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Popular kitchen
wisdom has it that as much as people may enjoy experimental
cuisine during the rest of the year, when the holidays roll
around, trends fly out the window
and everyone craves tradition. Some chefs have learned that
the hard way.
"One year I tried to make my own cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving
and everyone in my family rebelled. They wanted canned,"
reports Vermont native Katy Sparks, the executive chef of
Quilty's. "Every year, my brother says to my mother,
'Don't let Katy do anything. She'll make it fancy.' "
This year Sparks will have a chance to shape her own holiday
traditions at the SoHo restaurant Quilty's, which is offering
a Thanksgiving meal for the first time. "I'll do things
a little fancy," she admits. "We'll have oyster
gratin and Vermont-raised turkey. If I can't get home, I want
to bring a little bit of Vermont to New York City."
Although Michel Nischan, executive chef at Heartbeat, sticks
to tradition in planning holiday celebrations, he also respects
today's more cautious eating style-gone are the blow-outs
of Christmas past-whether designing Heartbeat's lighter menu
or celebrating with family. Nischan offers a turkey or ham
as the centerpiece at Christmas-spent with his wife and five
children-but he tweaks his stuffing, and he has concocted
a recipe for a more healthful gravy. "Instead of making
a roux with turkey fat and flour, I use juiced sweet potatoes
and defat the pan drippings," he says. "But I like
the stuffing to be a little more substantial. I do it with
black bread and heirloom autumn squashes instead of the traditional
carrot, celery and onions."
Joe Murphy, formerly the pastry chef at Gotham Bar & Grill
and executive pastry chef at Bluefin, the restaurant slated
to open in early 2002 in the Times Square W hotel, rarely
spends much time with family on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
"If I'm lucky, I race out of the restaurant kitchen at
5:00 and, after spending the whole day knee-deep in pastry,
I arrive at my parents' or my in-laws' just in time to wind
up with dessert at home," he sighs.
This year, of course, the holidays will be marked by both
a somber tone and a weaker economy. Scott Bryan, chef/owner
at Veritas, feels that smaller, more intimate restaurants
are likely to be the chosen venues. "You don't want to
sit in a restaurant with 150 seats that's only 30% occupied,"
he says. "We only have 55 seats, so when the restaurant
is full, it has a buzz, yet it's personal."
Bryan thinks restaurants will tone down their New Year's Eve
menus this year as well. "At Veritas we may do a menu
with an ingredient like truffles to make it special, but it
will be in line with what we do now, which is a $68 prix fixe,"
he says. "The days when people got out of control-like
for the year 2000 when there were $500 prix fixe menus-are
long gone, and that's a good thing."
Renée Alevras runs The Tasting Room, an American wine
bistro in the East Village, with her husband, Colin-both are
Institute graduates. She reports that The Tasting Room's intimate
atmosphere and all-American wine list are striking the right
note as well. "We actually have more office parties scheduled
than we had in recent years ," reports Alevras. "There's
an excitement this year about American cheese, American wine
and local produce because of increased patriotism."
Alevras, too, foresees a more low-key mood taking hold this
year, although she senses that customers are feeling celebratory.
"It's not a hedonistic kind of celebration. People are
actually celebrating the fact that they're alive," she
says. "Recently I've heard more than one person say,
'Life's too short to drink bad wine.' "
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