Délicieuse Année 2011

As the sign at La Grande Epicerie de Paris says, I wish you a "délicieuse année 2011" filled with great meals, health and happiness!

Bobby Jay

Paris - Restaurant Jean

A number of people have asked me to recommend restaurants near the Opéra, which is a quartier not well represented in my blog. The reason for this is simple: there are not a lot of good restaurants in that area. However, my wife and I recently discovered a really fine restaurant in the area, Jean, near Notre-Dame-de-Lorette and perhaps fifteen minutes' walk from the Opéra.

Jean has imaginative, attractively presented food in a comfortable setting with capable team-style service. There is a moderate-sized but very attractive à la carte selection, as well as a 3-course menu for 45 euros, a 4-course menu gastronomique for 65 euros and a 7-course menu gastronomique for 78 euros.

We opted for the 4-course and were very happy. After several interesting amuse-bouches, we started with an inspired cauliflower (yes!) dish, consisting of cauliflower puree and tiny cooked florets, topped with thin raw slices, perfectly perfumed with a hint of sancho pepper oil. Next was sauteed scallops with a creamy almond sauce, topped with small slices of sauteed abalone and served over crispy cabbage. The meat course was a perfectly cooked fillet of venison with a simple but classic jus (my wife, a non-lover of venison, was offered an excellent magret de canard instead).

Dessert was a heavenly chocolate disk filled with a creamy mixture of flavors that we could not identify, and some little pastries on the plate. The pastry chef is an American woman, Alison Johnson, who previously was pastry chef at Artisanal, Picholine and Eleven Madison Park in New York City. This altogether satisfying meal was completed by a complimentary cognac.

Our menu did not include a cheese course, but we were tempted by the relatively small, but well chosen, selection of perfectly ripened cheeses. However, we were lucky enough to enjoy the aromas as the woman at the adjacent table ordered a small piece of each of the ten or so cheeses on the plate.

Jean, 8 rue St-Lazare (Métro Notre-Dame-de-Lorette), 9ème.

Bobby Jay

Paris - Bánh Mì

Writing the last post, on the return of Baoguette, reminded me that Clotilde Dusoulier, in her excellent blog Chocolate & Zucchini, had recommended a bánh mì place in Paris that I have been intending to try: Saigon Sandwich. Well, it really is good. Imagine a well-constructed bánh mì sandwich - pork pâté, roast pork, cucumber, shredded pickled carrots and radishes, cilantro, homemade mayonnaise and hot peppers - and imagine further that it's on a really fresh French baguette. Yes, you are in heaven. They also have a chicken bánh mì that is even better, or you can get the classic pork with chicken added.

Actually, I think the pork fillings at New York's Baoguette are better, but the great bread more than makes up for it.

I have to hand it to Clotilde: she is no snob. Saigon Sandwich is in a really terrible neighborhood, around the corner from the Belleville Métro station, and the sidewalks are so crowded with immigrants selling used clothes that you need to walk in the street. There are three folding chairs in the restaurant so you can eat on your lap, right next to the line of waiting patrons, if you don't want to take out. Having fully intended to eat sur place, I decided to enjoy my lunch at home.

Saigon Sandwich, 6 rue de la Présentation, Paris 11ème (Métro Belleville) (closed Sundays).

Bobby Jay

Baoguette Returns

I recently reported that Baoguette, 61 Lexington Avenue, had been closed by the Health Department. A trusted reader reports that it has reopened, with a provisional rating and lots of happy eaters.

In the absence of Baoguette, I have tried Nicky's, 150 East 2nd Street, a charming deli-like place, with three little tables for the few customers who eat in. The classic bánh mì is good (but not as good as Baoguette's), and they have other bánh mì sandwiches, including a tofu one that I plan to try next time I'm in the neighborhood.

Also, I went to Num Pang, a very popular Cambodian sandwich shop at 21 East 8th Street. The specialty, pork belly sandwich, is flavorful, but does not have the complex layers of hot, sour, sweet, salty and bitter that one finds in a good bánh mì. Also, the eating area, upstairs, is really pretty bad, even by my relaxed standards for this type of place.

I am continuing to make the rounds, but look forward to returning to Baoguette when I get back to the USA. I hope they can get their Health Department rating up to "A."

Bobby Jay

Christmas in Paris

Dalloyau's 2010 Christmas windows are as enticing as ever.

Bobby Jay

A Winter's Day in Paris

People often ask me what I do when I am in Paris, particularly when my wife is not with me.

Today was a typical, and rewarding, day.

It being Saturday, I visited my favorite outdoor market, on Avenue de Président Wilson. It being a few days before Christmas, the market is full of wonderful luxury foods: foie gras, truffles, geese, ducks, etc. I bought a lobe of foie gras to prepare for a Christmas dinner to which we have been invited, and food for a couple of lunches and dinners.

For lunch I bought a coquelet (baby chicken) cooked over the rotisserie, half of which I pulled and mixed with rice and a little Sriracha (Southeast Asian, not French, but it is great) hot sauce. Then an assortment of cheeses I found at the market, including Mont d'Or, a seasonal cow cheese from the Alps that is one of the great things to eat in this world.

In the afternoon, I went to the famous marché aux puces (flea market) at the Porte de Clignancourt, where I picked up a Napoleon III picture frame that I had bought earlier, and had a brief but unsuccessful exploratory visit. There is always a lot to see at this market, which has numerous submarkets and many hundreds of antique dealers.

Returning to the apartment, I walked the dog and read for a couple of hours.

Dinner -- at home -- consisted of saucisse mourteau, a French garlic sausage with no real US equivalent, cooked with lentilles de Puy, amazing green lentils that keep their firm texture and are great company for pork of any kind. I had enough for another meal, probably lunch tomorrow or Monday.

Saucisse Mourteau with Lentilles de Puy: in the pot and as leftovers

Then followed an extremely chocolaty store-bought organic mousse au chocolat, to which my French friends had introduced me, and a satisfying square of Lindt's new "Mytille Intense" chocolate.


Not for everyone, perhaps, but for me this was a very nice day.

Bobby Jay

New Cookbook - The City Cook

Kate McDonough, editor and founder of TheCityCook.com, an excellent web site, has recently published a book, The City Cook: Big City, Small Kitchen, Limitless Ingredients, No Time, which furthers her mission of encouraging busy urban professionals to cook at home and providing them with strategies to help them to succeed.

The first part, which is a concise but insightful look at how to cope with culinary life in the city -- shopping, equipping a kitchen, etc. -- will be particularly useful for Kate's target audience. Also the many bits of wisdom scattered throughout the recipe section, like "Eleven Easy No-Cook Hors d'Oeuvres," "Chicken Breasts Ten Ways," "How to Get Fish Smells Out of an Apartment" and "The Versatility of Rotisserie Chickens," to name only a few.

The recipe section provides about ninety clearly-expressed recipes. Most are quite simple, some amazingly so. The one recipe that I have tried so far, Broiled Black Cod with Miso, is wonderful: just two ingredients, almost no effort and a complex flavor profile that is a perfect example of what a little umami can do (I used mellow white miso). Next up are the Almond Cream Tart, made with whole unskinned almonds, and the Cacio e Pepe (a classic pasta with cheese and black pepper) for which I have not previously seen a recipe (who knew there was no butter? and note the tip on grinding the cheese in a food processor rather than using a Microplane, which would have been my instinct). There are many others that I plan to try.

The City Cook makes an excellent Christmas gift. In fact, I gave a copy to my French teacher, who has a tiny apartment kitchen and is always trying to make simple, healthy food for herself and her friends. Cookbooks that I have given her in the past include Jacques Pépin's excellent Fast Food My Way and slightly less excellent More Fast Food My Way, as well as Patricia Wells' Trottoria. Adding The City Cook to this group indicates my high regard for this book.

Bobby Jay

Thanksgiving 2010

Lots of people ask me what I do for for Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd describe what I did this year.

The Turkey. I bought a 14.6-lb heritage turkey from Heritage Farms USA. It arrived, as scheduled, on Tuesday, cold but not frozen. I generously salted it under the skin on Wednesday morning, to give it 24 hours. On Thanksgiving day, I rinsed it well, then put it breast side down over ice packs. Just before cooking, I dried it and rubbed it with Michael Chiarello's fennel spice rub. Cooked on a V-rack 45 minutes breast side down at 450, then turned and cooked at 325 for 1 hour 45 minutes. The breast was perfect, the dark was not, so I put the thigh/leg quarters back for 15 minutes at 500. I have to say that I found the bird to be difficult to deal with because the joints were so tight; it was very hard to separate the thigh/leg quarters, which usually fall away of their own weight. The taste was excellent, particularly the breast meat, which was moist and had an intense turkey taste; the dark meat was almost too intense.

Gravy. Michael Chiarello's recipe for a classic roux-based gravy, made with fantastically rich turkey stock made with chopped up wings and necks. The stock (another Saveur recipe) made all the difference.

Dressing. On the side, not in the bird. Used the recipe for sage stuffing from an old Gourmet, but with mixed herbs. The crowd loved it. My wife and I thought it needed some crunch.

Sweet Potato Gratin, with lots of sage, from Ottolenghi. Wonderful and simple; I prepare it the day before and it was in a perfect state to cook on Thanksgiving Day.

French beans and snow peas with hazelnuts and julienned orange peel, also from Ottolenghi. Delicious and can be cooked in advance for assembly on the day of.

Pumpkin Pie. Used America's Test Kitchen's excellent recipe for a light yet flavorful pie, which incorporates candied yams, and an idea I got from Saveur to top it with some caramelized nuts and julieneed candied ginger. The result was deeply flavored (although different from the traditional pumpkin pie) and beautiful (see picture above).

Lots of other things, including a simple salad, desserts baked by my mother-in-law, cranberry chutney made by my mother, and hors d'oeuvres from my sister-in-law, but the foregoing is what I cooked.

Now the question is what to do next year. Which to repeat and which to change? But I have a little time.

Bobby Jay

Veal Breast Pasta Sauce

I love the intense taste and luxurious unctuous quality of breast of veal, and thought that it would make a wonderful pasta sauce. The problem with this cut is that it takes forever to cook, so I decided to use a pressure cooker, which greatly speeds things up. Although still a bit time-consuming (an hour from start to finish), it was easy to make and came out great. Here's the recipe for the sauce, which goes with whatever pasta you choose, although the Italians would probably suggest fresh pappardelle or boxed rigatoni.

Bobby Jay's Sugo con Petto di Vitello (Veal Breast Sauce)

Ingredients

• 3 TBS olive oil
• 6 ribs cut from a breast of veal, about 3-4 lbs
• 1 small-medium onion, cut lengthwise in quarters
• 1 large garlic clove, peeled
• 1 sprig fresh rosemary
• 1/2 cup white wine
• salt
• pepper

Directions

1. Heat pressure cooker over medium high heat. Add olive oil.
2. Salt the ribs with kosher salt. Then brown them in hot oil (you probably have to do this in two batches). Put aside.
3. Deglaze with white wine. Add ribs, garlic clove, onion and rosemary to pressure cooker. Cover, bring to high pressure, then lower heat to medium pressure and cook for 45 minutes.
4. Let steam escape. CAREFULLY!
5. Reserve sauce in a bowl or large measuring cup. When meat cools enough to handle, remove the rosemary sprig and separate the meat from the bones, cartilage and other unattractive bits. Add the meat to the reserved sauce. Add to pasta. Do not overdo it; the sauce is rich, and a little goes a long way.

Makes more than enough for a pound of dried pasta.

Bobby Jay

Baoguette Closed by Health Department

I went to Baoguette, 61 Lexington Avenue, the other day, only to find that it has been closed by the NYC Department of Health!

Need to find another bánh mì source. I am now headed to Battle of the Bánh Mì to seek suggestions from the on-line community of bánh mì lovers.

Bobby Jay

Paris - Salon de Chocolat

Is is possible to have too much chocolate? In a word, oui!

I went to the Salon de Chocolat in Paris last week and found it to be boring. I love chocolate, but it turns out that there are only so many things to do with it, and there is little regional or even national variation. So what you are left with is a huge number of displays by chocolate makers from France and all over Europe, most of which look like what you'd see at their shops or even at the big department stores. The saving grace is that you do get a lot of free samples.

















My big discovery was not chocolate, but rather an artisan pain d'épices maker from Aix-en-Provence, whose pain d'épices was the best I have ever tasted. Light (for this kind of mostly-honey cake) and incredibly perfumed, especially the orange, which I favored over the plain or the chocolate-flavored. I brought a chunk, cut from an enormous boule, to a friend the next day and she confirmed my high opinion as we gobbled it down for dessert.


My advice for chocolate lovers. Spend the 12.50 euros on chocolate, not admission to the Salon de Chocolat.

Bobby Jay

Paris - Autumn at the Market

Figs, Chanterelles and Cèpes

Purple Cauliflower, Tomatoes and Radishes

Some of today's offerings at the Avenue du Président Wilson market.

Bobby Jay

Paris - Artisanal Sardines at La Petite Chaloupe

Recently I was watching an episode of Laura Calder's "French Food at Home" on the new Cooking Channel in which Laura served an assortment of artisanal tinned sardines, with wonderful French bread and butter, as an appetizer. This really appealed to me (but not to my wife, who was forced to eat sardines as a child and still harbors a grudge), and I vowed to myself to follow up.

The show included a visit by Laura to the little shop in Paris where she had found the exotic assortment, but without giving the name. I wrote to Laura, who kindly informed me that the shop is La Petite Chaloupe, 7 rue du Pont Royal, Paris 13ème.









This unique shop was my first stop on arriving in Paris earlier this week. They have dozens of kinds of sardines, all French and almost all millésimé (like vintage wines), with various spice profiles and packed in different oils. Also many other tinned fish products - tuna, mackerel, anchovies, etc. - of the highest quality. Needless to say, I bought a selection (pictured below) to bring back to New York, to eat myself or to share with friends.


Next time you're in Paris, I recommend a visit.

Bobby Jay

Quick - While You Can Still Get Fresh Figs . . .

. . . make this wonderful Fig and Almond Tart from the excellent blog "Lunch in Paris." It is easy and, as noted in the blog, the frangipane is light and therefore doesn't overwhelm the delicate figs.

Bobby Jay

Del Posto - The Best Restaurant in New York?

My wife and I had the good fortune to celebrate her birthday at Del Posto a few days ago. I had made the reservation before The New York Times awarded the restaurant its fourth star, although our dinner followed the article in the Times.

We loved it last year and it has only gotten better: the four stars are richly deserved. Not only is the very innovative Italian food excellent, but the room is beautifully designed and not densely packed and the staff are capable and welcoming. Given severe recent disappointments at Jean-Georges and Le Bernardin - our former favorites - Del Posto is now our number one New York dining destination.

I don't really review New York restaurants because there is more than enough information available to US readers, but this is a noteworthy restaurant that is worth the trip to 10th Avenue and 15th Street.

Bobby Jay

My Big Night III - The Event

As I ended my previous post, the guests were arriving for the big party at Bobby Jay's, the restaurant making a brief appearance at the Institute for Culinary Education (ICE). To refresh your recollection, the menu for the event consisted of the following:


As people arrived, they were plied with drinks, especially champagne, and a parade of hors d'oeuvres. I was quite happy with the way all of them came out, but I think the shrimp in kadaifa nests was the surprise star of the group.

Corn Soup, Crabcakes and Shrimp in Kadaifa Nests

We had taken over the entire sixth floor of ICE, so guests could wander around and observe Chef Brendan's wonderful team in the two kitchens getting ready for the final plating of the tomato salad and the firing of the main courses.

Lettuce Waiting for Tomatoes; Chef Brendan and Bobby Jay

Finally, dinner was served in Bobby Jay's. The duck breast with port and plum sauce was fine, just what I expected, but the fish (which I didn't choose as my own main) was extraordinary. Brendan chose to use fillets of striped bass rather than the smaller Mediterranean sea bass that I had called for, and it was a great decision. The sesame crusted skin was crispy, and the pungent argan oil made its presence know while not overwhelming the other flavors -- a chick-pea purée and a Moroccan melange of fava beans and other vegetables.

Duck Breast with Plum Sauce; Sesame Crusted Bass

After the main courses, J made a lovely speech, describing the history of the event, acknowledging many of our friends, particularly those of longest standing, and, touchingly, calling me "the most successfully retired person" she has met. Indeed, I felt that way all night.

Then the cheese platter from Ann Saxelby's wonderful shop in the Essex Market, followed by a series of wonderful toasts that made me blush. Next, the blueberry almond tart, a speech by Bobby Jay and, finally, the trio of chocolates, macarons and mini-madeleines.

Blueberry Almond Tart with Lemon Buttermilk Ice Cream; Gourmandises

In hindsight I realize that this was not merely my "Big Night," which after all refers to the second best food movie. Given the happiness and love in evidence at Bobby Jay's that night -- evoked by a celebratory meal -- from my perspective, at least, the event was more reminiscent of the greatest food movie of all time: perhaps I should have called this series of posts "Bobette's Feast."

Farewell, Bobby Jay's

Either way, it was a dream come true for me, and I was a bit sorry to see the end of my restaurant's fleeting existence.

Bobby Jay

My Big Night II- Prepping for the Meal

As I noted at the outset of my 60th birthday dinner project, there is no way I can cook for 60 plus people, so I needed to recruit help from among those who would be at the dinner. This proved to be easy: nearly all the first people I mentioned the party to volunteered to help. So a band of eight people worked for six hours the day before the party and six worked for three hours on the day of the event itself.

While it was definitely work, it was also really fun. Essentially we got nine hours of hands-on cooking lessons from our designated chef, Brendan McDermott, his principal assistants Sue, James and Bianca and a host of other helpers from ICE. Brendan is a masterful chef and he and his team could not have been more accommodating and helpful; a huge plus is that they actually enjoy teaching.

Looks Like Fun, Doesn't It?

Cooking for 60 is not like cooking for four, six or eight in many ways. First, there is just more of everything. But things also respond differently when made in larger quantities, so my recipes had to be altered. Finally, you have to make a lot of the food a day in advance, and it is important to know which things can and which cannot be stored for 24 hours. To read and see what happened, click on "More" below.

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We accomplished an enormous amount on the first day. We made the cold corn soup, made and formed 240 crab cakes and made the relish and vinaigrette that would be used for final assembly, made an astonishing amount of risotto to be chilled overnight before, sauteeing at the last minute, we smoked and grilled the pork tenderloin, we made the purée for the fish dish, we made the ice cream, we made the mini-madeleines and attempted the macarons (more on this later) and we made the shells for the blueberry almond tarts. Left for the day of the event were the appetizer tomato salad, the main courses (fish or duck) and accompanying vegetables and one of the purées, the filling and baking of the blueberry almond tart and the chocolates. Piglet and I had worked with chef Brendan earlier in the week to make the foie gras, which needs five days or so to come to its full glory.

Chef Brendan and the Corn Soup Team

Although the orange lavender buttercream for the macarons was perfect, the shells were not, and had to be redone by me at home that night. Fortunately, I have done this often so, apart from the fact that I was pretty tired from the day's prepping, I had little problem knocking off ten trays of macaron shells, and the assembly was quickly accomplished the next day.

Assembling Macarons

On Sunday we gathered to finish up. Making chocolate seems pretty easy, but making five pounds of it at one go is not. It takes nearly an hour to melt it over a bain marie, and tempering it by cooling and reheating to precise temperatures also takes a huge amount of time. And then you have to work with it pretty quickly or it starts to set. So this occupied a lot of time for the chocolate team. The results were great, however.

Making Chocolates

One of the highlights was making mozzarella for the tomato salad. Melting the curds (firm, roughly 2-inch cubes), then stretching them, tearing off bits and forming balls, always as gently as possible.

The Chocolate Team Switches to Mozzarella

I had made the blueberry almond tart numerous times, so was confident that it would come out well. But it is not prepossessing while being made and at least one of the members of the tart team had grave doubts. But they came out beautifully.

Making Blueberry Almond Tarts

The team also made the Moroccan vegetables for the fish dish and the root vegetable plum sauce to accompany the duck.

As the start of the event neared, crab cakes were sauteed and sauced, foie gras was cut into rounds and put onto brioche bread, smoked pork tenderloin was put on croutons (over a quickly improvised creamy lime sauce), corn soup went into little glasses, risotto cakes were sauteed and shrimp were embedded into kadaifa nests and deep fried. This was all done by ICE chefs and sous-chefs, as I and my team were off dressing for the party.

As the guests arrived and were devouring the hors d'oeuvres and champagne, the ICE team worked tirelessly to make and plate the main dishes.

Our guests started arriving at Bobby Jay's at 7:00, but more of that in the next and final post on this event.

Bobby Jay

My Big Night I - Planning

I turned 60 this summer, and several months before that my wife J asked whether I wanted to have a party. I was in Japan when I turned 50 and was able to escape any major recognition, so this time I felt it would be appropriate to celebrate. But I struggled in response to her question as to what we should do. Finally I said that what I'd really like to do do was to cook a meal for our close friends, but that unfortunately I don't possess the skills or the place to entertain 50 or 60 guests. She said that if I really wanted to do that, there would certainly be a way.

I next mentioned the idea to my friend Piglet, who has from time to time appeared in this blog. An event planner who knows her way around the catering and food world, she agreed with my wife that what I wanted to do was definitely possible.

After considering teaming up with a catering facility and staff for the event, we met with the special events people at the Institute for Culinary Education (ICE), on West 23rd Street, a cooking school that offers professional training and also has a robust "recreational" program of classes for non-professionals. ICE's cooking facilities, of course, are perfect, and it turned out they had an appropriate space for the event. Also, they could provide chefs and assistants to help plan and execute the event. Most important, although this event was somewhat different from others they have done, it was perfectly consistent with their mission of teaching people how to cook.


So now it was up to me to design the event.
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I quickly decided on the format: a sit-down dinner, preceded by a cocktail hour. The menu would consist of things I had cooked before and wanted to share with my friends. We would do six passed hors d'oeuvres, an appetizer, a main course (choice of fish or duck), cheese, dessert and after-dinner treats. I would try to use local ingredients and to reflect, to the extent possible, the late-summer early-autumn time of year.

Thus I decided to do Jamie Oliver's mixed heirloom tomato salad -- one of my all-time favorites and likely one of the last of the waning tomato season. Similarly, seared duck breast with a fresh plum sauce (from Gordon Hamersley), to take advantage of the red plums that are among the last of the season's stone fruits. Dessert would be an almond blueberry tart from Clotilde. This left the fish dish open, and I decided to go with a recipe I recently learned at cooking school in Paris: sesame crusted sea bass over a bed of Moroccan vegetables and a chickpea puree.

With the core of the menu set, I went to work on the hors d'oeuvres. Everyone (well almost) loves foie gras, and I have a nice recipe where it is infused with cinq épices and white port. I recently made a smoked peppered pork tenderloin that turned out to be even better cold. Also cold, my own corn soup, served in shot glasses. Then two hot favorites: sauteed veal and sage risotto cakes and Bobby Flay's incredible crab cakes with black olive and pepper relish and basil vinaigrette. Finally, shrimp with a leaf of cilantro fried in a nest of kadaifa, very fine threads of phyllo dough.

The Final Menu for My Big Night

Dessert would be a blueberry almond tart, from the recipe of my beloved Clotilde Dussoulier. For the finale, chocolates with fleur de sel or a pulverized 4-pepper brittle that adds a complex spice profile, lavender orange macarons (maybe the best thing I have ever made) and honey madeleines from Joel Robuchon.

As for the cheese plate, I went to visit Anne Saxelby, who promotes and sells a fantastic array of American artisanal cheeses, and selected three cheeses from Vermont: a creamy sheep, a complex clothbound cheddar and a creamy blue.

All that remained was to select wines that would complement the meal and to pick linens, stemware, flowers and other things to perk up the pretty banal room in which the dinner would be served. J took charge of the esthetic makeover, working with our even coordinator, and did a magnificent job. Although it's out of sequence, I can't resist showing you how great the tables looked.

Table Setting

Finally, invitations. To pique people's interest, the event was described as the one and only meal ever to be served at a newly created restaurant, Bobby Jay's, to be cooked by Bobby Jay and a carefully selected team of cooks (namely, the first 8 or 10 people who heard about the event and volunteered to help).

Invitation

The final thing to do was to be nervous about how things would turn out.

But more on that in later posts.

Bobby Jay

Sun-Dried Tomato and Olive Crostini

One evening, with people coming to dinner and nothing to give them with drinks, I threw together some simple crostini that proved to be a big hit. Now I regularly pass them around as we gather for a prosecco or martini in the kitchen while I cook dinner. I make these often, but there is no real recipe since what I put in depends on what's I happen to have in the fridge and on the shelf.

But here's an indicative recipe:

1. Mix together 1 cup of freshly packed ricotta, 2 tablespoons of Greek style yogurt, and 1 tablespoon of best quality olive oil.
2. Add 5 or 6 sun-dried tomatoes, diced as finely as possible, and about 1/3 cup of mixed chopped olives (I use pitted oil-cured and Gaeta olives but any kind, including ones with herbs or garlic, will do).
3. Add about 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest, a bit of salt and a good grinding of fresh pepper.
4. Spread on small pieces of toasted bread - slices of baguette or a country bread of some kind - and top with a little fleur de sel and a small drizzle of olive oil.

Quantities are approximate and everything in this recipe is optional except the ricotta and the sun-dried tomatoes. You can add crème fraîche instead of yogurt, dispense with both and use more olive oil. Or add chopped herbs. Whatever you like.

Bobby Jay

Eataly - Definitely Worth a Visit

My friend Piglet and I visited the newly opened Eataly today, and we agree that it is definitely worth a visit. Located at 23rd Street and Broadway, this mega Italian food market has beautiful produce, meats and fish as well as a truly amazing array of Italian products. More Italian pasta shapes and brands than I would have imagined, oils, sauces, crackers, chocolates, jams, honeys, charcuterie, cheese . . . well, just about everything. And several restaurants and cafes where you can sit and enjoy the food, which we did not try.

If you like Italian food (and who doesn't?), you must go. We went mid-morning and the shopping experience was great. It is reported to be very crowded at lunchtime and on weekends, however. Prices are quite fair, especially for the meat and produce.

Eataly is a joint effort of Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Oscar Farinetti, founder of the original Eataly in Turin.

Bobby Jay

Best Roast Chicken Recipe

I have made many roast chickens from many different recipes, but I found the best one a few years ago: Gordon Hamersley's "Walk-Away" Roast Chicken. I have given the recipe to many friends, and it always becomes their go-to roast chicken because it is exactly what you want in roast chicken -- crispy skin, flavorful succulent meat -- and unbelievably simple; no trussing, no stuffing under the skin, no basting. It is virtually infallible. My wife absolutely loves roast chicken and this is her favorite version.

I have mentioned it before on this blog, and given it to friends, but never felt comfortable putting the recipe on my blog, but now it is on the Internet, notably at Fine Cooking's recipe site, so I have no hesitation in sharing it.

So here it is. Simply click on "More" below for the recipe with my commentaries, based on about 50 tries, interspersed in brackets.
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Gordon Hamersley’s Walk-Away Roast Chicken

Ingredients

• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 2 Tbs. Dijon-style mustard
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. dried rosemary
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 lemon, halved
• 1 whole roasting chicken (about 3-1/2 lb.) [I like to use a 2 3/4 lb. bird if I can find one, preferably d'Artagnan, but always organic], rinsed under cold water and dried
• 1 onion, cut into thick slices [I like to use 2 good-sized but not giant red onions, cut in half lengthwise.]
• 4 medium red potatoes, washed (but not peeled) and sliced in half. [I prefer to use medium Yukon Golds, cut in half lengthwise.]
• [1/2 cup low sodium chicken stock or broth (optional)]

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 375°F. [I use my convection setting.] In a small bowl, combine 1 Tbs. of the olive oil, the mustard, thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Squeeze the juice from one lemon half into the herb mixture; squeeze the juice from the other half into a small bowl and reserve. Reserve the squeezed lemon halves. Spoon the herb mixture over the chicken and inside its cavity, rubbing to coat the bird thoroughly. Put the reserved lemon halves inside the chicken's cavity.

2. Put the onion and potatoes in a roasting pan. Season them with salt and pepper and toss them with the remaining 1 Tbs. olive oil. Scatter the ingredients around the pan to make room in the center for the chicken. [I put the onions and potatoes, cut side down, in the middle to make a rack for the chicken.]

3. Put the chicken in the pan, breast side up. Cook until the meat is tender and the juices run clear at the thigh, about 1–1/4 hours. [I find this time correct for a less-than 3 lb. chicken on convection setting; otherwise, allow 1 1/2 hours for an organic chicken.] By this time, the potatoes and onions should be tender.

4. Transfer the vegetables to a serving platter. Pour the juices from inside the chicken's cavity into the roasting pan and transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let it rest.

5. Spoon off and discard as much fat as possible from the juices in the roasting pan. Set the pan with the juices over medium-low heat and pour in the reserved lemon juice along with 1/2 cup water [chicken stock is better if you have it]. Bring to a boil, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.

6. Cut the chicken into pieces (or serve it whole, if you like). Pour the pan juices over the chicken and serve.

7. Enjoy!

Bobby Jay

Late Summer Bounty at Union Square

Three of the many reasons why I like the Union Square greenmarket in late summer.

Bobby Jay