago. These days, not so much. I wonder why.
Speaking of Iron Chef, I sat in on Morimoto’s demonstration, because he’ll be cooking at the Nation’s Restaurant News Culinary R&D conference in a couple of weeks. (The conference is September 28 and 29 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles and is free to restaurant operators. Register now).
Dinner that night was a gala masquerade, and then there was an afterparty on the 24th floor, at Foxwoods’ fine dining restaurant, Paragon.
David Burke was at both of those (he’s opening three restaurants at Foxwoods when the MGM Grand opens). He also participated in the celebrity chef poker game on Sunday, which New York chef Franklin Becker of Brasserie won — and so $15,000 will go to a charity to treat autism. Ming Tsai came in second.
Here’s Franklin (on the left), with his agent, Scott Feldman.
At Saturday’s afterparty I met Junior’s owner Alan Rosen (Junior’s is opening a restaurant off of the MGM lobby and a coffee bar on the casino floor), and Top Chef’s Sam Talbot.
I’m going to have to start watching that show. I hate reality TV, and I don’t like to watch food TV because I like to turn off my brain when I watch TV, and if food’s involved I feel like I have to pay attention. But the show’s stars are becoming part of my world, and they seem to be good people. I could take being-nice lessons from Sam Talbot.
Harold Dieterle, formerly of Top Chef and now of Perilla restaurant in New York, was at Foxwoods, too. I saw him posing for a picture with fans at the Grand Tasting and I asked him if that happens a lot.
“Yeah, man, where’s my security?” he said (he was joking).
Following the afterparty, which ended promptly at 1 a.m. as that’s last call in Connecticut (I was told that last call was 2 a.m. on weekends, but it isn’t at Foxwoods), we went downstairs and...
“This is off the record!”
Sorry Scott.
Never mind.
“Welcome to Aspen East!” one of the publicists for the Foxwoods second annual Food & Wine Festival said as she greeted people on Friday.
You gotta love plucky marketing.
The event, like Aspen, was something of a reunion, and I had yet to put down my bags when I ran into Steve Shipley from Johnson & Wales and minor celebrity chef Michel Nischan (minor but as warm and good-natured as any chef I know).
Here he is (on the right), with chef Jean-Pierre Vuillermet.
But Aspen’s Food & Wine Magazine Classic is the mother of American food and wine festivals, and the town itself is a luxurious resort in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.
Foxwoods is a gigantic casino for the masses. It’s in the pretty countryside of the Mashantucket-Pequot nation’s section of Connecticut, and it was the largest casino in the world until recently, when a bigger one opened in Macao, but it ain’t Aspen.
Still, the turnout wasn’t bad. Exhibitors in the banquet hall where the “grand tasting” was held said attenance was way up from last year. And the event did draw some big-name celebrities in the food world.
I heard two things over and over again: “Mutton Man!” from Grub Street’s Josh Ozersky, who calls me that for reasons lost to history; and “This is off the record!” from chef agent Scott Feldman.
Scott is my networking role model. He’s a genius and, it turns out, old high school friends with my freshman year college roommate, Michael Yudell, who now is a professor of public health at Drexel. Roslyn, N.Y., raised some good people. Better than you’d expect, really.
Not off the record and from Scott: Rocco Laterzo no longer works for American Express.
I had my first dinner of the festival at Al Dente, an old school American-style Italianish restaurant, with journalists, mostly travel writers, whom I hadn’t met before, except for Andrew Linick of The Practical Gourmet, whom I’m pretty sure I met many years ago at the opening of Lundy’s in Times Square (which closed shortly thereafter).
I had arugula salad with endive, lemon and olive oil topped with Parmesan cheese, followed by halibut sautéed with lemon, capers and shaved fennel, while sharing life stories with Los Angeles-based freelance writer Earl Heath and his wife (I think wife; I don't really know) Rita. He’s from nearby Waterford, Conn., and she’s from Wyoming, so we had amusing high-altitude stories to share.
Then at the afterparty that night I reconnected with some more New England chefs, like Andy Husbands, the chef of Tremont 647 in Boston, whom I’d met some years ago when he was one of the “celebrated chefs” of the National Pork Producers Council, a year-long gig that by all accounts is a lot of fun.
Here’s Andy (on the right) with restaurant consultant Ed Doyle
Michael Schlow, one of the featured celebrity chefs of the event, was there and confirmed a rumor that he was opening a restaurant in Foxwoods. It will be an incarnation of Alta Strada, his Italian restaurant in Wellesley, Mass., and will be at Foxwoods’ MGM Grand, which is slated to open in May.
I was wondering why Michael Schlow was listed as a celebrity chef and Michael Symon, whom I think enjoys about similar celebrity, was just listed as a chef, but the Foxwoods connection kind of explains it I think. And Mr. Schlow probably is more of a celebrity in New England, since Michael Symon is based in Cleveland and his New York venture, Parea, didn’t last too long.
New York Restaurateur Jimmy Bradley was there, too, and I learned that he and Danny Abrams were no longer partners — something I apparently should have known a long time ago.
In fact, it was reported in The New York Times in May of 2006. But hey, you can’t remember everything.
One of the very nice things about the Foxwoods festival is that nothing much was scheduled before noon. So I slept in until it was time to go to the Grand Tasting, which mostly featured wine and spirits, and beer, including a gluten-free sorghum beer which Ming Tsai’s chefs found interesting.
Ming Tsai’s big on catering to customers with allergies, because his son has many of them. I learned this later in the afternoon when I wandered into the press room while he was being interviewed. What else I learned: Iron Chef provides contestants with three possible mystery items, so they have some warning of what they might have to work with. When Ming Tsai had to cook duck on the show, he knew it would be duck, chicken or squab.
Squab. I used to see squab on a lot of menus, I really did, just a few years ago. These days, not so much. I wonder why.
Speaking of Iron Chef, I sat in on Morimoto’s demonstration, because he’ll be cooking at the Nation’s Restaurant News Culinary R&D conference in a couple of weeks. (The conference is September 28 and 29 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles and is free to restaurant operators. Register now).
Dinner that night was a gala masquerade, and then there was an afterparty on the 24th floor, at Foxwoods’ fine dining restaurant, Paragon.
David Burke was at both of those (he’s opening three restaurants at Foxwoods when the MGM Grand opens). He also participated in the celebrity chef poker game on Sunday, which New York chef Franklin Becker of Brasserie won — and so $15,000 will go to a charity to treat autism. Ming Tsai came in second.
Here’s Franklin (on the left), with his agent, Scott Feldman.
At Saturday’s afterparty I met Junior’s owner Alan Rosen (Junior’s is opening a restaurant off of the MGM lobby and a coffee bar on the casino floor), and Top Chef’s Sam Talbot.
I’m going to have to start watching that show. I hate reality TV, and I don’t like to watch food TV because I like to turn off my brain when I watch TV, and if food’s involved I feel like I have to pay attention. But the show’s stars are becoming part of my world, and they seem to be good people. I could take being-nice lessons from Sam Talbot.
Harold Dieterle, formerly of Top Chef and now of Perilla restaurant in New York, was at Foxwoods, too. I saw him posing for a picture with fans at the Grand Tasting and I asked him if that happens a lot.
“Yeah, man, where’s my security?” he said (he was joking).
Following the afterparty, which ended promptly at 1 a.m. as that’s last call in Connecticut (I was told that last call was 2 a.m. on weekends, but it isn’t at Foxwoods), we went downstairs and...
“This is off the record!”
Sorry Scott.
Never mind.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Chef Gigi Angkaw
This episode of Island Flavors was aired June 10, 2007- ABC 5 9:30 amFor Reservations Only Episode
The Head of Culinary Department of Century Tuna and Host herself,Chef GIGI ANGKAW
My frame by frame scene with the host
The lady director instructing me how to act... haha
The producer Carina and the camera man looking at The Artist Chef photo album
Can't believe I will be on TV
Friday, September 14, 2007
Chocolate busts and grasshoppers
September 14
Time to play catch-up before the weekend. So...
Yesterday I had lunch at Payard, which was promoting the opening in November of its restaurant in Las Vegas, at Caesars Palace. It will be serving breakfast and lunch like any regular restaurant, but with added grab-and-go options, but dinner will be all dessert, served as a three-course tasting.
I don’t understand this dessert-only restaurant fad we’re seeing and would appreciate someone explaining it to me. Is it part of the restaurant specialization trend that we’re seeing with the opening of burrito chains and fancy sandwich shops and yogurt stands and noodle bars and so on? Maybe.
A fellow guest (who is blushing as he reads this, he really is) told me a rumor that the restaurant will have some sort of holographic imaging device that will allow the production of chocolate busts of the restaurant's guests. I speculated that it would cost guests $150. Just a guess, we’ll see.
I sat next to Thomas the wine representative, from France’s Loire region. He told me that Loire wines were the most popular wines in France because of their reasonable prices and food-friendliness. I could see that. He provided us with a Marquis de la Tour (sparkling) Rosé (non-vintage), a 2006 Remy Pannier Vouvray and a 2006 Chinon, also from Pannier.
On Monday I finally saw good old Clark Mitchell for the first time since May. We had dinner with Chad Belisario, who does PR for the Mandarin Oriental hotel group but whom I’ve known for years and years, since he was a budding young journalist for one of those big glossy monthlies. Then he was hired by Jennifer Leuzzi back around the turn of the century, when she was herself a publicist, and he ended up going down that route. Nice guy. Tall.
Anyway, we had dinner at Toloache, Julian Medina’s new Mexican restaurant. We left the menu up to Julian, except that Clark and I insisted that we must have the tacos de chapulines, which are made with dried grasshoppers imported from Mexico (along with sautéed onion, jalapeño and lime).
Chad was hesitant, but he was a good sport about it and seemed to enjoy them.
Basically, they're salty and crunchy. They reminded me very much of the dried shrimp that are a snack in Thailand.
Some of the other things we ate at Toloache:
Guacamole tasting:
"tradicional" with avocado, tomato, onion, cilantro and Serrano chiles
"frutas" with avocado, Vidalia onion, mango, apple, peach, habanero peppers and Thai basil "rojo" with avocado, tomato, red onion, chipotle and queso fresco
Malpeque oyster shooters with Huichol salsa, red onion, agave and Meyer lemon
Vuelva a la Vida ceviche with shrimp, octopus, hamachi, oyster, spicy tomato salsa and avocado
Spicy yellowfin tuna ceviche with key lime, Vidalia onion, radish and watermelon
Huitlacoche and truffle quesadilla with manchego cheese and corn
A variety of tacos, including the grasshopper one
Suckling pig with habanero-sour orange salsa, cactus, avocado and chicharrones
What I ate at Payard:
Chilled heirloom tomato soup with guacamole and basil
Baby arugula salad with pine nuts, Parmesan shavings and black Mission fig
Seared salmon with white pineapple, cucumber Rémoulade and wasabi-buttermilk dressing
Mini beef burger on pretzel bread with tomato confit
Pomegranate poached pear with Cabrales cheese and Szechuan pepper ice cream
"Four Hour" apple cardamom crumble with crème fraîche ice cream
Payard hazelnut candy bar with salted caramel sauce
Palet d'Or with crispy meringue, hazelnut wafer, butter chocolate mousse and gold leaf.
Time to play catch-up before the weekend. So...
Yesterday I had lunch at Payard, which was promoting the opening in November of its restaurant in Las Vegas, at Caesars Palace. It will be serving breakfast and lunch like any regular restaurant, but with added grab-and-go options, but dinner will be all dessert, served as a three-course tasting.
I don’t understand this dessert-only restaurant fad we’re seeing and would appreciate someone explaining it to me. Is it part of the restaurant specialization trend that we’re seeing with the opening of burrito chains and fancy sandwich shops and yogurt stands and noodle bars and so on? Maybe.
A fellow guest (who is blushing as he reads this, he really is) told me a rumor that the restaurant will have some sort of holographic imaging device that will allow the production of chocolate busts of the restaurant's guests. I speculated that it would cost guests $150. Just a guess, we’ll see.
I sat next to Thomas the wine representative, from France’s Loire region. He told me that Loire wines were the most popular wines in France because of their reasonable prices and food-friendliness. I could see that. He provided us with a Marquis de la Tour (sparkling) Rosé (non-vintage), a 2006 Remy Pannier Vouvray and a 2006 Chinon, also from Pannier.
On Monday I finally saw good old Clark Mitchell for the first time since May. We had dinner with Chad Belisario, who does PR for the Mandarin Oriental hotel group but whom I’ve known for years and years, since he was a budding young journalist for one of those big glossy monthlies. Then he was hired by Jennifer Leuzzi back around the turn of the century, when she was herself a publicist, and he ended up going down that route. Nice guy. Tall.
Anyway, we had dinner at Toloache, Julian Medina’s new Mexican restaurant. We left the menu up to Julian, except that Clark and I insisted that we must have the tacos de chapulines, which are made with dried grasshoppers imported from Mexico (along with sautéed onion, jalapeño and lime).
Chad was hesitant, but he was a good sport about it and seemed to enjoy them.
Basically, they're salty and crunchy. They reminded me very much of the dried shrimp that are a snack in Thailand.
Some of the other things we ate at Toloache:
Guacamole tasting:
"tradicional" with avocado, tomato, onion, cilantro and Serrano chiles
"frutas" with avocado, Vidalia onion, mango, apple, peach, habanero peppers and Thai basil "rojo" with avocado, tomato, red onion, chipotle and queso fresco
Malpeque oyster shooters with Huichol salsa, red onion, agave and Meyer lemon
Vuelva a la Vida ceviche with shrimp, octopus, hamachi, oyster, spicy tomato salsa and avocado
Spicy yellowfin tuna ceviche with key lime, Vidalia onion, radish and watermelon
Huitlacoche and truffle quesadilla with manchego cheese and corn
A variety of tacos, including the grasshopper one
Suckling pig with habanero-sour orange salsa, cactus, avocado and chicharrones
What I ate at Payard:
Chilled heirloom tomato soup with guacamole and basil
Baby arugula salad with pine nuts, Parmesan shavings and black Mission fig
Seared salmon with white pineapple, cucumber Rémoulade and wasabi-buttermilk dressing
Mini beef burger on pretzel bread with tomato confit
Pomegranate poached pear with Cabrales cheese and Szechuan pepper ice cream
"Four Hour" apple cardamom crumble with crème fraîche ice cream
Payard hazelnut candy bar with salted caramel sauce
Palet d'Or with crispy meringue, hazelnut wafer, butter chocolate mousse and gold leaf.
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