Taste Of The Nation is one of the largest charity walk-around tastings, with all proceed going towards Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign; the non-profit is dedicated to ending childhood hunger in America. This year’s New York City event will be led by Honorary Chair Danny Meyer of the Union Square Hospitality Group along with Culinary Co-Chairs Anita Lo of Annisa and Bryce Schuman of Betony. Some of the participating chefs who will be preparing special bites for the event include Lalito’s Gerardo Gonzalez, Samesa’s Eli Sussman, Oddfellows Ice Cream’s Sam Mason, Atoboy’s Junghyun Park, and Maialino’s Nick Anderer. Special culinary programming — as including The Doughnut Derby, Rosé Garden and Candy Carnival — will also help to make 2017’s Taste Of The Nation a unique experience for all in attendance.
This year’s event takes place on Apr. 24 at 180 Maiden Lane, kicking off at 6:00 PM for event-goers with VIP tickets. Downtown spoke with chefs Eli Sussman and Gerardo Gonzalez to learn more. Further info can be found here.
Eli Sussman: I started as a volunteer with Taste Of The Nation in Los Angeles seven years ago. At that time I was working in marketing and was asked to help on that committee to promote the event. After I left the advertising world and moved to New York City to become a line cook, I continued volunteering with Taste of the Nation in New York City. As I’ve grown in my cooking career I was asked to be part of the chef host committee and have been helping with the event by asking chefs to take part and promoting it by doing guest chef appearances around New York.
Gerardo Gonzalez: I’ve worked with some of the organizers before, and I’ve been a big fan of the cause and mission behind the event.
What’s to be expected from your participation in this year’s Taste Of The Nation?
Eli Sussman: Samesa restaurant in Williamsburg — which I co-own with my brother Max — will be one of the participating restaurants. We’re excited to serve our organic chicken shawarma at the event.
Gerardo Gonzalez: I’m working on a special item that will be introduced on the new spring menu at the restaurant. I’m debuting the dish at Taste Of The Nation.
Otherwise, what’s coming for you and/or your restaurant?
Eli Sussman: This summer we’re opening up seasonal locations of Samesa restaurant and Ed and Bev’s — a Detroit style diner concept serving sliders and chili dogs — down at Jacob Riis Beach in the Rockaways. And at the end of this year we’ll be opening an all-day cafe in Detroit called Wida’s.
Gerardo Gonzalez: We’ll soon be launching new items and menus inspired by the changing season. Very excited to get back to the food that inspired the restaurant.
When not busy with food, how do you like to spend your free time?
Eli Sussman: I like to plan New York City adventure days for me and my partner. Usually we’ll go to a museum or see some art, hit two or three restaurants, go looking for good vintage shopping, and either sit in a park or when the weather is bad play try to hit a dive bar with old video games and skeeball. Basically just try to enjoy the city and cram a ton into one day.
Gerardo Gonzalez: Biking around the city, going to all the neighborhoods.
Finally, any last words for the kids?
Eli Sussman: It’s been an honor to play a small role in the Share Our Strength No Kid Hungry campaign to raise awareness for childhood hunger. I cannot wait for the day, hopefully in my lifetime, when we come together to eliminate childhood hunger once and for all. No child should be worried about where and when their next meal is. They should be playing and learning and just being a kid.
Gerardo Gonzalez: I’m really excited to be contributing to this event that provides such a great service.
While women have made inroads in culinary education, professional kitchens and restaurants in recent years, the ratio of women to men across the spectrum from line cooks to chefs/owners remains low. In turn, the James Beard Foundation’s 2017Women in Culinary Leadershipprogram takes initiative to increase gender equality within the food world. Applications are now open for the program, with 20 positions available and 19 top industry leaders currently signed on as mentors; deadline for submissions is Sunday, Mar. 12.
Founded in 1986, the James Beard Foundation celebrates, nurtures, and honors chefs and other leaders making America’s food culture more delicious, diverse, and sustainable for everyone. The Beard House, as located on West 12th Street, will be hosting Women Chefs Rule on Feb. 27 at 7:00 PM. Downtown had the pleasure of speaking with Dirt Candy’s Amanda Cohen — who will be participating in Women Chefs Rule — and JBF President Susan Ungaro about food, working with the JBF, and what they have coming up.
More information on the James Beard Foundation can be found at www.jamesbeard.org, while Amanda’s popular establishment can be visited online at www.dirtcandynyc.com.
Susan Ungaro: When I joined the Foundation as President over 10 years ago, having come from being Editor-in-Chief of the woman’s magazine Family Circle, it occurred to me just how few women were being recognized in the culinary/restaurant industry, and how this did not reflect the diverse food world in which we live. I was set on designing a James Beard Foundation program that encourages women to break through the “gastro-ceiling.” Rohini Dey, a JBF trustee and founder/owner of Indian-Latin Vermilion Restaurants in NYC and Chicago was the first person to call the roadblocks for women in our food world “the gastro ceiling.” In 2012, Rohini and I spearheaded the Women in Culinary Leadership program, a paid mentorship program which helps aspiring women chefs and restaurateurs build in-depth leadership and management skills either in the kitchen, or in restaurant management and hospitality.
Who were the first big supporters of the program?
Susan Ungaro: Rohini Dey was the co-founder of the WCL program and first major supporter. When we developed the concept of an accelerated learning and leadership model, the curriculum was initially tested by Rohini and her staff at Vermilion. Rohini mentored the first WCL recipient, Eliza Martin. Support of the program grew in consecutive years after that. An incredible group of restaurateurs and chefs around the country signed on to financially sponsor the women and train them in their kitchens and restaurants. Among the first mentors were Christina Tosi, Momofuku Milk Bar, New York City; Elizabeth Blau, Elizabeth Blau & Associates, Las Vegas; April Bloomfield, Spotted Pig, John Dory Oyster Bar, The Breslin, NYC; Kevin Boehm, Boka Restaurant Group, Chicago; Kevin Brown, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, Chicago; Tom Douglas, Tom Douglas Restaurants, Seattle; and Cindy Hutson, Ortanique Restaurants, Miami.
Susan Ungaro: I’m proud to report the WCL program has grown consecutively over the last four years, and for the class of 2017 there are 20 positions available offered by 19 mentors. A total of 28 Women In Culinary Leadership positions have been offered over the past three years, and of those candidates who have graduated, most have received job offers from their mentors.
The James Beard Foundation has expanded its commitment to correcting the gender imbalance in the culinary industry by launching another Women’s Leadership Program this year. The Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (WEL) program, which began accepting applications for the inaugural class on Feb. 15, 2017, is designed for female chefs/owners interested in growing and expanding their current culinary business. The program was initiated by JBF supporter Jodie W. McLean, CEO of EDENS, one of the nation’s leading private retail real estate companies, and will be supported by additional grants, including Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, a Founding Partner of the WEL program. WEL comprises an annual fellowship for a class of up to 20 women to attend a five-day entrepreneurship/leadership training program that will run from Sept. 10 to 15, 2017, developed with and hosted at Babson College. Targeted to women chefs/owners of one restaurant or food business, the curriculum will address advanced business and finance concerns related to entrepreneurship and expansion, as well as provide gender-specific training and leadership development. An emphasis on work/life balance and other cultural issues will also be part of the program.
In addition to the Babson curriculum, JBF’s Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Program will create and administer a group of mentors who agree to provide expertise and career development support to the participants on an ongoing basis once they leave our business leadership program. Occasional in-person meetings and webinars will be encouraged throughout the year in order to grow a strong network of women leaders across the country. Members of this advisory committee include James Beard Award Winning Chef Traci Des Jardins; Ruth Gresser, chef/owner, Pizzeria Paradiso; Cindy McLoughlin, JBF Trustee and Partner with CohnReznick; JBF Award-Winning Chef and Trustee Anne Quatrano and more.
What makes a person eligible to apply for the JBF Women in Culinary Leadership?
Susan Ungaro: Women with a background in hospitality or the culinary arts and at least two years of relevant work experience are encouraged to apply for a chance to participate in an eight-month mentor program with top industry leaders such as Rohini Dey, Richard Melman, Tom Douglas, Mary Sue Milliken, Elizabeth Blau, and Gina and Linton Hopkins. In addition to generously financing the sponsorship of his or her candidate, the mentor designs a development trajectory at inception, which evolves depending on the mentee’s performance and ability. Monthly written reports and coaching conference calls with the James Beard Foundation are an additional way we evaluate progress and to provide feedback and encouragement to maximize the learning experience.
What are some of the New York restaurants that have placed people via your program?
Susan Ungaro: The 2016 WCL program is the first year that has included a New York restaurant mentor and the program is still ongoing, ending in May 2017. April Bloomfield has mentored two women in this class at her restaurants The Breslin and The Spotted Pig. I’m confident that one, if not both women will receive offers to stay on.
Accepting applications aside, what’s coming up for you?
Susan Ungaro: All of us at the Foundation are busy making plans for our James Beard Awards this spring. We celebrate the best of food media in New York on Apr. 25 hosted by Andrew Zimmern and then move to Chicago for our May 1 Restaurant & Chefs Awards Gala hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
Amanda, you are cooking at the Women Chefs Rule dinner at the James Beard House on February 27. What does it mean to you to cook with an all-female lineup?
Amanda Cohen: People might say it doesn’t matter, but it does. The food press has ignored female chefs for years, and there are a lot of us out there, so to have us all in one room, cooking at the same time, is a way of saying that we are not mythical unicorns. We exist in large quantities.
What do you primarily look for in a new kitchen employee? Are there particular skills? Is it the attitude?
Amanda Cohen: There are lots of things that I look for, but the number one is showing up. Seriously. Just show up. That’s half the battle right there.
Amanda Cohen: When I choose between my children, it’s usually the youngest who gets favored, and the newest item on my menu is my most divisive: the pumpkin pad thai. The noodles are made of butternut squash and they’re garnished with fermented pumpkin and pumpkin dumplings. It’s a lot of pumpkin. What divides people is the sauce. My sous chef is Thai and we worked really hard to make sure that the sauce was real pad thai sauce — not take-out pad thai sauce, –and that means it’s very sweet and very sour and very spicy all at the same time, and for some people that’s just too much.
What was the first restaurant you ever worked at in New York?
Amanda Cohen: I did an internship in the pastry department of Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill and it was eye-opening. I had to throw out almost everything I learned in cooking school and rebuild my skills from the ground up. I think I cried at least once a day.
When not busy with work, what do you like to do for fun?
Susan Ungaro: Escape to the movies — looking forward to the Oscars. And cook and eat simple comfort food at home with my family.
Amanda Cohen: Drink.
When not working, what are some of the restaurants you like most in New York?
Susan Ungaro: My favorite restaurant is the James Beard House. I think of us as the most dynamic place to eat in the city.
Amanda Cohen: I rarely go to the same place twice because I’m always trying whatever’s new, but a few places I’ve gone back to more than once are Anita Lo’s Annisa because it’s just a classic, and Jonathan Wu’s Fung Tu. We have all these Korean chefs right now who are getting acclaim for bringing high-end dining to Korean cuisine, so I don’t understand why Fung Tu isn’t getting hyped for doing the same thing with Chinese. [Editor’s Note: Fung Tu was recently featured on the Downtown website.]
Finally, any last words for the kids?
Susan Ungaro: For more information and/or to apply to the 2017 WCL program, visit jamesbeard.org/women-leadership-programs. Also, our call for culinary school scholarships will be online soon. Check out our website, jamesbeard.org, and sign up for our free e-newsletter, Beard Bites, to stay up to date on this exciting food world of ours!
Amanda Cohen: Show up. As a life philosophy I know it’s not the most inspirational but — honestly — you can’t get anywhere if you don’t even bother to show up.
Established in New York City in 1987, L.A. Burdick Chocolate was largely-inspired by travel to France and Switzerland by founder Larry Burdick. He and wife Paula — a graduate of the Fashion Institute Of Technology — co-founded the company, as known for both its pure chocolate and its hand-made delicacies. Beyond its online and mail-order offerings, L.A. Burdick now has stores in New York, Boston, nearby Cambridge, and Walpole, New Hampshire; its New York operations are now run out of SoHo on 156 Prince Street.
Beyond the quality of its ingredients, one of Burdick’s trademarks is its seasonal and limited-edition items. Not only does L.A. Burdick have specialty chocolates available for Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day, but such is also made special for St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and the birthday of Robert Burns each year. More about this was uncovered via Q&A with Michael Klug, Burdick’s Head Chocolatier, and Cathy Watson, the brand’s Chief Operating Officer.
How does your new store in SoHo compare to other L.A. Burdick locations?
Cathy Watson: The new location is set up with the same structure as our other locations. It is a bit more compact as it is the smallest square foot store, but it gives us the opportunity to focus on the chocolates. After all, that is who we are.
Michael Klug: All of our store locations have the same flair of old-world Europe, with warm wooden tones on our displays and a welcoming feeling that I would best describe as “ cozy comfort.” However, our Boston location is our largest store with a very generous display of chocolate products and extensive seating capacity. Our Cambridge location is a favorite institution among college students around Harvard Square. The seating and display is more limited.
The SoHo location is our smallest store location, but reflects the same style as all our other stores. Walpole, where we are headquartered, is similar in size than our Cambridge store, with a little larger display option for products. We also have in Walpole our largest loose bonbon display. The café in Walpole shares its store with a local restaurant/bistro that is similar in furnishing style, but does not belong to our company.
To you, what makes L.A. Burdick different from other chocolatiers?
CW: Integrity. Love. Passion. All the ingredients necessary to stay true to who we are and the commitment to continue to give the customers the freshest, highest-quality product consistently for 30 years.
MK: This is a very wide question, and all other chocolatiers are so different from each other in the first place. We stand out by having an extremely strict commitment to freshness; we give our fresh bonbon assortments a shelf life of two weeks. We don’t use any preservatives, artificial ingredients, food colorings or molds. All of our chocolates are very detailed, garnished, are truly handmade and we use only highest-quality ingredients. Our signature chocolate mouse is present in each bonbon assortment and gives our exquisite elegant look a unique charming touch, that separates us easy from all other chocolatiers.
In addition, we focus on the chocolate flavors in our creations and have them being paired with their individual seasonings but not dominated. You will always be able to taste the finesse of the chocolate that is used in our Fig, Raspberry and Ginger bonbons, for example. At last, our hot drinking chocolate stands out as one of the most decadent, rich, complex hot beverages that can be found.
Where are your chocolates sourced from? Or is that a secret?
MK: We source our chocolate from Central and South America, the Caribbean Islands and Madagascar. We only source chocolate that meets our highest criteria, where we want to taste the quality of the cocoa upfront and not the sugar profile that is added to the cocoa. This is a wide problem with mediocre chocolate, that even in a high cocoa percentage chocolate the sugar flavor can be upfront the cocoa flavor. It is due, in these cases .to the large particle size of the sugar crystals.
Do you have a favorite product from L.A. Burdick?
CW: That is difficult, I don’t believe I do. I have many favorites, and depending on how I am feeling will depend on what I may choose.
MK: I personally love the single-source chocolate bars and our chocolate assortment boxes the most. The variety of different creations in the boxes offer me a quick satisfaction for every type of chocolate mood I am currently in.
Are there any holiday-specific products being offered by L.A. Burdick?
CW: Yes, we make handmade chocolate snowmen. They come in a wood box of nine, tied with ice blue French-wired ribbon and handstamped with a silver wax seal.
MK: We have for every holiday a large selection of chocolates. Right now we offer chocolate snowmen, German Christmas Stollen, tuxedo penguins for New Year’s, Hanukkah decorated wood boxes for chocolate assortments and chocolate mice assortments. January, we celebrate Robert Burns’ birthday with a wonderful single scotch whisky assortment. We have a special Asian-inspired chocolate assortment for Lunar New Year. Valentine’s-themed chocolate boxes, which included handcut chocolate heart bonbons. Easter chocolates in a very large variety…Mother’s Day features our chocolate bees and a 10-flavored fruity, floral spring bonbon assortment. Hand-dipped chocolate Elephants from April to August to support the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. Halloween-based chocolates with chocolate ghosts, bats and chocolate assortments presented in a coffin box. Thanksgiving, we do handmade chocolate turkeys.
How do the current offerings of L.A. Burdick compare to what the store sold decades ago?
CW: The offerings are still to this day made the same way, and we have many of the same offerings, chocolate mice included. Michael has created other bonbons over the years to add to the collection, as well as creating specialty assortments for holidays…Other whimsicals have been added throughout the years. Snowmen, bunnies, ghosts…
MK: We always create new chocolate bonbons and products, but our style of how they are made and what characteristics dominate them is unchanged. We always look for very thin-shelled handmade chocolate products but our variety is more than doubled of what we did 20 years ago. Some products are still the same, like our classic mice and some of our bonbon like the Baton Framboise, Brazilia and Richelieu. But the variety offers so many options that were still not available back then like, turkeys, snowmen, special seasonal assortments, pate de fruit plain and chocolate covered and many many more.
New store aside, what is coming up for L.A. Burdick?
CW: We will continue to grow the company by putting in new stores in strategic locations, also continue to grow our mail-order business. In this business, when you talk about what is coming up, it’s really about continuing to source and making sure you are always getting the best ingredients. From the use of local farms for our cream and butter, to knowing where the beans come from that create the couverture used for our bonbons. There are so many companies that begin taking shortcuts to show a better profit, and we have to continually be certain that the products and ingredients that we purchase are always the best and will not allow ourselves to purchase anything but. This would mean, changing vendors if the vendor cuts corners.
MK: We will be expanding our retail program to Chicago this coming year, celebrating our 30th anniversary with the presentation of some special bonbons and drinks. Probably adding some more single-source options if we find cocoa sources that meet our standards.
Have you always been passionate about chocolate? Where did you work before L.A. Burdick?
CW: I have always had a sweet tooth — it is my downfall — and I have always loved business. So for me, this was a match made in heaven. I was in the restaurant business for many years before coming to Burdick’s. In fact, I bought a restaurant when I turned 21 instead of going to school. I taught myself how to be successful with a lot of hard work early on.
MK: I was passionate about food since my teens and so fascinated with it that in my early 20s gave up law school in Germany and did a formal education in the German cooking apprentice program. I was fortunate to learn 3 years in two-star Michelin restaurant in Cologne. From there I worked as a cook and pastry assistant under Eckart Witzigmann in Munich — if you Google him that will easy tell how special that experience was for me — and then was the pastry chef for Dieter Mueller’s restaurant in Bergisch Gladbach, which also achieved 3-star Michelin.
I moved to New York in 1993 and was pastry chef of Lespinasse under Gray Kunz and pastry Chef of Chanterelle under David Waltuck in 1997. After working for two years at The Mark Hotel in New York, I became Head Chocolatier at L.A. Burdick Handmade Chocolates in 2002. So my passion for food and chocolate goes hand in hand, but my base from savory food in my early years in the gastronomic world I consider my strongest asset as a Chocolatier. I always see our product as a delicacy and food product, and not as candy .
When not busy with work, how do you like to spend your free time?
CW: Hmm…This can sometimes be a problem because I am tied so closely with my position. But I love to travel, go antiquing, and just sit and look out at the ocean. Something low-key and calming.
MK: I always like to travel and taste the food of the world. Sadly that doesn’t happen too often, but cooking at home, enjoying fantastic wines especially reds from Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rhone, Piedmont and whites from Germany, Loire, Alsace and Austria. I also enjoy fly fishing and classical music. But most of my time is occupied with my family life — my wife Ann-Michele and son Valentin.
Any upcoming concerts or events for you?
CW: Personally? Unfortunately this time of year comes with no plans except a huge family gathering at my house Christmas Eve. I have had it for the past 15 years ever since my dad passed. I don’t have any concerts or events scheduled, I begin thinking of those things in the spring.
Do you have a favorite restaurant in New York?
CW: I personally don’t. When I am there, it is all business and I step out to grab a bite. But I love it when I go with Michael, because he is such a foodie that he always has a great place to go.
MK: I have to say since living in Walpole, New Hampshire since 2002, my exposure to the New York restaurant scene is limited. But I do love my dear friend Anita Lo’s Annisa very much. Also for casual great Germanic/Austrian fare, Erwin Schroettner’s Café Katja, the only place were you get great white asparagus when in season.
Finally, any last words for the kids?
CW: Children that are introduced to our chocolate at a young age learn about “real” chocolate. I know a few that have grown to become chocolate snobs and will not eat any other chocolate. It gives them a taste of a high quality product. They love the mice, penguins and snowmen!
MK: Good chocolate is not about cocoa percentage, only about great cocoa.
