Grilled: Tap & Tapas

Mark Ladner, Del Posto

First New York restaurant job?
A place on 22nd street called Lux, which was a three-star American restaurant run by chef Rick Laakkonen. He’s now the executive chef at Tao.

How did you land the job?
It was my second day in New York and I saw a friend of mine from school riding his bike down the street and he asked me to come work with him. This was 1994 and everything was Francofied. American food wasn’t really being embraced in New York.   

Do you watch cooking shows on TV?
I’ll watch Anthony Bourdain or Andrew Zimmern. Zimmern is really exuberant and truly excited.