Results tagged “ruthreichl”

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 kitchen/high tech laboratory.

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.

This week in the Times, Bruni goes to Peter Luger, gives the restaurant two stars—a drop from the three awarded it by Ruth Reichl previously. Says “no other restaurant serves a porterhouse so breakthtaking.” But he also says that the restaurant is inconsistent, service ranges from gruff to hostile, and the winelist needs an upgrade.

The Grey Lady is paying a return visit to Peter Luger Steak House in tomorrow's dining section. This New York institution was last reviewed by Ruth Reichl, who awarded it a hefty three stars, proclaiming it "the best steak in New York City." Her description of the Luger experience is almost pornographic:

You know the steak is great before you even taste it. You know it from the fine, funky, mineral aroma that wafts across the table and announces that this is a piece of meat. When the waiter appears with the platter, he stands there spooning a mixture of butter and meat juices across the sizzling porterhouse in an exercise of pure theater. He is merely prolonging the moment, allowing the aroma to revive all your primal instincts as he stretches out the time until you can actually sink your teeth into the flesh. Finally he serves, slowly doling out slices of fillet and sirloin. As your mouth closes on the incredibly tender piece of beef, aroma and flavor come together, exploding on the palate.

Eater confirmed that cupcake confectioner heavyweight Magnolia Bakery is opening its first branch location on Columbus Avenue and West 69th Street. Magnolia owner Steve Abrams, an Upper West Sider, told Eater, "My friends who know I own Magnolia keep asking when I'm going to open them a bakery up here. So I think it's time."

Got a tidbit for us? Send it to the feedbag.

• Hate airport food? Well, if you're flying out of JFK, they've just opened a Balducci's in Terminal 2. We're also partial to the Cibo Express in Terminal 6, pictured at right. [New Yorkology]
• What happens when you mix chefs, booze, fire, and egos? A mess, some broken glass, and an accidental stabbing. Seems that Marco Pierre White was demonstrating a flaming Sambuca trick to Mario Batali, Tony Bourdain and others at the Spotted Pig when things went awry. [NY Post]
• Herring, herring, and more herring. 'Tis the season at The Oyster Bar and Aquavit. [Eat for Victory]

This week in the Times, Bruni visits the Four Seasons, awards it two stars. Says, "The standouts on the menu aren’t as numerous as they should be. The signs of a restaurant that runs on two tracks--one for the anonymous, another for the anointed--are too obvious." The restaurant had previously received three stars from Ruth Reichl in 1995. But Bruni also finds a "stubborn magic" still there: in the architecture, the history, and the insider atmosphere.

Jeffrey Chodorow has it out for Frank Bruni, and we mean big time. In a full page ad in yesterday's New York Times dining section (at a reported cost of over $83,000), Chodorow a essentially called Bruni a hack with no real food or reviewing experience (see Bruni's bio here), and accused Bruni of personally attacking him rather than focusing on the food at his latest restaurant, Kobe Club.

Bruni goes to Queens this week, two-stars Sichuan restaurant Spicy & Tasty. It has some of the most distinctive Sichuan cooking in the five boroughs, he says, and "deserves citywide attention from food lovers whose primary interest isn't simply a modestly priced meal off the beaten path, but a hugely enjoyable, eye-opening experience."

Bruni one-stars Da Silvano, downgrading it from the two stars Ruth Reichl awarded the restaurant in 1998. He doesn’t quite understand its allure, though he sees occassional glimpses: “Perhaps more than any New York restaurant I know, Da Silvano illustrates... the mind-boggling inconsistency that can exist across the breadth of a menu and a series of visits.” Celebrities love the place, though, he tells us. He even called a few to ask why. Madonna didn't get back to him, but Sarah Jessica Parker did, and she favors the linguini with clams. Why the food critic for the New York Times needs a celebrity to weigh in on merits of a restaurant, we're not quite sure, but good to know that SJP thinks Frank merits a response and Madonna doesn't.

Bruni goes to Lidia Bastianich’s Felidia (last reviewed and three-starred by Ruth Reichl in 1995) and reaffirms the three-stars. He’s crazy about the risotto, and calls its food “surprisingly distinctive in a city infatuated with, and just about saturated by, various kinds of Italian cuisine.”

Bruni two-stars Le Cirque, experiences it’s "famously split personality, half dismissive and half pampering, depending on who you are,” first brought to light by Ruth Reichl at the start of her reign as Times critic. Finds the restaurant itself full of old people, not so exciting. And Eater calls the BruniBetting right this week.

Join Tuscan native Chef Cesare Casella and his team at Maremma as they make special dishes featuring the traditional Tuscan beef -- Chianina (pronounced kee-a-nee-na). Chef Casella raises his herd of Chianina at Thanksgiving Farm in the Catskills regions of upstate New York. 228 West 10th Street, 212.645.0200.

Former NY Times food critic and current Gourmet magazine editor in chief Ruth Reichl is not TV - she's HBO. Two days ago, Variety reported that her books had been optioned by producer Cary Brokaw to turn into a half-hour comedy. Brokaw said, "It'll be a romantic comedy, but also beautiful and real in the same way." This is sounding like an older The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd! Or, as HBO probably hopes, a more mature Sex and the City ("more food, slightly less sex"). Her books, Comfort with Apples and Garlic and Sapphires, will be the basis, but not her first, Tender at the Bone, which is Gothamist's favorite. Maybe they can use it for flashbacks?

by John Willoughby, Zanne Early Stewart, Ruth Reichl (Houghton Mifflin, 2005)

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl (Penguin, 2005)

As the New York Times’s restaurant critic from 1993 to 1999, Ruth Reichl confirmed that two of New Yorkers’ favorite pursuits, self-invention and eating, can go hand in hand (and, at least in restaurants, usually do). In order to visit restaurants without being recognized by the waiters and chefs who had tacked her picture to staff bulletin boards as soon as her appointment was announced, Reichl not only often ate in disguise but also invented a persona for each outfit. With each new wig and elaborate makeup application she became someone other than Ruth Reichl, a Midwestern schoolteacher, a sexy divorcee, a wacky but loveable bohemian. She describes this experience in her third memoir, the entirely winning Garlic and Sapphires—in which we learn that even the greatest job at the greatest paper in the greatest city in the world is not without its stresses.

New critic Frank Bruni's premiere Times restaurant review is of Babbo, the crown jewel in chef Mario Batali and partner Joe Bastianich's restaurant empire. Bruni gives three stars, the same rating Ruth Reichl gave it that heady summer of 98 when it first opened (if SLNY were around then, they would have noted that the line was busy busy busy, and then when someone would pick up, the only table was for 10:30PM). But what Gothamist found most interesting was Bruni's thoughts about the differences between three- and four-star restaurants; right now, Babbo falls just short of four because of its ambience (loud music like the Black Crowes and Led Zeppelin from Batali's own iPod, a rushed and frenetic if extremely helpful staff). Bruni also comments on Batali's orange high-top sneakers as a sign of Batali's relaxed iconoclasm, which makes Gothamist demand a re-examination of the footwear of NYC chefs, which ran in the Times a couple years ago. The article pointed out how Batali liked to wear rubber clogs in the kitchen (because they are dishwashable) while Jean-Georges Vongerichten wore Prada shoes.

Movies that make you hungry: Big Night, Eat Drink Man Woman, Babette's Feast, Like Water for Chocolate.

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 Brennan's in New York." Gothamist would have liked to have been in the courtroom. Perhaps William Grimes testified? Or Jeffrey Steingarten? Ruth Reichl maybe? A foodie can dream...