NYC Tastes

It was a great weekend to be a foodie in NYC as Taste Talks swept into Williamsburg for the 5th year. The 3 day conference kicked off Friday night with The Tastys at the gorgeous Weylin Theater. Over 25 awards were handed out with top honors going to folks like Greg Baxtrom from Olmstead for Best New Chef East, Kenji Lopez for The Food Lab and Alice Waters for Outstanding Chef overall. There was also a great panel with Claus Meyer (co-founder of Noma) regarding his Brownsville Community Culinary Center which is really helping to change the landscape of that area. Jeremy Oertel of Donna Cocktail Club and Natasha David of Nitecap were slinging incredible cocktails at the Awards After Party...  ...along with some of NYC's best food like meatballs from The Meatball Shop, Fried Chicken from Pies & Thighs and delicious Peanut Butter Crunch ice cream from Oddfellows . Saturday was all about food knowledge with a series of seminars held at the William Vale and Whythe Hote...

Williamsburg was the epicenter of food this weekend with Taste Talks taking over the waterfront.  There was the Chicken and Waffles brunch, the Future Food Expo, food panels galore and an incredible All Star BBQ Sunday chock full of glorious meat like this Pig Head Salad with green mango, cabbage, cilantro, mint, mala vinaigrette and fish powder. This was a David Santos/Jonathan Wu collaboration (Louro & Fung Tu) and it was flawless. The rich flavor of the pig was balanced perfectly by the sweet slivers of mango. Lamb Tartare from Danny Bowien was chopped super fine with spicy sriracha and jalapeno and on a crisp, salty tortilla shell. But the best of the bunch had no meat at all!  The veggie burger from Brooks Headly at Del Posto was so amazing it sold out just 30 minutes into the 2nd session.  I really hope she gets a place to grill these up full time.  Here's a look at some of the rest... Barbecue Duck with sorghum, ginger and five spice fla...