From Paris to New York, New Work
Here I am. New York City. Wow! I am so excited I don’t even know where to begin. Part of me feels like I just walked out of 1940’s Broadway musical where the leading lady shows up in NYC with two...
View ArticleLe Bernardin: One Cook For Sale
I got the job. I mean I got the job I really, really, really want. I should be clinking cosmopolitans. But instead, I am sitting here staring at this computer wondering how I’m going to make ends meet....
View ArticleLe Bernardin: It’s Just Food
“Amy stop freaking out. It’s just food.” “I’m not freaking out.” “It’s written all over your face. It’s just food.” “It’s not just food. It’s NOT just food. How can you say that? I have tons of mise en...
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Le Bernardin: How to Butcher Bluefin Tuna (Kindai)
How to butcher a whole enormous tuna fish flown over from Japan?!? Today was simply amazing. One of those experiences that I live for in the kitchen: fascinating, exciting, primeval, and humbling. I...
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Dumpling House: Insudstry Picks
You know you have truly made it in New York when you have no time to cook at home. Somehow I have time to party until 6AM in the morning, eat at fantastic underground restaurants, sleep for 3 hours and...
View ArticleLe Bernardin: Fish Pass Girl
I’m not sure whether I’m being tested or just given the opportunity to learn a new station: The Fish Pass. At the restaurant, all cooks when hired begin on the garde manger station and rotate through...
View ArticleLe Bernardin: Le Salon!
Oh yeah baby, I’m working in the Salon this week. Talk about sunshine after a long week of running fish back and forth, popping oysters open and stabbing lobsters between the eyes. The salon is a...
View ArticleLe Bernardin: For the First Time I Stand Alone
I didn’t think up the title of this post. It came to me indirectly from the executive chef. I don’t think he had any idea how meaningful it would be to me but, it’s a damn good title and I’ll attempt...
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Le Bernardin: Valentines Day Recovery & The Ravioli Station
“Did you check the schedule?!?!? Did you check the schedule?” “No, not yet, why?” “You’re ‘Back Monk’ next week girl!” “What the hell is ‘Back Monk’?” “It’s the ravioli station!!!” “Oh my God,...
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Beignets Filled with Meyer Lemon Curd
Not feeling the sunshine? Make some! What could be sunnier than beignets filled with tangy sweet meyer lemon curd? Meyer lemons are in peak and if you're not already stealing them from your neighbor's...
View ArticleLe Bernardin: Make It Nice or Make it Twice
“Make it nice or make it twice”… Nope, this isn’t my advice to lovers, one-night stands, and people about to get married. But maybe it should be? In every restaurant worth its salt are the old timers....
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Radegast Hall & Biergarten!
While most of you were enjoying a lazy Easter Sunday around a bountiful table of Spring delicacies I was drinking steins of beer and wolfing down pretzels, pickels, veal schnitzel, grilled brats, and...
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Le Bernardin: The Women in the Kitchen
Cooking is a competitive team sport. And NYC kitchen cultures are notorious for being like men's locker rooms: sweaty and filled with testosterone. Recently I was asked what's it's like to be a female...
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Le Bernardin: Sun Burned Chefs
Lobster red faces against starched white jackets… I came into work after our obligatory day off (Sunday, the restaurant is closed) only to look upon a sea of red. I know you're thinking: so what,...
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Le Bernardin: Duckathlon NYC Restaurant Industry Showdown!
I am not just a little bitter that we lost the annual d'Artagnan Duckathlon Industry Contest: I am OUTRAGED!!!! This competition is just for fun, organized by D'Artagnan, a food distributer who is...
View ArticleLe Bernardin: Veg Station A New Frontier
Changing stations in a kitchen can be like diving head on into an unfilled very deep, very cement pool. Perhaps tennis shoes in the dryer would be a better metaphor. Shoes clunking around bouncing off...
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Kelley & Ping, A Shanghai Noodle Bar, And a Summer Long Gone
I’ve been coming to Kelley & Ping’s, a stylish Shanghai noodle bar for fifteen years. I discovered it the summer I graduated from from college while visiting my college girl friend who had, at...
View ArticleLe Bernardin: Chef’s Whites and New Dishes
I don’t look my age. At least I didn’t think I looked my age until I caught my reflection in the bathroom on my only ‘sit down’ break during the day. There it was, staring back at me in the mirror, an...
View ArticleLe Bernardin: End of Hot Appetizers
The executive chef pulls me into his office Friday before dinner service, tells me to get comfortable, and asks me to take off my hat. I’m sitting there staring at him wondering if I’m going to get...
View ArticleLe Bernardin: All Burnt Out! (Help me plan Family Meal)
I have no idea how I'm going to work tomorrow. No idea. I burned myself so badly on Friday night that I just don't think my foot will rebound in time. My foot! Can you believe it? The handle of an...
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