Everyone has some food that speaks to them, conveying security, exultation and fullness of spirit (pun definitely intended). Many of New York City’s giants of gastronomy actually yearn for relatively simple fare when they escape their kitchens and eat out. What is your comfort food? Do you prefer food that’s simple, or elaborate?
In his article “Follow a Hungry Chef and See Where It Takes You,” Glenn Collins writes:
At their stoves, New York’s starred chefs are very different from you and me. But when they’re ready to inhabit downtime mode, they favor the casual and even the simple. Frequently they return to the same couple of places and order the same thing — again and again.
Though they could dine anywhere, and certainly proprietors of New York’s most distinguished restaurants would personally cook anything for them, many culinary luminaries choose straightforward fare when they kick back. Is it that the hurly-burly of their complex restaurant lives (and the high degree of difficulty represented by their own menus) draws them to plain instead of fancy? Or do the challenges of running kitchens, payrolls, partnerships and highly public personas demand the occasional antidote of comfort food? All of the above. When he fancies a restaurant where he can feel truly comfortable, Mr. Boulud doesn’t seek out the duck terrine with apple confit from the menu at his restaurant Daniel. He settles into a wicker seat at Barbuto, in the West Village.
There, in a restaurant with roll-up doors and concrete floors that was once a garage, he orders the chef Jonathan Waxman’s deceptively unadorned but deeply flavorful roasted chicken with its salsa verde of capers, anchovies, garlic, hand-chopped parsley, arugula, basil, tarragon and sage. “It’s all so fresh, so simple, so well done,” Mr. Boulud said of Barbuto. “It’s my security place, where I feel at home.” He takes friends and family there, as well as other chefs, like Thomas Keller of Per Se.
…Marcus Samuelsson, the executive chef and an owner of Red Rooster Harlem, tries to lose his own fame, too.
“You look for something easy, a place where you can be anonymous — and just be,” he said.
Students: Is your comfort food your favorite food? If not, what is, and how are they different? Is your comfort food healthful? Do you think that matters? Does your favorite change by season? What are you looking forward to eating most this summer? Is your food only available from your family, or served at a particular restaurant? Could you eat it every day, or would that make it less special?
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