Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2022 i Food & Wine

2022 TÍO PEPE EN RAMA ($18) This limited-edition fino sherry, made from a mere 96 barrels out of the many thousands at González Byass’ bodega in Jerez, Spain, is nutty, salty, and pretty much perfect with a plate of jamón Ibérico and some marcona almonds. 2019 PONZI LAURELWOOD DISTRICT PINOT NOIR ($46) One of the pleasures of this year’s International Pinot Noir Celebration in Oregon, for me, was being seated next to star winemaker Luisa Ponzi at one dinner. Why is she a star? Try this gorgeous Pinot, and you’ll see. NV CHAMPAGNE LAURENT-PERRIER ROSÉ BRUT ($90) Need some great rosé bubbles for a special occasion? In the 1960s, Laurent-Perrier was making nonvintage rosé when no other Champagne houses were, and that experience shows in this creamy, complex bottling.…

DÉLICE DE BOURGOGNE, a French triple crème cheese, was everywhere this year. To make it, full-fat cow’s milk is blended with crème fraîche, creating a cheese with a buttery, mushroomy flavor balanced by a lingering, mellow tang. Délice de Bourgogne, invented in 1975 at Fromagerie Lincet, a fifth-generation family-operated business in Saligny, France, is one of several old-school indulgences hitting big this year. (We see you, uni, caviar, and truffles.) It’s a decadent-yet-accessible luxury that chefs love for its complexity of flavor and its adaptability in both sweet and savory dishes. “It is our favorite cheese to work with,” says 2022 F&W Best New Chef Genie Kwon (see p. 116) of Kasama in Chicago, who showcases the versatility of Délice de Bourgogne in a sweet and savory croissant with black…

AFTER THE MENU, the seating is the most important part of any dine-in restaurant experience. In my capacity as restaurant editor, I’ve spent hundreds of hours each year sitting down in nearly every type of seating arrangement possible: long velvet banquettes, austere wooden benches, tall barstools (often without footrests—why?!), and those metal slat-backed stacking chairs that not a single human being finds comfortable but that (alas) seem to be ubiquitous. More than once, I’ve ended a meal early because the seating was so uncomfortable. So it was with great pleasure that I came across the chairs at De La Nonna, a bright and upbeat pizza spot in Los Angeles, which were so comfortable I didn’t ever want to leave. It turns out, they’re based on the Cesca side chair,…

WHEN IT COMES TO SOMMELIERS AND WINE, the new and obscure can be like catnip—who wants to pour the same thing as everybody else? But the best somms know that the world’s classic wine regions aren’t static: Generations change; new approaches come into play. Sometimes, the most exciting sources for wine can be surprisingly familiar names, so I asked seven wine directors from around the country for the classic wine regions they’re most excited about right now and their favorite wines from those places. MENDOZA ALEX CUPER El Che Steakhouse & Bar, Chicago One of the coolest things about Argentina is that, unlike in Old World regions, winemakers in Argentina aren’t limited by regulations that have been around for hundreds of years. Also, it’s fun to see them push Argentinean…

BONNIE’S, BROOKLYN THE MOST EXCITING TABLE IN THE COUNTRY RIGHT NOW is the large round wooden one that sits in the front right corner of Bonnie’s, chef Calvin Eng’s Brooklyn paean to Cantonese American cooking. It’s especially thrilling at the moment when the generous lazy Susan that sits in the center is quivering under the weight of the food. The table, which seats up to 10, is the only one in the restaurant capable of holding the entire menu—which is the only way you’ll want to order. Bonnie’s is Eng’s debut restaurant, and it is less than a year old, but the menu is essentially an extremely dialed-in list of greatest hits. Another way to put it? It’s all bangers, no misses. Bowls of long beans are seared in…

MACHINE SHOP, PHILADELPHIA THERE ARE FEW PERFECT CROISSANTS IN THE WORLD, yet I found one in Philadelphia at Machine Shop, the boulangerie and bakery run by pastry chef Emily Riddell. As I sliced through the golden pastry at its most bulbous point, flaky shards flew in every direction, a hurricane of crisped dough shattering across the table. The cross section revealed dramatically spacious air pockets, with enough lift between the tender layers that one could almost mistake each bubble for a cozy studio apartment. Riddell is a lamination savant who can predict exactly how butter is going to react with flour at any given point. For evidence, just take a peek inside the pastry case that anchors the bakery, where a deeply savory shakshuka-inspired Danish laced with pepper jam…

WARDA PATISSERIE, DETROIT AS A CHILD IN ALGERIA, Warda Bouguettaya was often in the kitchen with her mother and grandmother, pestering them to let her pitch in. When she was a teenager, her mother finally gave in and began teaching Bouguettaya how to cook. The first dish she mastered was chocolate mousse. These days, Bouguettaya is still whipping up batches of it in her sun-dappled Detroit bakery, Warda Pâtisserie, where a silky chocolate-pear mousse is just one component of her multilayer pear and chocolate entremet, a stunning dessert that takes three days to make. Bouguettaya was obsessed with food from an early age, but it took her several decades to finally open her dream bakery at age 38. As a young adult, she studied French literature at university and…

Chart Toppers IN A YEAR OF VERY GOOD EATING, one big night out in Music City stands alone. Back in March, I met my brother John in Nashville to see the band Hiss Golden Messenger. Loose and limber after two months on the road, they closed their winter tour with a glorious set of original songs and covers of Merle Haggard and the Grateful Dead. After the show, John and I finished the night as one should in Nashville: at Robert’s Western World, the world’s best honky-tonk, singing “May the Circle Be Unbroken” with 200 strangers. But the music I remember most from that epic night won’t qualify for the great American songbook. Earlier in the evening, as we walked through the front door of Locust, a new restaurant in…

THE ORIGIN STORY OF THE MARTINI IS UNCLEAR; was it invented in San Francisco or New York City? The mid-1800s or 1910s? Two things, though, cannot be disputed: The martini is America’s most iconic cocktail, and it’s undeniably the “it” drink of 2022. Ordering a martini can be puzzling and intimidating—shaken or stirred? Dirty? Up? Down? Sideways? The specificity of one’s order can feel like an extension of a personality. This year, restaurants and bars around the country are taking the choice and intimidation out of ordering the cocktail with creative—and sometimes totally out-there—signature martinis. Here are seven of our favorites.…

OH, THE PASTABILITIES! KATIE BUTTON CÚRATE, ASHEVILLE, NC 2015 F&W BEST NEW CHEF “I LOVE THIS SPANISH-STYLE PASTA SALAD WITH TUNA AND MARINATED TOMATOES because it incorporates fresh summer ingredients, like tomatoes and herbs, with staples I already have on hand in the pantry, including imported Spanish tuna and pasta. It’s a perfect low-cook dish that you can make ahead in large batches and eat on for lunches and dinners all week; it keeps getting better with time. This is a go-to salad in my house, and when I pack it for a picnic or a hike, it feels like I’ve won. It’s hearty and easy to make, and my kids love it, too.” Spanish-Style Pasta Salad With Tuna and Marinated Tomatoes ACTIVE 30 MIN; TOTAL 1 HR 30 MIN…

ASK ANY BARTENDER, and they’ll tell you: The espresso martini, that buzzworthy drink from the 1990s, is back with a caffeinated vengeance. But that’s not the only ’90s jolt to the cocktail world nowadays. All sorts of flavored martinis are back, including the Cosmopolitan, popularized by Carrie Bradshaw and her pals on that Clinton-era television phenomenon, Sex and the City. Also resurrected: Harvey Wallbangers, Midori sours, and frozen daiquiris. Apparently, we’re partying like it’s 1999 again. “For a while, cocktail bars were taking themselves very seriously,” says Adam Montgomerie of Hawksmoor in NYC. “But there’s a playful edge now. Something like a martini can be tongue-in-cheek.” Witness his upgraded Apple Martini (recipe p. 80), a far cry from mall-restaurant versions of the past, and find more examples of the martini…

MELISSA MIRANDA CALVIN ENG CAROLINE SCHIFF DAMARR BROWN EMILY RIDDELL TIM FLORES & GENIE KWON ANA CASTRO WARDA BOUGUETTAYA ROB RUBBA JUSTIN PICHETRUNGSI OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS, THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY HAS BEEN TO HELL AND BACK SEVERAL TIMES OVER. WE’VE ALL HEARD THE STORIES: the endless stream of pivoting, closing, restructuring, reopening, and reacting to labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and perpetually shifting local laws, all in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. We talk a lot about how resilient restaurant people are. But this year, above all, it seemed to me that restaurants began to find a new kind of freedom in the midst of all the turmoil and trouble: when they stopped playing by everyone else’s rules and started writing their own. As I ate my…

GAGE & TOLLNER, BROOKLYN IT’S UNCLEAR WHICH IS MORE EPIC: the considerable swoop of chef Caroline Schiff’s signature coif or the dramatic arc of torched, glossy meringue that’s swirled around her showstopping baked Alaska. The dessert, a beloved staple on the menu at Gage & Tollner, the opulent historic steakhouse in Brooklyn where Schiff runs the pastry and bread programs, takes a full three days to construct. To make it, Schiff and her team of four spin up three ice creams from scratch—dark chocolate, an unexpectedly light fresh mint, and fresh vanilla, which gets swirled with a heap of gently boozy amarena cherries. The ice cream stack gets topped with a generous coating of chocolate cookie crumble and then frozen overnight. The next day during service, each baked Alaska…

KASAMA, CHICAGO THE MOST PAINFUL THING ABOUT EATING AT KASAMA, the debut restaurant from chefs (and couple) Tim Flores and Genie Kwon, in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village, is deciding what time of day to visit. By day, Kasama is part fast-casual operation, part bakery. At night, it transforms into a fine-dining restaurant. The power move? Pop in during the morning for breakfast and pastries, and return in the evening for the restaurant’s thoughtful, highly calibrated tasting menu. You might kick off the day with one of Kasama’s extraordinary breakfast sandwiches stacked with squares of fluffy soufflé eggs, tater tot–like frozen hash brown patties, and longanisa sausage. (They sell 600 of these a week, and yes, it’s inspired by the Egg McMuffin at McDonald’s.) Or you might order their mushroom adobo, served…

OYSTER OYSTER, WASHINGTON, D.C. THERE IS EXACTLY ONE PIECE of animal protein available on the menu at chef Rob Rubba’s D.C. restaurant: a single oyster tucked under a duo of razor-thin sheets of kohlrabi, folded to look as if they were dumpling skins, holding a radically fresh filling of turnip and apple. You have to dig to find it, as it is swimming in a pool of bright green, almost algae-like cilantro oil. It’s slippery and salty and tastes of the sea. It’s also half of his restaurant’s name, Oyster Oyster, which refers to Rubba’s passion for both the bivalve and the mushroom (and for their roles in our food systems). Through moments visible and not, Oyster Oyster is Rubba’s love letter to sustainability. Although the restaurant menu is…

“Coffee is strong at the Café Du Monde / Doughnuts are too hot to touch / Just like a fool, when those sweet goodies cool / I eat till I eat way too much.”—JIMMY BUFFETT, 1974, “THE WINO AND I KNOW” THEY SAY EVERYTHING’S EASY in The Big Easy, but snagging a table at Café Du Monde? That’s one thing about New Orleans that can prove difficult. Tourists crowd the coffee stand at all hours, waiting for rich, nutty, chicory-infused café au lait and airy beignets heaped with powdered sugar. Fred Koeniger opened the original Café Du Monde in the French Market 160 years ago, in 1862. New Orleans was then a hub for coffee imports, and many made a living selling coffee—a tradition started in the early 1800s by…

LOCUST IS OPEN THREE DAYS A WEEK, for five and a half hours a day. Two hours are dedicated to lunch; the remaining time is for dinner service. On average, there are about six dishes on the menu, plus the occasional special (or three). The wine list is just as short. It’s hard to define what exactly the restaurant is, but as of right now, the food mostly has a Japanese bent. And on any given night, there might be a heavy metal soundtrack blasting from the open kitchen, with a few chefs head-banging away as they prepare your next dish. Locust is fully, uncompromisingly, and unapologetically itself—which is exactly what makes it so playful and brilliant. If Locust proves one thing, it is that the era of restaurants bending…

DESSERT OF THE YEAR! Banana Pudding Tiramisu Cento, Los Angeles The best moments in life are when you realize you don’t have to choose between two things you love, and this banana pudding tiramisu is exactly one of those moments. The dessert is a dramatic one: It arrives encased in a sleeve of acetate. When the sleeve is removed, a cascade of whipped banana pudding dusted with cocoa powder flows down the sides of the tiramisu, drenching the layers of Kahlúa-soaked Nilla Wafers. You’ll want to have your camera at the ready when it arrives. BEST WHOLE FISH Whole Striped Bass with Fish Paste Wenwen, Brooklyn Whole fish are having a moment on restaurant menus these days. Chef Eric Sze’s take arrives gilded with cilantro and floating in a…

IF FINE DINING is on the fritz, somebody forgot to tell Buddha Lo. “People say, ‘Oh, fine dining is dead. Fine dining doesn’t have a place.’ [But] food is like music: There’s a place for rock, there’s a place for metal, there’s a place for classical music. There’s a place for everything.” With this approach, he thrilled a table of judges consistently throughout Season 19 of Top Chef in Houston (me included, during the show’s finale in Tucson) by dipping into his bag of recipes and French techniques and following a disciplined playbook he had written during quarantine while binge-watching eight seasons of the show. Lo’s season-finale dish of raw hamachi and caviar enrobed in a frothy, creamy wine sauce would have been at home at guest judge Éric…

ROSANNE GHAHATE ENTERED THE DINING ROOM of her adobe home on the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico, her face wreathed in the steam rising from a stew she cradled between two weathered hands. These are hands that, for most of her life, have been busy with the intricate beadwork she proudly displays on a shelf in the corner. Before the pandemic, Ghahate traveled the U.S. selling Indigenous art from the 19 pueblos, or traditional Indigenous settlements in the Southwest, located in present-day New Mexico to museums across the United States. Over the past two years, however, she’s dedicated herself to the culinary arts, working with her son Kenny Bowekaty (of Zuni Tourism) to welcome visitors into her home for the kind of traditional meals that, though common on the…

MUSANG, SEATTLE TO CHEF MELISSA MIRANDA, the location of her restaurant, Musang, feels like an act of fate. The periwinkle blue house at 2524 Beacon Avenue South once served as a community center and temporary housing center for Asian immigrants, says Miranda. “A lot of Filipino elders, many of whom are customers, have actually lived in this house.” It’s located in Beacon Hill, one of the few Filipino enclaves in Seattle and the neighborhood where her father settled when he first arrived in the city from the Philippines. “I grew up coming up there with him all the time,” recalls Miranda. “There were two different Filipino restaurants and a lot of Filipino businesses. And when I returned as an adult, it had completely changed; everywhere had shut down. It…

VIRTUE, CHICAGO DAMARR BROWN NEVER IMAGINED that the most rewarding days of his career as a chef would be spent cooking dishes from his childhood. “The food that I’m cooking now is food that I ate growing up, which, when I first started, I wanted nothing to do with—at least professionally,” he says. Brown is the chef de cuisine at Virtue, a beloved restaurant started by Brown’s mentor of over 12 years, chef Erick Williams, on Chicago’s South Side. There, in a kitchen that pays homage to the craft, tradition, and flavors of Southern foodways, Brown turns out plates of silky grits swirled under tender shrimp and gizzards embracing a hefty serving of dirty rice. Brown grew up in Harvey, Illinois, 30 minutes outside of Chicago, cooking with the…

LENGUA MADRE, NEW ORLEANS LENGUA MADRE, which translates to “mother tongue,” lives in an unmarked building on Constance Street in New Orleans. From the moment you glimpse the glow of the hot pink light emanating through the small window on the door, you know you’re in for an adventure. There are no goblets of frozen margaritas here, or gargantuan menus of combination platters, or giant vats of bubbling queso. Instead, you’ll find sophisticated cocktails that highlight more obscure Mexican spirits like pox, Mexican corn whiskey, and Oaxacan gin, and chef Ana Castro’s affordable five-course tasting menu. A meal starts with tiny clay shot glasses of a wonderfully saline and deeply umami shrimp broth. “It’s inspired by a really traditional little shrimp broth that they give you at seafood restaurants on…

ANAJAK THAI, LOS ANGELES JUSTIN PICHETRUNGSI HAS ONLY EVER WORKED in one professional restaurant kitchen, but it’s the one he literally grew up in. He stands with two searing-hot woks to his right and a fry station to his left on the same tile floor that his father, Ricky Pichetrungsi, stood on for nearly four decades. Ricky opened Anajak Thai in 1981, in the quiet, family-friendly neighborhood of Sherman Oaks in Los Angeles. Justin was born five years later and experienced many of his formative childhood moments in the restaurant. “I brushed my teeth in the bathroom more than once,” says Pichetrungsi with a laugh. When Pichetrungsi wasn’t at school, he was at Anajak, working front of house, bussing tables, and dropping off glasses of water. During the sweltering…