Serious Eats: New York
Top Critics on the State of the Restaurant World
Likes: David Chang, Num Pang. [Nick Solares; Robyn Lee]
In checking in on the state of the food world, Grub Street polls a good cross-section of expert critics (including our own Ed Levine) on current trends, important chefs, and predictions for the future. Unsurprisingly, New York came up a good bit in conversation.
Their (tentative) points of agreement:
- New York is still the center of our culinary nation, though Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, deserve a nod, too.
- David Chang is tremendously powerful; David Chang is tremendously overhyped. (Kate Krader: "Dave Chang is to most chefs in America as excellent heroin is to Capri Sun juice boxes.")
- Fine dining will return, but in a trimmed-down form. Ed: "Only those fine-dining establishments that understand that the price/value ratio is just as important in what they do, as it is in fast-food joints, will flourish." And Tony Bourdain: "I mean ... who likes dealing with expensive linens and crystal?"
- Many of Manhattan's best bites are still under ten bucks: Num Pang sandwiches, Greek spreads at Kefi, Gray's Papaya.
- And Gael Greene (with a personal vendetta against Ferran Adrià) is partial to brownie sundaes, mac-and-cheese, and "French cooking à la Julia with lots of butter."