One of the strengths of Paul Kahan’s operation is bench strength, and that’s certainly in evidence with the news— tweeted by Steve Dolinsky over the weekend, and confirmed late morning— that Erling Wu-Bower would be taking over the kitchen at the immensely popular bar/restaurant Avec. Wu-Bower has been sous chef at The Publican since it opened and, with fellow chef Cosmo Goss, has overseen Publican Quality Meats’ menu and charcuterie output, so he’s obviously extremely qualified. We shot a Key Ingredient video with him a few months back, in which his ingredient was the extremely un-Publican ingredient gold leaf; his disdain for it as meaningless glitz as he makes something hearty and tasty in the classic Publican fashion is well worth watching it for. It’s below.
He also gave us a tour of the Publican Quality Meats cooler shortly before the restaurant opened in this Sky Full of Bacon video (starting about ten minutes in).
