As you know, last week I had quite the time attending the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards and after-party. I interviewed a number of top chefs about where they were eating (or like to eat) when they’re in New York; you can read my post on Time Out New York.
I enjoyed speaking with Lara Gilmore, Massimo Bottura’s wife and curator at Osteria Francescana, which won as the number one restaurant. This portion was cut from my article, so I thought I’d run it here since she covered a lot of places they were eating while in town:
“When we come to New York, it’s really about seeing friends—chef friends, colleagues, people who work in New York restaurants who have done a stagiaire in our restaurant. Late Friday night, we went to Cosme, of course to see Daniela—she is an amazing chef. The next night we went to Momofuku Ko. Massimo cooked last July for Gelinaz at Ko, so we formed a bit of a family bond there, lovely meal. Then we saw Mario Batali who has been a supporter and friend for many many years, went to say hello at his new place, La Sirena.
“We have a table at Babu Ji—we can’t wait to go there, we tried to get there in January but we couldn’t get a table. We’re at EMP tomorrow night, which is always a place that we stop by.
“We got a burger at Shake Shack because that’s a must in New York for us. Massimo made a burger in 2014 on Columbus Day, an Emilia burger, so ever since then, he’s become a real fan of the whole Shake Shack tradition.
“We had a pizza at Eataly at Rossopomodoro; Eataly is like our second family when we are in New York. Breakfast was at The NoMad, where we are staying—their breakfasts are beautiful. We love Estela as well, when we can we get a table there. And we went to a little party at Aska in Williamsburg, which is reopening. Very talented chef, Swedish, New York will be very excited when that opens up.
“We were at a party at Contra with the Norwegian Seafood Council. What we love about New York is there is always something to look forward to, something new, something old, something that is in your heart forever. Our saddest moment right now is the fact that the Four Seasons is closing, it has so many memories for us, especially eating at the bar, and [Julian] Niccolini who was the maître d’ there for so long, but we are big fans of [Mario Carbone and Rich] Torrisi, so who knows what they’ll do!”
You can read my entire post on Time Out New York.
Lara Gilmore and Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards. Photo: © tablehopper.com.
