10 thoughts: Jimmy Bradley

Jimmy Bradley, a 30-year veteran of the restaurant industry, is the chef/owner of The Red Cat and The Harrison in New York City.

1. One thing you don’t know about me  is that I think peanut butter and jelly is a disgusting combination.

2. If I could trade places with one chef it would be Jonathan Waxman because it all comes so easy to him. He makes putting flavors together appear so simple like Charlie Parker does with notes. And we all know it just ain’t that simple.

3. One of my most memorable meals was the first fish I caught, filleted and cooked myself when I was a young lad. I called it Baby Snapper Bluefish with Crumbs fried in butter.

4. If there were no olive oil, salt, lemons or crème brulee, I’d have no reason to live.

5. My go-to drink is pilsner beer or Arneis (a white wine from Piedmont, Italy).

6. If I were on death row my last meal would begin with a hefty breakfast of eggs, breads, muffins, grits, pancakes, steak, pork, fried potatoes and pitchers of orange juice and Jacques Selosse Champagne. It would be followed by grilled lettuce with bagna cauda and a plate of homemade pasta covered with shaved truffles. With it I’d drink a 1985 Barolo from Pio Cesare. To finish, I’d have three dozen oysters and clams, a half-dozen crabs, two lobsters, terrapin soup, two game birds and a veal shin osso bucco, with a dessert tray full of pastries, a pound of bonbons and a crème brulée. I’d wash it down with a Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tache 1967.

7. My worst culinary creation was Brussels sprouts with caramel.

8. If I could change one thing about me I’d be able to play a piano like Bill Evans.

9. My favorite junk food is a 16-ounce, perfectly charred, aged, medium rare, strip steak with a side of Maldon salt.

10. If I wasn’t a restaurant operator, I’d like to have my own antiques store that I stocked with things that I picked from all over the world.