When Season 3 of “The Bear” dropped last week, fans and food-world insiders got yet another chance to play restaurant-culture bingo. The incessant precision-snipping of green tape for the labeling of peas shelled during prep? Check. The “fancy, new earthenware” plates the restaurant’s financial backer derided as he surveyed the allocation of his funds? Yes….
For a long time, I thought of Lior Lev Sercarz as the chef who got away. After moving to New York from France in 2002, he held prime spots in Daniel Boulud’s organization, first as a cook and sous-chef at Daniel for four years, followed by two years in charge of the catering kitchen. For…
The White Clam Pizza at Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven, Conn., is a revelation. The crust, kissed by the intense heat of the coal-fired oven, achieves a perfect balance of crispness and chew. Topped with freshly shucked clams, garlic, oregano and a dusting of grated cheese, it is a testament to the magic…
James Kent, a distinguished chef and successful Manhattan restaurateur who seemed poised to become a food-industry tycoon, died on Saturday. He was 45. His death was announced by Saga Hospitality Group, the holding company of his two restaurants, Crown Shy and Saga, and his cocktail bar, Overstory, which are all in the same building in…
When Tim and Marvin Pate travel to Cancún or the Dominican Republic, they enjoy the bliss created by the good music, delicious food and the absence of children. So in May, when they opened Bliss Caribbean Restaurant in St. Louis County, Mo., the couple decided to give their customers the same joy — by requiring…
Chefs tend to load their first restaurants with every hope, dream, vision and idea they’ve ever had. It may not all come together, but if it comes close and if the ideas are any good, we can respond to the originality and overlook the weak spots. That was my reaction to Claud, which the chef…
Opening Bedford Post Tavern When post roads were horse and buggy interstates, the Bedford Post Inn, dating from 1762, was a rest stop. Its gracious restaurant is now reopening after renovations with the chef Sam Mason turning out tavern fare like oysters, onion tart, skirt steak and grilled chicken, not just his usual pastries. Like…
The National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint against the New York City restaurant group headed by the acclaimed chef Ignacio Mattos, saying that it engaged in illegal practices to dissuade workers from forming a union at Lodi, in Rockefeller Center. The 24 allegations, some involving Mr. Mattos himself, include surveilling workers’ communications, telling…
The most talked-about dish at ILIS, the cavernous Brooklyn restaurant opened by the Danish-born chef Mads Refslund in October, has to be the clam flask. This is a drinking vessel made by opening a surf clam, removing the clam, resealing the halves of the shell and shearing off a bit of the top lip to…
Many years ago a crowd-averse friend taught me a valuable lesson: Why wait hours to get into a hot restaurant when you could walk right into a less popular restaurant of roughly equal value? This is how I came to love Pizza Moto. Pizza Moto, now a mobile pizza caterer, turns out incredible Neapolitan pies…
