 |
The show Top Chef 2 highlighted many of our modern thoughts on food. Celebrity chefs, food as entertainment, and an increasing gourmandism made it Wednesday’s highest rated cable TV show. Perhaps most surprising is that the mild-mannered New-American chef Sam didn’t win, neither did the cute classical French chef Elia, nor the weasily molecular gastronomist, Marcel. Rather 24 year-old Ilan D. Hall, formerly a line cook at the Spanish restaurant Casa Mono in New York, won the competition. And now it’s official, Spanish food has arrived as the new Italian.
It wasn’t always this way for everyone. The ardent foodies have been obsessed with Spanish food for some time now. They buy Ferran Adria’s $200 cookbook and travel to San Sebastian for a 3-hour scientific, gastronomic tour-de force. They try to smuggle in the ethereal Jamon Iberico risking certain fines and imprisonment, or is that just me? They drink Mencia from Bierzo or Manzanilla sherry and hit the new hot tapas bars as soon as they open. Yet, while Italian food reveled in the spotlight of New York’s dining scene throughout the 90s, Spanish was stuck with paella (admittedly delicious when done right) and gazpacho. Still, if anyone can present Spanish to the masses, it’s Mario Batali: the man who convinced America that there’s a difference between Italian food and chicken parmigiana.
When I returned to New York from spending the summer in Madrid in 2003, there was nary a place to get the exciting small plates of food I came to love in Spain. A few months later, Casa Mono opened with Batali/Bastianich backing laying the groundwork and offering legitimacy. Six months later it was Tia Pol, then Urena, Barca 18, 1492 (yet another Clinton St. favorite) and a host of others. Last year, the owners of the Italian wine bar, Bar Veloce got the hint and opened Bar Carrera, a Spanish wine bar right next door. On January 16, 2007 executive chef Andy Nusser and GM/sommelier Nancy Selzer of Casa Mono won a prize at the 2nd Annual Copa Jerez International competition for Best Medium Sherry and Food Match.
