Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/623506
Julie Besonen is a writer for The New York Times and a restaurant critic for nycgo.com different colors of eggplant—pink and striped—different shapes and sizes. European chefs walk through our farmers market and their jaws drop. That's what makes cooking and dining out exciting. We eat a lot better in New York City because of what you and other chefs pioneered in California decades ago, promoting seasonal, fresh, local produce. Do you think we're grateful enough? I grew up in New York, in Brooklyn, and when you grow up there you think there is no other place in the world. In California, there were more women chefs who didn't come up through the old boys' network so there was resentment. New York chefs were flying in our produce but still thought the world revolved around them. Our chefs don't get the media attention that New York chefs do. What do you mean? California is hardly a backwater. Of course not, but we don't have people out here who are such media hogs. Every day I read about David Chang and Anthony Bourdain. They're okay, but it's enough! What types of innovations are happening in California restaurants today? Some chefs are paring down the plates and simplifying their menus because of the labor shortage. Menus have to be dumbed down because there are fewer and fewer cooks. We have good, creative fusion and bad, confusion fusion, some that are just horrible. And I'm seeing more vegetable-centric menus, and the portions of animal protein getting smaller, which is wonderful. Can you talk more about the labor shortage in the kitchen? The disparity between what waiters make and cooks make is so sharp. Cooks leave, they can't survive. Waiters are making 10 times what cooks are making. Please God, let tipping go away. In 1992, Danny Meyer and I talked about doing the European system for our restaurants, having service included in the check, so the price is the price. But we were afraid waiters would leave. Now, he's leading the way. Do you think waiters might still leave Danny Meyer's restaurants if they're making less money? If they're grown-ups they'll realize a rising tide lifts all boats. It's an idea whose time has come. People are resistant to change, but we have cooks sharing studio apartments. They come to the Bay Area to learn and then move to Portland where life is more affordable. It has to change. "What is new is the awareness of not wasting anything. There's a whole vegetable movement, following the same idea as using the whole animal. Chefs are cooking with carrot tops and using the stems of Swiss chard." q&a @ Watch producers weigh in on how the California drought is afecting their businesses at specialtyfood.com/videos 106 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com