Copyright 2013 by Made Nice, LLC
Photographs copyright 2013 by Francesco Tonelli
Illustrations copyright 2013 by Michael Mabry
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Humm, Daniel.
I love New York : ingredients and recipes / Daniel Humm and Will Guidara.First edition.
pages cm
Includes index.
1. Cooking, American. 2. CookingNew York (State)New York.
3. Local foodsNew York (State)New York. I. Guidara, Will. II. Title.
TX715.H89445 2013
641.59747dc23
2012026491
eBook ISBN: 9781607744412
Hardcover ISBN: 9781607744405
v3.1
Introduction
A Moment in New York Cuisine
We were drinking Manhattans in a Paris hotel bar when Daniel first told me that he wanted to write a book about New York cuisine. It was a statement prompted by an ongoing conversation the two of us had been having, reflecting on trips we had taken over the past couple of years, to Lyon, Paris, Tokyo, Piedmont, discussing how in each of these places, there is a collective pride in placeeach citys cuisine a celebration of its home.
Yet in New York City, one of the greatest dining cities in the world, it has never been this way. Here, for the most part, our cuisine has always had a sense of place somewhere else in the world. Our city, so often referred to as a melting pot, is brimming with virtually every culture and tradition. As a result, you can get almost everything here simply by going to an ethnic neighborhoodthat microcosm of a foreign countryor to a local distributor. Its one of the coolest things about living in New York, but it can also be our downfall. Too often, because everything is available all the time, we forget to look at whats growing in our backyard. In spite of the fact that New York is one of the greatest agricultural regions in the world, we have never fully developed our own identity.
So we decided to write this bookto play our part in the conversation to define What is New York Cuisine? and to join the growing local movement that has begun to take shape around us.
We acknowledged early on that a local cuisine begins with its local ingredients. This book, then, we realized, had to be not only a collection of recipes but also a collection of the ingredients that comprise them and of the incredible men and women who work tirelessly to make their existence a reality. There was a lot we needed to learn.
So Daniel and his team spent weeks driving around New York, visiting countless farmers who cultivate amazing ingredients, learning about their land and their crops, tasting their products. What he found along the way was that New York is full of lush farmland and dedicated farmers who are producing some extraordinary things. We found that their stories are compelling, their products outstanding, and their commitment to preserving the New York agricultural tradition exemplary. He chose to highlight the farms and ingredients that he had come to respect the most on his travels throughout the state. The more he learned about these farms and their farmers, the more we became interested in New Yorks culinary trajectory throughout the ages.
This took us beyond the ingredients, to the historical narratives, and more researchand we quickly discovered that although our citys culinary identity is not quite intact, there are some wonderfully unique traditions that have existed over the years. We became obsessed with egg creams and soda fountains and Delmonico steak. We learned about their origins and their evolutions, about the legends that surrounded them and the people who invented them. An entire genre of food that was classically New Yorksmoked fish, potato chips, the oyster pan roastall these dishes speak to this citys history not only as Americas immigrant melting pot but also as a rich agricultural center. We decided to include these recipes and stories as well, because they had their cultural roots here in New York, but, perhaps even more so, because they had their agricultural roots here, too.
And so it was there in that Paris hotel bar sipping on that quintessential New York cocktail, reflecting on our relationship with New York and our budding fascination with it, that we decided to write this book. But it was through the process of writing it that we learned to fully understand the magnificence of our hometownnot only because of its lush farmland and the people that cultivate it, but also because its centuries-old culinary narrative has left an indelible imprint on American history. And we realized, in the humblest of terms, just as generations of immigrants and entrepreneurs had before us, that we love New York.
How to Use This Book
When we were writing our first book, Eleven Madison Park: The Cookbook , we asked ourselves whether or not people would cook from it. And as it turned out, there was no simple answer: plenty of people did cook from it with persistence and well-stocked kitchens. But plenty of others lovingly placed it on their coffee tables. With this book, though, we wanted the answer to be an emphatic yes. Our recipes, while designed in our restaurant kitchen, are meant to be cooked at home. While there are some that will require an abundance of time and tenacity, there are many that will yield almost instantaneous results. And while each recipe can be created with ingredients from anywhere in the world, the farm profiles should serve as a resource such that if you are cooking in New York, youll know the best ingredients our state has to offer. Its worth noting, moreover, that all of the farms featured in the book are located within 150 miles of New York City, a characteristic that we found to be crucial to the essence of this book and its narrative.