Damien DiPaola’s scores with seared scallops with a spicy grapefruit glaze.

Last Christmas, we turned to industry professionals to see what real foodies put on their wish list. Since fewer things in the world are as intimate as eating together, we sought Valentine’s Day advice from toques in the know from all over the country. Read on and make your shopping list. You’ve got plenty of time to prepare for Sunday.

“The way I get my girlfriend: I get fresh baby arugula, lemon juice, and olive oil, fresh Parmesan cheese, and sliced prosciutto, with a mixture of olives, and a baguette. That’s how I win her over. There’s something about sitting down on the couch and eating with your fingers — it’s playful and simple.”
—Jesse Schenker, chef, Recette, New York City

“Everyone celebrates with flowers on Valentine’s Day, so take it to the next level and extend the flower celebration into your cooking to create a tasty and romantic dish. I would make a herb salad and violet flower tart. You can massage the dough together with your lover’s hands — think of the movie Ghost and the pottery scene. Create a shape of the tart together and then add herbs that are spicy and aphrodisiacs, like fenugreek. Top off with colorful violet flowers, creating the perfect colorful, edible Valentine bouquet.”
—Ludo Lefebvre, LudoBites, Culver City, California

“I’d start with Fanny bay oysters — we all know why — in avocado soup, as the Aztecs named the avocado tree ‘Ahuacuatl,’ meaning ‘testicle tree.’ I love arugula, so I’d make a wild-arugula salad with a sweet-basil vinaigrette. The basil will produce a general sense of well being to start the night. As a main course, I’d serve pan-seared Mediterranean turbot with white truffles, as the musky scent from the truffles should stimulate and sensitize her skin. I’d finish with raspberry and strawberry shortcake. The berries are considered fruit nipples in erotic literature, with vanilla anglaise, as the vanilla will increase her lust.”
—Todd Allison, Checker’s Downtown, Los Angeles

“I’d have lots and lots of Champagne Marguet Rose. It’s great matched with spicy foods, strong foods, all kinds of good things. That would really get the party started. Champagne, caviar, oysters — the things that are really seductive. But nothing heavy — you know if you want to close the deal, you don’t want to pass out. You don’t want to be in a food coma because you ate a whole bowl of risotto. And then for dessert we have a passion-fruit semifreddo with a little buttermilk cake and crispy meringue. You know, passion fruit is perfect. And then you can have the whole rest of the night to do whatever you want.”
—Suzy Crofton, chef-owner, Crofton on Wells, Chicago

“Definitely a little caviar with Champagne and a few oysters. Maybe a sexy, creamy pasta as a mid-course, and on to a steak with bordelaise with a hint of bittersweet chocolate for a main course. Definitely a little passion fruit and blood orange somewhere in the midst of the evening. And we’d finish off with lingering aromatics combined with chocolate, blindfolded and fed to each other.”
—Elizabeth Falkner, Orson and Citizen Cake, San Francisco

“I make this once a year. I shuck oysters in the half-shell and put them in the grill, and I do some grilled octopus, too. I serve it with watercress salad, some hearts of palm, tomato, and I make a chili sauce to give it a little heat. It’s not too heavy and the oysters and octopus are kind of soft, little dishes. It is an aphrodisiac — the octopus too! As a Latino and a chef, I’m always looking for something to keep the wife happy and this definitely works. I have the grilled octopus on the menu at the restaurant, but the grilled oysters are just for my wife, to keep it special.”
—Edgar Alvarez, executive chef-owner of Avenida, Philadelphia

“I make my seared scallops with a spicy grapefruit glaze. The scallops have a very velvety, smooth, and sensual texture. These textures provoke ones inner sexual thoughts and fantasies. The sweet and spicy of the grapefruit saffron sauce also evoke the lady (sweet) in the street, whore (spicy) in the bedroom quality that all true men love. Consider all the aphrodisiacs in the dish itself: the scallops, the five spices, the ginger, the cayenne pepper, the saffron, and the wild mushrooms. This scallop preparation is also very light, not heavy and sex-stopping. Now you know why this dish definitely seals the deal and gets her from table to mattress.”
—Damien DiPaola, executive chef at Ristorante Damiano, Boston

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Filed Under: user’s guide, damien dipaola, edgar alvarez, elizabeth falkner, jesse schenker, ludo lefebvre, now that’s what we call food porn, suzy crofton, todd allison, valentine’s day

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East Village: Mama’s Food Shop now serves brunch weekends from noon to 5 p.m. An entrée, side, and coffee or juice is $13. [Grub Street]
Harlem: Best Yet Market just opened to high praise for fresh produce, an eager staff, and pizza. [Uptown Flavor]
Midtown West: The Duane Reade on 51st near Sixth Avenue now sells sushi in a new food section. [Midtown Lunch]
Park Slope: The openings of Mack’s Bar and Grill — the follow-up to Johnny Mack’s pub — on Seventh Avenue near Carroll Street, is imminent. [Brownstoner]

Soho: The Hampton Inn Soho opened a bar called Artifakt to the public on Super Bowl Sunday. [Hotel Chatter/Hampton_Inn_SoHo_Has_a_New_Bar_With_an_Old_Name]
Tribeca: New York Vintners hosts a Tuscan wine dinner with Canalicchio di Sopra winemaker Francesco Ripaccioli on February 19 at 7 p.m. [Grub Street]

Read more posts by Alexandra Vallis

Filed Under: neighborhood watch, east village, mama’s food shop, new york vintner’s, soho

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Yuca Bar & Restaurant (111 Avenue A @ 11th street) is quickly becoming one of my go to spots in the neighborhood.

Yuca Bar

111 Ave A, New York

(212) 982-9533

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According to Nation’s Restaurant News, an Atlanta restaurant owner was peeved to discover that a now defunct website, 911reservations.com, was scalping Valentine’s Day resies in that city as well as in New York, Miami, and Napa Valley. The site promoted its reservations on Craigslist. Combing Craigslist New York we can’t find anything posted by 911reservations, but some dude is selling a Friday-night DBGB resy for $25! You can’t blame restaurant owners for being rather terrified of this — if the scalper fails to sell the resy it’s no skin off his back, but meanwhile, the restaurant is put in a jam. Especially if a scalper has snatched up multiple tables on the same night. But are the scalpers really going to find this business model viable? Just think of all the time they’d have to blow on food blogs to find out which restaurants are hot …

DBGB Restaurant Reservation – $25 [Craigslist]
Restaurants hit by reservation scalper [NRN]

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Filed Under: eatiquette, dbgb, scalpers, valentine’s day

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from Grub Street San Francisco

Alice Waters’s next tome, due out in April, is called In the Green Kitchen, and in it the doyenne of American locavore cuisine will be teaching “the art of simple cooking,” with basic techniques and recipes for things like chicken stock and sautéed greens, as Eater reports. The book is in the vein of Julia Child’s The Way to Cook and Thomas Keller’s holiday hit Ad Hoc at Home, but also not unlike Alice’s last book, The Art of Simple Food.

The twist this time is that she’ll be pimping her Green Kitchen project, and she’ll be joined by star friends like Keller, Rick Bayless, Lidia Bastianich, and Dan Barber, who’ll be on hand to serve as models in the how-to photos, and to offer their input if the great lady asks for it.

Alice Waters’ New Book to Be Called In the Green Kitchen [Eater]
The Green Kitchen [Official Site]
Earlier: Alice Waters To Graciously Bestow Three More Books Upon the World [Grub Street]

Read more posts by Jay Barmann

Filed Under: books, alice waters, dan barber, green kitchen project, julia child, lidia bastianich, rick bayless, thomas keller

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It’s 4 p.m., and that means it’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they could squeeze in a couple for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: TV Chefs.

Babbo (Menu)
212-777-0303
Two for eight? No
Best available: 10:45 p.m.

Becco (Menu)
212-397-7597
Two for eight? Yes

Butter (Menu)
212-253-2828
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:30 p.m.

Daniel (Menu)
212-288-0033
Two for eight? No
Best available: 10 p.m.

Felidia (Menu)
212-758-1479
Two for eight? Yes

Jean Georges (Menu)
212-299-3900
Two for eight? Yes

Le Bernardin (Menu)
212-554-1515
Two for eight? No
Best available: 10 p.m.

Mesa Grill (Menu)
212-807-7400
Two for eight? Yes

Morimoto (Menu)
212-989-8883
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:15 p.m.

Wd-50 (Menu)
212-477-2900
Two for eight? No
Best available: 10 p.m.

Filed Under: two for eight, babbo, becco, butter, daniel, felidia, jean georges, le bernardin, mesa grill, morimoto, wd-50

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A tipster sends word that garden-of-scenesters the Park has been shuttered by the Department of Health just days before its Valentine’s bash: “Saw stickers all over the doors yesterday and the sidewalk isn’t shoveled today. Place is a ghost town.” We haven’t been able to get in touch with anyone at the restaurant, which got a mere fifteen demerits during an inspection last spring.

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: temporary closings, department of health, the park

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Remember Zengo, the tequila palace that Ricardo Sandoval and his partner, opera singer Placido Domingo, are planning to open in the former Wild Salmon space next month? Well, they now have a chef and it’s none other than Akhtar Nawab of the late Elettaria. Nawab was perhaps one of the most eligible out-of-work chefs along with Ryan Skeen, but it’s a surprising move nevertheless given that Zengo is a modern-Mexican brand. Then again, Nawab’s menu at Elettaria made room for samosas as well as risotto, so the chef is nothing if not versatile.

Akhtar Nawab to Be Chef at Sandoval’s Zengo [Diner’s Journal/NYT]

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Filed Under: chef shuffle, akhtar nawab, elettaria, placido domingo, ricardo sandoval, wild salmon, zengo

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Classic pub fare has heart and soul – and DBGB Kitchen & Bar is no exception. Providing a high-quality dining menu…

DBGB Kitchen and Bar

299 Bowery, New York

(212) 933-5300

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from Grub Street Los Angeles

Jamie Oliver

British celeb chef Jamie Oliver is a winner of this year’s TED Prize, which grants recipients $100,000 and a platform to express “one wish to change the world.” Oliver, who recently wept when fat Americans refused his dieting advice, said this: “I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.” So how’s that going to happen?

The Naked Chef laid out a full grassroots program to attack the current “catastrophe” of obesity through community kitchens, supermarket ambassadors, and “food theater trucks” that will teach kids and families how to cook. Oliver has also posted an online petition pushing for changes in the way we eat. He plans to bring the document to the White House and take on corporate America, but only after his show, naturally called “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution“ airs on ABC.

Bad diet shortens life spans, raises health costs, says Jamie Oliver [CNN]

Read more posts by Hadley Tomicki

Filed Under: health concerns, awards, community kitchens, food theater trucks, jamie oliver, obesity, ted award, the naked chef

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Danny Meyer signed a deal last month to open a restaurant in the Whitney Museum this fall, but learned only recently that the museum wanted a space for people to eat when the Biennial begins this month. Since the restaurant or kitchen won’t be ready, it had to be an idea that didn’t require a lot of cooking. “It’s the Whitney, so it had to be American,” he tells Grub Street. “There is no way the museum wanted anything that would compete with the art. We are commissioning one of the Biennial artists to mastermind it.”

Jeffrey Inaba’s architecture collective, Inaba, and C-Lab will design the space, to be called Sandwiched. Meyer has pooled the talents of his restaurants’ various chefs, including those from four-star Eleven Madison Park, Tabla, Gramercy Tavern, and Union Square Café, to create sandwiches, and his pastry chefs to come up with desserts.

Come fall, it will have a whole new concept. “We have to let the museum be the star,” he explains. With a restaurant in the Museum of Modern Art and a Shake Shack at Citi Field, Meyer is no stranger to working within the confines of an existing space. “It’s like living in someone else’s home,” he says. “The Modern had to be elegant and the Whitney has to be intelligent. And that architecture, that is the frame — we have to figure out what the right piece of art will be.”

Earlier: Danny Meyer Will Open Sandwich-Centric Whitney Pop-Up

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Filed Under: empire building, danny meyer, sandwiched, sandwiches, whitney

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Earlier today we received word that Domino’s had reached the $1 billion mark in online orders (probably owing to food bloggers like this one, this one, this one, and all the others who taste-tested the new recipe). Shortly before the Super Bowl alone, Americans were ordering 1,000 pies per minute via the Pizza Tracker (which now features online games like mini-golf!). Something about these numbers at once awed and depressed us — like when you see World War II footage of artillery rolling down the assembly line and you can’t help but think about all the women and children they’ll claim as victims, except here it’s gut bombs instead of real bombs.

Then we got word that Papa John’s (the competitor Domino’s went up against first in court, then in a new ad campaign, and also in a Slice taste-test) is selling the pie you see here, in case you’re too lazy to get dressed up for White Castle on the 14th.

This Valentine’s Day, give your special someone heart-shaped heartburn!

Update: Motorino is also doing heart-shaped pies! [NY1]

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: what not to eat, delivery pizza, dominos, papa john’s, pizza tracker, valentine’s day

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