How Watt Sriboonruang moved to NYC and fell in love with her home country's national sport.

 

Published in Bon Appetit Healthyish

Photos by Alex Lau

 

“I brought you a coconut water,” says Watt Sriboonruang handing me a metal water bottle. “I cracked it this morning.” We’re sitting on the edge of a boxing ring at Kings Thai Boxing in Midtown NYC, unwrapping our hands after a Muay Thai class. We sit in silence drinking, waiting for the coconut water to provide relief from the thirst and heat in our sweaty bodies. Her expression is calm—the sweat on her face and on her white tank top are the only signs of exertion. If she’s tired, she has a really good game face.

Sriboonruang is an amateur Muay Thai fighter in New York City and the founder of Rawsome Treats, a raw, vegan dessert business. Her first fight was in Philadelphia in 2010, when she was 33-years-old, the age when most fighters are retiring because the sport is so physically brutal on the body. It is literally young man’s game, with Thai Buddhist tradition dictating that women should not stand in the ring. It is only in recent history that women have started competing in the national stadiums. Sriboonruang has had 10 fights so far, a formible accomplishment.

Celebrated cake creator Margaret Braun ponders art and permanence.

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2,000 Sugar Cups is the title and goal of Margaret Braun’s installation at New York’s Museum of Art and Design. Since June, she has been an  artist-in-residence there, handcrafting drinking cups, made exclusively of edible sugar materials like pastillage and royal icing. MAD’s Artist Studios program allows the public to see her work up close. Every Tuesday, people visit the sweet-smelling, glass-walled space with curiosity and questions.

Are they edible? Yes. Can you use them? They have a negotiable functionality. Why 2,000? “It’s a number I know. I made 2,000 cakes for the royal wedding in the middle east,” says Margaret. “It’s a balance of a big intimidating number that’s just about human scale.”

A Voce Restaurant serves about 100 pounds of fresh pasta each week. But as with most Italian restaurants in New York City, the penne, spaghetti, and ravioli are not made by Italian grandmothers or celebrity chefs. They are made by a little-known force of dishwashers and porters turned pastamasters.

At A Voce, the much-lauded pasta is made in-house by Jose Guermos, a prep cook who has become an expert in handmade pasta under the watchful eye of chef Andrew Carmellini. "There are prepguy dynasties in the city," Mr. Carmellini said, while sipping an espresso on the terrace of A Voce. He recalled the Vargas dynasty in the 1980s and '90s, when 10 family members worked at Lespinasse, Le Cirque, and Aureole. "Chefs keep them a secret, because you don't want someone to find out about them and steal them."

In 1999, Mr. Guermos was dishwasher at Café Boulud, where Mr. Carmellini was chef de cuisine. Pasta became increasingly popular on the menu, and Mr. Carmellini asked if Mr. Guermos wanted to learn to make it. "I had no cooking experience before," Mr. Guermos said. "But I said ‘I'll try.'"

Launched in May 2011, Gilt Taste was a revolutionary hybrid of magazine conent and culinary commerce. An online market of artisan foods, cookware and wines from around the world, were complimented with recipes from chefs and culinary experts, and thoughtful and original stories from writers like Ruth Reichl, Francis Lam, and Melissa Clark.

Gilt Taste was a part of the Gilt Groupe. Founded in 2007, Gilt is a pioneer and industry leader in the online flash sale space. 

Jennfer Leuzzi by The Gilt Taste Kitchen  August 23, 2011

Jennifer Leuzzi Archive at NY Sun 

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I’ve often felt that the true test of a restaurant’s design is not so much how the space looks but how you feel sitting in it. While a great meal these days still means good food and fine wine, today more than ever, it may be comfort food or fusion cuisine served in an environment filled with denim and sneakers. So the million-­dollar question for the adventurous chef is, Can you create a high-end tour de force that will nonetheless be appealing in a casual world?

In this issue: Seattle, Oahu, London, and Los Angeles...

Eat: A gelato master lands in L.A. Frozen treats in Los Angeles are usually zero-calories, but not at the Gelato Bar in Studio City. Made fresh daily, flavors range from traditional chocolate chip to original combinations like the Veneziana, with ribbons of bittersweet chocolate and candied orange. Sorbetto, savory and sweet snacks, espresso, and roasted coffees round out the menu. Everything about the place is authentically Italian, from the bar to the gelato case to the Venetian gelato master turning out the fine flavors. 4342 1/2 Tujunga Avenue, Studio City.

The young chef-author of a new tell-all memoir about four-star restaurants is being accused of cooking his facts. The Seasoning of a Chef: My Journey From Diner to Ducasse and Beyond was written by Doug Psaltis, 31, and his twin brother Michael. Alain Ducasse’s spokesperson says that many of the book’s most colorful anecdotes never occurred: Ducasse never threw a chair during a meeting at the Essex House, and he was not unrecognized and locked out of Mix by staff. Jeffrey Chodorow’s name never appears, but he was quick to dismiss the chapters on Mix by noting that he got the number of seats in the restaurant wrong (there are “90, not 65”). And don’t get Anthony Bourdain started. “God knows, I’ve talked a lot of shit over the years about other chefs,” he says. But “Psaltis has done his subjects, his readers, and himself a disservice by painting himself as being without fault.” Chodorow says, “The sad fact is, the only reason that anyone was interested in this book is because of the opportunity Alain Ducasse gave him. I find the lack of respect shown to him and his organization, let alone to ours, unfortunate, but not that surprising, knowing Mr. Psaltis.” Michael Psaltis responds, “There are criticisms, but how could you paint a more loving portrait of a man? Doug considers Ducasse his mentor.”

Originally published in New York Magazine.