by | Aug 6, 2024 8:27 am | Comments (12)
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Danilo Mongillo's Ragú Napolitano
“This is the story of the ragú,” Danilo Mongillo said, sliding a small bowl of sauce from the refrigerator and setting it on the counter of the newly opened Strega New Haven on Chapel Street, “and it’s a slow story.”
The story began with a mix of pork and beef.
Continue reading ‘Grandmothers' Ragú Transported From Puglianello’
by | Jul 26, 2024 1:18 pm | Comments (2)
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Sublimity, in a bowl.
Omar Rajeh had the slow-cooked fava beans ready to go. A little mashing, pinches of seasoning, a drizzle or two, and a signature dish was ready to go.
by | May 13, 2024 2:03 pm | Comments (0)
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New House Garganelli at Hotel Marcel.
Legend has it that garganelli originated with a Bolognese housewife who was making tortellini for her guests when she realized her cat had devoured all the filling. So she took the squares of pasta she had already cut for the tortellini, and then rolled them around a stick and over a loom comb for ridges.
“She made it happen,” said Megan Gill, the 28-year-old executive chef at BLDG, a 70-seat, three-meal restaurant inside the iconic Hotel Marcel on Sargent Drive, as she added the pasta into boiling, salted water on a recent afternoon.
by | Mar 12, 2024 1:39 pm | Comments (3)
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It fits! Eddie's Everything Extravaganza, prize item (above) at Whalley's newly opened Lea's Falafelhaus.
Would all those fixings fit into that palm-plus-sized pocket of flexible flatbread?
“We’re gonna learn,” Eddie Eckhaus said, “right now.”
by | Feb 7, 2023 9:25 am | Comments (2)
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Manjares chef Wilson Coronel preparing seafood pasta marinara.
Clams. Shrimp. Escargot. Calamari.
All elements are crucial to Wilson Coronel’s seafood pasta marinara. But the secret to its exquisite flavor is in the sauce.
“You have to reduce it, so it’s not too much and the taste comes through,” Coronel said on a recent late afternoon in the pocket-sized kitchen of the Westville institution that is Manjares Cafe.
by | Oct 4, 2022 1:21 pm | Comments (3)
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Alexis Evans at work at Raw Juicescape.
Alexis Evans was ready for the start of flu season with a natural weapon. Four natural weapons.
by | Jun 29, 2022 9:29 am | Comments (1)
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Fresh mozzarella naan with Italian seasoning.
Olivia Gross Photo
Mahesh Pirthiani, the new owner of Zaroka.
After 21 years of running his own 7/11 franchise, Mahesh Pirthiani was in need of a new project. Luckily, his favorite restaurant was looking for a new owner.
by | Jan 18, 2022 4:10 pm | Comments (3)
The flavors and aromas of Punjab filled the kitchen as Indar Patel got to working cooking up one of his trademark dishes.
Continue reading ‘Today's Special: Indar Patel's Tikka Masala’
by | Dec 3, 2021 12:07 pm | Comments (1)
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Executive chef Stephen Ross putting the finishing touches on his Jamaican jerk chicken at Jazzy’s Cabaret, a new Ninth Square nightspot which has its official kickoff this weekend.
To attain jerk status, the chicken sizzling on the grill at Jazzy’s Cabaret had spent the last 48 hours marinating in a blend of scallions, onions, and scotch bonnet peppers, with a rub of cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice working their way into the meat.
“That’s for maximum flavor,” said executive chef Stephen Ross, as he turned the chicken over with a pair of tongs, a smoky aroma wafting through the brightly lit kitchen.
“And that flavor is why we make 40 of these on a given night.”
by | Oct 27, 2021 1:36 pm | Comments (14)
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The Contois Tavern cheeseburger.
Fresh ground beef. Grilled onions. Tomato. American cheese. Poppy seed bun.
No spices or seasoning or special sauce. No breadcrumbs. No meat thermometer needlessly complicating the process.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Billy Contois’ Cheeseburger’
by | Aug 31, 2021 3:41 pm | Comments (5)
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Chef Jeyson Santoni; his jam-packed 259 Orange burger (top).
You might call the 259 Orange a cheeseburger, a bacon burger, or an egg burger. Or maybe a short rib burger or an avocado burger.
The only thing certain is that the 259 Orange Burger nearly didn’t happen. Nor, for that matter, did Dangle’s Bar and Grill, which serves the 259 Burger, and which opened three weeks ago on 259 Orange just up the street from the New Haven County Courthouse.
Continue reading ‘Jey’s Burger Brings 259 Orange Back To Life’
by | Jun 25, 2021 10:25 am | Comments (2)
Ramen noodles bathed in a clear chicken and dashi broth, topped with a gooey, soft-boiled ajitama egg, shiitake mushrooms, and torched char siu combined into a riot of flavor at Menya Gumi, a self-described “hole-in-the-wall” ramen restaurant on Orange Street.
by | Jun 18, 2021 1:13 pm | Comments (12)
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Co-owners Danny and Luann Scarpellino in action.
The Tony Soprano.
In August 1981, Danny Scarpellino sold his 1974 Cutlass Supreme for $800 to buy a new stove for the first Scarpellino’s Sub Shop on 140 Park St.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Danny’s The Tony Soprano’
by | Apr 22, 2021 11:03 am | Comments (1)
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Brazi’s head chef Jesse Melgar in the kitchen.
Over the last 28 years, Brazi’s Italian Restaurant, just down the walkway from Long Wharf Theatre, has played the role of host to such luminaries as Arthur Miller, Robert Redford, and Al Pacino, as well as Brian Dennehy and Amy Irving.
So it’s perhaps no wonder that, on a recent morning, head chef Jesse Melgar was at the industrial stove, adding a touch of Chardonnay to a skillet popping with chicken cutlets, red bliss potatoes, and cherry peppers, before theatrically tossing its contents as a flame gushed upward.
Continue reading ‘Today’s Special: Jesse’s Chicken Cutlet Scarpariello’
by | Jul 16, 2020 1:30 pm | Comments (8)
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Streeter at work at Streets Boathouse Smokehouse on Front Street.
Smoke billowed out of the barbecue pit as Steve Streeter lifted one of the lids on his massive outdoor smoker.
by | Jan 17, 2020 1:10 pm | Comments (2)
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Atticus top chef Matt Wick preps to assemble vegan “soppressata.”
You can’t imagine how Matt Wick can pack so many flavors into one juicy meatless sandwich.
Until you watch him make it.
by | Dec 23, 2019 1:42 pm | Comments (1)
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Poreyah Benton at work in the mobile Vegan Ahava kitchen.
Plant-based cooking in the Elm City.
It was Thursday, so the orders were coming in for the meatless, dairy-free “Philly Cheesesteak” inside New Haven’s newest — and first vegan — food truck.
Continue reading ‘Bloodless “Cheesesteak” Served, With Love’
by | Jan 22, 2019 3:31 pm | Comments (0)
Long Wharf Properties Manager Brian Fagan was in the theater’s kitchen, turning watermelon into steak.
“The actors actually like it,” he said. “They keep talking about how good it is.”
But why turn watermelon into steak at all?
by | May 19, 2017 12:06 pm | Comments (2)
Chef Joseph Williams scrutinized a bowl of ground beef, sprinkling it with dried parsley, chopped white onions and peppers, a secret red seasoning that turned the mixture light pink. He pressed and juggled the patty between both palms, spinning it like a thick round of pizza dough with a snap of his left wrist. Then he indented it with his thumb and placed it on a smoking grill.
Flames sprang up around the Cajun burger, and it broke a glistening sweat.
by | May 19, 2016 4:06 pm | Comments (3)
Duc Nguyen had already broken down the lemongrass and shredded it. Now, it was time to add it and some diced onion to the oil that had been heating in the frying pan.
by | Apr 20, 2016 3:23 pm | Comments (6)
Meat Chef Cruz at work at downtown’s new Taste of Brazil.
Tiago Pavuna is very specific about his home country’s national cocktail: It requires one and a half limes, not one or two.
by | Feb 4, 2016 4:33 pm | Comments (1)
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Chalk art inside the store.
As she unwrapped another block of butter bigger than her hand, Robin Shaffer declined to divulge how much butter she puts into the ginger spice cookies that have already become a sensation at the new Four Flours Baking Company.
“That’s a secret,” she said.
by | Jan 11, 2016 4:53 pm | Comments (0)
John Brennan lightly browned parboiled perogies on each side in butter, giving them a firm, lightly crisp texture, and an almost nutty flavor.
by | Nov 16, 2015 6:34 pm | Comments (0)
The Brussels sprouts popped with delight when executive chef Drew Osbon immersed them in hot oil.
by | Nov 3, 2015 8:44 am | Comments (6)
Two expertly cut slices of house breaded chicken cutlet were submerged in the deep frier. A handful of bacon sizzled on the frying pan as Mario Minor, a veteran chef at Zoi’s, sliced through a hard roll with practiced ease.