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| Chef Amanda Cohen, Dirt Candy Photo: Stephen Elledge |
A Creative, Chic Way to Eat Your Vegetables - Eat Dirt Candy
by Alexi Melvin, Contributing Writer
Chef Amanda Cohen's rebellious preparation of vegetables has taken Manhattan by storm, in the form
of Dirt Candy, her restaurant in the East Village. The restaurant is small, chic and inviting. The dim purple
lighting and simple decor give it a modern twist. As diners enjoy Chef Cohen’s
creations, they can watch the culinary artist at work a mere ten feet away from
their tables. Also, to add to her superpowers of being a masterful chef and restaurant owner, she is releasing her first cookbook tomorrow, Dirt Candy: A Cookbook: Flavor-Forward Food from the Upstart New York City Vegetarian Restaurant.
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| Dirt Candy: A Cookbook Photo: Clarkson Potter |
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| Pepper! Yellow pepper soup with red pepper mousse and jalapeno chips |
In our interview, Chef Cohen
talks veggies, and gives us the scoop on being the Chef/Owner of one of the top
rated vegetarian restaurants in NYC.
First of all, tell us where the name "Dirt
Candy" came from.
It’s a
restaurant-eat-restaurant world out there so I wanted a name that people would
remember. Plenty of places go for the random assemblage of letters and numbers
(SPX 12), there’s the proper noun name (Fork, Table, Salt), the foreign word
name (Mangia, Voltare, Kishu), and there’s the name name (Mary Anne’s,
Thompson’s). I wanted something different, and since vegetables are candy from
the dirt, I figured that Dirt Candy would be memorable, at the very least, even
if people hated it. Now I’m seeing it pop up everywhere online as a reference
to vegetables.
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| Tomato! Smoked feta in a tomato cake, cherry tomato leather, spring herb puree |
How would you describe Dirty Candy to someone who
isn't necessarily a "foodie?"
It’s a vegetable restaurant
that doesn’t care about your politics, your health, or what you had for lunch.
At Dirt Candy, the only thing we care about is cooking great vegetables.
So many people don't have enough appreciation for
vegetables. Why are vegetables so important and unique to you as a chef?
Vegetables are the Wild West
of cooking right now. No one is doing anything with them. Lots of people are
cooking offal, and game, and seafood, but no one is just focusing exclusively
on vegetables. The bad part about that is that I’m not considered “cool” by the
press, but that’s far outweighed by the awesome part of that, which is that I’m
on this roller coaster all alone, no one telling me what I can and can’t do, no
one arguing with me, or telling me the “proper” way to do anything. Dirt Candy
is my laboratory and every day I get to experiment a little more, pushing the
boundaries of what can be done with vegetables.
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| Inside Dirt Candy Photo: Michael Harlan Turkell |
Were there certain moments throughout
your career that served as inspiration for the concept of Dirt Candy?
Not to sound totally selfish,
but Dirt Candy was made just for me. I’ve been cooking professionally for close
to 15 years and over that time I’ve worked for, or consulted on, a lot of
restaurants in New York City. In all that time I learned a lot, some of it
about what NOT to do and a lot of it about what worked and what didn’t on the
plate. I became convinced that there was a huge hole in the market where people
who just wanted good vegetables weren’t being served. So Dirt Candy was the
first time I could put my theories into action, and not listen to anyone else
who was peddling conventional wisdom. Fortunately, I’ve turned out to be at
least half right.
Your menu is constantly changing, but which few
dishes would you say you have been the most proud of?
You’re asking me to choose
between my children! But the most popular dishes over the years have been the
Stone-ground Grits with Tempura Poached Egg, the Portobello Mousse with
Truffled Toast and Pear & Fennel Compote, and the Cauliflower and Waffles
with Horseradish Sauce. And people keep asking me when we’re going to bring
back the Candied Grapefruit Pops.
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| Dirt Candy, street view Photo: Michael Harlan Turkell |
Is there a certain type of crowd that usually visits
the restaurant, or is it a mixed bag?
I’ve been really lucky to
have a mixed crowd here. I’d say about half my customers are people who are
either vegetarian or vegan, but the other half are people who just like good
food.
What are your top three favorite restaurants in the
city?
I really love Legend, a
Sichuan place on Seventh Avenue that serves my favorite Chinese food in
Manhattan right now. Going to Brooklyn scares me, plus I’m lazy, but La Vara in
Cobble Hill does fried food like nobody’s business. Their fried artichokes and
the crispy chickpeas alone were worth the trip. And whenever I’m feeling fancy,
Dovetail on the Upper West Side is the place to go. It always feels like a
special Sunday dinner with Mom and Dad, which is not a bad thing. Sometimes
it’s really nice to pull on your big girl pants and be an adult having a super-mature,
sophisticated meal.
Who are some other chefs that you admire?
Most of the chefs who inspire
me, or who mean a lot to me, aren’t the famous ones. The people who have
changed my career and my life have been the other women working in professional
kitchens who I’ve had the privilege of working alongside. You won’t read about
them in a magazine, but people like Glory Mongin and Debbie Lee really changed
how I work and the way I approach food.
After competing on
Iron Chef America, are there any other TV shows that you'd be interested in
appearing on?
I’m not built for reality TV.
It takes me a long time and a lot of experimentation to get a dish the way I
want it. But if they ever have challenges that last 3 months, let me know.
That’s about my speed.
What are some of your guilty pleasures?
I’m incapable of feeling
guilty about pleasure.
When you aren't cooking, what are you doing?
Sleeping.
Which cities in the world that you've visited have
the best food?
I think you can find great
food anywhere, but Hong Kong is where I really fell in love with vegetables.
If you were stranded on an island and could only have
three food staples with you, what would you choose?
I’d choose to have tequila
and triple sec (I’m counting that as one item), limes, and a gun. That way I
could have a really, really nice margarita and then shoot myself. I don’t want
to be stranded on a desert island!
If you could invite any celebrity to dine at your
restaurant, who would it be?
President Obama, because…are
you kidding me? He’s the president!
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Alexi Melvin is a writer and an actress in NYC. She graduated from the prestigious Lee Strasberg Institute, and is currently getting her Bachelors Degree in Liberal Arts at The New School. Her passions include classic films, musical theatre, discovering great restaurants and traveling.
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