Grant Achatz, left; Nathan Myhrvold, center. Wired magazine editor Mark McClusky at right. Another day, another chef panel: Last night at the New York Public Library, the chef Grant Achatz met up with former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold for a talk moderated by Wired magazine editor Mark McClusky. The topic was the experimental and sometimes maligned cooking techniques like the ones practiced by Achatz at his restaurant Alinea and Myhrvold at home in his......

Acclaimed chef Grant Achatz, who recently put out a deluxe cookbook called Alinea (named for his Chicago restaurant), will be making a few NY appearances in the upcoming weeks, most notably a scaled Alinea dinner at the Astor Center on November 6th. At $225 a head, the price is steep, but each guest receives five courses (including ‘hot potato, cold potato;’ above left) from the restaurant, and some crazy-ass Champagne....

Down at the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party Sunday it sure seemed that everybody was having a grand ole' time. It seemed bigger than ever, with people spilled into every nook and cranny of the park, filed into a long row of picnic tables on Madison, and splayed out on to the sidewalk everywhere else. Our group was made of up veterans of the previous four events, had the lay of the land and......

When Gothamist friend and barbecue champion Adam Perry Lang of Daisy May's BBQ invited us to a party, how could we say no? It had been way too long since we had last enjoyed Adam's sweet and sticky Kansas City ribs and his tender smoky brisket, not to mention that we had to hear about his latest escapades. Aside from becoming the Grand Champion at the BarbQlossal contest at the World Pork Expo in Des......

Last night's episode of Law & Order was amazing. The writers threw everything, including the kitchen sink. The plot surrounded the murder of a food network executive, who had been attending a fundraiser for tsunami orphans; the executive was also the wife of one celebrity chef and having an affair with another! It was compelling and very much ripped from the headlines, as well as salacious and interesting. Here are some of the highlights: -......

Two food events of note over the next few days. Don't let a little snow keep you away! March 1: The Edible Airwaves -- How to Cook for Television, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m at the Museum of Television and Radio. This panel features Food Network personalities Mario Batali, Alton Brown, and Giada De Laurentiis (pictured at right), and is moderated by Jeffrey Steingarten. Tickets are $15 each for non-members, $12 for members, and $7 for......

Reading the William Grimes' NY Times feature on Iron Chef America on the Food Network (it premieres this Sunday) only made Gothamist, to borrow a phrase from another Food TV personality, kick our irrational hatred of Bobby Flay up a notch. BAM! Forever will the memory of Bobby Flay jumping up on the kitchen counter during the 2000 Iron Chef showdown between Flay and Masaharu Morimoto be burned in our brains. Grimes mentions the......

And, no, the cats are not eaten. Gothamist knows how your mind has instantly made the leap to the Far East, but, alas, it's a Meow Mix store where cats can grab a nosh. On the heels of the NY Times article a few weeks ago that revealed the Fifth Avenue (between 41st and 42nd Streets) location and menu ("Cluck-a-Doodle Doo; Fillet Meow"), the Meow Mix Cafe has finally opened. Rules of engagement: No dogs......

When some New Yorkers are abandoning the city for more picturesque settings (though, what is more picturesque than some of the city's fine parks, Gothamist does not know), lack of high-speed Internet service, and $600 bottles of no-brand champagne, dedicated city folks will be getting their butts over to East 26th Street, between 5th Avenue, Madison Avenue, and Madison Square Park for the Second Annual Big Apple Barbecue. The relief of BBQ-loving NYers, Blue Smoke......

You can tell a lot about a year by seeing which posts were popular, and from Gothamist's standpoint, it's been a banner year for our readers who are perverts or nerds (we're hoping the loyal readers are both). Here are a few of our most popular posts: Thoughts on the Matrix Reloaded; 100 Best Songs; when we pretended to know all about friendster messages; Paris Hilton sex tapes and her SNL appearance; Nicole Richie's racial......

Gothamist is so jealous of the Times' Julia Moskin, as she gets to write an article about how real pit barbecue has made its way to New York. The vagaries of what barbecue is are touched upon (even a statement like "barbecue is meat cooked by indirect heat and smoke" causes a lot of debate) but the focus is on the New York restaurants that do offer pit barbecue. According to Moskin, Daisy May's,......

foodie - A New York Food Event"
Gothamist eats our way through the six course food and wine menu of an "underground" restaurant.
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It seems that an ex Bouley/Chanterelle chef will retreat to upstate, buy a mobile kitchen, and sell Memphis BBQ ribs roadside, and Gothamist says, "Thank God, but why can't the roadside be a little closer to the 1/9 station?" The Times looks at Warren Nordling's Dutchess County ribs operation. The Times' Ed Levine thinks they are the best ribs within 90 miles of the city. The ribs are smoked for 8 hours and the......

What do you do if you love barbecue, can recognize obscure though notable writers, and have no qualms about introducing yourself? If you're me, you find yourself at the 1st Annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, hands sticky from eating a pulled pork sandwich, debating the best way to approach famed food raconteur Jeffrey Steingarten.......

Aaron mentioned this way back, but since the event is tomorrow and Sunday, we'll mention it again: The 1st Annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, presented by Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group, Blue Smoke, and The Jazz Standard. It's all happening on East 27th Street, between Park Avenue South and Lexington Avenue. And as Gothamist loves to eat, we'll be there. With digital cameras, even though Lockhart Steele is afraid of our pictures. The......

Kate Betts, late of Harper's Bazaar, tackles and reviews the eagerly awaited (eagerly awaited by a small but influential cartel of media and fashion types) book, The Devil Wears Prada. The Devil being Anna Wintour, Vogue editor, the author being Lauren Weisberger, a former Anna assistant. From what Gothamist can gather, Weisberger suffers from young-New-Yorker's-syndrome: thinking she's the first person to have a shitty boss. We applaud her ability to parlay that into cash money,......

When Terrance Brennan, chef of Picholine and Artisanal, opened Terrance Brennan's Seafood and Chophouse, he started to receive cease and desist letters from Louisianna. From the Brennans of Brennan's in New Orleans. Much like something out of a Charlie Kaufman script, or a David E. Kelley legal drama, the Times reports "that expert witnesses were grilled about the differences between the Creole cuisine of Brennan's in New Orleans and the 'straightforward American food' of......

My favorite Vogue writer is featured in the New York Times today. Of course Jeffrey Steingarten writes about food, not clothes. Tania and I saw him a few weeks ago and I tried to convince him to go to the Olive Garden.......