ABC Kitchen
As soon as I heard that Jean-Georges was opening up a restaurant in ABC Carpet and Home focusing on local ingredients I knew it was going to be a new favorite. I’m not sure what took me so long to get there, but after seeing a photo of his roasted kabocha toast in New York Magazine this past November, my mouth watered and I’ve been back every chance I get.
The kabocha toast lived up to my expectations and possibly even exceeded them. The deliciously tangy, chewy sourdough is toasted and generously doused in good olive oil, then topped with a smear of fresh ricotta and kabocha mashed with apple cider vinegar. Every mouthful is a delight; it’s one of those texture-flavor combinations that one can’t get enough of.
Since I first visited New York in the mid 1990s, ABC Carpet and Home has been one of my favorite shops. The beauty of the ground floor never fails to inspire, thanks to the incredible range of textiles, pottery, and artisanal wares, a quick visit always fills me with ideas for my own home. In the last few years ABC has been focusing on sustainability, so it makes sense that an elegant vegetable-centric restaurant featuring local produce would fit perfectly with the vision of the store.
I’ve found over the years that being vegetarian in the hands of Jean-Georges is never a problem. In fact, I think it’s a blessing as each time I’ve eaten in one of his restaurants, the chef has put together something delicious and outstanding. The flavors are always pure; he seems to coax the true essence from vegetables and then gently enhance them, without ever disguising or overwhelming the flavor with dairy. Often to my delight they are even dairy free.
In addition to the kabocha toast, I have ordered the carrot and avocado salad with crunchy sunflower seeds, citrus and sour cream. It reminded me of a salad I would make at home but fancier, which is actually exactly how I want to eat when I go out. I always have lemons and toasted seeds on hand, but for a regular weeknight meal I would never bother to roast carrots with spices and don’t always have micro greens to sprinkle over salads. The addition of sour cream is a lovely cooling companion to the heat of the carrots too.
On my last visit, I was thrilled to see that the kabocha toast was still on the menu and I also ordered the lentil soup with celery root and Parmesan. The soup was served with a generous drizzle of hot chili olive oil, the perfect thing to enliven the earthy flavors of lentils and a great way to warm up on these mid winter days.
I have never managed to save room to sample any of the sweet treats but if you exit through the store you can see them on display and make a date to return.
ABC Kitchen
35 East 18th Street New York, NY 10003
Amy Chaplin
Amy Chaplin is an Australian living in New York City by way of Amsterdam and London. She grew up in rural New South Wales in a family and community of gourmet vegetarians; cooking and eating meals from her family’s biodynamic garden sparked her passion for fresh ingredients and hand-made food. It can be said that Chaplin’s career as a chef began while making bread with her father and peeling apples for her mother’s crumble. Chaplin’s upbringing also helped inspire her philosophy, that how and what we eat directly affects the world in which we live, as well as our own well-being. To this day the food she cooks features local, organic and plant-based ingredients. After 5 years as executive chef of the world-renowned vegan restaurant Angelica Kitchen, Amy now consults, cooks and teaches privately, her clients include Natalie Portman and Anna Devera Smith, among others. Chaplin finds herself dispensing recipes and answering queries about the health benefits of ingredients on a daily basis. This whole foods chef is always happy to share her passion for the natural culinary arts and loves inspiring others to cook and eat well too.