Jason Neroni Breaks His Silence on Being a ‘Desperate Chef’We got an e-mail today, and not a happy one at that, from Jason Neroni, the young chef outed by Gawker as the author of an e-mail urgently soliciting Beard Award nominations. We released the missive last week, under the headline “Chef’s Desperate Plea: Nominate Me for an Award!”
What did he have to say?
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Jason Neroni: I Love Wylie, But …A friend of Porchetta chef Jason Neroni has alerted us to the fact that, despite having taken over for Wylie Dufresne at 71 Clinton Fresh Foods before starting his new gig, Neroni does not consider Dufresne his mentor. “Because Wylie made such a name for 71 Clinton Fresh Food, I think people tend to compare our styles a lot,” Neroni tells us. “But Smith Street isn’t the Lower East Side, and I’m in this business to do what I love, and to be myself.” The chef credits Alice Waters and Dan Hill for teaching him about ingredients, Floyd Cardoz for teaching him about “multidimensionality,” and Alain Ducasse for teaching him to “slow down, combine all the elements, and create a cuisine that I could, for the first time, truly consider to be mine.”
A Restaurant Revolution on Smith Street? [Grub Street]
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A Restaurant Revolution on Smith Street?The stardust is already beginning to descend on new Brooklyn restaurant Porchetta and, in particular, its last-minute chef Jason Neroni. There are excited whispers among the foodies we know, an anonymous Eater post praising his early output, and numerous big-time chefs with plans to check the place out. (As for small fries like us, we’re going on Friday.) That’s all part of the game, of course, and no guarantee that the place will be making money a year from now. But if Neroni matches his aspirations, we’re fully expecting a restaurant-world shake-up.
Back of the House
Envelope-Pushing Chef Resurfaces in Carroll GardensJason Neroni is the talented young chef who succeeded Wylie Dufresne at 71 Clinton Fresh Food when the latter started wd-50. 71 Clinton Fresh Food was a huge success critically, but Neroni seemingly disappeared when the restaurant went under in March. After a spell doing the chef-spokesman thing for Glaceau water and then surfing in his home state of California, he recently returned to New York and got a job. Last week, he began presenting his very imaginative take on Italian cuisine at Porchetta, a new restaurant in Carroll Gardens. On the menu: nutmeg gnocchi with a straight pomodoro sauce, chicken-liver terrine with fig marmalade and a pistachio crumble, and deep-fried pork belly with a dried-fruit mostarda and melted cauliflower. Smith Street hasn’t seen anything quite like this.
241 Smith St., nr. Douglass St., Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn; 718-237-9100