Q & A with Aquavit's Marcus Jenmark
Aquavit Chef Marcus Jenmark says he wants to be, “the ambassador of Scandinavian food in New York.” He’s already off to a great start. After traveling the world showcasing Swedish ingredients and cooking techniques as part of a venture called Culinary Sweden, the former hockey player got a job as a chef for the Swedish Consulate in Manhattan. And now he’s on an even bigger stage, Aquavit, where Chef Marcus Samuelsson first broke out on the city’s culinary scene. Since taking over as head chef this year, Chef Jenmark has reinvented Aquavit’s menu by introducing more traditional Scandinavian fare. His cooking his classic, yet imaginative, like bone marrow-crusted lobster, Berkshire pork loin with sweet corn creme, summer succotash and poached fig in a foie gras broth. Single/Married/Divorced? Married, and we’re expecting a little one any day now!What did you...
Read MoreNYC's Best Late Night Eats
One of the many things that sets New York apart from any other city in America is its feast of late night eats and we’re not talking about dumpy, 24-hour diners. Only in New York can you get your favorite slice of pizza or impeccably fresh oysters until 6 in the morning. Whatever your midnight craving, chances are somebody’s open for business and serving an admirable, and often creative, rendition til the wee hours of the morning. There’s everything from chocolate fondue at Cafe Lalo to Matzoh Ball soup and oysters at Blue Ribbon to pork meatballs and homemade ice cream sandwiches at The Meatball Shop. These are some of our favorites; each specialized in one simple dish with delicious results. This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef Address: 149 1st Ave, btwn. 9th St & St Marks Place...
Read MoreQ & A with Tiella's Peppe Castellano
If you’re from the Boston area, you’re probably familiar with Gran Gusto’s terrifically thin-crusted pizzas. Peppe Castellano not only made a name for himself with his pizzas, but also his flair for seafood. But if you come to New York peddling pizzas, they better be exceptional. “In New York, it’s the war of the pizza,” says Chef Pepe Castellano. Instead of pizza, Castellano is focusing on Neopolitan cooking, minus the trademark pizzas, at Tiella, his new restaurant located on the Upper East Side. Instead of pizza, you’ll find stracciatella with truffles, spinach flan with a sweet gorgonzola sauce, and butternut squash risotto with shrimp and mint. While most chefs are buying local Castellano imports 80% of his ingredients from Italy. Single/Married/Divorced Engaged. What did you want to be when you grew up? I always wanted to be a chef. ...
Read MoreNew York's Best Fall Dishes
Fall doesn’t offically begin until September 22nd, but it’s starting to feel like summer’s already gone. Many restaurants have changed their menus with an eye on fall. That means plenty of pumpkin, zucchini, apples, brussel sprouts and meat. There’s roast chicken with pumpkin pie, dinner and dessert in one, at Park Avenue Autumn, and exotic pumpkin soup in Queens. For Oktoberfest, we recommend you head to Prime Meats in Brooklyn to feast on their vast array of sausages, homemade sauerkraut and beer. Turkey Leg Sandwich – Henry Public Address: 329 Henry St., btwn. Atlantic Avenue & Pacific Street Phone: (718) 852-8630 You don’t have to wait until Thanksgiving to get your roast turkey fix. Henry Public makes a turkey leg sandwich that just might be better than the turkey your family serves every November. In keeping with tradition, the...
Read MoreFoolproof Homemade Donuts
I don’t know about you, but we’re so over cupcakes. Thankfully, pastry chefs are turning their attention to other baked creations, like pies and donuts. It doesn’t get much better than freshly fried dough, sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar or stuffed with raspberry jelly. Of course, it’s probably not a good idea to make a daily habit of fried donuts, which is why we’re obsessed with Babycakes’ baked donuts. But unless you happen to live near the Babycakes shop in New York or Los Angeles, you’re stuck with the fried variety. So we decided to make our own. We found the Mini Donut Factory (pictured right), which bakes, not fries, your donuts for you. Literally. Making donuts at home usually requires special pans and donut cutters, but with the donut maker, all you have to do is make the...
Read MoreQ & A with Calexico's Jesse Vendley
If you’re serious about Mexican, you’re probably familiar with the Calexico Cart. If you’re not, you’re missing out. Their carne asada could bring you to your knees. But the food isn’t 100% Mexican. Jesse Vendley dubs it, “a hybrid cuisine influenced by Mexican cuisine and American barbecue.” The Calexico Cart, run by Jesse Vendley and his two brothers, is the result of Jesse’s craving for home and Calexico-style Mexican cooking. This Southern California native loves carne asada the way most New Yorkers love pizza, but he couldn’t find a worthy version when he first moved to New York City 15 years ago. So Vendley perfected his grandmother’s recipe by using premium cuts of meats and boldly flavored marinades and launched the Calexico Cart with his brothers, Dave and Brian, in 2006. His efforts paid off. In the past four...
Read MoreBest Farm-To-Table Restaurants
Seasonal menus used to be the exception. Now, they’re the rule. These days, chefs showcase seasonal ingredients from small, local farmers. Diners would rather eat domestic wagyu than Japanese wagyu and American caviar than Beluga caviar. Farm-to-table dining’s become trendy, but some restaurants take it more seriously than others. There’s Greenmarket pioneers that have been around for years, like Dan Barber’sBlue Hill, and some terrific newcomers, like The Local Store. Here’s a few of our favorites: The Local Store Address:316 E 49th St., btwn. Second & First Aves. Phone:(212) 935-4266 It’s rare to find small-town charm in midtown Manhattan, but that’s exactly what Chef Richele Benway’s Local Store brings to this neighborhood. Part restaurant, part bakery and part wine bar, this new spot is a haven for locally sourced, farm-fresh ingredients. For lunch, try the prosciutto, apple and brie...
Read MoreTaco Rack
I don’t know about you, but I’d like to pretend summer’s not over just yet. Who wants to leave behind barbecues and picnics and dinners with cocktails and friends? Luckily, we don’t have to. Instead of barbecues, we can throw Mexican fiestas, replete with margaritas and tacos. But as we recently discovered, hard tacos can get very messy. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to serve tacos, but they don’t stand up on their own. They tip over and the fillings spill out all over the plate. So we dug around a little and found this taco rack (pictured right). Just heat up the hard shells in the oven, place them on the rack and layer with fillings. It even has vinyl grips at each end, so you don’t burn your hands on the metal rack. And...
Read MoreQ & A With Lure's Josh Capon
How many great seafood restaurants have bragging rights to a terrific burger? Lure Fishbar does and Chef Josh Capon has a lot to do it. His burger won the people’s choice award at last year’s New York Wine and Food Festival. In fact, this fall, restaurateur John McDonald and Josh Capon are teaming up again to open a burger bar called Burger and Barrel in Soho, which will serve small steaks and chicken paillard. Pretty impressive for a guy who used to cook chicken parm for his fraternity brothers at University of Maryland. Capon has proved himself a versatile chef, as talented with seafood as he is with meat. Capon trained under Charlie Palmer at Aureole and David Burke, who he credits as his mentor. “David Burke taught me how to have fun with food,” he explains. His...
Read MoreRouge Tomate 2.0 – A Concept & Menu Change
While everyone was lounging on the beach and seizing the last days of summer, Rouge Tomate was busy revamping its menu and its dining room. It was always an original concept: There aren’t many, if any, restaurants with a pedigreed chef, locally sourced ingredients, an in-house nutritionist that clocks calories, and a S.P.E. charter devoted to Health Through Food. The result is a Michelin-starred meal that you don’t have to feel guilty about. Really, the only drawback was the formality of the menu and the size of the plates. Nowadays, no one likes to commit to one dish, so they tossed that concept and started from scratch. Rouge Tomate 2.0 has newly installed an upstairs lounge and a small plates menu for casual, grazing endeavors that’s available anywhere you sit. It’s a smart move. Now, you can nibble on...
Read MoreRib Rack
Labor Day is fast approaching, which sadly means summer is almost over. There goes half-day Fridays, white pants and local peaches. But there’s still time for one last, big BBQ before the summer fun ends. We want to go out big, so we’re making ribs, but as we learned a few weeks ago, one rack can take up the entire grill. There was no room for corn or zucchini on the grill, not to mention that you have to grill each rib rack one at a time, which took forever. It got ugly. We dug around a little and found this stainless steel rib rack (pictured right), which allows you to grill six rib racks at a time. Each rack of ribs fits into a compartment on the stainless steel rack and cooks vertically, creating more room under the...
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