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Antonio Burrell

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Everything posted by Antonio Burrell

  1. For NY Eve we will be doing a 3 and 5 course prixe fixe menu.3 course with amuse and glass of sparkling wine for $55 or 5 courses for $75
  2. The thing that we still have to look forward to is the fact that there are a few local, small and independent restaurants that are determined to stay so. Take Crane and Turtle, Toki Underground/Maketto et al.as examples of restaurants that do what they do well. There are more examples than I can think of. What saddens me most is this endless need to capitalize and expand on a "moment". We see examples in our own city of a restaurant groups established as much if not more through the Chefs tv celebrity as their cooking. Today is all about establishing and expanding a brand as fast as possible. I remember that it took Jeff Buben almost 15 years to open Bis, many years after he won a James Beard Award. Now you don't need those kind of credibility.
  3. The reason, I suspect that Chefs are driven to larger restaurant groups, specifically NRG and Thinkfoodgroup is because there is a certain level of autonomy and creativity while retaining the security of having large corporate group behind them. Opening and operating your own business, while the dream of most Chefs, rarely returns to you anything near what you put into it, either monetarily or emotionally. Rather it is almost always an emotional and finacial drain that ends when you have to close. Dream ended. Why not take the security blanket and the money that comes with it? I still dream of my own place. Maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't. I wouldn't be suprised if I'm more in the minority now than ever.
  4. I've had both versions, with the bitter sauce and the spicy version. I prefered the spicy version by far. It's a great rendition of tartare, very refreshing. Just with big pieces of tripe chopped in. The tripe is well cleaned and has no off putting flavors.
  5. I totally agree. It is my favorite restaurant of late. I order mostly from the jungle menu for take out and have never been disappointed. The fried intestines are ridiculous :-)
  6. We have been trying to update the site. I think as of friday it is updated. We just changed the menu to the end of summer menu which should give ya even more of a reason to come in if you haven't yet.
  7. I will have finished changing over the menu tomorrow. I'm taking a day off tonight to gear up for the weekend but almost 80% of the menu will have changed. I will be changing the brunch menu in the coming weeks. Also...there will be fried chicken, a spiced version with dill potato salad and zaatar honey
  8. The original Chefs have left...thoughtfully taking most of the kitchen staff with them. But I have it on a good authority that the kitchen has been placed in more than capable hands. Psst...it's me
  9. my wife and I stopped quite abit on our way from NC at his place in Fredericksburg. I recognize the chilis, cilantro and scallion
  10. As the grandson of a proud tobacco farmer and son of a man raised on all forms of hog, I grew up eating "chittlins". My mother swears I had a fondness for them as a baby, probably because they resembled pasta noodles. I remember the terrible smell that would waft from the kitchen when these were being cleaned and cooked. I stopped eating them when my Great Grandfather on my Mom's side slaughtered my pet pig and then I got to see her cleaned and etc. Everyone washes them out but I find that like almost all organ meats...soaking in milk makes them taste better. My Aunt Celestine does them the old fashioned way, Cleaned and boiled, then sauteed with onions and peppers and plenty of salt and pepper. Douse em with hot sauce and eat away.
  11. We aren't open for lunch so it will be available from 4pm on. If you don't want to eat on the roof but would rather eat inside, I do believe we will have seats available at the bar downstairs a d our elevator makes going up and down a breeze :-)
  12. For this coming 4th of July: Come see us on the rooftop at Eventide this 4th of July: We will be serving the Bar menu plus the following BBQ Special: Meats: Texas Style Beef Brisket Whole Hog, chopped and served with Carolina Sauce Sides Potato Salad Blue Cheese Coleslaw Baked Beans Grilled Corn Jalapeno Corn Bread 4 Cheese Macaroni This will be available on the roof on the 4th and possibly the 5th. Choice of meat and 2 sides or a Combination Plate with 2 sides.
  13. Yeah, I tend to think that this forum is more geared to chefs or others, stories of having no other choice but to settle for a less than ideal job just to get by. I don't know about other job fields. What I know is the hospitality industry. What I can tell you is there is a lot of turnover in all phases of a restaurant. As a cook, you are often looking to move on in 1-2 years in order to learn more. You generally learn about a Chef within a year so you move on to the next thing..just the way it is. After a certain point you find someplace where you settle in and work your way up the ladder to the highest you can go. Either sous or Chef de cuisine, hopefully eventually Exec Chef. Sometimes that works out and sometimes it doesn't. I worked at Vidalia for 3.5 years hoping to work my way up to Chef. Guess what. Peter Smith wasn't going anywhere. So I left to try to do my own thing. I wound up back at Bis 6 months later because it fit me better and was what I wanted in the first place. The job I took in the meantime? The Radisson Barcelo and Gabriel. Was it what I really wanted at the time I took it? Not by a long shot. But the job I wanted wasn't available at the time. Cathal hadn't left Bis yet and like I said, Pete wasn't leaving for another 4 years to open PS7's. As I'm sure Eater made everyone aware, I've moved around quite a bit in the last few years. It's not easy finding the right fit for the right time in your life. Some places seem like a great fit when you interview. You both are like you're on a great first date. You're trying to impress the other person. You are both thinking great thoughts about all the great possibilities. Yet it almost never works out like that. Sometimes life gets in the way. Sometimes what you want isn't what they want. Sometimes you get told you can do anything you want but then you get a menu you can't change. Sometimes you wind up cooking a cuisine that doesn't cater to a core portion of the clientele, and even though it's meant to broaden the client base in the long run, you get so discouraged by the constant special orders that going to work becomes a soul crushing proposition. Sometimes you fail to live up to your end. These are all reasons that almost all Chefs are looking for the "next" best fit. It is alot easier to move on to the next job if you are proactive. Plus, what unhappy idiot is content being miserable. Add to that that tenure at ones job tends to be more subjective in our industry, 6-9 months at a job is probably easier to explain as a cook than as say, a lawyer. So you're constantly looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. You are always looking for that "dream" job. But guess what? You don't know you've got that job till YOU ACTUALLY HAVE THAT JOB. Maybe it's owning your own place. Maybe it's getting total freedom. Maybe it's working with a great friend and mentor. I know all types of Chefs who all have different dreams for themselves. You always know what you think you're looking for and sometimes you get that and it sucks so you have to redefine or refine what your dream is. I tend to think this dimension isn't much different than most fields. I do feel that movement in most other fields is frowned upon thus the misconception amongst outsiders that movement within our industy is as "bad" as it is in their own career. But I also think that when anyone finds someplace where one feels at home and can truly settle in, that feeling they feel is unlike any other. The feel of being home and at ease? That feeling is elusive but sooooo worth it. I can tell you that from experience.
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