Bourdain Leaves the Travel Channel for HBO and PBS and CNN and ABC

Here's the trailor for a new show premiering on PBS November 9th called The Mind of a Chef.  Narrated by Anthony Bourdain, season one "Goes inside the kitchen, the world, and the mind of chef David Chang."  We already knew about Chang's talent in the kitchen, but it turns out the guy can seriously swing a golf club (:41).  Anthony Bourdain and Zero Point Zero Productions, the same crew that produced No Reservations, take the production credits.  Rene Redzepi, Wylie Dufresne, and Ferran Adria all make appearances in season one.

Bourdain's involvement with the PBS show is another notch on his food media belt.  The Mind of a Chef airs the same month as the second, and last, of Bourdain's The Layover series on the Travel Channel.  There's The Taste, an the elimination Chopped-meets-The Next-Food-Network-Star-type show Bourdain is doing on ABC with Nigella Lawson, and in early 2013, CNN will get a Sunday night primetime show serving as a "signature showcase for the network’s coverage of food and travel" via Bourdain and Zero Point Zero.  Bourdain's also a contributing writing for the HBO hit series Treme.  If food's the new rock, food TV's the new roll.

Yunnan Kitchen Has a One-Star Advantage

whole crispy shrimp at yunnan kitchen - yana paskova for the ny timesPete Wells heads to Yunnan Kitchen on the Lower East Side for this week's review.  He explains the restaurant, previously featured on our Donde Dinner? column, "takes a farmers’ market approach to the cuisine of Yunnan Province in China."  This approach has already proved successful at the hands of Ed Schoenfeld and Joe Ng at RedFarm in the West Village.  Their website describes the food at RedFarm as "inspired Chinese cuisine with Greenmarket sensibilities."

At Yunnan Kitchen, "Mr. Post’s fresh, locavore sensibility leads to straightforward and uncomplicated cooking," Wells writes.  This sensibility in Travis Post ripened during his stint at Franny's in Brooklyn.  Overall, this approach to cooking, along with the access and captial to purchase quality products, plays a significant role not just in the success of Yunnan Kitchen, but restaurants city wide.  Wells describes it as a "revolution," and explains that it "hasn't reached all quarters.  Along Lexington Avenue, great Indian cooks are currying nondescript chicken; Thai chefs in Queens are making do with spongy pork; and in Brooklyn, Nigerian kitchens are stewing farmed fish that bears only a slight resemblance to the original article."  "Those Thai chefs," he continues, "can’t buy Berkshire pork if it means tripling prices and alienating core customers."

The review suggests a set of advantages found at Yunnan Kitchen and "restaurants that have the financing and the cultural wherewithal to bring in customers who will pay for premium ingredients."  Yunnan Kitchen may not serve food that has the same caliber of authenticity found at the likes of Andy Ricker's restaurants, which helped earn Pok Pok NY two stars, but the local, seasonal approach to cooking, coupled with access and funds to purchase quality ingredients from established purveyors is enough to elevate the restaurant to star quality.

Vintage Vodka Vertical

Robert Simonson has an article in today's Diner's Journal about the 2009 vintage of Karlsson's Vodka.  The company launched in 2007 and is the first ever distillery to produce vintage vodka.  Karlsson's used a potato known as Old Swedish Red to produced the 2008 vintage.  Not only were the potatoes all harvested in the same year, they were sourced from a singular plot of land on a single farm.  For this year's 2009 vintage, Simonson explains Karlsson's chose a potato varietal known as Solist.  The resulting vodka "has a softer, more mellow flavor" than the 2008 vodka.

Digest NY founder Craig Cavallo wrote an article about the '08 vintage for Tom Ran's website The Scout Mag back in March.  We thought we'd link you to that article now so you can taste read your way through the first two years of vodka's first ever vintage product.  Head over to thescoutmag for a taste of the Old Swedish Red.

As the Temperature Drops, Red Wine from Valle D'Aosta Rises to the Occassion

grosjean vineyards - courtesy of weinburgOctober has brought with it an undeniable fall chill.  Quickly following the drop in temperature will be a new harvest of fall ingredients and, in our case, a desire to start drinking more red wine.  Before it gets too cold, the October weather is perfect for that transition from warm weather white and rose to lighter "fall reds."  Italy's north western region of Valle d'Aosta is the perfect place to look.  Our friend and wine geek extraodinaire Dan Pucci has provided us a rundown of Italy's unique region.

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Adam Platt Lands a Seat at Mirarchi's Counter; Three Stars for Blanca

carlo mirarchi - courtesy robert wright of nytimesBill Clinton isn't the only one making the trip out to Bushwick to dine on the Roberta's compound.  Adam Platt was fortunate enough to snag one of the twelve seats at Blanca, "the brainchild of the formerly anonymous Bushwick chef Carlo Mirarchi, who, along with two partners, has turned Roberta’s from a ramshackle neighborhood pizza hall on the fringes of Bushwick into a poster child for the great Brooklyn culinary miracle."  Platt's review gives us some insight into what goes on behind the walls of 261 Moore Street and how you might be able to get a meal at one of the cozy chairs.  He explains, "Blanca would take reservations by phone on the first day of each month for dates 7 to 30 days hence."  Blanca is booked through October, but November 1st is a Thursday.  Start planning.

The limited seating and high demand to eat at chef's counters are part of a recipe only the most patient can follow.  With the continued success of Momofuku Ko and Brooklyn Fare, newcomers Atera (three stars from Pete Wells) and Blanca show the city has plenty of patience.  At Blanca, there's a good chance Carlo Mirarchi will have some beef aging for you while you endure the wait.  Platt describes "spoon-tender Wagyu beef at this Brooklyn restaurant is aged for up to 85 days."  "Creamy sweetbreads with a lightly frizzled crust" were another standout, along with "a deliciously smooth polenta mingled with even smoother uni," and "the little stack of snow-crab legs from Alaska, which the chef grills to the perfect point of sweetness."

Tasting menu only chef's counters provide diner's with an incredibly well thought out and intimate meal.  In most instances, the meal will exceed three hours.  Blanca's twenty plus course meal lasted four, but to Platt it "seemed half that long."  Dinner concluded with a sparkling wine from Bugey; "It wasn’t a stunning wine, but on this evening in the wilds of Bushwick, as the improbably talented cook circulated among his guests in his baseball cap, and the moon rose over the garden outside, it tasted just fine. It tasted delicious, in fact."

A couple of flavor follies throughout the meal were ultimately responsible for the lack of a perfect score.  The three stars out of five for New York Mag raises the question, what would Pete Wells do?

Eat the Week; Oct 1st - 5th

Digest NY introduces "Eat the Week;" a compiled list of our posts from the week.  We'll publish "Eat the Week" every Saturday and top the post with a picture for you.  That up there is Dear Bushwick in Fort Greene Bushwick.  Now on to what we ate this week:

Le Cirque's first ever cookbook to come out Oct 16th | Andrew Carmellini's collabo with Joe's Pub opens Tuesday in the Public Theater Building on Lafayette Street | Pete Wells gives a glowing star to Calliope | A.A. Gill shares his opinion of the 2013 Michelin Guide | Heritage Foods kicks off the second annual Goatober | Digest NY takes another First Bite at The Pines | Donde Dinner? - 736 Franklin Avenue

Donde Dinner? - 736 Franklin Ave

Donde Dinner? wants to make your next dining experience an adventure.  So, we'll pick a restaurant and post its address for you every Friday.  The catch is, that's all the information you get.  No name, no type of cuisine, and no Googling!  Before we get to this week's Donde Dinner?, let us reveal last week's address:

231 Eldridge Street = Family Recipe

This weeks spot follows typical Donde Dinner? fashion.  Price, quality, and accessibility have all been taken into account.  You won't be waiting at the bar for two hours with $15 cocktails, and you don't have to worry about a dress code.  We're going back to Brooklyn this week.  Just hop on the train, or your feet, or your bike, and head to:

 736 Franklin Avenue (@ Sterling Place)

First Bite: The Pines

Welcome to First Bite, in which we bring you a look at some of the city's newest restaurants shortly after they open.  We'll go, eat some food, take some pictures, and report back to you.  This go round it's The Pines, located on Third Avenue in Brooklyn's quickly developing Gowanus neighborhood.

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