Category — Restaurant News & Reviews

Pastry chef Varin Keokitvon, Spanish Ambassador Jorge Dezcallar and Jose Andres. © Stephen Gosling

Bigotry and arguments in Congress have made “immigrant” a nasty word. So it’s nice to see foreign-born Americans being honored for the contributions they make to our Melting Pot. And it’s nice to see the actual pot — that is, the culinary arts — being recognized as an area of worthy achievement.

Tomorrow night at a dinner in New York,  The Vilcek Foundation will bestow its 2010 prize for achievement in the arts on Spanish-born chef Jose Andres. Andres, credited with pushing Spanish culinary culture to the forefront of American consciousness is best known for his Washington, DC-based restaurant empire and for his gastronimc experimentation at award-winning establishments including minibar and The Bazaar in Los Angeles.

The Vilcek Awards, created by Czech-American Jan Vilcek, are designed to raise awareness of contributions made by immigrant Americans in the sciences, arts and culture. This is the fifth year the prizes have been given, and the first time one  is being bestowed in the culinary arts.

Andres will share the stage with Laos-born pastry-chef Varin Keokitvon, a Chef Instructor for the Seattle-based FareStart, who trains homeless and struggling individuals for careers in the culinary arts. Keokitvon is taking home the prize for Creative Promise in the Arts.

Judges included Dan Barber, Executive Chef and Co-Owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, editor of the late-great Gourmet magazine Ruth Reichl, Food and Wine editor Dana Corwin and James Beard Foundation president Susan Ungaro.

Four finalists also include:

• Malaysia-born Michael Cheng, Director / Associate Professor of Culinology at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall, MN.
• Japan-born Yoshinori Ishii, Tasting Menu Chef at Morimoto in New York, NY.
• India-born Nandini Mukherjee, Chef/Owner of Aamchi Pao, New York, NY.
• Russia-born Boris Portnoy, Consulting Pastry Chef, Candybar; California Walnut Commission; Blue Bottle, San Francisco, CA.

Tim and Nina Zagat have done more to democratize dining in America than perhaps anyone else. Check out this awesome interview with the culinary couple on SmartPlanet by my good friend Melanie D.G. Kaplan.

I am officially declaring a mini-trend in izakaya for Washington, DC (the journalistic threshold for a trend is usually three, so two, in my book, makes a mini-trend.) Never mind that izakaya are already passe in New York and that in Honolulu they’re just a way of life. For us in the nation’s capital, this is big stuff.

Kushi opened recently in the city’s Mt. Vernon neighborhood, following on the heels of uber-chef Wolfgang Puck’s creation of a pan-Asian izakaya menu at his downtown venue, The Source. The new addition pairs the city’s most extensive sake menu — more than 60 small batch, filtered and unfiltered brews — with Japanese nibbles from sushi to yakitori that is cooked sous-vide then finished on the grill. The sushi is disappointing, but the maki rolls are tasty and full of crunchy tobiko. Oysters on the half shell and miso-doused green beans stand out. The cavernous space full of criss-crossing overhead duct work won’t satisfy your craving for a cozy Japanese pub. But if you feel the urge to sidle up for a Sapporo and a few out-of-the-ordinary tapas, Kushi’s got you covered.