Catalyst's William Kovel, Clink's Joseph Margate, and Bistro du Midi's Robert Sisca represent Boston and Cambridge in the New England Region.
 From left: Robert Sisca of Bistro du Midi, Joseph Margate of Clink, William Kovel of Catalyst.
This morning, Food & Wine magazine announced the nominees for their second-annual “People’s Best New Chef” awards, a voted-upon companion to the magazine’s annual, big-deal Best New Chef awards. Last year, Toro and Coppa toque Jamie Bissonnette came out on top of the 100 nominated chefs (broken down into 10 regional sections of 10) to win the national prize, which brought a large amount of visibility to the chef’s talents. In this year’s New England category, there’s three nominated chefs from the Boston/Cambridge area: Joseph Margate (Clink), Robert Sisca (Bistro du Midi), and William Kovel (Catalyst).
While Margate and Sisca got nods last year as well, this year marks the first nomination for Kovel, whose Cambridge restaurant, Catalyst, is reaching it’s six-month mark. Continue reading “Food & Wine Announces ‘People’s Best New Chef’ Nominees” »
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Adams discusses her nominations, work ethic, and whether she'll expand her empire.
 Adams, center, with Trade partners Eric Papachristos (right) and Sean Griffing (left).
On Tuesday, the James Beard Foundation released its semifinalists for the 2012 James Beard awards, and an awesome selection of local chefs were represented in this round (Eater Boston has the full rundown of semifinalists, which includes Jamie Bissonnette of Toro and Coppa, Maura Kilpatrick of Oleana and Sofra, and Jason Bond of Bondir). One chef in particular, Jody Adams, made a particularly stellar showing, with nominations for both Outstanding Chef (for Rialto) and Best New Restaurant (Trade).
On Wednesday, I chatted with Adams to gauge her reaction to the big-deal recognition. Ahead, she discusses the awards, her work ethic, and whether or not she’ll expand her restaurant empire beyond Massachusetts. Continue reading “James Beard Semifinalist Jody Adams Talks Rialto, Trade” »
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Find out the Craigie on Main toque's must-have ingredients and unique kitchen tools.
Welcome to The Kitchen Spy, where we visit local chefs’ home kitchens, and force them to open up their fridge, drawers, and cabinets.
 All photos by Charlotte Wilder/Boston magazine
It would stand to reason that as the chef and owner of Craigie on Main, one of the city’s foremost restaurants, Tony Maws would have a kitchen so stuffed with high-tech gadgetry and obscure ingredients that it would make your head spin. But take one look in the chef’s kitchen, decked out with finger paintings, pint-sized aprons, and picture books, and you’ll realize that he’s got another priority in his home digs: his three-year-old son, Charlie.
That’s not to say that Maws—along with his wife, Karolyn—doesn’t so some serious cooking here. When they moved in to his Cambridge condo, functionality was a priority. “It needed to be open, because both of us knew we were going to be spending time in here, and we couldn’t afford a big glorious kitchen in this time of our lives,” Maws says. “It’s not a place where you can’t open the fridge door all the way. It’s just easy.” Ahead, get the lowdown on the toque’s hot sauce obsession, favorite old-school beer, and go-to late-night snack.
 Continue reading “The Kitchen Spy: Tony Maws” »
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Welcome to The Kitchen Spy, where we visit local chefs’ home kitchens, and force them to open up their fridge, drawers, and cabinets.
 Bissonnette works a Berkel slicer, a gift from two of his regulars, in his South End apartment. All photos by Charlotte Wilder for Boston magazine
For our first installment of The Kitchen Spy, I headed over to the South End to check out Toro and Coppa chef/co-owner Jamie Bissonnette’s two-floor pad. “I’ve lived in a lot of tiny apartments with shitty kitchens,” Bissonnette says. Now that he’s in nicer digs, he wanted to create a space that’s meant for socializing and hanging out. “It’s got high ceilings, I can decorate it with cool stuff, and it has a lot of space. If I want to make pasta or say, ‘Hey I want to have friends over and do a cooking class,’ or entertain and cook with other guys, we have plenty of space to set up and do productions,” he says. Ahead, get a peek at the chef’s home bar, Fernet obsession, cookbook collection and more. Continue reading “The Kitchen Spy: A Look Inside Jamie Bissonnette’s South End Pad” »
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Get a look at the still-under-construction space.
The blueprint for Moksa, slated to open mid-next month. All photos by Leah Mennies.
Earlier this month, I showed you a preview of Patricia Yeo’s menu for Moksa, her highly anticipated izakaya in Central Square. Though the concept was originally slated to open in December, it’s now been pushed back to the middle of next month.
“This has been the longest gestation ever,” Yeo told me yesterday, when I visited her in the still-rough space for a preview of the massive 8,500 square ft (!!) space. So while you may not be able to sample Yeo’s small plates and skewers for a few more weeks, you can learn about Moksa’s separate night club, “restaurant within the restaurant,” and bristled walls ahead. Continue reading “Patricia Yeo Gives us a Sneak Preview of Moksa, Opening Next Month” »
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 Louis DiBiccari goes to town on a hunk of porchetta. (Photo courtesy of Chef Louie Night) Chef Louis DiBiccari, currently at the helm of Storyville in Back Bay (and formerly in charge of the kitchen at Sel de la Terre), just announced the latest installment in his recurring pop-up Iron Chef-meets-Kitchen Impossible dinner event Chef Louie Night, to take place on January 7 at the Boston Center for Adult Education. Continue reading “At the Next Chef Louie Night, Get a Lesson in Anatomy” »
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 Thanks to restaurants like Sweet Cheeks (above), there's more places to find quality pulled pork. (Photo by Leah Mennies) Today, Eater Boston announced that a new BBQ spot, called The Red-Eyed Pig, is gearing up to open tonight in West Roxbury. It’ll serve some serious-sounding Southern-style eats: On the app side, there’s pork belly and green chile doughnuts, hush puppies slathered in orange maple-bacon butter, and crispy pimento cheese-stuffed jalapenos, while a pit BBQ list promises fried chicken with red-eye gravy, smoked spicy fennel sausages, Texas-style brisket, and smoked pork belly.
Sound familiar? It should—local chef darling Tiffani Faison is currently killing it in Fenway with her own Texas-style smoked meats, buttery biscuits, and jug-sized Micheladas at Sweet Cheeks, while Somerville barbecue standby Redbones recently expanded with a rib shack in Kendall Square and a roving food truck. Continue reading “Is BBQ the New Mexican in Boston?” »
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Eleven Madison Park comes to Menton from Justin Ide on Vimeo.
On Saturday night, the team from New York’s venerable Eleven Madison Park (quick stats: four New York Times stars, three Michelin Guide stars) made a guest appearance at Barbara Lynch’s fine-dining destination for a five-course guest meal as part of a book tour promoting their new eponymous cookbook (preview the gorgeous food-porn photography here). For those curious, the luxurious menu included brioche toasts topped with uni and shaved foie gras, creamy celery root soup topped with barely-cooked strips of langoustine tail and icy green apple “snow,” fat lobster tails with lemongrass sabayon and celery, black truffle-stuffed chicken, and warm sweet potato beignets with chocolate ganache.
Before the evening began, I sat down in Menton’s swanky lounge to chat with Eleven Madison Park general manager Will Guidara and chef Daniel Humm (who recently took over the ownership of the restaurant from hospitality guru Danny Meyer). They were upbeat and energetic, despite having spent the night before getting the full Barbara Lynch experience with stops at Drink, B&G Oysters, The Butcher Shop, and what Guidara called a “down home Southie bar.” Read ahead to find out more about the duo’s book tour, their take on Menton, and their thoughts on the importance of fine dining in today’s economy. Continue reading “Behind the Scenes at Menton’s Eleven Madison Park Dinner Extravaganza” »
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 Meet Robert Grant, the latest addition to The Blue Room. (Photo courtesy of The Blue Room) On November 1, Kendall Square stalwart The Blue Room welcomed a change of guard in the kitchen— longtime chef Jorge Lopes departed in order to spend more time with his family, and in his place came Robert Grant, a veteran of Bouchon in Las Vegas and The Butcher Shop in the South End. Now that he’s been in the kitchen for a solid month, his first new menu for the restaurant drops this evening. I chatted with Grant earlier this week to find out his plans for The Blue Room and its sibling gourmet food and wine shop Central Bottle. Read on for a Q&A with Grant, and a peek at his debut menu. Continue reading “Q&A: Robert Grant of The Blue Room Debuts New Menu, Dishes on New Plans” »
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At Bergamot, one of our 50 Best Restaurant picks, chef Keith Pooler is known for his elegant, locavore cuisine. Over the past six months, Pooler has been upping his meat game with the introduction of charcuterie plates that contain a combination of classic cured meats (think coppa, rilletes) and funkier wildcards (like head cheese potpie, corned beef/pimiento scrapple, and salami beignets).
Next week, the chef plans to roll out a charcuterie plate ($14) that is fit for non-carnivores—everything from the terrine to the sausage is all-vegetarian. “What I really like about this plate is that it takes you for a flavor ride,” Pooler says. Get to know what goes into the vegetarian charcuterie in our breakdown ahead.
 Continue reading “50 Best Restaurants: Bergamot Chef Keith Pooler to Debut Vegetable Charcuterie” »
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