Emily Saladino — Food and Beverage Journalist

Five Spring Cookbooks by 91��߹ Alumni

aday — Wed, 08 May 2019 13:45:42 +0000

Five Spring Cookbooks by 91��߹ Alumni aday Wed, 05/08/2019 - 09:45 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/spring%202019%20cookbook%20header.jpg.webp?itok=QzJWd8Io The latest book releases feature Italian share plates, superfoods and strategic cooking from Culinary Arts grads. May 14, 2019

By Emily Saladino — Food and Beverage Journalist

In addition to recipes, this season’s crop of cookbooks from Institute of Culinary Education alumni offers mind-body alchemy, time management tips and wanderlust. Health and wellness are decidedly of-the-moment themes, as is the sort of multitasking that finds home cooks serving up large platters for entertaining or saving last night’s cauliflower stems for tomorrow’s tacos. Dessert is similarly smart and perfect for home cooks with globe-trotting palates.

Here are five alumni’s cookbooks that we’re excited to cook and learn from this spring.

“Piatti: Plates and Platters for Sharing, Inspired by Italy” by Stacy Adimando

Saveur executive editor and James Beard Award-winning cookbook author Stacy Adimando (Culinary, ’10) explores Italian-inspired spreads in this beautiful, thoughtful book with a partially exposed spine ⎯ a creative design feature that makes it easy to find on crowded shelves. Organized by seasons, recipes include small plates like grilled apricots with pine nut pesto in the summertime, as well as such crowd-pleasing, family-style mains as seared shrimp with braised savoy cabbage in autumn. There is also a helpful guide to building an antipasti-ready pantry, including rubrics for a basic pickle brine, garlic confit, and cherry tomatoes preserved in olive oil.

Recipes reprinted from La Grotta: Ice Creams and Sorbets. Copyright © 2018 by Kitty Travers. Photographs by Grant Cornett. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

“La Grotta: Ice Creams and Sorbets” by Kitty Travers

While U.K.-born Kitty Travers (Culinary, ’03) was working an “unglamorous” waitressing gig in Cannes, France, she was blown away by the local ice cream. Thus began her life’s work in desserts, first as the pastry chef at Fergus Henderson’s St. John Bread and Wine restaurant in London and now at her company, La Grotta Ices, which sells wildly creative ice creams seasonally from the city’s Spa Terminus farmers market. Kitty’s second book features artful flavor combinations like white peach and basil, and papaya with green chili and lime. “You don’t have to use mysterious powders to make great ice cream,” Kitty writes, because “the foundations of a perfect scoop” lie in striking the right balance of simple ingredients: milk, sugar and fresh eggs.

“The Superfood Alchemy Cookbook: Transform Nature's Most Powerful Ingredients Into Nourishing Meals and Healing Remedies” by Jennifer Iserloh

A certified yoga instructor, nutritionist and health coach, Jennifer Iserloh (Culinary, ’03) abides by the mantra “feel better, heal better.” Her wellness-centric cookbook and lifestyle guide shares plant-based recipes geared toward specific pains and ailments, such as buttered and roasted Brazil nuts for thyroid health, and promotes mental-physical connections with carrot-apple soup with nutmeg, for “calming the mind.” Each chapter also includes non-edible recipes for products like mint-coconut oil toothpaste and facial cleansers made with essential oils.

“Every Day is Saturday: Recipes + Strategies for Easy Cooking, Every Day of the Week” by Sarah Copeland

From the author of “Feast” and “The Newlywed Cookbook” comes this recipe collection that doubles as a time management primer. Formerly the food director for Real Simple, Sarah Copeland (Culinary, ’02) shares recipes and tactics for busy, health-conscious home cooks to maximize every ingredient and free moment. A week’s worth of herbs can be cleaned, dried and portioned on Sunday, for example, and banana bread gets rebooted with coconut oil, oats and applesauce. While some recipes do require advance planning or preparation, Sarah’s strategies will provide endless inspiration for the #mealprep set.

“I Heart Kosher: Beautiful Recipes from My Kitchen” by Kim Kushner

“Less is more,” writes Kim Kushner (Culinary, ’04) in this beautifully photographed array of weeknight dinners and show-stopping vegetables. After graduating from 91��߹, Kim worked as a private chef and recipe developer, appeared on the "Today" show and amassed 19,000 Instagram followers. Like many contemporary cookbooks, “I Heart Kosher” is equal parts accessible (recipes include marinated feta, wine-baked chicken with root vegetables) and aspirational (pristine kitchen, adorable family). All ingredients are kosher, of course; though Kim’s cooking style is suited to anyone who prioritizes seasonal, healthy, family-friendly fare.

Explore recreational writing classes or the foundation for developing your own recipes in Culinary Arts at 91��߹.

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Navigating the Plant-Based Craze

aday — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 14:58:50 +0000

Navigating the Plant-Based Craze aday Fri, 04/05/2019 - 10:58 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/vegan%20sushi%20header.jpg.webp?itok=Rle9hXee Beyond Sushi Chefs and restaurant owners weigh in on dining and lifestyle trends, from vegetable-forward to vegan. April 8, 2019

By Emily Saladino — Food and Beverage Journalist

When 91��߹ alum Chef Guy Vaknin (Culinary, ’07) opened his New York City restaurant, Beyond Sushi, in 2012, neither he nor his menu were vegan. “I didn’t know much about plant-based food. I was just trying to create a healthy concept that was a little bit different,” Guy says. “But I got educated by my customers.”

Two weeks after launching, Guy made Beyond’s menu completely vegan. Six months later, he was vegan, too, and his evolution mirrors national trends. While American omnivores still outnumber vegetarians and vegans (by a lot!), enthusiasm for plant-based dining is ascendant. In a 2018 survey of 1,100 Americans, 34% of respondents expressed interest in plant-based cuisine.

The Institute of Culinary Education now offers plant-forward curriculum at the new Natural Gourmet Center. James Beard Award-winning restaurants like Vedge in Philadelphia proudly eschew meat. So do WeWork’s coworking spaces worldwide.

Even fast food drive-throughs are pivoting. Carl’s Jr. recently debuted a meat-free Beyond Burger at 1,000 locations. Meanwhile, White Castle’s Impossible Slider showcases the Impossible Burger, a plant-based meat substitute developed by Silicon Valley engineers to the tune of $80 million. Burger King is testing a Whopper made with the Impossible Burger, too.

Whether these developments signify the bright future or impending demise of plant-based cuisine depends on your worldview. Critics say the arrival of expensively engineered, faux-beef burgers in fast-food chains impedes true culinary revolution. Others argue meat-free cuisine needs mainstream ambassadors, and these could eventually help alter American attitudes toward meat.

Change is never easy, whether it’s wrapped in paper napkins or political rhetoric. The plant-based movement has arrived in America. Now we have to figure out where it goes.

In food, as in life, the terminology matters. Those who self-identify as vegans abstain from eating animal byproducts. Vegetarians don’t consume meat. “Plant-based” is a flexible, more forgiving culinary identity.

“It doesn’t mean that you are vegetarian or vegan and never eat meat or dairy,” Katherine D. McManus, M.S., R.D., L.D.N., writes on Harvard Medical School’s health blog. “Rather, you are proportionately choosing more of your foods from plant sources.”

If you have a small serving of roast chicken in your grain salad on Sunday night, followed by vegan sushi rolls twice that week for lunch, plus intermittent servings of lentil soup, congratulations! You are exploring a plant-based diet.

Alicia Kennedy, a food writer and host of the "Meatless" podcast, credits the 1971 book “Diet for a Small Planet” with introducing plant-based dining to the American mainstream. Since then, “there have been distinct phases in the culture and cuisine,” Alicia says. “It began very soy focused, with tofu and tempeh, moving toward seitan, and now a lot of the food is coconut- and nut-based.”

Social attitudes changed in tandem. Vegetarianism was once a crunchy subculture baked into your hippie aunt’s 1970s mung-bean casseroles. In the post-aughts era, however, thanks to a variety of factors, plant-based eating seems cool and a little aspirational. (Beyonce and Jay-Z famously dabble in veganism, after all.)

Beyond Sushi specializes in vegan sushi and seasonal rice bed salads.

“Everybody is trying to be healthier, to live a long life,” Guy says. While no one is claiming veganism is a fountain of youth, a 2013 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition did link reducing or eliminating meat from one’s diet to cancer prevention and cardiac health.

Others are eliminating meat and animal byproducts as a way of diagnosing or managing children’s food allergies — reports of which were up 18 percent between 1997 and 2007, according to Johns Hopkins.

Chef Tiffany Hancock, owner of The Southern V, a vegan soul food restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee, embraced plant-based cooking because of her infant daughter’s food intolerances. “I went vegan overnight to alleviate her issues,” Tiffany told Essence.

Then, of course, there is the less medical, more mindful appeal. For better or worse, plant-based eating rubs elbows with green juice and cryotherapy in the amorphous entity known as 21st-century wellness culture. Fast Company describes wellness as any activity or product connected to physical or mental well-being and values the wellness industry at $4.2 trillion. Conversations about plant-based cuisine often include terms like “clean eating” and appeal to those questioning mainstream medical systems or institutions.

The backlash against plant-based eating is predominantly directed at faux meats. Impossible and Beyond burgers are prohibitively expensive for many consumers.

“The Impossible Burger costs me more than a filet mignon would in another restaurant,” Guy says. Nation’s Restaurant News reports that the Carl’s Jr. Beyond Famous Star burger starts at $6.29, versus the $3.69 regular Famous Star burger.

Alicia believes expensively engineered burgers are also counterproductive to plant-based progress.

“I think the next step has to be a continued focus on whole foods — nuts, legumes, and seasonal fruits and vegetables,” she says. “There is clearly money to be made in more tech-driven vegan products, such as veggie burgers, but that is a step backwards, in my view, toward processed foods that don't support sustainable, localized agriculture.”

Guy avoids artificial meats or cheeses in his vegan menu items, preferring to focus on fresh vegetables, fruits and grains. Still, he is impressed by the quality of products like the Impossible Burger. For vegans who formerly ate meat, he says, the Impossible Burger’s uncanny resemblance to animal protein can render nostalgia in the pan, reminding them of long-dismissed flavors and creating bridges between omnivores and vegans.

With how many Americans use the term “meat and potatoes” to mean “fundamental,” we probably shouldn’t be surprised that the shift away from meat-centric dining requires such nuance.

Expensively engineered meat-free burgers are not the end zone; they are the completion that keeps the rest of the drive in motion. As more restaurants, culinary brands and recipe developers embrace plant-based cooking, we will inevitably see a broader sea change.

With many questioning institutions once held dear, from food pyramids to corporations to college degrees, why shouldn’t we reconsider meat’s position in the center of the plate?

“We had perceptions in the past, ‘This is how you should eat,’” Guy says. “But perception changes. And it changes a lot faster in this day and age.”

Pursue a career in plant-based cooking with our Health-Supportive Culinary Arts program.

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New York City’s Ever-Evolving Chinese Food Scene

aday — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 16:31:55 +0000

New York City’s Ever-Evolving Chinese Food Scene aday Mon, 10/01/2018 - 12:31 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/little%20tong%20header.jpg.webp?itok=2HRNcMdx One of NYC’s oldest cuisines still surprises in neighborhoods beyond Chinatown. October 3, 2018

By Emily Saladino — Food and Beverage Journalist

Chinese food has taken on a life of its own in New York City, where regional specialties and new concepts are constantly redefining the cuisine. Here’s where critics and locals are slurping to celebrate the latest resurgence of the long-celebrated comfort food.

Most Americans have a deeply personal relationship with Chinese food.

Some of us have inherited ties to ancient regional Chinese culinary traditions. Others are devoted to wildly inauthentic facsimiles. Either way, Chinese and Chinese-inspired cooking feed our experiences and imaginations.

Of course, how we define Chinese food in America varies. The people making, serving and eating it span generations, nationalities, ethnicities and countless other demographic factors.

MaLa Project serves Sichuan-style dry pot in New York City.

Now an array of openings in New York City is bringing new options to those hungry for regional and diasporic Chinese specialties such as Yunnan rice noodles, Sichuan dry pot, and Hong Kong clay pot rice. The activity is centered in two areas: Manhattan’s East Village, where five new rice noodle shops and a critically renowned Hong Kong clay pot rice destination have debuted since 2017; and Queens’ Flushing neighborhood, home to two posh new Sichuan restaurants.

These areas have always had excellent dining scenes, but, for many New Yorkers, the newest openings represent culinary and stylistic shifts.

“This surge is no accident,” Jenny G. Zhang writes on Eater. “Trendy Chinese restaurants in the East Village have proliferated due to a few different forces — from the mainstreaming of Chinese cuisine to restaurateurs’ increasing sense of a cultural mission.” Meanwhile, in Queens, affluent communities drive and support sophisticated restaurants where the caliber of cuisine matches elevated interiors (and, in some cases, price tags).

This wave of new and dynamic restaurants is not part of some marketing-driven trend, like rainbow bagels or unicorn Frappucinos. These restaurants are the latest development on a long continuum of Chinese and Chinese-American cuisine in NYC. Heralded by critics and popular with locals, they are part of our evolution as diners, and as Americans.

Clay Pot serves a clay pot with unagi (eel) and beef in the East Village.

Sichuan-style cooking has been a mainstay of New York City restaurants since the 1960s. With the recent debuts of critical darlings Guan Fu and DaXi in Queens, “a new phase in the development of Sichuan food is underway,” Robert Simonson, Eater’s restaurant critic, declares.

DaXi serves elevated takes on Chinese-American favorites like cold cucumber salad, reimagined here as a crispy cucumber roll. Its trompe l’oeil plate of kung pao shrimp comes in a box of fried rice paper shaped to resemble a Chinese food takeout container.

Another Sichuan-American newcomer, Guan Fu, lies less than two blocks from DaXi in Queens’ Flushing neighborhood. Its modern Sichuan menu includes an elegant cuttlefish salad with pickled pepper, served in a fiery sauce made from roasted and skinned green chiles.

Guan Fu serves an increasingly wealthy Chinese-American population “that is starting to transform this end of Flushing,” Pete Wells, The New York Times’ restaurant critic, writes in a three-star review.

“The owners, Li Boru and Xue Wei, moved from China to New York to go to graduate school and wanted to open a restaurant that would evoke the aristocratic cooking of China’s dynastic era,” Wells writes.

This is evidenced in Guan Fu’s posh dining room, fitted with beautiful carved wood panels, and occasionally expense-account-worthy prices. King and crystal crabs, lobster and soft-shell turtle are all available at market prices that reflect their five-star environs.

“It took more than a hundred years and a few generations to make Chinese-American food, to make everybody know General Tso,” says Simone Tong (Culinary Arts/Management, ‘11), chef of Little Tong Noodle Shop in Manhattan. “I’ve only had a restaurant open for 16 months.”

Unlike the myriad Hunan- and Sichuan-inspired restaurants in Manhattan, Little Tong specializes in Yunnan-inspired rice noodles. The Yunnan province spans more than 150,000 square miles and borders Myanmar, Vietnam, Tibet and Laos. Tong culls influences from the entire province.

Little Tong serves small plates like salted cucumbers and Chinese broccoli salad alongside show-stopping noodle soups. The stellar Grandma Chicken Mixian is made with garlic-and-black-sesame oil, flecks of fermented chili, pickles, chrysanthemum and tender confit chicken. “It has to be the most interesting chicken noodle soup in the city right now,” Wells writes in a two-star review.

Grandma Chicken Mixian, courtesy of Little Tong

A 2011 graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education, Tong was born in Chengdu, China. “I’m not Yunnanese, I didn’t grow up with a grandmother who made fresh noodles every day in the beautiful jungle or a beautiful village,” she says. Still, she was moved by the food and its flavors, and inspired to create her own interpretation.

“I never claim authenticity,” she says. “I only try to bring the best ingredients together to make the best food.”

And it’s working; Little Tong Noodle Shop expanded to Midtown in July and Tong’s already planning a new concept to open in the West Village in 2019. Her honest, effective approach is a hallmark of high-quality international restaurants worldwide.

“The relationship between food, politics and identity is a complex one, especially defining traditional ethnic cuisine in relation to the immigrant experience,” Jen Lue writes in a CityLab story: “The Sweet, Bitter, and Complex History of Chinese Food in America.”

Even as we struggle to define or categorize it, Chinese culinary traditions, however nebulous in origin, are inseparable from American life.

We pick up cartons of Chinese-American takeout after a long day. We meet friends for steaming bowls of niu rou mian in California’s San Gabriel Valley and celebrate anniversaries at Manhattan’s Mr. Chow. A surprising number of us even propose marriage via fortune cookies, those crunchy-sweet morsels of possibility that loom large in the Chinese-American canon, despite their inauthentic origins.

“Parents bring their kids to Little Tong, and I say, ‘You will grow up with this,’” Tong says. “This will be their Chinese restaurant that they go to instead of Chinatown. It’s a long process. We’re all going to do it together.”

Study global cuisine, including essential dishes from China, in 91��߹’s Culinary Arts program.

Global Cuisine Culinary Arts New York City Food Culture

Emily Saladino — Food and Beverage Journalist

Five Spring Cookbooks by 91����߹ Alumni

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Navigating the Plant-Based Craze

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New York City’s Ever-Evolving Chinese Food Scene

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Five Spring Cookbooks by 91��߹ Alumni