Mario Batali’s Health-Care Plan
22 Sep
Posted by Shira Levine as Brooklyn, Delivery, Food, Manhattan, Review
Mario Batali wants to replace Vice-President Joe Biden with Michael Moore, he told us last night at the premiere of Capitalism. The chef, who described himself as a “capitalist pig,” said the nation could learn a thing or two from the restaurant industry. “We buy stuff. We fix it up and we sell it for profit at a market value. When you’re overpriced, people stop coming. The pharmaceutical industry should follow that way of thinking. Listen to the food industry,” he explained. We’re sure Big Pharma is ready and waiting to replicate the restaurant industry’s notoriously low profits.
Read more posts by Shira Levine
Filed Under: capitalism, food politics, mario batali
Hung Huynh is Still Keeping Kosher
26 Nov
Posted by Shira Levine as Brooklyn, Delivery, Food, Manhattan, Review
Former Top Chef winner Hung Huynh is still cooking at Solo, but he’s planning to open his own kosher restaurant in the spring. “We’re still working on the details of it. We’re expecting to open in spring but I can’t reveal the location yet,” he said at the Children of Chernobyl gala earlier this week. Last we heard, Huynh was going to open a seafood restaurant but it looks like he’ll keep kosher for now. “Kosher cooking is very interesting and challenging, so I have a lot of fun with it,” he said, before Moshe Malamud of the Franklin Mint interrupted to swoon over Huynh’s gefilte fish. “I ordered everything on Solo’s menu except the gefilte fish, because who wants to walk into a kosher restaurant and actually order gefilte fish? Hung comes over to the table with two portions of gefilte fish and it was the most incredible piece of fish I have ever eaten,” he recounted. “It was halibut.” Huynh was quick to clarify his menu: “I don’t do Jewish food; I do kosher food. I work with guidelines and don’t try to do anything too traditional.” To wit: his sweetbreads with carrot purée, tea leaves, shiitake mushrooms, and a red-wine beef sauce. Plus, kosher food made by a Vietnamese-born chef with French training might help the Middle East peace process. “We have a lot of Muslim guests and non-Jewish guests coming in, too,” he said. “I please all around.”
Correction: It seems crowd noise caused a miscommunication between Hung and our freelancer.
Read more posts by Shira Levine
Filed Under: hung huynh, kosher, top chef, top chef alumni newsletter