For those of you who qualify as “Foodie”, or who love someone who is one, we have compiled a list of fitting gifts in a variety of price ranges. $20 Subscribe to Alimentum, a literary journal dedicated to food. Your giftee will savor every page. For those who refuse to eat beyond the borders of Manhattan, give them a gift of Edible Manhattan. They will never forget it! $25 Give twice. Give your Foodie a membership to the American Institute of Wine and Food, a charitable organization that sponsors a variety of events year round, many with exclusive access to such hallowed ground as the Food Network fortress in Chelsea. If your Foodie likes fresh herbs and mushroom, then check out the option at HerbKits.com. $90
For Foodies who want to slice & dice but have yet mastered the knife, sign them up for a class at the Institute of Culinary Education: Knife Skills 101.
Various Prices: Many of NYC’s favorite restos offer gift cards. You can choose the amount. Great for the Foodie who prefers the dining room to the kitchen. Fig & Olive offers a wide range of gift cards & products, such as olive oils and tapenades—all of which are superb and can be purchased online or at any of their three locations. BRGuest which includes perennial favorites Blue Water Grill, Isabella’s, Vento and Fiamma, also offers a variety of dining cards as well as merchandise such as t-shirts for the star-gazers. Myriad Group, which includes Tribeca Grill, Nobu and Mai House, has dining cards & merchandise for those who love New York. $950 If you really want to impress you beloved Foodie, send him/her to school! An 8 week course with the American Sommelier Association will be a truly impressive gift.
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aiwf, alimentun, brguest, edible manhattan, foodie gifts, gift cards, myriad group
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Posted 14 hours ago
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For those of you who love walk around tastings, here is a great event that includes food, wine, a great venue and an opportunity to try out some fabulous products from Sardinia (still terra incognito for a lot foodies). We love these walk arounds, especially when the vino is this good. Here’s the skinny: Vino e Cucina, a night dedicated to Italian food & wine, is a walk-around tasting featuring the cuisine of Il Gattopardo * San Domenico Events * Tuscan Oven A Trattoria * Barbetta * Hostaria Mazzei * La Pizza Fresca Ristorante * Marco Polo Ristorante And the wines of
Tenute Dettori which includes Chimbanta, Dettori Biano, Dettori, Moscadeddu, Ottomarzo, Tenores, and Tuderi * Podere San Luigi Wines from the Tuscan Region Special Note:
Regione Sardegna will be featured with over 20 Producers providing a delicious assortment of the finest Italian Products and Wines
What: A Walk-around tasting featuring several of the city’s favorite chefs and a choice assortment of Italian wines
Where: Gotham Hall 1356 Broadway at 36th Street, NYC When: Monday, November 24, 2008 6:30pm - 9:30pm How Much: Advance tickets are $95.00; Purchase online at: www.gruppo.com
Or Contact Vanessa Price: vprice@colangelopr.com or 646-624-2885 Ext. 107 Note on Gotham Hall (if you have not yet been there): Housed in the former Greenwich Savings Bank headquarters, Gotham Hall is a venue that evokes the elegance and opulence of Old New York. Built in 1922 by Edward Palmer York and Philip Sawyer, the building is one of the finest examples of such classical-inspired architecture in the city. It’s easy to get swept away in the moment with the context is as gleaming and glamorous as this. More Info: Proceeds will benefit the Giacomo Bologna Scholarship foundation, which supports young American culinary and hospitality students.
Tags:
gotham hall, italian wine, walk around tasting
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Posted 3 days ago
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Several weeks ago, a friend invited me to dine at Fig & Olive in Midtown, my first visit there. What struck me, in addition to the hospitality at the door, was the flavorful lightness of the fare. The whole experience was one of the most delightful I’ve had dining out in a good long time. So I decided to track down Fig & Olive’s creator, Laurent Halasz to ask him what makes Fig & Olive such a delight.
As soon as we sat down to talk, one thing became clear. Laurent is in love with the Mediterranean. His eyes take on a dreamy green as he describes a landscape of fig and olive trees, their leaves rustling in the thyme-scented breeze.
“Mediterranean food,” he says, “is what I am passionate about.”
But the Mediterranean is a vast expanse of water, a landlocked sea bordering three continents and witnessing the rise and fall of countless cultures. With its waters covering over a million square miles, the Mediterranean has a lot to consider. So I asked Laurent how he defines “Mediterranean” cuisine.
“For me, Mediterranean means along the seashore,” he replies. “Not the inland cuisine, where there are heavier sauces and fattier dishes. The fig tree and the olive tree, lemons, fresh herbs. The seashore. The lighter, fresher foods.”
A native of the French Riviera, Laurent has traveled the breadth of the Mediterranean, sampling its aromas and flavors, east to west.
The concept behind the three Fig & Olive locations, he explains, is the elegant and the uncomplicated, a characteristic of Mediterranean cuisine. From the décor to the menu there is indeed a refined grace to his vision.
“What’s happening here in New York is much more exciting than what’s happening in Europe, even in Paris,” he tells me. “Americans want to know everything about the food. The expectation is quality that is fresh, local, traceable. It’s really incredible and exciting.”
Over the years, Laurent has forged relationships with farmers and purveyors, and worked hard to develop a brand that reflects his passion. “New York is so vibrant,” he says. “You can find the best here, easily, and it doesn’t have to be expensive. In Paris, you find a lot of food for tourists. That’s not how it is here.”
At the flagship Fig & Olive location in the Meatpacking district, which also serves as the “atelier” for all three locations, the walls are decorated with products near and dear to Laurent’s heart: olive oils, vinegars and herbs. It’s an education, but not one that distracts from the dining experience. Like everything else here, the process of learning is uncomplicated.
Tasting menus are designed around specific olive oils, aged balsamic vinegars, and other products such as basil oil and tapenades, which are also available for sale. Diners can choose to learn or not. More often than not, they want to know.
“We have very loyal guests,” Laurent, “who come every week, and who love to explore the menu. They are passionate about Fig & Olive.”
And I know why they are. The ambiance, the hospitality, the quality of the ingredients, the thoughtful selection of products and the remarkably light and sophisticated hand of Pascal Lorange in the kitchen really do make Fig & Olive a true delight.
Tags:
Fig and Olive, Laurent Halasz, Mediterranean, Pascal Lorange
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Posted 29 days ago
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The Set up: As
part of the New York Public Library’s “Live from the New York Public Library”, series http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/pep/peplist.cfm, world renowned chef Ferran Adria
was in town as a featured speaker. He
was there to talk about his extreme avant-garde style of cooking, as well as to
promote his book “A Day at El Bulli”.
Billed as “The Salvador Dali of Cooking”, Adria is a colorful personality, and
a great addition to the New York Public Library’s top-notch series.
El Bulli?:Few
people have had or will have the opportunity to dine at this world renowned and
highly celebrated restaurant. Thankfully, Adria’s giant tome, generously
flavored with photos and notes, takes us inside El Bulli – minus the actual
food, of course. Of the over 500 people in the room, less than a dozen raised
their hands when asked who had dined there. But there were several dozen
young chefs along with some of the city’s culinary luminaries, like Lidia
Bastianich, listening intently as moderator Corby Kummer (author of The Pleasures of Slow Food) salivated at
the opportunity to quiz “The Master”.
Why all the fuss?:
Many food writers and culinary professionals consider Ferran Adria the world’s
greatest chef. Much of the praise comes from his ground-breaking use of liquid
nitrogen in the kitchen – in other words, cooking with cold, extreme cold (-196 °C/-321 °F).
It is quite spectacular what he does with a liquid so cold it boils when anything
is placed in it. Some call Adria’s style “molecular gastronomy” or “scientific
cooking”, terms he eschews. As he points out, the process of bread making is a
much more complicated, and is one that we all take for granted. But it
is chemistry.
Chemistry?: Liquid
nitrogen exists at a temperature so cold it will freeze vodka (which he makes
into ice cream). What happens to food placed in liquid nitrogen depends upon
many factors, some of which are the water content of the food, the kinds of
gases present, the fats and proteins, and the minerals. For example, a
tablespoon of ground pistachio puffs up into a lovely green ball about the
size of a Haas avocado. The outer later is crisp, the inner portion creamier. Remarkable.
But what is so astounding about this technique, once we get past the novelty of
cooking with cold rather than heat, is the purity of the flavors. No fats are
added in the process. The flavors are not bound with introduced fats when they
hit our tongues. Therefore, we taste the real essence of the food. And for the
Slow Food movement, the new generation of young chefs and for the new American
consumers whose palates are much more sophisticated than our parents’, Adria is
a master of the surreal.
What is the future?:
Now that we have learned to cook with extreme cold, what’s next? Adria was
adamant about a few key things. First, that the worst cooking is avant-garde
cooking poorly done. We agree with this assessment. He also believes that “deconstruction”
is passé. We also agree. But where do go from his avant-garde culinary surrealism,
which fools the brain by means of the eye? What kind of Post-Modernism can a
young chef bring to the plate? We are indeed entering a period of culinary Différance,
where free play is boundless. With the advent of Slow Foods, with the
increasing role of the Chef as artist and indeed rock star, and with the
locovore movement (those who believe in local food supply chains), there are
many variables.
Final Note: Adria’s
major point for the evening was Education, not only that of young chefs who
must apprentice in the best kitchens of the world, but also the Education of
the consumer’s palate. Children must be taught the basics in taste at an early
age so that they can appreciate flavors, rather than cover them up, or fear
them. Open the taste buds, open the mind.
Tags:
avant garde cooking, Corby Kummer, culinary trends, Ferran Adria, Ferran Adria at NYPL, Live from the New YOrk Public Library
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Posted 38 days ago
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New York style pizza is a worldwide favorite, so why not hold a World Pizza Eating Contest right here in the Big Apple?
Famous Famiglia, a venerable Manhattan-based brand, is sponsoring the very first such competition. And they are doing it in the middle of Times Square. (The event is scheduled for October 12th from 10AM to 12:30PM. Actual eating starting at 12PM.)
Move over Coney Island! You have some local competition.
Word on the street is that champion eater Joey Chestnut will be there, hoping to scarf down 90 slices.
Famous Famiglia says:
Join us on October 12th, 2008 in
Times Square, New York City for the first Famous Famiglia World Pizza
Eating Championship!
Please visit www.famousfamiglia.com or
www.majorleagueeating.com for more details!
Tags:
Joey Chestnut, Pizza Eating Contest, Times Square
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Posted 45 days ago
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