FORK PLAY April 28, 2009
Red
Carpet Fumble. Brandt Beef Takes the Train. Monkey Bar. Keste's Real
Pizza.
Dear
Friends and Family,
I
did my first red carpet walk as a juror for the Tribeca Film Festival - my
category is shorts - hardly  worthy of the red carpet I would have thought, but
there I was, steps behind Robert De Niro, pretty heady stuff. I wore my blue captain's hat with the golden
grapes, fork, knife and spoon on the band, pulled low. And I was definitely
caught off guard when a photographer asked my favorite food film. I could have said, "Babette's Feast," or
"Who's Killing the Great Chefs?" "Le
Grande Bouffe" or "Big Night," but all I could think of was a foodie S&M
scene in "9 & 1/2 Weeks," where Mickey Rourke blindfolds Kim Basinger in
front of the open fridge and feeds her cherry jam, rubbing it all over her
face... and then shocks her with a whole jalapeņo. What's your favorite movie food
scene? Email me. I'm making a
list.
Turquoise
and shocking pink are the vibrating Tribeca Film Festival colors you see
here.
***
Sustainable
Beef Cheeks
Marketing
Cowboys from Brandt Beef's cattle farm in California organized a tasting for me
last week at
 Center Cut, a
steakhouse that makes a big deal of Brandt Natural on the menu. I didn't know that much about Brandt except
that its meat has a powerful aura of purity - like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
or Extra Extra Virgin Olive Oil. "Family owned. Sustainably raised. Source and
age verified. Complete traceability. Family processed. Antibiotic free. No
growth hormones. Humane handling. Corn and ranch-grown alfalfa-based vegetarian
diet." Those are a few of the company's claims.
I
asked for a comparison tasting with other brands but Brandt's executive chef
Tom McAliney was eager to show off the ranch's less expensive cuts - rib chops,
skirt, flat iron steak, bavette (also known as the "flap" or hanger), and rib
cap meat. The Road Food Warrior and I loved the skirt, and the flap. By the
sixth platter we were probably in arterial shock - we had the waiter rush in a
salad but it was a pitiful gesture. Yet we
were not too numb to discover that bone-in filets have a lot more oomph
than a sandard filet mignon.
The
Brandt ambassador says he's been making restaurant rounds trying to persuade
chefs to buy boxed half sides of cow at a lower price per pound than premium
steaks and butcher it themselves. Dean & Deluca is first to sign on for the
new side-of-beef-in-a-box, planning to do carry-out food with anything that
doesn't sell in their meat department.
What gourmand wouldn't buy beef cheeks?
And oxtail?
McAliney's
news was that Brandt had reduced its carbon footprint 80% shipping by train
rather than truck.
 The first rail shipment arrived last week. What about the food world's new obsession
with "local?" He thought the Brandt clan
would gladly raise beef nearby in New York State or New Jersey if they could find a "green" slaughterhouse. Is
that an oxymoron worth pursuing?
***
Monkey
See, Monkey Do
Unlike
his snooty Waverly Inn, Graydon
Carter's newly tarted up Monkey Bar
has a reservations line: 212 308 2950.
Good news for salon refuseniks like us, if you don't mind eating at 6:30
or 10 p.m. I ask myself... Would I rather be put in my place by a joint that books
anyone or by a club I wouldn't want to crash if it would have me? No point in my brooding, our friends want to
go. To read who was there and what we ate, click here. Scroll down to read how spring drives Bill Telepan to peas.
With many of our friends determined to eat
cheap now, I've been researching dinner deals. Roberta's, in an abandoned garage in Bushwick, is definitely worth
the drive for exceptionally good pizza and sophisticated cookery at rock bottom
prices. Click here for my BITE on Roberta's. Then scroll down for the skinny on Le Cirque's $35 dinner in the lounge, the $30 two-course prix fixe
at EightyOne and the mixed blessing
of Pino's downstairs discount at Centolire. Also click here to see the scary black dish at Bouley's new
Versailles. Designed for a splurge.
***
Real
Neapolitan Pizza
I
got a desperate phone call from my Neapolitan friend, Francesco. He was away
from New York on business, driving somewhere on a highway in Texas. "How could
you do that to Keste?" he
cried. "It's real Neapolitan pizza," he
said. "At last. After that awful over-priced stuff at Una Pizza Napoletana."
"But
I did say that I loved everything about Keste," I protest. "I loved the salads,
loved the attitude, loved the bubbling scorched edges of the pies. Sadly, it
turns out I just don't love an authentic Neapolitan pizza - too soft in the
middle, too wet."
I'm
hoping Neapolitan-style pizza lovers will keep Keste alive and Francesco will
ultimately forgive me.
271 Bleecker Street. 212 243
1500
***
The
Food World Cares and so does Trouble
Like
most charities, Citymeals-on-Wheels is dealing with dwindling donations, so all
of us are especially grateful for support from the food world. Star chef
Michael White and his partner Chris Connors will send all the proceeds from the
Friday May 1 opening night reception at Marea,
their luxurious new seafood spot on Central Park West. (Call 212 687 1290.) Citymeals will also benefit when Julian
Niccolini and Alex Von Bidder put themselves on the barbeque to be singed by a
lineup of VIP roasters at the Four Seasons 50th Birthday party,
Tuesday May 5. (RSVP Kathleen at 212 754 9494). Join us. I've been instructed
to be mean and obscene in my first ever roast.
French
Brasserie meets American diner at Daniel Boulud's new DBGB on the Bowery (299 Bowery at East First Street) where Boulud and
Scott Kasen host a preview party Tuesday, May 26 (5:30 to 8:30 p.m.) with proceeds for
Citymeals. 212 687 1290.
Also,
good news from Trouble, the dog, heir to $12 million in the will of his mistress Leona Helmsley. The compassionate trustees of Leona's estate
have decided that Trouble can share the booty with other causes Leona supported
in her lifetime, including Citymeals.
***
Photos of Brandt beef's bone-in filet
at Center Cut, Monkey Bar's clams, Telepan's pea pancakes, Roberta's waitress,
and Keste's pizza may not be used without permission of Steven Richter.
Fork Play by Gael Greene copyright
2009 |
