Fork Play 60, October 6 2009
Not Too Stupid for Donuts. Lobster on a Roll. Farewell Chanterelle. Paula on Clay Pot Cooking.
Dear Friends and Family,
"You Are Too Stupid to Make good personal decisions about food and beverages," shouted the full color ad in last Thursday's Times. The O in "you" was a sugared donut, the
 A in "are" was a pizza slice, the first O in "too" was a cheeseburger and the second a pop top soda. Very eye-catching. I suddenly wanted a donut. It was a taunt from Consumer Freedom.com, an industry attack dog fighting back against "food cops and politicians attacking food and soda choices they don't like."
Well, we all know our mayor likes salt, pizza and junk food. He just wants to know what he's eating and he wants us to know too. Personally I was happier stupid. I loved the carefree days before cholesterol was invented and sugar became a demon. We only had calories to worry about and only if we foolishly stepped on a scale or bought a skirt without an elastic waistband.
As a weekly reader of Nation's Restaurant News, I see the food industry's mixed message in play. Panic, rage, denial and acceptance. This week maple syrup is celebrated in Culinary Trends and the lead report is "Weighing In: Living off the Fat of the Land." Better-for-you alternatives are not huge sellers yet at Denny's NRN reports. Customers are approaching them warily, adding one healthy option to their usual mindless gobble. McDonald's is providing options, the article quotes a spokeswoman, who thinks customers are smart enough to make reasoned choices. (Fat chance.)
Dunkin' Donuts says their customers actually requested healthier choices. Dunkin's egg white flatbread sandwich is "really resonating well." And Yum! Brands reports the April launch of Kentucky Grilled Chicken has turned sales around from a 7% loss to a 3% gain in the quarter. Ah, the bottom line. That could set off a wave of egg white action and slow down a tsunami of salt.
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Lobster on a Roll
I don't want to see sodium counts posted at my favorite pizza haunts. And I won't even look at the menu if the city requires fat readings and calorie counts on Ed's Chowderhouse menu. Let me wallow in mayonnaise and butter now and then and do penance with my no fat yogurt and sugar free twiglets at breakfast.
A friend called to complain that I had "reviewed" the new seaside chowderie "curated" by Ed Brown that replaced
 Center Cut overlooking Lincoln Center on the strength of a tasting before it opened. He'd just seen my rave in Crain's.
It's an impression, I told him, not a review. "Look at the hats." I beseeched him. "Three hats mean I can't wait to go back. Two hats, I'll go back one day soon. One hat signifies I'll let them simmer awhile. And no hats are my way of saying, 'Not on my money.'"
I've been back to Ed's with friends since that first revelation. We divided two marvelous chowders for the four of us and I reluctantly shared my elegant lobster roll (and complained about too small a dollop of very good coleslaw). I was wildly and noisily unhappy that the lobster crumble with buttery roe I'd loved was not on the menu but Brown said it needed work and now it's back. To read my first take on Ed's, click here.
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Endings and Beginnings
I felt shock and great sadness to learn that Karen and David Waltuck had decided not to reopen Chanterelle on the eve of its thirtieth birthday. Almost as if a friend had died. I recall so vividly the delight in discovering the just-hatched restaurant aglow like an apparition in darkest
 Soho in 1979. Click here to read "The Daring Young Man on Grand Street." Other gifted amateur restaurant couples with equal ambition from that time split and their remarkable ventures are gone, almost forgotten. Death for Chanterelle now due to real and exaggerated need for frugality seems very cruel. It's yet another grim tolling after the last whimper of Café des Artistes and the messy bankruptcy of Tavern on the Green. Five hundred restaurants have shuttered in our town. A ray of hope comes with promised openings stretching out all winter and into the spring.
I'm still in shock over the murder of Gourmet magazine. It's a deeply personal loss. I'm too angry to write about it.
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A Voce Goes Shopping
Gray Kunz got two unkind stabs of fate before he left for a new life in Hong Kong. I was remembering him hurdling and hustling in Café Gray's grand open kitchen as I squinted to see the trees in the dark from the restored park view in that spot, now claimed by a seedling of A Voce. I was a big
 fan of the café's Viennoiserie so it's a shock to see all that mauve and brown glove leather stripped away. I've been by twice now to taste Missy Robbins' Italianate cooking, especially the feisty escarole with soft poached egg and voluptuous ricotta gnocchi with zucchini, squash blossoms, mint and bottarga. For more on what you'll find at the new A Voce, click here.
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A Passion for Detail and the Authentic
In an age savoring organic, Paula Wolfert comes along just in time to celebrate unglazed clay vessels - also organic - and the earthy taste and aroma they give to food. Paula,
an adored friend I rarely see now that we are on opposite
 coasts, is a cook's cookbook writer. She is not your forgiving aunt or your clock-watching cheerleader. But I think you knew that. Her newest, "Mediterranean Clay Pot Cooking" (Wylie), wants you to be as passionate and serious as she is. Tunisian Chorba with Cracked Wheat, Lamb "confit" and Cilantro. Gypsy Clay-Wrapped Chicken. Piedmontese Bean Soup with Spareribs. Wolfert fans will have read enough and already be clicking here to buy it.
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Photos of the Gus and Gabriel burger, lobster at Ed's Chowderhouse and A Voce pork chop may not be used without permission from Steven Richter. |
Fork Play copyright Gael Greene 2009.
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