Rise and Shine: New York's sunrise skyline from The Standard Hotel on West 13th and Washington (Meat Packing District/Thursday, March 18.)
It’s been a crazy week, so a little recap is in order regarding some exciting news and projects going on outside of the restaurant.
New York, New York: Michael and sous chef Bradley Herron visited The Big Apple from Monday to Wednesday, and took a big bite out of it. Several to be exact! Dining stops included Minetta Tavern, Locanda Verde, 11 Madison Park, Marea, and The Breslin. They also popped into Colicchio and Sons for a quick congratulatory hello.
Then Larry Carrino and I met up with Michael on Wednesday and Thursday for meetings with cookbook publisher Clarkson Potter. We ate dinner at Peasant in SOHO and had lunch with Food & Wine’sKate Krader at Ma Peche — David Chang’s not-yet-open restaurant in the Chambers Hotel (formerly Momo Midtown.) The Standard Hotel was also the site of nice breakfasts and drinks. In typical New York fashion, random celebrity sightings were numerous, including disgraced former Illinois governor cum celebrity apprentice Rod Blagojevich at Laguardia and Mickey Rourke strutting his bad self through the Meat Packing District with a blond, paparazzi stumbling in their path for the money shot. The Standard Hotel seems to be unofficial celebrity chef central; Laurent Tourondel (now of some BLTs…) dined there Wednesday night, and Curtis Stone (the Take Home Chef on TLC) was seen exiting the lobby, bags in tow.And in an opportune convergence of events, we also were able to say ciao and trade pleasantries with the Bourdains, who were on their way to dine at the hotel’s grill, as we waited out front for a taxi to the airport. Always fun seeing them. Tony had just left Sirius where he wrapped his last radio show (for now!) with chef buddy Eric Ripert. Lots of antics in that studio, some of the most amusing involving artificial cereal. Let’s just say that by the end of the series, Eric had lost his processed foods virginity. Icing on the cake, Lee Schrager joined us in the exit row on the flight home.
This Week’s TIME Magazine: Be sure to grab a copy of this week’s (March 22) issue, where Michael’s winning Burger Bash entry, the Genuine Cheeseburger, is featured (and pictured twice!)
Michael’s Cookbook ETA: After a productive meeting at Random House HQ with publisher Clarkson Potter, the launch date for Michael’s cookbook is now set for February 15, 2011. It’s a little too early to get into details, but we already have some very exciting pre-launch activities in the pipeline! Stay tuned…
Pre-shift is an important part of daily restaurant operations that occurs before each service, led by chef de cuisine Bradley Herron and management. Among other things, it’s a time to have front of the house staff taste and learn about new menu additions, desserts, and beverages so they can pass along accurate information to diners. On Saturday night, sous chef Thomas came out of the kitchen for a moment to share how his smoked head cheese came to be.
palmetto creek farms smoked head cheese, egg yolk, shallots, chervil (small/9)
Toucan Sam may have had one thing right. Follow your nose was the catch phrase of the MGFD street cart’s first night out, during Art Walk in the Design District. With griddle fired and sausages sizzling, customers let aromas lead them to the southwest corner of 40th Street and Northeast First Avenue. Here’s what awaited… (Video number two is courtesy of guest Flipper, Harry Schwartz, Michael’s youngest. Watch out Scorsese. He did a great – no, impressive – job!) See you again April 10; more details to come on the vending page…
A Motley Cart Crew (left to right): Tamara Schwartz, Intern Daphne Robboy, Ali Lauria, Michael Schwartz, J&W culinary students Jean Paul (JP) and Derek, and Hedy Goldsmith.
Sous Chefs Matt Hinckley and Thomas Tennant collaborated on a new lamb stew dish: toasted cous cous, local goose egg, pickled Teena's Pride beet stems, awaze (extra large/36). Matt has lived in many places across the globe, among them Zanzibar and Tanzania.
That stew is a variation of doro wat, Ethiopia’s national dish. I believe it is called sega wat when it is made with lamb. It is usually served with hard boiled eggs in it but I think that the over-easy goose egg is a nice twist. “African food” takes a pretty bad rap. People generally lump the whole continent’s cuisine all together which is unfair. It is comparable to calling something “European cuisine,” rather than Italian, Greek, French, etc., not to mention accounting for the nuances within these, regionally. Moroccan food is far different than the foods that you will find in South Africa; the Seychelles and Spice Islands of East Africa are wholly different than the coastal foods of western African countries. Each country has its own unique flavor. This dish has elements that are predominately from Ethiopia and Morocco.
This past week I had the pleasure of tasting 2009 barrel samples with Mark Tobin, owner of Mattebella Vineyards of the North Fork of Long Island. During my time in New York it seemed that the state’s local wines had their fifteen minutes, a shop specializing in the local fare came and went, and curious customers tried them with similar conclusions, quality was there but value was absent.
Mattebella’s 2008 Chardonnay offering defies this faint praise. Backing off even more from the already light oak usage of the 2007 vintage, green apples and lemons jump out of the glass and the mouth watering acidity begs for food.
The 2009 Chardonnay samples showed promise but were undergoing malolactic fermentation, making tasting a bit difficult. After reading several vintage reports I was ready for the red samples to be under-ripe. 2009 was a more than difficult vintage for most Long Island growers. Four weeks of rain started right at fruit set, reducing crop yields thirty to sixty percent with many growers. Christine Ferrari Tobin had a positive spin on the weather, saying that it saved her the pain of dropping fruit later. The cool summer make full ripening difficult with many frustrated growers leaving grapes on the vine into November. Mattebella used every trick in their sustainable farming toolbox and produced beautiful, ripe fruit. The non-vintage Familigia Red has been a fabulous, casual, no worries wine and the Tobin’s have all the pieces from 2009 to make a great vintage version of the wine.
We also tasted several versions of the 2009 rose and worked on the final blend, getting the right blend of fruit, mouth-feel and acidity. With the blend just about finished, the wine should be ready in about eight weeks, hopefully summer will be on time for the wine.
I look forward to tasting the final release of the Familigia Red and I believe that this will be a vintage where the quality of Mattebella will shine and will be even more impressive when it doesn’t come with the normal Long Island price.
It’s been a crazy week, so a little recap is in order regarding some exciting news and projects going on outside of the restaurant.
This Week’s TIME Magazine: Be sure to grab a copy of this week’s (March 22) issue, where Michael’s winning Burger Bash entry, the Genuine Cheeseburger, is featured (and pictured twice!)
