Why Not to Be a ChefExpect to get burned, be on your feet all the time, and spend all your time cleaning fish. Other than that, it’s great!
In the Magazine
Platt at Eighty One; Ago to OpenIn this week’s magazine: Platt on Eighty One, De Niro’’s new restaurant opens, and Starbucks’s problems are solved.
The New York Diet
How Mireille Guiliano Doesn’t Get Fat: Breakfast at Balthazar
When Mireille Guiliano first came to America as an exchange student, she gained weight for the first time in her life. Many years later, after becoming a CEO of Veuve Clicquot, she penned the buzzy No. 1 best-seller French Women Don’t Get Fat, now out in paperback. After 25 years of splitting her time between New York and Paris, Guiliano is still amazed by the large portions here, and by the New Yorker’s tendency to eat on the go. “To eat your bagel and your muffin with coffee on the subway is gross,” she says. “How can you do it with the smell and the noise and the moving? I’d rather starve.” She’s also still shocked when she sees people eating on the street or standing up. “For French people, you’re supposed to eat at the table. Besides the bed, it’s the most important piece of furniture in the house.” So what’s she been eating at the table this week?
The Annotated Dish
Annisa’s Skate Duo Runs Hot and ColdAnita Lo’s work at Annisa has produced what Adam Platt calls “some of the most consistently interesting food in the city.” Her “skate with avocado and radishes, Korean flavors” exemplifies this: Three elements on the same plate are presented in both hot and cold combinations. As always, scroll over the different elements of the dish to hear it described in the chef’s own words.
Mediavore
Ducasse Weds; Healthy Chocolate Fights for Shelf SpaceAlain Ducasse married his longtime girlfriend over the weekend before 150 guests at Hotel du Palais in Biarritz. [NYP]
Raymond Sokolov admires the food stunts of Anne Burrell at Centro Vinoteca and Annita Lo of Annisa. [WSJ]
The Four Seasons raises its Thanksgiving dinner price to $125 a head, but the most expensive turkey in town is the $10,000 tables at Café Gray. [NYS]
Mediavore
Cipriani Still Living High on the Hog; Another Mechanical Bull Comes to New YorkThe nation can rest easy in the knowledge that Giuseppe Cipriani is still cruising around in a Rolls-Royce, has kept his private jet, and may even build another yacht in addition to the one he already owns. [NYP]
The Shamalian boys opened their rockabilly bar on Essex last night even though it’s unfinished, and there really is a bull! [Eater]
The Federal Trade Commission has launched their second attack against the Whole Foods–Wild Oats merger vowing that even though money has already exchanged hands that the integration can still be stopped. [NYT]
Neighborhood Watch
Prune Alum Doesn’t Fall Far From the East Village TreeClinton Hill: The construction workers who opened Il Torchio have created an intimate space serving elegantly constructed Italian tapas but can’t resist sporting baseball caps and — beer in hand — approaching customers to say what’s up. [Clinton Hill Blog]
East Village: Prune alum Matt Hamilton will run the kitchen at Belcourt when it opens next month. [NYS]
Harlem: Dinosaur Bar-B-Que offers up a Labor Day-weekend recipe: really salty potatoes (yes, that’s 2:1 spuds to salt). [NYS]
Midtown West: The London Times picks the Burger Joint in the Parker Meridian as the best burger in New York. [A Hamburger Today]
North Fork: A foodie farm tour featuring tastings and cooking demonstrations on September 9 will make a stop at Garden of Eve, a supplier to Flatbush Farm. [Brooklyn Based]
West Village: Anita Lo always has a vegetarian entrée available at Annisa in addition to the one listed on the menu. [Restaurant Girl]
Mediavore
Provence Chef Pink-Slipped; Pichet Ong to Open Cupcake ShopChef Lynn McNeely has been handed a pink slip after mixed reviews at the new Provence; no word on who the next chef might be. [Eater]
Related: Provence Redux [NYM]
Pichet Ong is opening a cupcake store next to P*ONG. “Vanilla, chocolate, yuzu and cinnamon will be my staples,” he says. “I want to add a little salt & spice to my take on them.” [Restaurant Girl]
A tale of two bakeries under Health Department scrutiny: one, Magnolia, plays nice; the other, Delices de Paris in Park Slope, kicks back. Guess which one ends up closing. [NYO]
Mediavore
Men Still Rule the Roost in Kitchens; April Bloomfield a Rai Rai Ken FanIt’s still a man’s world in the kitchen, as Annisa’s Anita Lo or Ratatouille’s Collette can tell you. [NYDN]
Count April Bloomfield in the Rai Rai Ken camp when it comes to the ramen wars. [Restaurant Girl]
Hill Country pitmaster and noted “barbejew” Robbie Richter has borderline cholesterol, a meat bond with Zak Pelaccio, and little interest in side dishes. [Metromix]
Related: Barbecue: The New Kosher Food?
