Coffee with the Chef: Christine Nunn of Picnic on the Square

Christine Nunn wasn’t always on course to work in the kitchen — the 50-year-old chef and co-owner of Picnic on the Square in Ridgewood was once a journalist, and worked for the Ridgewood News after graduating with an English degree from Montclair State University in 1986.

By 2001, the Fair Lawn resident was working in Manhattan doing technical writing, but after 9/11, she decided that life was "too short to not do" exactly what she wanted to do.

She enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America in January 2002 and even lived in the dorms for a semester at age 37 (which was "horrifying"). She graduated in December 2003 and created the catering company Picnic. In 2005, she opened a storefront in Emerson, where she stayed for five years before opening Picnic, The Restaurant in Fair Lawn, which garnered rave reviews. After 2 1/2 years, Picnic served its last meal on New Year’s Eve 2012.

In 2013, Nunn published "The Preppy Cookbook" and worked as executive chef at Grange restaurant in Westwood. Three months ago, she opened Picnic on the Square in Ridgewood. The lovely, brick-walled 34-seat New American restaurant received 2 1/2 stars from The Record last month.

Here, she talks about the technique home cooks should master and the best way to cook fish.

Favorite dish to cook: The Parisienne gnocchi ($14), which is served with a wild-mushroom sherry cream sauce — even though it’s a pain to make, and it takes a while to do. People flip over it.

The one technique home cooks should master: A good braise. And if I’m braising, I specifically make [the butcher] leave a little fat on top of the meat — if you used trimmed meat and try to braise it, it’s going to be dry. So if I do short ribs, I do it fat-side up … so the fat goes into the meat.

What home cooks should make at home but don’t: People are afraid to cook fish, afraid they’re going to overcook or undercook it. But fish, while it’s not forgiving, is quick to cook and it’s not hard. Give it a quick sauté first and finish it in just a little white wine, chicken stock and lemon juice, so the fish tastes moist — it’s much more forgiving that way. Don’t do just white wine and lemon, because it’s too acidic. You have to cut it with chicken stock or even water.

What diners would be surprised to learn about chefs: We love when other people cook for us. Most people are afraid to. We’re thrilled if someone makes us a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Food fad I hate: Ancient grains, like quinoa or freekeh. They’re kind of boring. They don’t have much flavor, and there’s not much you can do with them.

Favorite local restaurant: Axia Taverna in Tenafly [whose owner is also part-owner of Picnic]. Chef Alex Gorant makes chicken like nobody’s business. I love Greek food, and it’s a nice, lemony, Greek-y chicken.

My favorite cheese shop: The cheese department at Fairway, or at Super Cellars in Ridgewood on Broad Street because they have such variety. I’m a big cheese snob; of course, I adore Stilton [blue cheese], but when I can get my hands on it I like Oxford blue, also from England. And I enjoy Affindelice au Chablis, which is a strong cheese similar to an Époisses. And of course, the terrific golden bits of doodle dust that grace the bottom of a bag of Cheez Doodles.

My feelings about having a BYO: Who wouldn’t love a liquor license? But at 34 seats, it would take an awful long time to pay for a liquor license at New Jersey prices. But we have a very nice wine store down the street.

Most valuable tool in my kitchen: Any fish turner; everyone should have one. I use it as a whisk, I use it as a spatula, I use it to stir sauce if I’m in a rush — and it picks up fish beautifully.

Three herbs and spices every home kitchen should have: Dried herbes de Provence — it’s such a nice blend of French herbs, and it gives everything a really nice flavor; white pepper — it’s got a little more bite than black pepper; and tarragon — it pairs with so many things, it’s great with any mushroom sauce, tomato sauce.

More info: Picnic on the Square, 26 Wilsey Square, Ridgewood, 201-444-4001; picniconthesquare.com. Appetizers: $8 to $20; entrées: $21 to $36.

— Steve Janoski

-

http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/christine-nunn-of-picnic-on-the-square-on-the-one-technique-home-cooks-should-master-1.1281892

Coffee with the Chef: Pastry chef Vicki Wells of L'artre della Pasticceria in Ramsey

Vicki Wells, pastry chef and partner at L'arte della Pasticceria in Ramsey, was inspired to cook at a young age by her grandmother, who grew up on a farm in Italy and loved to spend her days in the kitchen. The 56-year-old Hoboken resident studied under the famous Madeleine Kamman in Massachusetts on and off for two years, and also at La Varenne in Paris.

Back in America, she worked at Sarabeth's Kitchen and later became Bobby Flay's executive pastry chef, a position she held for nearly a decade. She was also executive pastry chef for Buddakan in New York before coming to L'arte as the executive pastry chef in January 2014.

Wells has taught at three cooking schools: the French Culinary Institute (now the International Culinary Center); the Institute of Culinary Education; and City University of New York (Brooklyn). She still makes an annual trip to Italy in the fall to teach a class in desserts at a small school in Umbria called Cucina della Terra, which caters to those taking culinary vacations.

Here, she talks about her love for bread pudding, what makes a good baker and why she refuses to work with rolled fondant.

What makes someone a good baker: Everyone always says pastry chefs and bakers have to be very precise and measure things exactly — and that's kind of true. But you've also got to have an instinct for making things taste good … and playing with flavor to get the most out of your ingredients.

The most difficult pastry to make: Making a menu of plated desserts is difficult; it has to have a wide range of texture and flavor, and it has to be very visual. I create all my own recipes and I've been doing that for quite a while; they're all difficult.

Pastry I wish I created: Pavlova. It's one of my favorite desserts. I don't make the classic version, but I really like the combination of meringue, whipped cream and fruit.

Best tip for home bakers: Don't be a slave to the recipe. You have to be flexible. Don't be afraid to make a mistake. We're not doing brain surgery here.

Best shortcut baking trick: There are no shortcuts. Making pastries is very labor-intensive. So just enjoy the process.

My favorite dessert: Bread pudding. I just love it. If it's on a menu, I almost always order it.

Favorite cookbook: I love any cookbook by Alice Medrich. She has the same philosophy that I do: focus on flavor, it's not about making things real sweet, so cut down on the sugar and bring out the flavor. Her recipes are beautiful. There's one called "Bittersweet" that I like.

What will replace the cupcake craze: Doughnuts. And I love doughnuts. I like exotic flavors like passion fruit. … I like citrus.

Favorite food movie: "Chocolat."

Best-selling item in the shop: A crumb-cake called torte sbrisolona, which is like a classic Italian crumb-cake filled with chocolate and ricotta cheese ($3.50 per slice, $28 for an 8-inch).

Worst ingredient to bake with: Rolled fondant. It's popular because you can mold it into anything, but every time someone comes in and I say, "I don't actually use that," they say, "I hate the way it tastes anyway." I'm focused on flavor. … We don't do a cake that looks like a Ferrari here.

More info: L'Arte della Pasticceria, 109 E Main St., Ramsey; 201-934-3211; larte.biz.

 --

http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/pastry-chef-vicki-wells-of-l-artre-della-pasticceria-in-ramsey-on-pastry-making-1.1277388

Chef Carlos Valdez of Oceanaire in Hackensack on cooking lobster and ramen noodles

Carlos Valdez, the newly crowned Ultimate Chef Bergen County, started cooking for himself around middle school — his mom was always good at it, he says, but he was very "particular" about how the meals were prepared.

"I wanted certain things a certain way," says the 37-year-old executive chef of the Oceanaire Seafood Room in The Shops at Riverside in Hackensack. He'd question his mother if, say, the lasagna tasted a little different on a given day.

The Hawthorne native started his career at Houston's (in the same Hack- ensack mall) as a bartender part-time for four years while completing his bachelor's degree in culinary arts at Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. After graduation, he completed the management training program at the Hillstone Restaurant Group (Houston's parent company) and was transferred to the Rutherford Grill in Napa Valley, Calif., where he was the assistant kitchen manager (similar to a sous chef). A year later he was transferred to the Hillstone Restaurant in New York City, where he was also assistant kitchen manager, before leaving the company in 2006 for the executive chef position at Halcyon Brasserie, a fine-dining spot in Montclair.

He worked there for a year before opening his own restaurant, the Red Hen Bistro in Wood-Ridge but sold the 35-seat French-American bistro three years later and became executive chef at the Oceanaire Seafood Room in September 2013.

Here, he talks about how to cook seafood, the key to a perfect lobster, and why he loves ramen noodles.

The secret to cooking seafood: Realizing that what you are cooking is very delicate. You have to approach it with medium heat and less [cook time], and when you pair it with flavors, be careful not to mask the essence of the fish. I try never to make fish with pasta dishes that have very robust, tomato sauces; it's like you're eating two different things.

Favorite fish: Skate wing. The taste is very buttery, almost steak-like. That with some dark winter greens is just phenomenal.

Toughest dish to cook at my restaurant: The hash browns. You have to have good technique to flip them over. Not everybody can pull it off.

Key to cooking a perfect lobster: Knowing the weight of the lobster tail, because that's going to tell you how many minutes it goes in the steamer or pot — it's about a minute per ounce. A 1 1/4-pound lobster usually has a six-ounce tail, so you want to go six to seven minutes.

Guilty pleasure: In college, my wife put me onto cheap, packaged, really spicy ramen noodles. One of those and an egg cracked into it, I'm in heaven. It's great.

Simplest tip to improve home cooking: It's always fine to start with high flame to warm up your pan, but the minute the protein or vegetables hit the pan, you should lower it to medium. Even when you want to sear something: If you leave it on high, you'll over-caramelize the surface, and the inside probably won't yet be cooked.

What diners would be surprised to learn about chefs: That we are a lot less intense when we're out to eat. I just want to eat something and enjoy it – I don't want to take it apart.

Favorite local restaurant: Café Matisse in Rutherford. Chef Peter Loria has a way of being playful with flavors … I can almost close my eyes and point [at the menu], it's always great.

How I know I'm being ripped off in a restaurant: When you get a luxury item at a price that's too good to be true, you have to wonder, because good food is expensive. It happens a lot unfortunately with scallops.

My culinary hero: My executive sous-chef Justin Manzi. Working with him is a pleasure — as soon as we start talking about food, it's energizing, and it creates such a good energy. And that's necessary to work in a kitchen.

More info: The Oceanaire Seafood Room, The Shops at Riverside, 390 Hackensack Ave.; 201-343-8862; the oceanaire.com. Appetizers: $6 to $37; entrées: $22 to $60.

-

http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/chef-carlos-valdez-of-oceanaire-in-hackensack-talks-on-cooking-lobster-and-ramen-noodles-1.1263930

This Ridgewood chef lived homeless, on the streets of Paterson

Vaughn Crenshaw always loved to cook. It is in his blood, he said — everyone in his family knows how to "put flavors together." But from the moment he saw Emeril Lagasse's cooking show at age 9, he knew the kitchen was his calling.

Four years later, however, he was living on the streets of Paterson, sleeping in an abandoned Volkswagen hatchback on Van Houten Street, hustling and selling drugs just to get by.

"It was a little two-door wagon, a blue joint," he said. "I remember that like it was yesterday. It was hard to stay clean, my clothes were extremely dirty, and I became very upset with anybody who looked at me wrong. I became very aggressive. I felt like nobody wanted me."

His future — if there was to be one — was bleak.

Things are different today. Sporting a shaved head and perfectly coiffed goatee, Crenshaw, 29, is the executive chef at Pearl Restaurant in Ridgewood. He lives in Hackensack with his wife of three months, Erica, and listens to jazz and plays basketball. He teaches conversions — how to use math the way a chef does — at the Paterson Adult and Continuing Education school, and is often involved in food drives in his old hometown.

He swears that cooking is his "savior," and refers to it as "playing" or "dancing." Although he is fond of saying that his is a "typical bottom-to-the-top story," there is little typical about his narrative. His life has always been an uphill fight.

He started out living with his mother, stepfather, and seven brothers and sisters in a tiny apartment next to a crack house on 12th Street in Paterson. At 4 years old, he and one of his brothers were badly burned after a pan of boiling chicken grease and fat fell on them. Third-degree burns covered 70 percent of his body ("The skin was bubbling and exploding"), and he still bears the scars all over his body.

When he was 9, the family moved to Fair Street, but he was kicked out by his mother at age 13 after arguments about him not caring for his siblings the way she expected him to. He lived in the blue hatchback a few blocks away for a year, he said, and he and his teenage friends became "like [drug dealer] Nino Brown in [the 1991 movie] 'New Jack City.' " But he was always looking for a way out.

"I knew there was more to the world, and I knew that I could do more … I just couldn't get there," he said.

That world opened to him at 14 when his mother, believing it would be better for her son, signed him over to his godparents, who lived in Hackensack.

Teacher helped mold him

Crenshaw wasn't used to being outside a six-block radius of his home in Paterson, and still recalls his incredulousness at seeing a black guy talk to a white girl — in Paterson, that wouldn't have happened, he said, admitting that he was "very close-minded."

"I always had the mean frown face on, because the streets build you that way."

His life changed again when he met English teacher Barbara Caruso at Hackensack High School in his freshman year. When he walked in, he could barely spell, said Caruso, who retired in 2005, but when Crenshaw left four years later, he had "taken off." Caruso admits that she was hard on Crenshaw, and many other kids didn't understand why she was pushing him so incessantly — but he understood.

"He had this tremendous desire to improve himself, to improve his circumstances …. There was a light in his eyes," she said. "I was a tough cookie … but I saw that he was willing to take on what I was offering him."

"She didn't cut me any slack," Crenshaw recalled. "If I messed up, she didn't pass me. Every year she was on my back, and she wouldn't take anything less than 'A' material. If it wasn't 'A' material, she would fail me."

He became captain of the football and track teams his senior year, and scholarship money paved the way to Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island (Lagasse's alma mater) where he could focus on his dream of being a chef.

On breaks from school, he'd work at the Stony Hill Inn in Hackensack, where he was hired in 2005 after telling chef Gregory Sutton that he'd work for free just for the experience. Sutton placed him in the banquet hall, and was impressed with what he saw.

"That kid was just talented as hell," Sutton said. "He had the motivation — and passion. And if you're going to work with food, you've got to have passion."

Crenshaw worked there off and on for three years, and after he graduated (with an associate's degree in culinary arts and bachelor's degree in food service management in-hand), he followed Sutton to the Brick House Inn in Wyckoff and became assistant banquet chef.

A year later he took the head chef position at the Caribbean/soul food restaurant Jacksonville in Paterson, but two years later, still had nagging doubts that he'd assumed the top kitchen spot too soon. So he became executive sous chef at Mocha Bleu in Teaneck, where he learned to cook kosher under the watchful eye of the restaurant owner and a rabbi. Although he couldn't make a good matzo ball, his soups and specials "slapped their heads off," and Crenshaw added another skill to a growing list.

"My thing is this: Closed minds equal limitation. I don't like to limit myself. Period," he said. "I think once you get stuck in how things are supposed to be that's when you become confined, and that's as far as you're gonna go."

A year later, he became executive sous chef at Fort Lee's Khloe Bistrot, where he cooked for celebrities like Ice-T and Tahiry Jose from the VH1 show "Love and Hip Hop." In 2012, he landed on an episode of the Food Network's "Chopped," but got cut in the second round after struggling with the odd ingredients and the show's time constraints. His work was below subpar, he said, and he's still disappointed that he wasn't more prepared.

"It was the wake-up call that I needed. At the time I thought I was pretty good and I was a little full of myself. But this was like, 'Listen guy, you're not as good as you thought you were. So what are you going to do about it?' "

He rededicated himself to being a student of cooking, and spends his time searching for new trends by talking to vendors, subscribing to every culinary magazine he can find, and living by the "Flavor Bible" — a well-known index of flavors and ingredients — in a determined effort to get his flavor "on point."

His enthusiasm has become contagious — Alex Garibian, owner and chef at the New Milford Delicatessen, often cooks with Crenshaw for fun at his establishment

"He's a very entertaining guy," Garibian said. "When the dish is done, he's got this ecstasy, this 'Oh my God! This came out so good!' He's a natural chef."

"Food is art at the end of the day," Crenshaw said. "You can mix colors and manipulate things the way you want to … and I was able to create something of my own. You kind of take over the world through someone's palate."

Reconciled with mother

Dishes like his quinoa chicken and red velvet waffles, which have a bourbon cream cheese drizzle on the top, exemplify his style, which, he said, has grown during his year and a half at Pearl Restaurant. The menu has an Italian flair but changes daily, and includes unconventional dishes like duck prosciutto or duck meatballs. In 2014, he started his own catering company, the Jersey City-based Fre Food Catering and Events, which creates customizable menus for events.

His relationship with his mother has also healed, and he now said that being thrown out of the house was "probably the best thing she could have done for me."

"It made me mature very, very early," he said. "Me and my mom have a very good relationship now. We've put that in the past."

But if, somewhere, there's a 13-year-old kid reading this by flashlight in the back of an abandoned car, Crenshaw offered four pieces of advice: Do the work. Be open to change. Take the help people give you. And keep your eye on the prize.

Ignore those, and life is going to be terribly difficult.

Take it from Crenshaw. He learned the hard way.

Email: janoski@northjersey.com

-

http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/this-ridgewood-chef-lived-homeless-on-the-streets-of-paterson-1.1183573

Coffee with the Chef: Mo Kablouti, Bibi'z Restaurant and Lounge in Westwood

Mo Kablouti owned five restaurants and cafés in Manhattan — two in Chelsea and three in Greenwich Village, including Rafaella's on Bleecker Street, where he was executive chef — until, after 19 years, rising rents forced him out of the city.

Now the 60-year-old Ridgewood resident and father of three is the chef at Westwood's Bibi'z Restaurant and Lounge, where for two years he's worked to create the global cuisine the establishment is known for.

Originally from Tunisia, Kablouti came to the United States at 17 and learned to cook at an Italian restaurant in Miami. Other than that experience, he's self-taught. Bibi'z received 2 1/2 out of 4 stars from The Record in December 2013.

Here, he talks about bronzino, Whole Foods and an odd diner who always sends his food back so it can be burned more.

Toughest dish to cook at my restaurant: The bronzino [$29]. We serve it boneless, but it's very delicate, and it's complicated to make sure that the fish stays intact.

My favorite local restaurant: I go to Just Janice, a bistro in Ho-Ho-Kus. I like the short ribs and the risotto — it's perfect, nice and creamy.

What I'd never pay for at a restaurant: Bread — the first thing on the table should be bread, olive oil and butter, but a lot of them don't do that anymore. And if they do, they want to charge you.

Simplest tip to improve home cooking: You must practice. If you cook for long enough, you're going to get better at it, and if you make a mistake, you move on. You don't give up because something doesn't taste good, or because your wife didn't like it.

Favorite dish I've created: The blackened salmon with a tomato chardonnay [$27]. It's a big seller, and I like it because it has the spiciness of the Cajun spice in the fish along with the sweetness of the tomato chardonnay, which has figs and cranberries. A lobster sauce on the plate gives you another flavor as well.

Best place to grocery shop in North Jersey: I like Whole Foods' quality, and that they have a lot of local stuff.

My favorite cooking show: I watch Ina Garten. A lot of her dishes are interesting because they're very simple and very good.

Strangest request from a diner: I have a man that comes in, and he orders the same thing every time: a shrimp cocktail in a martini glass and a chicken kabob. But he wants them burned. So I send them out to him, and he always sends them back and says they're not burned enough — and they're black already. But he always wants them burned more. I've never seen anything like it.

The biggest misconception about chefs: That this is easy work.

How I keep my weight down: I don't eat. A lot of chefs eat continuously, but when I'm working I just cannot. I don't have the appetite.

Favorite cookbook: Ina Gartner's "Barefoot Contessa Family Style." I've tried a lot of her recipes and they're beautiful.

Most underused spice: Cumin and coriander. They're powerful spices, and you can't just throw them in anything; it has to be the right dish. Here, we use coriander in the Tunisian couscous [$15], which is a vegan dish, and in the fava beans [$5, appetizer].

More info: Bibi'z Restaurant and Lounge, 84 Center Ave., Westwood; 201-722-8600; bibizlounge.com. Appetizers $5 to $7, entrées $15 to $29.

-

http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/chef-mo-kablouti-of-bibi-z-restaurant-in-westwood-dishes-on-food-diners-and-restaurants-1.1099733

Coffee with the Chef: Michael Latour at Latour in Ridgewood

Michael Latour, 51, was no stranger to high-end cooking even before he opened Latour in Ridgewood in 1998 — the Ramsey resident had cooked at the Jockey Club at the Ritz Carlton, the Four Seasons Hotel, the Doral Park Avenue Hotel (all in New York City) and L'Auberge de France in Wayne before opening his own place. Latour, a French-American restaurant, received three out of four stars from The Record in 2010, when it was last reviewed.

Although he has a degree in culinary arts from Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island, Latour says it was his on-the-job experience that was most valuable — in cooking, he says, everything is based on interpretation, and learning from others is critical to create one's own style.

Here, Latour talks about convection ovens, his (negative) feelings for tilapia and his favorite local restaurant.

My favorite tool in the kitchen: The convection oven. It cooks evenly, it browns things better, and it helps with soufflés in particular. You try to make that in a regular oven, and it's just not going to come out as well.

Food fad I hate: Tilapia. That's the worst fish. It's a farm-raised fish that's raised in a cesspool. It's nasty. If you see that on a menu, stay away. It should have a skull and crossbones next to it.

Biggest misconception about chefs: Chefs have been glorified on the Food Network, and people think, "I'm going to come out of school and become a chef and open a restaurant." But it takes a long period of time to gain the knowledge needed — it's a minimum of 10 years.

The secret to great French cuisine is: The sauces. Without that, there's nothing.

My favorite kitchen knives: Henckels. They're very sturdy, they have some weight to them, and I like their feel.

My favorite local restaurant: Local Seasonal Kitchen in Ramsey. The presentation is fabulous, and Steve Santoro's style is very different — there are a lot of items on the plate.

Guilty pleasure: Chocolate. I love Cacao Noel. It's not too tart, not too bitter.

I keep my weight down by: Hiking. I go to Skyline Drive in Ringwood, or Seven Lakes or Sterling Forest in New York State. I go three times a week at least, and do 5 miles or more.

A tip for home cooks: When cooking fish, it's always better to have it a little underdone than overcook it.

Favorite dining experience: At the Moulin de Mougins in Mougins, France. The chef was Roger Verge, and the cheese course was amazing. We had a lobster navarin, and a noisette of lamb with morel mushrooms. The sauces, the quality of the meat, the presentation … it was the whole package. They really nailed it.

More info: Latour, 6 E. Ridgewood Ave., Ridgewood; 201-445-5056, latourridge wood.com. Appetizers $9 to $17, entrées $26 to $36. Tuesday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday 6 to 8:30 p.m., Sunday 4 to 9 p.m.

-

http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/restaurant-reviews/michael-latour-at-latour-in-ridgewood-on-his-favorite-local-restaurant-and-favorite-knives-1.1126687

Coffee with the Chef: John Vitale of Caffe Anello in Westwood

Although John Vitale, the 33-year-old chef at Caffe Anello in Westwood, has no formal background in cooking, his family ties to the pursuit run generations deep — the Cresskill resident grew up in the kitchen with his parents and grandparents, all of whom were "tremendous cooks." And though he spent a few years cooking for campus restaurants during his years at Elon University in North Carolina, Caffe Anello, which Vitale opened with his wife, Alissa, nine months ago, represents his first foray into the world of fine dining. It received three out of four stars from The Record.

Here, he talks about mushy pasta, Snickers bars, and why Americans use too much salt.

Biggest mistake home cooks make: Not being creative enough — it's the key. For example, cook with orange champagne and garlic, and reduce it down to a garlic shrimp dish, instead of just doing traditional scampi, so you'll get the citrus flavors, too.

Culinary hero: My mother. That's where I learned everything, and it would be her over anyone.

What I would never pay for at a restaurant: Any pasta dish, because we make and cut our own fresh. So I'm expecting boxed pasta, and it's just not as good as fresh cut pasta. It's a major difference, and I don't think people know that.

Best dish I ever ate: It was wild boar ragout over fresh-cut pappardelle at La Campana in Rome, Italy. It was so unique — it was done in a very rich sauce that used fresh tomatoes reduced in a brown sauce, which is something I've never seen before.

At a vending machine with a buck, I get: A Snickers. It's the only candy bar that can actually quench your appetite, and I like the salty and sweet combination.

My favorite tool in the kitchen: Sauté pans. I have several going at one time because we don't fry anything here.

Most overused spice: Salt. There's too much of it on too many dishes. I think it's compensation; it's used to mask things that aren't as fresh as they should be. People use it on everything, but there are a lot of other spices I'd rather go heavy on, like garlic. I can't get enough garlic.

Strangest request from a diner: Once, a diner asked me to make sure that the pasta came out mushy. They did not want it al dente. That's just a sin.

Most overrated food: The steaks at a lot of restaurants are overrated. I use Westwood Prime Meats, and they take the time to bring in the highest quality stuff you can get. So when I go to a fine dining restaurant, and I order a steak and pay a lot of money, it's a big disappointment after having had their quality.

I hate it when diners: Ask for more salt on anything. We don't even have it on the table.

The next food fad is: Crepes. They're a large part of European and Asian culture, and I don't see a lot of places doing them.

Presentation is important because: Your eyes, mouth, and nose are completely connected. I don't send anything out of the kitchen that doesn't look like something I'd want to be served.

My favorite dish to cook: "Chef's suggestion tonight." When a diner comes in and says that's what they want, it means they don't have boundaries for what they're willing to try, and it allows me to be creative.

More info: Caffe Anello, 429 Broadway, Westwood; 201-786-8137; caffeanello.com. Appetizers: $8 to $15, entrées $13 to $36.

-

http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/chef-john-vitale-of-three-star-caffe-anello-in-westwood-on-his-best-meal-ever-culinary-hero-and-the-overuse-of-salt-1.1114466

Coffee with the Chef: Wilson Lindemann of Biddy O'Malley's in Northvale

The restaurant might be called Biddy O’Malley’s Irish Bistro and Bar, but that doesn’t mean Wilson Lindemann’s culinary creations are limited to different variations of shepherd’s pie and fish and chips.

The 27-year-old executive chef, who is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in New Hampshire, said that Biddy’s does a little bit of everything — even if that means using Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Italian dishes to compliment its traditional Irish fare.

Before coming to the Northvale restaurant three years ago, Lindemann worked for the Ship Lantern Inn and the Tuxedo Club — both in New York State — for about two years apiece, and was also contracted to work on Norwegian Cruise Line for five months.

Here he talks about lobster, French knives and how to cook the perfect duck.

Toughest dish to cook at my restaurant: Sake-marinated Goffle Road Farms duck breast ($26). It’s about getting the temperature right — a lot of cooks have difficulty with doneness with a duck because it has a different texture than, say, a steak. If somebody wants duck medium-rare, it might feel a little softer than the chef is used to.

Favorite kitchen tool: A French knife. It’s very versatile, and if you don’t have a boning knife or a paring knife, you can use that. It really should be attached to the chef’s hand. I use a Shun Classic because it’s very lightweight and it holds its edge for a long time, which is very important.

Favorite dish to cook: Plum-braised short rib with foie gras fried rice ($25). I’ve never eaten at a restaurant that had something like that, and the final product is awesome. The sweetness of the plum compliments the foie gras very well, as well as the short rib.

The secret to being a good Irish restaurant: The hospitality. It’s always very welcoming, very warm, it seems like people don’t have any choice but to come back.

Most overrated food: Lobster. Oftentimes it’s very expensive, but I don’t think it has a ton of flavor. I’d rather have a diver scallop over lobster any day.

Simplest tip to improve home cooking: Less is more. If you put too much of something, like a spice, into your dish, you can’t take it out. But you can always add more.

How I keep my weight down: It definitely is difficult, and I’m a big guy. And one thing that I was always taught: You have to try everything you put out. I stand by that.

My pet peeve: When cooks feel the need to add their own twist on one of my recipes. That’s a big no-no. I always encourage them to be creative, but let me try it first before we go with it.

Biggest misconception about chefs: That we’re all angry all the time. And I don’t think that Gordon Ramsay helped us with that one. This can be a very stressful job if you let it, and I have stressful times, but there’s no need to get that hyped. Even if they paid me the money they pay him, I don’t think I could do it. I wouldn’t want to be angry all the time.

My guilty pleasure: Foie gras. I love it. It’s very rich and full of flavor.

Next food fad: Fermented foods, like kimchi. There are so many restaurants that are going farm-to-table, and because chefs are becoming more involved in farms, they don’t want to see food go in the garbage, so I think they’d rather ferment or pickle it so you can use it all winter.

What I’d never pay for at a restaurant: Bottled water, like Pellegrino. I would rather have a glass of wine with a meal.

More info: Biddy O’Malley’s Irish Bistro and Bar, 191 Paris Ave., Northvale, 201-564-7893, biddyomalleys.com. Appetizers: $8 to $13; entrées: $11 to $25. Monday to Friday 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 a.m., Sunday noon to 2 a.m.

-

http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/restaurant-reviews/chef-wilson-lindemann-of-biddy-o-malley-s-in-northvale-on-lobster-french-knives-and-how-to-cook-duck-perfectly-1.1109465