Spring in ATX, the best time of year…minus the cedar and oak pollen onslaught. Lots of fun& new sensational dishes at both restaurants with springtime focus and Uchi brightness. Looking forward to our yearly staff retreat and taking the entire staffs at both places out to Lost Pines resort over Memorial day; might be 200 ppl+! In the meantime, finishing up Austin resto week here soon, getting through the Easter weekend/week and then on a plane to NYC to cook at the Beards and Conde Naste in early May. What an honor it would be if somehow this is my year and finally won the JBeard award. Nervous as hell. Just found out i’ve got to dress up and sit in an assigned seat at the awards! I want to wear my chef whites and white steve maddens and make food instead! We’ll be making our sweet/savory take on sea urchin and corn: Uni/corn. Sweet corn sorbet with dried sea urchin bottagra and fried kelp. Hope it knocks it out of the park. We’ll be prepping at the Union Square hospitality group prep/catering kitchen; so very thankful for their kind offer. Still have to finalize vessel,portion,shipping,and execution details. Best part: the long list of restaurants we plan on trying over the days we’re there for R&D. Cannot wait to eat Uni at Soto again. His food is flawless Japanese. My obvious fav. Also looking forward to 11 Madison park, ABC kitchen,Lincoln, Fatty crab,
Uchi goodness: pickled ramps,lemon,pistachio,scallop.
brunch at Balthazar and a long list of other recommends. Buns in Chinatown and slices in Lil Italy. Hoping not to make the 90 block walk we made the last time in the city the preceded my Iron Chef America appearance. Good times, but my feet were fucked after! Think we ate at over 30 places in 4 days that trip; see what we do this time around…..eat,focus,talk,walk,blackberry,google maps,….eat,etc,etc……