Results tagged “bluehill”

Don’t feel so smug if you belong to that tiny percentage of Americans who earn $400,000 a year (or more); to astonishingly wealthy plutocrats like Mayor Bloomberg, you’re still just small potatoes. Asked about the manufactured Republican outcry over Barack Obama’s allegedly extravagant date night in New York, Bloomberg defended the First Couple’s getaway, telling reporters, “The president does not get paid that much. He is on a budget, too.” Well, from Bloomberg’s rarefied perch atop Mount Moneypiles, we probably all look like Dickensian waifs struggling to sell our hair to the wig maker for halfpence, but to the average American, Obama’s hardly “on a budget.” City Room breaks down Obama’s current income: $400,000 a year salary, a $50,000 expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account and a $19,000 entertainment budget. His total compensation package, $569,000 a year, is 11 times the median household income in the U.S., which is around $50,000. Of course, when you've got two private jets; homes in Bermuda, Florida, Colorado and London; and $16 billion in walking around money, you must wonder how poor souls like the President make do on half a million.

Sure, you probably know by now that the First Couple dined at locally-sourced Greenwich Village restaurant Blue Hill on Saturday night, but there are still lots of juicy details to pore over! Like the wine: a 2007 Hirsch Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, according to Eater. Besides the vino, the First Lady was also observed knocking back two martinis! (It's unclear if she had any of the Pinot.)

    

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama made their first, joint trip to NYC a "personal" one—it was date night for the First Couple. The President released a statement explaining, "I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished."

The case for locally produced and consumed food will once again be discussed next Tuesday at a Museum of the City of New York forum that includes Blue Hill chef/owner Dan Barber and Greenmarket director Michael Hurwitz. Another speaker is Ian Marvy of Red Hook’s Added Value, whose farm will be just one of many volunteer sites comprising tomorrow's massive Earth Day initiative called the Green Apple Festival. The forum, an affordable $12, will be moderated by Gabrielle Langholtz, editor-in-chief of Edible Manhattan and Edible Brooklyn (the new Brooklyn issue features a behind the scenes look at Williamsburg biscuit lair Egg, and a tour of Brooklyn’s many tortillerias). Looking ahead, one more tidbit of locavore news— New Amsterdam Market announced today that June 28 will be the date of the first Monthly Market for 2009; details, including a location, are forthcoming.

          

Often armed with not much more than unwieldy liberal arts degrees, the mass exodus of 20-somethings from urban areas to farms outside of the city was a much reported story last year; the underlying idea being that growing vegetables from seed to harvest might be more appealing than hitting up the mediabistro classifieds every two minutes during temp job downtime.

      

Last night at the somewhat not completed luxury condo project 15 Union Square West (guests rode a construction elevator up to the entrance), chefs Daniel Boulud and Marco Moreira hosted a book party for Dining in New York City, a new, compact hardcover guide to the city’s restaurants by Dutch photographer Jan Bartelsman. Proceeds from the evening benefitted Citymeals-on-Wheels. Fifteen local restaurants—plus the 3 Michelin starred De Librije (Netherlands)—were on hand, offering small plate cityscapes of their best dishes. As the night progressed, chef Daniel Boulud appeared smiling, apparently happy with the four star re-review of Daniel published yesterday in the Times. Elsewhere, food writer Josh Ozersky—who announced to the world yesterday he has gout—showed up wearing a foot brace, albeit triumphantly.

is an incredibly thorough and well-researched reference guide for home and professional cooks alike.

Food bloggers from around the world are offering delicious prizes as part of Menu for Hope 4. Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising event hosted by Chez Pim. Last year, Menu for Hope raised an incredible $62,925 to help the UN World Food Programme feed the hungry. Want more details? Well, here’s the FAQ. From December 10-21, you can buy raffle tickets to bid on any on the food-related prizes being offered. Tickets cost...

For almost two decades, the 35 year-old chef Alex Ureña has been quietly working behind the scenes at some of New York’s most well regarded restaurants: His very first kitchen job was at The River Café during Charlie Palmer’s tenure. A few gigs later, Ureña was translating the contents of Ferran Adrià’s first cookbook for David Bouley, a chef he spent 7 years with and considers a mentor. Alex Ureña later served as executive chef of Blue Hill, Marseille, and Suba and between gigs in New York managed to clock time in some of the highest rated restaurants in France and Spain. Ferran Adrià’s approach informed the menu of the short-lived Ureña, the chef’s first go around as owner (with wife Martine Gren). The New York Times food critic Frank Bruni awarded the restaurant 2 stars but complained about its interior, calling it “the ugliest restaurant with great food that I know,” and singling out the dining room’s bright lights as an impediment to a good meal. Ureña closed in August and re-opened last month as Pamplona, with the light fixtures now a little dimmer. We spoke with Alex Ureña last week at Pamplona as the chef prepared for dinner service.

This five-course wine dinner will feature nine top wines from Alsace, Austria and Germany paired with regional dishes such as Alsatian Onion Tart with Thinly Sliced House-Smoked Brisket and Raclette Fondue and Riesling-Marinated Poulet Rouge with Glazed Baby Turnips and Carrots Crispy Sauteed Spaetzle, and Riesling Jus. Doesn't that sound like fall to you? $125, tax and tip excluded. For reservations, call 212.874.7400. 7pm, Aix, 2398 Broadway at 88th Street.

Not making their way to the greenmarket this week are domestic matsutake, one of the most prized mushrooms in the world. Matsutake have a slight pine flavor and give off a wild, funky cinnamon aroma when cooked. This fragrance is said to do things to people, like instantly transport them to Xanadu or make choruses of ladybugs hail from the sky in intense, Busby Berkeley style formations. Hand foraged and scarce, matsutake are in fact like truffles, with whom they share a peak season and some frequent flyer miles: Just as a good number of Italian truffles are gussied up and shipped off the New York market each fall, most Pacific Northwest matsutake are flown overnight to Japan after collection, where the best ones are so expensive it’s not even funny. For the time being, and at least on the East Coast, matsutake are most likely to be found in restaurants.

A confession. In general, we’re not big Food Network Fans. We do make an exception for Iron Chef (it always sucks us in), and we love it’s latest incarnation. Last week on the premiere of The Next Iron Chef (9pm on the Food Network, Chef Traci Des Jardins got the ax, brought down by her salmon roe dessert (ick). Read the Amateur Gourmet's unique and often hilarious take on things on his blog on the Next Iron Chef site (“We all know the whole Iron Chef universe is a fabrication, right? That the chairman is an actor? What? You didn’t know that?”). Judge Michael Ruhlman is happy with episode one; says the kitchen was so hot during filming that one of the chefs had to be hospitalized afterwards for dehydration.

Celebrate the extension of the vendors' permit through the end of their season in October and add on extra festivities for Mexican and Central American Independence Day. Caesar Fuentes, the organizing force behind the vendors, promises that "the food vendors committee will host a livelier than usual weekend event - more soccer games, pinatas, music, and a 2 day art exhibit featuring photographs taken by the food vendors." Sounds good to us.

Food writing has changed a lot in the last few years. Its focus has shifted to an almost philosophical arena where any recipe can be dissected for the broader, global meaning of its constituent ingredients. The source of every carrot or celery stalk we eat is inexorably combined with issues of nutrition and environmental sustainability. It’s the Omnivore’s Dilemma effect - people are suddenly grappling with the repercussions of a country that runs on 200 million acres of corn, wheat, soy, and rice. Within the restaurant industry, and for the foreseeable future, it’s far less expensive to source and cook mass-produced vegetables and meat from immense, industrialized farms. This not only comes with a huge environmental cost, but consequently buries the flavors of food.

Last week at the 92nd Street Y some people took time to hear the fantastic Mike Colameco host the legendary chef Jacques Pepin, critic Gael Greene (now of the Insatiable Critic blog), food maven Arthur Schwartz, and old-school restaurant mogul Michael Whiteman hash out whether NYC dining scene was better then ever. Pretty cut and dry, no? Schwartz and Greene mostly argued that it is not a better scene today, lamenting the arrival of the $44 lamb chop and the teardown it apparently heralded for their beloved old neighborhood joints with solid value, good food and owned by a chef who cooked.

May 3: Cheezapolooza III: Naked vs Cooked

We've been patiently waiting for spring to arrive to time our road trip to Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, about a 45 minute drive from Manhattan. The timing was perfect -- Chef Dan Barber loaded up our $42 prix fixe lunch with spring's bounty -- ramps, asparagus, dainty greenhouse microgreens, and fresh breakfast radishes. Pictured above are black bass perched atop a delicately sweet stew of beets, and spinach cannelloni, with trumpet mushrooms, ramps, and "frills." Despite the farm setting, the dining room was quite elegant yet comfortable and the service impeccable without feeling obtrusive. A walk around the grounds served as a perfect opportunity to digest and learn a bit more about the origins of the food we had just consumed.

Join Denise Landis, recipe tester for The New York Times, as she shares recipes and expertise from her newest cookbook, Dinner for Eight. Free tasting and book signing to follow the demonstration. Broadway Panhandler, 65 East 8th Street (between Broadway and University), 3 PM, free.

Adam Platt has started of 2007 with a bang -- New York magazine has released his "Where to Eat 2007" lists, a compendium of his picks for the year, divided into categories. "Haute Barnyard," a phrase that Platt coined a while back, is his term for restaurants focused on suppliers and the origins of the food, with countrified leanings. Cookshop, Peasant, Hearth, and Blue Hill qualify, among others. He takes us on two rambles, one through Brooklyn, stopping at favorites Franny's, iCi, and Applewood, as well as at newcomers The Farm on Adderly and Porchetta, and the other for breakfast, with stops at Balthazar, Egg, Cafe Cluny, Crema, and more.

Bruni reviews Blue Hill (in Greenwich Village, not at Stone Barns) bumps the restaurant up to three stars from the two it received from William Grimes in 2000. He cites "quality and immediacy" of ingredients and says eating there is a subtle experience, "like a hushed foreign film with subtitles."

Fromagers Waldemar & Nadia team up with Telepan Restaurant for the third in a series of Saturday afternoon cheese and wine tastings. This time around they have paired summertime artisanal cheeses with wines from Telepan's list. You'll learn all about each pairing while you sip and taste. $65 per person, reservations are required. Call 212-580-4300 for reservations. 12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., 72 West 69 Street, between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West.

Now that the spring has given way to summer, grass is getting long everywhere - much to the chagrin of teenagers whose parents want to know if they have mowed the lawn yet. What this means for the eaters here in NYC is that chickens born in early spring are just getting up to their market weight (3 ½ - 4 ½ pounds) while feasting on flavor-enhancing grass. People can talk at length about the organic this or the free range that, but pasture raised chickens, roaming around eating grass, is truly the ranching method that produces the most flavorful chickens. Just ask chefs around town. Hell, some like Dan Barber of Blue Hill even raise their own chickens in this manner to ensure steady supply. You can pick these types of chickens up from the Union Square Greenmarket – we prefer Violet Hill Farms on Saturdays. If that is not convenient, you can start your search for mail order options here.

through June 18: 1996 at Rain

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!).

March 31: A Short Introduction to Wine

All the foodies are in a tizzy today as the coveted James Beard Award nominees were announced last night. The actual awards ceremony and reception will be held on May 8, at an event celebrating "the culinary legacy of New Orleans." Reservations for the May 8th event can be made by calling 212-367-9490 or toll free at 1-866-362-6442. Admission is $375 ($325 for James Beard Foundation members/$120 for students - find your old ID cards fast!). A portion of the admission price will be donated to a charitable fund established to support the rebuilding of New Orleans’ restaurant community.

September 25-29: Latin Beer Tasting

June 23: PJ Wine Spanish Wine Festival

April 23rd: Taste of Chinatown