Mercedes-Benz Dinner at James Beard House/ Taqueria

At the end of October Mercedes-Benz sponsored a four-course dinner for 50 VIP guests at the James Beard House in New York City.  Chefs and cooks from ABC Kitchen, Eleven Madison Park, Restaurant August, and Locanda Verde all teamed up to create one spectacular course each for one very high end meal.

Bring on the red carpet

This was my first time inside the famous James Beard House.  James Beard was an influential American chef and food writer who passed away in 1985.  The James Beard Foundation was named in his honor, which annually recognizes and praises chefs and food writers across the country.  Peter Kump, a former student of James and founder of the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), purchased the brownstone home of the late James Beard and preserved it as a gathering place for the general public to enjoy the artistry and talents of established and emerging chefs.

Not having much prep work, and having a car waiting for us outside, Chef Dan Kluger, I, and Minh, one of the chefs from 11 Madison Park took a field trip to buy staff meal for everyone.  We traveled to the lower east side to Taqueria, a favorite taco restaurant of Chef Kluger.  Taqueria has a lot of style and is real deal Mexican, even listing a photo on the wall of everything they don't offer that is stereotypical.  It's "crema fresca", not sour cream, get it right.

Taken from Yelp.com

Bon Appetit Presents "Feast or Fashion"

Where the food and fashion worlds collide.

Chef Dan Kluger of ABC Kitchen

At the tail end of NYC's premier fashion week, Bon Appetit magazine invited Chef Dan Kluger and the crew of ABC Kitchen to cook in the beautiful, high-tech home of fashion designer Lela Rose.  The goal here was to feed 50 of Lela's high end guests, one of which included Chef Mario Batali, a multi-course, "pull out all stops" type of sit-down dinner.  Dinner challenge accepted.

As chefs and cooks we are always wary of cooking at off-site events.  You never know what you're walking into.  Never know how big the space is, what type of cooking equipment will be on hand, how demanding guests are, etc.  We are taken out of our comfort zones where we know our kitchens like the back of our hands, where proper cooking temperatures and timing are key.  Luckily, we did not run into any major challenges at this event, and that is more so due in part to Lela Rose's home.

Four stories set inside a swanky Soho building, which included a living room displayed to the street, of which the floor electronically lifts up to act as a runway.  A dessert table which lowered from the ceiling.  A stainless steel kitchen equipped with all major cooking appliances, an eight-burner stove, and an elevator which dropped down to subsequent levels including a hidden linen area.  Finish it off with a kid's playroom which was the size of most NY apartments, and a suede-laced hidden drinking room in the basement and you have yourself a home that would make anyone jealous.

Outstanding in the Field Event at Brooklyn Grange Farm

Outstanding in the Field (OITF) is a group that runs farm-to-table dinners right at the source of a local farm.  They set up large tables, where guests from all over can dine and enjoy the food as it was meant to be served.  Straight from the ground, and onto their plates.  They want their guests to have an experience which makes them feel closer to the land, and to the people who's hard work brings food to the table.

On August 30th, ABC Kitchen was asked to participate in one of the OITF events at Brooklyn Grange Farm.  Brooklyn Grange (which is not based out of Brooklyn) is located in Long Island City, Queens.  Wait, a farm in an urban setting?  That's correct.  Brooklyn Grange is a start-up, organic urban farm growing their vegetables on a NYC rooftop.

The man behind the greens is Ben Flanner.  Ben is a trained engineer, with a background in finance.  He did not grow up a farmer, nor was he really exposed to a farming lifestyle.  A few years ago he decided to follow his passion for food and food production, and started Brooklyn Grange with Anastasia Plakias.

Brooklyn Grange's message is simple.  They want to connect people of an urban setting to those of a rural one.  Although they just have one one-acre farm in production at the moment, their goal is to eventually have rooftop farms all over the city.

Saveur Second Annual BBQ Event

Great food, great people, plenty of chef sightings, and grilling bbq on a pier.  Now that makes for a good event. 

Going to a chef event is sometimes hit-or-miss.  Most of the time they are great.  Plenty of restaurants doing what they do best with a hot guest list, serving top-notch food in a beautiful setting.  Others, however, not so much.  Sometimes you can head to one where every restaurant runs out of food within an hour (that's poor planning due to the PR team, not usually the restaurant), and there's not a lot of care put into the food.  This, thankfully, was a major hit. 

This is the second year Saveur magazine threw this event, and it was so discrete from the public that it was invitation only.  Everything was served off of Pier 66 in Chelsea Piers, very much away from the public eye. 



There was no shortage of top restauranteurs and chefs here (yes I was giddy with excitement because these guys are like rockstars to me).  Here are just a few:

Pictured are Marco Canora (Hearth), Marcus Samuelsson (Red Rooster), Merri Lee Kingsley (Saveur magazine), Marc Murphy (Landmarc), and Dan Kluger (ABC Kitchen). 

ABC Kitchen

First and foremost, I want to congratulate ABC Kitchen for winning the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant on Monday night.  For anyone that has eaten here (and there are many) you already know this award is more than well-deserved. 

ABC is the brainchild of Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Phil Suarez, the same team which brought you the four-star Jean-Georges, Spice Market, Jojo, Mercer Kitchen, and about twenty other restaurants across the world.  To lead the kitchen here, they tapped on the talent of Executive Chef Dan Kluger, formerly of Tabla and The Core Club, and who also was just recently honored as Chef of the Year by Time Out New York.  With years of experience under his belt, Dan uses a very simplistic approach to his food, by masterfully combining flavor profiles of the freshest ingredients possible. 

Tonight was my second time dining at ABC Kitchen, and like so many other diners, can’t stop raving about the experiences.  The restaurant is beautiful.  It has one of the sleekest looking bars in Manhattan, and a dining room which is blanketed in white.  Everything looks so modern, so elegant, so clean.  From the black & white artwork on the walls, recycled white tables and chairs, wooden beams which run through the dining room, and the handmade porcelain dinnerware.  The FOH staff, all dressed in plaid shirts and jeans, are on point, welcoming everyone with warm smiles and attentive service.  Even with a packed dining room your water glass will never remain empty for more than 30 seconds. 

The restaurant commits itself to buying local, seasonal, organic, sustainable products, and every ounce of this passion comes through in the menu.  I love to admit this to anyone, ABC Kitchen has made me fall in love with vegetables again.  Now if I, a self-professed lover of pork and offal can say that, then it’s not hard to see why people love this restaurant so much.  Not to say that the meat and fish dishes are not up to par, but I will happily go vegetarian for this restaurant any day of the week.