Restaurants – FoodWatcher

Chef Jackie Carnesi Brings Her South Texas Spirit to an Iconic Brooklyn Diner

We’re celebrating remarkable women in the worlds of food and design throughout Women Are Amazing Month (aka Women’s History Month, Food52-style). Is there a woman we should be profiling? Let us know.

Shortly after Jackie Carnesi arrived in New York …

We're celebrating remarkable women in the worlds of food and design throughout Women Are Amazing Month (aka Women's History Month, Food52-style). Is there a woman we should be profiling? Let us know.

Shortly after Jackie Carnesi arrived in New York City fresh out of culinary school, she became a fixture at one of Brooklyn’s biggest restaurant empires, Roberta’s. She's been tapped to lead equally impressive restaurants ever since. Following Roberta’s, Jackie became executive chef at Nura, where she filtered her experience and South Texas upbringing—she grew up on Tex-Mex and Mexican cooking, alongside the Southern staples of her Tennessee mom—through the lens of Indian cuisine. Though this was unfamiliar terrain at the time, she gladly, easily met the challenge (Nura became a Michelin-recommended restaurant under her helm).

The Truth Behind Restaurant Health Inspections

So you’re on your way to dinner, and as you approach the restaurant, you see the dreaded Grade Pending sign hanging in the window. Should you turn back? Abandon all hope? Frantically get on Resy and pray there’s a decent opening in a few hours? Fortuna…

Note: all facts and figures are based on the New York State inspection infrastructure.

How One Chef Makes Infinite (Yes, Infinite) Desserts Every Night

Every night at Valhalla, a restaurant with a $188 tasting menu located on the mezzanine of a crowded food hall in Chicago’s West Loop, Tatum Sinclair prepares infinite desserts. Infinite as in unlimited—all you can eat—desserts.

Unlike the breadsticks…

Unlike the breadsticks at Olive Garden, Tatum’s desserts are curated and customized to each diner’s preference. In theory, the concept is simple: Tatum will make you as many desserts as you’d like, so long as you finish what’s in front of you. The execution is more complex, as she preps, makes, and plates each dessert—which includes sorbets, ice creams, cakes, pavlovas, and something she describes as “the center of a cinnamon bun”—entirely by herself.

Magical Candy Bars That Anyone Can Bake at Home

I’ve long sought a grown-up candy bar, and think I’ve finally found it. The Lübeck Marzipan on the dessert menu at Koloman, a French restaurant in Flatiron, has the scent of an almond cake, the crunch of brittle, the chewiness of a great macaroon, and …

I asked Emiko Chisholm, the pastry chef at the restaurant, to come by our test kitchen to show me how to make this magical confection.

3 Dinner Parties Coming to Food52 in December

Line cooks are the unsung heroes of a restaurant kitchen. They’re the crew that plates your tartare and cleans out the deep fryer every night. The team that stays late so you can order half the menu five minutes before closing—and then organizes, sanit…

Line cooks are the unsung heroes of a restaurant kitchen. They’re the crew that plates your tartare and cleans out the deep fryer every night. The team that stays late so you can order half the menu five minutes before closing—and then organizes, sanitizes, and prepares every inch of a restaurant before it opens the next day. These often-overlooked culinary pros will soon play a starring role, though, in a series of Monday night dinners hosted at Food52 in partnership with OpenTable starting Dec. 4.

Called The Lineup, the series features current and former cooks from NYC restaurants Don Angie, Cosme, and Misi and is the brainchild of chef and Today Show Culinary Contributor Elena Besser. She came up with the concept after working for a year and a half on the opening team of Missy Robbins’ famed restaurant, Lilia, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

8 Recipes From 2023 James Beard Award Winners

This post contains products independently chosen (and loved) by our editors and writers. Food52 earns an affiliate commission on qualifying purchases of the products we link to.

Earlier this week, the James Beard Foundation announced its 2023 award…

This post contains products independently chosen (and loved) by our editors and writers. Food52 earns an affiliate commission on qualifying purchases of the products we link to.

Earlier this week, the James Beard Foundation announced its 2023 award winners. The awards—often referred to as “the Oscars of food”—are intended to recognize “the people behind America’s food culture.” While the foundation has been heavily criticized over its selection process, the awards continue to carry weight within the food community (as evidenced by the Instagram posts of proud award winners) and remain an indicator of exceptionally talented individuals, restaurants, and companies within the industry. We’ve been fortunate enough to work with some of those talented people over the years, so we’re sharing eight of our favorite recipes from this year’s James Beard Award winners.

A Practical Approach to Reducing Food Waste, According to Manhattan’s Marea

Marea, a sizable restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, did not reduce its food waste with “5 easy hacks” or some miracle composting machine. Instead, the restaurant addressed the issue practically and methodically—and it’s exactly how you could reduce waste…

Since 2022, Marea has operated as a “zero waste” restaurant, meaning that at least 90 percent of its produced waste is diverted from landfills. Instead of hauling its garbage to a New York City dumpster—which could end up rotting in Ohio—nearly all of this restaurant’s waste is sent to a commercial composting plant, where it’s processed and transformed into organic fertilizer.

Our 12 Favorite Recipes From Beloved Restaurants

You don’t need to work at a critically acclaimed restaurant to learn its recipes. More often than not, the secrets behind celebrated dishes are made available to the public through cookbooks, articles, and videos. These recipes are great for two reasons. First, they’re often very instructive—chefs that spend years making food that people want to eat often know something about cooking. Second, recreating a restaurant’s dish at home is a great way to experience what a spot has to offer if you're not able to visit in person.

Keep reading for 12 of our favorite restaurant recipes you can make at home.

The 52 Best Coffee Shops in NYC, According to Our Staff, Contributors & Community

I’ll be the first to admit that trying to decide anything—where to eat, where to shop, where to drink—in New York City is a difficult task because, well, there are just so many options. Choosing the best coffee shop, needless to say, is another one of …

I’ll be the first to admit that trying to decide anything—where to eat, where to shop, where to drink—in New York City is a difficult task because, well, there are just so many options. Choosing the best coffee shop, needless to say, is another one of those near-impossible endeavors, especially since there’s at least one (sometimes three) on any given block. Where’s the best brew, and where are the best pastries? Which places are great for a quick pit-stop, and which have the best seating for an afternoon of computer work?

While we recognize that this list represents just a small sample of the beloved coffee shops across all five boroughs, these 52 options—hand-picked by our staff, contributors, and community—provide a great starting point.

We’re Launching a New Travel Column—& We Want Your Recommendations

Hello. Welcome. Greetings. Howdy?

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our new travel column, 52Cities. Written by former Food52 editor Marian Bull, the column will celebrate the 52 best food, shopping, and culture destinations in a given city. Re…

Hello. Welcome. Greetings. Howdy?