It is only 5 days since I returned from one of the most exciting and interesting cities in the world – New York City. It is a crazily busy city that never sleeps, and neither do its multitudinous visitors.
In amongst all the madness of a huge city, you can find extremely good food and wines in numerous ethnic restaurants and eateries – some seating 200 hundred and more and others seating just 12; needless to say, that in this tiny Cuban eatery on 10th avenue, there is a long line of people waiting to get in for their chance to try the very different fare that is Cuban. Around the corner on 52nd is a Ramen noodle bar that is even smaller than the Cuban place.
For fine dining, you need to look at Jean Georges near Central Park at Columbus; traditional French cuisine, the dishes served are immaculately presented and sublimely cooked – what an experience. Just brilliant and so good to see fine dining alive and living and well in this bustling city.
The takeout, for me, after a week in this exciting city is that the restaurant scene is as vibrant as ever in New York City and yet the business operators face the same issues as we do here, in Australia, like getting the right produce they need, finding suitable culinary staff (read cooks and Chefs), satisfying very savvy customers, battling high rents and finding wait staff that can handle the pressure of non-stop service.
Interesting really because even though that extraordinary city is thousands of kilometres away and the culture is so different to ours, the same issues apply and like always, Chefs and cooks are the ones who are asked to deliver professionally all the time…and that is what we do all around the world.