Mouthing Off

Two of Philadelphia's favorite food stars—F&W Best New Chef 2004 Dominique Filoni and super prolific restaurateur Stephen Starr—will make a much anticipated homecoming when they debut Parc, a French brasserie slated to open on Rittenhouse Square on Bastille Day (July 14th). While Starr has spent his four-year-hiatus from Philly launching restaurants in Manhattan and in Atlantic City, Filoni has spent the past two cooking at Seasons Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C. I recently chatted with the French-born Filoni to learn more about Parc:

Concept: "It will be more French than in France. We're not going to be a fake brasserie."

Inspiration: "In Paris, La Coupole is an institution, a rendezvous point, and La Brasserie Lippe is still where all the artists and intellectuals go. I also like the brasseries that Paul Bocuse opened in Lyon: Le Nord, L'Est, Le Sud and l'Ouest. They each serve about 200 people an hour."

Menu: "We're going to make our own pâté, our own chicken liver mousse, our own bread. For our escargots, we'll use six ounces of hazelnut butter for eight escargots—it's going to be a heavy dish, and very flavorful."

I recently met up with chef Daniel Snukal from the restaurant 3 on Fourth in Santa Monica for a short chat on sustainability. The next time I looked at my watch, it was an hour-and-a-half later. The reason: Snukal's fascinating (and sometimes contrarian) take on the subject. My crib notes:

On locavorism: "Locavorism is an old-fashioned idea and doesn’t work for the way we live now. You can’t look at things as absolutes. I really get the idea of locavorism, but it’s really impractical. For a farm to deliver to 80 restaurants in Los Angeles is a lot of work and fuel and driving if they don’t have a central distribution area. With the way infrastructure is in some places, delivering produce locally might use more fuel overall than having items shipped via FedEx, since the FedEx plane would be carrying a lot of other items as well."

On seafood: Snukal is working with a farm in Trang, Thailand, to exclusively import naturally farmed (meaning no antibiotics or hormones) soft-shell crabs from a river sanctuary that’s protected by the government. He serves the crab at his restaurant and is selling it to other restaurants in California, including Sushi Roku. Snukal also likes ecologically farmed Loch Duart salmon from Cleanfish.

On beef: "Most grass-fed beef in the U.S. is just finished with grass for the cattle's last 60 days," says Snukal. Instead of domestic beef, he buys Uruguayan Estancia Beef, raised entirely on grass. (The company claims that the amount of fuel used to transport their beef to the U.S. is far less than the amount required to fatten the average U.S. feedlot steer.)

On chicken: Snukal likes a number of different chickens for braising, specifically Niman Ranch’s Poulet Rouge Fermiere, a French heritage variety, for its "tighter" meat. While Niman Ranch is currently only selling the chicken wholesale, expect it to hit stores within the next couple of months.

Seattleites have been gossiping about cult pasta star Justin Neidermeyer's upcoming restaurant for some time now. Some confirmed facts:

When: After several years of roving dinners—at farms, lofts, and Matt Dillon's Sitka & Spruce on Sunday and Monday nights—Neidermeyer aims to open his first-ever restaurant in the second week of July.

Where: 1531 14th Ave. on Capitol Hill, with 30 seats at large communal tables, 10 seats at the bar and a wood-fired hearth.

Menu: Piedmontese-inspired dishes like agnolotti del plin (stuffed "pinched" pasta), served family-style.

Name: Rumors that it'll be called Pancia Piena, as reported on various Seattle blogs, aren't true. The real name: Spinasse (a favorite Piedmontese hillside of Justin's).

Sneak Peek: For those who can't wait until the restaurant opens, Neidermeyer is throwing private dinners until July 7 (206-251-7673).

I've been coming to the Classic for eight years, and I think it gets better each time. Here, some people who have made my weekend even more interesting:

1. Top Chef Hung Huynh and Jacques Pépin. Each year, the Culinary Institute of America  sends 10 of their top students to the Classic to assist at the culinary demos. Last night, Beringer sponsored a party in their honor, and Jacques Pépin gave an inspiring speech, reminding the students chefs (or baby chefs, as we sometimes call them) to stick to their craft (and not aspire to TV fame), hone their skills, and say nothing more than "Yes, chef" for the next six or seven years they'll be training in professional kitchens. Hung, who was standing in front of me, nodded his head emphatically the entire time, and when it was over, he turned to his companion and said, "He's so good!" It's nice to see that TV fame hasn't diminished his respect for his craft in any way at all.

2. The volunteers. This year, I am most thankful to the volunteers in the Grand Tasting Tent who are tirelessly (and in some cases, even smilingly) manning the trash disposal. All throughout the tent are sets of three garbage bins: one for composting, one for recycling Fiji bottles, and one for plain old trash. At each station, there's a volunteer assisting people sort their trash. Not the most glamorous job, but so great. And it's made me realize that true garbage is kind of a bummer.

3. Restaurateur extraordinaire Drew Nieporent. Ok, flying into Aspen in a prop plane is no party, but this year, I thought I was done for when we crammed onto the tiny plane and proceeded to take off in 40+ mph winds. The saving grace (besides my colleagues who kindly let me clutch them in a death grip with each air pocket) was Drew Nieporent, who sat in front of us and talked cheerfully the whole way, even when we hit such a big air pocket that his water flew up and spilled all over him. Thank you, Drew. I hope you're on my plane next year.

My Aspen Food & Wine Classic officially started at City Market on Thursday afternoon, when I bumped into NYC's Momofuku All-Star team (sans David Chang but including Rusty Knot's Quino Baca) coming out of the grocery store with cartons of cigarettes, cases of beer, dozens of frozen pizzas and a token grapefruit and apple they said was for the bartender. I decided to put a tracking device on them because, no doubt, the late-night party would be happening in their vicinity. Unfortunately, I lost them.

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Top Chef Hung Huynh and F&W's Gail Simmons

Our F&W Classic in Aspen doesn't get going in earnest until tomorrow, but last night a healthy percentage of early arrivals gathered at the subterranean bar Belly Up to watch the Top Chef Finale like the food tv groupies we are. The party was sponsored by, fittingly enough, the Rums of Puerto Rico. As I sipped on a refreshing Bacardi Superior with lavender syrup and tonic, I tried to look graceful while scrounging for a seat. The place was packed like it was the Super Bowl, folks crammed into tables and along the bars to watch the show on the big screen, everyone from our own Dana Cowin and Ray Isle to chefs like Michel Nischan  and Andrew Shotts (the 2 both said they'd watch a lot more of the show if they weren't so busy cooking, and were glad to have a chance to watch the finale uninterrupted).

Top Chef judges Tom Colicchio and Padma Lakshmi hadn't yet landed, but the fantastic Gail Simmons led the crowd in an informal poll: Stephanie won the warmest applause, Lisa many boos. Once the show started, it was tricky to hear over the chatter (Frank Bruni's take-down of Ago was the topic of the night). I snuck down to the speakers to hear what Richard Blais was teaching Eric Ripert over that steaming pot of liquid nitrogen, when I ran into last season's winner, Hung Huynh. During the commercial break before the judges' table he told me a little about the new restaurant he has planned, and his pick for the winner.

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While the New York City blogging mafia can’t seem to stop talking about the raucous parties after Sunday night's James Beard awards, I was impressed with the food at the actual event. Here, I’ve assembled my favorite dishes into a dreamy, albeit somewhat eclectic, menu:

To start, I’d have Back 40’s lightly sweet strawberry Red and Black tequila cocktail with a black pepper-sugar rim.

Hors d’oeuvres:
Peter Hoffman (chef of Back 40 and Manhattan’s Savoy) would get a second slot on my menu: His rabbit roulade was tasty but the fava bean puree with mint served underneath was divinely creamy—I could eat that in a little shot glass like a pot de crème.

Maybe it’s overkill on the strawberries to start, but every great menu needs a little foie gras, right? I loved the foie gras canapé that Alex Guarnaschelli of Manhattan’s Butter restaurant served: the foie was bruleed until crackly and served with a strawberry compote and spicy arugula from Mountain Sweet Berry farm (well known for its piles of ramps in early spring on Wednesdays and Saturdays at Union Square’s Greenmarket).

First course:
Mark Sullivan’s (of Spruce in San Francisco) delicate spring vegetable braise and pistou was a welcome antidote to last night’s mostly fat-laden dishes. I’m sure my guests at the dream dinner would love the pretty mini vegetables and clean, herby flavors.

Second course:
Maricel Presilla’s slamming tamale was the star, with a line snaking far back from the table throughout the night. The sweet and smoky pork on top reminded everyone in New York why they MUST brave the PATH train and head to her Hoboken restaurants Cucharamama and Zafra. Her dish would surely take the main course slot on my menu.

Pre-dessert:
The anise hyssop and goat cheese sorbet duo served with tangy rhubarb from Bruce Sherman of Chicago’s North Pond restaurant would be just the thing to bring my guests back from a pork-induced coma.

Dessert:
I’d happily end the dinner with the sorbets, but my guests would probably love a few snappy pieces of Green & Black’s chocolate (Green & Black was a new JB Award sponsor this year).  My favorite?  The spicy ginger bar.

I went to the James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards on Friday and want to give huge congratulations to several Food & Wine contributors: LA correspondent Brad Johnson for winning in the category of "Restaurant Reviews"  for his work at Angeleno; writer Brett Anderson for outstanding "Newspaper Feature Writing About Restaurants and/or Chefs" for an article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune; and the Top Chef TV crew (including F&W's own Gail Simmons) for "Television Food Special" for their holiday special.

Other things I learned at the awards gala: co-hosts and über writers Matt Lee and Ted Lee, complete with matching seersucker suits, could become stand-up comics if they wanted to; and fellow dinner companion and nominee Zak Pelaccio (nominated for an excellent article he wrote for F&W's July 2007 issue, "An American Chef's Malaysian Love Story") has been hanging out with Mexican cooking authority Diana Kennedy, eats salads with his fingers, and promises that the retro-style ceiling fans at his new Fatty Crab in the Upper West Side will be just as awesome as at the ones in his West Village spot.

The Beard Awards last night reinforced the sense that our national food scene is becoming more local and more intimate, rewarding locavore chefs like Lachlan MacKinnon-Patterson of Boulder, CO's Frasca Food & Wine, as well as the new king of small venues, David Chang.

But what really caught my attention, outside of the long line for Maricel Presilla's tamales at the awards reception and the sight of F&W's own spirits correspondent Jim Meehan tempting lightning on the Avery Fisher Hall porch while shaking cocktails under the thunderclouds, were the elaborate faux-hawks and facial hair, those baroque fashion trends exclusive to the species “male chef.” This was one black-tie event where—at least in the hair department—the men outclassed the women. There was Johnny Iuzzini's bouffant, with a pleasing Fonzie-esque sheen to match the pastry chef's pocket chain;  Michael Psilakis's soul patch looking particularly impeccable, and Grant Achatz sporting a fresh red goatee.

During the ceremony, it looked for a while like the awards committees were all a bunch of George Steinbrenners, favoring the shorn (Gavin Kaysen) and clean-shaven (Danny Meyer) just like the Yankees owner does. But then the bearded Joe Bastianich took the award for Outstanding Restaurateur, the Santa Claus impersonator Michel Richard ran away with the show with Best New Restaurant, and Achatz himself brought the crowd to its feet winning Outstanding Chef – and for one lovely moment, as the restaurant world rallied round the chef (on an amazing rebound from tongue cancer), the event itself felt like an intimate, family affair.

Yesterday, I went to a panel on sustainable fish hosted by chef Rick Moonen of RM Seafood in Las Vegas and the Environmental Defense Fund. We received a preview of Moonen's first-ever cookbook, Fish Without a Doubt (Houghton Mifflin)—challenging fish recipes with a sustainable bent—and learned some enlightening news from Moonen and the Environmental Defense Fund's experts:

—According to a 2006 study led by marine biologist Boris Worm, if nothing is done to protect our ocean's current fish stock, ALL the wild-caught fish we see in our supermarkets will be gone in 50 years.

—Most farmed salmon should be avoided, as it takes an average of three to six pounds of wild-caught fish to feed every pound of farm-raised salmon.

—Moonen advocates eating small fish on the bottom of the food chain, like anchovies and mackerel, since they're high in healthful omega-3 fatty acids and low in environmental contaminants.

—Canned tuna lovers should opt for "light" tuna, which tends to be lower in mercury than larger albacore "white" tuna.

—While Moonen shies away from advocating any one type of fish (he wants to avoid the kind of overfishing that happened after Julia Child called monkfish the poor man's lobster), he's currently hot on cobia, also known as lemonfish, a sustainably farmed fish from Belize.