Category: You Are What You Eat

Name: Matt Timms

Occupation: Chili Takedown President/Actor/Filmmaker

Borough: Brooklyn

Relationship status: Single

What did you eat today?

Chili - I made a vat of chorizo and beef chili last week, flavored with bourbon and chocolate.

What do you never eat?

I eat everything, because my parents screwed that into my head when I was tiny. Which doesn't mean I ENJOY everything -- I've tried and not loved all those horrible foods you can find in the city: jellyfish, sheep brains, the bull penis at Kenka...These days I just try and avoid pizza because I want to get not fat.

Complete this sentence:  In my refrigerator, you can always find:

A serious jug of Ice Tea! Those Lipton Cold Brew Ice Tea teabags are saving me this summer. I also keep an inexplicably large selection of condiments. My fridge only gets interesting at the start of the week, when I make a big batch of something brilliant.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My friend Doug gave me an 8" Japanese Shun knife for being his Best Man. I'm not an equipment snob because I can't afford to be. But I love this knife bad!

Where do you eat out most frequently?

The restaurants I keep coming back to are Minca, Mama's and Tangra Masala in Flushing. Oo and also Pedro's in DUMBO, which has my favorite Cuban Sandwich.

World ends tomorrow.  What would you like for your last meal?

Who can eat at a time like this? I'd be making phonecalls!

Wait, here we go --

Appetizer: a sliced roasted Japanese eggplant, a small steak tartare and a Manhattan

Entrée: Chili cooked with Molasses and Brown Sugar, good bottle of Bordeaux

Dessert: Strawberry Rhubarb Pie, a box of mochi and another Manhattan

Matt is hosting the Chili Takedown on August 10 at Union Pool in Williamsburg.

Name: Sasha Davies

Occupation: I sling cheese at a small shop and also do sales for a specialty cheese paper company.

Borough: No borough anymore. I moved to Portland, OR two months ago.

Relationship status: Married.

What did you eat today?

Breakfast- Homemade yogurt & granola, coffee. Lunch: Peanut butter and jelly sandwich (strawberry preserves), hazelnuts, blueberries, prosciutto di parma. Dinner: egg-cheese-guacamole tostada, strawberry ice cream with blueberries.

What do you never eat?

Wet cake, oysters, cooked carrots. [There's a definite throughline there.  I don't know what it is, but it's there. --Ed.]

Complete this sentence:  In my refrigerator, you can always find:

Cheese, peanut butter and butter.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

I think you mean item as in tool... I would have to say my oval French oven by Le Creuset. I use it for braising and roasting, soups, and making preserves. It is the best thing to cross my stovetop since I learned to use it.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

In NYC it was Marlow & Sons (partly b/c I worked there but also it's just so good).
Here in Portland it is this rad little taqueria called Por que no? I think I could eat there every single day.

World ends tomorrow.  What would you like for your last meal?

Oh geez. If I had to pick right now I would want perfect bread with cultured butter, a fava bean salad with shaved pecorino and some roasted hazelnuts followed by spaetzle and pork from Tamarack Hollow Farm (best pork ever) [and available at the Union Square Greenmarket --Ed.] combined in some perfect way and then salted caramel ice cream... then there would need to be wine, espresso, and probably some cheese from a few of my favorite cheesemakers- Meadow Creek Dairy, Jasper Hill, Twig Farm [whose website has an awesome favicon, for you web nerdz --Ed.], 3 Corner Field Farm [also available at the Union Square Greenmarket, people.  --Ed.]. And I would definitely have sparkling water too.

Sasha may not physically live in New York anymore, but the fact that she helped put together the Unfancy Food Show for us makes her a New Yorker in my eyes.  She and her husband are also the wizards behind Cheese by Hand, an incredible multimedia documentary about artisanal cheesemaking in America.

Name: John Dylan Keith

Occupation: Musician/Sound Designer/Writer

Borough: Brooklyn

Relationship status: In one.

What did you eat today?

Muesli and greek yogurt with a banana. Coffee. Chocolate chip peanut butter Clif Bar. 1/2 a bottle of Cairnbrae Sauvignon Blanc and lobster served Aussie style: grilled w/Australian spices ("Whativah thet mins" my native guide said the first time I hit the Tuesday night $12 Lobster special at Wombat.) Side of fried potatoes, and a pistachio and goat cheese salad, with mixed greens, red grapes, shaved fennel and raspberry vinaigrette. Just inside the kitchen they were prepping the salads- there was one of those giant restaurant baking sheets full of toasted pistachios 2" deep just asking for a face-plant. As it happened I had pistachio ice cream at home, so that's gone now.

What do you never eat?

Not so into insects, though I guess I had a big one for dinner. I'll try just about anything. I don't like raw celery for some reason. There was a childhood incident with a Waldorf Salad, but that usually doesn't affect my tastebuds, though I don't love red 'delicious' apples or mayo either.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you can always find:

Fruit, veggies, cheese, but you can't count on them being there like the coffee beans, half-and-half, butter, several kinds of mustards and hot sauces, bitters. They will probably all be outlasted by the giant bottle of Frank's Red Hot Sauce pushed on me by a Costcoholic relative who had a case of four. Tastes ok, but thinking of using it to scrub the sink just to get through it.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

Antique seltzer bottle. Good for slapstick, whiskey and soda, or just soda with a whole lime, or five-ten shakes of bitters.It's kind of like a citrus Christmas tree in a glass, only good.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Carmine's, Yola's, Bliss, Oasis, Nha Trang, Rai Rai Ken, Little D's Eatery

World ends tomorrow. What would you like for your last meal?

Funny, the pistachio ice cream kind of kept a chain of coincidence going. With it, I watched Kind Hearts and Coronets, which opens with a murderer awaiting execution giving his order for his last meal: "Just a cup of coffee and a slice of toast. Oh, and perhaps a few grapes. I hate to disappoint the newspaper-reading public, but it will be too early for the conventional "hearty breakfast". The appointment is at 8, is it not?" I'm not British enough for that kind of resignation, but it did get me thinking if it was really the end of the world, I might go for something with some practical value like a handful of certain species of mushrooms or cactus. But that might contraindicate my first thought which was Porterhouse steak, cucumber and avocado salad, sliced tomatoes garlic-lemon sauteed spinach, a bottle of Barolo. Kind of want a spicy Indian fruit salad but that seems out of place. Cappuccino, and it would be good to have a bottle of Woodford Reserve on hand.

Name: Sarah Raymont

Occupation: Spanish teacher. I also work at The Sweet Life, which is a candy store in my neighborhood.

Borough: Manhattan, Lower East Side.

Relationship status: In a relationship

What did you eat today?

For breakfast I had orange + lemon juice, tea, and a giant bowl of fruit with yogurt and muesli, flax & sunflower seeds and some honey. For lunch I had mettwurst, which I think is a German spreading sausage, brown bread, and quartered tomatoes with olive oil and Maldon salt. Which you crumble with your fingers. I don't normally eat so completely, but I'm visiting a friend in London. She's 97 and zooms around like a Smart Car. When I'm with her I eat as
she does, whenever I leave, I do my best to replicate and it's a terrible, oil burning minivan.

What do you never eat?

Tongue

Complete this sentence:  In my refrigerator, you can always find:

Things which were purchased with better intentions. I wish I could do my friend's here, how about that? She's always got salad, cheese and leftovers. Berries and fruit. Mine might have candles in it, I'm not sure.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

Tongs

Where do you eat out most frequently?

I pretty much keep to a three block radius. I like Barrio Chino, on Broome Street, mostly for lunch or breakfast since it's quieter. I wouldn't say I eat out at The Pickle Guys, on Essex + Grand, but I eat waiting in line, so I wonder if that counts. What I like most is their pickled celery. Sometimes I go to The Good World, on Orchard + Canal, but there you wait for an hour for your food which I don't mind, because they really don't care or even pretend to, and it's people who pretend who are the worst. Their burger has beets in it and the building it's in will be demolished, I think, this coming year. The Grotto, on Forsyth + Grand, especially when it's warm, because you can sit outside, in the middle of the block, and look up.

World ends tomorrow.  What would you like for your last meal?

My father's scrambled eggs, with onions. I'd like to say I'd eat my necklace or something like that, or my enemies, but probably just a Softy Pop, from The Sweet Life. It's a dark chocolate covered marshmallow on a stick. We make them. [I love that Softy Pop.  --Ed.]

Name: Steven Kotok

Occupation: Magazine guy

Borough: Manhattan

Relationship status: Looking again . . .

What did you eat today?

Breakfast: Sheep's milk yogurt & bowl of cheerios
Lunch: Ma Po Tofu
Dinner: Leftover poached trout, pasta made with all my about-to-go-bad fresh herbs, yellow tomatoes, onions, garlic, and cream.

What do you never eat?

I eat everything but peanut butter

Complete this sentence:  In my refrigerator, you can always find:

Chumus, schug [I have to admit that I had to look that one up. --Ed.], parmigiano-reggiano, butter, mustard, and about a dozen implusively purchased Mexican, Jamaican, and Asian condiments and sauces that I will never, ever use.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

Battered dutch oven-sized metal pot from a garage sale

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Sakagura, Szechuan Gourmet, Degustation, Eleven Madison Park, & (in a perfect world) street tacos in Mexico

World ends tomorrow.  What would you like for your last meal?

Feast for my 100 closest friends:

Good champagne, scallop sashimi, sweet oysters, briny oysters
Wild mushroom salad with poached egg, heirloom tomatoes
Perfectly roasted halibut; "wing & mac snack" from Country Sweet, Rochester, NY; rare, charred porterhouse
Chopped liver, cheese plate (surprise me)
Bread pudding, New York Super Fudge Chunk ice cream

Name: Jeanne Park

Occupation: Freelance Editor

Borough: Psychobabylon, Manhattan

Relationship status: SAF

What did you eat today?

1 soy-chai vanilla latte from Grey Dog's Coffee
Sunnyside-up eggs & hash browns from Bread Tribeca
Tofu bibimbop from Do Hwa
1 oz. bag of Pirate's Booty
5 Tootsie rolls

What do you never eat?

Cilantro.

Complete this sentence:  In my refrigerator, you can always find:

Mexican honey

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My rice cooker

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Ditch Plains, Do Hwa, Blue Ribbon Downing Street Bar, Kirara and Snack Taverna.  [I feel like Snack Taverna is one of those restaurants that flies under the radar, but it ought to be more popular because it's so consistently good. -- Ed.]

World ends tomorrow.  What would you like for your last meal?

A white baguette from Poilâne
Caviar tartines from Volpetti
A slice from Joe's Pizza
My mother's mool nengmyun and bulgogi (cold noodles and barbecue beef)
The omakase from Blue Ribbon Sushi  (including the mercury-laden tuna)
The bucatini all'amatriciana from Babbo
A cheeseburger from In-N-Out
Gelato from San Crispino
Japanese pears
The views at Auberge du Soleil

Name: Kara Zuaro

Occupation: freelance writer and author of I Like Food, Food Tastes Good: In the kitchen with your favorite bands

Borough: Brooklyn

Relationship status: Married

What did you eat today?

For breakfast, I had some leftover grapefruit, orange, and mint salad. [Ooh, yum! --Ed.]  For lunch, I scrambled eggs with spinach, Swiss cheese, and assorted leftover vegetables - and then rolled it all up in corn tortillas.  For dinner, I tried out a few recipes from the Veganomicon cookbook - Jicama-Watercress-Avocado Salad with Spicy Citrus Vinaigrette, Messy Rice, and Chile-Cornmeal Crusted Tofu - washed down with a Dogfish Head Chicory Stout.  (I'm not vegan, but I'm pretty into this cookbook.)

What do you never eat?

I steer clear of lengua tacos.  I'll try anything once, but when I tried one of those, I just couldn't get past the texture.  I felt like I was biting my own tongue.

Complete this sentence:  In my refrigerator, you can always find:

Frank's RedHot.  (Pete, my husband, puts it on the table with every meal.)

What is your favorite kitchen item?

As a lover of kitchen equipment, I really can't choose just one.  I love my monkey peeler, my Messermeister chef's knife, my electric tea kettle, my convection oven (which has a rounded back, making it big enough to fit a pizza), my tongs, my stand mixer, my fancy rice cooker, and my mini-prep food processor.  

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Zaytoon's on Smith Street

World ends tomorrow.  What would you like for your last meal?

I'd have to go for a lobster roll at Duryea's.  It's on a pier in Montauk, where it feels like you're at the end of the world.  Plus, they have a B.Y.O.B. policy, so you could really celebrate the last sunset there.

[And we're back! -- Ed.]

Name: Trevor Dunn

Occupation: Musician

Borough: Brooklyn

Relationship status:  whipped

What did you eat today? 

Water,  maple granola with yogurt and a banana and Earl Grey tea, a slice of watermelon, fusilli with a homemade sauce of oil, onion, garlic, shiitake mushrooms and pecorino-romano cheese, a glass of Sicilian white wine, lapsang souchong tea, three olives, an Amy's organic country vegetable pot pie, some French red wine.
 
What do you never eat? 

Pineapple.  Can't even stand the smell of it.  I love most fruits and tropical ones especially.  Mango, papaya, kiwi, passion fruit....yum.  Pineapple, however, makes me want to vomit.  I also don't do oysters.  I admit this with a bit of shame because oyster culture seems sexy and high class to me.  I think it's a texture thing.  Again, I love most seafood and shellfish.  Clams, mussels, crab....yum.  Sushi.....yum.   Oysters taste like nothing and feel like someone else's phlegm in my throat.
 
Complete this sentence:  In my refrigerator, you can always find: 

Yogurt, guava juice, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, swiss chard, parsley.
 
What is your favorite kitchen item?

The Knife.
 
Where do you eat out most frequently?

Sushi Mura, Nono Kitchen, Little Dishes (all in the Slope)

World ends tomorrow.  What would you like for your last meal? 

An entire suckling pig, butternut squash ravioli with sage, chard sauteed with tons of garlic, a caprese salad with extra basil and olive oil from Sardinia, Concord grapes, the stinkiest  French cheese plate in the world, my mom's blackberry pie (she picks the berries herself),  the most expensive bottle of red wine in the world and limoncello.

Among the many reasons I love Trevor: he taught me to refer to the upright bass as "the doghouse" and the electric as "the pork chop". You can follow Trevor's gigs, learn the secret of the dead bass goon, or read some of his kick ass answers to fan questions at trevordunn.net.
 

Name: Adam Houghtaling

Occupation: Editorial Director, gourmet.com [Nice work on the relaunch! --Ed.]

Borough: Brooklyn

Relationship Status: SWM

What did you eat today?

Coffee. And a couple delicious bites from the test kitchen that I'm not really allowed to talk about. Mostly just the coffee though… but it is only 10:30 in the morning. [Lucky duck! --Ed.]

What do you never eat?

Shrimp

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you can always find:

Six mustards, three beers and one bottle of prosecco.

What is your favorite kitchen item:

Hands down…the cutting board. It's understated and humble. Not irrationally needy like the knives or starved for attention like the crème brulee torch or the… uh… mango pitter.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Mostly around my place in Fort Greene: Choice Market, Bonita, Pillow Café, Smoke Joint, Locanda, Luz, etc.

World ends tomorrow. What would you like for your last meal?

I would like the short ribs from Cafe Gray and a malted chocolate milkshake. And warm tortilla chips with guacamole. And also blueberry pancakes.

Is it too late to add a lobster roll…because, yes…lobster roll.

Name: Chris Scott

Occupation: Executive Chef at NYC's largest corporate dining firms

Borough: Park Slope, Brooklyn

Relationship status: Impatiently waiting for the right woman.

What did you eat today?

Four Story Hill Farm Chicken en Sous Vide, (actually, I'm cooking it as we speak), a light morning Hendricks gin martini, scrambled eggs with porcini mushrooms. And its only 11am.... so much more food to discover. [A light morning martini? I didn't know you could do that. --Ed.]

What do you never eat?

Probably nothing, I'm always open to tasting and exploring flavors.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you can always find:
Udon, and some broth I have concocted, milk, chicken and beef bones for stock. Recently, I've been on a chicken feet kick...they're in my fridge and in my freezer. Beer, tons of veggies, frozen broths, etc etc.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

Geez, too many to choose from. My Misono kitchen knife... first and foremost. My new toy... a dehydrator, where I make my own spice blends... such as black olive and garlic dust. Lobster roe and sea salt, Clementine powder, candied celery powder... to use on goat milk ice cream.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

I dig Artisanal, almost perfect wine selection. Momofuku, Degustation, and Franny's in the BK.

World ends tomorrow. What would you like for your last meal?

I think I would rather cook than to eat. Maybe alongside my grandmother, and make all the wonderful things she made for me as a child. Fried potatoes and onions with poached eggs, apple dumplings, sweet potato fluff, roast chicken with lemon and sage.