Kampuchea was one of two Cambodian restaurants recently profiled in the Times, where it was accurately pointed out that there is a dearth of Cambodian cuisine in New York. Chef/Owner Ratha Chau and Co-Executive Chef and Partner Scott Burnett are attempting to rectify that. Veering from a more traditional route, they base their menu on Cambodian street food, but add their own creative twists. Ratha and Scott took a break between lunch and dinner service to discuss Kampuchea and Num Pang, their upcoming sandwich shop. more ›

James (pictured), in Prospect Heights, specializes in farm-fresh French-American cuisine. It's said that chef James Calvert once catered a nightmarish photo shoot for the demanding Britney Spears, who dismissed his buffet and demanded BLTs. She then sent those back, insisting upon BLTs sans mayo. Irrevocably scarred, Calvert went on to open what Frank Bruni at the Times describes as "the kind of modest, warm refuge produced by a chef who wants to simplify things, to personalize things, to work on a scale that doesn’t require or invite the meddling of too many outsiders...It’s also an example of how quietly sophisticated the food at restaurants fashioned as affordable neighborhood bistros has become. No bigger, brasher restaurant around town served me an heirloom tomato salad this summer that I enjoyed any more than one at James." more ›

As the weather warms up, restaurants who keep their windows open wide maintain a serious advantage over their stuffier competitors. On a recent heated evening, this is how we stumbled upon the LES's Kampuchea, a crowded spot that riffs on Cambodian street food. more ›