Forking Tasty

Eating Barcelona

I could live here.

That’s what I thought after my first visit to this city. Each subsequent visit always reenforces this desire. Barcelona’s bright culture, food, architecture and people can’t help but become infectious. In Barcelona the creativity is loose, curvy, spontaneous, random and risky. Spain as a whole is creative, partially a bi-product of a country that’s seen it’s share of strife and hardship, with everything they do. With a different flair than Italy and a slightly less structured approach than the Dutch, the Spanish have cultivated a culture that emanates energy, passion and excitement for life. Barcelona is the modern Spanish city that best allows visitors to embrace and experience this. I recently spent a solid week in Barcelona enjoying the 60 degree December weather, eating the freshest seafood around and finding creative inspiration in every building, museum or meal…

Recap-San Francisco Italian Treat Supper

7 courses and counting

Every once in a while the timing works out so we can share a kitchen with some of our closest collaborators. Two weeks ago I found myself in the kitchen with long time friend and chef, Ben Long. His recent trip to Italy and my heritage spawned an idea to create a traditional Italian feast served in the traditional Italian sequence. More on that down the page a bit. With the help of a few specialty items Ben smuggled back from his trip, some surprise ingredients brought in by John “Chu” Churillo and a morning trip to the Asian farmers market in San Francisco, we were prepared to do my namesake some solid justice.

For those who are unfamiliar with our dinners, Forking Tasty’s Suppers is our attempt to bring back dinnertime by seating a bunch of strangers around a table to share some food, conversation and laughter. For this one we flew out west to spread the love at SPICE Supper clubs 8-seat chefs table.

As each guest arrived they were greeted with an immediate sense of home. From the wooden gate they walked through to enter the space, through the softly lit garden and up the stairs into the victorian foyer, each guests arrival procession prepared them for the homey atmosphere that awaited them in the dining room. As the first guests sipped their welcome drink waiting for the remainder of their dining partners to arrive, the kitchen was busy preparing…

San Francisco Italian Treat Supper

Saturday, February 9th at 7:00pm.

Starts: 7:00pm
Location: San Francisco (exact location will be released to reserved guests)
Donation: $80 (make a reservation below)

Spice and Forking Tasty unite once again for a one night only, chef’s table, Italian celebration. Drawing from Ben and Jason’s extensive travels through Italy they’ll present a 7-course meal that’s sure to keep you guessing what’s next. Following the traditional style of Italian suppers you’ll work your way through an unexpected series of dishes, flavors and presentation. Drawing on northern, southern and foreign influences the meal will be an over-the-top tour for your tastebuds and emotions alike. We’ll also pair select Italian and Californian wines that match the dinners flavor progression from small to big. This one comes with major bragging right so grab a seat while you can.

TABLE FULL-Reservations

Top 10 Food Trends for 2013

According to us of course! It occurred to me last week that Forking Tasty has never jumped on the top 10 list or the trends of year  thing. I thought this year is the year we do both so without further preamble here’s what the whole Tasty family thinks you should look out for in 2013…

RECAP-REEL TASTY: King Kong

Talk about a backdrop.

It’s very rare that we pull off a dinner that has such direct connection between the location and the film we’re screening. This was that kind of perfect storm. I moved into my office on 34th and fifth about two years ago. Day two I wandered up to the roof and saw the Empire State Building looking down on me. To my left was the perfect movie screen (found on the side of the building just south). From that moment I’ve been working with the Wework crew, the owners of the building, to make this event happen. A few weeks ago my vision of Dinner with King Kong under the Empire State Building became a reality.

For those who are unfamiliar with our dinners, Reel Tasty is Forking Tasty’s summer supper club where we screen a movie on a 2 story building while our guests sample some of our latest and tastiest gourmet creations. For this one we decided to pick some of our favorite NYC neighborhoods to inspire the cuisine. Although we screened the original 1933 film, no CGI for us, we chose recipes that…

TABLE FULL-REEL TASTY: Roman Holiday

POSTPONED-If you have reservations check your email

Saturday, September 29nd at 6:30pm.
From gladiators to Vespas. Here’s the skinny on the fat.

Starts: 6:30pm (cocktails and appetizers)
Ends: 11pm (really, when the film is over)
Donation: $65 (make a reservation below)
Movie: Roman Holiday

Our next dinner in the Italian Season is a pure classic. How could you go wrong with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Italy circa 1953? Rhetorical. You can’t! With that we are pulling out many of our family favorites from both the Italy and the New York archives. We’ve spent a significant amount of time in Lazio and plan on giving you the full Roman treatment straight from the pages of our travel journal and family albums. My grandfather is from a small town just south of Rome named Fondi. No visit to Rome is complete without a stop at the old citrus farm they had down there. Expect a little influence from this little town in the menu. Hopefully the food and the film will inspire you to take your own Roman Holiday soon. There is no line at the vatican in early December. Shhhh.

Menu

Our menu focuses on the cuisine of Lazio with a heavy influence on Roman modern favorites. No gladiator inspired dishes we promise. One of my father’s favorite parts of eating in Rome is the antipasti spread you find in many restaurants. We’ll do our best to recreate this help-yourself-style table of treats. That will be followed by 4 more courses that continue the edible delight through one of the greatest ancient cities in the world. Come hungry but pace yourself, this will be a gut buster.

TABLE FULL-Reservations

2. GET ON THE MAIN LIST SO YOU DON’T MISS THE NEXT ONE.

For those who have reserved: Location and directions will be sent to guests one day before the event. IF IT RAINS: If it rains, or looks like rain, the dinner is off. Decisions on weather will be made the morning of the event. All donations will be refunded at this time.

More on Reel Tasty:

Jason and Anthony pair a 5 course gourmet meal for 20 friends, some new and some old on a HUGE deck in Brooklyn. As the name implies, we will be screening a movie during the meal. Don’t worry, there will still be plenty of time pre-entree to mingle, catchup and meet some new friends. Once the sun goes down we will role the film in all its two story high glory. This is an experiment, so we are not sure how much silence or chatting will go on. That’s for you to decide. We hope you will come out and enjoy yourselves with us this summer. See you on the deck.

You can check out pics from our last dinner here.

If you can’t make this dinner but want us to send you an invite to the next one, jump on the list.

RECAP-REEL TASTY: A Bronx Tale

photo credit: Kun Kim

You talkin’ to me?

The season 4 opener of REEL TASTY was quite the oasis of an evening. It may have taken us a while to get going this year but we kicked off with a bang. The night itself was an unexpected 84 degree evening complete with a slight breeze. Sandwiched between two blistering hot weeks in July, we lucked out is an understatement.

For those who are unfamiliar with our dinners, Reel Tasty is Forking Tasty’s summer supper club where we screen a movie on a 2 story building while our guests sample some of our latest and tastiest gourmet creations. This year we twisted it up a little by…

TABLE FULL-REEL TASTY: A Bronx Tale

Saturday, July 21st at 7pm.
The Italian-American season begins. Here’s the skinny on the fat.

Starts: 6:30pm (cocktails and appetizers)
Ends: 11pm (really, when the film is over)
Donation: $65 (make a reservation below)
Movie: A Bronx Tale

We like to end each season with an Italian meal BUT for the last two years that hasn’t happened so this year we are going all Italian. We’re starting with  A Bronx Tale. Besides the fact that Robert DeNiro’s character shares our last name and my father claims the beginning of this story follows his real life, we love this flick for it’s portrayal of Italian-American life in the mid-twentieth century. Aside from the stereotypical mobster movie stuff it paints a serious picture of the neighborhood segregation in that time as well as the positive shift into the multi-cultural society we live in today. Plus, who can forget “The Door Test”. Rules to live by.

Menu

Each dinner this season we will focus on a different region of Italy mixed with our Italian-American favorites from Grandma’s kitchen. This time we are pairing the Bronx with Tuscany. WHy, because we are dying to make some of our Florentine favorites. Expect Tuscan steaks bigger than your stomach cooked the Flrenza style. We’ll also be cooking up a killer day old soup. Yes, very peasant like and delicious for days. We’ll spare you the tripe…well then again, maybe we won’t.

TABLE FULL-Reservations

More on Reel Tasty:

Jason and Anthony pair a 5 course gourmet meal for 20 friends, some new and some old on a HUGE deck in Brooklyn. As the name implies, we will be screening a movie during the meal. Don’t worry, there will still be plenty of time pre-entree to mingle, catchup and meet some new friends. Once the sun goes down we will role the film in all its two story high glory. This is an experiment, so we are not sure how much silence or chatting will go on. That’s for you to decide. We hope you will come out and enjoy yourselves with us this summer. See you on the deck.

You can check out pics from our last dinner here.

If you can’t make this dinner but want us to send you an invite to the next one, jump on the list.

United Nations of Sunday

It’s Canada Day where I am writing this from. I am watching Italy play Spain in the EuroCup final while snacking on my mother-in-laws amazing food. Above is my delicious tandoori chicken lunch. It doesn’t get much more multi-cultural-fantastic than this.

I just hope…

‘Wich Hunting: Pilot Episode

While in Italy I realized that there’s a lot happening around the world between two slices of bread. Anthony and I have travelled the world eating everything from Balut in the Philippines to blood sausage in Argentina. In every destination there has always been a sandwich shop. Some were good and some were bad but they all had their unique take on this ubiquitous meal. The origin of the sandwich is highly debated and we’ll dive into that on our journey as we discover, taste and debate the best sandwiches in the world.