Record Store Day is Satuday, April 17 this year. Go out and visit your local independent record store. If I can't convince you, maybe Joshua Homme of "Queens of the Stone Age" and "Them Crooked Vultures" can:
For Basic NYC's 6th anniversary, they're bringing in a super, duper, special guest. Founder of Planet E Communications, one of my favorite record labels, and Grammy nominee, Carl Craig will be headlining this momentous party with a special extended set for his Sullivan Room debut. Purchase your advance tickets here. This is most definitely a party you don't want to miss.
An "intimate neighborhood restaurant featuring rustic new American cuisine inspired by fresh, local ingredients", Recipe, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, serves up a lunch menu that's really easy on the pockets, and big on flavor and value. Small restaurant, small overhead...right? Quaint is definitely a word that comes to mind when describing the place. Also, they must have one of the most complicated faucets in their restroom. Seriously...you need directions. Thankfully, they provide it.
Recipe's burger has been on my radar for a while (which my sister can attest to) and I finally made my way to the UWS during lunch hours last Friday. For starters, I had the pumpkin gnocchi with short ribs and garden root vegetables($2 supplement), and I've got to say...it was tasty. I love short ribs...and the gnocchis were delectable. It was crisped up on the outside, and still chewy on the inside. I would definitely order it again.
As for the burger, here it is in all its glory:
Here's a sexy cross-cut:
Ordered medium-rare, it definitely was more rare than medium-rare. I didn't mind, as I like a rare burger once in awhile...but for those that are averse to blood, I'd make sure to have it the way you want it. The meat itself was super flavorful, but the grill marks were too prominent, creating too much char where the burger rested on the grill. I love char, but it was too much.
The accompanying house made potato chips were just aight. As the meal was for lunch, it's probably better I didn't get fries. It's also most likely a reason as to how the lunch deal is so affordable, considering chips utilize significantly less potatoes than fries (of course depending on how many chips or fries the restaurant portions). You know what I'm trying to say...
In short, the burger at Recipe didn't disappoint. If I lived in the hood, I could definitely imagine having a few meals here, and they do deliver, so I'd probably take advantage of that too. As a side note, my dining companion had the crispy duck leg confit which I thought was really good...which makes me want to try their other offerings. So all in all, I'd say to definitely check out the spot, especially during lunch. I've heard the wait can get rather long for dinner and brunch, as they can only seat 26 at one time.
452 Amsterdam Ave (between 81st St & 82nd St) New York, NY 10024 (212) 501-7755
In the lead up to Greg Wilson's performance at WMC 2010 (which took place on Wednesday), Miami New Times interviews Wilson, and as usual, he provides candor responses with loads of insight into the making of who he is present day.
WMC 2010: Q&A with UK Legend DJ Greg Wilson, Playing Electric Pickle on Wednesday
Few figures in the international dance music scene can wear the title of legend as aptly as Greg Wilson. The British DJ boasts a career spanning three decades, going back to the birth of house and his early days as a DJ at Manchester's seminal club The Hacienda, and he carries on the authentic mixing art form to a greater degree than any of his contemporaries. To watch him go at it live on the decks is to take a trip back to the early days of garage, disco, and electro-funk, when vinyl records, beat-juggling, and old-school tape delay gave dance music a loose-limbed vitality rare in today's mechanized DJing.
Wilson makes records speak. He still uses his vintage Revox B77 reel-to-reel tape machine to expand his live sound to epic funky proportions. A mixing pioneer in the UK's clubs, he introduced the early-'80s British generation to the new electronic post-disco sounds coming out of New York. Old-timers might recall his famous 15 minutes on television in 1983 when he became the first DJ to mix live on British TV on The Tube.
The past few years have seen Wilson tour widely across all continents, including, surprisingly, his first dates in cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. In January 2009, the release of his widely acclaimed Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1 revealed his craftsmanship and imaginative blend of sounds to an eager new generation. Hardly one to fade away, Wilson has garnered a new relevance in today's dance music scene that seems timelier than ever.
Miami welcomes him for his WMC debut and an exclusive performance at the Electric Pickle on Wednesday, where he'll be leading an all-star lineup including esteemed Hamburg DJ/producer Vincenzo, Australian tech-house specialist Murat Kilic, and Brooklyn's No Regular Play. Crossfade caught up with a very candid, eloquent, and insightful Mr. Wilson to reminisce about three decades on the decks and the fascinating history of British dance culture.
Greg Wilson at Electric Pickle, with Vincenzo, No Regular Play, Murat Kilic, Will Renuart, Aaron Dae, DJ Dirty, Jay Marley, and Lee Mayjahs. Wedsnesday, March 24. Doors open at 8 p.m. 2826 N. Miami Ave., Miami. Tickets available at www.residentadvisor.net
New Times: How did you first get into DJing?
Greg Wilson: A school friend of mine built his own rudimentary mobile disco when he was only 11 -- just 2 old decks housed inside a draw with a switch in the middle so you could change between them. Later, down the line, his set-up became a bit more sophisticated and he began picking up regular bookings, some of which I'd go along to with him. Then, in 1975, when we were 15, he built his 3rd console and, along with another schoolfriend, I bought his old one, setting up "Dancin' Machine Mobile Disco", named after the Jackson 5 track.
No sooner had my mobile career started than I was offered a Saturday night residency in a popular local nightspot, the Chelsea Reach in New Brighton (opposite Liverpool on the River Mersey). "Dancin' Machine" had been booked to play at a function upstairs in the venue, but when the regular DJ failed to turn up downstairs the manager asked if one of us could fill in. I jumped at the chance and at the end of the night was asked if I could do it every week. I was offered a few more nights at another local club, the Penny Farthing, before I turned 16, so, on leaving school a few months later I embarked on a career as a professional DJ, working around 5 nights per week and carefully concealing my age in the process (I was eventually rumbled, but they allowed me to carry on).
It's worth mentioning that between the ages of 6 and 13 my parents had run a pub, which included a couple of functions rooms upstairs where wedding receptions and birthday parties were booked in pretty much every weekend. Sitting behind the bar with my Mum, whilst she worked, I'd seen more or less every mobile DJ in the Merseyside area at one time or another, and with my older brother and sister buying soul singles on a regular basis, which I would 'inherit', I was probably destined to become a DJ myself. What can you tell us about the legendary early days at The Hacienda and the birth of dance culture in England?
Britain has its own unique dance culture, which dates right back to the early 60's. In London, you had the mods, who were obsessed with rhythm and blues, and subsequently soul (the mods later became a national movement, my brother becoming a scooter riding affiliate). At the same time you had the Merseybeat scene in Liverpool, from which The Beatles emerged, with black music dominant. The British obsession with black music is something that has never been fully appreciated -- it was the British, of course, who re-introduced the blues back to America via the 'British Invasion' of the mid-60's, changing the course of popular culture in the process.
It wasn't until the latter part of the '70s and early '80s that US disco culture began to merge into the British lineage, which was already highly evolved, as you'd imagine, after such a long germination, laying the foundations for the rave explosion of the late '80s. The main adaptation from a British perspective had little to do with the music played (DJs had been buying the latest records on import for a long time), but the way in which they were played -- US-style mixing gradually replacing the microphone, which was the main tool of the trade for the UK DJ.
The Hacienda, during my time there in 1983, was a club struggling to find direction (and customers). I was already a successful black music specialist hosting the two main nights in the north, at Legend in Manchester and Wigan Pier, playing to a predominantly black audience. It was on the back of this that The Hacienda approached me to do their Friday nights. Their regular crowd were mainly students and indie kids, the majority of whom hated dance music, so it was a bumpy road for me -- the black crowd not regarding The Hacienda as their type of club at the time. The DJ booth was also in a terrible location, in a room down some stairs to the side of the stage - all you could see was people's legs through a slit in the wall.
The club was much more geared to live bands, but the management, having seen what was happening in New York clubs like Danceteria, The Funhouse and Paradise Garage, when they'd been over with touring Factory bands like New Order, A Certain Ratio, and Quando Quango, wanted to attract a more dance-based audience. Legend was the great Manchester club of the period, but although I was only at The Hacienda for a relatively short time, seeds were sown, and a few years down the line, with Mike Pickering now DJ on Fridays (he was the promotions manager at the club during my time there) and the DJ booth moved to pride of place on the balcony, the dance direction well and truly gained momentum, with the black crowd leading the way.
Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, many of us are now familiar with your by now classic 1983 clip on The Tube, when you became the first DJ to mix live on British TV. How did this appearance come about?
The Tube, which was a hugely popular music show of the time, broadcast nationally on Friday evenings, were doing a dance music special and had booked David Joseph, the former singer of Brit-funk band Hi-Tension, who was about to release his debut single "You Can't Hide (Your Love From Me)". Wanting to catch him perform, ahead of his appearance on the programme, some of the researchers came down to Legend, where he was making a personal appearance to promote the forthcoming single. At the time I was known for doubling-up (sometimes trebling-up) -- playing two copies of the same record to create a live mix, running one behind the other to repeat sections, etc. -- and, obviously impressed by this, they approached me to see if I'd do it live in their Newcastle studio, before they switched to an outside broadcast from London, where David Joseph would be on stage.
It would prove to be fantastic exposure for David Joseph, and the springboard for the record to become a big hit. Larry Levan would later remix it and it's now viewed as something of a cult classic. It would also, of course, be a major moment in my own career, as pretty much every DJ worth their salt, the length and breadth of the UK, would have been tuned in. It certainly confirmed my status as a British mixing pioneer.
You still use the same modus operandi on the decks as in the early days, including a reel-to-reel tape machine for effects. What is the impetus for working this way? Do you frown on contemporary DJing technologies/techniques?
Not at all. I respect a DJ's choice to play music whichever way suits them, be it vinyl or Ableton Live. My own set-up combines past and present - on the one hand I use antiquated technology, the Revox B77 reel-to-reel, whilst on the other I employ contemporary technology, in the form of a laptop and the PCDJ program I work from. It's this balance between 'now and then' that defines my approach. This is reflected by the music I play, which draws from the past, particularly my original period as a DJ ('75-'84), but with a contemporary twist via re-edits and the inclusion of current artists who draw their inspiration from this era.
With a career spanning three decades you've seen a lot of changes in the dance music scene and dance culture. What would you say some of these changes have been? What remains the same?
Dance music obviously became big business, which eventually, in my opinion, had a negative effect. Thankfully the underground is strong again, so all's well with the world -- the underground being the lifeblood of the scene. One of my main criticisms during the '90s was that DJs stopped playing a spectrum of dance music, with varying mood and tempo, concentrating on ever narrower genres and sub-genres. This was alien to me -- variety very much being the spice of life in my book. Many DJs began to place mixing ahead of programming in terms of priority, selecting what they played not because it was the best record, but because it mixed out of the previous record seamlessly. This was putting the cart before the horse as far as I'm concerned. I'm all for mixing, but programming is the most important skill a DJ possesses and, in comparison to the DJs of the past, I think that this was an area that suffered.
DJ's also began to believe their own myth, thinking they were somehow above the audience they were playing to. For some it became a massive ego trip as they soaked up the adulation. I found this very unsavoury as I'd always regarded it as a reciprocal relationship on an equal footing -- the DJ feeding from the crowd and able to adapt to their mood in a spontaneous manner. When I realized that DJs were playing pre-arranged 'sets', which had been rehearsed ahead of the gig so that every record mixed perfectly into the next one, I felt that this completely negated the spirit of DJs as I'd known it, which was to read a crowd and play your tunes accordingly. Being locked into a rigid set doesn't allow this -- there's no room for exchange, it's all about the DJ knowing best and if the crowd doesn't 'get it', it's their problem.
At the bottom line, now as always, the DJ is an entertainer. People pay their money to go into a club, wanting a release from the stresses and strains of their day to day, and it's the DJ's role to take them out of themselves via the music they play. Some DJs like to feel that they're educators, but I find this to be highly conceited -- music is subjective and what one person likes another might not, so to think that you hold the moral high ground when it comes to what is or isn't good music is somewhat deluded. It's great to be able to introduce people to new music, and a good DJ will certainly be skilled at this, but there's always going to be those you'll never connect with, not because they don't have any 'taste', but because they vibrate in a different way. The way I see it is that you're expressing your personality via the music you play and hoping that other people tune into this, sharing the same wavelength -- not that you're some sort of all-knowing musical shaman who demands adoration from his/her minions, as some DJs seem to believe.
What contemporary artists/music knock your socks off these days? What have you been playing live most recently and are there any classics that have never left your crate?
Not having a crate these days, I'm not limited to the music I carry with me. This is one of the major benefits of modern technology. There are a lot of younger DJs currently doing great re-edits of older tunes. There are also, of course, many poor or pointless ones -- as with anything, it's a matter of sorting out the wheat from the chaff. People including The Revenge, Todd Terje and the Situation crew have enhanced my playlist over recent years, along with edits labels like Disco Deviance, Redux and Duff Disco. Then you have a global community of artists who've been making their own music, connecting past to present -- for example, here in the US you have people like 40 Thieves, Escort, Gary Davis and Nick Chacona & Anthony Mansfield, all of whom had tracks included on my recent compilation Credit To The Edit Vol. 2. In the last few years you've toured extensively across the world and performed for diverse audiences. Any especially memorable cities or parties you've played at?
Too many to name. It's been incredible for me to come back after a two-decade gap and be so well received wherever I go. Back in the early '80s the furthest I traveled to DJ were places like Birmingham, Nottingham and Sheffield, which seemed really exotic then. So to find myself in Tokyo, São Paulo, or Miami is pretty nuts!
What are you up to next?
By the time I play in Miami I'll have been touring for a month, taking in Japan, Australia and the US. Miami is the final date before I head back to the UK -- we scheduled things so I'd end up at the WMC. Once I'm home I have a few dates in London and Liverpool before heading over to Austria for Snowbombing, which kicks off the festival season in Europe, the majority of events taking place throughout the summer months. So, between now and October, it'll be a mixture of UK and European dates, interspersed with the festivals. I'm also going to have to find time in between to do the various remixes and edits that make up the other side of my work.
We're very excited to hear you spin at the Electric Pickle on March 24. What can Miami expect during this performance?
It's my first time in Miami, and a fitting conclusion to the tour. I'm very much looking forward to playing at Electric Pickle -- it's going to be 4 hours, so it's a good length of time. As ever, I just do my thing -- having never been there I'll obviously weigh things up on the night and proceed accordingly. Miami, for me, evokes the Sunshine Sound of TK Records in the '70s, so I'd hope to play a few tunes from that era. One of the first edits to take off for me, following my comeback, was the cut-up of KC & The Sunshine Band's "I'm Your Boogie Man" a.k.a. "I Was A Teenage DJ Pt. 1", so I'll have to remember to play that one.
The Paul J. Sachs Prints and Illustrated Books Galleries, second floor
Featuring approximately one hundred works, this exhibition explores Picasso’s creative process through the medium of printmaking, tracing his development from the early years of the twentieth century, with depictions of itinerant circus performers in the Blue and Rose periods, to his discovery of Cubism. It follows his evolving artistic vision through decades of experimentation in etching, lithography, and linoleum cut, demonstrating how each technique inspired new directions in his work. The exhibition focuses on specific themes, showing how Picasso’s imagery went through a constant process of metamorphosis. Printmaking, in particular, allows this fundamental aspect of his art to become vividly clear, since various stages in building a composition can be documented. One series of lithographs shows Picasso progressing, step-by-step, from a realistic depiction of a bull to one that is completely abstracted into schematic lines. Other series reveal changing interpretations of the women in Picasso’s life, as they become the subject of his art and a catalytic force behind his creativity.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue written by Deborah Wye and entitled A Picasso Portfolio: Prints from The Museum of Modern Art. In addition, the Museum will launch an interactive online Picasso project featuring some 250 works from MoMA’s collection of over one thousand prints by the artist.
Organized by Deborah Wye, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Chief Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books.
Fresh off his 2010 James Beard Award nominee as Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional, Paul Greico gives a funny "tour" of the greatly anticipated Terrior Tribeca which is slated to open sometime in April. In the meantime, you can always have a drink and nosh at the original spot in the East Village, located at 413 East 12th Street.
Foam 101? Chefs Andrés, Adrià will teach at Harvard.
By Jane Black Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, March 24, 2010
The gastronomic rumor mill went into overdrive last month when Ferran Adrià announced that he would close his world-famous restaurant, El Bulli, in northern Spain. What would the Catalan culinary wizard do next?
The answer: spread the gospel. In 2014, El Bulli will become a foundation, giving culinary scholarships to chefs with avant-garde leanings. And this fall, Adrià will join Washington chef-restaurateur José Andrés to help teach a first-of-its-kind course in culinary physics at Harvard University.
Over 13 weeks, Andrés and Adrià will teach multiple times, while such renowned chefs as Blue Hill's Dan Barber and another Michelin-starred chef from Spain, Joan Roca, will appear once. Students will attend chef demonstrations, physics lectures and labs that explain the structure and characteristics of a classic emulsion (a liquid dispersed into another liquid) and more recent inventions such as Adrià's famous foams (air bubbles surrounded by thin sheets of fluid).
With a greater understanding of the physical parameters of food, students will learn how to manipulate them. Ditto for the chefs. Much of the culinary invention in recent decades has been a result of trial and error rather than scientific research. Adrià is reported to have invented the foam after a friend gave him a canister of nitrous oxide with which to experiment. Andrés developed a hot and cold foie gras soup at Minibar not because he knew that liquids at different temperatures have different densities (he learned that later) but because he had seen the technique used in Irish coffee.
"All cooking, if you look at it, is soft-matter physics," said Otger Campas, a Harvard research fellow and native of Barcelona who is helping design the course. "This is designed to create a dialogue between cooks and scientists."
Both Adrià and Andrés have lectured at Harvard. In December 2008, Adrià demonstrated "caviar" of melon droplets and "pasta" made of ham. While there, he signed a memorandum of understanding, agreeing to collaborate on gastronomic science with the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
For chefs, the association is a chance to learn about cutting-edge science and refine their techniques, said Andrés. But what's in it for Harvard?
"It's a way to convince people that it's fun and that there's a lot of stuff we understand from a scientific point of view that chefs exploit," said David Weitz, a professor of physics who will co-teach the course. And unlike in other physics classes, "we can say at the end of the day you'll have something you can eat."
The first recorded song by Janis Joplin, she says, "This is a song called 'What Good Can Drinkin' Do', that I wrote one night after drinkin' myself into a stupor...":
What good can drinkin' do, what good can drinkin' do? Lord, I drink all night but the next day I still feel blue
There's a glass on the table, they say it's gonna ease all my pain, And there's a glass on the table, they say it's gonna ease all my pain But I drink it down, an' the next day I feel the same
Gimme whiskey, gimme bourbon, give me gin Oh, gimme whiskey, give me bourbon, gimme gin 'Cause it don't matter what I'm drinkin', Lord, as long as it drown this sorrow I'm in.
My man he left me, child, he left me here Yeah, my good man left me, went away and left me here Lord, I'm feelin' lowdown, just give me another glass of beer
I start drinking Friday, I start drinking Friday night Lord, I start drinking Friday, start drinking Friday night But then I wake up on Sunday, child, there ain't nothin' that's right
What good can drinkin' do, what good can drinkin' do? Well, I drink all night but the next day I still feel blue!
As I walk down the highway all I do is sing this song,
And a train that's passin' my way helps the rhythm move along.
There is no doubt about the words are clear,
The voice is strong, it's oh so strong.
I'm just a simple guy, I live from day to day.
A ray of sunshine melts my frown and blows my blues away,
There's nothing more that I can say but on a day like today
I pass the time away and walk a quiet mile with you.
*All I need from you is all your love,
All you got to give to me is all your love,
All I need from you is all your love,
All you got to give to me is all your love.
Oooh yeah, ooh yeah, ooh yeah, oh yeah.
I'm so glad I'm living and gonna tell the world I am,
I got me a fine woman and she says that I'm her man,
One thing that I know for sure gonna give her all the loving
Like nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody can.
Standing in the noonday sun trying to flag a ride,
People go and people come, see my rider right by my side,
It's a total disgrace, they set the pace, it must be a race
And the best thing I can do is run.
After a four-month hiatus, Ryan Skeen, late of Irving Mill, Allen & Delancey, and a famous “Get Me the Fuck Out of NYC” tweet, is back in the kitchen, cooking like a chef possessed. Not that the Café Boulud alum hasn’t always brought passion to his work, but unlike every kitchen he’s ever run before, the new 5 & Diamond in Harlem, where he’s a partner, is a place he can finally call his own. “This is the first restaurant where I haven’t been constrained by any other owners’ concepts of what I should do,” he says, not unlike a man who’s just been released from some sort of culinary Guantanamo Bay.
What this means for the American, Mediterranean-leaning menu is that everything on it, from shrimp-and-grits hush puppies to rabbit-and-ratatouille sausage with spaetzle, is the stuff Skeen likes to eat himself. There is housemade pasta (Tuscan kale and robiola agnolotti), lamb cassoulet, and the burger made from a blend of beef cheek, flap steak, and pork fatback that Skeen perfected at Irving Mill. Skeen plans to open quietly this Thursday through Sunday with the same schedule the following week, and by the time regular hours kick in, there will be breakfast pastries and sandwiches, two tasting menus, and a limited Sunday “family night” menu with dishes for sharing. Skeen’s partners, Lia Sanfilippo and Selene Martinez, are first-time restaurateurs who live in the neighborhood and hope to use the 35-seat former hardware shop as a vehicle for community activism, via cooking classes and other projects. “We don’t want to be just a great restaurant, we want to be a very conscious restaurant,” says Skeen.
A bottle of white, a bottle of red Perhaps a bottle of rose instead Get a table near the street In our old familiar place You and I face to face
A bottle of red, a bottle of white It all depends on your appetite I'll meet you any time you want In our Italian Restaurant.
Things are okay with me these days I got a good job, I got a good office I got a new wife, got a new life And the family's fine We lost touch long ago You lost weight I did not know You could ever look so nice after So much time.
Do you remember those days hanging out At the village green Engineer boots, leather jackets And tight blue jeans You drop a dime in the box And play a song about New Orleans Cold beer, hot lights My sweet romantic teenage nights
Brenda and Eddie were the popular steadies And the king and the queen of the prom Riding around with the car top down and the radio on Nobody looked any finer Or was more of a hit at the Parkway Diner We never knew we could want more than that out of life Sure that Brenda and Eddie would always know how to survive.
Brenda and Eddie were still going steady in the summer of '75 When they decided the marriage would be at the end of July Everyone said they were crazy Brenda you know that you're much too lazy And Eddie could never afford to live that kind of life But there we were wavin' Brenda and Eddie goodbye.
Well they got an apartment With deep pile carpets And a couple of paintings from Sears A big waterbed That they bought with the bread They had saved for a couple of years They started to fight When the money got tight And they just didn't count on the tears
ROCK and ROLL
Well they lived for a while In a very nice style But it's always the same in the end They got a divorce As a matter of course And they parted the closest of friends Then the king and the queen Went back to the green But you can never go back there again.
Brenda and Eddie had had it all ready by the summer of '75 From the high to the low to the end of the show for the rest of their lives Couldn't go back to the greasers The best they could do was pick up their pieces We always knew they would both find a way to get by
And that's all I heard about Brenda and Eddie Can't tell you more cause I told you already And here we are wavin' Brenda and Eddie goodbye.
Bottle of reds, ooo a bottle of whites Whatever kind of mood you're in tonight Meet you anytime you want In our Italian Restaurant.
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and here's a live clip from a concert in Tokey taken place in 2006:
This is from a few weeks ago, but I thought I'd still share:
January 24, 2010
A life in the day: Marco Pierre White
Marco Pierre White, 48, celebrity chef and restaurateur, dishes out pain and passion
Interview by Deborah Moore
I have no clocks in my house. I don’t wear a watch. I sleep with my curtains open and wake at daylight. I tend to sleep for four hours, then I process my thoughts for the next hour, lying in bed. It’s the most productive time of my day, because no one can get to me, there’s no interference. I have the same three-course breakfast every day — a cigarette, a coffee and a cough. The only place I smoke in my house is in the bathroom.
And I always have a bath, never a shower, because you don’t think in the shower, do you? I like to think. When I step in my bath it tends to be too hot, so I’m paralysed. I sit motionless with a Musetti espresso, just black, smoking.
I live by myself in west London. Mr Ishi, who has been with me for 15 years, drives me everywhere. I can drive, though I’ve never had a lesson. I drive off-road all the time. But let’s be honest, it’s not hard to drive a Range Rover — just a great big bumper car. Basically the Rover is my office.
I hate having a diary. I like my day to unravel naturally. I enjoy running at my speed, finding things to do. Work is my addiction. One of my philosophies in life is not to trust lazy people. They’ll let you down. If I’ve nothing planned I’ll find something. In the kitchen as a boy I was taught: if you haven’t a job, find one. That’s stayed with me.
I’m rarely seen outside my own restaurants, but the other day I had to go to Whitecross Street, near Shoreditch, for the launch of the British Street Food Awards, with the organiser, Richard Johnson. I thought, “I have to dress a bit street,” so I’m in pumps, 501 jeans, a white T-shirt, pinstripe jacket. Very ’70s. I’ve agreed to be a judge. People will enter or be nominated online, then they’ll be shortlisted down, and there’ll be a big cook-off at a live final in September. So I went and did my stuff, because I’m a great fan of street food.
The market there is amazing — every nationality you can think of, and it’s mobbed every day. There’s people cooking Jamaican jerk chicken, paella, spit-roast Italian-style pig, pies, scotch eggs. I liked it, the buzz it gives off. And they were nice to me. I was taught as a boy that it was bad manners to eat in the street — the closest I ever got to street food was in Whitby, with the seafood stalls on the promenade.
I took Richard for a bite to eat at my restaurant Marco at Stamford Bridge for lunch. I had a piece of grilled fish — turbot’s my favourite. I don’t like sauces, to be honest, and I don’t like fuss or too many things on my plate. Just good-quality olive oil, lemon and a few crystals of salt, so as to taste the fish. With creamed potatoes.
My hobbies are shooting driven birds, deerstalking and fishing. I used to have a farm in West Sussex, but after my teenage boys, Luciano and Marco, went to boarding school, I never went there. So I got my boozer in Hampshire, The Yew Tree. It has eight rooms. I rarely stay there — it’s always full — but I’ll take mates down to do a bit of stalking or fishing. My favourite fishery is the Royalty, on the Avon, where I caught my first salmon in England. I prefer to fish in private waters — I’m not pestered then.
Home is my sanctuary. I don’t watch TV, but I read a lot. One of my great loves in life is reading about the great French restaurants, like Madame Prunier’s in Paris, one of the most beautiful in the world at the turn of the last century.
At the moment I’m working on a book on cooking delicious food in a few minutes, and another on my seven-year apprenticeship, which is more of an emotional journey than about the great people I worked with or met. Like walking through the doors of Le Gavroche as a lad for the first time — the effect it has on you. Or the feelings you suffered after a bad day. It’s important for the young to have an insight into a world that can be very harsh. It’s easy to want to throw in the towel, but you’ve got to push through. It was harder 30 years ago. We’d do 100-hour weeks, which was draining.
And there are all my drawings from the dishes I served — say, a dish at Le Gavroche on May 3, 1982. Once I was home I’d write down the recipe and draw the method out. I’m a great believer in romance, and the journey of walking into the most wonderful kitchens in the world and going on to gastronomy is a romantic one, despite its painful moments.
At home I’ll make dishes like braised belly pork with butter beans, or lentils with cotechino sausages. I like peasant food. I haven’t cooked in my restaurants for 10 years now. If there’s a charity dinner, I’ll go and say hi, but I won’t stay.
We’ve now got five Frankie’s restaurants [in partnership with Frankie Dettori) in London — there’s also L’Escargot, the Belvedere, Luciano, the Marco Pierre White steakhouse in the City, and we’ve recently opened another restaurant, Marco Pierre White’s Wheeler’s of St James’s.
No matter what’s happened in my world, and because I work hard, I don’t have a problem falling asleep. I process all I’ve done, people I’ve met, and go out like a light.
I know that things are getting tougher When you can't get the top off from the bottom of the barrel. Wide open road of my future now... It's looking fucking narrow.
All I know is that I don't know All I know is that I don't know nothing [x2]
We get told to decide Just like as if I'm not gonna change my mind.
All I know is that I don't know All I know is that I don't know nothing [x2]
Whatcha gonna do with yourself, Boy better make up your mind. Whatcha gonna do with yourself boy, You're running out of time.
This time I got it all figured out
All I know is that I don't know All I know is that I don't know nothing [x4]
The long-building wave of food blog hype has at last reached the shore of South 4th Street in Williamsburg, where the new location of southern comfort BBQ restaurant Pies 'N' Thighs finally opened today. You may recall that back in January 2008, the original location in the shadow of the Williamsburg bridge was shut down by the Health Department for such infractions as an improper pork smoker. (Our headline, "Pies 'n' Thighs Goes Tits Up," elicited some "fun" comments.) After more than two years of preparation and speculation, the P&T team has now opened in their new digs, at the corner of Driggs.
The sunny, inviting space has seating in the front room/counter area, plus an additional back room that can accommodate another two dozen guests. (A small outdoor dining area will open in the spring.) Co-owner Sarah Buck was on hand this morning, and gave us the vitals:
* All the bread and baked goods are made in-house in the large basement kitchen. * Burgers are from the Meat Hook. * Delivery begins next week. * New items include a Big Salad for $10, which Buck described as a "big hippie salad." (She was not aware of the famous Seinfeld episode.) * Also new: Horchata and Morir Sonando, which is like "a Dominican creamsicle." * Many specials that would come and go at the old place, such as brisket, are now permanent. * The taco of the week this week is smoked pork with pineapple and cilantro. ($7) * Beer is on tap now, wine is on the way from Buck's sister in France, who makes Corbières wine. * The weekend brunch menu is all new.
This is really a swinging time for Southside Williamsburg dining. Across the street, the cocktail/small plates lounge Dram is set to (finally) open this month, in the space formerly occupied by Zak Pelaccio's Chickenbone. Speaking of Pelaccio, his Fatty 'Cue is expected to open this month on South 6th Street, and on South 2nd Street the new sushi restaurant 1 or 8 just opened, promising to deliver "a caliber of sushi heretofore unknown in Williamsburg."
As for Pies 'N' Thighs, the hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., weekends 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you want to buy a whole pie, that costs $30 and you need to give one day notice. (347-529-6090)
Check out the menu below:
415 South 5th Street Brooklyn, NY 11211-7446 (347) 282-6005
Yeah, I'm coming off a bit of a fanboy, but I'm geniunely excited for Pulino's. Perhaps it's because my roommate cooks in a McNally joint or it's because of my predilection for all things delicious...regardless, Pulino's is now slated for a March 15 opening, starting with breakfast and lunch, with dinner to commence shortly after that.
Grub Street's got pdf's of Pulino's breakfast and lunch menu which you can check out here and here.
Also, here's a sweet article in this week's New York Magazine that profiles Keith McNally and some of the back story related to how Pulino's came about. Link to article here.
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