the thing about uncertainty

The deeper we go in, the more I realize the beauty (and the curse), the fascinating and the pulse raising thing about owning a restaurant is all the uncertainty that floats around. There is no way of knowing "you've made it", or that "you've gotten there". There's no way of knowing if you'll be around, if you'll be popular in a month, if the buzz will keep on. Each day you shoot high and hope for the best and you wake up wanting "better". Uncertainty makes you shiver and then aggressively pushes you forward. 

Owning a restaurant requires sprinting while running a marathon. It’s about putting all your energy into one night and making it magical, fantastic, memorable. 5pm rolls around and you begin pouring it all out, the dark takes over and you surrender to it and its flow, its mistakes and its gifts, you leave it all out there on the floor. The next morning you wake up with soreness of the body, the heart and of the mind. Still, there’s this force that helps you fight through it. You get up and you do it all over again. And I have to believe that force is uncertainty. In the right light, uncertainty is that very thing that pushes you, keeps you present, makes you feel alive, the one thing that opens you up to it all (for the good and for the bad). Not knowing where you'll be tomorrow hurries you to get there.

As we keep on keeping on, maybe we'll beat it or maybe it will get the best of us, but I believe if we are open to it, if we let it, uncertainty might be the one thing that gets us to where we want to go and best of all, it’s the thing that will keep us humble all the way through.

The Magic of a Dinner Party Lives On

Image via Dancing Branflakes

People often wonder what exactly it is that I do at our freshly new Comodo restaurant. Many ask me if I cook, if I help with the cooking, if Felipe and I cook together. The answer is a simple no. In fact, if you want to know the truth, I can barely use the oven (and when I say barely, I mean I have never once used an oven). What I am really drawn to, in a big way, is the magic that happens when people get together for food and the invisible molecules that float around the air of a dinner party. This draw goes all the way back to when I was a child. Growing up in Mexico City, I believe this is true to all Latin America, it’s normal and routine to go to sleep with dinner noise. On a Monday, Tuesday or any given day of the week, a last kid’s thoughts and sounds before falling into profound sleep are that of their parents, their friends, their special music, conversations and laughter. As a child I also developed a strong connection to the anticipation of a dinner, which is just as strong of an emotion as the party itself. The experience would begin with me in my mom’s room, watching her get ready and dressing up for the big event because no matter how routine a dinner party could become, you always get ready, it is always special and you always prepare for it with care.

So here I am now, and no matter what Felipe and I call our project (dinners at home, supper club, pop up dinner parties, restaurant) it seems like I always land in the same place, craving that dinner party experience. At Comodo, every night is beautifully different and we prepare for it with care. The anticipation begins to build as soon as we wake up and start prepping for it, wondering what will happen at night, who will be there, what will be talked about. And when a champagne bottle is popped and receives a clap from the entire dining room, during those instances when we hear a wave of laughter across the room, or when one table gets up to greet and hug another table I think maybe we have done it, maybe we have transferred the dinner party into a restaurant. And when those nights happen, Felipe and I close the restaurant with satisfaction in our hearts and with many anecdotes and stories about people and the magic that happens when food is around. And it is during those late nights when we say to each other, let it be loud and let girls wear out their best dress. Let it be different and let it feel special, let our friends greet Felipe at the kitchen and let our guests greet people at the door. If it has followed us around this far, let the night win and let the magic of a dinner party take over.

Bring in Spring with Worth Kitchen

One minute it’s 70 degrees outside, the next minute it’s might start snowing. But that’s not going to stop us from hosting another dinner at City Grit. “Obvio que no!” (Translation: Obviously not).

So March 23rd at 8pm the Worth Kitchen/Comodo crew is scheming up a Spring Time menu in honor of the sunny days ahead. 

And as the countdown begins for the Comodo Restaurant opening we want YOU to help us narrow down the list of potential upcoming menu items. Dinner will be 5 courses, and nothing less. Wine will be available for purchase. Buy tickets here.

Brazilian Carnaval Dinner

For those of you who weren’t (and those who were) able to jet off to Rio this “Carnaval” season, come join us as we pair up with Brazilian Chef Caro  on February 24th for a festive 5-course supper. 

Once again, we’ll be hosting our awesome group of dinners in the SoHo City Grit space. So show up in a “Samba” costume, or show up in black tie, just make sure to show up. 

Festivities start at 8pm.

Worth Kitchen Dinners are Back!

Saturday January 28th

Hello all! 

It has been too long since last we met up and had dinner. I think the time has come to get together again as we have much to catch up on. 

In an attempt for transparency and bringing you into our creative process, we want to invite you to begin to taste the very recipes that will end up on the tables of Cómodo Restaurant. (If you haven't heard of what we are planning yet, check it out overe here)

Come and join us on Saturday January 28th at 8 PM (yes, we are finally doing a dinner on Saturday for your increased entertainment)! We will be doing a 5 course dinner. Wine or beer will be available for purchase. We are heading back to the amazing City Grit space in SoHo (Prince & Mott) Buy your tickets here!

Taking Worth Kitchen to Catering

First off, the feedback I received from my last post was simply.... amazing. Thank you all! You guys rock. You gave me crazy amount of momentum!

Now on to the next post. Many of you might not know, but for about 9 months I have taken the Worth Kitchen concept, wrapped it up and starting going out and doing a lot of private dinners and catering events. Its has all been going really great. Slow start, but various opportunities have come.

All of a sudden, December rolls around and in one weekend I have to feed about 450 people! WHAT?!?!?!?
I promise pictures will come. Today is the first event of three. I barely slept. My jaw is locked... Tends to happen with stress.
Can't wait for Tuesday when its all over!

As for what will happen with Worth Kitchen once the restaurant kicks off, I am keeping the brand up and running 100%. We will be doing private dinner parties within the restaurant once a month on a given Thursday. The same concept that we have kept alive, 5 course dinner with wine pairings. Along with this, I am keeping Worth Kitchen alive as a catering company. We have been (thankfully!) very successful and want to continue being able to offer the Worth Kitchen experience to others, no matter what size!

But anyways, just wanted to relieve some of the stress and nervous bugs going through me right now! So thank you again for sticking by!

From Ideation to Execution

Ideation is always the easier part. Saying, I want to do this or I could build that slips out of our mouth because the power of our mind is limitless. We can build universes in our head, but what becomes the hardest part of it all is the actual creation & execution of said ideas. How many times have you said, I am going to do, build or create something and never actually go through with it?

Well, this time around I decided that it was going to be different for me. I am not going to be the one that says “Yes, I am going to at some point open up a restaurant.” But I instead want to be the one that actually makes it happen, and make it happen in a way that is successful not only in a business way but also in a experiential way.

With that said, I present to you a Cómodo, a restaurant that invites you into the living room of a Latin American home.

NY has been introduced (and has fallen in love) with Latin American street food. Tacos al pastor, elotes on a stick, arepas, and many other Latin American nibbles have become part of NYC foodies’ language. But this is just the beginning, and the city is ready for something more, a deeper connection to Latin American food. Cómodo will invite its guests into the Latin American home, where they’ll taste the art behind a Latin American dinner party. It will be about the food but it will also go beyond the food, into the experience. It will be social, the way dinner parties are, good food, extraordinary wine and conversations that go deep into the night. Guests will savior the sobremesa and will strike that magic hour after a meal where the best and deepest stories are shared around a table. The food will be prepared with care, seasonality will be considered, a higher level cooking technique will be applied and bright Latin American colors will paint the plates.  Guests will come in and forget about time, the hours will pass and they will leave with a satisfaction in their hearts, stomachs and their souls. 

And so it begins. The true tales of how to open a restaurant in New York and the full process of making it happen will be told and shared. The project will hopefully be up and running very soon. I will eventually also have a kickstarter page up and running. But for the moment I am seeking funding for management partners as well as investors. If interested or know anyone that would be, please let me know!

Back by Popular Demand!

WORTH KITCHEN 

&

CITY GRIT

WE ARE BACK FOR MORE SOUTHERN COMFORT!

After our awesome mash-up success, we are back due to popular demand. Worth Kitchen & City Grit meet up to put together an awesome dinner of Souther Comfort food on October 6th. Being that both chefs are from Columbia/Colombia - Sarah from Columbia, South Carolina and Felipe Donnelly of Worth Kitchen from Colombia, South America - they're teaming up to put together a menu of their favorite "southern" comfort foods. Purchase your tickets here (please make sure to click on the "SOUTHERN COMFORT WITH WORTH KITCHEN" event. October 6th.)

SOUTHERN COMFORT

WORTH KITCHEN
&

CITY GRIT

The reason why comfort food taste so good is because its cooked with heart, it uses flavors, ingredients and recipes that have survived years and years, their memory so strong it is still ingrained in our heart, our brains, our bellies. Chef Sarah Simmons and Chef Felipe Donnelly are joining forces and brining together their most favorite comfort foods from the South. Sarah will be drawing from the US Southern experience, and Felipe from the South American experience, primarily Brazil and Colombia, the two countries most representative of his youth.  While these regions could not be more different, there are universal elements of comfort food that bring us back to the simple, happy times, puts warmth in our hearts and makes us nostalgic (even giggly) about our youth. So come prepared to be drawn back into the past and with new and unexpected flavors and combinations, also be ready to be put back into our contemporary, ever changing and evolving present times. Purchase your tickets here

Imagining Freshness...

That feeling of serving the last plate and opening up a bottle of wine to sit down with the guests is priceless! I am still savoring it right now.
The night was fantastic, we continued our latest venture of smaller intimate dinners all seated in one long table. The crowd was amazing! Thank you to all the guests for making it such a great experience. I hope you all felt at least a little bit refreshed when the night was over.

I leave you with a picture from last night's appetizer...

Stuffed zucchini blossom with goat cheese and herbs lightly fried in a white wine batter. 

Awesome Teaser for Tomorrow's Dinner!

A Fresh Take on Summer

Walking down the streets of New York with a breeze that blows at a higher temperature than what the actual thermometers read, we are brave souls living and moving through one of the most intense city heats. Now, Imagine something fresh… The next Worth Kitchen dinner party will be all about bringing in the fresh. We will make you think, imagine, and feel freshness all around you and in everything you eat. Also to play a part will be the freshest wines paired up with a 5-course meal. Make sure to join us on Thursday August 4th at 8 PM where 25 perfect strangers will attempt to fight the heat. Buy your tickets here

Two Weeks to Training

So after a very busy day yesterday, I dropped by the construction of Sidewalk (no pictures, sorry I will have some up soon!) and the kitchen equipment had just arrived. Very exciting.

Friday I have my final tasting with the owners, GM and cooks. So far it has been very interesting to see what happens at the tastings. In the last one I had, about 4 weeks ago, I did a lot of last minute improvising. To be totally honest, I do not think it worked as well. So for the past 4 weeks, I have been cooking non stop. Experimenting and getting the recipes down perfectly. From very simple chicken wings, to much more elaborate pastas and others. The final menu is due next Tuesday.

Here was my take on the chicken schnitzel with a beet & feta cheese salad and french fries. It came out delicious, but only after 4 tries to get it all right.

This version was done with pank bread crumbs (I ran out of the other normal bread crumbs)

And this, at the end of the day, is the basic menu staples. You can also expect some very fun dishes. Plus my own version of pulled pork with a homemade BBQ sauce... Its going to be awesome.

In two weeks I begin to train the kitchen staff on all my recipes. We have two weeks of hard work to get it all straight before our soft launch. By beginning of next month expect me to be going insane. How crazy is this. I am loving it so far.

If any of you are around NYC during August, please stop by and let me know what you think. Its my official cherry pop in the NYC restaurant circle, so I am as nervous as I am excited.

Any other proper tips, recommendations or ideas? Let me know.

A year later... Where are we now?

Working hard with my amazing partner, best friend and wife! What an amazing first year of marriage it has been!

In May of 2010, Tamy and myself begun an amazing and totally unpredictable experiment which turned into Worth Kitchen. We promised you one full year of dinners at our house and we completed that promise plus we added awesome dinner parties for up to 60 people.

Here are some quick stats for you number lovers:
We have had about 252 people at our house. Out of that 252, about 75% were total strangers
I cooked 151 different dishes (most were a great succes, but not all!)
Created 48 different menus
Generated about $1,560 for various charities through some of our dinners

The year has been crazy!

It started as a hobby, but here I am one year later doing this for a living! Who would've thought?!?!
So It is now my responsibility with all of you to share what has been going on in my life and with Worth Kitchen the last couple of months and since our little Department of Health visit...

As of recent I am working with an East Village legend, Sidewalk Cafe. This place is a live music institution, one of those places that still has the '80s East Village grit, in a good way. As of March 2011, Sidewalk closed for serious renovations. I was approached with the amazing opportunity to come in as a consultant chef and develop the menu for this restaurant. You see, they want to step into a very new direction as far as the food is concerned. I took this as an fantastic opportunity to be able to practice more seriously in the restaurant industry before I took the huge risk of opening a Worth Kitchen restaurant. The menu at Sidewalk Cafe is taking shape and the food that will be coming out is something that I will be very proud of! (I call it "what happens to American food once it has gone the NY treatment") We will also be hosting an event at the Sidewalk Cafe soon enough, so please send me an email so I can send you an invite. Least to say, I am very excited.

And following that... well I guess you have to wait and see. I will be posting regularly from now on. Focusing on the adventures of creating a menu and launching a restaurant. Also, I will be tweeting for Sidewalk Cafe for a while, so follow me on my adventures here.

I know I have said it many times, but Thank You. Thanks to all of you for believing in what we do together and joining us on this amazing road.

The Intimacy of Dining

Image courtesy of Tom Ajello via Instagram

During our latest dinner, at one point, Tamy and myself took a step back and asked, how did this work out so well?

Well, previous to this night we had come to the agreement that we needed to bring the dinners back to its roots. What was it that made our original dinners so amazing? It wasn’t just the idea that you were entering a stranger’s apartment to have a dinner with unknown people, but it was the idea that you were going to enjoy a great meal in an intimate setting with strangers. Well, this time around we decided to try something new. Instead of having a dinner for 50 people (as we have had done various times in the past) all seating in 6 different tables, we invited 26 guests and sat them all in one long table. The results were amazing.  Finally it felt as if we could somehow interact with all the guests easily and the feeling was very intimate, almost as if everyone got a chance to meet each other.

We never influence the interaction that all the guests are having amongst themselves, but we can definitely add the catalyst for the best interaction. The more intimate settings helps to break down the social barriers easier. Even though we love having the dinners for 50 or 60 and will continue to have those in the future, we loved having these intimate dinners and you can expect many more to come your way!

Next dinner, July 28th... stayed tuned for much more information.

Small Productions Big Taste!

The menu for the June 2nd dinner.

On June 2nd we had the privilege of being hosts to an extraordinary wine distributor called Noble Grape Wines. They have stepped out of the traditional distribution model and really done something amazing. When I think of distribution, especially in the US, I think of a huge white semi rig transporting huge pallets of items. And in many cases, this has been the process for wines in the US. More volume, more sales, more profit. What you miss out on though is the bare essence of the wine making experience. The hard working families that spend their entire lives working on the spectacular wines, every single grape that is in their vineyard goes through their hands. The quality that results is usually spectacular. But we never get to see them because the distribution network is too vast for them to ever make an imprint.

This is where Noble Grape steps in. Their mission is really to take true value in the small wine producer and bring the product into the market and into the hands of the everyday consumer. Their mission statement is:
At Noble Grape Wines, we hand-select high-quality wines produced in limited quantities from the very best regions of the world. For two generations and over three decades, we continue to embark on discovering artisan wineries led by single wine makers that must practice indigenous fermentation methods, sustainable farming approaches, and organic and/or biodynamic principles. The result is our edited selection of thoughtfully made wines of the highest quality and integrity, which are well-balanced in alcohol, acidity and tannins and predisposed to helping nurture and sustain a healthy body and lifestyle.


On our June 2nd event, we had the honor of receiving 4 of the wines they represent:

1. Mandragola 2006 by Azienda Agricola Paolo Cali' (Frapato)
2. Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi DOC 2009 by Azienda Santa Barbara (Verdicchio)
3. Terra de Casteani 2007 by Tenuta Casteani (Super Tuscan)
4. Tatti 2009 by Tenuta Casteani (Sangiovese, Alicante & Merlot blend)

The wines were simply amazing and their reception amongst our guests was phenomenal.

Usually what I try to do is pair the wines with the food, but in this case, after having tried the wines before preparing the final dinner, I modified the recipes to fit the flavors of the wine. Not many times does this happen, but when it does, it usually offers an amazing experience overall.

Overall we were very happy with the results from the wines and the night turned out to be extremely memorable!

More on the night to follow.

Thank you Noble Grape Wines for allowing us to try your amazing wine selections. Keep your mission alive!

Think big of the small...

Join us for Dinner!

Our next event is getting closer and we still have some seats available. The 5 course meal will be influenced on Peruvian cooking, so you can expect to have some amazing and very different food!

Click on this link to purchase your ticket or copy and paste the following URL https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/177751

Hope to see you there!

Amazing video from Tripfilms.com

Our friend Kelley Ferro from Tripfilms.com created this amazing video of her experience at one of our Thursday's at Worth St. It was a chilly day in December, but we had such an amazing time with them.

Please enjoy and let us know your thoughts!

Cinco de Mayo - Event Menu & Wine

~Please click on the image to view full size~

Another dinner has come and gone... and what an amazing one it was. This time around we took the full menu very personally. Worth Kitchen decided to take an American celebration of Mexican culture and bring real Mexican cuisine and wine to everyone. We had the pleasure to serve 50 people in the beautiful SoHo penthouse loft. The menu was inspired not only by street food, but by traditional food you would find in a Mexican home. We decided to take Cinco de Mayo back and celebrate its true flavors.  5 courses spanning the wide variety of food in the country, starting with a ceviche and ending with a tres leches cake with a hibiscus sorbet.

But the food was not the only part of the dinner. In fact the most amazing part was the fact that we were joined by a small boutique winery from the north of Mexico. Bodega Rivero González  shared 5 of their amazing wines (see menu above for full details). Their wine was, for lack of better words, amazing and completely unexpected. The reception for them was amazing as people fell in love with the wine and the very creative bottle designs. If you ever have a chance, please check out their wines. Well worth it.

Another Mexican aspect of the night was art from a very talented young Mexican artist Karen Dana. Her concept of using small pieces in large spaces worked beautifully. All her pieces following the theme of the night, food and dinner, were exceptional and brought a great vibe to the night.

To everyone that was a part of the magical night, thank you. We hope to see you all again at one of our dinners.

Stay tuned for more of our up coming events!

Worth Kitchen on Vegetarians

For us it is not only our pleasure but a very fun challenge to always provide a vegetarian option for all of our guests. As we just wrapped up our Cinco de Mayo event, it was very fun to figure out a delicious option for our veggie loving guests. Our goal is to make the plate look as close to the omnivore options. Why make the vegetarians feel like they are having a completely different meal?

Well, we think the word has spread around, because the amount of vegetarians that have been coming to our events have been increasing more and more. From having one or two per night to having 11 in one seating is phenomenal. All I can say is that we love having you you at our events!

Check out the amazing review that Jesal from Veggiewala wrote about her experience in the St. Patrick's events in March. 

We look forward to many more vegetarians at our dinners.