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First up, we'll cop to it: Here at Metromix, we love our meat. Crave that lamb belly. Demand that pork shank. But when faced with the sheer chutzpah, depth and imagination that is Amanda Cohen's cooking, who gives a hoot? For a year now, Cohen has been serving up what is arguably the city's most inventive vegetarian food at her miniscule East Village boite, Dirt Candy—to non-stop crowds, no less, even as her omnivorous peers wilted under the heat of the recession.
But survival skills alone do not make a Chef of the Year. Amanda Cohen is our Chef or the Year because after eating our way through endless trends and bloated expectations (fried chicken to banh mi to loca-blah-blah!), we loved the fact nobody does what Amanda Cohen does. Which is elevated, Michelin-recognized cooking that upends vegetarian clichés, ditches the sanctimonious jibber-jabber, and fries the bejeezus out of every known veggie—reminding us that in the end, it all comes down to one simple thing: flavor.
It's a long way for someone who started out frying chicken at Diner Bar in Spanish Harlem in 2001. Yes, Cohen cut her teeth on 10-cent wings. But that experience served her well: Cohen's deft frying skills have become her calling card, as is her knack for combining rich, creamy flavors with exceptional technique.
This isn't politically correct cooking here—she's not interested in that. "There's something with vegetarian restaurants where people expect them to be lifestyle and political restaurants," she says. "And not just about good food." At Dirt Candy, it is. Toothsome jalapeno hush puppies. Playful Rice Krispies paella. Richly seasoned kimchi doughnuts (pictured, right). Through superb culinary craftsmanship and winsome imagination, Cohen makes you forget what's missing, and joyfully reminds you what is present.
Does vegetarian food get a bad rap?
It does, and people can't look behind what vegetarian food is about and not what it's not about. The reality is that most people probably, at least once a week, have a meal that doesn't have meat or chicken or fish in it. They just don't call that meal "my vegetarian meal of the week."
Well, we gotta say it: Most vegetarian food is pretty terrible.
That's a hard thing for me to agree to [laughs]. But I think vegetarian food has a built-in audience, and [people] don't necessarily have to try to go outside of that audience. So whether or not that makes the food good or bad, it has its audience. ...There's very few restaurants in this city where they're expected to state their politics before you even walk in the door. But that onus is put on vegetarian restaurants, and I think it creates a world where it's hard for vegetarian restaurants to necessarily make exciting and different food.
What is your food all about?
Tasting really good and having lots of fun with it. You don't necessarily have to love my food; you don't have to love me. But I hope that when you come to the restaurant, at least you've tasted something that you've never tasted before, and you've had fun with it.
You opened your restaurant in one of the toughest economies in years.
It's not like I chose to open then! It was terrifying. Restaurants were closing left, right and center. But we were small enough and could function. We buy enough food for the night, and maybe the next night. We don't have huge rent.
But your year ended up working out just nicely...
We've had the most amazing year, and I would have never expected this to happen. We've won awards. Rising Stars, this award, which is amazing. We have regulars! I wanted to break down the barrier of what a vegetarian restaurant was supposed to be. And people really treat us as a regular restaurant, so we have met that major goal.
A lot of chefs do token blogging, but your really jump into your blog—they're really rich posts.
We wanted to break down the barriers between a restaurant and the customer—to be really honest about how it works and why it works. So we have this post about why your tofu is $17. I wanted to explain to them: You're paying for salaries and my electricity bill—the food is free.
And you also address critics, which is a bold move and certainly not the norm.
I didn't think it was going to be so bold when I did it. In hindsight, I can see how it would come across that way. I do it, because...[pauses]...sometimes you get these reviews and they are perplexing and I don't understand why there can't be a back and forth.
The newspaper writer writes the review and it gets printed and it's done. We have this Internet, so it's not like we are running out of space. There should be a dialogue. Maybe they got some facts wrong. It doesn't have to be a one-way street. Let's make it a two-way street.
Do you ever sneak a bite of meat when nobody is looking?
I do eat fish, so I am not an official vegetarian. I did by accident eat some bacon this summer. We were in Paris and had talked our way into a restaurant that we really wanted to go to, and sat down to realize it was a set meal and the soup was just filled with bacon. I didn't want to be rude, so I did end up having a couple bites. And I have to say that it was not as exciting!
Do you ever regret the restaurant's name—it got a lot of press.
Yeah, from you guys!
You remember!
I have so little regret about the name. At first I was like, "Everybody is being so mean about it." We would not have gotten half the press without the name. If I would have named the restaurant The Green Plate, who would care?
Photo by Melissa Hom
What other people are saying...
saraht - December 15, 2009 at 10:48 PM
I'm dying to try Dirty Candy- its nice to see a chef recognized amid a sea of places serving pork belly, bacon and more bacon.
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