Wednesday, November 26, 2014
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
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
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Buff is the new skinny
Nicole Riordan spent a long time trying to "get skinny." As a longtime runner and avid gym rat, the 43-year-old mother of two wasn't overweight, and her gym routine was built on the traditional building blocks of women's fitness: step workouts, spin classes and "tons of aerobics." Still though, she wasn't where she wanted to be.
But three years ago, the Bloomingdale resident began taking the circuit class at Cannonball Gym in Pompton Lakes. The class, which mixed weight lifting and strength training with more basic exercises like jumping rope, was not only a new challenge, but introduced her to a new world, one where "thin and skinny" took a
back seat to "fit and strong."
Hundreds of workouts later, she can squat 105 pounds — something she never thought she'd do — and has raised her pushup total from around 10 to well over 50. She's gained weight but dropped two clothing sizes, has more muscle definition than ever, and can even keep up with some of the men in Cannonball's lifting class.
"Women are always trained to weigh less, and you think that number on the scale means so much," she said. "But I liked the definition I was getting, I liked getting stronger, I liked being able to wear a tank top and know that my arms look fit. … It was so much more empowering."
These aren't words you would have heard from a woman in the gym just 10 years ago, said Cannonball's 32-year-old owner/operator, Austin Wall, and it's only in the last five that he's seen women trade the "skinny-at-all-costs" mentality for one built on a little more muscle. He attributes this, in part, to the rise in popularity of women's sports — average women are watching those athletes and beginning to look to their bodies for inspiration instead of rail-thin runway models. Not to mention our culture's obsession with health.
"The goal is health, and women are becoming more comfortable with that," Wall said. "And if that means being a little bit thicker than whatever the old standard was, I think they're happy with that, too."
Cris Dobrosielski, author and owner of Monumental Results Inc. in San Diego and a consultant with the American Council on Exercise, agrees. "You have more women coming out of high school and college with experience in weight training, where 20 years ago it was thought to be manly," he said.
And the trend does seem to be catching on: According to the recently published American College of Sports Medicine's annual fitness trend forecast for 2015, three of the top four exercise trends — body-weight training, High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and strength training — involve strength training to increase lean body mass. (The fourth trend: "consulting with experts.")
The health benefits of weight lifting are well-established. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, research has shown that pumping iron can reduce the symptoms of several diseases and chronic conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, obesity, back pain, depression and osteoporosis (the latter of particular concern to women).
"While aerobic exercise, such as walking, jogging or swimming, has many excellent health benefits … it does not make your muscles strong. Strength training does," the CDC's website notes. It cites a year-long study of postmenopausal women at Tufts University, which found that a group that did progressive strength training just two days a week had 1-percent gains in hip and spine density, 75-percent increases in strength and a 13-percent increase in dynamic balance. The control group showed losses in all of those categories.
Not everyone is convinced that this "movement" is actually happening, however, and there does seem to be a disconnect between what's going on in the gym and what researchers say women believe about their bodies.
Diana Thomas, professor and director of the Center for Quantitative Obesity Research at Montclair State University, believes that the "strong and healthy" idea is more marketing ploy than movement. Recent research still indicates that women overestimate the size of their bodies and then choose the skinniest possible model as their ideal when asked how they'd like to look, she maintained.
Thomas worries that the actual implication is to be both strong and skinny. If there was a concerted effort to change the ideal of what's attractive in order to promote working out for strength instead of vanity, "that would be wonderful," she said.
"Muscle is good, especially for women," Thomas said. "Having lean body mass keeps them from getting osteoporosis. Instead of looking at appearance goals, we should look at health goals."
Sarah Bateman, a Teaneck therapist specializing in eating disorders, said that although she feels the "fit, toned look" has become "very desirable," pursuing one vision as "the ideal" can be dangerous no matter what that vision may be; being in the weight room for inordinate amounts of time can be as disruptive to one's life as skipping dinners to shed pounds.
"There isn't just one healthy body image, there isn't one healthy body type," she said. "And idealizing any one specific type is dangerous because everyone has different bodies."
Tina Thea, a 47-year-old mother of three from Upper Saddle River, began lifting at Fit Club Strength and Conditioning in Allendale about five years ago as she entered middle age. She quickly got hooked; she felt stronger, and people noticed the improvement. Today, she can do seven pull-ups — when she began, she could do only two — and can use 40-pound dumbbells for bench pressing.
"I really kind of love it," she said. "I couldn't imagine not doing it."
Richie Carney, the 33-year-old owner of Fit Club, said that he sees more women than ever in his training sessions; where once his classes were mostly men, today about half his clientele is female.
"At first, they're nervous [about working out with men], but then they realize it's not a competition and they're not being judged," he said. "It's kind of inspiring, and they feed off each other."
-
http://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/buff-is-the-new-skinny-1.1135910?page=all
 |
| Riordan weightlifts at Cannonball Gym in Pompton Lakes |
But three years ago, the Bloomingdale resident began taking the circuit class at Cannonball Gym in Pompton Lakes. The class, which mixed weight lifting and strength training with more basic exercises like jumping rope, was not only a new challenge, but introduced her to a new world, one where "thin and skinny" took a
back seat to "fit and strong."
Hundreds of workouts later, she can squat 105 pounds — something she never thought she'd do — and has raised her pushup total from around 10 to well over 50. She's gained weight but dropped two clothing sizes, has more muscle definition than ever, and can even keep up with some of the men in Cannonball's lifting class.
"Women are always trained to weigh less, and you think that number on the scale means so much," she said. "But I liked the definition I was getting, I liked getting stronger, I liked being able to wear a tank top and know that my arms look fit. … It was so much more empowering."
These aren't words you would have heard from a woman in the gym just 10 years ago, said Cannonball's 32-year-old owner/operator, Austin Wall, and it's only in the last five that he's seen women trade the "skinny-at-all-costs" mentality for one built on a little more muscle. He attributes this, in part, to the rise in popularity of women's sports — average women are watching those athletes and beginning to look to their bodies for inspiration instead of rail-thin runway models. Not to mention our culture's obsession with health.
"The goal is health, and women are becoming more comfortable with that," Wall said. "And if that means being a little bit thicker than whatever the old standard was, I think they're happy with that, too."
Cris Dobrosielski, author and owner of Monumental Results Inc. in San Diego and a consultant with the American Council on Exercise, agrees. "You have more women coming out of high school and college with experience in weight training, where 20 years ago it was thought to be manly," he said.
And the trend does seem to be catching on: According to the recently published American College of Sports Medicine's annual fitness trend forecast for 2015, three of the top four exercise trends — body-weight training, High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and strength training — involve strength training to increase lean body mass. (The fourth trend: "consulting with experts.")
The health benefits of weight lifting are well-established. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, research has shown that pumping iron can reduce the symptoms of several diseases and chronic conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, obesity, back pain, depression and osteoporosis (the latter of particular concern to women).
"While aerobic exercise, such as walking, jogging or swimming, has many excellent health benefits … it does not make your muscles strong. Strength training does," the CDC's website notes. It cites a year-long study of postmenopausal women at Tufts University, which found that a group that did progressive strength training just two days a week had 1-percent gains in hip and spine density, 75-percent increases in strength and a 13-percent increase in dynamic balance. The control group showed losses in all of those categories.
Not everyone is convinced that this "movement" is actually happening, however, and there does seem to be a disconnect between what's going on in the gym and what researchers say women believe about their bodies.
Diana Thomas, professor and director of the Center for Quantitative Obesity Research at Montclair State University, believes that the "strong and healthy" idea is more marketing ploy than movement. Recent research still indicates that women overestimate the size of their bodies and then choose the skinniest possible model as their ideal when asked how they'd like to look, she maintained.
Thomas worries that the actual implication is to be both strong and skinny. If there was a concerted effort to change the ideal of what's attractive in order to promote working out for strength instead of vanity, "that would be wonderful," she said.
"Muscle is good, especially for women," Thomas said. "Having lean body mass keeps them from getting osteoporosis. Instead of looking at appearance goals, we should look at health goals."
Sarah Bateman, a Teaneck therapist specializing in eating disorders, said that although she feels the "fit, toned look" has become "very desirable," pursuing one vision as "the ideal" can be dangerous no matter what that vision may be; being in the weight room for inordinate amounts of time can be as disruptive to one's life as skipping dinners to shed pounds.
"There isn't just one healthy body image, there isn't one healthy body type," she said. "And idealizing any one specific type is dangerous because everyone has different bodies."
Tina Thea, a 47-year-old mother of three from Upper Saddle River, began lifting at Fit Club Strength and Conditioning in Allendale about five years ago as she entered middle age. She quickly got hooked; she felt stronger, and people noticed the improvement. Today, she can do seven pull-ups — when she began, she could do only two — and can use 40-pound dumbbells for bench pressing.
"I really kind of love it," she said. "I couldn't imagine not doing it."
Richie Carney, the 33-year-old owner of Fit Club, said that he sees more women than ever in his training sessions; where once his classes were mostly men, today about half his clientele is female.
"At first, they're nervous [about working out with men], but then they realize it's not a competition and they're not being judged," he said. "It's kind of inspiring, and they feed off each other."
-
http://www.northjersey.com/news/health-news/buff-is-the-new-skinny-1.1135910?page=all
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Coffee with the Chef: Cesar Sotomayor of Cafe 37 in Ridgewood
Cesar Sotomayor, 38, owes his love of cooking to his Venezuelan roots — as a child in Caracas, his grandmother cooked for 10 family members each day. Sotomayor "grew up in the kitchen."
A few years after his arrival in the United States in 1999, a chance meeting with chef Michael Latour at Burlington Coat Factory in Paramus landed him a spot in Latour’s Ridgewood restaurant, where Sotomayor did menial tasks such as dicing vegetables and sanitizing the kitchen, all while learning the trade.
His five years at Latour, combined with an associate’s degree in hotel and restaurant management from Bergen Community College, landed him in the head chef position at Ridgewood’s Village Green in 2007. During his six-year tenure, he established his own cooking style, and in July 2012, the Hawthorne resident opened Café 37, also in Ridgewood, serving modern American cuisine. The restaurant received 2 1/2 out of 4 stars from The Record in 2012.
Here, Sotomayor talks about Whole Foods, his weakness for ice cream, and how to stay slim when you’re surrounded by food.
Toughest dish to cook at my restaurant: Asian marinated pork riblets ($28), because of the time factor; they marinate in their juices overnight and are braised the next day.
Favorite dish I invented: The Café 37 seafood pot ($35). It used to be made at my house on Sundays when I was growing up. It’s fish and whatever seafood was available, and a roasted tomato/garlic/white wine broth. My grandma would bring the pot to the table and everyone would serve themselves.
Guilty pleasure: Ice cream. We make it homemade, and every time the machine is running, you’ll see me next to it scooping out a portion for myself. We make a coconut ice cream that’s a thing you can’t say no to — it’s in a dessert called golden puff and coconut ice cream with caramelized pineapples ($8).
Favorite local restaurant: Villa de Colombia in Hackensack. I usually get a steak, seafood chowder, or a yuca frita. They’re doing something right; the flavors are always great, the temperatures are where you want them, the service is awesome, and it’s very casual.
Best place to grocery shop in North Jersey: I like Whole Foods. It’s a little pricey, but they always have fresh, organic produce.
My last meal: Paella. It has seafood – which is my favorite thing – and the roasted garlic, rice and white wine make a perfect combination.
How I keep my weight down: I work out like a maniac. I just did 16 miles this afternoon on my bike, and I went right after to a yoga class. Every day I’m doing something — I have to either skateboard or bike or go to the gym or do some hiking. I’m always moving around. If you sit, you rust. And don’t eat after 7 p.m. It’s tough because I’m surrounded by food, but it’s all about discipline.
Presentation is important: Customers eat with their eyes. You want to put a plate in front of them so they will say, ‘This looks amazing.’ You’re a big step ahead before they even taste it.
More info: Café 37, 37 S. Broad St., Ridgewood; 201-857-0437; café-37.com. Appetizers: $12 to $17, entrées $26 to $36.
-
http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/chef-cesar-sotomayor-of-cafe-37-in-ridgewood-on-ice-cream-whole-foods-and-keeping-trim-1.1131538
A few years after his arrival in the United States in 1999, a chance meeting with chef Michael Latour at Burlington Coat Factory in Paramus landed him a spot in Latour’s Ridgewood restaurant, where Sotomayor did menial tasks such as dicing vegetables and sanitizing the kitchen, all while learning the trade.
His five years at Latour, combined with an associate’s degree in hotel and restaurant management from Bergen Community College, landed him in the head chef position at Ridgewood’s Village Green in 2007. During his six-year tenure, he established his own cooking style, and in July 2012, the Hawthorne resident opened Café 37, also in Ridgewood, serving modern American cuisine. The restaurant received 2 1/2 out of 4 stars from The Record in 2012.
Here, Sotomayor talks about Whole Foods, his weakness for ice cream, and how to stay slim when you’re surrounded by food.
Toughest dish to cook at my restaurant: Asian marinated pork riblets ($28), because of the time factor; they marinate in their juices overnight and are braised the next day.
Favorite dish I invented: The Café 37 seafood pot ($35). It used to be made at my house on Sundays when I was growing up. It’s fish and whatever seafood was available, and a roasted tomato/garlic/white wine broth. My grandma would bring the pot to the table and everyone would serve themselves.
Guilty pleasure: Ice cream. We make it homemade, and every time the machine is running, you’ll see me next to it scooping out a portion for myself. We make a coconut ice cream that’s a thing you can’t say no to — it’s in a dessert called golden puff and coconut ice cream with caramelized pineapples ($8).
Favorite local restaurant: Villa de Colombia in Hackensack. I usually get a steak, seafood chowder, or a yuca frita. They’re doing something right; the flavors are always great, the temperatures are where you want them, the service is awesome, and it’s very casual.
Best place to grocery shop in North Jersey: I like Whole Foods. It’s a little pricey, but they always have fresh, organic produce.
My last meal: Paella. It has seafood – which is my favorite thing – and the roasted garlic, rice and white wine make a perfect combination.
How I keep my weight down: I work out like a maniac. I just did 16 miles this afternoon on my bike, and I went right after to a yoga class. Every day I’m doing something — I have to either skateboard or bike or go to the gym or do some hiking. I’m always moving around. If you sit, you rust. And don’t eat after 7 p.m. It’s tough because I’m surrounded by food, but it’s all about discipline.
Presentation is important: Customers eat with their eyes. You want to put a plate in front of them so they will say, ‘This looks amazing.’ You’re a big step ahead before they even taste it.
More info: Café 37, 37 S. Broad St., Ridgewood; 201-857-0437; café-37.com. Appetizers: $12 to $17, entrées $26 to $36.
-
http://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/chef-cesar-sotomayor-of-cafe-37-in-ridgewood-on-ice-cream-whole-foods-and-keeping-trim-1.1131538
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
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