Last month I had the honor of attending a New York Culinary Adventure which was hosted by Miele. Four of us were exposed to insider events and resources of culinary New York, which included the World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards Gala. Our hosts planned a days-long feast for the senses that we will never forget. I’m still working off some of the incredible food we ate, and I can vouch that every bite was worth it.
If you know me personally, you’d know I want to throw a party and serve the unreal food we ate to all. Since that’s geographically impossible, we’ll just have to go heavy on images from a few of the trip highlights. That’s your cue that this post will be extremely image (rather than calorie) rich…
UNION SQUARE GREEN MARKET
All organic, beautiful, and unusual produce in this outdoor farmers market. Varieties I had never heard of- specialty everything. It’s all in the details for these top chefs- and guess who we bumped into at the market? One of the award-winning chefs… which only highlighted that the careful planning of this culinary adventure was on point.
The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Awards Gala
The awards gala. You might want to pour yourself a cocktail for this to experience it properly.
The event was held at Cipriani Wall Street. Miele saw to it that our group was taken care of in many ways, including beauty prep for the event. Spoiling.
This was the first year in the history of the awards that the gala was held in the US. It has been held in London since inception.
Amuse-bouche, Amuse Booze- plenty of both.
Drumroll… so what are the World’s 50 Best Restaurants? I will spare you the reverse countdown suspense:
1. Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy
Chef: Massimo Bottura
2. El Celler de Can Roca, Girona, Spain
Chef: Joan Roca
3. Eleven Madison Park, New York City
Chef: Daniel Humm
4. Central, Lima
Chef: Virgilio Martinez and Pia Leon
5. Noma, Copenhagen
Chef: René Redzepi
6. Mirazur, Menton, France
Chef: Mauro Colagreco
7. Mugaritz, Errenteria, Spain
Chef: Andoni Luis Aduriz
8. Narisawa, Tokyo
Chef: Yoshihiro Narisawa
9. Steirereck, Vienna, Austria
10. Asador Etxebarri, Axpe, Spain
11. D.O.M., Sao Paolo
12. Quintonil, Mexico City
13. Maido, Lima, Peru
14. The Ledbury, London
15. Alinea, Chicago
16. Azurmendi, Larrabetzu, Spain
17. Piazza Duomo, Alba Italy
18. White Rabbit, Moscow
19. L’arpege, Paris
20. Amber, Hong Kong
21. Arzak, San Sebastian, Spain
22. Test Kitchen, Cape Town South Africa
23. Gaggan, Bankgok, Thailand
24. Le Bernardin, New York City
25. Pujol, Mexico City
26. The Clove Club, London
27. Saison, San Francisco
28. Geranium, Copenhagen
29. Tickets, Barcelona
30. Astrid y Gaston, Lima, Peru
31. RyuGin, Tokyo
32. Restaurant Andre, Singapore
33. Attica, Melbourne, Australia
34. Restaurant Tim Raue, Berlin
35. Vendome, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
36. Borago, Santiago, Chile
37. Nahm, Bangkok
38. De Librije, Zwolle, the Netherlands
39. Le Calandre, Italy
40. Relae, Copenhagen
41. Faviken, Sweden
42. Ultraviolet, Shanghai
43. Biko, Mexico City
44. Estela, New York
45. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, London
46. Combal.Zero, Rivoli, Italy
47. Schloss Schauenstein, Austria
48. Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Pocatino Hills, New York
49. QuiQue Dacosta, Denia, Spain
50. Septime, Paris
Ready for more? How about the next 50…they had an awards ceremony for this group the evening before.
50 Restaurants to Visit Before They Get Too Famous
Zaiyu Hasegawa of DEN (Tokyo) and Christian Schwarz of Miele, at 50 Best Restaurants Awards, One to Watch Award
One to Watch Award
There were some categorized awards as well, equally prestigious. The One to Watch Award was sponsored by Miele. The winner was the restaurant Den of Tokyo, Japan. Zaiyu Hasegawa is recognized for his fundamental, untricked up culinary approach, focusing on regional healthy ingredients at a super high level with unexpected ingredient pairings and unusual presentation. Zaiyu was the one we ran into completely by chance earlier that day at Union Square Green Market. He was on the hunt for specific and unusual produce that he would be incorporating into his menu the next day. Read more about Zaiyu and Den here.
So was the awards gala fun? Heck yeah, but don’t take my word for it.
Chelsea Market
The next morning we were allowed to sleep in before meeting for breakfast at our hotel. We then set off for a 3+ hour of Chelsea Market, which you might note in the reflection is right across the street from Google. Somehow when I visited Google, I failed to notice this culinary mecca just within reach. Food Network is located in this same building. Under the guidance of a well-informed and connected guide, we explored (and ate our way through) over a million square feet of culinary specialty items you never even thought to imagine.
You can see our tour guide in this photo. He was wired for sound, with no shortage of enthusiasm or food factoids. He stepped into this Dicksons place and returned with a plate of tartare that looked like a mound of raw ground beef surrounded by potato chips. I thought the guy was completely messing with us until I tasted it (and managed to drop mine on the floor not once but twice; and miraculously, everyone politely opted not to give me a hard time).
Our guide told us a horrific story about why you should ALWAYS, and I repeat, always, wash “pre washed” lettuce, or just buy it fresh and wash it yourself. It involved bandages and finger parts. You connect the dots…food factoid.
Do you know why asparagus is displayed standing up like this in grocery stores? Because it will grow upward from whichever way it sits. Factoid.
Have you seen the (odd) rage of adult coloring books? Apparently it has transferred to cookies.
A little movie trivia for you: if this SARABETHS kitchen feels in any way familiar, perhaps it is because it is where Meryl Streep’s commercial kitchen scenes were filmed for the movie It’s Complicated~
Raquel, this one’s for you. 😉
Miele. Immer Besser. Forever Better.
Drinks and Dinner at the Miele Experience Center- and even better, under the supervision of Miele staff and chefs, we all cooked dinner together, which gave us the opportunity to test drive the uber cool technology of Miele appliances.
Miele has Experience Centers in multiple regions of the country, which are all designed for the aesthetic trends of the region. Interestingly, one size does not fit all when it comes to color and finish choices in the US. Miele, founded in 1899, was the first company to introduce steam to cooking. We ate the most memorable tenderloin cooked in their combi steam/convection oven- which allowed it to be perfectly crisped on the outside and tender/temperature-perfect on the inside. Their products are super advanced, yet designed to be accessible to all levels of cooking- like presets on the ovens, freezers with a feature t0 cover your back if you took too long to get home with the ice-cream… with the touch of a button, any partially thawing items can get a super fast freeze. Your devices can automatically contact the service center if parts go out – and the service center will contact you to schedule the repair before you even realize you have an appliance issue.
The latest Miele Range is the biggest product launch in company history.
– available in 48″ 36″ and 30″ – each are available with a number of different cooktops for customization (dual-fuel, electric, etc.)
– the 48″ is the only range on the market with convection and microwave oven technology
– Masterchef & Masterchef Plus cooking programs, backlit knobs, ergonomic handles, and a number of different details–Miele thought of EVERYTHING.
Generation 6000 dishwashers
– no pre-rinsing required – you save gallons of water each month.
– Knock-2-Open – for the handleless kitchen (I posted a little video of how this works on my Facebook page)
I could go on, but you get the drift. These products are designed to be used and enjoyed. And ps, they last forever.
Vanilla Bean Custard with Blackberry Coulis
OMG. This is one to try at home… and here is the recipe.
Many thanks to Miele for the memorable culinary experience!
This post is brought to you in collaboration with Miele. All content, ideas and words are my own.
