Opening your own restaurant is a daunting task in and of itself, but Anita Lo had to open Annisa twice.  Last year, a fire destroyed her thriving West Village eatery.  And just a few months earlier, she closed Bar-Q, another one of her restaurants.  Instead of calling it a day, she started over again and rebuilt Annisa from the ground up.  She and her partner even hired a feng shui consultant to clear the "bad energy" in the space.  Second time around, Annisa's just as successful and beloved by New Yorkers.  She's revived her now-classic, foie gras soup dumplings and miso-marinated sable in a bonito broth and added seasonal newcomers, like softshell crabs with summer squash, lardo and sea urchin.  Following her appearance on Top Chef Masters, she says she's still suffering from "Post-Traumatic Top Chef disorder" and next time around, she'd rather be a judge.    

Single/Married/Divorced?  
Single

Where were you born?
Detroit, Michigan

What are fondest food memories from childhood?
There are so many: eating rambutans off the tree at my aunt’s house in Malaysia, eating steamer clams and lobster on Cape Cod, my nanny’s chicken paprikash…my mother’s noodles…

What was your first job in food and what did you learn?
Canapes at Bouley.  I developed basic knife skills in that station and learned about ingredients, especially produce.  We were using a lot of local vegetables and David liked to highlight their purity.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
A concert pianist, but I lacked the drive and the talent.

Who are your culinary influences?
David Waltuck, David Bouley, my mother…

How would you describe your cooking style?    
Contemporary American—upscale and adventurous

Your dishes reflect so many vastly different cultures and cuisines.  What’s your unique approach to integrating them and getting inspiration from them?  Are they any cuisines that don’t inspire you or don’t pair well on a plate?
I grew up with so many different cuisines and cultures, so on some level this is just my identity; integrating cultural influences comes naturally.  If you think about it long enough, you should be able to mix any cuisine.  Mongolian cooking, or what I saw of it, wasn’t that inspirational for me, but some of the raw ingredients from that country were amazing.

What’s your favorite cuisine?
Don’t have one, and couldn’t live without diversity.

Prior to Top Chef Masters, you were one of the more low profile chefs.  What was that tv and celebrity chef experience like for you?
It was incredible to cook with all those chefs, and especially to hear the stories from the older generation.  And competing for charity made it a much more positive experience.  But some of the challenges were intense, and I think we all have post-traumatic Top Chef disorder as a result ;)

Is that something you want to do more of?  
I’d rather be a judge, but I’d certainly go to bat for charity again.

You must’ve been devastated when there was a fire in Annisa last year.  Did not reopening ever cross your mind?    
There were three occasions when we thought we had lost the restaurant for good.  Our lease was expiring, so we couldn’t rebuild without resigning, and that was a hellish rollercoaster.  

What inspired you to hire a feng shui consultant for Annisa and what did she suggest? Which of her ideas did you implement and were there any that you decided not to use?
Feng shui wasn’t my idea.  We had had such bad luck in the past year, that my partner Jennifer thought we should have the space cleared.  I figured it couldn’t hurt.  I’m pretty sure we did everything the consultant suggested.  And now everyone comments about how great it feels in here.

What’s the most difficult part about opening a restaurant?   And re-opening the same one?
Its difficult all around, so its hard to choose.  Money?  Staffing?  We were lucky that almost all of our staff came back after we were closed for 9 months.

How is the recently opened Annisa different from the original outpost? And how are the two restaurants similar?
Its in the same spot, and at the core the same restaurant.  The layout is the same, but we got nicer chairs, and we warmed the space up a bit by introducing some darker, walnut tones.  We have a paneled wall to absorb sound, and more floral decoration.  

What’s your favorite dish on the menu right now? Least favorite?
I stand behind everything on the menu, or I wouldn’t put it on.  I really like the Spanish Mackerel right now—I’m getting gorgeous heirloom tomatoes from Early Girl Farm right now.  I also love the softshell crab with summer squash, lardo and sea urchin; it won’t be around much longer as the season is ending but I love those flavors and the summer squashes are beautiful—I get them from Bodhitree Farm.

You’ve been involved in both fine dining and casual ventures.  Do you have a preference for one style?
I prefer fine dining for its complexity and detail, but I equally love working on new concepts-- casual as well.

What obstacles have you faced, as a woman, in the kitchen?
It wasn’t easy working in France.  There were some chefs there that were outwardly  opposed to having women in the kitchen.  And there’s still a lot of subtle gender bias everywhere; we all have to keep questioning how we add to it.

Which female chefs do you admire the most?
Anne Sophie Pic for her 3 michelin stars.  Martha Stewart for building an incredible empire.  My friend, April Bloomfield for consistently craveable dishes in such high volume.

What’s the one cooking tool you can’t do without?
I love my tasting spoon.

Any plans to open additional restaurants?
For now I’m focusing on annisa, but I would love to open other restaurants in the future with the staff that has stuck by me at annisa.

We heard you’re working on a cookbook.    Tell us a little about it.
It is a classic collection of recipes celebrating multiculturalism and contemporary American cuisine.  Charlotte Druckman is helping me write it and Stewart, Tabori and Chang is the publisher.  If all goes well, it should come out in the fall of 2011.

Annisa
Address: 13 Barrow St., nr 4th St.
Phone: (212)741-6699

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 ounce of gin
• 3 ounces of clam juice
• 1/2 ounce of worcestisher sauce
• a splash of lemon juice
• salt
• pepper
• fresh thyme

Preparation
In a mixing bar glass, add all of the ingredients, ice, and stir.  Garnish with thyme.

Il Matto
Address: 281 Church St., btwn. Frankln & Avenue of the Americas
Phone: (212)226-1607

Corn on the Cob with Spicy Lime Butter
By Richele

Ingredients 

•  4 good sized firm ears of corn from the greenmarket.  (Don't husk them when you buy them as this will make them taste starchy sooner. It's better to take your chances with a few undevoloped kernels.)
• 1/4 cup of butter
• 1 lime
• cayenne pepper
• salt 
  

Preparation
Husk your corn at home and put all four cobs in salted boiling water for 5 minutes.  For the butter, mix about 1/4 cup butter with the juice and zest of 1 lime and 1/2 teaspoon cayenne.  Get some good sea salt and sprinkle it over the cob to your preference. 

The Local Store
Address: 316 49th Street, btwn 1st & 2nd Aves.
Phone: (212)935-4266

How often do you stumble upon a local store in the middle of midtown Manhattan?   This just might be the first.  Chef-owner Richele Benway has brought a quaint sensibility to midtown east with The Local Store, a new restaurant & wine bar, that serves creative sandwiches and small plates made from locally sourced, farm-fresh ingredients.  The menu changes three times a day, and features simple, but elegant dishes, like roasted tomatoes with garlic scape and goat cheese, corn chowder and gazpacho.  

Benway earned her culinary chops working for some of New York’s best chefs, including Gotham Bar & Grill’s Alfred Portale, whom she credits as one of her mentors.  So why open a local store in New York City?  “I knew there would be no other place like it,” she says.  You can’t argue with that, and the neighborhood seems to be taking to it, especially her ham and manchego cheese sandwich and her fresh-baked desserts, including a French Toast muffin. 

Single/Married/Divorced?  Single.

What did you want to be when you grew up?   In order: pirate, farmer, teacher, comedian.

What was your first job in food and what did you learn?   My first job in food was at Adel’s restaurant on Dry Creek Road in Healdsburg as a waitress. It was basically a glorified burger joint.  All of my co-workers were hardworking, lovely people with strong work ethics.  I was able to work with people who had such a great sense of timing, there was never any such thing as a guest having to wait for anything.

How do you manage to come up with your menu, considering it changes several times a day?   I’m always surprised that the menu happens in spite of me.  I tend to buy too much on impulse of whatever looks good at the market, or what I know I can get locally from a vendor. The staff and I then collaborate to make some pretty tasty stuff based on what’s in the pantry and coming in fresh. We use mostly local here, but don’t have a problem sourcing from small to medium farmers from all over that use good growing practices, like through Basis Foods.

What are some of your favorite ingredients to work with?   Anything that is so perfect and delicious on its own that it doesn’t need much fooling around with.

You’re a northern California native, who has worked at some great New York restaurants, including Alto, Picholine, Convivio and Gotham Bar and Grill.   How has your hometown influenced your cooking here?  Looking back, I realize how lucky I was to grow up in Sonoma County. Eating seasonally came easily since everyone had fruit trees and gardens in their yards. One could stop at the roadside in Bodega Bay for barbequed oysters and mussels. The whole county smelled like apples in fall. We got plenty of cheap produce that was mass produced in the valley from water they stole from Northern California, but even as little kids, my sister and I knew that lemons and apples from trees from the neighborhood were better than the bland, pithy stuff from the grocery store.

Who have been some of your favorite chefs to work with?   Betsy Reilly, Scott Conant, Michael White, Craig Wallen, and Alfred Portale, because he keeps it classy.

With its farm-to-table café concept, The Local Store seems like a more natural fit for downtown Manhattan or Brooklyn than for its Midtown location. Why did you decide to open up shop in that neighborhood?   I had worked in midtown for Chris Cannon for a few years and knew from being here that there was nothing like it, but that people wanted it.

The Local Store opened out as a bakery.  Do you like cooking or baking better?   I don’t think I’m a great baker. It takes a lot of discipline and focus, which I don’t have. Cooking is great because there’s a lot of room to play.

The restaurant also has a great beer selection. What’s your favorite beer for summer?   Anything by Southampton Brewery.  I love the Double White and Keller Pils.

You have some pretty creative sandwiches on the menu, like ham with manchego cheese and raisin mostarda on a ciabatta roll.   Where are some of your favorite places to get sandwiches in the city?  The best place for sandwiches is Vito's in Hoboken on Washington Street.  They make their own mozzarella everyday and it's the best thing you've ever put in your mouth. 

What are your goals for the future?  Lord of the Underkingdom, master of all I survey.  But I’d really just settle for 2 days off.

The Local Store
Address:  East 49th Street, btwn First & Second Aves.
Phone: (212)935-4266

By Chef-Owner John Fraser

Ingredients

• 4 scallops
  
• 1/2 large fennel 
• 1 jalapenos split in half and de-seeded
• 1/2 cup of quinoa 
• 1 lemon
• 1 tb honey
  
• 10 bing cherries pitted and cut in halves
• 1/2 c of cilantro leaves picked of large stem
• 1/2 c of spinach(stems picked)  cut thin
  

Preparation
Cut fennel into 1 inch pieces and simmer with 2 cup of water, the juice of 1 lemon, 1 tbsp of honey, & a pinch of salt until soft, then let cool.  Drain off the excess water, toss the fennel with evo and puree.  Blanch the jalapeno in boiling water for a minute then cool and cut into small dice.  Meanwhile, cook the quinoa with a little salt in boiling water for 25 minutes, then drain & toss with olive oil.  Let cool on a cookie sheet.  Mix the fennel ceviche marination together and set aside in a warm place, since it should be a warm vinaigrette (about 140 degrees.)  Meanwhile, cook the scallops one side in a hot pan until caramelized.  Remove from pan, slice thin & place in the warm vinaigrette for 5 minutes.  While the scallops are marinating, mix the quinoa with the cilantro, spinach, and jalapeno. Place the scallops and quinoa salad on the plate and top with the fennel and cherries.  (Garnish with fennel fronds or cherry blossoms if they are in season.)  

Address: 103 West 77th Street, nr. Columbus Ave.
Phone: (212)362-3800
dovetailnyc.com