A few great chefs went to Australia to discuss cooking in the States at this moment. “I don’t think that in the history of cooking there has been a burst of ideas like there has been in the past 15 years,” says Daniel Patterson of Coi and the upcoming New York phenomenon the Elevens. The provocateur award, however, goes to Gabrielle Hamilton, who affectionately dismisses today’s culinary whippersnappers: ”There’s a divide in NYC between those who are molecular and play with food and foam, and the others who make their own lardo, make their own candles, sew their own clothes and grow their own vegetables on the balcony.” She jabs especially hard at the D.I.Y. crowd: ”When guys come to the door with herbs picked on the sidewalk, they taste like the sidewalk.” Oh, and those artisanal types! ”I’m glad you made honey on the rooftop in [the New York suburb of] Queens but it tastes horrible.” [Sydney Morning Herald]
