Lucky Peach Issue 7 Is Almost Here

Lucky Peach subscribers the world over will start to find Issue 7 in their mailboxes in the coming days. The quarterly magazine isn't out in stores or Momofuku outposts yet, but the Travel issue is ready to read. And it's a big one. "What is inside?" asks the LP website, "So many words! Maybe our most words ever."

Those include, "Smart words about snake eating" from The New Yorker staff writer Philip Gourevitch, "Handwritten words about The Most Beautiful Taco Bell in the World from artist Jason Polan," travel tips from Mario Batali, and contriutions from LP vets Harold McGee and Tony Bourdain.

Del Posto's pastry chef Brooks Headley goes back to his punk roots (re: Born Against) for what McSweeney's website calls "Punk rock touring with Brooks Headley." Other highlights include "the history of curry," "an epic sub on the Jersey Shore," and "the world’s most dangerous chicken in Rio de Janeiro."

Happy reading!

Lucky Peach Issue Six Hits Shelves Today

If you subscribe to Lucky Peach, or frequent any of the Momofuku restaurants, you probably already got your hands on Issue #6: "Before and After the Apocolypse." If you don't, the magazine is available in stores today. It's broken down into two sections: pre and post-apocolypse. Editor Peter Meehan writes the topic came about after he and co-editor David Chang had a discussion about Collapse, "a feature-length interview with Michael C. Ruppert, a reporter, who chronicles how our current economic and every systems will systematically fail, and how our civilization will collapse soon after." The issue calls on Michael Pollan, Ted Nugent, and Anthony Bourdain to shed some light on the current state of the food world. There's also talk of zombies and plagues, a taste test of canned tomato sauce with Mark Ladner, and some bomb shelter essentials. Get your copy here.

Stream the First Ten Episodes of the Mind of a Chef

Ten episodes of the new PBS series Mind of a Chef have aired since the show premiered Friday, November 9th. The first season explores the mind of David Chang as he takes viewers on a wild ride exploring culinary happenings around the world. The show airs in blocks on Fridays starting at 8pm. Four aired on the 9th, two on the 16th, and another four last Friday the 23rd. For now, all ten episodes are available to watch for free over at PBS.

Episodes will only be available to stream for three weeks after they air on TV. So the first block of four episodes that aired on the 9th will come down this Friday, but we wanted to give you a chance to catch the episodes before they go. Do the show titles read to anyone else like a cross between the seven deadly sins and a hodge podge of song titles from Johnny Mathis, Jerry Garcia, and Raekwon? [PBS]

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Issue #5 is Around the Corner

In our humble opinion, Lucky Peach is the most exciting piece of media, print or otherwise, covering all things culinary. The brainchild of David Chang, Chris Ying, and Peter Meehan, Lucky Peach is doing for the world of food writing the same thing Chang did for New York when he opened Noodle Bar in '04.

Issue #5 is the Chinatown Issue. Momofuku's blog invites readers to "explore what happens when chinese food leaves the motherland," and on Tuesday, November 13th, you can "read up on chinese-korean noodles, the san gabriel valley, opium dens, crab rangoons and magical white balls." The fifth go 'round also features a few words from Anthony Bourdain and recipes from Mission Chinese Food chef Danny Bowien.

Catch Chang tonight on the Late Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Riders On the Storm

Hurricane Sandy brought countless damage in her winds while power outages and floods have left a majority of New York City's restaurants temporarily out of commission. Our travels have removed us from the wrath Sandy wrought on the city, but our thoughts are with everyone affected by the storm.

David Chang offered the above words of wisdom via Twitter, which has been our source for updates on the storm and the city's condition while we're in Vietnam. Here are a few more to come via Twitter regarding restaurants that are able to open tonight:

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Anticipating Montmartre

[krieger] tien hoTien Ho was a sous chef at Cafe Boulud before leaving to work for David Chang at Momofuku Ssam Bar. From there he moved uptown to work as the executive chef at Ma Peche when Chang opened the restaurant in the basement of the Chambers Hotel. Ho left Ma Peche in the fall of 2011 and spent the ensuing year out of New York City restaurants, a time he describes in a recent interview with Eater as "really depressing."

Times have changed. Ho is back, and for his next trick he has teamed up with Gabe Stulman in a partnership that will add Montemartre, a casual French restaurant, to the Little Wisco empire. The project is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2013 and will happen shortly after Chez Sardine, Stulman's Izakaya-inspired restaurant, opens at 183 West 10th Street. Along with the exciting food we can expect at Montmartre, we're predicting a stellar wine list.

Ho describes his appreciation for "Funky wines" in an interview with The Insider, "especially from Jura and Naples. Bandols, too!," he goes on, "And I have a very soft spot for wines from Aubin." His mention of Bandols refers to a wine growing region on the Mediterranean coast in southeastern France. Mourvedre is the predominant grape there and it produces dark, complex, and age-worthy wines. Eric Asimov recently wrote how the same grape thrives in Spain, where it is referred to as monastrell. In each place, the grape produces dark, complex, and age-worthy wines.

Wines from Jura have garnered a following that may best be described as cultish and Ho's affinity for them is shared amongst members of the wine community. Jura's arsenal includes exceptionally clean, vibrant sparkling wine a la Cremant du Jura, racy whites a la savagnin, and light, elegant, mineral-driven reds from the trousseau grape. The region's unique growing conditions and limited production have resulted in wines of extraordinary character that wine lovers will go out of their way to seek out.

Ho's interest in unique wines, coupled with his proven talent in the kitchen, have us anticipating a seriously très bon dining experience when Montmartre opens early next year.

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.

Testing, Testing, 1, 2...

david chang in momofuku's test kitchen, courtesy of eaterEater published this amazing post of test kitchens from around the world yesterday.  These kitchens are void of seats and the pressures of cooking for guests.  They are haven's where chefs are able to experiment with new ideas and work together with their chefs de cuisine to formulate new menus.  In a sense, they're gastronomic laboratories.

Part of what makes the list so remarkable is the lineup.  Momofuku, The Fat Duck, elBulli, and Noma are all captured in great detail with pictures and insight into the philosophies that drive some of the greatest restaurants in the world.