Soft serve is the only thing keeping us cool these days, making the 90 degree weather and humidity (almost!) worth while. It’s time we round up our favorites in the city, the old and the new!
Oddfellows recently opened a carnival pop-up inside Nolita’s Chefs Club, offering crazy carnival cones and soft serves. The pop-up is open all summer, entertaining you with jugglers and stilt walkers on the weekends. The soft serves are just as fun, including a cotton candy creamsicle (vanilla-tangerine swirl wrapped in cotton candy), the pink dip (raspberry sherbet soft serve with pink chocolate dip) or a caramel popcorn soft serve.
Address: 62 Spring Street Closest subway station: Spring Street
The Greenwich Village bakery isn’t just cookies, cakes and cream puffs this summer. Mah Ze Dahr now does soft serves too, incorporating its delicious baked goods as toppings. The classic flavors, vanilla bean or dark chocolate, are served in house-made waffle cones, with toppings such as dark chocolate brownie bites, caramel macadamia and meringue. Oh, and a drizzle of chocolate fudge or salted caramel sauce to top it off!
Address: 28 Greenwich Avenue Closest subway station: 14th Street
Milk Bar’s cereal soft serve with cornflakes is a staple, balancing both sweet and salty flavors. With so many locations in New York, including a location in FiDi, the famous soft serve is never too far away. Besides the classic cereal milk flavor, Milk Bar also offers its beloved birthday cake truffles and crack pie in soft serve flavors! Top tip: Order the treats and use them as a topping on your soft serve.
Address: 110 Wall Street Closest subway station: Wall Street
The biggest struggle we face during summer is wanting to eat ice cream all. the. time. But also wanting to keep our bodies fit for the season. Luckily, Cha Cha Matcha offers a healthier soft serve! Cha Cha Matcha’s soft serve contains the Japanese green tea leaves, which are packed with antioxidants. If you’re looking for an excuse to eat soft serve, here it is.
Address: 373 Broome Street Closest subway station: Spring Street
Tired of cups and cones? Taiyaki serves its soft serve in fish-shaped waffles, giving you the perfect picture for your Instagram. Flavors include matcha, sesame and… Unicorn: a pink and white soft serve topped with sprinkles, stars and a gold unicorn horn – in case you couldn’t tell, we’re pretty excited about this one. The flavor is a feast for the eyes alone!
Address: 119 Baxter St Closest subway station: Canal Street
The famous French pastry chef has opened his soft serve window in the West Village again, tempting us with two different soft serve specials for summer. The Burrata soft serve is back with balsamic caramel, microbasil, and confit strawberry inside the cone, taking us back to last year’s sweet memories. The new cold brew soft serve is infused with house-made milk and cold brew, using a special blend of La Colombe beans. It’s the sweetest way to cool down, while getting your caffeine fix at the same time.
Address: 137 Seventh Avenue South Closest subway station: Christopher Street
Launched last year, The Meadows Music & Arts Festival was a two-day event launched by Founders Entertainment, the team behind Governors Ball. Headliners at Citi Field included Kanye West, J. Cole, Chance The Rapper, The 1975, Grimes and Metric. Food and drink vendors, as curated by The Infatuation, included Roberta’s, Dough, Arancini Bros., Luke’s Lobster and Momofuku Milk Bar. Other on-site attractions included the Bud Light Beer Garden, the Don Julio 1942 Truck, the Viceland Tour Bus, and Sober Meadows.
In turn, the bar is set very high for the 2017 edition — now a three-day event — which returns to Citi Field from Sept. 15 to 17. While the lineup has not yet been announced, more than 60 performers are promised among the four stages.
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.
Trying to satisfy that sweet tooth this summer? Look no further than Milk Bar’s Strawberry Lemon Cake Truffles!
This vanilla cake truffle is mixed with lemon juice, enrobed in white chocolate and coated with strawberry milk crumbs, making it this summer’s tastiest treat. Its soft texture compliments the subtle lemon splash and sweet strawberry and milk crumbs that it’s rolled in. The cake itself is slightly under-baked and is rolled into perfectly shaped balls a little smaller than a golf-ball.
2012 James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year and 2015 James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef award-winner, Christina Tosi, founded Milk Bar in November 2008, and has been its head chef ever since.
Since opening, six of these bakeries have popped up all over New York, with one in Toronto and another opening in Washington, D.C. Tosi’s vision of the Milk Bar focuses on creating playful, American home-style desserts and savory snacks by using quality ingredients and locally sourced dairy.
“I was an infamously picky easter as a child, but also had an infamously sweet tooth,” said Tosi. “All I wanted was dessert for every meal of the day. My mother stopped allowing me to only eat dessert so I stepped into the kitchen to teach myself my favorite desserts.”
Her secret ingredient? Milk powder. With cookie dough being her absolute favorite dessert, Tosi created these truffles that are now known all over world. The Strawberry Lemon Cake Truffles are the most recent addition to the truffle family along side the Birthday Cake Truffles and Banana Cake Truffles.
This combo of lemon cake and strawberry milk crumbs is just one of Tosi’s creative fusions. The Milk Bar also makes cookies, custom wedding cakes, produces their own line of baking mixes and ships baked goods all over the world. You can also attend baking classes at the heart of Milk Bar at their Williamsburg location.
The Strawberry Lemon Cake Truffles are now available in all NYC stores and for shipping. To order some of these delicious treats please visit their website.
Photo courtesy of @sundazewith
Photo courtesy of Mah Ze Dahr Bakery
Photo courtesy of Siobhan Gunner
Photo courtesy of Cha Cha Matcha
