Best New Chefs

© Jacque Burke

F&W Star Chef

Though he’s won tremendous acclaim for his modern Italian dishes at New York’s Locanda Verde, F&W Best New Chef 2000 Andrew Carmellini is fascinated by traditional American cooking, which he explores at his restaurant The Dutch and in his book American Flavor. Here, his number one entertaining tip, his favorite cookbook and the basic technic everyone should master.

What’s one great entertaining tip?
Pour heavily.

What’s your most requested recipe, the one dish you’re most known for?
The rabbit potpie at The Dutch, the sheep’s milk ricotta at Locanda Verde.

What’s your favorite cookbook of all time?
La Méthode, by Jacques Pépin, the first cookbook I was ever given.

What’s the best cheap cooking gadget?
Vegetable peeler.

One technique everyone should know?
How to use heat and fire correctly is elemental.

Why Because while working in the French style of the restaurant's owner, Daniel Boulud, he has forged a culinary identity all his own.

Born Cleveland, 1971.

Education Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, NY.

Experience Le Cirque 2000 and Lespinasse in New York City.

First thing prepared Tossed salad with vegetables from his family's backyard garden.

How he got into cooking "I was a very hyperactive kid. My mom says cooking was the only thing that would calm me down."

What he'd be if he weren't a chef A guitarist in a rock band. "I've been playing guitar since I was six."

A request he said no to Grilled skate. "It's difficult to grill skate."

Strangest food eaten Baby loofah (a gourd whose fibrous skeleton is commonly used as a bath sponge) with mushrooms and preserved sea scallops at Ping's Seafood in Queens, in New York City.

Favorite food books "I have a lot of out-of-print reference books on plants, flowers and vegetables."

How he gets to work Bicycle.

Least favorite food Sea urchin.

A frustration The sudden rise in food allergies. "I wonder why that is?"

Favorite wine "The monster reds. I had a 1971 Ridge Montebello recently that was so good it was almost a meal."

Won Best New Chef at: Café Boulud, New York City