City Harvest Feeds New York

New York is food obsessed.

We enjoy more food-as-culture rituals, artisanal food-making swag, celebrity chefs and world-class restaurants than anywhere.

But there is the other side of the street.

It probably won’t come as a surprise that a foodie like me would choose food as a powerful weapon.

The war? 

Hunger and malnutrition.

Real food and nutrition are the best defense to wield a fair fight against an enemy that is rather like a "menu" of ills that afflict our fellow citizens.

Illnesses from heart disease to obesity to Type II diabetes, to lack of performance in school and on the job mark this killer.

For years I volunteered with The New York Junior League – my most enriching passage was time I spent working with the children at the Foundling Hospital.
I was very fortunate to have made life-long friendships there.

In recent years I searched for a food-based enterprise to lend my time and passion to.
Last year, I had a "duh" moment – realizing City Harvest was ideal for me.

The City Harvest mission signature, “Rescuing Food for New York’s Hungry” tells the story.
And I’d seen their trucks at the Greenmarket where I shop most every day that it's open.

Sadly, the timing was off.  I missed the required pre-season training due to schedule conflicts and then, when I was told my book, “The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook” needed to double is size, well… The volunteer work just didn’t work…

Not that the schedule has opened any new space this year, but my cousin Mary Ann and I eagerly agreed we both very much wanted to work with City Harvest and could carve out the time. 

Conceived in the loss of beloved family, Mary Ann and a friend are co-producing a cookbook, filled with family recipes that are meant to heal the heart and the palate. I will write about this work of passion soon.

City Harvest

Truth be told, we weaseled our way into the February training session! 

I was going on vacation – the same time the other two trainings were to be held -- making February the last available opportunity for the season.
City Harvest doesn’t allow volunteers to work in the field without the orientation.  

I pleaded/begged Kristen Kehoe, Manager, Volunteer Services & Community Affairs, adding “I am a very small person and wouldn’t take up much room.”
Kirsten got the giggles via email and was swayed.
Mary Ann is equally diminutive and so, just like that, we were in.

Along with the roomful of other fervent volunteer wanna-be’s, we learned more about hunger in New York than we could have imaged.
It’s a piercing tale…

Did you know there are more than 1.5 million hungry people in New York City? 

Kirsten welcomed the group, saying she has a passion for nutrition and for the cause.  

Last year, City Harvest distributed nearly 30 million pounds of food, with the volunteers moving the food to where it’s needed most.

“Lots of hungry New Yorkers look forward to a City Harvest truck pulling up,” she said, adding they also have a bike transport that clocks in some 30 miles a day.

City Harvest deals in only fresh produce, provides training to create demand for healthier food and instructs how to make meals.  
The distinction is that City Harvest is not a soup kitchen or food pantry kind of operation where people come to eat. 

Rather, the operation provides the whole foods and the recipes so recipients can learn to make their own recipes filled with nutritious, fresh food. 

It’s proves the adage that if you teach a man to fish…

This is especially critical for those urban neighborhoods that are now referred to as “food deserts” meaning there is virtually no access to fresh food. 

Can you imagine? Now, can you imagine such places are right here?  Near all of us?

Good, nutritious and whole foods should be available to everyone, not just those who can afford it. I often repeat the notation “poor farmers serve rich people and rich farmers serve poor people.”

And so it goes…

For 30 years, City Harvest has been providing access to good food for those underserved populations, feeding more than 300,000 people every week utilizing “food rescue.”

They aim to end hunger and promote food education, urging citizens to practice nutrition and shop responsibly for food ingredients every day.

Restaurants, supermarkets, food wholesalers and farmers, along with Greenmarkets supply City Harvest.

Doing it by the Numbers

City Harvest is the lead organization for food rescue in New York, delivering more than 300 pounds of food in 25 years (I can’t help think what a waste it all would have been if not for City Harvest.)

Presently, they provide approximately 83,000 pounds of food per day, 50-60 million pounds per annum.  Food that otherwise would be going in the hopper…

City Harvest also now boasts more than 600 community partners. 

They have 17 trucks, a tractor trailer that hauls 20,000 pounds of food and three tricycle carts whose pedalists log more than 25 miles a day.

One in five New Yorkers lives with hunger, have difficulty feeding themselves and their families, and seniors and children, especially, are “food insecure.”

Overall, 20% of the population is struggling to feed themselves. 

We were told that metric is the equivalent of filling Yankee Stadium. 

It’s mind boggling to think this group exists at all, much less in our own backyard. 

And not meant to be weighted in the same sense, but rather to show how out of whack things are—a hot dog at that same Yankee stadium that would be filled with the city’s hungry, can cost just south of a walloping $10.  And they sell a lot of hot dogs…

Things are just crazy, out of whack -- topsy-turvy.

My First Day Volunteering

I was keen to get working out in the field and when I received the email with possible venues and dates, I chose a 9 am to noon-ish food distribution market in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood.
I didn’t have a travel partner on the way over from Manhattan but did on the return.
I served as judge for the greening contest held every year in the borough but because the vans took us to the judging locations, I hadn’t use public transport and didn’t know how to get there.
But a quick Hop Stop research directed me to the M – which travels up over the bridge after the Essex street stop, and like a good air traffic controller, City Harvest’s Pedro guided me to the location once I disembarked and got me to the unfamiliar spot in no time.

The line was already around the block by 9 am, with citizens queuing up, pony carts at the ready, like the cars at the starting gate of a race.   

We later learned there were more than 250 people who shopped at the market that overcast but warm spring day.

Early on, we watched the City Harvest team unload the trucks. 

Then we waited for all the food to be brought into the market, aka a Bed-Stuy playground, visited by City Harvest bi-monthly.

   

Soon enough, following a brief, on-site orientation admirably conducted by Pedro,










we were instructed to set up the tables and were told to place two or three scales on each table.

Notice sheets were taped on the table in front of us, identifying how many pounds of the produce were to be given to the people, using an alphabetical categorization.

This day the food was red bliss potatoes, cabbage, onions, sweet potatoes, and carrots.

The people registered a table up front and given paper sheets with their food allocation noted by need, designated by a letter.

For example, one sheet could read:

           

            Potatoes; B (that is 8 pounds)

            Carrots: C (4 pounds)

            Cabbage: D (2 pounds)

And so on.  The letter system and the sheets facilitate the distribution.

I was first in the line of distribution so I felt a bit like the greeter too, welcoming people and smiling a lot. 

My un-designated City Harvest partner was a Japanese-national, a woman I met there, who lives in downtown Brooklyn.

Her name is Sakura.  That means cherry blossom in Japanese!  So a lively discussion with her and City Harvest’s newest special events staffer, Joanne, about cherry blossom celebrations ensued.
It seemed natural to pair up.

We thought we’d get ahead of the game, and started filling the plastic bags provided with potatoes.  We ran out of those pretty darn fast but it was a good idea.

There was a City Harvest staffer on site to help us lift the 50-pound bags of food. However, when we were crunched -- around 10 to 11 am – we needed to move -- and couldn’t always wait for him, so I heaved quit a few of those big bags to the distribution table, ripping them open in order to fill the bowls used for weighing and then dump the weighed potatoes into the bag.

There were some rotten potatoes too – ones that had turned to mush, and we tossed them discretely as we were filling the people’s food bags.

A few of the women, also picked out some of the unholy looking produce.

We had been advised during that morning’s orientation to mitigate this progress because, understandably, it took time away from the line’s progress.

I said I think it’s a sign of love – especially for women – to shop by picking through and choosing the best for their family.

I allowed this shopping selection at my station… It was no problem.

More often than not, I was also bringing the bags to the people’s pony carts, exclaiming to them in what I hoped was a fun, respectful way, that this was a better shopping experience than Whole Foods.

Heck, they don’t bring the bags to the cart!  Smiles all round.  

And when some citizens who were picking up for neighbors or family members were receiving two B size bags – we’d say laughing, “Two B’s – To B or not to B, that is the question!”

Who doesn’t like to hear a bit of Shakespeare at moments like this?!

My favorite, though, was Edith. She is an elegant 92-year old, fashionably attired with a turban, who when asked, told me she’d lost thirty pounds following the City Harvest nutrition education, along with her doctor’s advice.  He also advised her to lift weights, which she does!  

She looks rather fragile, but her wide grin and strong memories of growing up one of 15 children on the too-cold Williamsburg waterfront where rooms were 5 cents and where she still lives was a very special conversation I enjoyed while we were setting up.  She was given extra respect, it seemed, and allowed to sit on the game benches near us while the others waited on line.

She said her two children died early and she raised many of her sibling’s children.  She has always lived in Brooklyn.

She shared some good recipes with me too.

The other nice story came at the conclusion of the market distribution: bookending the day.

The last in was a young mother who was frantically calling out, afraid she’d missed the food.

We reassured her, filling some bags with the last of the food from the big open bags from the trucks -- so she actually made out better, getting more things. 

Big sigh of relief and big smiles from her and her daughter in the stroller.

I named our team the “Spud Studs.” 

By the end of the day, the four of us at our potato table were a well-oiled machine, I daresay.

I also met a swell group of corporate men -- professionals from a Garden State pharmaceutical company, Eisai.  

I came up with a name for them they liked: “The Pharm Food” team. Get it?

They did.  Greg liked it!

The day was filled with hard work, no doubt.  The time went by so fast. 

I met dedicated, friendly volunteers.

I also met proud, grateful and courteous citizens. 

This is the other side of the food coin.  It is one we need to flip and look in the eye.
And experience.

 






For more information on City Harvest, visit www.cityharvest.org

Exploring the bond between Chefs and their Growers

When this time last year, my book, The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook doubled in size, I felt more than determined to single out those chefs -- and the growers who inspire them – who are the thought leaders and “hustlers” for sustainability and local ingredients, to add to the outstanding roster I worked so painstakingly to realize  -- for what was soon to be the “first phase” of the book.

The challenge was finding those chefs and growers now in the less, how shall we say, less celebrated areas of Long Island. Unlike Manhattan – or other big, bright lights/big city locales, along with the Hamptons where, where there was more of the whisperings of the burgeoning food movement’s pursuit of locally-grown and made foodstuffs.

When I started the book concept in 2003, there were far too few of the master chefs who set their teeth on this farm and fine to table approach to the culinary arts. 

For that matter, there are still far too few…

Even in 2007 and ‘08 when I began the interviews, I needed to really hunt and dig and search for potential chef candidates.  Bear in mind there were no online foodie blogs to speak of, nor newsletters lauding the locavores.

Even in Food Heaven, aka New York City.

My list for Gotham began to grow with the chefs who worked quietly and passionately to build and expand the Greenmarkets and fish markets and coordinate resources and deliveries from upstate food sheds.

Michael Anthony: Gramercy Tavern, Peter Hoffman: Savoy and Back Forty, Marc Meyer:  Cookshop and Five Points; Mario Batali: Babbo and Del Posto and...); and Dan Barber, Blue Hill, were on the premiere list of New York City-based master chefs – and who will be featured in the-next in-the-queue Homegrown book.

At that time, very few, if any, chefs had public relations staff.  After researching and searching the internet and news stories and farmers markets, I called the chefs and restaurants straight away.  Sometimes I needed persistence, and other times I needed to cajole in order to convince the chefs of the importance of their leadership and culinary work.  In my experience, most of the Homegrown chefs are quite humble – usually not aware of their impact, as they are so busy crediting and nurturing the growers who inspire them, not to mention their kitchen and restaurant staffs.

I did the interviews live, in the restaurants, with the chefs, recording and writing madly in my notebook, altogether awed to in the presence of such talent and determined drive.

I was extremely honored to have been the first one to interview master chef Dan Barber the day after he was named the James Beard award winner for Best Chef in America.  I was scooting over from the apartment on Fifth Avenue and chef Dan was texting he’d be a bit late

No worries for me, I assured him. 

New York is like that.  Flex time on steroids.

We do so much, and schedules collide.

I got to Blue Hill restaurant and stepping down into the cool dimmed, dining room, noticed the abundant floral arrangements adorning the bar top like a special events tablescape.  It was like the Frank Sinatra ballad, “One for my baby and One for the Road in that the only folks in the place were me, the man cleaning the floor and the woman quietly making order of the phone and operations.   Not long after, she let me know that chef Dan would be arriving soon; he was on the way.  She somewhat conspiratorially shared that he was a tad late because of last night.  Hmmm.  “He won the James Beard award.”  What?? I picked up the NY Times Dining section that I had saved to savor later. (I learned my lesson – I read this Wednesday feature section first, and now I read on Twitter the night before!”)

Soon enough, Dan arrived for the interview.  And you know what, he was so humble; he never even brought up a word about the James Beard award! Why didn’t I?

This remarkable attitude and view toward what it is to be an executive chef and restaurant owner was an inspiring love-at-first-talk/old school manners and humility. 

The fact that these early leaders’ vision was new and filled a need for good locally grown and raised food, in fact, launched an era of inspired attention and passion surrounding food security, and quality and farmer and school children welfare and taste for real honest-to-goodness, homegrown food.

It felt like a tsunami of forces coalescing.

It was exhilarating. To be on the cusp of culinary discovery.

Suddenly it seemed, there were glamorous culinary benefits to raise monies for the greenmarkets, the farmers and the school gardens.

Camera crews were peeking out at the Greenmarket almost as much as the new green shoots were.

TV shows took Julia Child’s on-camera cooking t o new heights of more than cooking. 

Now, cooking shows sprouted up like, well, mushrooms.  Watching chefs cook and compete was a national pastime – not unlike sports.  Top Chef, Master Chefs, Celebrity Chefs – chefs were now rock stars.

There was a palpable thrill.  And I could not wait to showcase and help tell their stories.

It was after completing the nearly 20 NYC-based chef interviews, when I was asked by editor to add in the master chefs of the Hamptons, I thought,

“Why not?"

I soon found myself researching the best of the best on the East End of Long Island and was delighted to discover the half a dozen or so chefs I needed to complete the NYC book.

I learned the Hampton Jitney schedule and the hocus pocus of seeming to wait on otherwise unheralded Manhattan street corners, armed with only what appeared to me as a secret mob-inspired direction like: “Meet up at the corner of Lexington and 38^th “ or Third and 47^th” 

It was a perfectly wonderful way to journey to the land of sea and farms and celebrities though.  And once in Sag Harbor, I landed right across the street from the most charming lodging, recommend to me by Peter Garnham, writer and farmer extraordinaire and my soon-to-be British-born sherpa of all things Hamptons – and a fellow oyster-lover to boot.

The American Hotel was someplace out of Central Casting and it was perfect for me.  The staff there made me feel like I was home from day one.

I’ve written before about how well appointed the place is – like something out of a Ralph Lauren ad.

After greetings and getting the lay of the land there, I quickly unpacked my things, loving the armoire and the big bed and desk – all too perfect for a writer I thought. 

I made my way back downstairs for a dining room lunch – with my Mac – in order to continue writing – and whom do I spot right off the bat?  Billy Joel.

Yes, this is going to my kind of place, I smiled.

I decided that to really appreciate the experience of being there, “in the Hamptons” I would rent a bike to get to my interview appointments, rather than drive around.  This way I could see the landscape, the gardens and the architecture.

I didn’t know until chef Joe Realmuto quizzically (or astoundingly) watched me disembark from the bike at East Hampton’s Nick & Toni’s restaurant and farm out back, and hearing him say, “Did you ride your bike here from Sag Harbor?” that I had the surest feeling that this is not the norm.

“Yes,” I replied.  “Is that crazy?” I added for assurance.  “Well, kinda” he offered.

I was already a bit late, having mis-judged the travel time on bike (I had gotten a bit turned round the day before when chef Michael Rozzi fortuitously happened to be driving with his wife not too far away and he came and picked me up – bike in tow in the back of the SUV for our appointed interview at the Della Femina restaurant.

My next bike trip for the interviews was to the North Fork – via two ferries – to Satur Farms…

Next up:  the adventure trip to North Shore on the bicycle.

The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook Secures Pub Date

I have a date with a warehouse.

Well, in fact, my book does!  

My editor, Melinda, wrote yesterday to say the book “The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook is printing the end of March and is scheduled to be in the warehouse here, April 25.

That is music to my ears.

And it’s pretty much spot-on, timing-wise for heralding the spring and summer homegrown edible gardening and farming, and dining season!

To pre-order my book "The Hamptons & Long Island Homegrown Cookbook" at B&N, Amazon:

http://tiny.cc/b435

I also got to “E-Meet” Brenda who is the publisher’s pro and my contact for ordering the book.  It’s my understanding that Brenda will be working with me and the restaurants and farm stands and gift shops to make the book available to homegrown fans and enthusiasts. 

And Melinda wrote last week that they have assigned a public relations expert to work with me locally to get the word out about the book and the amazing master chefs and the farmers who inspire them.

We tightened up the mailing list this week for the growers and farmers and added a few web sites for those artisanal growers who are just putting up a web site.

I am now trying to add the book jacket and the pre-order link to the signature on my email accounts and to my blog.  But boy, is technology wrestling with me. Oooohhh.

But hey, I’ve come through the rings of fire to get to this point so this pesky posting is like a walk in the park.

Culinary Cubs

I am very much looking forward to producing a fascinating cohort of passionate foodies and cooks to test out and try the recipes from the book, prior to publication. 

I am naming my special cooking group, the Culinary Cubs :)   

If you are a foodie and want to be part of the experience, do let me know. 

My plan is to share a recipe or two every week with the Culinary Cubs. 

Everyone will make the dish(es) and then write and or blog about the recipe preparation and the finished dish. 

I’ll publish the unedited feedback here on the Master Chefs blog and will also share a monthly update on my Examiner.com Food & Drink column.

It will be fun and informative! 

And oh-so-delicious. 

It’s getting exciting now.

Cheers.  

wd~50 Restaurant serves Magic

Yes, yes, wd~50 is a restaurant located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Yes, there are all the standard clues of an established, star-studded, Michelin-sparkly culinary castle: a welcoming hostess, a bar, and happy diners fronting a semi-open kitchen in the back.

So you will be forgiven for thinking this will be “just” a fantastic, outstanding, Gotham dining experience.

But the galaxy is upturned once the food is served. 

It is nothing less than alchemy that delights, enchants, and surprises. 

It is at times, frothy, silky, and architectural in ways that whisper, “Impossible.” 

This is why one dines at top-tier restaurants.

To be honest, I've never been a fan of what can be commonly referred to as “tortured” food that is deconstructed, emulsified and whipped -- as advanced by Ferran Adria at El Bulli and Grant Achatz at Alinea. 

wd~50’s Chef Wylie Dufresne is revered in that very Molecular Gastronomy constellation.   

While there’s no getting away from the fact that in the macro sense, I firmly believe science is a revered holy grail.  And for all the world I worship at the alter that says food is considered an art unto itself. 

Farm to Table and Fin to Table could be tattooed on my mixing muscle. 

And yet…. There was that undeniable seduction at wd~50 wooing the dining table. 

It was like falling for the bad boy.

The table of natural and some vegan food enthusiasts: Leila Dylla and her Southhampton cousin Nicole: in from out of town to help open the new yoga studio around the corner, “Stanton Street Yoga” (www.stantonstreetyoga.com) were undeniably over the moon about each and every dish, working up from the foreplay of appetizers to the final throes of romantic titillation brought on by the out-of-this-world culmination from dessert-heaven or some other celestial land: the desserts.

The meal was a tour de force.

There is an undeniable frisson where wd~50 ‘s menu is accessorized with lots of adjectives before the ingredients, such as “compressed mango” and “aerated foie” and “liquid churro.” 

It is another world that is nonetheless filled with fresh and local food fare that plays well in the sandbox with the kitchen wall of jarred and bottled items that are used in a cooking genre referred to as chef Wylie’s “melting pot of techniques.” 

The game-changing dining love affair began with a Mardi Gras martini – the last imbibing of the nightly cocktail hour drink – until Lent is over…

I lament the fact I ever started doing penance by giving up martinis for Lent but I do appreciate them so and now I'd feel weak if I didn't muster the courage to continue to deny myself this treat.

The cocktail list on the wine menu at the restaurant included a formal New Orleans-styled cocktail and lots of other creations. 

The wine list at wd~50 is extensive too, but most are pricey.  The Italian red Papa Celso we enjoyed was robust and just right.

In contrast to the pages of wine choices, the food menu, labeled “To Eat” is simple, spare and straightforward – not unlike the décor, which looks rather midcentury with Caribbean Sea azure blue walls and a fireplace in one corner and seating that is both neat tables and booths.

With five to eight offerings to choose from within the three categories on the menu, it would seem easy enough to select what to eat.

But it is not easy. The menu items are complex and unique and curious.  And so much more fun to read and talk about…

Menu items have no monikers (like Organic Spicy Chicken, or Lobster Roll).

This menu defies common categorization.  Savory is mixed with sweet.

Off on a culinary adventure, tablemates are set to buzzing.  “What is the aerated foie?” (with pickled beet, mashad plum brioche)

Or, “Eggs Benedict for an appetizer?  What do you think?”

Even the Peekytoe crab roll, salt ‘n vinegar chips, celery mayonnaise, while appearing to touch a familiar chord, sparks gastro talk.

Andrew, the friendly and confident waiter-as-sherpa helped when asked, peppering the table talk with his favorite foods from the menu. 

Once we mastered the “Appetizers,” he suggested we order everything at the same time so it was back to the magnificent “Mains.” 

Sesame Flat Bread!

After more gastro-talking, and marveling at the thin-as-gossamer, glistening, sesame crisp flat bread sensations, it is soon settled. 

Not knowing how the listed ingredients might ever marry up – the ingredients are like the United Nations of the kitchen (the bubble in your head will be forgiven for asking, “Did the chef really mean for these things to go together?”),

the selections were: Mediterranean bass, artichokes, white chocolate-green olive and Forbidden Rice  -- that item alone, in turn, led to some exotic wink, wink-talk while ordering but was, in fact, according to Andrew, a favorite of the Chinese emperors.  

Apocryphal or not, legend has it those guys didn’t like to share.  Worse than the “Soup Nazi – they kept it all to themselves: ergo the Forbidden element.

The skate, sunflower seed, sunchoke and giardiniera and corned duck, rye crisp, purple mustard, and horseradish cream and scallops completed the palette of inspired selections.

In between time was the amuse bouche of fresh fennel fronds cut into diminutive cubes and puree, cured black bay tamarind, and walnut olive that was by turns somehow both light and salty, textury and citrusy.

Sesame Fennel Fronds

There was also a circus happy chef creation of compressed mango mousse and a caramel, a Lady Luck sake lees or sake kasu, (rice mash paste left at the end of sake-making.  (See video explanation and demonstration here produced by Gourmet Magazine: http://www.gourmet.com/food/video/2008/03/dufresne_sakelees)

and a cashew caramel nicotine lemon sauce. It was rich and refreshing all at the same time. The bottom was less than tasty though, but the others liked the texture even though it seemed a tad tough or stringy and superfluous given the overall out-of-the-park flavor of the dish and its marmalade like mango consistency.  

Mango Photo courtesy of Leila Dylla

The corned duck was a playful mix of pink meat, micro celery on rye crisps, horseradish cream and garlic pickled in horseradish.

Duck is finger food swirled on a toast point 

The foie gras was aerated into dessert-looking puffs accompanied by crispy brioche and a pureed plum “sauce.”  The foie puff clouds were light and salty. It is magically surreal and heavenly tasting! 

Aerated foie!  

Peekytoe Crab & world's teeniest chips!

The peekytoe crab was juicy and light – their version of a lobster roll. 

Jiminy Cricket must’ve made the potato chips.  They are darling and should win the Guinness Book of world records for the teeniest chips anywhere. They brought smiles all round – when not oohing and ahhing about the crab taste.  

Bass

The skate entrée was served like strudel – a beautiful presentation, topped only by the artful bass laid languidly on the plate like a sunning fashion diva.  

Both were textured with flavorful sauces.

The artichoke buttons accompanying the skate were meaty and tasty.

The desserts were the final act in this new-found, capricious affair.

They brought down the house. And the diners to their knees.

Pastry chef Malcolm Livingston II plays second fiddle to no one. 

His pedigree is Per Se and Le Cirque and was chef Alex Stupak’s pastry sous chef at wd~50. (This reporter’s May ’11 review of Stupak’s Empellon  http://tiny.cc/5gd2j)

However, his creations are uniquely Malcolm’s. He owns this denouement.

The in-your-face presentations and out-of-this-world flavors and ingredients using spices and savory items are at once startling, provocative and sensual and seem to belie chef Malcolm’s reserved countenance. 

Warm Spice Cake!

The warm spice cake, coconut tamarind, coriander and pineapple hinted of a French toast kind of long-lost relation – it was elegant, subtle, with ying and yang temperatures  -- and is crazy good.  

The soft meringue, passionfruit, banana and star anise combination was silky and yet proud on the tongue with the fruit caressing the aftertastes.

Passionfruit dessert Photo courtesy: Leila Dylla

Passionfruit treasure revealed

The chocolate, beet, long pepper and ricotta was the Carmen Miranda of the night. 

She came to the table fiery red –- a full frontal come-hither flirt demanding to be noticed. 

How could anyone miss the splash of Pollack-like red beet “paint” splayed gored and bleeding around the plate and the ricotta nubs drenched in the heat of its passion punctuated by chocolate mousse?

Artful Food Explosion

If I smoked, I would’ve needed a cigarette!

We were spent.  But not before some frothy, foamy cappuccino to bring us back round to earth.

OK, so manipulating the food maybe too strong an objection to this type of food preparation. 

The fact is, it is not contrived for contrarian’s sake.  Rather it is an artful expression.  And bottom line? The food is excellent, delicious, and exciting. 

The ingredients are locally sourced from Greenmarkets, too.

Hmmm, maybe a dedicated culinary enthusiast can have it all…

If food like this can make even experienced cooks and foodies clap their hands with pure, unabashed joy and delight – then this is the reason to experience dining out:  at wd~50.

A quick tour of the kitchen by the gracious manager, Timothy Mustard demonstrated chef Wylie’s commitment to creativity. 

OK, must do quick aside here. 

This reporter loves the idea that three are those who seem drawn to professions where their names are currency—to whit, besides Mustard and the condiment connection are Todd Forrest at the New York Botanical Garden, who was the curator of the Forest (now is Vice President of Horticulture), Blossom at NYBG, Jeff Bright from NYC lighting company… Michael Pollan said he collects these “name magnets” where people are inextricably linked to their craft.  And when you think about it, the name pollan and gardens (hint: pollinators and pollen) are not too far off the mark.

Back to the accommodating, hospitable and elegant Mr. Mustard. He knows his stuff – about the restaurant’s mission, history and food talent. He possesses great stories and is keen to share them.

He told the group the open kitchen at wd~50 was designed by chef Wylie, to allow each cook to work in their own station.  Every cook has his or her own space for oven and prep work.  Chef Wylie also designed the kitchen’s infiltration system. 

That is thoughtful and smart and forward thinking. 

This is a chef who clearly respects his cooking team.

Good luck at the Miami Food & Wine Festival, Chef Wylie - where he was on the night of this exciting dinner experience.

Cheers. 

wd~50 Restaurant is located at:

50 Clinton Street

New York, NY 10022

212-477-2900

www.wd-50.com

Vegan Divas Launches Dessert Line & Gluten-Free Tide Raises All Taste Buds

All hopeless romantics yearn to believe that when love is in the air all things are possible.

The Culinary Cupids flitting about the pastry table at Payard’s in Rio de Janeiro must have sensed a budding, soon-to-be-romantic coupling between Fernanda Capobianco, owner of Payard’s Rio, and François Payard, the Michelin award-winning, four-starred pastry chef was to be their glorious masterpiece.

Miss Capobianco, the stunningly elegant former political public relations expert was not cooperating, however.  

While the talented, handsome prince charming chef François seemed smitten from the first cream puff, Fernanda recalled pointing out that well, she had a boyfriend. 

Pastry builds stamina and endurance, it seems, and after a year or so – or in less time than it takes to learn how to make truly blissful croissants, François won Fernando’s heart. 

Ahhhh.

The Culinary Cupids were dancing on their croquembouche.

Wedding bells soon followed. 

Culinary Power Couple: Fernanda Copabianco & husband, Master Pastry Chef Francois Payard

Three years ago, Fernanda relocated to New York City, the epicenter of Payard’s culinary brands and, no surprise, before too long, visions of desserts were dancing around her intoxicating head.

But not just any desserts.  Mais non! 

Fernanda is from the land of bossa nova and string bikinis and caipirinha and Giselle.

Moreover, being a vegan herself, she bemoaned the lack of vegan desserts. 

Seriously, it wasn’t all that long ago that getting a vegan savory entree was considered a bit off the grid.

Vegan desserts? 

That was a joke.

Now, dessert lovers can be giggling and smiling. 

All the way through a variety of amazingly delicious vegan confections thanks to Fernanda’s dedication to offer fellow vegans sweets that taste good.

“Plus my father is a diabetic,” said Fernanda during an interview at the premiere tasting of her Vegan Divas product line that has more attributes and accolades than a Girl Scout cookie top seller’s merit badge.

Here’s the benchmark Vegan Divas value-added list that all others will have to measure up to:

* 100% natural

* Vegan

* Low-Calorie

* No Cholesterol

* Organic Ingredients

* High in Fiber

* Kosher

* Parve

Vegan Divas Carrot Cake

See the full product line of good-tasting, delicious desserts at www.vegandivasnyc.com  

Vegan Chocolate Mousse!

The product line launch tasting allowed food enthusiasts to sample outstanding confections, including the heart-shaped Spelt Chocolate Brownie. 

Vegan Divas Fernanda Capobianco & Food Networks "Sweet Genius" Master pastry chef Ron Ben-Israel

Master Pastry Chef Ron Ben-Israel smooching it up for Vegan Divas sweets!

Food Network TV Pastry Chef, Sweet Genius, Ron Ben-Israel, (www.weddingcakes.com) - there to support his “Pastry Peeps,” declared the brownies the best he’d ever tasted - bar none, according to Fernanda.  “Forget that they are vegan or gluten free,” he pronounced.  

At the same time, I believe the parenthetical “for a vegan or gluten-free” – or fill in whatever dietary guidelines that enlightened nutritionists have researched and advised people to follow -- misses the point for any recipe or line of food that is focused on dietary measures that lead to a better, healthier life for those who must avoid dairy, eggs, and casein.

Why can’t one have both taste and nutrition?  Why the need to whisper, … “For a vegan recipe, it’s “OK.” Or “Good.”

Truth be told, we are still in the early or beta stages of alternative and different nutritional cuisines.

Vegan Divas has established a benchmark that others would be wise to follow.

Fernanda researched her dessert recipes for more than a year. She established a bakery in Long Island City to accommodate both the vegan and the gluten free dessert making.

She tested and tried recipes using spelt flour, maple syrup, and coconut oil, for example. 

See Dr. Oz for his recommendation to use coconut oil in cooking – the good doctor touted the powerful health benefits of the tropical oil recently – very helpful for diabetics and blood sugar levels. (www.doctoroz.com/videos/coconut-oil-super-powers-pt-1)

I recommend coconut water in cooking and making smoothies.

Many at the tasting delighted in the samples with top honors going to the brownies; the doughnuts: cinnamon sugar, toasted coconut, chocolate iced doughnut; oatmeal raisin cookie with chili powder, and big-time favorites: Gluten-free coconut macaroon and the Decadent Chocolate cake -- Fernando’s favorite.  One taste of the layered dark chocolate and French ganache and one is in mmm, mmm heaven.  

The complete product line will soon be available from the Vegan Diva website. 

They also do parties and events: 646-499-4843.

Culinary Cupids can get these delicious confections in time for their sweeties now at Whole Foods, Garden of Eden, and the West Side Market. 

Behind every great relationship there is a story.

Vegan Divas is one sweet confection of a love story.  

And they’re just getting started.  

Gluten Free Restaurant

Are you yearning to go out and try a delicious gluten-free restaurant?  

There is no better place to dine than Rubirosa Ristorante Family Style Italian Restaurant. http://rubirosanyc.com/press.html

Located at 235 Mulberry Street between Prince and Spring, this down to Little Italy, home-style eatery.  

My dear childhood friend Mary Kay has recently been diagnosed with ciliacs disease, thank goodness.  

And you know I don't mean that the way it sounds.

Rather, we are so grateful that finally, after far too many years of doctors telling her -- and other women their condition is something else (pick your poisen: stress is usually the most proffered counsel) she was able to isolate what her demons are and then voila -- embrace the remedy.

Initially -- and this could take a book unto itself -- the gluten-free diet seemed so restricting. 

I scurried to Barnes & Noble thinking I'd research some obscure diet cookbooks. 

And while that notion was not too far off the mark only a few years ago, the helpful salesgirl, avec pierced nose and tattoos, pointed me to the best gluten-free cookbooks and added her father was now on board with her dietary guidelines, convinced it was healthier.

OK, but tastier?

That element had a ways to go back then.

My childhood girlfriends have a longstanding tradition to really celebrate twice a year for our birthdays. But given Mary Kay's newfound gluten-free diet, we'd eaten at home the last few times. Not that that is a bad thing. We're all wonderful, good cooks.

But a birthday is a time to go out. Kick up your heels. 

And so, enter Rubirosa Ristorante.  

It was terrific.  Family pulled strings to get us a reservation.  

Mary Kay loved the food. Yeah!  

And as noted earlier, the true test of vegan and gluten-free food is not so much how it is almost like real food, but that it IS real food.  

All three of us loved the food.    

Rubirosa is a family-owned and operated restaurant that knows good ingredients and is dedicated to serving the best tasting food. They saw an opportunity a few years ago to produce delicious gluten-free recipes for a burgeoning population of restaurant goers.  So now the menu is dedicated to terrific food: Gluten-free or ...

Rubirosa owner and hostess

Love a restaurant owner who can mug it up!

                           
You can play a good dining game and aside from dietary constraints for those who cannot have the non gluten-free food - go ahead and try to taste test the two versions: "regular" and gluten-free.  

You will be hard-pressed to ID the vegan or gluten-free.

Bottom line?  

Who cares?  

If it tastes good, and challenges your heretofore conception of "food" relax and enjoy.

And judging by the jam-packed "butts to nuts" crowd of dining enthusiasts in the restaurant on our way out, there are more than enough foodies who enjoy being in such good company.

Cheers.