Business Start Up Concept in a Shipping Container

This is a design that was submitted to the Not Just a Container contest for the new Dekalb Market in downtown Brooklyn.  Called ‘Meatspace’, it is a restaurant concept I designed around modern meatball sub sandwiches.  I adapted the concept to fit the shipping container requirements of the Dekalb Market contest.  It would contain a [...]

Jimmy’s No. 43 ‘Duck-Off’ – Winner!

Jimmy’s No. 43 Restaurant in New York’s East Village recently held a friendly competition to benefit Food Systems Network NYC.  The competition, winkingly titled a ‘Duck-Off’ asked participants to serve a duck dish of their choosing to 150 people.  The judging panel, made up of Serena Di LIberto of Heritage Foods USA, Amy Zavatto of [...]

Halloween Pumpkin Carving: Warhol’s ‘Self Portrait (Fright Wig)’

This is what I worked on in between trick-or-treat knocks at our door.  I do not want to think about how long this pumpkin carving project took me but…. I am pleasantly surprised with how it turned out.  A new rendition of Andy Warhol’s ‘Self Portrait (Fright Wig)’, 1986 (on the left) executed in back [...]

OpenIDEO Jamie Oliver Challenge Winning Concepts Announced!

As you can see from this page of my website, I have contributed some creative juice to a couple of the challenges posted on OpenIDEO.  One such challenge has been chef Jamie Oliver’s ‘How can we raise kid’s awareness of the benefits of fresh food so they can make better choices?’ As a cook, a [...]

Recipe Sketchbook: Tomatoes, Duck Confit

Dinner and lunch guests scheduled for the weekend.  The dinner fell through because of illness.  Not a big deal.  Just had to use the ingredients on hand while they were fresh.
Summer Spheres: Salad of Baby Heirloom Tomatoes and Mozzarella
Peel baby heirloom tomatoes and marinate in olive oil, salt and red wine vinegar.  Dress baby arugula [...]

Recipe Sketchbook: Duck, Beets, Heirloom Tomato, Melon

Duck Breast, Beet Ribbons, Pomegranate, Baby Beets, Arugula, Duck Jus
(inspired by chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns) Trimmed and seasoned duck breast the day before with salt, pepper, nutmeg, a thyme sprig and a bay leaf.  Wrapped and refrigerated.  Roasted baby beets in an aluminum foil pouch brushed in olive oil and [...]

Recipe Sketchbook: Corn, Leek, Tomatoes, Arugula

Summer Corn & Leek Soup with caramelized corn, basil, olive oil, chili oil
Corn sauteed with leeks, garlic, green onions, white onion.  Simmered in cream and chicken stock with corn cobbs, leek greens, bay leaf, thyme sprigs, salt and white and black pepper.  Strained.  Served with caramelized sauteed corn, basil chiffonade, olive oil and chili oil.

A Razor A Shiny Knife: California Dining

For the last two weekends New York’s cerebral supper club A Razor A Shiny Knife traveled to California to put on three events in Los Angeles and San Francisco with LA’s Room Forty and New York’s The Noble Rot.  The title of this short cooking tour was ‘Two Perspective: Modern Meets Traditional’.  The concept being [...]

Recipe Sketchbook: Barbecue Pork Banh Mi Sandwich

Hosting a picnic for about twenty people, I needed to come up with a few sandwich ideas.  Sandwiches that would be big taste ‘bang’ for the buck, that people would like and, most importantly, that I was interested in making.  Immediately I thought of the Vietnamese Banh Mi.  One of my all-time favorite foods.  but [...]

Restaurant Review: Blue Hill at Stone Barns

It took some doing but we finally summoned the courage to leave the safety of the city and head north into the wild country.  Specifically our destination was the Pocantico Hills and the storied Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant.  From the train station it was easy to get a cab to the farm.  As [...]