Yesterday Joshua David Stein, currently senior editor at Eater National, published an open letter to Chef Cesar Ramirez in the NY Press. The letter excoriated Ramirez over an incident that took place at the intimate "Chef's Table" at Brooklyn Fare, where Ramirez asks customers not to take photos of the phone, or use cell phones, or take notes. Stein says that when Ramirez caught him scribbling, the chef got in his face and accused him of disrespect and "sneaky shit." Ramirez insists he's never sworn at a customer and tells us he doesn't remember any of this. Today Stein sent us this statement in response: more ›

Chef Cesar Ramirez runs a tight ship at his lauded Chef's Table at the Brooklyn Fare grocery store in downtown Brooklyn. Customers pay $135 each for a no-substitutions 20 course menu served at a stainless steel counter facing the open kitchen. Photography is verboten, as is cell phone use and note-taking. Dem's the rules requests! But scofflaw writer Joshua David Stein recently flouted rule #3 during his wife's birthday dinner, and was shocked when the bull he messed with (Ramirez) gave him the horns (a tongue-lashing that made his wife cry on her birthday). more ›

They're labeling it "cooking class," but don't be fooled: the recently opened grocery store Brooklyn Fare is rolling out an unusual kind of dinner service this week. Four courses—including a vegetable course, fish course, meat course, and dessert—go for a steep-seeming $70 (plus tax, tip), but what sets these dinners apart (and presumably makes the cost worth it) is that they're held inside Brooklyn Fare's working kitchen, an intimate, separate space located a few doors down the block. There's only one seating a night, three nights a week, and twelve seats available; the set menu might include local asparagus, rouget, or wagyu beef. Cooked by César Ramirez and team, the educational component of the meal means that diners have the opportunity to ask questions about the food. Directly. Considering that the dining table is literally Ramirez’s real, working table in the middle of Brooklyn Fare's kitchen (it's one huge, square piece of seamless stainless steel opposite the stoves) this is something new, a little bit more up close and personal than most chef's counters. Calling it cooking class may turn out to be the understatement of the year. More information here. more ›

Brooklyn Fare, a new non-chain Downtown Brooklyn grocery store, will open tomorrow. The man behind the refrigerated counter is Cesar Ramirez, a Bouley/Bar Blanc vet who’ll create and maintain Brooklyn Fare’s line of hot and cold prepared foods. Next month, Brooklyn Fare will also introduce a small restaurant inside the store’s standalone commissary kitchen, located a few doors down on Schermerhorn Street. Its single dining table is actually one seamless, stainless steel table in the center of the kitchen. Here, Ramirez says, he will serve five-course meals for a “super reasonable price.” more ›

Brooklyn Fare, a new, independent grocery store located in downtown Brooklyn, will open April 22nd at 200 Schermerhorn Street. Owner Moe Issa, a borough native, is working with chef Cesar Ramirez to outfit the 6,000-square-foot space with a deluge of pret-a-manger goods to be available alongside the regular groceries: sandwiches, meatballs, soups, terrines, and so on. The store will sell such a vast amount of cheese and beer it will likely blow your mind. Ramirez has snagged a real sushi chef to make sushi throughout the day (as in, not just some dude to oversee each morning's epic batch of outsourced California rolls that are left to hang out all day in a refrigerated display). The idea here seems to be real food, not boutique food. more ›

Eater is reporting that chef Cesar Ramirez is out at West Village restaurant Bar Blanc. Stepping up to the stove will be, like Ramirez, another veteran of David Bouley's restaurants, Sebastiaan Zijp. According to the restaurant’s PR, Bar Blanc’s “partners decided to go their own ways and [the parting is] quite amicable, believe it or not.” Eater cites an additional report in their inbox that “puts the parting at less than ‘amicable,’” and “that it was more of a firing.” Contacted by email about the future, Ramirez confirms the split and writes: “I have no plans yet, but I’m looking for something new, and to take my food in a different direction. My partners and I parted in a good way. I felt it was best for me to move on.” more ›

Cesar Ramirez, the 36 year-old chef at Bar Blanc, doesn’t want to be called a chef. Taking a cue from his mentor David Bouley , he prefers the term craftsman, and insists that his food speaks for itself. Ramirez doesn’t waste a lot of bandwidth talking up his game, bragging about how often and how hard he hits the Greenmarket. In a time when it is not uncommon for chefs to spend their days with a battery of personal assistants riding in taxis from television appearances to book signings, Ramirez seems to spend a lot of time in his kitchen. Last week, he took a few minutes before service at the six month-old restaurant to talk about his menu and his style of cooking. more ›