Results tagged “inthekitchen”

Wildly successful young chef and restaurateur Michael Psilakis – whose Anthos is one of only two Greek restaurants in the world with a Michelin star – refined his talent not in culinary school but in the kitchen beside his Greek mother during his childhood on Long Island. After earning a business degree, he found himself drawn back to the food world, where he worked his way up from waiter to owner of the Long Island restaurant Ecco. His subsequent enterprise with celebrated restaurateur Donatella Arpaia, called Dona, was one of Esquire's Best New Restaurants in 2006, but the place closed when the building housing it was sold to a developer.

Yesterday, a two-alarm fire broke out in a Corona home and after firefighters put it out, they found the body of 5-year-old Jason Guallpa, curled up behind a TV. The police later arrested his 24-year-old brother Diego with endangering the welfare of a child.

Patrick Venetek, the cop whose service weapon wound up shooting through the ceiling of his downstairs neighbors' apartment and striking an 18-month-old's arm, gave further details on how the incident occurred. Perhaps to the relief of Porcellini's six brothers and sisters, Venetek has been stripped of his badge and gun at this time and is on modified duty.

Paul Adams goes to Back Forty (pictured) for the NY Sun this week. “The restaurant takes its focus on farm-to-table cuisine almost to the point of self-parody,” he says. Back Forty could benefit more by the presence of Peter Hoffman (the chef and owner) in the kitchen, not so much at the greenmarket, says Adams.

According to Turkey Carving for Dummies, every year hundreds of thousands of people wind up in hospital emergency rooms as a result of kitchen accidents involving knives. Don’t become a statistic! In yesterday’s article about the best way to carve the turkey, the Times helpfully points out the wrong approach, to be read aloud in a southern accent: “One year the turkey took a long time to cook and I went to carve it...

You might have had a copy of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style on your desk in high school or college. It was your go-to reference book whenever you forgot (yet again) where you should stick that damned apostrophe. Michael Ruhlman, food writer, trained chef, and most recently, judge on the Food Network's Next Iron Chef, has created his go-to reference guide for the kitchen, The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for...

Just a week after making headlines for unveiling the world’s most expensive dessert – $25,000! – the popular Upper East Side restaurant Serendipity 3 has been shuttered by the New York City Department of Health. Could all the hoopla surrounding the Frrrozen [sic] Haute Chocolate have brought some unwanted attention to the establishment? The shutdown went into effect last night and calls to the restaurant have thus far not been serendipitous. We do know that...

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Harry Cipriani in the Sherry-Netherland Hotel, awards the restaurant no stars. Finds “service so confused and food so undistinguished it wouldn’t pass muster at half the cost.” Says prices at the restaurant ridiculous. The restaurant was last reviewed in 1991, when Bryan Miller gave it two stars. The one positive? “The people-watching is nonpareil." Peter Meehan visits Fifth Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, for tacos. Likes Epocas...

A Staten Island man was about to fall asleep early Thursday morning only to be woken up when someone broke into his apartment - little did he know that it was the 'Ninja Burgler'. Phil Chiolo heard his cat Tippy growl, which was unusual, before hearing something fall downstairs. While in the kitchen investigating the sound, Chiolo saw someone dressed in, "a Halloween-like ninja outfit, with just his eyes peering out." Soon afterwards, the ninja...

We don't have the luxury of forgetting indefinitely because this is not a sustainable proposition. By the time my kids are my age, they're going to look back and say, "You did what with the last drop of fossil fuels? You pushed a watermelon from Chile to your door so that you could eat it out of season? What were you thinking?"

Did you know you can make a salad out of weeds you find in Central Park? Or that there are mushrooms you can gather for free that taste just like chicken? There's plenty that you can find and eat in the city's park system and The Wildman Steve Brill is just the guy to show you where and how. Gothamist sat down to chat with New York's best known naturalist about the evils of lawns, the effects of global warming, and where to find some delectable free fruit.

Also, if you're having trouble getting the texture you like when you make ice cream, head over to read David Lebovitz's Tips For Making Homemade Ice Cream Softer. We wish he'd written that list years ago, back when we were first figuring out these tricks through trial and error ourselves.

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.

Gothamist finally made the trip to Queens to drink and dine at Danny Brown Wine Bar & Kitchen, a stylish spot that looks more SoHo than Forest Hills. Some of you may recall that this eatery located across the street from Councilwoman Melinda Katz's office caught the attention of Daniel Boulud back in May. The French megachef was steamed that Danny Brown, the chef-owner, uses almost the same lowercase "db" on its signage as Boulud's db bistro moderne.

(directed by Brad Bird)

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Insieme, awards the restaurant two stars. Says, “When Isieme is good, it’s outstanding, and any serious food lover should head here fast…” He hates the atmosphere, though, and the salmon. Insieme is the second restaurant in midtown this year where he’s been “frustrated by the way some dazzling cooking is undercut not only by unevenness across the menu or inconsistency in the kitchen but also by atmospherics that don’t pull their weight and live up to the rest of the production.”

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a missing child at Richmond Terrace and Franklin Ave. on Staten Island, a stabbing on Blake Ave. in Brooklyn, and a patient went missing at Parkway Hospital at 113 St. and 70th Rd. in Queens.
• Physicist Stephen Hawking is writing an adventure novel aimed at middle-grade readers called "George's Secret Key to the Universe."
• After-school programs at city schools, which help kids with academic tutoring and offer music and art instruction that are no longer part of schools’ curricula, will likely have to close due to lack of funding.
• Former New York Giants linebacker LaVar Arrington was injured in a motorcycle accident, after he lost control of his bike and hit a guard rail while exiting I-495 in Maryland.
• Sean Bonner’s list of vegan restaurants and places with vegan menu offerings around NYC.
• New York City pools open June 29th, and the Parks Dept. has a borough-by-borough guide to all 51 one of them.
• Elle magazine editorial coordinator Nina Weiss is letting local students and teachers conduct their classes in her Brooklyn apartment - 9th grade boys in the living room, 6th graders in the kitchen nook - after they lost their usual space in a nearby church to a fire.
• Curbed notes that lawyers for 1 Sutton Place are suing New York, after plans were announced to make the building’s formerly private park on city-owned land open to the public.

Bruni visits the recently reopened Provence (now owned and run by Cookshop & Five Points’ Marc Meyer and Vicki Freeman), awards the restaurant one star. He likes the minimal changes they’ve made to the design; the food, not so much: “Provence’s is inconsistent and dull,” he says. He does like the wine and the cheese selection though.

">Bruni goes to Anthos, Michael Psilakis and Donatella Arpaia's new Greek restaurant, and awards the restaurant two stars. "Much of the cooking is inspired," he says, "and much of it is excellent." Bruni finds the décor dreary, and the pacing of the meal a bit off, but overall thinks the restaurant is on its way to good places (and more stars in future).

Coming slowly but surely to a grocery store near you is 5 Boroughs Ice Cream. What started with little more than a couple’s wedding present followed by some kitchen experimentation has become a quest to endow every New York City neighborhood with its own signature ice cream flavor. 5 Boroughs owners Scott and Kim Myles are the Big Apple’s Ben and Jerry, sans Birkenstocks. With 8 themed flavors, such as the Jackson Heights Mangodesh (Mango ice cream with a cardamom edge), 5 Boroughs Ice Cream is now available at places like Gourmet Garage and Cobblestone Foods. 5B was founded with a strong grassroots approach- the milk for the ice cream comes from Mercer’s Dairy upstate, a collection of 7 independently owned family farms. 5 Boroughs is also involved with community building and several local charities. Gothamist had the chance to speak with ½ of 5B, Scott Myles, in his Astoria living room last week.

In the recent history of television, the people have been given three separate but still gritty police procedurals set in New York City: The police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders in Law & Order, the dedicated Special Victims Unit detectives who investigate especially heinous sexually based offenses in Law & Order Special Victims Unit, and the Major Case Squad detectives who chew scenery as well as they suss out suspects in Law & Order Criminal Intent. But some of their stories may end, as producer Dick Wolf is in the midst of negotiations with NBC over the fate of Law & Order as well as L&O CI.

, Jake Kasdan's movie about the Los Angeles pilot season also currently in theaters. That character, Lenny, also puts people off with her blunt, anti-social straight talk, though she's a highly paid businesswoman so it's slightly more acceptable behavior than autistic Linda's. Thanks to Weaver, both of these provocative women are worth a watch. It may have been a few years since Weaver's string of Oscar nominations, but with these intriguing performances in small independent movies, she's definitely back on the radar.

DJ Hazard is a comedian who's lived a wild life. He was a part of the wild Boston comedy scene of the 80's that spawned the likes of Stephen Wright and Bobcat Goldthwait, he's talked people out of killing themselves, and he's lived out of his car for three years as he traveled the country doing stand up. Someone get this guy a book deal!

We've all heard the old adage that there's nothing more dangerous in the kitchen than a dull knife. A sharp knife cuts cleanly through things. A dull knife forces you to use more pressure, then may bounce off the surface of the onion you're trying to slice and onto another surface, such as--for instance--your hand. Ouch!

As we've mentioned before, today is World Water Day. Over 290 local restaurants are participating in the Tap Project -- just fork up $1 for the tap water that's usually gratis and UNICEF will donate that money to help provide clean drinking water to children around the world.

212-533-7000

As many have already pointed out, the imminent redevelopment of Coney Island may very well turn out to be a garish Disneyfied nightmare, complete with a Vegas-style hotel or two. A multi-million dollar food court, and a string of expensive restaurants can’t be far behind. Neptune Avenue in winter may resemble one fifteen block-long auto repair shop, with gas fumes and broken glass in the streets, but for us it’s the old Coney Island takeout over whatever neon-encrusted dining room the developers will throw at us. Here are four reasons why:

Residentially speaking, Gothamist is blessed with rather ample proportions. We’ve graduated from the grimy hovels of our youth to a humbly appointed dwelling which, owing to the block’s somewhat tawdry reputation, takes only a modest toll on our wallets while allowing enough space for the occasional fete.