Bloomberg’s a Cookie Fiend; L.A. Resists Cupcake TrendMayor Bloomberg calls the oatmeal-raisin cookies served up at Gracie Mansion “addictive,” an opinion not shared by Giuliani, who didn’t care for the in-house baker’s sweets. [NYDN]
Fresh owner Eric Tevrow pleaded guilty to pocketing more than $1 million in sales and payroll taxes from his restaurants. [NYP]
Tickets for Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s tribute dinner at next year’s South Beach Wine & Food Festival have already sold out, despite being $500 a pop. Naturally, scalpers are already reselling them on eBay. [NYP]
Foodievents
Zac Young’s Chocolate Cookie Dress Is Red-Carpet Ready
Pastry chef Zac Young of Butter has teamed up with designer Nicole Romano to showcase what they consider their masterpiece: “Bakewear,” a tempting — and totally edible — dress. The fashion statement will make its debut at the 10th Anniversary Chocolate Show tonight, where, among the various demonstrations and tastings, designers will unveil their chocolate-inspired looks. During last night’s pre-show fitting, Young talked about how model Ashley Moss would be sporting the frock — which is made of 600 cookies — on the CBS Early Show come Friday morning: “She’s gonna be outside in the freezing cold with her ta-tas getting all hard, breaking my cookies!”
Openings
Dessert Award Winner to Bring Her Cookies to Gramercy
The winner of Tuesday’s Golden Scoop award for Best Bakery Recipe is coming to Gramercy soon — not that there’s a connection. Kelli Bernard of Amai Tea and Bake House says that plans have been in the works for her new retail bakery and tea house for a while. But the wait is over. “We’re going to open in two months, in early August,” she tells us from Alaska, where she’s currently on vacation. The signature item, naturally, looks to be her prize-winning green-tea sweet, a kind of sugar cookie made with matcha, the tea used in traditional Japanese ceremonies.
At the Greenmarket
Ramps Signal Spring; Ripe and Runny Cheese Comes Early
The pink, white, and green flag of spring has been raised: Little ramplets reared their heads a few inches from the damp earth last weekend, and Greenmarketers are already engulfed in the savory fumes of their oniony funk.
Blueprint
An Interactive Tour of the Country’s Greenest Food BusinessMaury Rubin has more on his mind than pretzel croissants. The chef-owner of bi-coastal branches of the City Bakery has become consumed of late with food miles, volatile organic compounds, and wax-lined coffee cups, those pernicious symbols of our disposable (but non-biodegradable) society. He has just opened the second outpost of Birdbath (code name: Sparrow), his pastry-shop side project that originated as a way to generate cash flow out of the front of his East Village commercial kitchen and has become, according to Rubin, “the greenest food business in the country.”