The cuisine at Chef Seamus Mullen's Tertulia in the West Village features fresh ingredients that sing in a Spanish tongue. After working in some of Spain's top kitchens and stunning New York eaters at Boqueria (which he co-owned) and Suba, he was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, a chronic autoimmune disease that wreaks havoc on the body. Recognizing a disconnect between the health food and restaurant food worlds, Chef Mullen spent three years working on his first book, Hero Food, out today. We talked with him about his book, his illness, and the flavors he loves to create. More

In a season of highly anticipated openings, Seamus Mullen's Tertulia was up there with RedFarm as one of September's most talked-about. "[The] rich, deceptively sophisticated menu... does for tapas-style Spanish cuisine what Batali did for Italian pastas and April Bloomfield did for English pub food," wrote Adam Platt in New York Magazine last week. If you've been reading this early press, you'd believe it's the opening of the year. But that wasn't quite our experience. More