A month before the New York City Marathon, I clocked in a gluttonous seven-hour day of eating at NYC’s Eleven Madison Park (a leisurely lunch, followed by a lengthy dinner). A waiter overheard me speaking about the marathon, and soon, I found myself talking running strategies with a handful of staff members. I knew chef Daniel Humm was a serious runner, but it’s quite possible that Eleven Madison Park may have the most athletic staff in the city. While Humm had to
bow out of the 26.2-mile race due to an injury, wine captain Jordan Salcito did him proud by clocking in at 3:37:05, which qualified her for April’s Boston Marathon.

Here, Salcito’s highs and lows.

Low: “The walk to the UPS trucks after the finish line to pick up my things. At
that point, the adrenaline was gone and my legs had become cement blocks.”

High: ”My husband, wine guy Robert Bohr, sprinted out of nowhere with a bottle
of Clif Quench at mile 24. That, and 'Eye of the Tiger' on repeat, kept me
going strong those last two miles.”

I recently came back from Phoenix, where everyone is buzzing about a new restaurant called St. Francis. Chef-owner Aaron Chamberlin (who trained with Michel Richard, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Nancy Oakes) spent nearly three years searching for the perfect spot, finally buying and renovating a midcentury Harold Ekman building on Camelback Road. With the help of his dad and brother, he’s created a hip, industrial-style space with a two-story, window-faced garage door that opens the bar to the outside. There are homey touches, too; his grandmother's old silver spoons are embedded in the stone walls and chairs from San Francisco's old Rubicon restaurant space. There's also an enormous wood-burning stove. The affordable menu balances healthy dishes, like the sweet-and-spicy Forbidden Rice Bowl, with decadent ones, like a French Onion Burger topped with an onion ring, smoked bacon, Gruyère and homemade French Dip. With Pizzeria Bianco just a few blocks away, uptown Phoenix may be Arizona’s next cool food 'hood.

When I was heading to Chicago for a long weekend, I asked friends what was a must-see. Everyone mentioned the new Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago, designed by star architect Renzo Piano, which opened in May. An added appeal for me: The museum recruited chef Tony Mantuano of Spiaggia fame to open the Italian-centric Terzo Piano there. The name refers to its third-floor location, and it's worthwhile to walk up the sleek white bridge from Millennium Park for the fantastic view instead of entering by elevator inside the museum. The handmade pastas were lovely, especially the restaurant's version of spaghetti carbonara with Nueske's bacon, sheep's-milk cheese and a runny poached egg. Do save room for the cheese cart, with many of the dozen or so options from Midwest producers (my husband's favorite was an aged goat's-milk tomme from Indiana's Capriole). The restaurant serves lunch every day and dinner Thursdays, when the museum is open late (and museum entrance is free from 5 to 8 p.m.).

While we impatiently wait for the Breslin in NYC to officially open—word is, October 28 for breakfast, lunch and, hopefully, dinner (I need a place to go that night)—the Ace Hotel’s room service seems to be in full swing. The all-day menu includes roasted-chicken sandwich with sage stuffing, the Breslin aged-cheddar-and-bacon burger and the thrice-cooked chips I got addicted to at the restaurant’s FergusStock opening. But wait, there are room-service specials, too! Breslin chefs April Bloomfield and Peter Cho are cleverly offering nightly changing dishes: on Tuesday, rabbit pie, welsh rarebit and smoked-haddock tart; on Wednesday, roasted bone marrow with parsley salad—an ode to FergusStock chef Fergus Henderson, who presumably would be ordering the dish in his room at the Ace if he hadn't just gone back to England.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved my grandmothers more than I can say. Nanny Quinlan taught me to mix a perfect cocktail and Nanny McGrath could make a mean Irish soda bread. But sometimes I wished I had an Italian nonna to show me how to make flawless pasta from scratch or a rich meat ragù. My wish came true this past weekend, when Dora Marzovilla of Manhattan’s I Trulli did just that at a demo in which she showed how to prepare classic Pugliese dishes, like a moist focaccia with tomatoes and oregano and handmade cavatelli with broccoli rabe and almonds. But what I really can’t wait to make is the panzerrotti (fried dough filled with tomatoes and mozzarella). I think it would pair perfectly with one of Nanny’s cocktails!

If you also crave nonna-worthy recipes, try these Italian dishes from Food & Wine's recipe archives:

Cavatelli with Spicy Winter Squash
Orecchiette with Cauliflower, Anchovies and Pistachios
Pappardelle with Veal Ragù

 

Last night, I felt like Ashton Kutcher doing an episode of Punk’d. I was with Pam Grier, the iconic 1970s actress and star of Showtime’s The L-Word (and also my ex-stepsister-in-law), who is allergic to fish, raw and cooked. We were at Marea, chef Michael White’s exquisite NYC seafood restaurant. Someone, I thought, would come out of it not looking good. But White was a star—he made beet salad, garganelli with sausage ragù and guinea hen for Pam; I got to eat fish. In particular, I got to eat bluefin collar sashimi: rich red, well-marbled slices of tuna that looked like beef and tasted lightly fishy and sweet, with just a little bit of sinewy bite. Pam couldn’t try it (an ambulance would have shown up), but she got a kick out of how much I loved it. The photo above is Pam, mimicking my spontaneous gesture of tasting happiness, after my first bite.

 

The dinner-theater concept sounds like a throwback, but director Marlo Hunter is trying to make it hip again with Eating Their Words. Hunter enlists noteworthy writers and actors for an evening of short plays to be performed at a top NYC restaurant. As part of the action, the actors sit at a table and eat a dish; immediately after the performance, the audience is served everything they've just seen the actors enjoy. The next Eating Their Words event, on Monday, October 19, will be at Tocqueville restaurant, with works by Pulitzer Prize finalist Theresa Rebeck and playwrights Jonathan Marc Sherman and Sam Forman. Tocqueville chef-owner Marco Moreira has created a menu to complement the plays, including schmaltz roasted country chicken and a bittersweet chocolate tort. Tickets must be purchased before Sunday, October 18.

November will be a big month for superstar chef Thomas Keller (an F&W Best New Chef 1988): He’ll release Ad Hoc at Home (Artisan) and has plans to open a Beverly Hills outpost of Bouchon. Reasons to honor him now: his birthday this week, plus stellar dishes like his over-the-top mushroom quiche with buttery pastry shell (pictured), BLT fried egg-and-cheese sandwich, and a whole grilled chicken with arugula.

More Incredible Dishes by Our Best New Chefs:
- Our 2009 Best New Chefs’ easiest dishes like Kelly English’s meat pies with spicy buttermilk dip and Paul Liebrandt’s beet-and-red sorrel salad with nutty pistachio sauce

 

Olivier Muller, the chef at Manhattan’s DB Bistro Moderne, is known for indulgent French food, not to mention the decadent short-ribs-and-foie-gras-stuffed DB burger. But as the chef is gearing up for his first marathon, the ING NYC Marathon on November 1, he’s decided to create a special dinner menu for his fellow runners based on his own training diet. “I did a lot of reading about which foods give runners the most energy and I’ve designed my menu around them,” says the novice runner. Chef Muller’s three-course, pre fixe Marathon Menu is available during the month of October and includes dishes like avocado salad, housemade whole wheat-and-chicken ravioli and apple-and-raisin clafoutis. Muller is running the marathon to raise funds for and awareness of Malaria No More, which helps African families protect themselves with mosquito nets, and $10 for each $55 Marathon Menu ordered will be donated to the organization.

The NYC Marathon is one month away, and while I’ve been pretty diligent about getting in my long training runs, I’ve been more lackadaisical about my diet. I’ve learned the hard way that late-night Momofuku pork buns and foie gras ice cream are not the best fuel for a 5 a.m. workout. So I’m making an attempt to cook at home more over the next few weeks, and I’ve found myself turning to the new cookbook from Ron and Colleen Suhanosky, the husband-and-wife chef team behind Sfoglia in Nantucket and New York City. Pasta Sfoglia features more than 100 recipes inspired by Sfoglia’s addictive pasta dishes. While I don’t always have time to make pasta from scratch during the week, I do have the luxury of being able to buy exceptional ingredients, like Sfoglia’s bread and house-made goat cheese, at Tutto Sfoglia, the tiny new market adjacent to the Upper East Side restaurant.