Making Matzo at Daniel in New York City
To honor his approximately 50 percent Jewish clientele, French chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud has served homemade matzo in his New York City restaurants—Daniel, DB Bistro, Cafe Boulud, and Bar Boulud—during the Passover season since 2004. And people love it, probably because they don't expect to find traditional Jewish bread in an upscale French restaurant. The matzoh served at Daniel Boulud's restaurants may not be kosher, but that Boulud has cooked for many Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs during his career should have some significance.
Boulanger Mark Fiorentino of Daniel is in charge of making the matzo for all the restaurants. Where does an Italian-American chef in a French restaurant learn to make Jewish bread? He attributes a visit to the long established Streits factory in the Lower East Side, where he observed the matzo masters at work, for helping him hone his recipe and technique.
Earlier this week I visited Daniel to watch the matzo-making process, along with a quick blessing from "Rabbi" Boulud. Fiorentino makes his matzoh in batches that use 50 pounds of flour at a time, but he pared down his recipe to just 1 pound of flour so you can make it at home. (You can get matzo at Boulud's restaurants until this Saturday, April 11.) Check out the recipe and photos from Daniel's kitchen after the jump.
Making Matzo at Daniel
Chef Fiorentino cuts the matzo dough into more manageable chunks.
He pats the dough down before putting it through the pastry sheeter.
Into the sheeter it goes. In. Out. Dust with flour. Repeat.
And look how svelte it's become. Fiorentino cuts the dough into smaller pieces before using a modified pizza cutter to score the dough and a roller docker to punch in holes.
Time to slide the dough into the oven.
The matzo gets a bit bubbly while baking.
Chef Boulud flips over the matzo.
This matzo needs a bit more time in the oven.
Boulud and Fiorentino inspect a few pieces.
Blistered and brown—it's done!
A pile of just-baked matzo waits before being bagged.
Matzo
- makes 4 to 6 servings -
Ingredients
1 pound flour
7 1/4 ounces very warm water
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons oil (any kind you want)
Special Equipment
Pasta maker
Pizza stone (optional)
Roller docker (optional)
Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 500°F. In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients until they come together to form a dough. Split dough into two parts to make it easier to roll out.
2. Flatten the dough with your palms. Pass the dough through a pasta maker over and over again until you reach the thinnest setting, or roll it as thinly as possible with a rolling pin.
3. Cut the dough into approximately 8 x 8-inch rectangles. Score if desired. Roll over the dough with a docker or prick holes with a fork.
4. Bake dough on a pizza stone (the best choice) or a baking sheet at 500°F for a couple of minutes until it turns golden brown and bubbly. Flip over to bake the other side for another few minutes.
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12 Comments:
"very" water? as opposed to "just sort of" water?
simon at 12:56PM on 04/10/09
@simon: I was just about to comment on that myself. Beat me to it, damn your eyes. :)
DrGaellon at 1:17PM on 04/10/09
I love very water, it's the best kind. It's so wet!
simon at 1:19PM on 04/10/09
i'm guessing "hot'.
cybercita at 1:21PM on 04/10/09
Great photos, Robyn! This matzo is fantastic--definitely the best I've ever had. I love that it's made by an Italian American chef in a French restaurant. New York is awesome.
BrooklynBrownie at 1:32PM on 04/10/09
@simon: It's "warm," just put it back in.
Robyn Lee at 1:57PM on 04/10/09
I was going to guess cold... :)
simon at 2:40PM on 04/10/09
The matzoh served at Daniel Boulud's restaurants may not be kosher
Then what's the point? It's merely just a cracker made to look like matzoh. It's a novelty that allows reform Jews justify (to themselves) eating out during passover and allows non Jews to pretend that they're eating matzoh.
That said, I'm not one to talk. There are plenty who would judge my own practices.
CanadianFoodieGirl at 3:24PM on 04/10/09
I guess the point is we thought it was interesting and fun that Mark Fiorentino and Daniel Boulud decided to make matzo. I think it's pretty clear that they are not making a religious statement. People who eat at Daniel's restaurants have already made the decision not to keep kosher.
I served Mark's matzo at my family's seder last night alongside the schmura matzoh, and everyone really enjoyed it (though quite a few people said it was a delicious cracker and not really matzo). But nobody was mad at me for bringing it.
Ed Levine at 3:50PM on 04/10/09
@CanadianFoodieGirl, I agree. It's almost a mockery because those ovens are clearly used to bake chametz. Oh well, whatever makes people happy.
Anyway, thanks for sharing his recipe. It's interesting to see his approach.
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 4:28PM on 04/10/09
i get the idea, but what i don't like is that they used fat. matzah has 2 ingredients: water and flour. making actual delicious matzah that stays true to that ingredient list would be really impressive.
bgruber at 12:46AM on 04/11/09
Practically all matzah tastes the same. Every year we argue over this box that tastes better and that brand that's better, but guess what. There are two ingredients: flour and water. And every piece is baked for 18 minutes.
So there is really very little variation.
Oh well...only five days left...
Baking and Mistaking
cool2bars at 12:53AM on 04/12/09