Posts for November 8, 2012 -- Grub Street: New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant Blog

Posts for November 8, 2012

11/8/12 at 6:10 PM
Leftovers
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Restaurateur Discussion at 92YTribeca; Sandy Fund-raiser at Applewood

• Join food-world luminaries including Bill Buford, Will Guidara (co-owner of Eleven Madison Park), and Maguy Le Coze (owner of Le Bernardin) at 92YTribeca on Thursday, November 15, for a discussion with author and Financial Times restaurant critic Nicholas Lander in celebration of his new book, The Art of the Restaurateur. The panel, moderated by Buford, will discuss the role of the restaurateur in the age of the celebrity chef. Tickets are $18. [Grub Street]

• Park Slope's Applewood is hosting a Hurricane Sandy–relief fund-raiser on Sunday, November 11. They will be serving up sausages and drinks starting at 8 p.m.; all proceeds will be donated to Restore Red Hook. [Grub Street]

• Cafectio, a Cuban restaurant on the hard-hit Avenue C, will open tonight for the first time since Hurricane Sandy. [EV Grieve]

• Newly crowned U.S. barista champion Katie Carguilo will be manning the bar at Smith Canteen in Carroll Gardens from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, November 10. She'll make her winning mix of coffee, green tea, lemon juice, nectarine mash, simple syrup, vinegar, and soda water, as well as a macchiato made with goat's milk and sweetened with beet juice. [Grub Street]

11/8/12 at 5:40 PM
Beef
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Burn Sauce: A Short History of Chefs Insulting Bloggers

By Hugh Merwin

"How do you like these bell peppers?"Photo: iStockphoto

Working in front of hot ovens slowly cooks your skin, but it won't necessarily make it thicker, it turns out: Chef Claude Bosi has two Michelin stars for his refined cooking at the restaurant Hibiscus in London, the Guardian reports, but is considerably less couth when it comes to reviews filed by amateurs. After a blogger named James Isherwood wrote a tepid but innocuous review of Hibiscus on his personal site, Bosi sought him out and unleashed a litany of insults directed toward him on Twitter, at one point writing, "As a man you should say something to my face when I ask,Please buy yourself a pair of balls and play with them."

"Please stick to catering."

11/8/12 at 4:30 PM
Breakfasts of Champions
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What City Officials Ate During Sandy

Granola, granola, granola! City and state authorities eat vast amounts of oats, it turns out: Janette Sadik-Khan, Cuomo communications director Josh Vlasto, and FDNY Commissioner Sal Cassano got by on granola bars during the storm and its immediate aftermath, the Observer reports. The chair of the NYCHA ate Ritz crackers and drank bottled water during the surge, Ray Kelly ran on egg-white sandwiches from Dunkin' Donuts, and MTA CEO Joe Lhota always, always, has a plain omelette with two sausage patties. No cheese. "Is there any other kind?" He says. "I don’t put shit in them." [NYO]

11/8/12 at 3:55 PM
Cavities
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Ukrainian Kid Spent His Parents’ Life Savings on Candy

We're now hearing reports (via Gawker) that some 9-year-old kid in Ukraine spent his family's entire life savings on miscellaneous candy. The child's parents say $4,000 in mixed currency that was under their sofa is gone, and their son is to blame. With help from a man "who has been diagnosed with a mental disorder," the boy was able to exchange the stolen cash into Ukrainian hryvnas and make it rain SweeTarts all over Sumy Oblast. Let's hope someone like Jennifer Garner comes around quickly and buys the movie rights to this. [Ria Novosti via Gawker]

11/8/12 at 3:25 PM on Grub Street Boston
Big Head Todd
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Todd English’s Enemies List Now Includes Dead People

By Kara Baskin

Another nail in his coffin?Photo: The Todd English Blue Point Oyster

Just when you think Todd English couldn't get any classier, along comes this gem: The estate of Priceline founder Jord Poster, who passed away in August, has wrung $232,607 from the lawsuit-addled chef. Poster loaned English money in 2002, and English allegedly failed to repay him. Then Poster died. According to the Boston Herald, the "world-renowned chef and marketing machine ignored Poster’s pleas to repay the money in the months prior to his death." The ailing Poster, who probably had better things to do, allegedly e-mailed English that “getting our open items cleaned up for my kids’ benefit would certainly contribute to a healing and positive frame of mind.” English replied, “I am sorry ... I will be in touch." But then he wasn't. In fairness, he has been distracted.

11/8/12 at 3:15 PM
Video Feed
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Watch Jonathan Benno in the Most Subdued VICE ‘Munchies’ Episode Ever

By Hugh Merwin

Regular viewers of VICE's "Munchies" series, which picks up with a chef at his or her restaurant and follows them out for a typically long night on the town, are no doubt accustomed to big feasts, liquor fountains, and of course, the occasional surreptitious car-service toke. The most titillating thing about this newest episode, which features the chef Jonathan Benno, is probably the priest stranglers he serves with taggiasca olives and bottarga in the kitchen at Lincoln. Rolling with his posse into Neta, the former Per Se chef de cuisine stops speaking altogether to better appreciate the sushi. "You really want to be quiet," he says, "and really think about what you're eating." Though the rollicking fails to get going at the Peter McManus bar, this ends up being one of the most oddly affecting "Munchies" episodes so far.

Tripe at the end.

11/8/12 at 2:15 PM
Foodievents
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Turkey Leg Ball Tickets Are Now on Sale

The foul weather may have interrupted the ticket sales for Immaculate Infatuation's third annual Turkey Leg Ball, but the fowl-themed event is still very much happening. This year the ball is subtitled "Xmas from Texas," and accordingly, the guys are hosting the crew of Austin restaurant Foreign & Domestic on Wednesday, November 28 at Hudson Terrace. Tickets are now available here, and a portion of the night's proceeds will benefit City Harvest. [Immaculate Infatuation, Earlier]

11/8/12 at 2:00 PM on Grub Street LA
The Chain Gang
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Taco Bell Menu Turning Increasingly Experimental, Strange-Sounding

By Hadley Tomicki

We're not even sure what this is.

As you no doubt know, Taco Bell is killing it with those Doritos Loco tacos, and apparently the success is giving the chain the confidence to go even more loco on its menu. Today Advertising Age runs down all the crazy crap Taco Bell is working on to further the success of its hybrid snacks. In addition to a bunch of desserts — caramel-filled empanadas, churros that look like a take on cheese twists, an triangular ice cream sandwich — there's also a forthcoming series of snacks known as "Loaded Grillers," which will wrap entire servings of nachos and baked potatoes in tortillas for its loaded customers. The Gut-Bust-y approach isn't going unnoticed by the competition.

11/8/12 at 1:30 PM on Grub Street Boston
Foodievents
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Ken Oringer and Boston Chef Pals Raise $30K for Hurricane Sandy Victims

Ken Oringer, Ming Tsai, and friends held a swanky $500-per-plate mega-fund-raiser last night at Mike's City Diner in Boston's South End. Chef Joanne Chang tweets that the dinner raised a hefty $30,000: "So honored to work w such generous passionate community of food lovers, chefs, hospitality professionals!" she enthuses. It's been a busy week for Oringer: He was recently spotted chatting about the opening of his Toro NYC with none other than Rachael Ray. [Twitter/JBChang, Earlier]

11/8/12 at 12:15 PM
Video Feed
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Watch Dominique Ansel Make Religieuses for All Seasons

By Hugh Merwin

When putting together plans to open his bakery, former Daniel pastry chef Dominique Ansel considered selling cupcakes, then cheesecake, for sheer nanoseconds before realizing that access to the greater cosmology of underappreciated French pastries — including the Paris-Brest, Kouign-amanns, and religieuses — might actually provide a better creative conduit. Thank goodness. Today's Tumblr Storyboard gets into the sister act with Ansel as he turns out all kinds of adorable religieuses, those decorated choux balls said to resemble nuns. These include one wearing a beret and a scarf Ansel calls the "Frenchie." Definitely click on through if you like the Easter bunny, choux, and/or nun-themed pastries.

11/8/12 at 12:10 PM on Grub Street Philly
Sweet News
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Bourdain and Ripert’s ‘Good & Evil’ Chocolate Bar to Make Its Debut

By Collin Keefe

Good & Evil: Anthony Bourdain and Eric RipertPhoto: Melissa Hom

Just as we’d suspected, that “mysterious” Good & Evil chocolate bar that’s co-opted the schtick that Anthony Bourdain and Eric Ripert put forth in their traveling Good vs. Evil roadshow, makes its big debut at this weekend’s Salon du Chocolat. Philadelphia’s Inquirer spills the beans on the the bar, which is the culmination of more than a year’s work from Ripert and Pennsylvania-based chocolatier Christopher Curtin’s Eclat. To create it, the two trekked deep into jungles of Peru in search of an elusive type of wild-growing cacao believed extinct since 1916.

11/8/12 at 11:50 AM
Overnights
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Top Chef Seattle Recap: And We’re Off!

By David Rees

Some hopefuls, and their omelettes.Photo: Bravo

Most TV shows would kill for Top Chef’s reputation: In its tenth season, it continues to represent an upper-middlebrow trashy sensibility that purees accessibility, celebrity, and actual talent in a back-stabbery broth of semi-sophistication. Let us sup together!

11/8/12 at 11:20 AM
The Prestige
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Eddie Huang Named TED2013 Fellow

By Hugh Merwin

Watch out Stockholm.

The outspoken Baohaus chef and "Fresh Off the Boat" host has been named a TED2013 Fellow, joining a brain trust of "thinkers and doers" that includes an English astrobiologist, a South African cosmologist, inventors, explorers, robot-builders, artists, and more. The chef takes to his blog this morning to announce his new appointment thusly: "FELLOWS UP, HO'S DOWN!" Huang will join his fellow trailblazers next February in California at the group's conference. A Nobel nomination cannot be too far behind. [TED via FOTB]

11/8/12 at 10:55 AM
Snakes Down Near Jane
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Yes, There Will Be a Snake Venom Cocktail at the New Beatrice Inn

By Hugh Merwin

Goes down smooth, with a little bite.Photo: Torsodog/Wikimedia

The long-awaited Beatrice Inn A.G. (After Graydon) keeps us hangin' on by not opening its doors to the public, but at least here's one new and vital nugget: The Beatrice Inn will likely sell a cocktail made with macerated snakes. Société Perrier reports that chef Brian Nasworthy was inspired during a trip to Okinawa, where venomous habu snakes are commonly steeped with a secret blend of herbs and spices in a kind of rice spirit called awamori. Like parts of the West Village, the drink is apparently smelly, but invigorating. Also, the drink is not poisonous!

Finger-stirred Negronis too? What time does happy hour start?

11/8/12 at 10:10 AM
Video Feed
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Watch René Redzepi Ferment the Hell Out of Some Grubs and Grasshoppers

By Hugh Merwin

It may seem strange to some that René Redzepi's influence on the contemporary restaurant culture is so widespread and pervasive. The Copenghagen-based chef at Noma, after all, wants to sprinkle your sorbetto with live ants (they taste like lemongrass, some say) and is the same guy who handed out vials of cricket paste last month at a New York Times talk. The chef reveres an open-source approach to new techniques, has conveniently and awesomely joined Vimeo, and is now offering up some Fermentation 101 videos. Click on through to get schooled with four recipes that cover everything from bug sauce to yeast petit fours to "pea-so," which takes the legume in a salty new direction. Bonus: It's all set to some pretty zippy music.

Pea miso and yeasty beasties galore.

11/8/12 at 09:45 AM on Grub Street Chicago
Blogs
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FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver Used to Run a Burrito Blog

By Michael Gebert

The burrito bracketologist.Photo: Christopher Anderson/ Magnum

Two billion dollars spent on it and no one noticed this until the day after the election? Apparently. Nate Silver, the New York Times statistician (of FiveThirtyEight blog) whose predictions reached Wine Spectator-ish absurdities of precision ("Based on his necktie, I have upgraded President Obama's chances of being reelected to 77.83% from 77.82%") but proved, in the end, to be spookily accurate, was a baseball stat geek before a political one, but before that, he was ... a Chicago burrito stat geek, a fact buried in an Advertising Age feature on him. Wait, what stats do burritos produce, you ask? Well, none, unless you generate them, which he did at a blog called the Burrito Bracket in 2007, comparing burritos and other Mexican fast food in his then-Wicker Park vicinity in an NCAA-style competition.

11/8/12 at 09:00 AM
Reopenings
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Red Hook Fairway Will Reopen With Second-Floor Restaurant

By Hugh Merwin

The scene last week.

It may take up to three months for the Fairway supermarket in Red Hook to reopen, DNAinfo reports, but when it does it'll have a brand-new second-floor restaurant. In 2005, Fairway's owners announced the 52,000-square-foot grocery store would eventually have an in-store restaurant featuring views of the Statue of Liberty and a menu by chef Mitchel London, but the project was delayed. "It's something that had been talked about, but now that we have work to do," a spokesman tells DNAinfo. "It makes sense." The supermarket was hit with fifteen-foot waves and flooded with five feet of water during last week's storm, leading to temporary closure and a massive cleanup, which included disposal of all of the store's contents. [DNAinfo, Earlier]