Results tagged “momofukussambar”

Peter Evans, an Australian chef with four restaurants and two books to his name, not to mention the daily television cooking show he hosts back home, is looking at restaurant spaces in the city. “We have friends over here with restaurants,” he told us yesterday, “so we’re going to speak with them about the economy and get their thoughts. It all depends on timing, but we’re here to have a proper look.”

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."

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.

Pictured: Assari Ramen from Menchanko-Tei.

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.

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

- Ever wonder why the produce in Chinatown is so cheap? NPR lets us in on the secret.

Adam Platt has started of 2007 with a bang -- New York magazine has released his "Where to Eat 2007" lists, a compendium of his picks for the year, divided into categories. "Haute Barnyard," a phrase that Platt coined a while back, is his term for restaurants focused on suppliers and the origins of the food, with countrified leanings. Cookshop, Peasant, Hearth, and Blue Hill qualify, among others. He takes us on two rambles, one through Brooklyn, stopping at favorites Franny's, iCi, and Applewood, as well as at newcomers The Farm on Adderly and Porchetta, and the other for breakfast, with stops at Balthazar, Egg, Cafe Cluny, Crema, and more.

- Cravings takes a trip to Urban Lobster and is not impressed. In a showdown between lobster rolls from Urban Lobster and Tides, "it’s not much of a competition. Tides wins hands down."

Chefs are known to traverse New York by night, a choice number of restaurants saving their best cuts of meat and their best bottles of wine for the late night foodies who know to swing by. David Chang's Momofuku Ssam Bar, a second venture to follow the well-established Momofuku noodle bar, offers a late night Asian fusion menu full of superstar items from 10:30 p.m. - 2:30 a.m. (Wednesday - Sunday) including fatty pork belly, roasted brussels sprout halves (with kimchi), sandwiches made of headcheese, ham, and chicken liver pate, fried veal sweetbreads, and a spicy Korean-style tripe stew.