Results tagged “chefinterview”

So far, the reviews have all mentioned that you cook out of a small kitchen here, but I really think you have one of the smallest kitchens in the city back there. It’s just rough. It’s just me and my cook during service. We don’t have room for a kitchen staff, really. I receive deliveries, prep the food, sometimes wash dishes during service. I also cook the food.

            

For the better part of the last 60 years, Jimmy Prince has worked a 12-hour day behind the counter at Major Prime Meat Market on Mermaid Avenue. Yesterday, the 77-year-old butcher closed his shop for good, seeing as many longtime customers off as possible. Coney Island neighbors filled the place: some brought snacks, like plates of cookies and cake. Others cried. Former customers hoisted cameras above their heads to get a good shot of Jimmy and took pictures of the sign that said “no hamburgers left” taped to the front door. Glen Miller played on an old boombox in the corner. As the crowd spilled onto the sidewalk to share stories, inside the 75-year-old store Jimmy Prince demonstrated that he can still break down a chicken in less than 15 seconds. He stood at the butcher block and neatly put all of the parts in a plastic bag, handing it over to one of his last customers, a woman in her late fifties. Prince smiled and scooped some cookies into a separate plastic bag. “For your mother,” he said.

In 1994, Eric Ripert became the executive chef of Le Bernardin after chef-owner Gilbert Le Coze died of a sudden heart attack. The following year, Ripert was only 29 years old when the restaurant was re-reviewed and kept its four-star rating from the New York Times. Le Bernardin has had a total of four four-star New York Times reviews since its New York opening in 1986, and has consistently been awarded a top rating of three Michelin stars since guide inspectors first set up shop here in 2005.