Restaurants, Recommendations, Purveyors, Drinks, Cocktails, Wine, Travel, Places. Chef Recommendations, Insider Recommendations, Places to Eat, Places, Where to Eat, Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Harrison, Amanda Freitag, Bloominghill Farm, Al Di La Trattoria, Emilio Ballato’s,. Restaurant Marc Forgione, Telepan, The Waverly Inn,
BLOOMINGHILL FARM
Likes working with Guy Jones. They have markets on Saturdays and Sundays.
New York
Organic Vegetable Farmer
AL DI LA TRATTORIA
I’ve eaten here dozens of times and it’s always consistent. I always know if I’m going to go and have the Tagliatelle al Ragu with lamb that it’s always going to be that way, or I know that I am going to have the Torta di Pere e Cioccollato, sliced pear cake with warm chocolate chips, it’s always going to be exactly the same way and to me.
Park Slope
Italian
EMILIO BALLATO’S
134 Reade Street, New York, NY 10013 (view map)
T: 212.941.9401 (make a reservation)
I love his history. I remember his dad and what his dad was doing. It’s so interesting now to see what he is doing. I think his food is really interesting. I like to recommend places that I can 98% be sure they can have a good meal.
Tribeca
New American
55 East Houston Street New York, NY 10012 (view map)
T: 212.274.8881
Emilio himself is such a great host, and the food is always good, pasta, meatballs and a glass of red wine. It’s about the ritual of going there and knowing the food is going to be delicious, feeling like we are bellying up to go to grandma’s table.
NoLiTa
Italian
72 West 69th Street, New York, NY 10023 (view map)
T: 212.580.4300 (make a reservation)
Bill cooks with this crazy passion. He seasonality makes beautiful food and that’s not easy to do that kind of seasonality in New York City. You go to Telepan in February and he’ll make you some interesting stuff out of root vegetables.
Upper West Side
New American
242 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY 10001 (view map)
T: 212.645.5659 (make a reservation)
I love the vibe there. Delicious for dinner and brunch. It’s kind of neighborhoody with a great vibe. I love their menu selection and they always have great service. It was kind of cool because I was sitting by the window that could look out over the backyard and saw one of the chefs putting a ham in a smoker and I thought, man I want to come back to dinner to have that.
Chelsea
Swiss Brasserie
TRESTLE ON TENTH
RESTAURANTS - NEW YORK, NY
DIRT CANDY
430 East Ninth Street, New York, NY 10009 (view map)
T: 212.228.7732 (make a reservation)
I love the intimacy of the place, it’s a tiny little place. Amanda Cohen is the chef and what she is doing with vegetables is pretty amazing. It’s very fine tuned, very detailed, it’s very specific. If the dish is cauliflower, you are tasting cauliflower, it’s all about the cauliflower, but it’s this beautiful composed dish.
East Village
Contemporary American / Vegetarian
RESTAURANTS - BROOKLYN, NY
COCKTAILS - NEW YORK, NY
THE SUMMIT BAR
133 Avenue C, New York, NY 10009 (view map)
They are making some really good drinks. They are really artisanal with their ice cubes, and their alcohols and their juice and everything is fresh.
East Village
Bar
FOOD PURVEYORS - NEW YORK
ILIADA KALAMATA EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL
Available on Amazon.com.
It’s very all purpose, I use it for almost everything, except as finishing oil.
Olive Oil
DRINKS
MAURIN QUINA
Available at the following retailers.
It’s a digestive and it is worth a try if you haven't had it.
French Aperitif
FOOD PRODUCTS
LATINI PASTA
Available on Amazon.com.
Imported by and also available from Gustiamo.
Chef Sarah Jenkins, who I used to work with at Il Buco as her sous chef, taught me so much about pasta. She only used Latini at the time. It’s cut through brass die and this makes a HUGE difference as to how the pasta tastes and with the sauce, and what happens in the pan when you put it together in the sauces. Once you have that, it’s going to be hard to go to your old standbys, because that is really unique, really beautiful pasta.
Pasta
SETARO PASTA
Available from Buon Italia.
A really good product.
Pasta
TOOLS
MICROPLANE GRATER / ZESTER
Available on Amazon.com.
I use it all the time, that’s on my knife magnet, it gets used almost every day as well.
Microplane
OXO GOOD GRIPS CITRUS JUICER
Available on Amazon.com.
It’s double sided, one for grapefruit, one for lemon/lime. It fits inside this little cup, a spout on one end to pour it out, and a screen the covers it.
Juicer
COOKBOOKS
MARCELLA HAZAN COOKBOOKS
I don’t use cookbooks to cook, but I use cookbooks for inspiration. When I was at Gusto, I would look at Marcella Hazan’s books all the time to look at the regions, and what food meant.
Purchase at: Amazon.com
Author: Marcella Hazan
Recommendations
Who
TV personality and former executive chef of The Harrison restaurant in New York, NY.
Why
Before chef Freitag became known for her TV show “Chopped,” she earned serious cooking chops working alongside chefs like Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Diane Forley (Verbena), Tom Valenti (Cesca) and Sarah Jenkins (Il Buco).
Chef Amanda Freitag | Recommendations
February 7, 2011
