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I had to laugh when I saw the piece in the business section of the New York Times about retired cop turned pitmaster Lou Elrose (Big Lou to his friends) because the writer was actually talking about pitmaster in New York being a legitimate profession in Gotham with unlimited growth opportunities. Lou was the associate pitmaster at Hill Country, and he is now going to be the pitmaster for Steve Hanson's new barbecue joint Wildwood Barbecue, opening on Park Avenue South in New York this coming March. A few years ago we would never have seen pitmaster, New York, and profession in the same article. What are we going to see next, NYU offering a doctorate in barbeculogy?
The New York Times' Andrew Martin muses on the carbon footprints of locavores. He wonders aloud "If it's fresh and local, is it always greener?" I'll have more to say about this tomorrow.
On the Houston Press' blog my friend Robb Walsh champions the cause of velveeta cheese when it's used in Tex-Mex cooking and finds himself in hot water with a sophisticated eater friend in Portland, Oregon. Robb made me laugh because I appreciate his passion for foods other people might find objectionable.
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3 Comments:
Hey easy there Ed...don't forget that I taught a course on burgers at NYU!
Hamburger America at 11:39PM on 12/09/07
Just found this while searching for the latest article on my uncle's new restaurant. I ask you this; what exactly is a legitimate profession in the Big Apple by your standards? Is it sitting behind a desk or hiding in your home office banging on a keyboard, stringing acerbic sentences together until you hit the editor's word quota? Taking into consideration that some cuts of meat are slow-cooked over 12 hours but don't taste like shoe leather proves there's a certain amount of art in the profession that feeds more and more New Yorkers these days. With the explosion of interest in BBQ as of late, I'm sure you'll have more restaurants to question the legitimacy of in the coming months. As a final thought, I wonder how long this fad of 'The Food Network', Rachel Ray, Emeril, Bobby Flay, Giada, etc will last? Sincerely, Robert Elrose, Big Lou's nephew.
carnivoracious at 7:20PM on 04/20/08
Robert, I have a lot of respect for your uncle, whom I have met on a number of occasions. When I wrote this post I was merely trying to point out how strange and wonderful it is that pitmasters can now make a living in New York, something no one could have imagined a few years ago.
Ed Levine at 7:38PM on 04/20/08