Big Apple Life

A collection of posts on Life in the Big Apple along with interviews with foodie friends

Cathy Cochran-Lewis

I recently reconnected with Austin-based Cathy Cochran-Lewis, the global marketing programs coordinator for Whole Foods, when I was headed to her city for a mini-sibling vacation. I wanted to pick her brain about where to eat, knowing she'd have fabulous recommendations as she's so involved in her city's culinary activities. When we spoke, Cathy reminded me that we first met at the Greenbrier resort (West Virginia) at the then Symposium for Professional Food Writers where she also first met Julia, as Julia and I were both presenters. Our paths have crossed umpteen times since then. We both served on the board of the International Association of Culinary Professionals; she served [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:31:57-04:00February 8th, 2017|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Nathalie Dupree

I met Nathalie Dupree — a multi-talented food professional — many decades ago in Ashville, North Carolina on a chicken original (3074) trip. That was when the then National Chicken Council hosted food editors on yearly press trips to teach us about the industry. Nathalie actually got married during one of those trips, as I and two other editors stood up for her as her bridesmaids on the beach in Jamaica. Best known for her approachability and her understanding of Southern fare, Nathalie is a best-selling author with 14 cookbooks and more than 300 television shows. She's a productive food professional having been the Founding Chairman of the [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:34:05-04:00January 3rd, 2017|Foodie Interviews|2 Comments
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Florence Fabricant

If you're a New York Times reader, you'll recognize the name Florence Fabricant. She's one of their longtime food and wine writers, who contributes the weekly Front Burner and Off the Menu columns. We first met at a table on the ocean-view terrace of Beechwood (Astor) Mansion in Newport, RI with Jeremiah Tower and his crew on the lawn grilling our lunch. It was an Ocean Spray cranberry event in the 80s. Florence has written 12 cookbooks, including The New York Times Dessert Cookbook (St. Martins Press), The New York Restaurant Cookbook (Rizzoli) and The New York Times Seafood Cookbook (St. Martins Press). Now that I'm a full-time New Yorker, [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:39:08-04:00November 25th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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The Next Big Bite: The Media’s Influence on What We Consume

The Next Big Bite:  highlighted key trends in a discussion about the media’s impact on food and drink decisions. This second annual event was held last month at the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) in Brookfield Place, New York City. It was sponsored by Les Dames d’Escoffier New York (LDNY), the preeminent organization of women who are leaders in the fields of food, fine beverage and hospitality. The New York chapter (LDNY) is the founding and largest of the 37 chapters in the United States and abroad. The centerpiece of the evening was a panel discussion moderated by Martha Teichner, correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning, featuring Carla Hall, Co-host [...]

By |2017-09-03T08:09:36-04:00November 23rd, 2016|Other happenings, Rambling|0 Comments
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Devin Alexander

When 15-year old Devin Alexander tipped the scale at 200 pounds, she decided to do something about it. By the time Devin left for Smith College she had trimmed down. Devin has maintained her own 70-pound weight loss for over 20 years, turning the nondeprivational way she did so into her successful career. Devin lives and eats her message —  you don’t have to deprive yourself to be fit and healthy. Devin is the author of 8 cookbooks including “The Biggest Loser Cookbook” Series and “The Most Decadent Diet Ever." She's appeared on numerous national TV shows and has been featured in magazines, including Prevention, Men’s Health and Shape. Today, [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:41:21-04:00August 29th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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The 13th Annual Second Helping of Life Tasting Event in September

SHARE will celebrate its 40th Anniversary at the annual “A Second Helping of Life” tasting event on Monday, September 19, 6 PM at Pier 60, Chelsea Piers with almost 30 of NYC’s premier women chefs offering up their signature dishes (scroll down). Chef Angie Mar, Executive Chef of Beatrice Inn and Chopped Grill Masters Grand Champion in 2015, will serve as the event’s Executive Chef. All proceeds will benefit SHARE. Tamsen Fadal — PIX 11 Evening News Anchor — will serve as the evening's host. Founded in 1976 by breast specialist Dr. Eugene Thiessen with twelve breast cancer patients and survivors, SHARE currently serves 40,000 people annually with free supportive [...]

By |2017-09-03T08:03:33-04:00August 16th, 2016|Other happenings|0 Comments
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Alison Awerbuch

Alison Awerbuch grew up in a home where her mom read Gourmet and enjoyed entertaining — creating a menu, setting the ??????????????? stage, preparing the food and serving it with style. This upbringing planted the seeds that grew into her catering career. It wasn't, though, until half way through college that she realized those passions. She finished college with a business degree then headed to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) for another. Her first job was at Abigail Kirsch, then a small catering company in Westchester. More than 25 years later, Alison is still with the company — only now she's a partner, running and expanding the [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:41:32-04:00August 15th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Maria Loi

When Maria Loi and I met in 2013 on a French wine crawl that stopped at her then Upper West Side eponymous restaurant, she mentioned that she felt we'd met before. After chitchatting, we discovered that we actually may have met in the 70s on the Greek isle of Hyra! I stopped by her year-old restaurant Loi Estiatorio in Manhattan — where she's the executive chef — recently to learn more about her beginnings. I knew she had written more than 35 cookbooks (including Ancient Dining, the official cookbook for the 2004 Olympic Games and her most recent The Greek Diet HarperCollins 2014), cooked for President Obama at the White [...]

By |2017-09-03T13:11:39-04:00July 18th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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David Bonom

You may not recognize him, but David Bonom is the face behind many of recipes you might use. He develops these creations Marge Perry David Bonom Love, Lobster, Strawberry Cupcakes Cookbook for myriad food companies and — along with his food-writing wife Marge Perry — has a regular column in Rachel Ray Every Day. If  you're one of those who can't sleep, you might catch him cooking on ABC's World News Now, an overnight television news program airing during the wee hours. David and I met umpteen years ago at one of the many press events we both attended. With me as his agent, we also worked together for [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:47:10-04:00July 3rd, 2016|Foodie Interviews|1 Comment
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Sara Moulton

My first memory of meeting the talented Sara Moulton was at the Good Morning America set in the 90s. She was working in the GMA kitchen as their executive chef prepping for the food segments; I was appearing in my inaugural network spot to promote Rice, my first cookbook. We worked together many times after that as I did numerous GMA food trend segments. Our paths would then cross on press trips or at media events, as the food community during that era was quite small. But Sara's food career began long before her GMA days when she was associate chef for Julia's Julia Child & More Company TV show [...]

By |2017-09-03T13:11:49-04:00June 5th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Darra Goldstein

I ran into Darra Goldstein recently at the James Beard Foundation Media awards; I was a judge and her latest book was nominated. Funny, as we first connected long, long ago when I — as a newspaper food editor — judged the then Tastemaker Awards and her first cookbook A Taste of Russia, was nominated for that award. Darra and I later met at a Stolichnaya vodka event at The Russian Tea room when she was consulting for the restaurant and a spokesperson for the vodka. I recall her teaching us how to chug that libation while keeping a clear head. Be sure to first have some bread slathered in butter!  [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:50:19-04:00May 22nd, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Ruth Reichl: What Everyone’s Talking About on April 20

Join food critic, editor, and best-selling author Ruth Reichl on Wednesday, April 20, 2016 from 7:30 - 9:00PM at the JCC Manhattan (334 Amsterdam Avenue at 76th) as she describes her recent journey away from Gourmet magazine and back into her own kitchen. This journey resulted in her  book, My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life. A six-time James Beard Award honoree, Reichl captures not only her zeal for the great meal, but the joy to be found in small culinary encounters and how what we eat can animate our lives.  For tickets ($25 the public, $20 members) to "What Everyone's Talking About: Ruth Reichl," click here. For more [...]

By |2017-09-02T09:28:19-04:00April 12th, 2016|Other happenings|0 Comments
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Kerry Heffernan

I first met Kerry Heffernan when he was the executive chef of South Gate, which at that time was at the Jumeirah Essex House; today it's a Marriott. Sadly, I missed him cooking at Eleven Madison, where he had opened that restaurant as Executive Chef and eventually become a partner before heading to South Gate. Kerry is currently chef at Grand Banks, the seasonal oyster bar and galley on the deck of the Sherman Zwicker, an historic cod fishing schooner moored at Pier 25 New York. The floating "oyster barges" that lined Manhattan's waterfront in the 18th and 19th centuries inspired this restaurant that serves up sustainably harvested oysters, ingredient-driven [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:50:24-04:00April 10th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Dana Jacobi

Like many of us in the food business, Dana Jacobi has followed her passions and has been doing what she loves for decades. She started her food career as an unpaid kitchen worker in France; Dana says that she’s “the first woman to apprentice in several French 3-star restaurants.” I met Dana a bit further along in her career when she was working at Prodigy  — one of the first online consumer services. That's were her writing career began, with one of first food blogs. Beginning in the late 80s, she penned  The Bytable Feast, an online only food column. Since then she’s written 15 cookbooks, including the most recent The [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:53:26-04:00March 27th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|1 Comment
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Charlie Marshal

I met Charlie Marshal last fall at a holiday event where he was sampling root beer popcorn balls, ones that ended up on the pages of In Style magazine. Soon after that, I visited his farm-to-table eponymous restaurant in Hell's Kitchen and became impressed with his emphasis on cooking locally, seasonally, and sustainably. He is passionate about all this as he grew up in the business — on his family's farm and in their restaurant on Lummi Island, WA. The Marshal was just received three stars from the Green Restaurant Association and was awarded NY Wine & Grape Foundation’s Restaurant Award. Charlie's currently working on opening a yet-unnamed wine bar [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:53:49-04:00March 13th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|1 Comment
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David Ransom

David Ransom's career in the wine business began when his parents and brothers collectively decided to buy the Rivendell Winery in the Hudson Valley. That was the mid-80s. Today he's a wine and spirits writer, speaker and educator, whose work can be seen in print (Tasting Panel Magazine, SOMMjournal) and on the web (The Connected Table, InsideFandB), and heard — along with his wife Melanie Young — on radio (The Connected Table, Live!). When we spoke recently, he was preparing to fly to Houston for a TV spot on wine. I had to ask, what he likes best about his current career. He chuckled, “When someone says, ‘I’ve read you [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:55:45-04:00February 28th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Eric Kayser

Eric Kayser was in town to promote the opening of his first Maison Kayser in Brooklyn (57 Court Street). Luckily for him, that visit coincided with a contest for NYC's best baguette that was held late last month at the Sofitel hotel. I was at that contest, sampling crusty baquettes and specialty breads from more than a bakers' dozen bakeries, who were the finalists of French Morning’s readers’ poll. The bakers' breads were pitted against each other in a blind juried tasting to win the title of Best Baguette in NYC. Eric Kayser's baguette was crowned best — both the public's and jury’s choice. So when I posed our Guest [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:55:52-04:00February 14th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Brian Lewis

I first met chef Brian Lewis when I was invited to dine at the elm, his former restaurant in New Canaan, though I had sampled his cooking prior to that. He was the executive chef at actor Richard Gere’s The Bedford Post Inn, a Relais & Chateaux property. I had been impressed with his unusual blend of flavors and textures and gladly followed him to his newly opened The Cottage in Westport. (A review of that meal will post later this month.) Brian was raised in New York (Westchester) and studied at the Culinary Institute of America and Johnson and Wales University. He, his wife Dana and their twin boys [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:59:38-04:00January 31st, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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Marci Izard

I first met Marci Izard when she was a traffic reporter for WTNH in New Haven. She's come a long way since then with stops anchoring in Springfield (MA) and reporting and hosting cooking and mindfulness segments in Houston (TX). Marci currently writes her blog (Marci's Table) for the Houston Chronicle's chron.com, launched her own site (marciizard.com) and published her first cookbook, "Nourishing Your Whole Self: A Cookbook with Feelings" encouraging her readers to become more aware of how food makes them feel. We spoke to Marci recently, and asked her to respond to our Guest Foodie questions. - bonnie BonnieBOTB Follow @BonnieBOTB Which food product or gadget would you [...]

By |2017-09-03T11:58:37-04:00January 18th, 2016|Foodie Interviews|0 Comments
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