Chef Alfred Portale Invites you to a Taste of Burgundy:

7-Course Menu with Burgundy Gems selected by Gotham Wine Director Michael Nelson

Limited Availability
To reserve please call: 212.620.4020

September 22, 7 P.M.
$350.00

Raveneau chablis blanchots 2002

Domaine d’Auvenay puligny montrachet Folatieres 1999

Louis Jadot Grands-Echezeaux 1997

Bouchard Vosne Romanee 1er cru Aux Reignots 1999

Hubert Ligner clos de la Roche 1995

Mugnier Bonnes Mares 2002

Restaurant week dates:
July 12-31, 2009

Check out our Special Prix Fixe Lunch Menu here.

We’re thrilled to be featured on Tasting Table!
Click on the image below to see the article:

In honor of our 25th anniversary, enjoy a selection of classic dishes from the 80’s at their original 80’s prices.

FLASH BACK TO THE 80’S

GOTHAM GARDEN SALAD
1986
12 vegetables, creamy dijon dressing
$8

CURED ATLANTIC SALMON
1986
cracked wheat, golden beet, shaved fennel, orange oil
$10

GOAT CHEESE RAVIOLI
1985
roast tomato, pancetta, basil
$12

HEIRLOOM TOMATO BRUSCHETTA
1989
fava beans, pecorino toscano, grilled bread
basil aioli
$14

LOBSTER PASTA
1985
fresh fettucini, basil, maine lobster bolognese
$17

GOTHAM ROAST CHICKEN
1986
summer vegetables, shoestring potatoes
$19

ROASTED STRIPED BASS
1987
braised leeks, shiitake mushrooms, fingerling potatoes
port reduction
$23

GRILLED HANGER STEAK
1988
“creamed” spinach, crisp potatoes, bordelaise sauce
$24

TRIO OF ICE CREAMS OR SORBETS
1984
$6

VANILLA CRÈME BRULEE
1985
macerated raspberries, sugar cookies
$7

ANGEL FOOD CAKE
1988
strawberries, lemon verbena ice cream
$8

PEANUT BUTTER COUPE
1986
chocolate sauce, whipped cream
$9

What do chef’s do for inspiration? Just about anything. Is it dessert or breakfast?

In the fall of last year, Gotham’s pastry chef Deborah Racicot won the Food Network Challenge for her re-imagining the American favorite, Carrot Cake. With that fresh in her mind she began playing with Celery Root as a follow up. Celery Root or Celeriac is a mild root vegetable not so far removed from the carrot. It was not until now, or ever to my knowledge, a dessert component. Better known in the form of a puree or cut into a slaw, this vegetable, it turns out makes a great little cake.

Deborah, of course, created not only the celery root cake, but also some wonderfully complex flavor aspects to accompany it. Shortbread infused with bacon and a maple sorbet. Sounding like breakfast? It gets even better. She lightly pan fries pieces of the celery root cake giving it a French Toast feel. Breakfast for dessert.

The Celery Root Cake is also delicious on its own with a little cream cheese dressing, just like its cousin Carrot Cake. For home see recipe below.

CELERY ROOT CAKE
2 Cups Sugar
1.5 cups of vegetable oil
4 Eggs
2 Cups Flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp. ground fennel
2 Cups Grated Green Apple
4 Cups Grated Celery Root
1 Cup Golden Raisins

Combine oil, sugar and eggs in a mixing bowl with paddle attachment, blend well. Sift dry ingredients together and blend into mixing bowl. Add apples, celery root and raisins. Pour mixture into a greased 15 by 9″ pan or 2 9″ round pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, check mixture by inserting a toothpick, if the toothpick is clean when removed the cake is done, if not bake for additional 5 minutes and check again. When done remove and let cool.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

1 lb Cream Cheese (Room Temperature)
8 oz. Butter (Room Temperature)
8 oz. Powdered Sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract

In mixing bowl with paddle attachment mix cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Add lemon juice and vanilla and blend well.
Spread evenly on cake when cool. Serve alone or with ice cream of your choice.

A DAY IN THE NEW YORK MEAT PACKING DISTRICT

One day Chef de Cuisine, Adam Longworth impulsively decided to take me to the meat-packing district—the OLD meat-packing district.
So past the trendy nightclubs, restaurants, designer hair salons and boutique furniture stores we went, stopping in front of a corrugated building on Washington Street. Tucked back from the street a row of refrigerated trucks were parked in front of a dated sign, it read- Debragga and Spitler.

This wasn’t going to be a night on the town, this was all about why this area got its name, Meat.

This is where they age our Niman Ranch strip steak. Inside this non-descript building is one of the only remaining meat packing locations in Manhattan, and what makes Debragga and Spitler special is the emphasis on quality. Only naturally raised beef graces this meat packing hold out, and according to owner George Faison, naturally raised beef makes for better tasting meat.

As we toured the aging room with its constant whirling fans, cool air and meaty smell, I noticed many familiar restaurant names scrawled on shelves holding various cuts of beef. Rounding a corner we came upon our shelf.

There it was clearly marked Gotham- 5 shelves of whole strip loins in various stages of aging. Our strip steaks are 100% prime beef, meaning it gets the highest rating from the USDA for its marbling.

DEMYSTIFYING THE BULL

George elaborates on his beef theories as Adam oogles over a strip of aging Wagyu beef. “Less stressed beef makes better meat.” He believes both in flavor and in its health properties. The difference in how animals are raised is evident in the percentage of prime meat they produce. Most consumer meat is rated choice or lower, prime being only 1 percent or less, versus 35% for naturally raised cattle. Dry aging too adds to the meat’s flavor. As it ages the meat reduces in volume and the flavor increases in concentration as the moisture evaporates, producing a nutty quality that steak lovers appreciate. At one time, when the meat-packing district really did pack meat, almost all meat was dry aged. Now most beef is wet-aged in vacuum packed bags.

George Faison has been selling quality product to Gotham for most of its nearly 25 year existence. Chef Alfred Portale and he met over 20 years ago when Alfred was seeking out the highest quality product he could find and George was building one of the country’s highest quality food distributing companies. -now known to Chefs across the country as D’Artagnan.

George divested himself of D’Artagnan 2 years ago and has turned his hand toward creating a meat company dedicated to distributing the best meat he can get his hands on. For George, it’s all about caring- caring for the animals, the meat and his customers. We like that at Gotham.

ON THE GOTHAM BAR AND GRILL MENU

Imperial Farms Wagyu Fitet Mignon Carpaccio
Braised Niman Ranch Short Ribs
50 Day Dry Aged Niman Ranch Strip – Limited Availability
50 Day Dry Aged Strubb Ranch Wagyu Strip (8 to 9 Marbling Score) – Very Limited Availability

Fatalii Chile Pepper Ceviche

Inspiration for a new ceviche dish came from a trip down to Eckerton Hills Farm- Tim Stark’s place. Tim’s the man behind Gotham’s most flavorful tomatoes and chile peppers. During my visit, he handed me this bright yellow pepper called the fatalii pepper, followed by the warning: “Be careful it is one of the hottest peppers in the world.” He was right.

Only about the size of a pencil lead- the fatalii pepper piece I tried was enough to make my eyes water- it was like swallowing fire. When the initial heat dissipated, the floral / citrus flavors were incredible, so intense…the first thing that came to my mind was mango. I wanted to capture that flavor and some, just some of the heat.

In our ceviche to control the heat, we remove all the seeds, cook it with two pounds of vegetables for every one ounce of pepper, creating a purée which we then fold into a blend of orange and lime juice. For every quart of fruit juice we use a tablespoon of the purée. One pepper is enough for 60 or more ceviche portions. This is one hot pepper! The great part about the ceviche is that you get all the brilliant citrus-like flavor and just a taste of the pepper’s heat- it fades quickly. I love it.

Adam Longworth
Chef du Cuisine

Fatalii Pepper Facts:
The fatalii pepper is in the Habanero pepper family and has a very intense citrus flavor with a searing heat. It is a variety from Central Africa, making its way there from South America during the days of the slave trade.

By Alfred Portale

Makes about 4 ½ cups, enough to serve 4
3 cups watermelon, preferably seedless, 1-inch dice
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/3 cup minced red onion (from about ½ small onion)
1 cup peeled, seeded cucumber (small dice)
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, plus more to taste
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the watermelon, tomatoes, onion, cucumber, lime juice, and oil in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper and toss. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary, adding some more lime juice if its flavor doesn’t register. Serve well chilled. Add cubes of feta cheese if desired.

The end of summer is always bittersweet and it brings that bittersweet quality to the plate with its last crop, tomatoes. Tomatoes begin ripening in earnest in June but the highlight of their season (the grand finale, really) is in August and September when markets receive a burst of heirloom tomatoes that is an explosion of brilliant colors, sizes and shapes.

2008 has been an exceptional year for tomatoes and it looks like we may even have tomatoes into October.

For our final weekend of summer, Chef de Cuisine Adam Longworth and I decided to visit Eckerton Hill Farms in central Pennsylvania where Tim Stark grows our tomatoes .

We arrive on a hot Saturday. Typically urban and un-farmlike, I am wearing Italian loafers and Adam attempts to keep his brand new Yamaha from submerging in ankle-deep puddles as we follow Tim’s pick up to his farmhouse.

Tim’s farmhouse doubles as his winter writing studio and a home for his head farmhand Nacho. The farmhouse is where Tim wrote his recently published book HEIRLOOM, detailing his journey from a Brooklyn brownstone to a Pennsylvania farmhouse and his remarkable success growing Heirloom tomatoes. The book is more than a book on tomatoes — it is a cultural metaphor for America’s recent fascination with food, restaurants and farming — and it’s also a rewarding read.

We trek up to the neatly-rowed region adjacent to the winter greenhouse still full of seedlings. The first dozen rows are almost all peppers. The two things Tim is known for are peppers and tomatoes.

Adam is fascinated with peppers. As Tim walks us through describing the peppers, Jalepenos, Japanese shishito, habeneros, chocolate habaneros and more, Adam tastes each one to gauge the level of its heat. I make the unfortunate mistake of touching a pepper, and then inadvertently, my nose. The peppers are beautiful and bountiful, and Adam is inspired by the variety of heat intensity, colors and flavors. We get a lesson on peppers and their cross pollination during colonial time, new varieties being created as the peppers were carried from the Amazon to Africa and through the Caribbean. Each Caribbean island has their own particular varieties, and many islanders now living in New York find their way to Tim’s stand at the Union Square Greenmarket to source their favorites.

We find our first row of tomato plants loaded with red and orange cherry tomatoes. We pick a few and the flavor is exquisite. Exactly what makes these summer treats so wonderful is a bright burst of acid followed by the tantalizing flavor of all things tomato — a green earthiness, soft fleshiness and sun-ripened sweetness. The vines are overflowing their stakes, some nearly 5 feet tall growing across their rows, intertwined with other plants and refusing all attempts at orderliness.

Tim insists his organic practices makes his tomatoes so flavorful but it presents its own challenges as the tomatoes ripen at various times and he is constantly picking, unlike the hybrids that are bred to ripen all at once. His vines suffer from pests and some rows are little more than twigs with bright red and orange cherry tomatoes, just a few new leaves are enough to produce one last picking.

In the squash garden, squash bugs are everywhere, their voracious appetite will decimate the leaves shortly, but there are plenty of squash and pumpkins available. Tim says it is the price to be paid for organic farming, eventually the bugs will win but not before Tim gets some beautiful winter squash. Other farmers would just spray and kill the pests.

We cross the farm to the original Eckerton Hill Farms, pick some tomatoes and head to the farmhouse for a quick lunch. Tim finds a watermelon on the way. We finish the afternoon with a salad of Tim’s heirlooms, watermelon and a fresh goat feta made by his neighbor. As it turns out, the salad we created is a near replica of Alfred’s classic Tomato and Watermelon Salad from his Simple Pleasures cookbook. The seasonal elements are perfect together and paired with a little 2001 Brunello Tim opens. This flavors in this dish are a perfect celebration of summer’s coming end, and it certainly doesn’t get anymore local than this lunch.