Spice Market

[Pan]

My point here would be that anyone who needed to know if the food was authentic, is probably missing the point of the restaurant

Point well taken.

But I'd say it's likely to be more a matter of taste caused partly by conditioning than prejudice. Of course, I really can't know whether I would or wouldn't like the cuisine at a place I haven't been to. If I claimed to know I wouldn't like it, that would be prejudice!

[Sumontana]

I worked in that kitchen for weeks before the opening. They actually put off opening for seven weeks , while I watched Jean-Georges, Gray Kunz, Stanley Wong tinker with the recipes. On week two of training, they scrapped most of the original recipes and started by scratch, they even had Greg, the Chef de Cuisine from J-G brought over for some of his ideas. Mohan and even Piche , the pastry chef should be mentioned for their influences. They put off the opening for several more weeks ,costing hundreds of thousands dollars to get it right, no doubt. It was very impressive to see so many great chefs working in one kitchen daily , having such passion and care for what they were creating. And if you truly read any of their resumes. You'll see that definately, all three lived in South East Asia for quite an extended period of time. And their love for that culture and the street food there, was what they wanted to bring to New York. As of last week they have been seen in that kitchen every night. It's a long beautiful open kitchen ,exposed to the dining room, so you can see Mr. Kunz working the front line for yourself. If you ask to sit at the communal, one of them might even stop by to ask you how your enjoying your meal. I just left the restaurant, but it was an honorable experience.

[Jason Perlow]

Welcome to the site, Sumontana! Thats really interesting, insightful stuff.

[tan319]

Mohan and even Piche , the pastry chef should be mentioned for their influences

Was Mohan formerly the Chef de Cuisine at Chicama?

This would have been the 1 year or so it was open?

Thanks for the info.

[Bux]

Welcome indeed, Sumontana. That was exactly the kind of thing I wanted to read. I hope we see more of your comments here.

[rslee]

Mohan, I believe, was at Tabla before joining Spicemarket. I too work there and I can't tell you how much of a joy it is to work with Jean Georges and Gray on a day to day basis in the kitchen. One of the greatest pleasures is speaking with Chef Kunz about food and seeing the passion in his eyes as he recounts the techniques and flavors. They are both in the kitchen with us almost every day, although Chef Kunz has had to deal with the coming opening of Cafe Gray. Really looking forward to the opening of Cafe Gray. A beautiful place and a cook's dream kitchen.

Robert

[slkinsey]

Appreciate your comments, Robert. Any inside look into the kitchen you could give us would be greatly appreciated. Please post your thoughts and impressions (not that you have a ton of time on your hands, I'm sure ).

[jogoode]

Mohan, I believe, was at Tabla before joining Spicemarket. I too work there and I can't tell you how much of a joy it is to work with Jean Georges and Gray on a day to day basis in the kitchen. One of the greatest pleasures is speaking with Chef Kunz about food and seeing the passion in his eyes as he recounts the techniques and flavors. They are both in the kitchen with us almost every day, although Chef Kunz has had to deal with the coming opening of Cafe Gray. Really looking forward to the opening of Cafe Gray. A beautiful place and a cook's dream kitchen.

Robert

Wow, eGulleteers are running Spice Market! Great to have you with us, rslee. I hope you'll let slip how much you love this site to JG and Kunz .

[rslee]

I will let them know about this site, but I promise to let Mohan know as I hope he may be able to clear up some of the confusion . Very true about the time. We plan on opening for lunch in a couple of weeks and have been busy training new crew to get ready.

Great to be in New York.

[SobaAddict70]

Good luck with the new place, Robert.

We look forward to hearing about it.

Soba

[Bux]

Wow, eGulleteers are running Spice Market! Great to have you with us, rslee. I hope you'll let slip how much you love this site to JG and Kunz .

First step is to run the restaurants in NY. Soon we'll be taking over the world. While few chefs have the time to log on and post regularly, it's not a big secret that most NY chefs know all about us and many chefs, owner, managers and other staff read here regularly.

[SobaAddict70]

For years Mr. Vongerichten has toyed with Asian flavors and clublike restaurants. Mercer Kitchen serves good food with nods to Asia, but it is dark and unforgivingly loud. A little more than a year ago, Mr. Vongerichten made a breakthrough with Chinese cooking at 66: rather than giving French food an Asian flair, he gave Chinese dishes a dose of his exquisite minimalism. But the dining room at 66 is like a hip morgue, and it has failed to woo serious diners.

Since then, Mr. Vongerichten seems to have had an epiphany. He is not a club owner, but a sensualist. And at Spice Market, he has hit on something new: casual, exotic luxury and food that people want to eat.

Spice Market (Amanda Hesser) (from this week's NYTimes DIGEST update. You may have to scroll down for the appropriate link.)

Finally! A review worthy of its subject.

Way to go, Amanda.

Soba

[kurl]

Whoa... 3 stars... Another restaurant to add to my list -- wasn't expecting this one to be all that well received.

And yeah, extremely well-written review.

SERVICE A flutter of skilled servers, some scantily clad.

... How cutely written!

Edited March 24, 2004 by kurl (log)

[Fat Guy]

The review was so sycophantic I shifted into skimming mode rather quickly (Cuozzo's review in today's Post strikes me as substantially more credible), but I didn't notice a single mention of Kunz. What's up with that? And three stars for upscale street food? It's going to take the next critic years to undo the mess Hesser is creating.

[tan319]

I think I'm with Fat Guy on this one.

To not mention Kunz is pretty wack.

I thought the Post review read a bit better too.

Having said that, this place is where I'm heading 1st when I get back to NYC.

[slkinsey]

The review was so sycophantic I shifted into skimming mode rather quickly (Cuozzo's review in today's Post strikes me as substantially more credible), but I didn't notice a single mention of Kunz. What's up with that? And three stars for upscale street food? It's going to take the next critic years to undo the mess Hesser is creating.

Not to mention... Spice Market: three stars. Asiate: one star.

[alanamoana]

The review was so sycophantic I shifted into skimming mode rather quickly (Cuozzo's review in today's Post strikes me as substantially more credible), but I didn't notice a single mention of Kunz. What's up with that? And three stars for upscale street food? It's going to take the next critic years to undo the mess Hesser is creating.

agreed...i always check the number of stars first and then read the review to see how it matches up. seems rather exaggerated, imo.

this is also another case of no information regarding who is running the kitchen on a day-to-day basis...chef de cuisine, pastry chef, etc. with all the raving you'd think she'd give credit. it isn't as if chef gray, chef jean-georges are there 24/7.

[slkinsey]

It is not standard practice -- at the NYT anyway -- to include such information in a review unless the chef de cuisine, pastry chef, etc. are somehow noteworthy due to the exceptional excellence of their work, the depth of their participation in creating the cuisine, etc. (e.g., Psaltis at Mix, Pasternack at Esca). This makes it an unusual and critical omission that Kunz' contribution was not mentioned, but not so for the other players. Restaurant reviews aren't like movie credits that list everyone involved.

[twodogs]

strange things are a foot at the circle k.

cats and dogs living together under one roof.

oh come on guys, its so simple, its all ball bearings nowadays.

cheers

[LJC]

Three stars is a bit crazy. For what it is, I enjoyed Spice Market very much but how can three stars be justified?

[tan319]

It is not standard practice -- at the NYT anyway -- to include such information in a review unless the chef de cuisine, pastry chef, etc. are somehow noteworthy due to the exceptional excellence of their work, the depth of their participation in creating the cuisine, etc. (e.g., Psaltis at Mix, Pasternack at Esca). This makes it an unusual and critical omission that Kunz' contribution was not mentioned, but not so for the other players. Restaurant reviews aren't like movie credits that list everyone involved.

Sorry, but I think Pichet Ong is worthy of a mention.

He's a rising star pastry chef who's being linked to a lot of fellow pastry chefs operating in the same universe (Sam Mason of WD-50, Jehinger Metha of AIX, etc.) who get a lot of ink all of the time.

The Post guy got it right.

If desserts are worthy of a mention, the person who is creating them does too.

[Daniel]

It comes as no surprise that her review of Spice Market or any Jean-Georges restaurant for that matter will be skewed. It must have been a pleasure for her to write a whole review about a Jean-Georges restaurant instead of having to throw references in while reviewing a less important place.

[Bond Girl]

I'm with FG on this one, the review was not readable. I thought I would never say this but the Post actually have more credibility this time around than the Times. The pastry chef is worth mentioning and so is Kunz.

[kurl]

Given that I haven't eaten there, nor do I know too much about the cuisine there (other than seeing some (vaguely negative?) buzz about it on eGullet), I think the review gave me (and will give many others) a completely mistaken impression of what the restaurant is all about. From the review, Spice Market seems like an "upscale-casual" fusion-type place (like Nobu?) with great food that riffs off of a street food theme -- the comments here make that perception out to be (wildly?) inaccurate, painting it as more of a 1-or-2-star restaurant that with a tame menu that has several misfires -- rarely has a recent NYT review clashed so blatantly with what was being said on this forum (Atelier and Mix also come to mind, perhaps).

I'll have to go myself just to settle it, but it's disappointing to me that the NYT can seemingly be so off-target.

... And Hesser does seem to be quite a J-G V fanatic.

[jogoode]

... And Hesser does seem to be quite a J-G V fanatic.

Right, I just remembered her out-of-nowhere praise of JG in her review of Asiate.