A year ago, restaurateurs Steven Cook and Michael Solomonov (Zahav, Percy Street BBQ, Federal Donuts, etc.) opened a pair of restaurants in the 1600 block of Sansom Street. One is straightforward enough….Dizengoff, which is a great little hummus restaurant, a hummusiya, pretty much in the mold of Israeli restaurants of the same type and named after the Tel Aviv street of the same name. Open middays only, it nevertheless has done fantastically well from a business standpoint as well as critical acclaim. Next door at 1623 Sansom is what some folks thought of as Dizengoff’s evil twin, Abe Fisher. Those who couldn’t get past whether or not its cuisine was offensive to Jews, particularly those who kept kosher (the corned pork belly reuben seems to be the go-to example) or was authentically the ”Cuisine of the Jewish Diaspora” as it claimed, had a tough time with the restaurant’s concept. This is not the food your bubbe made, or Cook’s or Solomonov’s bubbes either (both are of Jewish lineage). If you are culturally and/or religiously free of that issue and can look beyond it you are in for a treat. The dinner-only menu consists of three tiers of small plates that excite your palate, defy your stereotypes and break new culinary ground. Yes…it is that good.

With a youthful and bustling soundtrack we began our wonderful dinner.   After a pair of savory rugalach came a special small plate for the day, seared foie gras with pickled peach puree, blueberries, smoked walnuts on brioche French toast. What a revelation as the sweet/tart/smoky/buttery elements came to land on my tongue all at once, lubricated by a glass of Hungarian Tokaji. This is a sweet, botrytized wine that was a good alternative to the more common Sauternes pairing. For the rest of the meal, we drank a bottle of Montalbera “la Tradizione” Ruche di Castagnole Monferrato. Ruche is a variety of grape grown in the Piemonte of Italy and the wine was similar to a Burgundy (some say they are related). It was light and acidic with tastes of tart cherry, raspberry, and a touch of cedar. Selected by Brian Kane, the knowledgeable beverage director of the CooknSolo restaurants and manager of Abe Fisher, it fit the broad spectrum of dishes to follow. Now comes a whole host of small plates: salmon gravlax on a potato latke, chopped liver mousse on toasted rye with pastrami-onion jam (more French than Jewish), silky slices of tuna crudo over potato salad, pickled mackerel with Old Bay remoulade, farfel with toasted corn and black truffle, veal schnitzel tacos, and finally a tender-as-buttah slice of skirt steak on Romanian eggplant with marrow butter and Manischewitz steak sauce. This last item was perhaps the restaurant’s most traditional ying to their pork belly yang. Dessert was a blueberry crumb cake with peach compote.

The prices are surprisingly reasonable by Center City standards. Small plates are $10, $12 and $14, and a four-plate prix fixe is available for $39. For those who don’t want to deal with lots of small plates, there are large family style entrees, including dry-aged ribeye with poutine (potatoes, gravy, and cheese curds – a Canadian dish) or Hungarian duck Chinatown-style with kishkes, both serving 2…and a whole Montreal Short rib plate that serves four and is on my personal Restaurant Bucket List. They go for $75, $55, and $65 per person respectively.

I asked Brian Kane if there were any hiccups in the first year of operation. He confided, “It was pretty smooth, but there always are surprises as to how various menu items are received by diners.” The plan for the future is to stick with the restaurant’s concept, which Kane says is to “Take old world Jewish cuisine and reinterpret it in a new American way”. Why not? In the past year it garnered a three-bell Craig LaBan review and was a semifinalist for the James Beard Awards. Moreover, many folks have overcome their initial skepticism and reservations are not easy to come by. Admittedly, some are unable to enjoy Abe Fisher due to their beliefs, but for the rest of us Chef Yehuda Sichel has put together a thrilling take on comfort food that is at once old and new, international and American, familiar and creative, and always delicious.

Eli Kulp is in the fight of his life and he has lots of folks in his army. By now you are all too familiar with the story. Kulp…who as partner of Ellen Yin raised Fork to a whole new level…who opened High Street here and was working on a twin in New York…who took a.kitchen into a higher realm, was travelling to New York May 12 on Amtrak 188 and suffered a severe spinal injury in that derailment.   For weeks, the buzz was that the chef was in rehab. Period. Co-workers either didn’t know or didn’t say that this 37-year-old genius of a chef was paralyzed from the chest down and may never have use of his legs or hands again. Eli is in Shepard Center, a leading rehabilitation clinic in Atlanta trying to move the odds more in his direction.   His wife Merisa and three-year-old son Dylan represent another front in the battle…cash. A lawsuit has been filed against Amtrak, but settlement could take a couple of years and meanwhile there are the expenses of living and treatment. Folks have lamented and prayed, and on July 16 did much more…they gave of themselves and their products and raised $130,000 for Eli’s efforts.

We were there on that date as more than 300 customers, from foodies who enjoyed High Street for breakfast to wealthy patrons who wanted to be part of the event, donated $200 and more each to sample the wares of over 25 local high-profile chefs and purveyors who turned out at Fork. These professionals donated their time, ingredients, personnel, and goods to make the event one that no foodie with a heart would want to miss. Chefs/proprietors including Kevin Sbraga, Chip Roman, Michael Solomonov, Rich Landau, Nick Elmi, Josh Lawler, Greg Vernick, Charlotte Calmel, and Vetri’s Brad Spence all were manning booths among so many others. Locals such as Moore Brothers Wines, Yards Brewing, Bluecoat Gin, Franklin Fountain Ice Cream were there in full force as well.

Former mayor Ed Rendell turned up to present a proclamation and TV cameras rolled tape.   Guests entered a silent auction to win $25,000 worth of once in a lifetime, contributed prizes including items like a trip behind the scenes at Bon Apetit Magazine. Quite a gala evening.

Behind it though was the looming vision of this outstanding and caring chef, struggling with the reality that his life had taken a disastrous lurch, but one that had propelled industry cohorts as well as a large fan base to take action to provide Eli with some assets to deploy in his uphill fight. Call it love, charity, tzedakah, goodwill – it was there in plentitude on July 16, the one year anniversary of Mayor Michael Nutter’s proclamation of Eli Kulp Day here in Philadelphia.

This initially appeared on http://www.jewishexponent.com, for which I also write:
On May 13, I had a fabulous gastronomic experience without eating a thing. I was listening to a talk entitled, “How Lox Became Jewish: A History of the American Jewish Deli,” sponsored by the Dona Gracia group of Hadassah and delivered by Lance Sussman, the senior rabbi of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel. The rabbi, a top-notch author, speaker and nosher, made everyone’s mouth water with his description of Jewish deli food of yesterday and today.

I will tell you the tale of the smoked fish in a minute, but first some data about kosher food: According to Rabbi Sussman, kosher shoppers have represented a major marketing opportunity. He claims that 75 percent of the consumers of kosher food are non-Jewish, and 21 percent of Americans spend $10.5 billion on kosher products every year. This in a country that is only 2 percent Jewish!

The rabbi knows his Jewish soul food cold — and hot. His uncle owned a deli in Baltimore called Sussman and Lev, plus I would suspect that the rabbi has had a close encounter or two with great Jewish food. After serving up tasty stories about salt, schmaltz, gefilte fish, chicken soup, cholent, brisket, pastrami, hot dogs and pickles (told you it was mouthwatering), we got into the bagels and lox.

Bagels didn’t start out Jewish. They were invented in Krakow, Poland, in the 1600s, where the boiled and baked breads were food for Lent. Jews liked them and found them very easy to transport, so they spread like crazy with the traveling Jews. In the United States, the recipe was held in secret by the Bagel Bakers Local 338 in New York City, who controlled the recipe and production of bagels from 1907 until the development of the machine-made bagel in the 1960s. The bagel-making apparatus could produce 300 dozen bagels in the same time that two men could produce 125 dozen, and the die was cast. One of the early adopters of the bagel machines was Murray Lender of New Haven, Connecticut, whose frozen bagels can still be found in supermarket aisles to this day.

So now I will serve you the lox. “Lox” is derived from the Yiddish word for salmon, “lacks.” Salting and/or smoking the fish were a means of preserving it. Initially, salmon was not the “chosen fish.” Starting in medieval times, Jews salted and smoked herring to have food they could travel with. Through the ages, though, as the Diaspora widened and more Jews found themselves far from herring country, they made do with indigenous fish. This was more often than not salmon.

As you may know, there are many kinds of smoked salmon, which, thanks to modern catering and supermarkets, have made it into the idiom for our Sunday morning enjoyment. Nova, or nova lox, is cured with a mild salt brine and then cold-smoked. Lox is prepared the same way, but is saltier and comes only from the fatty belly of the salmon. Gravlax, or Gravad lax, is a Scandinavian method of preparing salmon with a spice mixture that includes dill, sugar, salt and spices such as juniper berries. It is cured, not smoked. Scottish-style smoked salmon (you know — the kind in the tartan-plaid package) is prepared by having the flavorings brushed onto the salmon, rinsing them off and cold-smoking or hot-smoking. Kippered salmon is produced in a similar manner.

According to Rabbi Sussman, the bagel, lox, and cream cheese combo we cherish came together at a deli in New York in the 1920s. I hope that there is some fitting celebration being planned for the centennial of this most sumptuous of sandwiches.

First, hello after what has been weeks of writing inactivity. Writer’s Block…maybe, but the fact that we were moving into our new Society Hill condo had more to do with my absence. That and finding that while we had packed only half of our earthly belongings at the suburban house we now see that we are going to have to cut again. I had a forty-year career in radio, and I feel compelled to save miles of tape and reams of articles to document it. Then there are my old report cards, car ads, airplane pictures, and nearly every Father’s Day card my son ever gave me. If I show up on one of those hoarder shows on TV you have to promise not to laugh, OK?

Still, a person has to eat, so April 20 I had to decide between baked chicken (again) or going to a benefit dinner at which three James Beard Award Semi Finalists from 2015 and another from last year were doing the cooking. The dinner was unbelievable. It was hosted at Le Cheri (I don’t own a piece of that place, but wish I did) by owners Charlotte and Pierre Calmels. It also was special in that it marked the 30^th Anniversary Celebration of D’Artagnan, the tres luxe purveyor of all that makes eating worthwhile (and the evening’s ingredients) and was a benefit for Philabundance, a local non-profit that collects uneaten food from restaurants and hotels around town and serves them to the hungry. Hey Bub…you going to eat that foie gras soup? Other sponsors were David Bowler Wine, which supplied all of the accompanying juice and Le Cheri.  Without further ado, let us set the Way Back Machine for that amazing evening.

We walked in to find all of the restaurant’s tables missing. Hmmm, exciting already. The evening was warm and the courtyard was open, but most of the tables were gone from there as well. No matter, the Domaine Collin Cremant de Limoux appeared and everybody got bubbly. Then the hors d’oeuvres (or is the singular proper for singular and plural…I never know). Luscious marinated and grilled lamb chops, straight from D’Artagnan, circulated as did duck consommé with a shard of truffle, merguez wrapped in filo dough, and more. After cocktail hour, we were summoned to go upstairs to a function room of the Philadelphia Art Alliance that houses the restaurant. Six large tables had been set up and were gleaming with the finest crystal, silver, and china.

First course was chilled foie gras with a pocket cut in it containing pear chutney. A little dollop of chorizo date compote was at the side. This dish was prepared by our host, Pierre Calmels, one of the above-mentioned 2015 finalists for Best Chef/Mid-Atlantic, a distinction earned in 2012, 2013, and 2014 as well. The unctuousness of the foie was cut by the same acidic Cremant we had enjoyed during the reception.

After appropriate welcoming comments by Ariane Daguin, Grande Dame of D’Artagnan, Chef Greg Vernick of Vernick Food and Drink sent out the second course. Greg is another of this year’s semi finalists for the same Mid-Atlantic award, and proprietor of the restaurant voted by Philadelphia Magazine as the #3 eatery in town. He prepared a mushroom salad, featuring king oyster mushroom carpaccio, braised morels, and pickled chanterelles. The interplay of umami and pickling spice was great, as was the crisp Cotes de Gascogne Domaine de Mirail Blanc 2013 served along with it.

Then things got really serious. Lee Styer of Fond (the 2014 semi finalist) prepared a squab breast and leg confit with coins of white asparagus and sautéed ramps. The absolute best offerings of spring. A rich Eric Texier, Chat Fou, Cotes du Rhone 2012 was poured and really paired well with the squab. Do you know what a squab really is? It is a young pigeon that never has flown! That is why they are so tender. Once they fly and thus lose their virginity, they are just pigeons.

The next course was really different. If it had Mediterranean overtones it was because it was prepared by Konstantinos Pitsillides, proprietor of Kanella, an incredible Cypriot restaurant here in Philadelphia. He is yet another of the 2015 James Beard semi finalists. His restaurant, btw, is moving to larger quarters at Front and Fitzwater streets and will have a liquor license. We digress…the dish consisted of lamb neck filet, grilled lamb ribs, thick and tart yogurt, all arrayed on a bed of orzo. The seasoning was authentic to the region, and it was fantastic. The Cahors was as black as its name, La Bete Noir, and equal to the task of accompanying the lamb.

Dessert was prepared by Le Cheri’s Pastry Chef, Rebecca Craig, and consisted of a block of chocolate mousse with duck bacon. Quinta do Infantado Ruby Port filled the squat glass next to the dessert and was every bit as rich as the chocolate.

After the dinner was a post-party with lots of chefs and professionals invited. Stuffed and tired as I was, I just couldn’t stay. Still, the evening was the best of the best…among the best chefs in the region…the finest ingredients…a wonderful cause…and folks who so enjoy the pleasures of the table.

A couple of days of spring-like weather are enough to put me in a positive frame of mind…that and my son was in town from LA over the weekend. The Dining Partner and I took him to le Cherie for dinner on Saturday night, and the meal was wonderful from beginning to end. I have been asking myself what it is that Charlotte and Pierre Calmels do so differently at le Cherie and Bibou that keep them jam-packed. Well, there IS the exceptional French food, but there have been other French restaurants that haven’t made it in Philadelphia so it can’t be the food alone. I think it is two words…relationship and service.

Charlotte is warm, comfortable, informal, sincere and just darned sweet. When she is running the f.o.h. you know that things will go really well. When she or the hostess greets you by name and say, “Great to see you again”, you get the feeling that they truly mean it. Ever go to a place for the first time and get that line? Bullshit. Well, Calmels’ restaurants are zero bullshit zones.

The servers. I just watched a video on how to pump bigger tips out of customers, and believe it or not one of the techniques was to squat down to table level!! Are you kidding? That’s hard on the server’s knees and the diner’s sense of privacy. You find professional servers who are naturally knowledgeable and friendly and respectful at Calmels’ venues. They know what they are talking about, they don’t throw in the life story of the chef and are successful in NOT using the phrase “tonight we are going to be serving it with” as if tonight is different from all other nights. They are straightforward and convey the warmth that says, “relax…I am going to take care of you tonight”. It is a different approach than many servers at high-end restaurants demonstrate and is the ANTI-SNOB approach.

Anticipation of your needs. The bread basket is running on empty so another appears. The wine is always at about the 4 ounce line. The water is replenished regularly. You NEVER have to ask. Remember my “I am going to take care of you tonight” observation? How often to do go anywhere and find your needs anticipated, let alone filled accurately once you ask?

You are valued. Charlotte makes the rounds and talks with everyone. In some expensive restaurants (I am thinking of one that starts with a V), the celebrity chef comes out and talks with his regulars, period. Here you are enjoying your food and thinking that maybe you’ll come back, but the chef is treating you like fegato tritato. Shoot…you paid as much for food and face time as everyone else. You never get the feeling that there is an “in crowd” and an “out crowd” at Bibou and le Cherie. We all get to ride first class.

Never underestimate the power of linens. White tablecloths.   Beautiful napkins. They make you feel as if the evening is dressy. Regardless of what you are wearing, you feel kind of decked out if the table is dressed properly. I’m not suggesting that restaurants need to borrow Carson the Butler from Downton Abbey to set the tables, but clean linens and sparkling settings make the lunch or evening ever so special.

Lastly, they never commit the sin that is to me the coup de grace…letting you sit forever with the check and your credit card resting on the table waiting to be picked up. I just hate that! Dinner is done. The check has been delivered in its pleather folder, you are ready to dash, and you are left to sit. And sit. And sit. Why? Even in restaurants where the service has otherwise been prompt, you are left to sit like a puppy at a shelter waiting for someone to come along but without being able to bark or whine to get attention. Maybe trying to look cute works. Not necessary at Chez Calmels…they are on time picking up the check, and you only wish the evening could last longer.

So there is my suspension of cynicism for today. Sometimes nice things happen at restaurants that are so different because of their unalloyed pleasantness that special note should be taken. Merci, Charlotte and Pierre.

One of the very best dinners in Philadelphia is also one of the most secretive and exclusive, and that is Studiokitchen, the creation of chef/consultant/International Man of Mystery, Shola Olunloyo. I frequently attend his dinners and find them as rewarding as they are hard to find. The easy part is learning when the dinners…usually four or five per month…are going to be held. For that part, just get yourself on the email list by going to http://www.studiokitchen.com. Then, the fun begins for the uninitiated. Shola doesn’t tell you where or what time to report for the BYOB dinner or how to reach him. Doesn’t tell you what’s on the menu, only that there are no changes or substitutions allowed. Not until the day of the event does he reveal his address and phone number and how to gain access to his building. I am not going to spoil it here. For one thing, it would detract from the craziness of the whole thing for first-timers. For another, I enjoy going there and don’t want my permission slip voided. Let me say this much…since I have been going to Studiokitchen it has moved four times. The current address is in an unassuming and unmarked building in South Philly.

So, you have paid up, waited for the big day, received your Super Top Secret-For Your Eyes Only Mr. Bond email, and have successfully found your way upstairs (as much of a hint as you are going to get from me) to the Studiokitchen. What do you find there? As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, but since Shola doesn’t allow photos of the kitchen or himself, I will have to paint the picture with mere words.

The kitchen is equipped more completely than most small restaurants, and as you sit at the counter for twelve people, the total allowed per event, you gaze at professional grade everything…wall oven, circulator, liquid nitrogen, induction cooktop, refrigeration…everything. On the other three walls of the kitchen are shelves of ingredients, including the most exotic spices and chemicals you can imagine. And maybe some you can’t unless you are into molecular gastronomy. Instantly you are put at ease by Shola’s warm smile and somewhat tongue in cheek sense of humor. You also are bound to encounter several savants who might test your patience. These are folks who track the movements of every line cook and restaurant menu in Philadelphia and never miss a chance to try to show off. They know culinary arts in precisely the same way baseball card collectors actually know how to play the game. They can quote you any statistic, but don’t know what really counts in food preparation. On the other hand, there are perfect guests such as myself ;), so hopefully things even out.

There is no printed menu. Although the theme of the menu is determined a month ahead of time, Shola normally decides on the precise list of dishes within a day or two of the dinner, and writes out shorthand descriptions for himself in Magic Marker on a piece of heavy stock paper. Sometimes he even shuffles courses the night of the dinner, but usually to good effect. My most recent visit, in late February, featured Umami (u:MA:me). What’s that, Babytalk? Nope. It is the fifth taste, along with sweet, salty, sour and bitter, that your tongue can sense. It was first proposed in Japan in 1908 and was formalized in 1985. It is a Japanese word that means “pleasant savory taste”. It is the flavor of glutamates. Think of the taste of soy sauce but not the salty part, the warm and round part, and there you are. Some other foods rich in umami taste (listed in Wikipedia) are fish, shellfish, cured meats, mushrooms, seaweed, spinach, tomatoes, spinach, green tea…and breast milk. Trust me…you know this taste even if you didn’t know what to call it.

So here is the Umami-rich, 7-course menu we enjoyed:
1. Salmon tartare with a lemongrass sauce and ginger aioli on a papadum
2. Sun choke soup with a lentil/cumin froth
3. Fluke ceviche with a citrus/soy sauce and sea beans
4. Roasted carrot with a carrot pickle, and a cardamom/vanilla glaze
5. Mushroom cap and foie gras topped with a bacon marmalade, plus pecan miso sauce and pear puree
6. Speck nestled in brioche with black truffles and a sous vide egg
7. Candied kumquats with buttermilk sorbet

And all the while, Shola is cooking before us with his smooth motions, exacting eye, and interesting commentary. With the mystery surrounding the chef and dinner, you would think he was pretty odd if the food didn’t measure up…but it does. I almost didn’t write this because scoring seats is difficult enough, and this may make the odds even longer. But I like to share with friends! Enjoy.

Accolades were flying around the second floor of Vetri, the top-rated Italian restaurant in Philadelphia on February 3, as Chef/Proprietor Marc Vetri welcomed Executive Chef Mark Ladner from New York’s top-rated Italian restaurant Del Posto as guest chef for an exclusive dinner.  Mark with a “k” co-founded Del Posto in 2005 with partners Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich and Lidia Bastianich and went on to garner a 4-Star review from The New York Times and an etoile from the Guide Michelin. Marc with a “c” has won Every Restaurant Award Ever Presented and is CEO of a family of seven restaurants in Philadelphia and New Jersey.  Gathering in the new demo kitchen adjacent to the private dining room for a prosecco reception, all 16 of us enjoyed about half a dozen different morsels…my favorites were a pastrami-spiced foie gras and rounds of cingale sausage.

Mark LadnerMarc Vetri

The antipasto was the classic Vitello Tonnato, which is both as incongruous and delicious a dish as one can imagine.  The cold and sliced veal was smothered in a delicious puree of oil-packed tuna and an emulsion that took the place of the usual mayo, sparked up with capers, lime cells, and crumbles of olive crostone.  The dish, which dates back to renaissance times, originated in the Piedmonte as did the Creato Grignolino del Monferrato that was served with it.  Light and just acidic enough.  Oh…and you are correct…the Piedmonte is landlocked.  The tuna traditionally is lugged from Liguria which isn’t.

First pasta was Luna Piena…a whisper-light crepe…wrapped around a filling of Castelmagno cheese and sauced with white truffle butter.  Incredible.  Again, Piedmontese in origin and in the tradition of “if it grows together it goes together”, a fruity Elio Altare D olcetto d’Alba was paired.

Second pasta was “Yesterday’s 100 Layer Lasagna”.  Lest you think it was as thick as a Russian novel, the pasta leaves were almost microscopically thin.  Filled with cheese and ground veal, finished on the grill, and sauced with a tomato ragu, it was indeed a Tuscan miracle.  The accompanying Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona Rosso de Montalcino was just the right weight to balance this flavorful dish.

Next, the secondo (terzo if you are counting) was sliced veal Braciole (announced with snickers from all who ever watched the Sopranos) lightly sauced and accompanied by both fermented and fresh broccolini. We travelled back to the Piedmonte for a wine…this time the Terre da Vino Barbaresco.

A little intermezzo consisted of thin slices of macerated persimmon and creamy fresh goat cheese, with a sweet and barely-there goaty taste.  This and dessert were prepared by Del Posto’s pastry chef, Brooks Headley.  Ah yes..the dessert. Not bad, but shall we say an acquired taste.  Melanzane e Cioccolato with sheep’s milk ricotta stracciatella.  That’s right…eggplant and chocolate.  Imagine baba ganoush  drizzled with chocolate, and there you go.  Taking the place of gelato, the fresh and creamy ricotta was also striped with chocolate to better effect. Thank the kitchen gods it was served with a delicious Oddero Moscato d’Asti with a melon-y sweetness that put a great finish on the meal.

Uh-oh…the curmudgeon in me is about to come out.  Along with my tinnitus.  How can 14 people talk so loudly and so much and still appreciate what they are eating?  With the din that grew with each new wine, I know that my enjoyment of the meal was hindered.  Yet another meal that shows the wisdom of my long-standing thought that restaurants should have talking and no talking zones…sort of like quiet cars on the trains…and let gourmets of a feather flock together.