Colicchio, Samuelsson, Hall, Others Shine at Taste of New York
Though the event did not run late, the food at last night’s Taste of New York was beyond reproach: Suba’s Seamus Mullen produced some ridiculously rich and crispy oxtail croquettes, and the Ciao Bella guys served a Turkish yogurt gelato that stopped visitors in their tracks. Hill Country’s beef riblets were one of the hits of the show, requested by other chefs even as they labored behind their own tables. Meanwhile, Jim Meehan of PDT was setting out the apple cocktails that seemed to be in everybody’s hands.
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A Love-Hate Letter to Prune’s Gabrielle Hamilton Wins Taste of New YorkEntries came in by the bagful for our Taste of New York contest, but, sad to say, only one entry could win the tickets. Most of the pleas took a similar tack, berating us for not including either a well-known chef (David Chang and April Bloomfield being most frequently mentioned) or restaurant (DeNino’s, davidburke & donatella, even Ruby Foo’s!). What most entries lacked was a “why,” — too often, we were just told that “his food is awesome!!” The winner stood out as much for its detailed reasoning as for the strangely masochistic impulse which lay behind it — one so purely New York that we felt compelled to grant it primacy. So congratulations to Jim “don’t call me Captain” Kirk, for his nomination of Prune‘s Gabrielle Hamilton. Having always had an unhealthy appetite for backhanded compliments and ambivalent attachments, we felt Kirk’s entry stood apart.
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Free Tickets to Taste of New York Are Going, Going…Reminder! Tomorrow at 5 p.m. we stop accepting entries to our Taste of New York contest. To the entrant who complained that the contest is too hard to win because you have to say something funny (not true! a Gipper-like speech will do), and thank the person reading your entry: We don’t ask for gratitude — we just want you to tell us about the toque or restaurant that you’d most like to see added to this year’s lineup. And isn’t that worth two free tickets to this culinary blowout? With the money you save, you can buy a nice digital camera and snap a shot of Marcus Samuelsson signing the body part of your choice. So enter already!
Win Two Tickets to Taste of New York!
Foodievents
Win Two Tickets to Taste of New York!
As restaurant galas go, they don’t get much bigger than Taste of New York, our annual congress of the city’s top chefs, mixologists, and free-spending gourmands. It’s a magical event, but it’s not cheap: $200 for the VIP preview and $145 for general admission. And that’s if you can get a ticket at all! Of course, it’s worth every penny. But for those of you who live from pork bun to pork bun, lacking the discretionary income to make the gala, we have a challenge, a way to make up for your emaciated wallet with the fatness of your gustatory acumen. So, tell us who you think the one chef or restaurant is that should be included in the event’s roster but isn’t and tell us exactly why. Is your favorite restaurant inexplicably missing? Is there an overlooked chef doing great things in your local spot? The most thoughtful answer, with the most forceful argument, will earn you two tickets to the event, and the undying honor of appearing on Grub Street. The deadline for admissions is 5 p.m. on Friday, October 26.
Taste of New York