Results tagged “matthewkenney”

A Times article on the popularity of “fast-casual” restaurants continues to cause some major head scratching. In straightforward expansionist news, the article reported that the Five Guys burger chain plan on opening 29 new local outlets in the next 8 years, and Hale and Hearty is busy putting the finishing touches on its 20,000 square foot Williamsburg production facility.

In 1993 Matthew Kenney debuted his first restaurant, Matthew’s, to enviable acclaim; before he knew it Food and Wine Magazine had declared him one of the ten best new chefs in America. A flurry of activity followed, as Kenney involved himself with a series of popular restaurants throughout Manhattan that emphasized regional Mediterranean cooking. In 2004 he switched gears, opening Pure Food and Wine, an organic raw food restaurant on Irving Place that continues to impress diners with pretty definitive evidence of raw food’s potential. (The White Corn Tamale with Raw Cacao Mole, Marinated Mushrooms, Salsa Verde and Avocado is supposedly sublime.) His latest project is Free Foods NYC, the non-raw but mostly organic midtown café. We questioned Kenney about Free Foods, his conversion to organic ingredients, and got him to share his recipe for raw pumpkin pie; he swears you’ll never know it’s actually made with carrot juice.

February 11: Raw Desserts at Organic Academics

Macaroni and Cheese: 52 Recipes, from Simple to Sublime

Matthew Kenney's Big City Cooking: Recipes for a Fast-Paced World