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| Fresca POM Pomegranate Juice Fiji Bottled Water White Wine Rosé Wine Kiehl's Skin Care Products Olive Oils Vinegars Salami Prosciutto Nueske's Applewood Smoked Bacon Chimay, Lambic, and several other types of Beer and Ale Tab Full-Fat Yogurt Assorted Berries Organic Eggs Gouda Cheese |
He paid his dues at some of the most respected restaurants in New York City — Le Cirque, 21 Club, Restaurant 44 at the Royalton Hotel and Patroon—but Geoffrey Zakaria has really hit his stride as chef/owner of Town, the formidably reviewed restaurant located inside the Chambers Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Through it all, he's kept his cooking fresh by taking sabbaticals in Europe at places like Pierre Orsay in Lyon, the Dorchester in London, Auberge de l'Ill in Alsace and the two-Michelin-star Au Quai des Ormes in Paris. "Mr. Zakarian's elegant, clean cooking seems almost effortlessly assured," is how New York Times restaurant critic William Grimes summed up his three-star experience at Town.
We can't get over all the bottles and cans you have on hand. Looks like no one goes thirsty at the Zakarian household.
I wish I had two refrigerators, one for food, one for beverages.
Is it all for you?
Some—the rosés and beer. The good wine is for company.
You sound like our kind of host. What kind of food do you serve guests?
Not much. I like to serve good wine in good glasses and drink it alone, with no food.
We see some cheese in here.
I keep a few types on hand, plus good salami and prosciutto. I can make a great plowman's lunch out of what's here.
Especially if that plowman might need some Kiehl's skin lotion for his face.Hey, you've got to keep your expensive skin creams under refrigeration. I also store my olive oils and vinegars in here, too. They keep better cold.
So what do you do for fresh food?
I use the Fresh Direct service here in Manhattan. They pack everything on ice and leave it with the building's doorman.
Sounds convenient.
Is it ever. You come home from work and you're already done shopping.
They have much of an inventory?
They offer 80 percent of what you need; the rest you can get for yourself.
Like this Old Chatham sheep's milk yogurt?
No, that's from Fresh Direct I'll eat it for breakfast sometimes.
Any other A.M. favorites?
Many: organic scrambled eggs with crème fraîche and scallions; fried eggs with applewood smoked bacon; whole wheat english muffins with some jam I make or some honey—chestnut or wildflower.
Say, you do like breakfast. What's on the menu after work?
Not much. I do like a wedge of four-year-old Gouda and a great beer or Pinot Noir when I get home.
How's this pomegranate juice taste?
It's good. I use that to make a variation of a champagne cocktail along with passion fruit juice, bitters and a cube of brown sugar.
Pretty fancy. And yet you appear to be a dedicated Fresca man.
Absolutely—my executive chef at work loves it, too. There's no sugar, no caffeine, just grapefruit juice and soda.
You could do endorsements.
Fresca lovers are like a cult.
What's a day off like for you?
It's an urban myth that chefs invite people over and cook a haunch of venison or something like that for them. We're more likely to do our laundry and get reacquainted with our wives.