Best of the Buzz

Outtake of the Week

2009-11-06T22:45:00Z

It was good, but not nearly as good as the employees kept telling me.

Dining News Elsewhere: Obesity and Cancer, Bacon-Wrapped Matzoh Balls

2009-11-06T16:53:00Z

– A baguette dropped by a bird stopped the Large Hadron Collider. [Times]
– Linking obesity and cancer. [MSNBC]
– Scripps (which owns the Food Network) sets its sights on the Travel Channel. [EMD]

– Jamie Oliver, upholder of justice. [Telegraph]
– How wine became a "fast food." [Daily Beast]
– Daniel Boulud sets his sights on London. [Bloomberg]
– LA's Orso prepares for a final bow. [NYT]
– A long chat with Gordon Ramsay. [Telegraph]
– Not kosher: Ilan Hall's bacon-wrapped matzoh balls. [Jewish Journal]
– 7-Eleven gets ready to roll out its own wine. [MSNBC]
– Why Guinness can taste different in Ireland (and elsewhere). [Accidental Hedonist]
– Will laser etchings replace fruit and vegetable stickers? [Gizmodo]
– Portion sizes, then and now. [DivineCaroline]
– How exactly does Jell-O work? [BG]
– Meat, the fabric. [EMD]
– Cookie monster cupcakes love cookies. [Leila Cohan]

Shake Shack Flies South

2009-11-05T18:36:00Z

Hear that? That's the sound of a squeal of joy coming from Florida. Why? Because Danny Meyer's New York institution Shake Shack has set its sights on Miami for its first operation outside of New York. Opening sometime in spring/summer 2010, the new Shack will be located in a new development at 11 11 Lincoln Road on Lenox Avenue. The only real question is, will Miami flip for the same Shackburgers, concretes and long lines that New Yorkers have grown to love so much?

Ricardo Cardona: Chef to the Champions

2009-11-05T16:42:00Z

Ricardo Cardona, chef to the Yankees

Last night the Yankees clinched the World Series for the first time in nine years. Some chalk it up to good coaching, a brand-new stadium or a roster of players dedicated to teamwork. But something else happened within the past year that might have fueled the victorious season: a new chef at the stadium. Chef Ricardo Cardona stepped in to cook for the Bronx Bombers at home games. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Manhattan, Cardona has emerged as one of the city’s eminent Latino chefs with his restaurants Sazon, Sofrito, Hudson River Café and Mamajuana Cafe. What is he feeding these champs? We caught Cardona between games to talk about the team’s favorite eats.

Zagat Buzz: Were you always a Yankee fan?

Ricardo Cardona: I became a Yankee fan while cooking for them, because I really didn’t care much about baseball before that. Once I started cooking for them, I became friends with them. I became a Yankee fan, and now I feel I am part of the family.

ZB: How did you become the chef for the New York Yankees?

RC: I used to work in a restaurant called Jimmy’s Bronx Café back in 1999–2000. The restaurant was five minutes away from Yankee Stadium. I met a family there called the Cucuzza family, who takes care of the clubhouse. They were regular customers, and we became friends. They would ask me to cater for the Yankees all the time. When Jimmy’s Bronx Café closed, we kept in contact, and they asked me to cater for them still because they liked my food. So I kept catering for them no matter what restaurant I was working at. Last year they asked one of my restaurants, the Hudson River Café, to do the All-Star Game. I cooked for all the players, both the American and National League, three meals each day – and they liked it. After that they asked me about the possibility of helping out right at the stadium instead of catering, because the stadium opened and they weren’t happy with the restaurants there. So they called and told me they needed someone to create a menu every week for the home players and the visiting teams. I pulled one cook out of my restaurants and placed him to be there every day when the Yankees are in town. During the day, he cooks sandwiches or eggs for them, and then I cook the big meal at night. Every day the Yankees have a different theme at the buffet table, so I’ll follow that, and I’ll cook for the visiting team whatever I want.

ZB: Do the players often have special menu requests?

RC: Sometimes if they are doing special training, or are on a special diet, they will ask for something in advance. For example, Mariano Rivera once requested watercress juice. But, really, they are very simple guys. When they’re hungry, they’ll eat anything.

ZB: What was on the menu for the World Series?

RC: Seafood paella, that’s one of their favorites. Grilled shrimp, pork chops. Skirt steak. Rice and beans.

ZB: So what do you take into account when planning a menu for World Champions?

RC: You have to have fiber, vegetable, protein – fish, chicken or meat, and then how it’s prepared is really up to me. I always offer a lot of beans or lentils too.

ZB: What restaurant recommendations do you have for fans near the stadium?

RC: Well, I run a restaurant called Hudson River Café on 135th Street and 12th Avenue in Manhattan, and there’s the steakhouse at the Fairway too. I recommend eating in that area because of the parking. It’s easy to park your car there, then hop in a taxi to the stadium and you are there in five minutes.

ZB: Where do the players like to eat?

RC: The Latino players like to go to Dyckman Street to some of the Dominican restaurants and other Latino spots. I used to see Melky Cabrera all the time at Lua in Hoboken. A lot of them go to my spot Sofrito on 57th Street, one of the few Puerto Rican restaurants in New York. They like it because we do very homey-style Puerto Rican food there. Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera love Sofrito.

ZB: What’s A-Rod’s favorite dish?

RC: He likes lean foods – low-fat, low-butter – and sweet potato and apple purée. He actually taught my cook how to make it.

ZB: Does Derek Jeter have a favorite dish?

RC: Well, he was upset because the reporter who wrote an article in the Daily News recently said he eats pork, and that’s not true. He does not eat pork. I don’t know why that reporter wrote that. But Jeter likes grilled chicken breast. Grilled chicken on whole wheat bread is one dish he eats a lot. He is very self-disciplined. He is the captain and you’ve got to lead by example, so he eats very healthy.

ZB: Do you feel your menu affects whether the Yankees win?

RC: I wish I could say that! But I think it’s their playing.

– Kathleen Squires

Dining News Elsewhere: An Illy Invasion, Iron Chef in the White House

2009-11-04T17:08:00Z

– Illy is making inroads into U.S. coffee shops. [WSJ]
– Gordon Ramsay is planning to bring the popular MasterChef to the U.S. [THR]
– Sam Kass: assistant White House chef, policy wonk. [NYT]

– Related: Iron Chef America heads to the White House. [NYT]
– After 17 years, Jean-Georges is shutting down Vong. Though maybe not for long? [Eater]
– Learning to compost in Chicago's public schools. [Chicago Tribune]
– More on the affect of calorie counts on menus. [NYT]
– The Kogi Truck folks in LA have their own custom car now. [Mouthing Off]
– Kids menus should grow up. [BG]
– What does your beer choice say about you? [AdAge]
– Yellow Tail isn't the only Aussie wine, y'know. [WSJ]
– One 225,000-ton ship, more than 24 dining options. [EMD]
– Grant Achatz stands sternly in front of an airplane. [GS:C]
– Is it a steak house or a gay bar? [SteakHouseorGayBar]

Life in the Slow Lane

2009-11-03T22:35:00Z

Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town

Photo: courtesy of Welcome Books

The Slow Food Movement shows no signs of, well, slowing down, as evidenced by the release of Welcome Books’ Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town. Written by Douglas Gayeton, the book combines gorgeous photo illustrations and essays to tell the story of slow food through the lives of farmers, mushroom hunters, bakers and butchers in the small town of Pistoia in Tuscany, Italy. Legendary chef Alice Waters provides the intro, while the movement’s founder, Carlo Petrini, pens the preface. To celebrate the release of the book, restaurants across the country are hosting special dinners on November 18, with Gayeton appearing at Waters’ Chez Panisse Cafe in Berkeley, CA. Other participants include Yountville’s Bardessono, Washington DC’s Dino, Brooklyn’s the Good Fork, LA’s Grace and many more. For more information about the events, visit www.welcomebooks.com/slow/11-18.

Fabio Wants To Whip You Into a Firenze

2009-11-03T19:30:00Z

Fabio Viviani

Photo: courtesy of Bravo TV

Linguistically challenged Top Chef veteran Fabio Viviani has taken over North Hollywood’s old Barsac Brasserie space and made it into Firenze Osteria, where he’s hoping to draw foodies from nearby Universal Studios hungry for a taste of dishes from Florence, Italy; the well-aged art adorning the walls of the warm space looks as if it were lifted directly from the Arno.

4212 Lankershim Blvd., Los Angeles; 818-760-7081

Walking (and Tasting) the Town

2009-11-02T22:30:00Z

In cities as foodie-friendly as New York and Philadelphia, sometimes even locals need a guide for eating adventures. Enter City Food Tours, run by Joyce and Robert Weinberg (who owned Beyond Measure in Philly), which leads walking tasting tours seven days a week in both cities. The tours themselves vary dramatically, with everything from a Top Chef tour to an ethnic-food trip around NoLita to a craft beer and artisanal cheese tasting in Philly. All include access to good food, good company and a touch of exercise. Interested? Book now and mention Zagat to get 20% off two or more tickets (prices vary; call 215-360-1996 for Philadelphia tickets; 212-535-8687 for New York tickets; for more information click here).

Keep on Truckin' ... With Lists!

2009-11-02T20:14:00Z

Green Truck on the Go

Photo: courtesy of the truck

With so many food trucks using Twitter these days, keeping track of all those tweets can make your head spin. But by utilizing Twitter's new lists feature, we've made the truckin' life a little easier. With a combined 63 food trucks and counting, our Food Truck lists for NYC, LA and Austin are your one-stop shops for street-meat tweets.

Dining News Elsewhere: PBR For Sale, Wading Into the Tip Pool

2009-11-02T16:41:00Z

– Talking with the troubled Ciprianis. [Vanity Fair]
– The brewery behind PBR and Schlitz is for sale. [NYP]
– Restaurants seek to better manage tip pools. [NRN]

– Western foods are gaining in China. [ABC]
– Where have all the Angostura bitters gone? [Bostonist]
– Who gets all of those 7 PM reservations, anyway? [Between Meals]
– The last days of Gourmet. [Last Days of Gourmet]
– Nation's Restaurant News to go biweekly. [Food Writer's Diary]
– Who needs to tip when you can buy the chef a beer? [GS:C]
– 222.5 pounds? Now that's a big meatball. [MSNBC]
– Could you eat 78 pieces of cutlery? Would you? [Daily Mail, via EMD]
– The manually operated hamburger vending machine. [JapanProbe]

Cooking With Coco

2009-11-02T16:03:00Z

David Chang's pork neck with succotash

Photo and recipe: courtesy of Phaidon Press

For its latest cookbook, Coco, Phaidon Press turned to 10 world-leading chefs – Ferran Adrià, Mario Batali, Shannon Bennett, Alain Ducasse, Fergus Henderson, Yoshihiro Murata, Gordon Ramsay, René Redzepi, Alice Waters and Jacky Yu – to each pick 10 contemporary chefs from around the world. In turn, each of those chefs then wrote a menu and recipes for the book. The final product is more than 400 pages of gorgeous photographs, mouthwatering recipes and interesting tidbits from kitchens around the world. Want a taste? After the jump, get the recipe for pork neck with succotash from New York chef David Chang (of the Momofuku empire).

Pork Neck with Succotash
Serves 4
Recipe by David Chang

For the pork neck
300 g kosher salt
270 g sugar
6 liters hot water
2 bay leaves
25 g black peppercorns
6 liters cold water
10 g pink salt
1 pork neck

Mix the salt, sugar, hot water, bay leaves, and black peppercorns.
Mix the cold water with the pink salt.
Add the pork neck and confit 5 hours at 300°F (150°C) covered.
When tender, press between 2 sheet trays. Portion into serving size pieces.
Crisp on a griddle or pan to heat through.

For the succotash
100 g ground (minced) smoked, think-cut pork belly
12 g chanterelle mushrooms
250 g lima (butter) beans
175 g corn (sweetcorn) kernels
Butter for sautéing
1 tbsp tarragon, chopped
4 ml buttermilk
120 g butter
130 g arugula (rocket)

Sauté the pork belly, chanterelles, lima beans, and corn in a pan.
Finish with a pinch of salt and pepper, chopped tarragon, buttermilk, butter, and arugula.

Outtake of the Week

2009-10-30T21:57:00Z

A bit out of the way and not worth finding.

Dining News Elsewhere: Menu Labeling Goes National, No More Kitchen Nightmares

2009-10-30T15:49:00Z

– Menu labeling hops onto health-care reform. [NRN]
– 2009 had the worst honey crop on record. [Daily Green, via GS:C]
– Not with a bang, but a whimper. Ramsay kills Kitchen Nightmares. [The Sun]

– The return of the milkman. [WSJ]
– Restaurants look to Halloween for a boost. [NRN]
– The White House garden, by the numbers. [Obama Foodorama]
– Europe's eel population is slipping away. [WSJ]
– Costco is getting ready to accept food stamps. [CityRoom]
– Hooters is facing a lawsuit for making its waitresses buy their uniforms. [NYP]
– Just try and top this Halloween dish. [Not Martha]
– 100-year-old whiskey, anyone? [GlobalPost]
– In Illinois, 100 hours of community service or...a tray of jerk chicken? [Chicago Tribune]

ZAGAT.mobi, Now With Your Tweets

2009-10-29T16:30:00Z

Read the latest Twitter entries on ZAGAT.mobi

ZAGAT.mobi just got Twitter-fied. Now when you look up restaurants on our award-winning mobile website, not only can you access our trusted ratings and reviews, you can also read up-to-the-minute comments about the restaurant on Twitter. You don't have to download or install anything to get in on the fun – simply visit ZAGAT.mobi on any web-enabled phone, be it an iPhone, a BlackBerry or a Pre, and see what people are saying about your favorite spot. Now that's something to tweet about.

Iron Man, Seamus Mullen

2009-10-29T15:53:00Z

Seamus Mullen

Photo: courtesy Food Network

With two consecutive victories under his belt on The Next Iron Chef, Boqueria’s Seamus Mullen is certainly a sharp contender for the title. So far, versatility has been his secret weapon: the Vermont native may specialize in regional Spanish cuisine, but he has shown that he can cross cultures as easily as cutting through an onion. The Buzz caught up with Mullen to chat about competition and the state of Spanish cuisine in NYC.

Zagat Buzz: Why do you want to be The Next Iron Chef?

Seamus Mullen: It’s a huge honor, one of the biggest cooking accolades that you can accomplish, as well as an opportunity to compete against the best chefs in the country. And it’s fun! Competing in Kitchen Stadium is really fun but also challenging. It’s a different dimension of cooking from what we do in the restaurant. It takes me back to when I was in high school – I was very athletic and played soccer and hockey. I forgot how great that exhilarating feeling of competition is.

ZB: Is there anything from kitchen stadium that you would like to bring to your own kitchen?

SM: The urgency in kitchen stadium is unavoidable. And that’s a great thing to have in your own kitchen – a sense of getting food out really well and as quickly as you can without making mistakes. Another thing is to cook every meal as if you’re going to be judged right after, because in the restaurant, you never know who you are cooking for.

ZB: What is the most important thing that you learned from The Next Iron Chef experience?

SM: To trust my instincts. The times I went with my gut, I always succeeded. When I second-guessed myself, I had some trouble.

ZB: What was the hardest part of the competition for you?

SM: I have rheumatoid arthritis and that became a serious issue for me to contend with. It was exacerbated by stress, and I probably went through one of the most stressful things you can imagine going through.

ZB: How did you overcome that obstacle?

SM: I just pushed through. There wasn’t much else I could do but push through. It certainly made things difficult.

ZB: In terms of Spanish cuisine in NY, how is it evolving? Do you think it’s going to turn more towards tradition or follow along the path of chefs like Ferran Adrià?

SM: I think right now that New Yorkers, with the change in the economy, are gravitating more toward traditional, homey foods and revisiting a place over and over that comforts them. A lot of these restaurants like El Bulli – you can’t go there more than once a year, or even once a lifetime, because it’s impossible to even get a reservation in the first place. In NY it’s very difficult to run a viable business that way, so we try as much as possible to develop a community of diners who will come back.

ZB: What’s next for you? Any more Boquerias on the horizon?

SM: We are looking, and we have a couple of things percolating, but there’s nothing I can really speak freely about – yet.