Bionic Bites » Events

Top Ten Pastry Chefs 2010 – NYC

bionicgrrrl — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:49:59 +0000

Last month, to the joy of my sugar-loving boyfriend, I was invited by Melissa to Top Ten Pastry Chefs 2010, an event announcing the “the top toques of tuile, cocoa and sugar” according to Dessert Professional. During the event, guests were given the opportunity to walk from kitchen to kitchen at I.C.E. (The Institute for Culinary Education) and sample desserts from participating chefs. A lot of chocolate, sorbet, and even pop-rocks were eaten, but my favorite by far was Chapeau Chic by Nicholas Lodge of the French Pastry School.

This très chic dessert consisted of a pistachio mousse cake filled with sour cherry crémeux resting on a bed of red cherry granola, and topped with an edible gumpaste blossom. In a sea of intensely rich chocolate creations, this delicate cake stood out from the rest. The cake was light, the cherry crémeux airy and tart, and the granola and candy flower both had a wonderful crunch. Of all the desserts eaten that night — and trust me, we ate and conquered all — Chapeau Chic is the only dessert that really stands out in my memory one month later.

As a testament to the damage we did to our teeth that night, above is a slideshow of some of the desserts we devoured. Watch it with a glass of milk. You’ll need a big swig afterwards.

Senegalese Summer Giveaway – NYC

bionicgrrrl — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:46:31 +0000

I get emails from PR people all the time about events around the city. A lot of times the events are lame, but this one sounded pretty cool. Pierre Thiam, the chef and owner of Le Grand Dakar in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn is having a viewing party called Senegalese Summer next Thursday (June 24, 2010) for his battle with Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America. Not into Iron Chef? Well that’s okay, because there will also be food (such as shrimp & sweet potato croquettes, oven roasted dates stuffed with spiced lamb, black eyed pea fritters, and skewered grilled steak with ginger & peanut crust) and unlimited sangria. Still not convinced? Well, there will also be music. Jojo Kuo — a veteran jazz, Afro pop, and World drummer who has collaborated with Fela Kuti — will also be performing. (There’s a nice story about him and his collab with Fela on Lens, The New York Times‘ photography blog.)

Tickets are going for $25 advance/$30 at the door, but I have two tickets to give away to one lucky reader. To enter, write in the comments below your favorite Senegalese or West African dish. If you’ve never had either, simply write what you’d like to try. I’ll be picking one person at random. No heart-wrenching stories necessary. Giveaway will end on Monday (June 21, 2010) at noon. Good luck!

Update I (6/21/2010): The winner is “someguy.” Congratulations! Thanks everyone for participating!
Update II (6/21/2010): For those who missed out, Serious Eats: New York is giving away another pair of tickets. Good luck again!

Le Grand Dakar
285 Grand Avenue (b/n Clinton Place & Lafayette Ave; map)
Brooklyn, NY 11238
718-398-8900

Grand Tasting at the NYC Wine & Food Festival – NYC

bionicgrrrl — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:19:33 +0000

I still have an infinite amount of Asian fooding photos to go through, but I thought I would take a break and write about last week’s Grand Tasting at the New York City Wine & Food Festival (NYCWFF). Last Saturday, David and I spent an hour and a half at Pier 54 where lots of wine and food were to be had. We ate, drank, and ate some more, but since I want to keep this post to a reasonable length, covered here are just the day’s most delectable bites.

If you are familiar with the Food Network’s Next Iron Chef, two of the competing chefs were there doing a “prosciutto challenge.” I don’t watch the show, because I just don’t find it too exciting, and besides I’m not that crazy about the Chairman (What does martial arts have to do with food?!), but Amanda Freitag’s fresh mission fig with blue cheese cream and Prosciutto di Parma was one of my favorite dishes of the day. The fresh fig was a nice counterpoint to the aged prosciutto and blue cheese yet captured the earthy elements of both ingredients. There wasn’t too much cooking involved, and there was a lot of fig in one bite, but after going through a room of complicated little plates, it was nice to eat something simple and delicious.

Another favorite was from Philippe Massoud of Ilili. He had several lamb dishes at his table, but my favorite was lamb brains on warm milk bread. For the squeamish, the brains were quite harmless tasting. Fried crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside and served with pickled turnip and greens on milk bread, it tasted like a fried sweetbread taco. But, if you’re squeamish about sweetbreads also, this is probably not your thing. I loved it.

Massoud also had spoonfuls of lamb cheeks braised in a sharp flavorful jus. It was a juicy mouthful of tender succulent lamb. I’ll be making a point of dining at Ilili one of these days.

David especially liked the ocean trout tartare with pickled mustard seeds, pine nuts, chorizo oil and egg by Vincent Seufert & Stephane Dorian from 10 Downing. It tasted very fresh and the chorizo oil definitely made it taste different, but I think olive oil or sesame oil, although not as interesting, would have been a better choice for the mild fish. However, I kept rubbing it into David that he probably liked the tartare because of the chorizo oil, since he doesn’t eat pork, but he claimed he liked it because of the pine nuts. Uh huh, sure…

And lastly, a favorite of both of our’s was the fried feta with eggplant jam and sea salt by Jason Avery of Pera. The crunchy salty feta went wonderfully with the sweet eggplant jam and slightly bitter microgreens. It was lovely bite, sweet and savory at the same time. The only problem with the dish was some bad microgreen gunk on the side. I’m sure it was hella hectic at the festival and hard to check every single plate that went out, but it’s a pet peeve of mine. No one wants to eat vegetal gunk. In any case, I was still impressed by the food, and I’ll be keeping Pera on the radar.

As for alcohol, my favorites included a Chenin Blanc from a South African winery called Mulderbosch retailing for only $14 and the Champagne Lanson Black Label which retails for about twice as much. In addition, the crazy folks from the Mandalay Bay (Jennifer Cross and Keith Bearden) had a cute tropical drink garnished with dry ice called The Volcano that was tasty but not too sweet. The recipe for the alcohol is below. I could see it being a fun cocktail for a themed dinner party.

The Volcano
Jennifer Cross, Keith Bearden
Mandalay Bay Mixology Team

3/4 oz. Absolut Mango vodka
3/4 oz. Absolut Peach vodka
1/4 oz. Amaretto
Equal Parts orange juice and pineapple juice, splash of grenadine

Garnish: Dry Ice
Glassware: Martini

And for those who need more food porn, for your viewing pleasure, I’ve included a slideshow of some of the food I consumed at NYCWFF 2009. I can’t wait for next year. However much I complain about the Food Network, they definitely know how to throw a party.

I saw Richard Blais! – NYC

admin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:43:47 +0000

This happened a few weeks ago, but hey, I’m still in vacation mode, leave me alone! Anyway, a few weeks ago I read on Midtown Lunch that Richard Blais from Top Chef was going to be at Garrett Popcorn making “popcornsicles.” Now, I must say Dale was my favorite. Bourdain, I love you, but you really screwed up big time when you sent Dale packing instead of angry Lisa. I mean, besides his skills in the kitchen, I found Dale hilarious to watch. I loved how he would always grab his crotch whenever he got into a screaming match with the lovely ladies on Top Chef. Hey, if I were him, I would too! After Dale left, Richard soon become my favorite. Stephanie seemed good, and I’m all for female chefs, but she was a bit boring for me. In case you wanted it, or not, that’s just my two cents about the show.

When I got to Garrett, I was surprised to see he was making the popsicles himself and handing them out to the crowd. When it was my turn, I asked him for a photo and he said, “Of course!” He really seemed like a sweet, down-to-earth person. He couldn’t have been nicer. I bet he is going to be a great dad.

The popcornsicles were composed of cheese and caramel popcorn and then dipped into liquid nitrogen, à la molecular gastronomy. Now cheese and caramel sounds weird, but it really went together. It was a bit of a surprise. I guess it’s kind of like when you eat a lot of caramel corn, you get sick of the sweetness and then want something salty. In this case, you have sweet and savory all at once. I would have preferred more of a sticky binding agent though. Every time I took a bite, a few pieces fell off, which is not exactly great when walking around on the street. I think some pigeons followed me back to work.

Anyway, best wishes to Richard. I heard he’s at the helm of a new restaurant in Atlanta. I can’t wait to go the next time I’m there.