Results tagged “davidchang”

   

Click on the images for details on Frites 'n' Meats, Le Caprice, and Piccola Cucina Focacceria.

Does David Chang know we're still in a recession? Momofuku Ko has announced that starting next week, lunch prices will go up $15 and dinner prices up $25. This means lunch tops out at $175, up $25 from just last year. Apparently, this is to provide them with "the opportunity to cook with a greater variety of ingredients." Keep in mind, this is $15 more for a meal that still takes three hours to serve.

Gourmet's Francis Lam visited Paul Liebrandt at Corton and was shocked to find the Best New Chef 2009 wielding none other than an orange Sham Wow as an all-purpose kitchen tool. The Sham Wow apparently saves on paper towels and apparently outperforms other methods of drying of fish fillets, Liebrandt reports, about to go into the frying pan. He even recently went so far as to show off his Sham Wow in the dining room to a table of fellow chefs, imploring them to pour a glass of wine over it to test its absorbency. The result: SHAM WOW! Lam sees a bold sales pitch here, as Sham Wow (and Slap Chop) spokesperson Vince Offer was arrested earlier this year after hitting a prostitute who "bit his tongue and would not let go." Liebrandt has offered to take up the mantle left by a post-arrest Offer, so to speak: "I could be that guy." There's no telling when Andrew Carmellini will start serving Topsy Turvy-grown heirloom tomatoes at Locanda Verde, or when David Chang's Momofuku GT Xpress will open, but it better be soon.

Regarding the Momofuku Milk Bar, around the corner from the Ssam Bar, there are two things you should keep in mind: one is that the soft serve samples are pretty sizable (and free); the other is that pastry chef Christina Tosi’s Crack Pie™, Cereal Milk™, and Compost Cookies™ are now all trademarked by in process with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. File under inevitable. This effectively dashes the hopes of several thousand would-be entrepreneurs seeking to market the leftover dregs of their morning breakfast bowls and parlay Alpha-Bit gastronomy into a suprême haute cuisine multi-million dollar empire, worldwide. If you think this is all a joke, son, consider that this should also effectively stop the deranged, Dr. Frankenstein-esque, Compost Cookies™ copycat experiments of the Oatmeal Cookie Blog (banner: “Developing unique oatmeal cookie recipes and answering the ultimate question: Are they bring-in-able?”). Or perhaps not. In any event, the first Momofuku cookbook, written by David Chang and NYT writer Peter Meehan, will be published in October, and again, the free samples at the Milk Bar are generous. Donut-inspired flavors this week. UPDATE: Murray Hillster, in the comments section, has pointed out the Milk Bar offerings listed above are all in process, and Momofuku Ssam Bar is Mr. Chang's only (currently) registered trademark.

Last month anti-foie gras activists got some media attention with their demonstrations outside East Village restaurant Knife + Fork; now they've set their sights on David Chang's high-profile Momofuku restaurant family. In a rant published by Eater, Chang writes that a man recently delivered a letter to Ko saying "if we continue to serve foie gras he will 'encourage' his activists to 'demonstrate outside our establishment' leading to 'negative' publicity." Chang thinks the anti-foie gras movement is highly misguided, and cites a recent Village Voice feature on the humane conditions at Hudson Valley Foie Gras, where he sources his product. He says he's visited the farm too, and insists the ducks "live a good life, free of cages and with plenty of area to roam." So to show these foie gripers he won't be "intimidated," Chang's adding at least one foie gras dish to each of his menus at his various restaurants: "We'll donate any proceeds from those dishes to charity, including City Harvest and The Food Bank for NYC—both of which are in dire need of money and support to help feed our city’s poorest and hungriest citizens."

There’s a new kind of fungus you can buy on St. Mark’s Place: Sam Mason, chef of Tailor, is the latest NY chef to curate a corn dog selection at bar PDT; his features huitlacoche, a dank, truffle-tasting fungus a k a corn smut, a k a Mexican Truffle. At PDT, the elaborate hot dog menu (which overflows from the connected Crif Dogs) already includes a David Chang-styled kimchee hot dog and molecular sounding one designed by WD~50 chef Wylie Dufresne, served with fried mayonnaise and tomato molasses. The huitlacoche corn dog debuts this weekend, and is also available on Tailor’s bar menu for $10.

This week Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni re-reviews Momofuku Ssam Bar, part of chef David Chang's New York empire, which you'll recall includes the impossible-to-get-into Momofuku Ko. There's a new chef at Ssam since Bruni awarded the place two stars in '07, and now he bumps it up to a lofty triple. The opening paragraph sums up his case: "If you’ve had just about all of the fawning over David Chang that you can take, think about how those of us dishing out the praise feel. We’d love to move on to a more original object of adoration and would be happy to pronounce him overrated or just plain over...But he won’t let us."

Two months ago, weighing in on the ever-evolving Momofuku rumor mill, chef David Chang told Yum Sugar that plans were underway for “an expansion of soft-serve, bakery, and dessert at Ssäm Bar.” Eater has now confirmed that the conversion of a former laundromat space toward the back of Ssäm Bar is almost complete and that the annex will go by the name Momofuku Milk Bar. Interior preview here.

Food world celebrities gathered at the Astor Center last night for a lively discussion on the phenomenon of celebrity chefs. Andrew Carmellini, Gwen Hyman, David Chang, Gail Simmons of Top Chef, and Mitchell Davis of The James Beard Foundation all weighed in on the celebrity craze, which has infiltrated kitchens everywhere like roaches. Only recently, some argued, has the idea of the celebrity chef become a prominent force in American culinary culture. Customers take digital pictures of every entrée, kids trade Iron Chef results like they were baseball statistics, and weirdos in Helsinki post wistful paeans to Tom Colicchio on Top Chef fansites. Some soundbites from last night:

Simmons on the pre-Top Chef world: “When I told my Mom I was going to be on a reality show, I had to convince her that I wasn’t going to be tied to a tree on an island in a bikini, eating maggots.”

Continue reading "Celebrated Chefs Discuss Celebrity at Astor Center"

Andrew Carmellini was most recently the chef at A Voce, which was awarded three stars by the Times. He left that restaurant in June, and is currently looking at spaces to house his next restaurant project.

The fleet of undercover, handlebar mustache-twirling French restaurant “inspectors” have made their rounds through New York’s dining scene, and the results are in. Only four restaurants have been deemed worthy of the Michelin Guide’s top rating (3 stars) this year: Jean Georges, Le Bernadin, Masa, and Per Se.

Sure, the stress and time pressures of the kitchen inevitably spark infernos of obscenity, but recent shows like Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen have exposed the salty language of star chefs to untold millions. Last week’s Top Chef episode raised eyebrows for its higher-than-normal profanity quotient, when contestants lit into each other with so much F-bombing “the resulting bleeps ran together like a test of the old Emergency Broadcast System,” according to the Times.

Momofuku Ko, the trendy new 12 seat restaurant by acclaimed chef David Chang, is getting more attention for its maddening reservation system than for its food. That’s partly due to the fact that no critic has been able to get into the place and review it, not even the top dog in town, Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni.

Nominees for the 2008 James Beard Foundation Awards, which are kind of like the Academy Awards for chefs, have just been announced. This year’s ceremony will take place on June 8 at Avery Fischer Hall; New York contenders include Gavin Keysen of Café Boulud, up for Rising Star Chef. For the nationwide awards, Gothamist interviewees Dan Barber and Michael Psilakis have been nominated for Outstanding Chef and Best New Restaurant, respectively. Gramercy Tavern, owned by Danny Meyer, is up for Outstanding Restaurant. The full list is here.

With a sprawling New Yorker profile coming on the heels of the opening of his 12-seat Momofuku Ko in the East Village, chef and restaurateur David Chang is having a very good March. But judging from the 8,000-plus word profile, the man is still totally miserable, just like most people in the restaurant industry. The article is not online, but Eater has been posting the juiciest parts.

Heads up: David Chang's latest creation, Momofuku Ko, will be open for online reservations at 10:00 a.m. today, so cancel your meetings, bookmark the URL and prepare to crash the site's server. Will the dainty new baby live up to the breathless hype that swirls around Chang's burgeoning empire? Only the quick-clicking lucky few will find out anytime soon.

It's the law of supply and demand -- if something is hard to get, everyone wants it. This especially applies to Momofuku Ko, the latest spot from chef-superstar David Chang. There's no secret handshake or phone number needed to get in (in fact, there's no phone), just an internet connection. Reservations for the 14-seat restaurant will only be made available online, first come first served...and everyone wants to get in desperately.

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.

We love Momofuku, especially now that the Noodle Bar has moved to a larger location where we can actually bring our friends and chat with them at a table over dinner instead of just hoping to find one or two spaces at the bar. The food is amazing, and being the devoted carnivores that we are, we enjoy chef David Chang's devotion to adding meat to every dish on the menu (with one exception).

What’s worth watching on food-TV this week? Martha Stewart’s got a great line-up of guests this week: Jamie Oliver on Monday, making roast beef and carrot cake; Mario Batali appears on Tuesday, making pumpkin lune (little moon) pasta; and David Chang is on Thursday. And Keri Russell, who is not a chef but played a pie-making wizard in the movie Waitress, appears on Wednesday (Monday-Friday, 1pm, NBC). Also on this week: On Wednesday, Gordon Ramsay...

Are you playing host this year and still trying to decide what to make for Thanksgiving? We've pulled together some of our old and new favorite recipes for traditional, and not so traditional, Thanksging fare. First, the turkey. We firmly believe that brining is best. This cider-brined and glazed turkey is a simple brining recipe -- you just need to make sure you've got a big enough vessel for the turkey and plenty of room...

June 7 - June 11: Broadway Panhandler "Yard Sale"

Maybe it was just the red carpet, but most of the people we spoke to seemed particularly excited about the new digs for the James Beard Foundation Awards, black-tie affair held last night at Avery Fisher Hall to honor some of the country's best chefs, restaurateurs, and culinary professionals. Susan Ungaro, the President of JBF, noted that originally, James Beard had moved to New York to become an opera singer, but had to earn a living until he hit the big time. He started a catering company and the rest, as they say, is history, but she noted that he would have been pretty excited to be up on that stage.

Yesterday morning, the nominees for the 2007 James Beard Foundation Awards were announced at the Beard House on West 12th Street. In additional to New York restaurant stalwarts David Waltuck of Chanterelle, Floyd Cardoz of Tabla, and Terrance Brennan of Picholine (which was rebooted in 2006 to impressive reviews, the nominees also include a bumper crop of young chefs including David Chang for Momofuku Ssam Bar, Daniel Humm for Eleven Madison Park (both for Rising Star Chef of the Year), and cut chemist Will Goldfarb of Room 4 Dessert (for Outstanding Pastry Chef). Three other nominees from San Francisco, Boston, and Chicago round out the Rising Star Chefs category; Goldfarb faces competition from four other nominees in the pastry category, including Michael Laskonis of Le Bernadin.

The fall out from restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow's full page NY Times ad complaining about Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni continues, much to the delight of foodies, critics of restaurant critics, and mental health professionals. Last Friday, former Times food critic Mimi Sheraton wrote in Slate that Chodorow was an "idiot" to run an ad, given "the added exposure of the negative review to so many who may never have read the original."

Bruni two-stars David Chang's Momofuku Ssam Bar, calls Chang "one of this city's brightest culinary talents." He likes the food, the waitstaff, and the design of the restaurant. "By bringing sophisticated, inventive cooking and a few high-end grace notes to a setting that discourages even the slightest sense of ceremony, Ssam Bar answers the desires of a generation of savvy, adventurous diners with little appetite for starchy rituals and stratospheric prices," says Bruni.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A large fight in the Bronx, an unusual MVA in Manhattan and a "Jet Blue aircraft disturbance" at LaGuardia - Gate B5
• Promises from the Department of Transportation mean nothing, even after two children die
• Activists want tax-paying immigrants to have the right to vote; immigrants did vote in national elections between 1776 and 1926

- Serious Eats explores the ins and outs of the Japanese Izakaya, "the place where sake is."