Used to be, the organized chaos of a restaurant kitchen was a tucked-away affair, hidden from the view of a paying public who preferred to dine far away from hot burners and splattering grease, thankyouverymuch. If you wanted to see your food being cooked, you’d have to go to a sushi bar or a shrimp-flinging Japanese steakhouse.

These days, many of the city’s top restaurants prepare their food in full view of the folks who’ll be eating it. Chefs and their knife skills practices are on full display at upscale eateries like Craigie on Main, B&G Oysters, Sportello, Scampo, and Ten Tables in JP (which is expanding to include a bar in December). The seats closest to the action are often the most coveted.

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The theater district has a new show in town: Market by Jean-Georges, which recently opened inside the new W hotel. We’ll admit that, in the months preceding the restaurant debut, we had our doubts about whether it’d be a deserving new dining destination or just another ho-hum import from a too-busy-to-care celeb chef. But during a warm, lovely chat with the international culinary superstar himself, Jean-Georges Vongerichten shed a little light on what makes Market work for Boston, and why he’s glad to be back in the Hub after a long hiatus. (His first U.S. venture was Boston’s Lafayette restaurant, which opened in 1985 in what is now the Hyatt hotel and was located just blocks from Market’s site.)

Being the types to eat the frosting before the cake, we’ll skip to the good parts: (more…)

The best things in life are free—especially when they come with cocktails. Lucky for us, lots of local boites are are serving complimentary bar snacks for imbibers to nibble while they drink.  Never again will our budget force us to choose between another glass of Pinot and a bite to eat.  Here are some of our current—and free!—faves.

From 5:30-7 p.m., Monday through Friday at the bar, Union Bar & Grille serves free nouveau-American bites like sliders, mini corn dogs, and their play on the ball park favorites, Cracker Jacks. The options vary day-to-day. 1357 Washington St., Boston, 617-423-0555,  unionrestaurant.com (more…)

When Boston’s food lovers around town see fresh mozzarella on their favorite menus, there’s a good chance Lourdes Fiore Smith had something to do with it. The daughter of Italian immigrants has cheesemaking in her blood, and supplies handmade mozz, burrata, and mascarpone to some of the area’s top restaurants (think Oleana, Beacon Hill Bistro, and 51 Lincoln). When Chowder learned that Smith was joining Chef Jody Adams at her monthly cooking class at Rialto a few weeks ago, we jumped at the chance to see how she makes curds and whey.

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Photo by Keller + Keller

For local chef/owners, branching out from one restaurant to several is a mark of success. But while seemingly empire-minded chefs (e.g. Todd English, Ken Oringer, Barbara Lynch) make opening a 3rd, 4th, or even 10th venture look easy, the transition from chef to multi-restaurant owner requires lots of careful planning. (It also helps if you know how to juggle.)

When Krista Kranyak, owner of Ten Tables in Jamaica Plain, opened a second Ten Tables in Cambridge this past February, she was constantly shuttling between the two locations. Her survival strategy? Rely heavily on general managers Sean Callahan in Cambridge and Stan Hilbert in JP. “I have the vision of what I want to create, and I hire the right people to oversee that vision,” she says.
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The truth is, we never really liked Banq. Well, some of us did; to the rest, it was a highly-designed, overly fussy fusion spot serving icky apps with muddled Indian and Asian flavors, and after the initial novelty died down, we never went back.

Apparently we weren’t alone. With seats going empty and nonexistent buzz, owners Mark Raab and Hemant Chowdhry decided to relaunch the restaurant, renaming it Ginger Park—not to be confused with the Ginger Exchange, a just-opened sushi spot in Inman Square—and bringing in chef Patricia Yeo, an NYC import who has cooked under celeb chef Bobby Flay. Her new menu is an upscale version of Southeast Asian street food, not terribly unlike that at nearby Myers+Chang. (Yeo insists you can’t compare the two, though a recent look at the menus shows both serving potstickers, spring rolls, steamed buns, tea-smoked meats, a papaya salad, and sides of eggplant and Brussels sprouts.) (more…)

This fall, many restaurants have put together sumptuous, multi-course fixed-price dinners at relatively minuscule price points. Feast your eyes (and stomach) on these.

OctoberFeast at Bambara
Oct. 17, 7 p.m., $40 per person
Join Chef Jay Silva and the team at Bambara when they host OctoberFeast, a traditional fall feast paired with seasonal beer and wine.  All guests who attend will also receive tickets to King Richard’s Faire, New England’s longest-running Renaissance Festival.

Book it!

Fall Prix Fixe at BOKX 109 American Prime
Every Sunday and Monday evening from 5-10 p.m., $20.09 per person
BOKX 109 American Prime at the Hotel Indigo in Newton has a new fall three-course prix fixe available on Sunday and Monday evenings from 5-10 p.m. for only $20.09 per person. It includes a fall salad of Bartlett pears, candied pecans, and Great Hill Blue, and an entree choice of wood grilled chicken breast or housemade herbed linguine. And for dessert, enjoy crispy Nutella ravioli with Frangelico Anglaise.

Book it!

Ken’s Fried Chicken Sunday Supper at Clio
Every Sunday, 5:30 p.m.-close, $35 per person
Every Sunday, the Clio dining room will open after 5:30 p.m., and chef Ken Oringer will present his twist on the bird for $35 per person. Ken’s Fried Chicken Sunday Supper includes accompaniments like cornbread, greens, and a seasonal fruit crisp, but you can also order from the regular menu.

Book it!

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For a chef coming on board at an existing restaurant, injecting one’s personal style into a restaurant while still keeping the heart of the operation can be a tricky business. But by maintaining the South American-French fusion concept while adding a few twists (like a raw bar) to J.P. favorite Bon Savor, it seems that Marco Suarez, formerly executive chef at Eastern Standard, might have done the near impossible.
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Chef Marco Suarez of Bon Savor.

You’ve been known to hit the road to hear your favorite musician, so why not pound the pavement to find your favorite chef?

Recently, some of Boston’s culinary movers and shakers have packed up their knives and gone to new kitchens. (more…)

Kids have it easy. Do they worry about the recession? Global warming? Baseball players running for office? Nope. It’s no wonder, then, that the foods we used to see in our school lunch boxes are popping up on area menus—a throwback to the days when dodgeball and recess were our two biggest concerns. (more…)