New England Restaurant Insider Magazine

$4.00 - April 2008- Vol 1 Issue 2 www.restaurantinsidermag.com

Mario Batali

Blending the gift of originality with the soul of tradition

THE MAGAZINE FOR NEW ENGLAND’S RESTAUR ANT INDUSTRY

Letter from the Editor It’s true that April will always be synonymous with rebirth, with the re-greening of the darkened fields that dot the Northeast part of our country throughout the bleak winter months. By May those brown pastures Spring to life thanks to awakened farmers who tend these great stretches of land, and also thanks to that most vital source of human sustenance - the crop seed.

It was not without a certain amount of alarm that I read recently about the so-called “Doomsday Seed Vault” which recently opened for business on a remote Norwegian island. Just 000 kilometers from the North Pole, the vault is an agricultural Noah’s Ark where instead of animals being led onto a boat in twos, a hundred million seeds were shipped to this remote corner of our planet. The seeds are stored there in the hope that our fragile existence would survive some sort of catastrophic event, such as an asteroid strike, climate change, a major earthquake, 40 days and 40 nights of rain, or a Red Sox repeat. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault will preserve thousands of regional and local crop varieties – its capacity is over 2 million seeds - which farmers worldwide have bred for thousands of years. Because of the low temperature there, the permafrost and the meter-thick reinforced concrete walls would keep seeds viable for over 000 years, or even an additional 200 years if the vault’s 0-kilowatt compressor were ever to fail. All this was built for a meager $9 million, or about the same amount of money it took to open Le Cirque – not a bad investment to keep humanity alive for a few more millennia. What is a little suspicious, however, is that this is mostly funded by Bill Gate’s Foundation. Let’s hope that MS Bill isn’t looking to pull a Windows monopoly ploy with the world’s food supply. But what those brainy scientists in Svalbard haven’t figured out, however, is how to safeguard the ingenuity it takes to sow those seeds and affect something truly beautiful to grow from them. Maybe they should freeze a few upstate farmers while they’re at it. And chefs, should we freeze a few as well?

Another sign of Spring is the emergence of people wearing shorts, unless you’re Mario Batali, in which case the shorts never made it to that seasonal drawer on the bottom of his backup dresser. The chef who made orange clothes sexy and fashionable (ok, fashionable) manages to be as busy as ever on television, in print, and in an ever-increasing cache of restaurants. His latest restaurant, Osteria Mozza, was just nominated for a James Beard award for best new restaurant, which was a nice addition to his other nomination for best restaurateur along with long-time partner Joe Bastianich. In our interview, we tried to ask him questions that we thought other chefs might want to ask if given the chance. I hope we asked one of yours.

One more sign of Spring; a hot new restaurant or two. While this is a regular occurrence in New York, the occurrence of a new restaurant as mighty as Ed Brown’s eighty one is a rare one indeed. The Upper west never glowed so brightly.

Matt DeLucia

Volume I Number 2 April 2008 Editor Matt DeLucia Art Director Mary Hester Photography Diana DeLucia Contributing Editors Ann Ryan Joseph DeLucia Advertising Sales Diana DeLucia 22-93-8538 ext 6 diana@restaurantinsidermag.com New England Restaurant Insider is published monthly by Restaurant Insider LLC, P.O. Box 466, Farmington CT 06034. Subscriptions are $40 per year or $4 per issue plus postage, payable in advance to U.S. and possessions; foreign countries $72 per year, $7 per issue in U.S. currency.

Contents © 2008. All rights reserved.

No part of the magazine may be reprinted in whole or part without written permission of the publisher.

New England Restaurant Insider welcomes letters to the editor. Email editor@restaurantinsidermag.com or mail to P.O. Box 466, Farmington CT 06034. All correspondence must include your name, address, and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity or length.

New England Restaurant Insider P.O. Box 466 Farmington CT 06034 22-93-8538 www.RestaurantInsiderMag.com

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Mario Batali: The gift of originality; the soul of tradition

By Matt DeLucia | Photos by Diana DeLucia

Mario Batali is not a chef who is bound by tradition. But his vast knowledge of business, culinary arts, Italy, and Spanish theatre combined with his unconventional creativity and endless energy make for an American original - and a great story.

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Restaurant Feature Thomas Henkelmann at the Homestead Inn

This Greenwich Connecticut restaurant and inn, owned by husband and wife team Thomas and Theresa Henkelmann, features impeccable service and world-renowned food, and is one of only seven restaurants in New England to have garnered a prized “Relais Gourmand” recognition from the prestigious Relais-Chateau.

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A Chef’s Tour of Brandt Beef in California

Restaurant Insider takes you behind the scenes for a tour of Brandt Beef’s ranch and processing plant. The Brandt family produces what many chefs say are the best steaks that restaurants and consumers can find anywhere – so what’s their secret?

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2008 Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival A Pictorial wrap-up of the 4-day festival in Miami Florida

Cover Photography: Diana DeLucia Cover Photo: Mario Batali

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Mario Batali

Roasted Beet Tartare with Chianti Vinegar and Ricotta Salata

Blending the gift of originality with the soul of tradition

by Matt DeLucia

’ve always admired people who possess the confidence to stand out from the crowd, and embrace their individuality. On a personal level, taking the road less traveled certainly involves risk and requires more than a dash of audacity,. However, for those rebellious in nature, it tends to be a more comfortable direction than for the cautious. In business, an entrepreneur’s bold departure from the norm allows them to bleed invention from disparity, turning their differences into success, their uniqueness into gold.

I think it’s true that many of the most recognizable personalities of our time could walk through Main Street USA with barely a turned head if they were to merely dress modestly and avoid their own telltale distinctiveness. But if you took away his bright-orange clogs and vest, his ponytail, shorts and his green Vespa, Mario Batali would still be instantly recognizable in virtually any small town or big city in the nation. The reason why he is so popular with chefs and foodies, with Nascar fans and average Americans, is that his image does not appear forced or pre-arranged. His personality on-air is not much different from the way he is with anyone else, and his jokes and his facial expressions and his moods always seem natural. The clothes he wears are perhaps the most obvious outward visual sign that he enjoys being noticed, but also that he is a rebel, a non-conformist, and a leader. And he has utilized this uniqueness to his advantage, when combined with his innate culinary talents and his endless source of energy.

When he left New York to spend three years in Italy, he was a relatively unknown chef here in the U.S., yet even more so in the small northern Italian village of Borgo Capanne, population 200. The town folk there wondered who the big red-headed American guy was with the funny clothes. “I was wearing those kind of ‘pajama pants’ that the gym guys wear now,” Mario remembers, “and they were like,

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Photography by Diana DeLucia

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‘Where are you from dude?’ Fashion is not my main forte, but comfort is, and they thought it was a little strange. But in the end it worked out well; I learned a lot of great things and that was probably the real seminal experience in my life, in understanding simplicity and a sense of place.”

When he returned to the States three years later, a college buddy convinced him to help open his Greenwich Village restaurant called Rocco. Mario brought his Northern Italian ideas with him from his Italy experience, but his cuisine seemed alien to the restaurant’s traditional red-sauce customers. He soon left and opened Po’ (Bolognese slang for “little”) shortly thereafter with one other partner named Steven Crane. The two pooled their resources, which was 43 thousand dollars, which was what it cost to open their restaurant, with very little to spare.

“I think there were a couple a hundred left in each of our pockets on the day we opened. Sitting there on a Sunday night at 7 o’clock and not having a customer yet was scary.

We opened May 27th of 993, and there were days in June where we would not see a customer until 7:30. We were sitting around saying, ‘Yeah, we’re hot!’.”

Of course it didn’t take long before the tiny 34-seat Po’ became sizzling hot. Mario’s fresh and distinctive Northern Italian cuisine - slightly Americanized and similar to what he had tried to introduce to New York diners at Rocco - became a huge success. Mario wanted something that was based on Manhattan’s green market, because he thought that was how Italians would cook if they were living here. “When you’re eating food in season and the menu changes and it’s a lot of vegetables and not a lot of reduced sauces, that’s what Italian food should taste like, whether you are in Puglia or whether you are in Topeka. It does not have to be done in a way that mimics anything and that is what got people excited. Plus, the most expensive entrée was $5, and the six course tasting menu was 29 bucks. How could you not love that restaurant?

And people did.”

Two years after Po’ opened and Mario became one of the most talked-about chefs in an increasingly chef-centric city, a small television network whose offices were right up the street invited Batali to their studios. He wound up as guest chef on a show called Chef Du Jour, which highlighted local talent and was used by the network as a testing ground for potential TV chefs. His large stature and booming voice, combined with his friendly chatter and vast knowledge of Italy, showed that he could easily connect to the audience, and eventually that guest appearance led to the creation of his own show about a year later, Molto Mario. Anyone who has turned on the increasingly popular Food Network has no doubt caught at least a few of his shows, which Mario filmed 8 at a time for a total of over 500 episodes. His appearances on Iron Chef and countless other cooking shows have

also contributed to the chef becoming a household name.

Recently, an erroneous New York Post article by Braden Keil claimed he had dropped out of the Iron Chef show and that he was fired from Molto Mario, which had not been filmed for four years. Even though the New York Post is not exactly the New York Times when it comes to articulate reporting, Mario was not happy.

“Keil does not like me, and that’s all right, it’s ok to have a little battle with some press people, but he just came out of nowhere and made up this story. They did not cancel my show, they just moved it from one slot to another, and I think Molto Mario is now on one day a week. And I’m on Fine Living now, which is Food Network’s other brother, but we have not made that show in three years and that was not a decision for me to quit. The same thing with Emeril, Food Network’s PR team has handled things poorly in changing their focus. They should have never said “these people are fired,” they should have not mentioned it at all and moved forward because everyone knows what they are doing. I don’t begrudge them, they are smart

Maccheroni alla Chitarra with Oven Dried Tomatoes, Red Chiles and Bottarga di Muggine

WHILE MOST OF AMERICA was introduced to Mario by the immensely popular shows Molto Mario, Ciao America, and Iron Chef, the investment of time that his television success has required hasn’t distracted him from his vast culinary and restaurantempire goals. But television remains a natural extension of his time spent in the kitchen. He can

continue to present his brand, hawk his line of kitchen utensils, and keep America desirous of a premium reservation at one of his many restaurants. His latest television show, which will be seen later this year on PBS, will send Mario into the culinary heart of Spain.

This project makes perfect sense, since Batali spent his high school years in that country, where his father was an employee of Boeing. His love of Spanish culture grew deeper in college where he majored in Spanish theatre, a topic that on the surface may seem very unchef like. But what is a better analogy for a restaurant than theatre; they are in essences a series of complex Broadway-ish acts, where the food and the decor and the service crew are the entertainment.

Batali explained the financial concept behind the

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business people who have identified where they want to go in their business and I am not part of that team.

We both made each other famous; when I started with them they were not very famous and I was not famous at all. Now everyone knows who the Food Network is and they also know who I am, which worked out really well for all of us.”

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new television show, called “On the Road again in Spain,” which is complex. The show is basically handed over to PBS for free, and is sponsored by large companies who run short ads at the beginning and the end of the program. The new television show will co-star a beautiful Spanish actress named Claudia Bassols, as well as American actress and Batali’s friend Gwyneth Paltrow, so in this sense Batali can be partially excused for doing the show for free. But they will also own the show, and have the option to sell it to Spanish stations such as Telemundo, since it will be filmed bilingually. It’s difficult to imagine who will get the most screen time, Batali or his two beautiful co-hosts.

“Gwyneth will

Saffron Panna Cotta with Pink Peppercorn and Grapefruit Sorbetto

of lack of time, which is understandable.

After living in Spain and finishing college, Mario went to culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu London.

While he was there he fell into a job just outside of Chelsea at a place called “Six Bells” working for someone who would have a profound effect on his career, both negatively and positively; Marco Pierre White, who Batali calls “one of the finest generators of story that you will ever see in your life.” The most prominent story of course is the one when White threw a pan of risotto at Batali, an action that Batali says was so commonplace that he didn’t think he would remember it. “When you tie your shoes everyday, you never remember t y i n g y o u r s h o e s ,” h e says. A lthough that incident caused

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eat wild birds and fish, but no four-legged animals.

Everyone has their own little quirks, but I just feel bad for her because she missed the jamon. In Spain they eat a lot of eggs, they eat a lot of potatoes, and they eat a lot of crazy fish and rice. There are a thousand ways to get around eating meat. I just tell her when I think she is missing something, and she looks at me like I should shove a broom up my ass.” Contrary to some news reports, Batali says he will not be doing a show with Anthony Bourdain, mainly because

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Batali to resign, White’s genius and passion were so obvious that it changed the way he looked at his chosen career, and he also discovered things he would do differently. He looks at White’s reaction to the absence of perfection with anger as a problem with preparation. “Every restaurateur knows that between 7:00 and 8:30 things are different than the hour between say 4:00 and 5:30 in the afternoon, and you should train your staff to know and expect that. As you accelerate into the heaviest part of service and you have not been properly prepared, who does it reflect on really? So, that’s why the chef is mad because the chef realizes, ‘Shit, I did not spend enough time training this person to deal with something I know is going to happen every night of my fucking life.’ And that is where that self-loathing comes in and they are so mad they just want to stab themselves.

But they do not, because it’s easier to whip the new extern.”

Mario says that his own management style began in much

Mario’s newest cookbook to be release April 22nd Pistachio and Chocolate Semifreddo

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the same way because of what he learned from his mentors (“The beaten child will grow up and beat their children,” he said), with yelling and screaming but he claims he’s mellowed since then.

“I find it’s a far more effective behavior-changing device in a stern sotto voce within ear-shot of your peers. ‘I told you that we would never serve that way, did I not? So, you’re never going to do that again right or I will cut off your leg, right?’

Never intending to cut off their leg of course.”

During our interview, Mario announced to us that Frank Langella, the executive chef at Babbo who has been with Mario for nearly ten years, will become a partner at Babbo early next year. He also mentioned that Babbo’s talented pastry chef Gina DePalma was on a one year paid sabbatical leave in Rome. Batali currently owns 3 restaurants and you don’t expand that dramatically and successfully without delegating well, and without sharing well.

“All along I have run into really good people and I tell them all ‘just stick around and you’ll get a slice of the pie.’ Because it would be tragic to train someone really well and then they say ‘I am going to work for Danny or Drew or Steve Hanson.’ The real issue in growth in the restaurant industry is not only getting what you want but capturing what your team wants, and helping them achieve those goals. I think the most important lesson I could teach anybody in the restaurant business is that you don’t have to make all the money. You can make a lot of it but you should share quite a bit of it with your team so that they stay with you, and you get to continue to pick from that tree.”

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“We are going to develop kind of a piazza that is a giant wine store within the walls of Foxwoods, which would be a restaurant by Joe and myself, Emeril, Rachael Ray and Daniel Boulud”

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Braised Fennel Salad with Pears, Gorgonzola Piccante and Cherry Vinaigrette

W hen Mario f irst opened Babbo, it was the beginning of a relationship with partner Joe Bastianich, son of famous Italian chef Lydia, and eventually Mario sold off his interest in Po’ and began opening a series of restaurants with Bastianich, all in New York City, and all of them successful ventures. I once read an older interview someone did with Mario where he said he would not open a restaurant in Vegas, yet he will soon own three. What changed his mind?

“One of the big things that you discover traveling around the country is that there are some people who are petrified of New York City. Even some people who live in New York State will never come to New York City, so they would never taste my food. We thought about that and said, what market can we do that is profitable and yet enjoyable? We looked in every town; Seattle, Portland, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas, where all of the usual suspects were opening restaurants. None of them really have enough of a restaurant culture to support what we think we need, which is about two and a half turns. We are pretty much full by six, and we’re still full even on Mondays at  at all the restaurants.

All these other towns do not have that; in Seattle you might be full at 6:45 but you’re empty at 8:30, Boston is the same. Miami maybe you’re empty at 8:00 but you’re full at :00. Houston and anywhere in Texas is too damn hot in the summer, Miami the same thing.

But Las Vegas is busy pretty much year-round, which makes it a smart profitable move to open a restaurant there.” Mario explained that many chefs from New York and overseas put their name on restaurants with more of a management deal, where your employees become employees of the hotel. In that situation the chef ’s name is used but you don’t necessarily operate the restaurant. But Mario and Joe are the owners of their restaurants in Vegas, having partnered with Venetian and The Plaza. “They are our restaurants, and they feel like our restaurants, and that is how we wanted to do it. So that is why we eventually did it because quite honestly there will be people who will never come to Manhattan.”

With Vegas and L.A. firmly under his belt Mario will soon be taking on a new area for him – New England. Deep in the woods of Connecticut is another land of casinos, namely the Foxwoods resort, where currently there are several star chefs with their names on restaurants - and there will soon be a few more. “We are working with a guy named Larry Ruvo who is President of Southern Wine and Spirits in Nevada. We’re going to develop - I hate to use the word food court - we are going to develop kind

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of a piazza that is a giant wine store within the walls of which would be a restaurant by Joe and myself, Emeril, Rachael Ray and Daniel Boulud. And the restaurants will all have their little terraces into this piazza that would be an interactive wine bar.”

BESIDES BEING A PROLIFIC television chef and chef/restaurateur, Batali has kept busy writing books for the past 0 years, including Simple Italian Food (998), Holiday Food (2000), The Babbo Cookbook (2002), Molto Italiano (2005), Mario Tailgates NASCAR Style (2006), Dolce Italiano with Gina DePalma (2007) and the upcoming book to be released on April 22 nd called “Italian Grill.”

“There is an entire chapter about spit-roasting; we used a piastra which is a slate plate that sits on top of your barbeque, you cook flat breads on that, you cook shellfish, you can cook different things on it. It’s simple delicious food of my own design. None of the dishes are very traditional, but it’s the food that Italians do make or would make on their grill.” Team Mario also has another book coming out this year that will accompany the “On the Road in Spain” show.

No one can keep up a schedule like the one Mario has without staying in good shape, yet Batali has a reputation more as a partier than an exercise guru. Partly because of his size and partly because, well, he loves to party. But chefs wanting to emulate Mario’s success shouldn’t think that his partying doesn’t have a flip side.

“They do not see me play squash four days a week; squash and boxing and golf. If I’m on the road, I always check into a hotel that has a pool. Because no matter how much you work and how tired you feel, if you exercise for 45 minutes to an hour in the morning, you feel better.

Even if it is at the expense of a half hour of sleep, it’s a smarter thing to do, so I do those five days a week, six days a week.”

One of the questions I had planned on asking Mario during our interview was, “what is the driving force behind what you do?” Perhaps not exactly with that precise wording, but something that might explain to people who respect and admire what he’s accomplished, just what makes him tick. Instead, I asked him what question he would like to be asked, and the question was asked for me.

“What gives you the most pleasure in your job?” he answered. “People never ask me, ‘what makes you the most satisf ied? What really makes you the happiest person?’ That is an integral question. And in all honesty my answer is a simple one; it is the satisfaction of watching my family grow up and develop while I am able to do my work. And having integrated my family into my work, and having made them an integral part of the decision-

making process is what makes it feel like something that has a deeper root than just this year’s lawn or last year’s Casa Mono. Probably the most significant part of it is the satisfaction and joy of having my kids go to a restaurant; when I took them to Osteria Mozza, they were the happiest kids because they knew how much I had sweated that restaurant, and they said, “Dad this is really great!”

And having that happen is far more significant than a Michelin star.”

The integration of Mario’s culinary life with his two boys and his wife, Susi Cahn of Coach Dairy Goat Farm, is not an easy trick, but for some people with success comes the ability to take time off and enjoy the success that has taken so long to obtain. In many ways, that familial integration is not very far removed from his partner Joe Bastianich’s life growing up around restaurants with his parents in the business since before he was born. Mario sees this as fitting and further evidence of the karma that has brought them together as partners in thirteen restaurants (and counting). And some of the memories his children have growing up around the business may be similar – but not all.

“Some o f

Spicy Two Minute Calamari Sicilian Lifeguard Style

eat the piranhas. Don’t worry about the alligators because the anacondas get the alligators. The boa constrictors however, have no predator, so we should definitely worry about that.’ Me, I’m more worried about mosquitoes than anything else.”

Mario looks at vacations and family time like he does his restaurants and his friends and his business. That every moment is precious, every idea potentially wondrous, but keeping the priorities in order is critical.

“Out of 52 weeks in a year, how much time do I have with my  year-old? So you have to really evaluate those things from now until my kids get to the point where they do not want to talk to me, which may be as early as 3, or as late as never.”

If I had to guess, I’d say never.

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Joe’s favorite memories are smell; he even likes the smell of all of the prep cook’s shoes sitting in a pile downstairs in the basement. He grew up doing his homework sitting on sacks of flower at Bonavia, so he remembers that smell with a certain happiness. Not that they were stinky feet, they were just feet, and when he remembered that I was like, ‘Dude that is so weird!’”

Mario has always had a reputation for knowing how to have a good time, and seeing that his 50th birthday is coming in a few years I asked him what sort of party he was planning.

He said he was going on an African Safari with his family.

It might sound exotic and dangerous but that’s nothing compared to the canoe ride they made last year when they saw 552 different species of birds but had to navigate through piranha infested river waters. “Here is the story I told my wife, ‘Don’t worry about the piranhas honey because the alligators

Black Spaghetti with Mussels, Spicy Salami Calabrese and Green Chiles Mario Batali New York Restaurant Insider • April 2008 Photography by Diana DeLucia ©2008

James Beard Foundation Awards 2008 Nominations The James Beard Foundation, the nation’s preeminent recognition program honoring professionals in the food and beverage industries, announced today the nominees for the 2008 James Beard Foundation Awards during a press breakfast at the OUTSTANDING RESTAURATEUR AWARD Joe Bastianich/ Mario Batali Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca New York, NY Tom Douglas Tom Douglas Restaurants Seattle, WA Richard Melman Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises Chicago, IL Wolfgang Puck The Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group Beverly Hills, CA Jean-Georges Vongerichten Jean-Georges Management LLC New York, NY OUTSTANDING RESTAURANT AWARD Boulevard Chef/Owner: Nancy Oakes, Owner: Pat Kuleto San Francisco, CA

historic James Beard House in New York City’s West Village. Nominees in 52 categories were announced in the Foundation’s various awards programs— Restaurant and Chef, Books, Journalism, Design and Graphics, and Broadcast

Campanile Chef/Owner: Mark Peel Los Angeles, CA Gramercy Tavern Owner: Danny Meyer New York, NY Jean Georges Chef/Owner: Jean-Georges Vongerichten New York, NY The Slanted Door Chef/Owner: Charles Phan San Francisco, CA OUTSTANDING CHEF AWARD Grant Achatz Alinea Chicago, IL José Andrés Minibar Washington, DC Dan Barber Blue Hill New York, NY Suzanne Goin Lucques Los Angeles, CA

Media. The 2008 James Beard Foundation Restaurant and Chef Awards winners will be announced on June 8, 2008. Here is a sampling of the award nominees.

You ca n f ind more on our website RestaurantInsiderMag.com

Frank Stitt Highlands Bar & Grill Birmingham, AL

Rob Evans Hugo’s Portland, ME

RISING STAR CHEF OF THE YEAR AWARD Nate Appleman A 6 San Francisco, CA

Clark Frasier and Mark Gaier Arrows Ogunquit, ME

Sean Brock McCrady’s Charleston, SC Gavin Kaysen Café Boulud New York, NY Johnny Monis Komi Washington, DC Matt Molina Osteria Mozza Los Angeles, CA Gabriel Rucker Le Pigeon Portland, OR BEST CHEF: NORTHEAST (CT, MA, ME, NH, NY STATE, RI, VT) Patrick Connolly Radius Boston, MA

Michael Leviton Lumière West Newton, MA Marc Orfaly Pigalle Boston, MA BEST NEW RESTAURANT Anthos Chef/Owner: Michael Psilakis, Owner: Donatella Arpaia New York, NY Central Michel Richard Chef/Owner: Michel Richard Washington, DC Fearing’s at the Ritz-Carlton, Dallas Chef/Owner: Dean Fearing Dallas, Texas Osteria Mozza Chef: Matt Molina

Owners: Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali, Joseph Bastianich Los Angeles, CA Osteria Chef/Owners: Marc Vetri, Jeff Michaud, Owner: Jeff Benjamin Philadelphia, PA OUTSTANDING SERVICE AWARD La Grenouille Owner: Gisele Mason New York City Canlis Owner:The Canlis Family Seattle, WA Spiaggia Owner: Tony Mantuano Chicago, IL Terra Owners: Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani St. Helena, CA Vetri Owner: Mark Vetri Philadelphia, PA FIND MORE ON OUR WEBSITE RestaurantInsiderMag.com

Restaur ant Preview Thomas Henkelmann at the Homestead Inn 420 Field Point Rd. Greenwich, CT

Theresa: Actually we’d been l o o k i n g i n t h e c i t y, a n d everything was leased, and it was just so cost prohibitive. We kept thinking, “Gosh, after 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, what do you have to show for it? ” Yes, you’ve made a living, but you’ve invested an extraordinary amount of money in someone else’s property. And then a very good friend of ours, a realtor in Greenwich, asked us if we’d

be interested in the property where Homestead Inn and the former La Grange restaurant were. We said yes, we’d love to look at it, and we did. It needed a lot of work, and it needed to be set up differently for the type of property that we wanted. It was a much better proposition for us because we actually owned the property, so we had the underlying equity. Th at was very important to us.

NERI: Because you needed investors for this property, did you put together a detailed business plan that combined the inn business and the restaurant business together?

Theresa: Actually we had worked on our business plan before we found the propert y, we worked on it for over a yea r because we didn’t wa nt t he

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N ERI : I would g uess that many of our chefs and our o t h e r r e a d e r s m i g ht , i n the back of thei r mi nds, entertain dreams of escaping from the city and opening a successful Inn or B&B with a great restaurant, and you’ve accomplished that. How did you fi rst come across the Homestead Inn?

PHOTO BY PAUL JOHNSON

his Greenwich Connecticut restaurant and inn, owned by husband and wife team Thomas and Theresa Henkelmann, features impeccable service and world-renowned food, and is one of only seven restaurants in New England to have garnered a prized “Relais Gourmand ” recognition from the prestigious Relais-Chateau.

money that we were investing, which was considerable, to be gone. We wanted to make sure t h at a ny m i s t a k e s we m a de were on paper. And when the Homestead propert y beca me available, it was much easier to plug in those other numbers to see where we were.

NERI: What kind of updates did The Homestead require in 1997 when you bought it?

Theresa: With the interior, the first thing we did was the actual physical restaurant, because it just needed to be cleaned up, it needed a different look. We built some walls because it made more sense for the restaurant so that you couldn’t see the doors to the kitchen. And then we waited a couple of years for the hotel. We purchased a lot of furniture, we did a lot of windowdressing, but we needed to make sure we had a growing business before we did major renovations in the hotel, so we waited until 2001 to do that. The Inn was still open and functioning, but we had to redo bathrooms, we had to open walls to make rooms bigger.

NERI: D i d y o u h av e a ny qualms about opening both a restaurant and an inn and running both businesses?

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Theresa: Not the restaurant, we felt pretty solid about that. But the inn was a brand-new venture for both of us. Neither of us had ever run any kind of hotel.

It was small - I think when we bought it, it had about 25 rooms - and it was sort of like a warren of little rabbit hutches. The rooms were very dated, so there was a lot of work to be done. You don’t necessarily know what the business model should be when you’re starting something and you have no idea what it’s about. It was pretty much seat-ofthe-pants the first year, just trying to figure out how you run this business, because it’s a very separate business from the restaurant.

Chef Thomas Henkelmann Bourbon vanilla bean infused rhubarb with fromage blanc ice cream and candied rhubarb

N E R I : D i d t h e k itc h e n n e e d up d at i n g i n e q u ip m e nt a n d l ay o u t t o m e e t y o u r n e e d s , Thomas?

Thoma s : I cut ever y t hing out of the kitchen except the stove, and ever y t hing a f ter t hat ha s been cleaned and reorganized. I got an ice-cream maker, extra ovens to bake the pies, those kinds of things. I made it functional. Hopefully, I t hink not next yea r but t he yea r a f ter t hat, we a re going t hrough the kitchen and we’ll renovate it, update it a little bit more. But I’m thinking it’s going to be a Jade oven or something like that, which would be easier to get service for.

NERI: So is the kitchen large enough to accommodate dinner along with special functions?

What sort of functions do you host?

Theresa: Yes, it is. We have t wo private dining rooms where we have

functions all the time. One seats 30, the other private dining room seats 14, and those are used very regularly.

A nd then our executive-level boardroom seats 16 very comfortably, it’s absolutely beautiful. And we use that all the time. They can e at i n t he boa rd room or t he y can certainly come over to the re st au ra nt. Somet i me s when they’ve been in a room all day long, it’s nice just to walk away from it for an hour.

N E R I : T h o m a s , y o u w o rk e d with famed German chef Eckart Wit z ig m a n n when you w ere younger, how was working for him different than anything you had experienced before that?

Thomas: Witzigmann was a great chef, he has been named the fourth Chef of t he Centur y from Gau lt

Millau. His cooking was comparable to Robuchon, and so many times during my career I was compared cooking-wise to Robuchon.

What made the difference was that every day was a challenge in the sense that Chef Witzigmann had to prove himself on a daily basis, so he put all

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he is probably the most influential person in Germany in the culinary field. I left Aubergine in 1988, went back to school to get my Masters Degree, and in 1989 I came to America; in October of that same year the Berlin Wall came down.

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the pressure back on us, of course.

With Witzigmann, in the morning we decided what would be for lunch, what would be cooked for dinner, and you started your preparation as soon as possible. But then during service he would say, “Okay, now there’s a friend of mine, let’s do something different for them, let’s do a tasting menu, what do we have?” It’s the middle of the service, and now you have to create a different menu all over again. Then maybe there was another table, he would say “those are my friends, too, let’s do something different for them.” This man could have made so much money leaving the kitchen and promoting himself or selling his name, which he rarely did.

So the restaurant, money-wise, was probably not very profitable. At that time there were only three three-star Michelin restaurants in Germany.

Wit zigma nn rea l ly cha nged Germa n cuisine ;

NERI: What was it like coming to A mer ic a a nd work i ng Le Pa rker Meridien at the Maurice?

The drinks room Wild Halibut with potato scales, Turkish morel mushrooms, langoustine and red wine shallots Atlantic salmon wrapped in Swiss chard with butternut squash and lobster sauce Wild blueberry in a marzipan tarte with yogurt blueberry sorbet and blueberry ragout

Thomas: Well, my plan was to stay here 18 months to work, my visa was only for 18 months. I didn’t really k now what to e xpec t, ot her t ha n t hat I would be the chef de c u i si ne for Maurice at L e Pa rker Meridien.

At that time the only restaurant I really knew about was Le Cirque because it had been open for 19 ye a r s . A f ter arriving at Le Parker Meridien a nd being in charge of Maurice with 20 chefs looking up to me, my English wasn’t too good yet. With the management and in the dining room I could speak French, but in the kitchen, even though it was French food, there were no French people in the kitchen. So if they asked me too many questions I would t u rn to t hem a nd say, ‘Stop asking so many que st ions, ju st do it!’ Not very polite, of course, but my vocabulary was very limited. From there I was offered a job at Le Panetiere, where I ran a kitchen for the first time.

NERI: T h e t w o o f y o u m e t originally when you were at the Maurice?

b ot h .

We ’r e a specia loccasion kind of place for lots of people, and then we have customers who dine here once or twice a week. Then we do have the business meetings; it’s really a very nice mix.

NERI: Is it difficult to find good staff in Greenwich?

house, a n d I thought that was a good way to do it. There was a function that Moët & Chandon was doing for all of the really good p a s t r y c h e f s i n t h e c it y a n d L e Panetiere was involved. Jacques called me up and he said, “Ah, Theresa, I need your assistance!” What he really needed was my car to transport things.

So I met Thomas that day at the event at the Puck Building.

NERI: D o e s t h e r e s t a u r a n t draw more from the business community than it does couples and local food lovers?

Theresa: We’re very fortunate; we have

Theresa: No, I don’t think so. Finding people was much more difficult at the beginning. We were setting up a lot of procedures, not so much for the restaurant but for the hotel. We’ve got some terrif ic people, t wo that have owned their own restaurants and another who was the manager for Alain Ducasse at the Essex House for their first three years. They have families and they’ve moved out of the city but they still want the kind of living that they could make in the city. They can work for us and still maintain that kind of living, which is very nice for us.

NERI: Thomas, do you want to name some pur veyors who’ve helped in your quest to provide the best possible food and dining experience?

Thomas: I’m very loyal to many of my basic suppliers and purveyors. Many of them I’ve worked with already before taking over this business. My story is always going to be about service,

q u a l i t y, a f a i r price and not having to pick up the phone and say, “I did not get the fish I expected.” So it took me some time, but once I found them I’m very loyal to them. Pagano Fish from Norwalk would probably be one of the names that come to mind a s a pur veyor.

Vermont Quality Meat is where I get my lamb or suckling pig. And then, of course, D’artagnan. We buy from many of the same purveyors that our counterparts in Manhattan buy from.

N ERI : Thomas, I heard you’re quite a good athlete, what’s your favorite sport?

Thomas: When I was growing up I did judo, gymnastics, running, many sports, but skiing is probably my favorite sport. I try to go skiing hopefully four or five days a year, but that’s it basically.

I learned skiing in Germany growing up in the Black Forest; it was only two hours drive to the French Alps and two hours to the Swiss Alps. So even a day trip was worthwhile, to spend five or six hours skiing.

Theresa: I’m just an “ok” skier, and we used to ski together. Thomas would say, “Oh, let’s go on a skiing vacation”, and then he was on the double-black diamonds all the time and I was like, “Well, isn’t this fun?”

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Theresa: No, actually at Le Panetiere.

Thoma s and I met the day before I started work ing at Le Panetiere, because I had asked (owner) Jacques Loupiac if I could stage in his kitchen.

I wanted to open a restaurant and I knew nothing about the back of the house. I just didn’t understand the symbiosis between the f ront a nd t he back of t h e

A Chef’s Tour of

Brandt Beef in California

-26- New England Restaurant Insider

by Matt DeLucia photos by Diana DeLucia n a recent visit to my local grocer I stepped up to the polished meat display case and spotted Brandt Beef’s products laid out before me, the meat glistening in the fluorescent light like prized gifts in a glitzy department store. Even to my untrained eye, their steaks seemed to have a richer and more marbled look than their other unbranded steaks. Brandt’s products had the words “The True Natural” stamped on them, but they were also distinguished by a higher price tag. I could see the butcher approaching me out of the corner of my eye, and I began to wonder if the word “natural” was persuasive enough for people to pay the higher amount for a steak? I considered asking the white-coated employee to explain the differences of their various steaks, but I feared the resultant sighs and dirty looks from the shoppers in line behind me. But what if the butcher responded with a wink and a wag of his finger, inviting me into a back room where some futuristic transport took me to Brawley California for a personal tour of that producer’s cattle ranch?

Then I’d have the information I’d need to make an informed decision, right? Well, that’s a fairly close approximation of what happened to me, and I’d like to share the story with you.

Brandt is a family-owned and run organization known for raising hormone and antibiotic-free cattle that produce what many chefs consider the finest steaks you can buy. The Brandts do it by feeding their 00% Holsteins a diet of locally and family grown alfalfa and sudan grass along with rolled

corn that is steamed on the premises. They take great pains to minimize the stress level of their cattle, and maintain one of the most advanced waste composting systems that are commercially available in order to naturally replenish their farm grounds with organic matter, producing responsibly grown alfalfa that is fed to their cattle. But the real story is not how they do it, or even why they do it; in a closed and somewhat unpleasant industry that has sadly surrendered to the trend of mass produced corporate food processing, the Brandts are inviting chefs and reporters and anyone else who has an interest to openly witness every single step of their operation, from the raising of 3-month old baby calves to their harvesting and packing process. The Brandt family not only grows better-tasting beef, they do so in a sustainable manner that encourages and promotes the use of the entire animal.

They are also trying mightily to demonstrate to others how you can make a great product that people desperately want, while treating animals humanely and protecting the environment by leaving the soil they use in better condition than it was before.

When people go on vacation, there are always certain memories that stay with you over the long haul, while most of the smaller, filler memories fade slowly over time. During my two-day tour, seeing the Brandt’s method of creating their specially formulated feed was the one thing - about the cattle ranch anyway - that I won’t forget. To any chef who is curious about the quality of his or her beef, their first question might

not only be “What did the cattle feed on”, but also “how long were they feeding on it?” Both questions have intriguing answers, as least if you hear them explained by two of the Brandt family’s ambassadors, Eric and Mark Brandt.

“We are feeding them for 365 days on a corn ration,” explained Eric. “In the Midwest it’s 90 to 20 days. They call it corn feeding, but it is really corn finishing. What we do is full corn feeding from start to finish, which is kind of a blend between traditional corn feeding in the States and grain feeding like they do in Japan.” The longer and more consistent corn rations, along with vitamin supplements during critical growing periods during the cattle’s 7-month life, are critical. But the number of days they are feeding on corn is just the beginning.

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Previous page: Eric Brandt inspects the turning of the compost pile Top left: Eric hand feeds a few of the gentle giants Left middle: Mark, Bill, Eric and Ryan Brandt in one of their alfalfa fields Left bottom: The Brandt family at home: Mark, Mrs. Brandt, Bill, Eric, Ryan Below: a closeup of the Brandt’s special feed mix

One of the secrets of Brandt’s special cattle feed lies in a scented field tucked away behind the seemingly endless stretch of spacious pens where the Brandts maintain their 00,000 head of cattle. Perfectly aligned rows of black dirt stretched for over a hundred yards, and every day a customized tractor churns the manure that is brought over regularly from the pens, where it eventually becomes something precious; mineral-rich compost that is used to enrich their alfalfa fields. Fifty thousand tons were spread last year, with the rest being sold at a profit, reducing their overall growing costs substantially. The high-tech compost project was begun by Eric, who after finishing college was relegated to the task of shoveling manure by his father, where he had plenty of time to think of a better use for what many ranches sadly view as a waste or as an unusable liability. Then one day, he saw an ad in

a trade magazine. “It said ‘Composting Seminar by Midwest Bio-Systems’, and so I called the number,” he recalled.

Eric was sold on the idea, and today Brandt Beef owns three of their special composting machines. The compost has allowed them to grow alfalfa naturally without synthetic fertilizers

gets about 2% prime, and one day last week we had 32% to 33% prime,” said Mark. “When you get that high rate of prime, it tells you that you are doing things right on the feeding side.” Their products have not gone unnoticed by some of the top chefs across the country, including Boston’s Grill 23 &

“he industry gets about 2% prime, and one day last week we reached 32 to 33% prime. When you get that high rate of prime, it tells you that you are doing things right on the feeding side.” containing anhydrous ammonia, a hazardous chemical that is now the second most dependent chemical in the United States. All those extra efforts result in healthier animals and a healthier environment – and also in a better grade of beef. “The industry

Bar and Davio’s.

Brandt Cattle Company is owned and operated by Bill Brandt, whose father and uncles originally started the business in 945, along with his three sons and two daughters. Beside Eric, who manages Brandt Beef and oversees

the meat processing plant, there is Mark who manages the farming operation, Scott Chapman who manages the feeding operation, Ryan who oversees the compost operation, and Amy who coordinates the Farmer’s Markets in San Diego. Bill says that he first saw the potential for natural beef at family-style barbeques he’d regularly have at his home, where different samplings of beef were passed around.

It didn’t take long for him to realize that the naturally raised Holstein beef consistently had more taste and tenderness than anything else he had ever seen. “Our little toothpick tastetest that we did in our backyard is being proven now,” he says.

Although Brandt is currently only about 40% natural with the remainder being commodity beef, they anticipate and hope that the future direction of their operation is in the natural market. It’s a difficult switch to make quickly because of the cost - the cattle take an extra 55 days to grow without the hormones, which is why most of the largest producers are sticking with their traditional ways. “Maybe we are a little hard headed in what we do, because like I said it is cheaper going the other way,” says Bill. “But you want to have something you are proud of and not just more ‘commodity beef’ that everybody else does. And the more people embrace our philosophy of how you raise cattle without hormones, the more we will grow with it.”

After touring the cattle pens, the compost area, and the corn mill, we visited their brand-new storage facility, which has the ability to store 25 thousand tons of corn. It was surrounded by a huge semi-circular railway, where every 0 days or so a long train of rail cars filled with ten

thousand tons of corn from the Midwest is delivered. Corporate chef Tom McAliney said that this was a critical addition to their operation if they are to continue expanding the natural side of their beef business.

The tour of the Brandt cattle ranch ended later that afternoon with lunch at The Stockman’s Club in downtown Brawley, where we dined on something almost jokingly called a steak sandwich; a plate containing a huge slab of New York Sirloin steak resting on a single slice of bread. Although the taste was amazing, we looked forward to the following day, where after seeing the processing and harvesting plant in Los Angeles we’d be dining at the fabulous Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe. There, Chef Andrew Johnson would be preparing dishes for us using a sustainable beef menu - beef cuts that most restaurants don’t generally consider.

You’ll see the word “consistency” used by the Brandts, as well as their customers, when describing the most important characteristic of their products. It’s not much use to a restaurant or a consumer to get a great steak 75% of the time. But bringing their consistency to a new level is the goal of the younger Brandt clan, whose ideas may cost their father large investments – he joked that sometimes it would be easier to send his sons away on vacations than have them think up

-29- New England Restaurant Insider

Top: historical brand board on the wall at the Stockman’s Club Middle: The Brandt’s corn transfer and storage facility Bottom: The railway that feeds the transfer facility

-30- New England Restaurant Insider

new ideas – but in the long run they will bring even more improvements to the one element that the USDA doesn’t really grade: taste.

In the processing plant in a suburb of L.A., Eric Brandt and Tom McAliney walked us through the area where the chilled sides of beef hung from the ceiling waiting to be hand-cut by a team of talented workers. Eric explained how they use RFID tags on the beef along with a bar-code tracking system on the packaging to keep track of all of its cattle, from calf to harvesting and then into the store or restaurant. This brand new “GlobalTrack” system from a company called Datastar also gives Brandt the ability to use web-based applications to trace any piece of beef all the way back to the exact animal and its origins. Data related to the calf, such as its date of birth, health and birthplace, is added to the GlobalTrack system using the RFID tag, and after the steer is harvested the information is transferred to special barcode bags designed especially for Brandt

by Cryovac. Eventually, data such as taste and tenderness feedback from chefs and other valuable information will be entered into the system, providing Brandt with important information that can be used to make future breeding

decisions. All of these improvements look to have t he sa me re su lt; to continually improve the grade and taste of all their products.

The processing plant is small and handles only about 200 head of cattle a day. It’s the last meat processing plant left in Los Angeles; Eric calls it “The Last of the Mohicans.” Another smaller beef company shares the plant with Brandt, and the first thing that I noticed were the cloudy white sheets that were wrapped around each of Brandt’s beeves as they hung suspended from the ceiling. This was a practice called “shrouding,” another technique that costs a little more, slows down the production process a bit, but gives back a solid benefit of quality. “We lose about 8 to 2 pounds per beef,” says Eric. “If we didn’t shroud the beef, we would probably lose more like 4 or 6 pounds.

It minimizes the shrink and we get firmer beef.”

Bottom and top right: Cutting stations in the Brandt processing plant Right middle: Eric Brandt explains the process of the shrouding of the beef Bottom right: Eric demonstrates their innovative labeling and tracking system

Left: Chef Andrew Johnson, chef at The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe, in the“Connelly Farms” vegetable garden

As we walked through the various stages of the plant, the 32 to 34 degree temperature began to feel colder than that, especially in the soles of my feet.

But when we reached the area where the meat is cut up and sectioned, the eyes of the chefs who were touring with us lit up, and our discomfort vanished. This team was almost like watching 50 sushi chefs in a choreographed assembly-line, except instead of small pieces of fish they were expertly carving large slabs of marbled beef. I was told that the workers cut the animals differently depending on what their customers ordered, giving them the ability to sell more of each calf as a noncommodity animal.

Moving on, the harvesting area of the plant was a bit surreal, especially the area where calf heads were perched on racks side by side – a delicacy for some cultures I was told. Good luck to them. Another area of the harvesting room contained heart sacs, which were separated in a large stainless steel bucket. These would be used to manufacture heart valves for human patients, a worthy and profitable

exercise. We were also told that the cattle were knocked out humanely before being killed, and it was at this point in the tour when I realized the true importance of sustainability. After all, an animal’s life was lost here, and to use that life for only a few select desirable cuts of beef would be a sad waste. Luckily there are some chefs who make use of many cuts of beef that would ordinarily find their way into the ground chuck bin, or worse, the box they put the scraps in that wind up at fast food chains.

One of those chefs is Andrew Johnson, and some of the dishes he created for us later that day included cheek, oxtail and culotte. Not only is he using more than just the “sexy” cuts like filet or New York Strip, he’s introducing new flavors and interesting dishes into his menu, increasing his profit margins at the same time. The taste of the culotte was amazing; it was as good as any steak I’ve ever had. And a final treat was when Chef Johnson showed us his beautiful Connolly vegetable garden on the swank grounds of the Bridges, where lo and behold we saw a giant pile of Brandt’s compost pile – Eric Brandt’s pride and joy – which the chef has used with great success in his garden.

-31- New England Restaurant Insider

Pan Seared Brandt Culotte roasted potatoes, arugula, shallots, roma tomatoes, Parmigiano-Reggiano

I woke up again, as if in a dream, standing in line at the meat counter.

Two elderly ladies were eyeing me impatiently, while the butcher tapped his fingers on the glass waiting for my order. Now I understood where those extra dollars per pound came from, and why the product from Brandt was worth every penny. I smiled at the ladies, then looked up at the butcher and pointed to the first row of steaks.

My decision was made.

Naturally, I ordered the Brandt.

Braised Brandt Cheek Meat Ravioli tuscan kale, brussels sprouts, yellow cauliflower, porcini jus

For tours or to learn more about Brandt Beef, contact Tom McAliney (845)661-3451 or tmcaliney@brandtbeef.com The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe (858)759-6063 www.thebridgesrsf.com Chef Andy Johnson

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REVIEW

South Beach Food and Wine Festival February 21-24 The Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival welcomed approximately 35,000 guests for four days of gourmet tastings and cooking demonstrations.

This year’s Festival honored Jean-Georges Vongerichten with a tribute dinner and Jamie Oliver with its global citizen award.

While the festival has certainly come into its own as a “must-attend” for serious foodies, it doesn’t forget that it’s held after all in South Beach. Guests could peruse multiple tents and booths while enjoying the sand between their toes and enviable winter temperatures in the eighties.

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Ne w York, his brot her L ou is, a nd a couple enthusiastic helpers from FIU. 2. Masaharu Morimoto of Morimoto, New York and Mary Hester of New York Restaurant Insider. 3. Lobster Shabu Shabu from Bourbon Steak Miami. 4. Michael Lomonaco of Porter House New York. 5.

Padma Lakshmi of Top Chef. 6. Trio of Cuban Pork Belly, Pickled Green Mango, and Toasted Almond and Dried Fig Gelè from Centerplate Catering. 7. Dylan Lauren and Tony the Tiger entertaining the Kidz Kitchen. 8. Jimmy Bradley of the Red Cat New York and Andrew Zimmern looking over the surprise ingredients for the cooking competition.

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photos by Mary Hester and Matt DeLucia

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-33- New England Restaurant Insider

1. Joey Campanaro of The Little Owl,

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9. Bobby Flay. 0. Ming Tsa i. . Ta sting tent c l o s e u p.  2 . O n e o f two tasting tents. 3.

Emeril Laga sse. 4.

A d a m Per r y L a n g of Rober t’s Ste a k hou se, New York gets a helpful h int f rom g ue st chef Rocco Dispirito during his cooking contest. 5.

Jamie Oliver. 6. Mary Alice Fallon Yeskey, Geof Manthorne, and Duff Goldma n of Cha rm City Cakes, Baltimore answer questions from the audience. 7. Crab Stuffed Carrots from the Ritz Carlton.

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photos by Mary Hester and Matt DeLucia

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