Some of the Best Food You'll Never Eat in a Restaurant
Danny Meyer's restaurants are among the most acclaimed and beloved in
the nation: Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Maialino, Blue Smoke,
The Modern, and more, winners of an unprecedented number of James Beard
Awards for outstanding food and hospitality. Family Table takes you
behind the scenes of these restaurants to share the food that the chefs
make for one another before they cook for you.
Each day, before the lunch and dinner services, the staff sits down to a
"family meal." It is simple, often improvised, but special enough to
please the chefs' discerning palates. Now, for the first time, the
restaurants' culinary director, Michael Romano, coauthor of the
award-winning Union Square Cafe Cookbook, collects and refines his
favorite in-house dishes for the home cook, served alongside Karen
Stabiner's stories about the restaurants' often-unsung heroes, and about
how this imaginative array of dishes came to be. Their collaboration
celebrates food, the family itself, and the restaurants' rich backstage
life.
Some of the recipes are global and regional specialties: Mama Romano's
Lasagna, Dominican Chicken, Thai Beef, Layered Huevos Rancheros, and
Southern Cola-Braised Short Ribs. Many highlight fresh produce, like
Michael Anthony's Corn Soup, Barley & Spring Vegetables with Pesto,
Grilled Halibut with Cherry Tomatoes, Sugar Snap Peas & Lemon, and Plum
& Apricot Crisp with Almond Cream. There are homey dishes like Turkey &
Vegetable Potpie with Biscuit Crust and Streusel-Swirl Coffee Cake, and
inventive, contemporary takes, like Cornmeal-Crusted Fish Tacos with
Black Bean & Peach Salsa and a delightfully tangy Buttermilk Panna Cotta
with Rhubarb-Strawberry Compote. What all these recipes have in common
is ease and perfection.
Family Table is an invitation from the restaurant family to you:
Please join in.
