Parting With Such Sweet Sorrow...

The time has come my dear friends to say goodbye to Thursdays at Worth Street.

Not only has our year long experiment just celebrated its one year anniversary,  but the Department of Health has let us know that we can no longer continue having dinners open to the public in our apartment, cooked from our kitchen. Even though we never charged for these dinners, we were still "putting at risk the health of the public." Two weeks ago we got served with the notice to cease and desist all activity at our apartment and get our permits in order.

But fear not my friends! Worth Kitchen will continue its life! Thursdays at Worth Street may have come to an end, but Worth Kitchen will continue to have its amazing dinner parties. (We now have our permits in order!)

Also we are on the search for a new location where the intimate dinners can continue. Stay tuned for more information...

In the meantime, to all of those who have participated in our Thursday dinners... from the bottom of my heart, Thank You! Without you we would have never achieved any of this! For all the laughter, for all the crying, the amazing stories, the nutty people... this was for you! Thank you...

Be on the look out for our next event "Funeral For a Friend" for all of our past guest so we can all together bid our farewell to Thursdays at Worth Street and rejoice in the future of Worth Kitchen. Oh so many plans to come! This is just the beginning of the incredible journey...

Stay tuned...

Please email us for more information and all of our upcoming dinners:
info@worthkitchen.com

Thank you all for your amazing support.

(We still have some post from past dinners that we need to post, all those will be coming soon!)

A Sneak Peek to Thursday's Dinner

So today I learned from Chef Joan Roca, from El Cellar de Can Roca, that icecream absorbs about 35% of aromas from its surroundings. So if you are smoking a cigarette while making icecream, it will absorb the smoke and that taste will reflect in the final product.

So that gave me an idea. Coincidentally I am making a rosemary lemon ice cream today for Thursdays dinner. I also have a big stick of sage and wild grass incense, which smells delicious when burnt. So I devised a way to get the smoke into the ice cream maker... Lets see what happens when the tastes merge!

And for everyone going to the dinner on Thursday,  please let me know your thoughts!

Smoked Ice Cream?

The make shift top lock in the smoke into the opening of the ice cream maker. The cold air of the machine creates a temperature inversion and lets hope the final product tastes great!

Creativity on its way to work

There was a time, not long ago, when creativity became 100% analytical and academic. As soon as we first discovered the word, we automatically fell in love with the concept of it. The more we studied it, the more fascinated we became with it. This fascination got creativity to be center stage at podiums, conferences, blogs. We became so mesmerized with the theory of it that its actual practicality took a back seat. Creativity became that gifted child everyone wanted to stare at, study and analyze. It was at  dinner #35, that I saw it is now finally being put back in motion, we have reached a time, when creativity is back in the drivers seat and if you want to get your hands on it, you’ll have to get them dirty.

Invited to our dinner were all kinds of creative types. Among them Michael Hastings Black, creative strategist for Apple, Maria Popova, founder of Brain Pickings, Caroline Potter, Chief dining Officer at Open Table and Curt Potter, Director of Branding at Blue Point Brewery. As we sat for dinner, the conversation could not have been more unpredictable. Before I knew it, all our guests were submerged in a conversation about farming. Caroline and Curt, we learned, make their own jellies and sauces in a small garden/farm at her Long Island residence. It turns out Maria and Michael had also done some farming themselves and were looking into doing some more of it in the future.  This instantly reminded me of a copywriter at my agency, who recently talked to me about his new found passion for butchering. It also made me think of myself, who has gone from thinking strategy to actually building plates, serving food and seeing the actual product come to life at every one of our dinners. Without me realizing it, just like our guests, I have now become a thinker AND a doer.

Now, could it be that our creative industry is finally getting their hands dirty? Are we starting to do just as much as we talk? Perhaps we’ll start solving more problems and creating more solutions. And while we keep imagining things that don’t yet exist, maybe we are starting to actually build them as well, in a way no one could have imagined. Let the era of creativity begin!

Thank you to our guest who fuel our imagination so that we continue building our ideas.

SPRING IS HERE!

Join us as Worth Kitchen helps bring in the warmer weather!

Thursday April 14th, Worth Kitchen will be celebrating spring the right way, with great food and amazing wine!

We would love it if you could join us!

Reserve your spot HERE

A Chef's Take on Foodies: Or Why We Love Daniel Boulud!

In a recent interview by Claire Sibonney from Reuters, Daniel Boulud (Daniel, Bar Boulud, etc) reflects on his life in the kitchen of some of the most famous and popular restaurants he has owned. He goes on to talk about certain food fads that he hates to love as well as what some of the latest ingredients he is playing with. All this is great fun, but there is one amazing quote from this interview that sets it apart from any other I have read.

Q: What do you say about the backlash against foodies and the self-indulgence they stand for?

A: "I think in France for example, we can say whatever we want about the French, but going out and dining is more about the intellectual moment to share with the people you dine with than trying to figure out what the chef did with that little piece of salmon or lobster and all that. It's more about the conversations, it's more about the privilege to share a moment with your friends and not be so obsessed with everything going into the plate and around it ... I think luxury and pampering and refinement and rarity in what you have stimulate your intellect. I take so much pleasure at seeing customers who are happy, happy with what they eat but happy with their friends and sharing a great moment together and I think that is more important in life than the endless pursuit of perfection."

It seems as if the questions was based off the recent uproar on an article from The Atlantic, "The Moral Crusade Against Foodies" however his answer was so on cue. A rare response from such a high end and respected chef. This is one of the reasons why we do what we do at Worth Kitchen. The food is just a means to create this intellectual and social stimulation. Trust me, the food is very important to us, and we push ourselves to deliver on quality and flavors that are expected (and hopefully unexpected as well), but by no means is the food the front and center of what we do. As he says:
"I take so much pleasure at seeing customers who are happy, happy with what they eat but happy with their friends and sharing a great moment together and I think that is more important in life than the endless pursuit of perfection"

Thank you Daniel for putting in words our very own manifesto!

The Menu from the March 17 and 18 Events

As we were looking for a fun theme we ran into St. Patrick's Day. Our first plate was a ver specific ode to Ireland, from there on out almost every plate had the irish colors.

For everyone that was there, thank you for making the night so special! We had a great time. Its amazing what happens when you have such an amazing mix of people. 2 nights 40 people each night!

Enjoy the menu and many more pics and posts to come!

Click to view

London in New York

It was one week during the winter where the weather was so foggy and rainy that it really felt as if we were on the other side of the pond. So we thought it was only right to pay homage to our English brethren... Worth Kitchen style.

We chose three traditional dishes and placed a unique twist on them.

1. Fish and Chips - Tiraditos of flounder and tuna with blood oranges and red and gold beets fried
2. Shepherd's Pie - Traditional recipe with ground lamb and added Mexican and Peruvian spices
3. Toffee - Warm chocolate cake  with delicious toffee and toffee/vanilla ice cream

We lack some picture but you can see for yourself with what we have that it was a great success.

We had a great time with our friends from Apt 4 and Jenny for Grub Street!

Enjoy!

The tiraditos and the beets served as our Fish and Chips. Yes, I know it was a stretch but it was delicious!

The shepherd's pies were individually served with aji panca and a red wine reduction sauce.

And here they are, our friends and guest for the night!