Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner — Food and Lifestyle Writer

Restaurant Meal Kits Strike Balance for Brands

aday — Wed, 13 May 2020 15:09:26 +0000

Restaurant Meal Kits Strike Balance for Brands aday Wed, 05/13/2020 - 11:09 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/restaurant%20meal%20kits%20header.jpg.webp?itok=TNCFeznx Sweetcatch's Shrimp and Crab Fried Rice Food businesses strategize to deliver their distinct dining experience to home cooks with subscription-free DIY elements. May 14, 2020

By Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner — Food and Lifestyle Writer

As New York City dining rooms sit empty for the third month of uncertainty in the industry, chefs continue making menus more amenable to at-home dining.

Takeout, of course, is as essential to any New Yorkers’ regular diet as a cold glass of New York tap water, but eating a tepid version of one’s favorite restaurant dish out of a plastic container hardly recreates the experience of sitting in a restaurant. Enter: the restaurant meal kit. This new spin on the previously online-only services offered by cooking startups like Blue Apron re-creates restaurant-quality dishes, deconstructing the recipes piece-by-piece for the diner-slash-cook to enjoy at home. Hot, fresh and plated however they see fit.

Trendy East Village Japanese eatery Bessou is vending DIY meal kits, dim sum legend Nom Wah Tea Shop is selling frozen dumplings to cook at home, and new Korean prix-fixe spot Kochi has re-created its menu to offer family meal kits for $150. Even Shake Shack has reenvisioned its takeout to vend ShackBurger kits via Goldbelly.

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A post shared by KOCHI (@kochinyc) on May 5, 2020 at 1:04pm PDT

Sweetcatch Poke, where Restaurant & Culinary Management instructor Michael Eisenberg is the chief of strategy, shared the process of launching a completely new meal kit menu to sustain business at its five Manhattan fast-casual restaurants for customized poke bowls.

“We’re always looking at ways to serve our customers and thought it would be fun to create meal kits which are easy to make,” says President and Chief Marketing Officer Silvana Nardone. “With all the quarantine cooking going on in the world, it seemed like an easy way to help people feed themselves and their families and make their day a little better or tastier.”

Sweetcatch’s staple meal kit menu includes five hot dishes: sesame rice with bacon, Brussels sprouts and tahini drizzle; sweet and spicy chili garlic, fried tofu and kale; shrimp and crab fried rice; warm spicy garlic shrimp noodle salad; pan-fried beef udon with vegetables; and beef and vegetable udon soup. Each meal is two servings, dairy free, takes roughly 10 minutes to prepare and sells for less than $25.

Chef Kohei Kishida, who runs Sweetcatch’s central kitchen, developed the meal kit menu based on food his mom used to cook for him growing up, inspired by the idea that as a restaurant chef, he has access to Asian ingredients that many home cooks may not find at the grocery store. Plus, line cooks can do the hard work and leave the fun parts for the home kitchen. “80% of [the time spent during] Asian cooking is making sauces and broths,” Chef Kohei says. “We take as much of that away from the customer experience, so they can use a few pans and experience restaurant-quality food hot at home.”

To maintain quality, Chef Kohei’s R&D process broke down the core recipes, evaluating how each element should be prepped to make the cooking easy for the customer while maintaining quality and flavor. Rice for fried rice is pre-cooked and packaged in a plastic quart container, and carrots and garlic are peeled but left whole for the customer to chop. Beef is pre-cooked in sauce, bacon is uncooked to be fried fresh while following the recipes. Whole scallions for the garnish can be sliced to the diner’s desire and spice levels can be adjusted depending on how much pre-made sauce a home cook pours from a container.

Sweetcatch says the feedback has been great and that people love the intimidation factor being eliminated from creating Japanese-inspired, casual restaurant food. Most importantly, customers say it's fun. Cooking is less of a chore and more of a laid-back event to look forward to when all the hard work (including the decision of how to use pre-picked ingredients when grocery store shelves are still lacking), is already complete.

“Groceries have been a big hit during the pandemic,” Michael said, referencing many eateries converting to general stores. Sweetcatch is pursuing meal kits instead, to be geared toward leisure and fun while keeping employees interested and satisfied and taking advantage of the restaurant's ability to order in bulk.

Next, Sweetcatch is looking into creating meal kits for dinner parties or larger family meals, which would be like catering with a meal kit for the host(s). On a long-plagued pandemic landscape in which people may not feel safe dining out or have the funds for a restaurant-centric lifestyle, the subscription-free, fun, flavorful, at-home meal kit may just be the future for fast-casual.

Learn more food business strategies from experienced instructors like Michael in Restaurant & Culinary Management.

Restaurants Business of Food Delivery COVID-19 Fast Casual

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Meryl Feinstein’s Path to Pasta Social Club

aday — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 17:17:55 +0000

Meryl Feinstein’s Path to Pasta Social Club aday Tue, 04/21/2020 - 13:17 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/pasta%20social%20club%20header.jpg.webp?itok=8b0uq5Jc The 91��߹ alum changed careers to pursue her passion that's bringing joy via social media for pasta lovers staying home. April 21, 2020

By Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner — Food and Lifestyle Writer

If you’re into pasta, it’s likely you’ve seen Meryl Feinstein’s (Culinary, '18) Instagram account, Pasta Social Club. Beyond a gorgeous array of cavatelli with meatless ragu, crispy-bottomed roasted garlic mashed potato cappelletti and pink peppercorn-speckled golden beet casunziei, the photos are a landing page to promote Feinstein’s in-person events, where she teaches classes on making regional pasta styles, shapes and sauces, and gathers people to eat pasta.

With the pandemic shelter-in-place orders in full swing, Meryl, who is based in Austin, Texas, and travels to New York frequently, is hosting Pasta Social Club events online, connecting with eager pasta students (and eaters) all over the world, who want to master pici, orecchiette and more handmade pastas with basic pantry ingredients.

We spoke with Meryl to learn more about Pasta Social Club, where her passion for pasta came from (a romantic trip to Italy, of course) and how she quickly changed careers from public relations to culinary arts.

Why did you want to enroll in culinary school?

Before I went to 91��߹, I worked in the art world in Manhattan. I did public relations for art museums all over the world. After five years, I felt like I hit a wall in that career. I didn't really see a future in it beyond what I’d already done, and I knew I wanted to be in the food industry.

What appealed to you about working in food?

Food had always been a passion of mine but never a viable career path in my family and my own thinking. I thought about doing food PR and going into the industry in a way that made sense, financially, but my husband and I were talking about it, and he really encouraged me to go to school. I knew I wanted to be in the kitchen, not at a desk. I was interested in food media and thought with a culinary arts diploma, I’d be able to do whatever I wanted. I already had a bachelor's degree and master's degree but had never worked in restaurants. I’ve been watching Food Network since I was eight. My family went to a lot of amazing restaurants and I had a very strong taste for everything — there was nothing I didn’t like. I did studio art on the side and pursued that path instead of cooking.

Why did you choose 91��߹?

My husband knew people who went to 91��߹. I wanted to earn a diploma as quickly as possible, and when I visited the campus, they really catered to people of all ages and people like me who had just jumped in. The facility is also really beautiful.

How was starting culinary school and starting your third field of study?

The first day was terrifying. I had never been in an industrial kitchen before. It was scary. Everything was hotter and sharper than I'd ever experienced. Before that, my life was a comfort zone experience: I made choices based on what I could do well. This was the first time I knew that I couldn't do well. I didn't know anybody and my class was on the younger side. A lot of people in my class had restaurant experience. After a couple of weeks, learning how to sharpen a knife and use the burners, I adjusted pretty quickly. I had some great teachers, so that was helpful.

How did studying culinary arts prepare you for a culinary career?

At first, I was committed to doing food media. I loved to write and interned at a test kitchen in the mornings before class. It wasn’t the experience I thought I was looking for. I’m not one to weigh ingredients and be super particular about recipes. I realized it might not be a good fit. By the time externship rolled around, I realized the time is now to work in a restaurant. This is something that’s going to make me feel really scared and really uncomfortable, and if I don’t do it, I’ll always regret it.

I worked the pastry line at Lilia in Williamsburg. I was scared every single day because I hold myself to a very high standard. I had two days of training and then I was by myself. Every restaurant works differently, the speeds and tasks you do on the line are so different from school. It’s great to have that base of knowledge, but in a restaurant, it’s a whole new set of skills.

How did you go from pastry to pasta?

After Lilia, I worked in pasta production at [sister restaurant] Misi for about six months, but it was before that … When I left the corporate world, my husband and I went on a honeymoon to Italy. We went to Modena, where an Italian nonna taught us pasta making. It was a magical experience. My love of food and art came together. At 91��߹, I knew I wanted to focus on pasta. I don’t eat meat or shellfish so I wanted to have expertise, zone in on a niche and get really good at one thing. Otherwise, I felt really unfocused as a cook. At 91��߹, we do pasta for two days, so I went to Lilia because [chef-owner and 91��߹ alum] Missy Robbins (Culinary, '95) is the queen of pasta in New York. On days off from Lilia, I refined my pasta skills, learned new shapes and did research.

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A post shared by Pasta Social Club (@pastasocialclub) on Feb 10, 2020 at 8:35am PST

How did Pasta Social Club start?

While I was working at Lilia, I also knew I wanted to do some type of supper club experience, but my days off were Mondays and Tuesdays, which no one else has off. So I started an Instagram handle, @PastaSocialClub, and put the idea into the world, while I didn't have time or resources to start a business. With social media, I had nothing to lose. I was already doing so many things that freaked me out, so what was another thing to add to the pile? I got more into taking the photos and it gained some traction. Pasta is something that everyone loves!

Eventually, I had time to do some events in New York and then moved to Austin. My inspiration for events came from Shabbat. Growing up in an observant Jewish household, Shabbat was such a highlight of my childhood, a designated time to be with people you love and enjoy good food and still be super casual. I wanted to recreate that experience but not have it be religious. It’s available to everyone.

Explore a career change or passion project like Meryl with 91��߹'s career programs.

Alumni Interview Pasta Culinary Education Career Changer Social Media

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5 Food Activities to Get You through January in NYC

aday — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 15:16:17 +0000

5 Food Activities to Get You through January in NYC aday Mon, 01/06/2020 - 10:16 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/MOIC%20header%20Nicole%20Franzen.jpg.webp?itok=cusfBu3n Museum of Ice Cream photo by Nicole Franzen Escape winter weather with an edible art exhibit, sensory dinner experience and 91��߹ cooking classes. January 6, 2020

By Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner — Food and Lifestyle Writer

Enduring New York’s cold winter days and nights to dine out can be daunting when the heat wafting from your own stove is so tempting, but January 2020 offers plenty of reasons to zip up your coat, get outside and taste more of the city.

An edible art exhibit at a world-renowned museum, the now-permanent Museum of Ice Cream and an 91��߹ alum taking dining into the future are just a few of the interactive, extracurricular ways to extend your culinary education and enjoy New York this month.

Photo by David Chow, courtesy of the James Beard Foundation

Aerobanquets RMX at The James Beard House

James Beard himself would probably be stunned by the way people are eating in his home circa 2020, but that didn’t stop New York-based Italian artist Mattia Casalegno and the Rahi Restaurant Group (Adda, Rahi) from creating a futuristic dining experience on the fourth floor. Extended through Jan. 26, this wholly interactive virtual and augmented reality, multi-course meal is an art installation mixed with a unique dining experience, that’s also part video game. The experience treats four guests at a custom table to a seven-course, experiential meal (vegan and allergen-friendly alterations available) with VR headsets and narration by 91��߹ alum Gail Simmons (Culinary, '99).

$125 tickets, 167 W. 12th Street, SquadUp.com. The James Beard Foundation offers student memberships for $25 per year with student pricing for select events and more benefits.

Darren Bader’s fruits, vegetables; fruit and vegetable salad at The Whitney

The Whitney Museum of American Art is already known for its great dining options, and a new exhibit conflates art and dining within a gallery. From Jan. 15 to Feb. 17, an untitled work by American artist Darren Bader will be used as pedestals to display produce, which will be turned into salads for visitors to enjoy and then replaced with new produce. Food for thought, indeed.

$25 tickets, $18 student tickets, salads served Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays, 3 p.m.–6 p.m.; Fridays, 7:30 p.m.–10 p.m.; 99 Gansevoort St., whitney.org

Museum of Ice Cream (MOIC)

This pop-up isn’t melting away anytime soon. In fact, the museum dedicated to all things frozen and sweet became a permanent 25,000-square-foot, three-floor attraction in December. The New York City flagship features 13 new installations, including the biggest sprinkle pool yet, an epic three-story slide, a grandiose hall of giant scoops and many more multisensory exhibits. This immersive ice cream experience is sure to defrost your winter blues, all created by MOIC’s unique team of ice cream-loving architects and designers.

$38 tickets, bring student ID, 558 Broadway, museumoficecream.com

Museum of Ice Cream photo by Nicole Franzen

Book a special event at 91��߹.

12th Annual Cassoulet Cook Off

You may already be aware of how involved it is to make this classic French dish (hint: it takes multiple days) — and you can be the judge of a few local chefs’ variations. On Saturday, Jan. 25, amateur and professional chefs representing New York eateries will compete to see who makes the best version of cassoulet, determined by celebrity judges and a people’s choice award. Local beer, cider and spirits will be served at the age-21-and-up event.

$55 tickets, 110 Kent Ave., Williamsburg, Brooklyn, eventbrite.com

91��߹ Recreational and Continuing Education Classes

Don't miss our newest hands-on classes: The Art of Dosa, Bagel Brunch, Dinner in Italy, Les Petit Fours with Chef Kathryn Gordon, Modern Country Cooking with 91��߹ alum Annemarie Ahearn, The Sculpted Cake with Sugar Couture cake artist and 91��߹ chef-instructor Penny Stankiewicz, Techniques of Lamination and Vegan Umami with Health-Supportive Culinary Arts Chef-Instructor Olivia Roszkowski. Plus, four new professional development programs have debuted: Culinary Nutrition and Food Therapy with Director of Nutrition Celine Beitchman, Beverage Program Management with Director of Beverage Studies Eamon Rockey, and Fundamentals & Service of Wine with sommelier, author and educator Anthony Giglio.

See hundreds of upcoming classes at 91��߹.

Cooking Recreational Classes Food Culture Travel New York City

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What it's like to Extern in the Saveur Test Kitchen

aday — Fri, 20 Dec 2019 15:13:31 +0000

What it's like to Extern in the Saveur Test Kitchen aday Fri, 12/20/2019 - 10:13 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/saveur%20header.jpg.webp?itok=T2JkWjfP Two 2019 grads take us behind the scenes of their externships in editorial recipe testing at a New York City media outlet. December 23, 2019

By Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner — Food and Lifestyle Writer

Enrolling in culinary school appeals to a range of food lovers, and cooking in a restaurant isn’t the only path after earning a diploma. Food media, particularly test kitchens, are run by talented, creative and well-trained cooks eager to reinvent the Thanksgiving meal on an annual basis, while simultaneously testing a dozen dessert recipes with micro-tweaks. We spoke with two 91��߹ alumni who recently wrapped up externships at Saveur’s test kitchen on their experiences dipping into the food media world.

Vicki Paradise (Culinary, 19) enrolled in 91��߹’s Culinary Arts program with the goal of becoming a head chef at a restaurant she'd own someday in the elusive future. But throughout the program, her goals changed.

“I started to learn what paths I did not want to go down,” Vicki recalls. She loved cooking but narrowed her career choices down based on anticipated stress and pace. “I preferred a route where I would be able to express my creativity through the food I was preparing, rather than just push plates out,” she says of her decision to pursue an externship in a test kitchen. She earned a placement at Saveur in May and immediately loved the creativity involved in plating and photographing new recipes.

Previously, she’d only worked at restaurants, high-end, big name spots like Michael White’s Marea and Missy Robbins’ Misi, the type of place she’d once dreamed of calling her own.

“The atmosphere and experience was totally different between a fast-paced restaurant kitchen environment and a much more subdued yet still busy test kitchen,” Vicki says. “Although both environments are structured, they are controlled in a different fashion. In a test kitchen it is quite the opposite. We know our deadlines and what has to get done by either end of day or for a particular photo shoot.” Another difference: the quiet and serenity of the Saveur kitchen in the back of the magazine’s editorial offices in Manhattan’s Koreatown. The job allowed Vicki to relax, concentrate and be patient while working independently under the supervision of a test kitchen manager.

Working in a test kitchen is not always the antidote to restaurant life, though. Grayson Kelly (Culinary, '19) enrolled at 91��߹ after studying English as an undergrad. He knew he was equally passionate about cooking and writing, and 91��߹’s connections to New York’s media scene were a big draw. Previously, he’d only worked as a prep cook, and at Saveur, he learned the difference between being a chef and recipe developer.

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I’m in print! Make sure to pick up a copy of @saveurmag’s summer issue on newsstands now! MAJOR congrats to @katcontrol and @stacy_adimando on this beautiful new issue, and I’m so thankful that I could be a little part of it.

A post shared by grayson c. kelly (@eatgraylove) on May 16, 2019 at 1:38pm PDT

“Being a restaurant chef, you're so in the moment. You throw a pinch of salt here, you throw a dash of pepper there — whatever feels right and whatever tastes good. The proof that you've done your job is that it tastes good and doesn't get sent back to the kitchen. As a trained chef, it's something that feels natural and instinctive,” he says. “In a test kitchen, everything is methodical. It's completely different than working in a restaurant in the way that everything needs to be measured and weighed in both the metric and imperial units. A four-finger pinch of kosher salt that you'd naturally throw into a braise just for taste needs to be documented and weighed on a micro scale. It can feel extremely restricting at times.”

Still, the flexibility and lack of a typical day-to-day routine in the test kitchen are appealing. Work hours could be filled with guest chefs demoing their signature dishes or techniques, or editors arranging and collaborating on photo shoots with food stylists, props and photographers.

Each morning typically starts with cooks prepping their stations and meeting with the test kitchen manager, who explains daily tasks, deadlines and all the recipes on deck. While the kitchen is well-stocked, a shopping list for extra ingredients usually surfaces, and externs will shop at local stores or call in specialty ingredients from a butcher or preferred vendor.

Once ingredients are prepped and measured, the test kitchen manager makes sure the mise en place is good to go, and then recipes can be prepped. “We only prepped one recipe at a time to completion, unless it was possible to start another recipe while one was cooking in the oven over a long period of time,” Vicki explains. Notes on the recipes and timing, cooking and temperatures are essential. Selecting appropriate plates, bowls, silverware, napkins and boards for photo is part of the development, which concludes with plating and photographing before the Saveur team tastes the final product. Not every recipe is successful, but that’s part of the job.

“An unexpected challenge for me was getting accustomed to doing a lot of math, as we needed to mise out all recipes with three or four different types of measurements,” Vicki says. Saveur’s international subscriptions mean recipes are recorded in grams, ounces, quantity and pounds. Sometimes chef’s recipes are tweaked as well, which also requires math. “There is a science to all of it,” Vicki says.

All the extra work — the weighing, measuring and documenting — is rewarding, Grayson says, “because it feels good to know that we're working on recipes that will help people who aren't professionally trained chefs make good food. Isn't that the goal of being a chef — to make it easier for everyone to feed themselves and their families well?”

Working in a test kitchen straddles a gap between being a “restaurant person” and “media person” as Grayson puts it, but the experience revealed more cooking-related opportunities to both 91��߹ grads. Now Vicki is more interested in catering, freelancing recipe writing and development as well as private chef work. The diversity of projects she worked on at Saveur also renewed her interest in pastry. Most importantly, she learned that she works well independently with minimal supervision, empowering her to feel capable of running her own business.

The challenging nature of the work, which involved developing new ideas while also riffing off former popular recipes to freshen the content up, also emboldened Grayson to dream big. “I want to be the next Martha Stewart or Rachael Ray,” he says. “I want to write stories that make people laugh and feel less alone and appreciate the art of cooking and food like Anthony Bourdain did.”

Embark on your own culinary career path with a diploma from 91��߹.

Food Media Test Kitchens Alumni Culinary Arts New York City Externship

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The Ultimate Pastry Position Overlooking Manhattan

aday — Wed, 07 Aug 2019 13:56:08 +0000

The Ultimate Pastry Position Overlooking Manhattan aday Wed, 08/07/2019 - 09:56 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/Manhatta_Credit%20Emily%20Andrews_header.jpg.webp?itok=93wZg30c Manhatta photo by Emily Andrews 91��߹ alum Emma Alden (Pastry, ’10) reflects on her path to becoming the pastry chef at Manhatta, Danny Meyer’s 60th-floor restaurant. August 8, 2019

By Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner — Food and Lifestyle Writer

Emma Alden was that kid who always loved to bake. As a preteen, she saved up all her babysitting money to buy a KitchenAid stand mixer: “I knew that was the only way to get things done quickly and correctly,” she laughs. The born and raised New Yorker was happiest hanging out in her parents’ kitchen, which evidently led her to a career in kitchens.

Emma concluded that academia wasn’t for her after a short foray into college — she missed working with her hands and the aspect of “being part of something bigger than yourself,” that working in restaurants and bars afforded. So she left college to enroll in Pastry & Baking Arts at the Institute of Culinary Education.

“It was a really quick decision that obviously paid off in the long run,” Emma says. “I'm glad I didn't finish college because paying off student loans on a pastry cook’s hourly income would be nearly impossible. I have no regrets on that one.”

Family pressure to get a college degree aside, Emma graduated from 91��߹ with a diploma at 18 years old, eager to jump into the restaurant workforce to continue to learn and grow. “I’m really happy that I ended up doing something for me,” she says. “It’s nice to get a start when you can afford the whole earning $7-per-hour-in-exchange-for-knowledge thing when you’re young and scrappy.”

Pastry Chef Emma Alden, photo by Francesco Sapienza

Emma completed her externship at Betony, a highly acclaimed restaurant in Midtown Manhattan that has since closed, pairing macarons, mixing brioche dough and taking on other odd pastry jobs a few afternoons a week to practice the skills she learned in school. Adding an impressive restaurant name to her resume helped open doors when it came to getting a pastry cook job.

“I was young and naive enough to do my externship at a two-Michelin-starred restaurant that had never had an extern before,” she says. There, she “fell in love with the idea of plated desserts” and “the incredibly intense fine-dining environment.” A start in restaurants kept her in restaurants, never bakeries or catering. “I loved the idea of service and the restaurant world and how you can do a little bit of everything every day, instead of just one thing over and over again.”

After restaurant life clicked for Emma, she took her first pastry chef position at Batard in Tribeca. “It was the perfect first step in management and creative development because it was such a small and intimate restaurant,” she says. Only eight people worked in the kitchen, offering Emma space to bounce ideas around — especially since she was there up to 80 hours weekly, as the sole chef and cook responsible for Batard’s dessert menu six dinners a week. The small kitchen’s supportive environment allowed Emma to experiment and find her voice in pastry.

“You can be so creative. There are so many things you can do in pastry arts, but I think having a foundation of really good recipes really helps,” she says. “You can think of a million things, but if you don’t have the recipes or the knowledge of how to use certain ingredients, it’s hard to think of what you want and have it come out the way you want.” She says that all recipes are derivative, tweaked from other ideas that make sense of the precise, scientific nature of pastry. “It’s interesting to see why and how a recipe works and then be able to manipulate it to be exactly what you’re going for.”

The skills and stamina Emma built up at Batard — from building a prep list to thinking critically about cuisine — led her to Paris to work with her boyfriend at the time, who was consulting on a New Orleans-themed restaurant. The idea of representing American pastry in a foreign country (especially a country known for its pastries), fascinated Emma, who turned concepts like an Arnold Palmer into desserts that, yes, resulted in questions like: Who is Arnold?

This new perspective on American cuisine from a foreign lens, however, armed Emma with the inspiration she’d need as the pastry chef at Manhatta, “an amazing beast of a restaurant,” as she calls it, 60 floors up at the very southern tip of Manhattan. At the Union Square Hospitality Group establishment, Emma works with a team of two sous chefs and 10 cooks, an army of 12 women she collaborates with daily. She’s learned to delegate, trust and communicate, a new set of skills beyond the execution of dessert ideas. She’s determined to be in the kitchen and bake and hang out every day, ensuring her team is having a good time, learning and growing. “I always have flour on my face,” she laughs.

Emma serves warm date cake with crème fraiche ice cream and whiskey sauce at Manhatta. Photo by Daniel Krieger.

Manhatta tries to channel New York City through its menu, inspired by the view of the skyline guests enjoy while dining in the opulent space. Emma has found two ways to translate New York City into her desserts: either by remaking iconic local dishes, like a classic cheesecake (currently served with chamomile frozen yogurt and seasonal stonefruit) or a cheese plate served with a pretzel roll, or by using hyper-local products. One or two of the four times a week the restaurant’s purchaser goes to the Greenmarket, Emma will go along to see how she can translate seasonal produce into a dessert dish. “It feels really good to know that we’re using strawberries from 15 miles away or honey from a small apiary, and we’re supporting people who continue to make good in this harsh environment.”

Because Manhatta exclusively offers a three-course, prix-fixe menu, Emma knows all guests will be selecting a dessert. She’s eager to please diners who are accessible via the restaurant’s open kitchen. “I genuinely love the guest interaction, the feeling of guests being mesmerized by what we do and overhearing them talk about the food,” she says. “Having that guest connection really propels me to hold myself and my team to the highest standards.”

While windows in both the pastry and service kitchens are an aesthetic perk, the light allows the team to grow herbs and flowers in-house and Emma says they are “continually inspired by the city that [they] spend all day looking over.”

Start your creative path in Pastry & Baking Arts.

Pastry Arts Baking Arts Alumni Chefs New York City

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Make the Most of Summer Mushrooms

aday — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 14:02:22 +0000

Make the Most of Summer Mushrooms aday Tue, 07/16/2019 - 10:02 /sites/default/files/styles/width_1400/public/content/blog-article/header-image/mushroom%20header%20credit%20Kuo-Heng%20Huang.jpg.webp?itok=z0Z3F07X Little Tong's Liangban Scallops with Marinated Wood Ear Mushrooms, Photo by Kuo-Heng Huang Chefs share how they’re preparing five seasonal funghi varieties at restaurants and at home. July 16, 2019

By Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner — Food and Lifestyle Writer

While white mushrooms and the ubiquitous baby bellas are popular in supermarkets across America, summer brings out more uniquely shaped and flavored mushroom varieties, ripe for creativity in the kitchen.

Low in calories and fat and high in savory umami flavor, mushrooms have been dubbed nutritional powerhouses, packed with fiber, vitamins and minerals. Better yet, the funghi are versatile — dozens of varieties can be served raw, pickled, seared, sautéed and even blended with ground meats to help stretch protein and preserve the environment.

We asked five chefs which mushrooms are exciting them this summer and what they’re doing with the power ingredient to make the most of this season’s finds.

Marinate Wood Ear Mushrooms

Wood ear mushrooms are brown, grow on wood and resemble the shape of ears. This variety is typically dried in grocery stores and can be found fresh at New York’s greenmarkets in the summer.

"I love cooking with different kinds of mushrooms, so I get really excited when wood ear mushrooms arrive at the farmers market,” says 91��߹ alum Simone Tong (Culinary, ’11), chef-owner of Little Tong in New York. “They're very popular in my native China, and I love the earthy flavor and crunchy texture they bring to a dish. At Little Tong, I serve them marinated on top of fresh liangban scallops with celtuce (a Chinese lettuce), trout roe, goji berries, grapefruit tapioca pearls and fermented chili brown butter sauce. Then, the whole dish is presented tableside in a cloud of tea-hickory smoke."

To pick high-quality, first wood ears, Tong looks for whole, succulent and firm mushrooms. They can also be added to stir fries for texture, sauteed with other vegetables or simmered in broth or soups.

Sauté Wild Mushrooms

Wild mushrooms are foraged in forests and coastal areas, with popular American varieties often found in the Pacific Northwest. Regionally, wild mushroom varieties vary in flavor, shape and texture, and many are commercially cultivated in America.

"When I’m shopping for mushrooms at markets, I look for a few things: variety, price and the care that has been taken to make sure they aren’t broken or damaged,” says Janelle Reynold, executive chef at Austin, Texas’ new Rosedale Kitchen and Bar. She recommends checking Asian supermarkets for high-end, affordable options, though currently, she’s vibing with Texas-grown funghi. For her restaurant, Chef Janelle sources a cultivated mix through Regalis food service. “The quality has been outstanding and the price is competitive,” she says.

This summer, Rosedale is featuring the Texas-grown, cultivated mushrooms as a side dish. “The mushrooms are simply sautéed with garlic and shallot, a bit of white wine and finished with butter,” Chef Janelle explains. “We finish them with lemon zest and fresh herbs from our culinary garden."

A cultivated mix of Texas-grown mushrooms at Rosedale

Roast or Pickle Maitake

Maitake, or hen-of-the-wood, mushrooms have polypores, which absorb flavor. These grow in clusters at the base of trees, and the supple mushrooms are edible raw.

“It’s all about how they smell,” says Bogdan Danila, executive chef of Bluebird London NYC and the newly opened Queensyard. He looks for firm maitakes with good perfume and flavor that are dry upon receipt, for optimum quality. “Many people associate mushrooms with the more damp and cool climate of the summer, but there are ample summer mushrooms, like maitake, that are incredibly versatile in our seasonal dishes and offer a delicate, almost feathery texture to dishes,” Chef Bogdan says. Cleaning and trimming the maitakes is essential, and beyond that, they can be enjoyed pretty much any way — roasted, pickled or lightly pickled so that they’re practically raw.

Grill Chanterelles

A type of wild mushroom, chanterelles have an irregular bell-like shape and can be golden or white. The stems are completely edible.

“What's special about summer mushrooms is because of the heat, they produce exquisite and refined flavor profiles,” says Personal Chef Lisa Pucci Delgado. An ambassador for Big Green Egg, Chef Lisa enjoys cooking mushrooms outdoors in the summer, using a heat-proof pan and raising the temperature on high to about 500 F. To prep, she washes and dries the mushrooms by hand to prevent bruising, especially knowing the chanterelles will be the protagonist of any dish. “These mushrooms are not meant to be hidden in anything; these mushrooms are the star of the plate. They are the main attraction,” Chef Lisa says. She’ll saute them in butter with thyme, garlic and shallots, and grill mushroom kabobs or bacon-wrapped mushrooms stuffed with cheese.

Toss Raw Cordyceps

Cordyceps and spaghetti at Bardo

Dubbed the “coolest mushroom ever” by MushroomExpert.com, cordyceps are essential funghi that grow vertically on insects, which sounds gross until you remember all your food is grown around bugs.

"Cordyceps have a vibrant orange color, a great texture that mimics a spaghetti noodle when they are slightly wilted and provide a great savory umami flavor,” says Chef/Owner Remy Pettus of Bardo restaurant in Minneapolis. “They're also delicious raw with a slight chewiness." Inspired by the unique shape and color, Chef Remy is serving cordyceps with spaghetti topped with raw shaved porcini. When the spaghetti is lifted out of the boiling water, the cordyceps are tossed in raw and wilt in the noodles.

Bardo also uses morels, porcini, matzutake and umbrella polypore mushrooms from Forage North.

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