Ethnic Dishes?

[Rosie]

Both of you come from diverse family backgrounds. Do you have any special ethnic dishes that you cook at home and/or incorporate into the menu at your restaurant?

[VerbenaNYC]

We both have favorite ethnic dishes that find there way onto the menu. Some of them are evident in the techniques we employ, others in the ingredients and still other in the reworking of an old family favorite.

Cooking for us is largly the introduction of flavors that we connect with in personal ways through memory in dishes that we develop for our clientele. I would say that about half of the flavors come from that past memory and the rest from our current repetoire of learned food skills. Sometimes a dish does not fit into the context of what we do here but a flavor, sauce or technique can be incorporated in a way that works. This is one of the most satisfying aspects of what we do.