Come Fly With Us in This Week’s IssueWith all New York offers, it’s still not enough. Our appetite for change and novelty is insatiable and voracious. Good thing we have this week’s magazine! Why bother with traditional Thanksgiving, when there are so many global options here? We have recipes for Chinese Thanksgiving from Joe Ng of Chinatown Brasserie, Mexican Thanksgiving from Aaraon Sanchez of Centrico and Paladar, African Thanksgiving from Marcus Samuelsson of Aquavit, and more. And if all that isn’t novel enough, and you have to jet out of town, we can tell you where to eat while you’re waiting – both in the airport, and in the surrounding areas. Finally, if you’re sticking close to home, the Underground Gourmet suggests where to get a proper hero.
Back of the House
Who Will Be Cut Next on ‘The Next Iron Chef’?
Nothing can replace Top Chef in our reality-TV affections, but we have to say, The Next Iron Chef is pretty good. We only started watching this past week, being understandably resistant to another show built on the identical format of Top Chef. The premise Next Iron Chef is that, rather than just having the next Iron Chef selected by Food Network suits, the nation’s most celebrated chefs should compete, with the winner given the dubious honor of cooking in weekly battles in Kitchen Stadium. (You would think chefs would be fighting to avoid such a fate, but such is the pull of fame.)
VideoFeed
Tour the Red Hook Ball Fields With Chef Aaron Sanchez
The ad hoc Latin American food court at the Red Hook ball fields is one of New York’s great cultural centers, a place where anyone can go to experience South and Central American home cooking. The ideal person to guide you through it is Aaron Sanchez, one of the city’s top Latin chefs (Centrico, Paladar) and the author of La Comida Del Barrio: Latin-American Cooking in the USA. Aaron gave us an insider’s tour. If this doesn’t inspire you to get out to Red Hook this summer (here’s a map!), consider the following: The permit for the ball fields, which has been given to the vendors for many years, will be opened up by the Parks Department for bids from all comers in the fall. That means this summer could be your last chance to taste some of the best Latin American food in the city.
Related: The Threat to Red Hook Unites New York’s Foodies
Back of the House
Most Influential Young Chefs Named, Presented With Tchotchkes
Move over, Bouley! Step aside, Jojo! You’re so over. There’s a new generation of “emerging tastemakers,” at least according to Food Arts magazine and their friends at Sterling Meats. Sunday night, meat purveyor and magazine jointly fêted ten young chefs who, they predict, “will be influencing what, where and how we dine out on a national level.” The chefs were presented with framed, diploma-like certificates and envy-inducing Masamoto cobalt-steel knifes.