Chef Kwame Onwuachi is interviewed at Baldor Bites.
Ever heard of Balducci’s in Greenwich Village? When I was a wee lad on my first trip to NYC, I made a pilgrimage to this legendary Italian deli and was stunned to find it has closed. But it actually morphed into a very different identity, as a supplier of fresh foods and fine dining staples throughout the five boroughs called Baldor.
Baldor Bites is a biannual event to celebrate Baldor customers with generous food and drink samplings and a program of mostly panel discussions featuring chefs and influencers. This year it was held at the emerging basketball center at South Port which is for now a hall surrounded by construction barriers. No matter, we got there and everybody had a great time.
Not your typical white collar audience…
The audience was almost entirely chefs or chef-trainees in some sort of culinary education program. The profile of the now and future chef: probably not Caucasian, gender fluid, very large and covered with tattoos. Interesting people in other words and they were very active in the panel discussions asking many questions. The best attended session featured controversial celebrity chef Kwame Onwuachi who, after some early career missteps, now helms the top rated Tatiana at Lincoln Center. At least half the questioners asked “how can I get a reservation” and were referred to his hapless interrogator.
Baldor Bites also featured a session in which Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns interviewed Joseph Lofthouse, a seed developer and author of Landrace Gardening. Lofthouse started his career working for a pesticide company and had an epiphany after he realized his company was responsible for the anthrax that went in the mail a few decades back. He took a vow of poverty, stopped wearing shoes and now focuses on hand-developing the best seeds can based on a/how good does it taste and b/how well does it thrive in his harsh environment in Utah. They mentioned Row 7 Seeds, a company following the same principles that exhibited at the show and offers seeds by mail order.
Now that’s a lot of paella!
Also interesting to me was an international panel discussing how global trends are influencing restaurant menus today. David Shim, an early 2000s graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, commented that today’s curriculum is completely different from what he took a few years ago. Fariyal Abdullahi, also a CIA grad, said the school has consulted her about designing an injera unit. In a plug for the sponsor, Ayo Balogun said his favorite Baldor order is a guinea hen because though he does not feature it often, he can get it overnight when he does.
A 100-lb tuna was broken down in a demo at Baldor Bites. Cups at left are for sampling.
And yes, there were lots of “bites”. Many of the vendors were those who show up at the Fancy Food Show but here they limited their presentation to the high end stuff. It helped that the facility is a good half mile from any public transportation (hopefully this will remedied before actual basketball arrives at the center) so one had the opportunity to walk it off.
We left with the impression that Baldor is a very positive influence for good in the food service clients they work with. Check out the wide selection on their website and see if your favorite restaurant or purveyor works with them.
Sounds like you had a great time getting new ideas about food. I am convinced that our version of agriculture which is a model version of mono-culture is damaging the health of the planet. I am not worried about human activity damaging the planet except to the extent that we create an environment so that the planet no longer accepts human life. It seems that is where we are headed. The Earth will heal long after we are dead and gone. We as a species do have the ability to damage the earth so much that human life can no longer thrive. That we are capable of doing, in fact we are rushing headlong into disaster man-made disaster. I had a paella pan about that size and made paella for a group of 45 on the beach in San Diego. We rented a room with a kitchen and while everyone was enjoying the sand and surf I was in the kitchen making a Spanish paella with lobster, shrimp, clams, pork, chicken, peas, rich with saffron, onions, carrots, bell peppers, garlic, and freshly made chicken stock.
That is a wonderful paella. This had man of the same ingredients, less lobster, plus octopus which was prepared in a separate pan (wikipedia says the pan is called a “paella” along with the dish) then added to the main pan.
I have made paella several times but never added octopus. I enjoy eating octopus but when I was making the paella I didn’t find octopus at the grocery store. I only trust fresh octopus from Japanese stores they understand how to keep them fresh. I used to live at a home in West Los Angeles where Japanese Americans lived since the 1920s. Once a week a truck would stop in front of my home bringing fresh fish shellfish and octopus. I purchased sushi quality fish from them almost every week.
Paella is a joy to make but I like to cook for at least a dozen eaters.
Getting good saffron is key without spending a fortune.
This octopus was probably from the Baldor partner Peerless, which provided the tuna in my photo. It was delicious and I am sure was carefully maintained even if frozen since they were serving an audience of chefs. There was not a lot of saffron in the dish btw. And I had a disappointment recently making fabada with some saffron that had been stored for years but never opened. The taste was completely missing.
Saffron is sometimes as pricey as gold. Those tiny flowers must be picked by hand. Most grocery stores have them under lock and key like expensive spirits. The Mexican version is weak. Turkey and Iran much better flavor.
I thought this would be a like one of your “beloved” Fancy Food Show posts. No, but it beliked by me! Inspired many web searches for Kwame Onwuachi. Quite a life! I doubt I will be buying anything from Baldor tho.. Unless some leftover tuna.
Thanks. As for Baldor, it’s possible you may already be buying from them depending on where you shop or dine. They mainly focus on the five boroughs but I randomly ran into a cafe owner from Saratoga Springs who was an invited guest.