Silver Ron - Bubbys brunch cookbook: recipes and menus from New Yorks favorite comfort food restaurant

ALSO BY RON SILVER

Bubbys Homemade Pies
with Jen Bervin

Copyright 2009 by Ron Silver

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

B ALLANTINE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Interior photographs: Ben Fink Photography

eISBN: 978-0-345-52968-8

www.ballantinebooks.com

v3.1_r1

FOR

MELISSA
(which is Greek for bee,
who makes the honey)

ABRAHAM
(who insists on blintzes)

LUC
(who insists on pancakes)

AND JULIAN
(who is presently content with Bees milk)

B runch brings back wonderful memories for me. Before people went out to restaurants all the time, folks cooked at home. Our familymy sister, brother, our mother, and Ilooked forward to weekend breakfasts together. There was no rush. There were no pressing deadlines, as opposed to weekday dinners when the topic was often homework, or chores, or whether or not things had gotten done, and if not, when they would get done. Brunch was almost bucolic.

For us, brunch was often about what was growing in our backyard in a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah. We would go out and pick raspberries off the thorny bushes, or apricots, or apples, and Mom would whip up something from the things we brought her. No one thought of seasonal then. Brunch was what we had fresh in the yard. But we also had perennial favorites: During the holiday season, we had crispy potato pancakeswith homemade applesauce. And blintzes, which we understood were an enormous effort that required two days preparation, at the end of which our entire freezer was packed with aluminum foil packages labeled BLINTZES . We also had sourdough starter developing in the fridge, and many weekends Mom made spongy, tangy sourdough pancakes dripping with butter and maple syrup. As a special treat once every few years, we would go for brunch to a place up Millcreek Canyon called Log Haven, where men in tall white hats would make omelets and pancakes to order. And while I enjoyed watching the food get made, Moms brunch fare was always better.

Inspired by the cooking of my mother and grandmother, I have, as a chef, always been motivated to search out the best of American home cooking, and to serve that at Bubbys. It has never been my aim to be fancy; let folks go to a fancier place for fancy food. My goal has been to create, with a few changes, home cooking the way I remember it from my childhood. Its important to me that people have a place to go where they can relax and enjoy unfussy, plain-old good cooking. Its also been important to me to encourage people to actually make these same delicious dishes at home.

Id been cooking professionally and perfecting the art of brunch for years before Bubbys Pie Company first opened its doors in 1990. Bubbysan old Yiddish word for grandmotherwas named in honor of both my grandmothers, Miriam Silver and Pearl Stahl. I told each grandmother individually that Bubbys was named for her. I know, sneaky.

The brunch comfort food offered at Bubbys was in high demand right from the start, and brunch continues to be our most popular meal. People want a brunch that their mother may have prepared or that they might make for themselves, and Bubbys menu bridges the gap between home cooking and food that was chef created.

Recommended in national magazines and travel and dining guides as the go-to place for brunch in New York City, Bubbys is where celebrities and everyday folk from all over the country flock to eat. With only a hundred seats in Tribeca, Bubbys still serves brunch to more than fourteen hundred people each weekend. And we serve about the same-size crowd in our DUMBO, Brooklyn, restaurant. Of course, many of these customers have asked for recipes and have wished that they could buy a copy of a book like this one. I always give my recipes to anyone who asks, and I always encourage people to cook at home because I believe eating together is one of the most important things that families and friends can do.

Bubbys is a homelike haven for everyone who loves home cooking, which is why it has evolved over the years from a tiny storefront into two bustling restaurants in New York City (and one opening in Yokohama, Japan!). On any given day, youll find neighborhood regulars sitting elbow to elbow with artists, chefs, actors, politicians, and truck drivers. It is not uncommon to be reading the newspaper and look up to see some celebrity you are reading about sitting right in front of you. One of the customers who lived in our neighborhood was the late John F. Kennedy, Jr., and I often caught him reading about himself over my shoulder from my paper. Sometimes I even said, Get your own paper, John! Theyre right over there.

Admittedly, Im obsessive when it comes to food and to brunch in particular. Ive drawn inspiration from assorted cookbooksearly American, Junior League, regional church groupsas well as from memorable recipes from someones grandmother or aunt. Ive researched, read, traveled, and corresponded in order to seek out the best brunch recipes and techniques and to bring them all together in this book.

There arent any concrete rules for what to serve for brunch. Its not a meal you have to prepare on a day-to-day basis. Brunch is by its very nature a relaxing repast that everyone looks forward to and likes to linger over.

Whether you are cooking for two or for twenty, whether it is served as a picnic in the yard, on fine china at a linen-covered table, or at a casual, self-serve buffet, brunch is a meal where you can let your creative side shine and where you can do as much or as little as you wantand still end up with that warm, contented feeling that comes from spending time around good food, good friends, and family.

O F ALL THE MEALS YOULL EVER MAKE, BRUNCH IS THE MOST FLEXIBLE, THE MOST FORGIVINGAND THE MOST FUN.

Brunch is a middle-of-the-day affair; it can replace breakfast or function as lunch just as easily as it can shine as the main meal of the entire day. Guests anticipate a good brunch by having a skimpy or skipped breakfast and treating dinner almost as an afterthought.

Brunch is also a perfect meal for lovers or would-be lovers to make together. Theres something romatic about preparing a feast on a weekend morning and then savoring it together while reading the Sunday paper. Its also the perfect meal for unattached twentysomethings just starting out on their own and entertaining friends: Theres a lot less pressure connected with having a brunch than having a dinner party. Its a meal meant for fun.