Results tagged “alainducasse”

Following a set of mediocre reviews, Pierre Schaedelin was brought on last December as the new executive chef at Alain Ducasse’s Benoit. The 40-year-old, it was announced, would also be a partner in the restaurant, which is modeled after an archetypal bistro that’s been open in Paris since 1912 (Ducasse's restaurant group assumed ownership in 2005). Schaedelin has an old school French chef background, for sure—all terrines, torchons, and rabbit sausage. He’s also developed some serious media chops during the last decade, having first worked for Sirio Maccioni at Le Cirque and then as Martha Stewart’s personal chef. At Benoit the prices have come down—a two-course lunch is now $19; three courses are $24—and Schaedelin is happy about that. Above all, he seems to like talking about cooking more than anything else, and he does so in an unstuffy way—we spoke with him last week about the relaxing parts of Top Chef, tarte flambée, and diner food on Sundays.

Each day this week we’ll present a different Thanksgiving recipe—the first is for a seasonal chestnut bouillon. It comes from Ducasse Made Simple, a one-two punch cookbook written by a French television chef Sophie Dudemaine, along with French cooking’s main dude, Alain Ducasse, chef-owner of Benoit and Adour.

Alain Allegretti is the 39 year-old chef-owner of Allegretti, awarded two stars by the New York Times last week. From Nice, and specializing in Niçois food, he's put squarely in the company of other French chefs in NY. Allegretti, who worked for Alain Chapel and Alain Ducasse in France, is representative of a kind of culinary old guard: a strange realm of butchers and cooks all named Alain. In the classic brigade style kitchen, apprentice cooks are sent from station to station within a restaurant's kitchen. Often, as part of their training program, they're sent to work at a far-flung Michelin-starred restaurant in the mountains where all the bars close early. This was Alain Allegretti's experience. And now he works on 22nd Street.

“The Role of a Chef” panel which closed out day one of the StarChefs International Chefs Congress at the Park Avenue Armory featured iconoclasts Marco Pierre White and Anthony Bourdain (with writer Michael Ruhlman moderating) dishing about chefs they liked, and some they didn’t. As usual, Anthony Bourdain reserved most of his venom for food television personalities. When the conversation veered toward restaurants, both panel members essentially offered their thoughts on absentee chefs, who ostensibly oversee more restaurants than they can possibly physically cook in every day.

Some of us might think that New York is the center of the world for many things, including food. The point is debatable, but at least for a few nights a year, it will be.

Today Frank Bruni reviews Adour (pictured), the four-month-old St. Regis Hotel restaurant conceived by extravagant French chef Alain Ducasse. While it’s not “rapturous” enough to merit the Times’s highest four star rating, it’s still “first-rate: polished service, a knockout wine list, beautiful oil-poached cod, gorgeous roasted lamb and exquisite desserts.” And Bruni does confirm our earlier speculation about some kind of haute bagel on the menu.

“Pizza!” so begins a song beloved by millions, “pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at supper time. When pizza’s on a bagel, you can have pizza anytime.” That timeless anthem conveys a fundamental truth: pizza bagels are a kind of sublime food, except if you’re lactose intolerant, hate tomatoes, or have Celiac disease.

Pinch & S’MAC: Dejected fans of Pinch, the defunct Park Avenue South “pizza by the inch” joint, will not only be reunited with their favorite Pinch pizza, but they can even slather it with the incredible mac-n-cheese from East Village favorite S’MAC. The new cheese and carb cartel will bring the best of both menus together on the Upper West Side, forming a single, unified, belt-busting celebration of starch. If you’ve never tried S’MAC, you’re best off staying away; those who’ve tasted their mac-n-cheese speak of it with glazed-over eyes befitting a Shake Shack devotee. Opening “soft” on Monday, Pinch & S’MAC promises a casual environment with take out, delivery, catering and a separate room for private parties. 474 Columbus Ave., between 82nd and 83rd, (646) 438-9494.

There are a number of restaurants opening in 2008 that we've been eagerly awaiting and we thought we'd highlight some that particularly piqued our interest and have us drooling in anticipation.

A bit of breaking food news: Doug Psaltis has left the Executive Chef position at Country restaurant after three years. Word has it that the 33 year-old chef has parted ways with chef/owner Geoffrey Zakarian to pursue other restaurant plans. While there’s no official word from the chef yet, chances are his next kitchen won’t be doing molecular gastronomy: Psaltis told Metromix in September that “I think we are getting too far away from our...

• Looking for some of the best coffee in the city? Ed Levine has a few suggestions, including some of our favorites, like Joe, the Art of Coffee and the Mud Spot.
• The Omnivore's Dilemma's Michael Pollan puts in his two cents about recent activity surrounding the Farm Bill, "However many worthwhile programs get tacked onto the farm bill to buy off its critics, they won’t bring meaningful reform to the American food system until the subsidies are addressed — until the underlying rules of the food game are rewritten."
• Congrats to Alain Ducasse, who is marrying his long term girlfriend Gwénaëlle Guéguen at the at the Hotel du Palais in Biarritz

We don't have the luxury of forgetting indefinitely because this is not a sustainable proposition. By the time my kids are my age, they're going to look back and say, "You did what with the last drop of fossil fuels? You pushed a watermelon from Chile to your door so that you could eat it out of season? What were you thinking?"

Earlier this year when Gothamist visited executive chef Doug Psaltis at Geoffrey Zakarian’s Country, we learned that French Laundry vet Hsing Chen had just been named Executive Pastry Chef for the fine-dining restaurant upstairs, as well as for the downstairs, more casual Cafe. “My focus is more on light, fruit based desserts, with different textures and temperatures,” Chen told Gothamist. She also mentioned her desire to locate, soup up, and outfit a dessert cart from Country’s vast arsenal of fine dining service ware. Laden with sweets and confections, the cart would make after dinner stops at every table upstairs at Country; customers could pick and choose anything from lemon macaroons to miniature pots de crème, in addition to the regular dessert course.

There's a Page Six today about Rachael Ray being attacked by a dog. Apparently an unleashed dog in Union Square Park (we will guess it was at the dog run) was very aggressive and caused quite a bit of havoc. Ray's rep told the Post, "Rachael and some others shooed it away, but it came back and attacked Isaboo [Ray's pitbull mix]. Other dogs were involved, and Rachael jumped in and was bit by one of the dogs on the leg."

Eric Greenspan might be the best chef you’ve never heard of. The 31 year-old Jersey born, California raised, and one-time New Yorker spent the better part of the last decade working his way through several top-rated restaurant kitchens- Bouley, Union Pacific, and Alain Ducasse to name a few- before landing his first high profile chef’s job at Patina in Los Angeles four years ago. Later, a stint at the highly-regarded but short lived Meson G left Greenspan without a kitchen to call his own. “I was doing cookie demos in combi-ovens at trade shows,” says Greenspan, “but it paid the bills.” Now the chef will put everything he knows about food to test when he opens The Foundry on Melrose, a place that will serve what he calls “fine dining for the everyman.” This past weekend, Greenspan came back to New York to catch up with some old friends, and to survey the current restaurant scene.

Nach Waxman is wearing a baseball hat decorated with the diamond shaped Avery Island Tabasco logo as he takes Gothamist around the stacks at Kitchen Arts and Letters, his 23 year-old Upper East Side bookshop. He is talking about Rachael Ray. “It’s a funny story,” says Waxman, describing his first impressions of the current Triscuit box doyenne. He shakes his head and laughs. “Nobody here had heard of her. We didn’t carry her books. Now that we do, we don’t sell them.” Nach (pronounced knock) Waxman doesn’t mind, but Gothamist thinks that maybe he could use the shelf space --Kitchen Arts and Letters is a very small store.

Let’s start with some birth announcements.

That would be Michelin stars. The 2007 guide was released today, with ratings for 526 restaurants, including several newcomers from the past year. Del Posto debuts with a bang: two stars, joining the ranks of Masa, Bouley, and Daniel (Danube, which also had two stars last year, dropped down to one). All of those who earned three stars last year (Le Bernadin, per se, and Jean-Georges) held their ground with the exception of Alain Ducasse at the Essex House. According to the New York Times it "was dropped from the guide this year because it plans to close and relocate in early January."

As we walked through the doors of Alain Ducasse at the Essex House we were immediately greeted by a glass of 2004 Chateau Fombrauge Bordeaux Blanc – a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Sauvignon Gris and Semillon – served on a silver tray from a gentlemen in an impeccably tailored tuxedo. What we loved about this wine is it had the intense aromas of Sauvignon Blanc with richness on the palate from the Semillon. This wine paired perfectly with the cheese puffs, oysters and the puree of wild mushroom soup that were being passed around. After about three more glasses and more hors d’oeuvres than anybody should eat, we finally took our seat at the table.



A distinguished, older French man welcomed us through his translator. He spoke quickly making it difficult for his translator to keep up. Bernard Magrez, our host, and accomplished wine-maker and owner of Chateau Pape Clemant as well many more (32 wineries around the world), spoke about how honored he was to be a part of something with such an extensive history. He told tales of its past and spoke about visions for the future. He expressed gratitude to America, saying he will never forget how the US has helped save France’s freedom. He then turned his attention to Alain Ducasse standing to his right. Margrez praised him for the excellence that he brings to the culinary world and said how honored he was to have this important celebration here. Alain Ducasse stepped to the podium. He did not speak through the translator and addressed the crowd in thickly accented Frenglish. He expressed great admiration for Mr. Magrez and for his wine. It was short and sincere. Which was perfect because we were starting to get hungry again.

Sunday and Monday nights were the James Beard Awards annual gala events, and the results are now in. Sunday night focused on the journalists, highlighting books, broadcast media, and even websites (a new category), while Monday was all about the chefs and restaurants. The excitement was palpable in the food world, so much so that Ed Levine decided to liveblog Monday's Awards dinner, an extravagant black tie affair, for those of us not "in" enough to snag an invitation (thanks, Ed!).

We came to win. We were prepared for the challenges they laid before us. Blind wines…bring it. Guess the spices…we came to play. Decorate the cookie…we’ll take down the pastry chefs. This was our mantra. Dirty or fair, we had one goal and that was to win the 2nd Annual Duckathlon sponsored by D’Artagnan.

Charlie Suisman over at Manhattan User's Guide broke the French omerta on the New York City restaurants Michelin guide and listed the restaurants receiving 1, 2 or 3 stars. Only thirty-nine restaurants were reviewed. Here's a quick analysis:

White truffle season is upon us, so get our your wallets. It may not look like much more than an unappetizing lump, but according to National Geographic, "During the peak of the white truffle season, which typically runs from late October to early December, the tubers can fetch U.S. $1,200 to $2,300 a pound." Yes, they're expensive, but if you like black truffles, you'll absolutely flip over the white ones. Their earthy flavor permeates throughout any dish to which they're added, even in small quantities. Although in the wild, truffles are usually only found by trifolau, people who search with their trained truffle-sniffing dogs (there's actually a University of Truffle Hunting Dogs in Piedmont) to find the treasures in the woods of Italy, we've cut out the middleman and discovered several spots in New York where white truffles will be served. New York Magazine rounds up a few, including Italian grocery Sapori D’Ischia in Woodside, Queens, which is offering a $50 multi-course menu, each course featuring fresh white truffles, every Tuesday from October 18 through November 15, and Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, featuring a five couse menu for $290.

Gothamist is fond of wine in its many forms, flavors and frangrances. (Do I taste tobacco? I think I smell freshly cut grass!) And, we don't discriminate based on birthplace. Heck, we're happy to partake in a glass of wine with its roots - literally - in Queens.

Clearly, this is a way to drum up business for the DMHH's safety courses. The real question is will restaurants like Le Bernardin, Jean-Georges, Alain Ducasse, Bouley, and Daniel want to put a sticker like that in their restaurant? It might be a good tool for small restaurants, but for bigger, high-end ones where health and safety are assumed, this is an interesting question. Perhaps if one restaurateur decides to go for it, others will follow.

Move over, Soup Nazi Ali "Al" Yeganeh, there's a new perfectionist who doles out stern ministrations to guests, Masa Takayama. Takayama, who has just opened the city's most expensive sushi restaurant, Masa, and smaller bar, Bar Masa, at the Time Warner Center, is profiled by Alex Witchel and it seems Takayama's "my way or the highway" approach to food is just what sniveling foodies in New York need. Takayama describes some of the early interest in Masa:

Ladies and gentlemen, gourmands and those with expense accounts: The [AOL] Time-Warner Center Restaurant All-Stars! The Times' restaurant critic William Grimes looks at the wealth of cooking talent the new AOL Time-Warner Center boasts (but the Time Warner Center is NOT A MALL - it's One Central Park, okay?). The breakdown: