Snap Judgment: Cassoulet Festival at Savoy

Matt Weingarten, Inside Park

What inspired your cassoulet?
It's one of the three traditional cassoulets of Southwest France: Toulouse, Carcassonne and Castelnaudary. I'm doing the Carcassonne because for me it's the most interesting. It has partridge and mutton shoulder in it, which is not that common these days.

Did you know that in Southern France they serve cassoulet in a can?
It's something to be feared and applauded at the same time. I suppose it's better than SpaghettiO's and franks.

How's your restaurant doing?
It's doing well. We are opening our terrace in about a month, and our wood burning oven will be up and running this summer.