Ed Levine's Profile | Serious Eats

Special Sauce: Jim Lahey on the Accident of No-Knead Bread

My apologies for an obvious perpetuation of of outdated stereotypes. I should not have said it. Won't happen again.

Special Sauce: Francis Lam on American Identity and Chrissy Teigen's Mac and Cheese

@Alyse. We're glad you pointed that out. We made the change. Hope you enjoyed the podcast anyway.

Special Sauce: Marco Canora on Keeping Calm Under Fire

@Liam Yore. Thanks for both the kind words and the constructive criticism of Special Sauce. Keep listening. We're always thinking about ways to make Special Sauce better.

Special Sauce: Marco Canora on Keeping Calm Under Fire

@nomoreblack You are absolutely right. Thanks for pointing this out. I misspoke. What I should have said is that a celebrity chef like Marco who still cooks at the same restaurant day in and day out is a dying breed. Working chefs as a whole are the lifeblood of restaurant culture. Without them we serious eaters would be lost.

Easy Skillet Baked Ziti With Sausage and Ricotta

I made this last night. The results were spectacular. I used jarred Rao's marinara sauce instead of making my own sauce and I don't think the dish suffered as a result. The only other change I made is that I browned it in the broiler for a couple of minutes at the very end to crisp the top layer. This too worked to perfection.

Meet the Serious Eats Podcast, Special Sauce

You asked. We heard you. Serious Eats' Special Sauce is now in the iTunes store:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/special-sauce-with-ed-levine/id1054509922

Meet the Serious Eats Podcast, Special Sauce

It will be available in the iTunes store ASAP. I'm afraid we made a rookie podcast mistake, but we are fixing it as fast as possible. Stay tuned.

The Food Lab Video Series is Here!

The SE Overlord here. I want to address a few specific comments: Fewer posts that represent a deeper, more comprehensive dive into a given topic was a strategic decision we made a year ago to make the site more useful and engaging to our community. And we have clearly succeeded. I've never been prouder of what we publish, and our community continues to grow. Advertising and sponsored posts enable us to do what we do. That's the long and short of it. That said, as Kenji points out, our opinions are not for sale at any price, and they never will be. Re: Kenji's video series. Ever since Kenji started the Food Lab column I have been thinking about how to do a video version of it that would be both informative and entertaining. Our GM Chris Mohney, who shares my passion for, and experience in, creating video, took it upon himself to make my dream a reality, and I think this series succeeds beyond my wildest dreams. As far as charging for the videos, we decided that this was a concept worth testing. Creating high-quality, truly original video is not an inexpensive proposition, so we came up with a couple of ways to raise the necessary funds, namely crowdsourcing and charging a modest price for the videos. We will continue to experiment with telling food-related stories and sharing related information in every medium there is. I hope you all stay with us, because even after almost ten years of working on Serious Eats, we're all still incredibly excited about what we do. We think you'll be just as excited about what we have in store for you when you log on.

The Good Bagel Manifesto

I realize that I am so, so late in responding to Kenji's brilliant if occasionally wrongheaded bagel rant. I agree with 95% of what he wrote, but the idea of a schmear being excessive is heretical. Here's a link to what I wrote about this topic in the NYT 12 years ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/31/dining/was-life-better-when-bagels-were-smaller.html

In Praise of a Turkey-Free Thanksgiving

I would be down with a prime rib or peking duck Thanksgiving (you can pick up Peking turkeys at a few places in NY's lower Manhattan Chinatown), but my wife would not tolerate it. I would be happy eating just sausage, apple, and pecan stuffing and pie for Thanksgiving. That's a meal I would give thanks for.

A Day in the Life: Ed Levine, Serious Eats Overlord

oh yeah, that's exactly what it is

A Day in the Life: Ed Levine, Serious Eats Overlord

The New York Sports Club inside the Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza at 49th and Broadway in NYC.

An Open Letter to Serious Eaters

@NYCAnn There will still be great local content for NYC. There may be fewer NYC-oriented posts, but each of them will and in fact does offer more info, more detail, more reporting, and go deeper into a given topic. In the aggregate our New York content will provide an extraordinary, comprehensive look at NYC food. Stay tuned and give us the benefit of the doubt. I promise we'll get this right.

Where to Get Great Hamantaschen in NYC

The Breads Bakery hamantaschen blew me away. They were light, flaky, and moist.

Ed's Vegan Month Week 4: The Home Stretch

Interestingly, I broke the vegan diet with some DiPalo's fresh mozzarella. I actually didn't order any pork until today's lunch. Stay tuned for my thoughts on all this and more on my post this Friday.

Ed's Vegan Month Week 4: The Home Stretch

I've lost a few pounds. I can give you a more definitive answer after I weigh in tomorrow, but my guess is it will end up between 4 and 5 pounds for the month. But stay tuned, because you never know. I would have lost more, but, like you, I can only eat so many vegetables, so I ended up eating lots of nuts and organic dark chocolate and things that are not low calorie.

Ed's Head: I'm Going Vegan This Month To Keep Kenji Company

I'd like to suggest that we stay on topic with the comments on this post. Let's not debate the merits of the Paleo diet here. We'll save it for another time. We're talking vegan here, and today was another good day. I split my szechuan tofu (skip the pork) lunch special into lunch and dinner portions. I'm feeling less and less deprived each day.

Ed's Head: I'm Going Vegan This Month To Keep Kenji Company

@stebu. Actually vegan month continues. Reading Kenji's 10 things every first-time Vegan should know: http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/02/tips-for-vegans-eating-veganism.html was very helpful One of the ten is don't beat yourself up if you end up eating a little bit of non-vegan food. I am learning as I go along. I had no idea that most crackers (like Stoned Wheat Things, which I adore) have dairy-derived products like whey or sugar (Ritz, which I also really love). But I'm learning and even after a week I have learned so much. @RSD4 I have also learned that one of the dangers of my vegan diet is the over-reliance on carbs. Kenji deals with that by cooking veggies. I am going to try a couple of his recipes this weekend.

Tell Us About Your Favorite Uptown Restaurants

I'm a Telepan, Ouest, and Red Farm man, though if I want to have an intimate conversation with the people I'm dining with I go to Telepan or Ouest. I'm also really interested in Georgette Farkas' new French Rotisserie restaurant somewhere in the low east 60's.

Ed Levine's Must-Eat New York Dishes of 2013

@whatandyate Now I'm going to hit Lafayette in the next couple of days to try the eclairs. I've had them at least once before, I think, but I believe I was trying too many of her sweets at once.

This Week in Ed's Head: Anthony Bourdain, GMO Papayas, The Best Hot and Sour Soup, and More!

I "obviously" have a lot more reading to do before I comment further on the GMO controversy. Point well-taken, everyone.

Troubling Pizza Trends in NYC

Percy's on Bleecker Street is the best dollar slice I've ever had in NYC

NY or Brooklyn-centric food gift for LA friend?

I would bring them bialys from Hot Bread Kitchen. They're baked in Queens, not Brooklyn, but they are great and you can't get anything like them in LA. Also Margaret Palca Rugelach is from Brooklyn and absolutely amazing, buttery and delicious.

need a French or Italian restaurant in high East 50s or low 60s

Jo Jo--Jean Georges restaurant, haven't been in years
La Grenouille--old school, very pretty French restaurant, lots of flowers
Casa Lever, Park Ave. and 52nd, amazing art on walls, unique architecturally

First Impressions of RedFarm Upper West Side

The dumplings are indeed expensive, but they are many cuts above even the good Chinatown dumplings: they contain much better ingredients and the wrappers are delicate and delicious. . Plus, you, me, and everyone else are paying for the real estate as well. Do I wish the dumplings were less expensive? Of course I do. But sometimes you have to bite the bullet, or should I say bite the dumpling.