Food was also serious business at the 10th annual BROOKLYN EATS at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge earlier this month, where droves descended to sample some of the borough’s established as well as up-and-coming culinary delights. Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s Chairman of the Board Daniel E. Holt and President Kenneth Adams presented the event.
With as many as 60 Brooklyn businesses representing everything from soups to soufflés, beer to biscotti, we didn’t taste everything, but oh, we tried. Spicy watermelon gazpacho was a starter at Park Slope’s Melt, headed by chef Brian Bunger and sous chef Benjamin Beeler.
Bruno Milone, the executive chef of Marco Polo Ristorante on Court Street, dished up delicious homemade fettuccini, and at a nearby table Brawta, a Caribbean café in Boerum Hill, featured escoveitched breast of chicken. Thanks to chefs Jennefier Ewers and Cynthia Wray, we now know that escoveitched means “sauce with spice,” i.e. yummy.
We sampled chef Mahualt Martinez’s malva pudding at Madiba, a DeKalb Avenue eatery, which they tell us is Brooklyn’s only South African restaurant. Rosana Anil and Amanda Keune, both hospitable hospitality management students at CUNY, poured wines from Long Island’s Jamesport Vineyards. Keune definitely has her mind made up about the kind of company she’d like to manage one day. “I don’t want nothing to do with kitchens,” she said. “Just the hotel.”
Ditmas Park’s The Farm on Adderley was a big hit. Chef TOM KEARNY works with fresh local farm produce and served up dates stuffed with goat cheese and pecans. Owners ALLISON MCDOWELL and GARY JONAS told the Eagle that they opened The Farm this past summer, despite having no prior restaurant experience. “We were new in the neighborhood and thought it needed something,” said McDowell. The couple lives a block away.
Then it was on to La Lunetta, a new Smith Street eatery starring chef ADAM SHEPARD. Shepard prepared delicate meatballs served in a tomato-based sauce that were excellent. Baker DAVID CROFTON of Boerum Hill’s One Girl Cookies is in charge of La Lunetta’s desserts, and Crofton was on hand with tasty biscotti dabbed with an apricot preserve. How did this pair decide to join forces? “I asked him, and he said yes,” Shepard revealed.
By this time dear reader, the food coma was setting in. We stumbled over Fort Greene’s Cake Man Raven in hopes of a bite of Raven’s PATRICK DE’SEAN DENNIS III’s famous red velvet cake. But they were sold out, and had been for hours, according to KENNETH RAY, an assistant baker. We settled for pineapple coconut instead — a sweet way to end the night.
