Chefs

SAN FRANCISCO — Gabriela Cámara is having a very good year. Five years after she moved to the United States from her native Mexico, she is at the tipping point of world culinary fame. Her 20-year-old restaurant, Contramar , is both a beloved institution and a power-lunch destination: the Union Square Cafe of Mexico City. Her San Francisco restaurant, Cala , has established her here as both an eloquent translator of modern Mexican food and an advocate for social justice: She provides health insurance and other benefits to all full-time employees, many of whom are recruited through job programs for the formerly incarcerated. A glowing documentary film about the restaurants, “A Tale of Two Kitchens,” executive-produced by the actor Gael García Bernal, premiered two weeks ago on Netflix. She has just published a cookbook, “My Mexico City Kitchen” ( Sqirl , whose casually fabulous cooking mirrors her own. And Council of Cultural Diplomacy , composed of people who bring … [Read more...] about This Mexican Chef Is Having a Very Good Year

When Gavin Kaysen announced in March that he would leave his longtime position as Café Boulud ’s executive chef to open his own restaurant, plenty of people in the restaurant industry — and those who watch it — were surprised. As Daniel Boulud’s right-hand man, Mr. Kaysen was a player in one of the most successful restaurant empires in New York. But the bigger surprise was where Mr. Kaysen, 35, planned to open his restaurant, Merchant : not in Manhattan or Brooklyn but in Minneapolis, his hometown. A chef with no shortage of opportunities in New York had decided to leave. “I had some people ask me candidly, ‘Why? Why leave New York? Why move there?’ ” Mr. Kaysen said. Traditionally, chefs trained in New York and then stayed, with the goal of running big kitchens or opening their own places. Yes, there have always been chefs who have left, for reasons that are familiar to New Yorkers of any profession: to have more space for children, or to be closer to family (the reason … [Read more...] about Chefs Move Beyond New York

30 Restaurants & Bars The restaurants range from cutting edge spots in Boston to regional classics like the Red Rose. Neal McNamara , Patch Staff Posted Replies CAMBRIDGE, MA — Several notable restaurants and chefs in Massachusetts are well represented in the semifinalists announced Wednesday for the prestigious 2023 James Beard Awards , sometimes referred to as the Oscars of the culinary arts industry. Named for the late chef, cookbook author and food presenter James Beard, the awards “recognize exceptional talent in the culinary and food media industries, as well as a demonstrated commitment to racial and gender equity, community, sustainability, and a culture where all can thrive,” The semifinalists are recognized across 23 categories, including a new award for outstanding bakery. Here are 2023 James Beard Award nominees from Massachusetts: Outstanding Chef Rachel Miller, Nightshade Noodle … [Read more...] about 12 MA Restaurants, Chefs Named James Beard Award Semifinalists In 2023

On a cold Tuesday afternoon in January, four women made their way down Guernsey Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. They had just finished lunch at Acre , a Japanese cafe and shop, where they had been served bento boxes and green tea, and were headed to 50 Norman , a new warehouse space nearby that housed three other Japanese businesses. The women, all Japanese immigrants, had driven in from New Jersey, at the advice of their friend, Chieko Koie, who had already dined at Acre and was interested in visiting the warehouse after seeing it on Instagram. The group’s first stop at 50 Norman was Dashi Okume , which sells dashi, a soup base typically made from ingredients like dried fish, seaweed and mushrooms. The business, which opened in Tokyo in 1871, offers various ready-made dashi powder blends, as well as bins of dried ingredients for customers to make their own. “For Japanese people, dashi is really important for making food,” Ms. Koie said. “It’s like a piece of home here in … [Read more...] about Sake. Dashi. Soba Shops: Japanese Chic Takes Root in Brooklyn

When word got out last month that Angel’s Share might close after nearly 30 years, the city — or at least a very vocal slice that was devoted to artisanal cocktails — spun into a paroxysm of despair. Social media was flooded with remembrances of the speakeasy, a softly lit cove of urbanity and elegance hidden in two rooms on the second story of an East Village building. “This hurts more than any other NYC closing I’ve heard in the past 10 years,” ran a typical tweet . Food-obsessed websites bemoaned the news . In all of these lamentations, there was almost no mention of Tony Yoshida, the owner of Angel’s Share. Despite its outsize importance as a trailblazer in the craft cocktail movement, few, in this age of celebrity restaurateurs and bar owners, seemed to know who was behind the place; or that he was the same person who owned a string of Japanese-oriented businesses on the short, angled section of Stuyvesant Street — including the Sunrise Mart grocery, Panya Bakery and … [Read more...] about The Mysterious Man Who Built (and Then Lost) Little Tokyo

The wine is in plastic cups, the view of flaking paint, vinyl siding, a tin tub of flowers and graffiti 10 feet tall. It is so quiet on the roof, for a moment we wonder if the people working the cash register downstairs have forgotten we’re up here and have gone home. None of us are in a hurry to find out. There are prettier outdoor dining spaces in the city, but few with quite the juxtaposition of serenity and grit as the rooftop at Brooklyn Ball Factory, a Japanese comfort-food joint and coffee shop that opened last fall in East Williamsburg. The single-story building was once a warehouse for beer cans awaiting recycling. Makoto Suzuki, the owner and chef, had the smart idea to take out a skylight and put in a staircase with a glass peak. Climb it at noon and the light stuns; you swell like a hothouse flower. Mr. Suzuki built the roof deck himself, out of plywood, with a high fence that hides the street and doubles as the back of a long bench. His wife, Kanako, has adorned it … [Read more...] about Brooklyn Factory, Japanese Food