What do you bring to the table?

Part of the magic around Thursdays at Worth Street is detecting what people bring to the table. I am not talking about food or wine here, I am talking about the emotions, thoughts and feelings people bring over with them, and how these end up playing a crucial role in defining the experience of the night.  And don’t get me wrong, we love taking all of these emotions in! Whether these are feelings of happiness, sadness, tiredness, forgiveness, whether a guest has a grudge to hang on to, a moment of disillusionment or a guest who just wants to seat back and enjoy a hopeful moment, there is a space for all these emotions here at the Worth Kitchen. I am not sure whether its the food, or the wine, or the fact that these happen on a Thursday, a timeframe when people are already loosening up to the weekend, but one doesn’t have to pull very hard for all these different emotions to pop out. Maybe its food therapy, music therapy, wine therapy, or just sharing all of this among friends. Maybe it’s the fact that we keep calling this an experiment, so all the thoughts and emotions people bring with them float around in limbo, not hitting one hundred percent reality, but also not hollow enough to not create some impact, like emotions that get handed out on test tubes. Well, whatever the reason may be, we love it and look forward to that every Thursday. What will our next guests bring to the table? And will these feelings change or be able to turn a corner after passing through our kitchen? Whatever the case may be, every Thursday, we hope that people leave with a full belly and hopefully a happy heart. And at the very least, I hope our guests leave knowing that its better to just lay it all out on the table before calling it a night. Thanks to all of our guests for bringing so much to our table and making each and every one of our Thursdays a truly memorable experience.

It's not called a dinner if it doesn't have an experience...

Dinner #9 was a perfect example of those very special times, when the experience gets right up there with the food, both equally delicious. Our guest had brought over spectacular bottles of wines and the night and all its guests caught complete and utter flow. The experience itself was so good, that at a certain point in the night I had forgotten that we still had to eat dinner, and that the very reason why all six of us where there in the first place, was for a delicious dinner. This doesn’t mean that the dinner is only the excuse for connections to happen and for people to get together, it means that the emphasis is split right in the middle, without sacrificing one for the other – both the experience and the food become king. The fun challenge is, how to excel in both, and that is the challenge for all of our Thursday dinners at the Worth kitchen. I have to say that this dinner was one of the nights to come so close to perfection in both aspects, the experience and the food. Best of all is that two of the invitees were our neighbors and great friends of ours. Funny thing is, they called themselves the “default” invitees, there in case we have a last minute cancellation and where they could just come up a couple of floors and join us. Well, I have to say, this was everything but a default dinner and will probably go down in the Worth books as one of the most memorable ones. So here is to the “default” couple, for managing to up the ante on our dinners and always bringing fun and entertainment to the experience!

Some Change Makes for a Little Excitment

So with the pork vs duck fiasco behind us, the pork meat actually made for a delicious dinner. Not only was the diner fantastic, but the guest had an amazing time. I think this was the longest Thursday we have had up to now, 1:30, especially considering that one of the guest had to wake up at 5:30. (as a follow-up to this, he woke up at 8...)

So for the recipes of the night:

Chilled Avocado Soup with Truffled Buttermilk Foam
1 1/2 cup of buttermilk (chilled and well shaken)

3 ripe avocados

1/4 cup of heavy cream

1 chopped chipotle chili

1/2 cup of crumpled pan fried panceta

3 table spoons of whit truffle oil

Salt & pepper

In a food processor add the buttermilk and the chopped up avocado and begin to mix. slowly add the heavy cream and the chipotle. As soup begins to thicken, turn power up on the processor and leave mixing for abou 2 minutes to make it smooth.

If you have a espresso machine at home, or if you have a whipper, add about 1/4 - 1/2 cup of additional buttermilk with the truffle oil. Create a foam that will go on top of the soup for additional flavor when served.

Sprinkle the panceta over the soup.

Pork Sirloins with Malbec Reduction Sauce

6 Pork Sirloins
1 bottle of Malbec wine (don't go for the cheap stuff, if you won't drink it don't cook with it)

2 shallots

4 tb spoons of butter

Sauce:

Melt 2 tb spoons of butter in a saucepan and add the chopped shallots. Stir until soft. Add one entire bottle of malbec wine and let reduce for about 20 to 30 minutes over medium heat. The wine will reduce by 3/4.

Pork:

Preheat the oven at 350°. Melt the remaining butter in a large pan over high heat and place the salted pork loins. Sear them for about 1 minute on each side. Place in over for about 10 minutes until well done. Remember pork should never be pink inside, always white.

To serve, cut the pork into inch thick slices and serve on plat in fan style. Then add the wine reduction over the meat. Sprinkle some sauce around the plate for added decoration.

Red Quinoa with Tomato, Avocado & Mozzarella
1 cup of red quinoa
2 chopped avocados
1 halved cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup of fresh mozzarella chopped in cubes.
2 cups of chicken broth
2 tb of butter

Previous to cooking the quinoa, rinse the quinoa thoroughly with water. Once clean, place quinoa in the pot under medium heat, add some salt and pepper. Begin by adding ¾ of a cup of chicken broth into quinoa and let it absorb the liquid. Continue to add more broth until the quinoa has slowly risen and absorbed all the liquid. Approximately 20 minutes.
Once cooked, add the tomato, avocado and mozzarella and stir in . The heat of the cooked quinoa will absorb the flavors of these ingredients and make a delicious dish.

Live a Little, Trust a Little!

Things changed a little bit on this Thursday, in preparation for dinner #9. A little bit of role reversal if you will. You see, Tamy has been wanting to participate much more in the prepping stage of each diner. This time around I gave her perhaps the most important role… grocery shopping. It might be a personal thing, but I love buying the food I am going to be working with that night. Its like an artist buying the paint he is going to use on the canvas, its personal. But I trust her with my life, so of course I will trust her with our kitchen. So it was agreed one day before that Tamy was going to try a new location to purchase the food, Chelsea Market. Man was she excited.

That Thursday started like any other. Tamy left to work way before me, a little stressed about her workday and also about her latest responsibilities with the groceries. I was writing up in an email all the grocery list so she could print it out at work, then I got ready to leave. While turning off the lights before taking off, I found a very particular item that Tamy had left behind… her cell phone; this was going to be a problem. I have to be honest, I was considering pulling the plug and going on my own to the market. What if one of the important ingredients was no where to be found? How would she get a hold of me and ask what to do? (she doesn’t even know my phone number without her cell phone) The plan for that night was to cook duck breasts in a wine reduction sauce. Duck is not the easiest meat to find… but I had to be strong and have faith in her capacity to know what to buy. And I did, Tamy went that afternoon to Chelsea Market all by her self, with no cell phone, confident that she would get everything we were looking for.

Meanwhile, I was in the apartment getting ready for her arrival to begin cooking. I made sure the apartment was presentable. So I began to prep the kitchen as much as I could before the food arrived. The counter was squeaky clean, my knives were sharp, the food that we already had in the fridge was out, the onions were cut. Tamy was still no where to be found. I picked up the phone to call her, quickly remembering that her phone was in the room next to me in the same place she had left it that morning. 20 minutes before the guest arrived, Tamy triumphantly walks in with three bags of groceries. I knew at once that there was something wrong. She had that nervous face on. A little smirk, her left lip raises a bit, giving a small sense of false security, but since I know her all to well I knew something was off. And then came the confession…

They were out of duck breast. The key ingredient to the diner was gone. I had a feeling that something was going to happen. But instead, the fine people at Dickson’s Farmhouse Meats recommended we use pork sirloins instead. This came after about 30 minutes of a nervous Tamy explaining to them what the plan for the dish was and the importance of the duck breast. Apparently one of the people at the store said this would probably taste even better than duck. And even though I was very doubtful of that comment at the beginning, I was extremely pleased with the results. Tamy did a great job her first time buying the ingredients for a Thursday diner and definitely a special props is needed for the great service at Dickson’s Farmhouse. The duck will have to wait for another night.

A Night to Remember... with our First Video!

To all the die hard loyalist and fans of our project... it is with great pleasure and joy that I present to you the latest in our multimedia effort to bring the world into our kitchen. One of the privileges of working within the advertising world is that we work with some very brilliant creative minds., one of those minds decided to create a video about the experience. I give you all the first ever Thrusday at Worth St video brought to you by the very talented Raul Mandru & Michelle Burgess

Thursdays at Worth St. http://twitter.com/worthkitchen from Raul Mandru on Vimeo.

What is Creativity?

This was one of those days. You know the type… struggling to get through the day. In meetings from 9 AM to 5 PM straight non stop. Sometimes wondering what on earth is it that I am really doing here. I know it happens to a lot of you. Sitting through a conference call and all you hear is the voice of Charlie Brown’s teachers “whah whah whah!” People complaining for the sake of complaining; “You’ll ruin the concept.” “We cannot remove that line, it’s the only thing holding that creative idea together!” “This concept is off strategy!” “This strategy is off brand!” “We need the TV spots ready in one week!” This, ladies and gentlemen, is what the ad world has come to. Forget those days when things looked like they did on Mad Men, that show is fiction and so is that life. The glamour of advertising is gone. Creativity through advertising is not necessarily dead but it tinkers on the edge of a long abyss.

Creativity in these modern days has taken on a whole new dimension, or rather it has evolved from what it used to be. The internet gives the inspiring author a place to write and be read, the proliferation of digital cameras allows everyone to become a photographer, and anyone with a computer and a kitchen can become an aspiring chef and restaurateur. And, well, that’s where we come in. Food creation is, in my opinion, still to this day a creative dimension that transforms everyday. People love experiences, and being creative with your food and its presentation is only half of the challenge. The experience in itself needs to be just as creative. You can place a table with 4 chairs around it and call it a restaurant, but the ones that succeed are the ones that have a concept and a solid strategy to them. And to succeed you need to be creative.

Worth Kitchen has been an experiment in creativity for us. Our concept is very straightforward. Through the kitchen and the table we offer you an amazing dinner with completely different people every time in the most intimate of settings, our very own living room. This blog allows us to share the experience with everyone. We have officially set a deadline of 15 dinners to begin working on where we are taking this towards. What is the next level for us? We feel the concept we have built is very fun, and has received a lot of praise. So now, starting dinner #10 tomorrow, we have 6 more dinners to figure out our next steps… and loving every second of it!

Felipe's Rant...

Here is to those who have inspired us

We wanted to take a short commercial break and pay homage to some of the NYC restaurants that have inspired the Worth Kitchen. Whether through their food, the restaurant experience they are able to achieve, the unassuming decoration, the extraordinary service or the creativity achieved through the dishes. Here is to all of you, for making us nostalgic about Latin America and jealous for not coming up with those dishes first, for reminding us that food can be magical and for keeping us guessing what the hell is going on in the kitchen.

Here is to all of you, our true daily bread and butter.

Café Condesa

Rabbit in the Moon

Barra

Jacks Luxury Oyster Bar

Sandros

Café Gitane

SHO

Sushi of Gari

Loconda Verde

One if by Land Two if by Sea

La Esquina

Little Giant

Barrio Chino

Maruzzella

Macao Trading Company

Public