Big Think

Jennifer Rubell: The restaurants I go to are divided between the ones that I’ll go to once a month forever that I just . . . it . . . you know I just check in there all the time, love it, I always go back for something.  That’s a part.  Then I check out almost every significant new restaurant.  I live in New York, so in New York.  But wherever I am I’m always interested in what’s new, what young chefs are doing, what’s going on.  And I’ll go there once or twice.  Sometimes I get obsessed with a new restaurant and I’ll go there every other day for a month.  But that’s sort of like the new restaurant piece.  And then there are major restaurants that when I’m really almost in a rut when it comes to creating new recipes or thinking about food, I go to because they’re always inspirational.  They’re always amazing.  And they always give me something and sort of restore my faith in cooking.  And they’re sort of the temples that are necessary.

I’ll give you a couple from each category.  The restaurants that I go to once a month because they just feel great – Balthazar, the Oyster Bar at Grand Central . . .  Well let’s just say those are two good examples.  And I would put Bond Street actually in that category.  I would say all three of those are places that are bustling.  The food is really excellent quality.  I mean in the case of the Oyster Bar I only eat oysters, but the food . . . the food is really excellent quality, and it’s just a bustling, great feeling place.  So that’s that kind of category.

The new restaurants, like what’s new and exciting, I went to this place called ________ the other night, which was really, really good; really exciting.  This . . .  Let me think.  New is always hard because it’s a total crapshoot.  You know I wanna see what’s going on and what’s out there.  And one out of 10 will be . . . will be terrific, you know?  Oh.  Right now there’s kind of an Italian resurgence in New York, actually.  Miranda is not that new, but that’s a restaurant that I ate at, I would say . . .  You know I got my credit card statement the other day, and it was like the only . . .  The only merchant on it was Miranda.  I ate there probably like 20 times a month for three months. And I was just interested.  I thought the chef was doing certain things I was really, really interested in.  And then the high holy restaurants that I have to go back to.  Absolutely Babo.  I just think Mario Batali, he can do no wrong in my book.  He’s amazing.  And Babo is . . .  It’s amazing. You can’t get a reservation there.  It’s so difficult to get a reservation.  But so you would think it’s like kind of, “Oh they get into a routine and it doesn’t have to be that great because . . .”  And yet every time you go there you have something new you haven’t had before that’s totally seasonal, brilliant. It feels like it’s existed forever except you’ve never actually had that dish, and it’s genius.  And Jean-Georges I feel the same way.  Jean-Georges is interesting to me because the service there is so pristine that you . . . it’s just . . .  It’s just a beauty to behold.  It’s a beauty to feel what modern, perfect service can be like.  And then of course the food is always interesting, always exciting, always . . .  It always has flavors that are lovely and wonderful.  And then there are those three categories.  You can tell I absolutely love eating in restaurants.  Then of course there is ethnic food, which I eat a lot of.  And I mainly depend on cab drivers for my recommendations.  And there’s just . . .  You know New York is just like a . . .  It’s a paradise for ethnic food.

Recorded on 12/13/07