Sometimes it just takes using a few local ingredients to give a dish unique character. Mark Zuckerman, executive chef at Harta at the new Grayson Hotel in New York City, gives that treatment to a traditional Italian seafood dish by using local seafood, as well as prawns and octopus from farther away.
Rich Mead, executive chef and owner of the Farmhouse at Roger’s Gardens in Corona Del Mar, Calif., takes the produce of California farms, and shrimp from Washington state, and creates a unique combination of flavors and textures to serve on tortillas from the Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project.
In a completely different part of Orange County, Jerry Gonzalez, sous chef of The Blind Pig in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., lightens up eggs benedict by using salsa verde instead of hollandaise sauce (albeit over pork belly).
At Saloon 16 in Knoxville, Tenn., chef Calvin Winfrey puts his own touch on chicken & waffles with a little cinnamon and hot honey, and back in New York City, at the Katherine, a new cocktail lounge and restaurant, beverage director Shigefumi Kabashima makes tomatoes the star of a soju cocktail.
