How Chef Tom Colicchio Has Run a Legendary NYC Restaurant for Over 25 Years — Mise En Place

Quick Overview

Chef Tom Colicchio discusses maintaining his legendary New York City restaurant for over 25 years by constantly evolving the menu, emphasizing meticulous in-house preparation of everything from stocks to pasta, and maintaining high standards despite modern culinary trends.

Key Points: The restaurant is celebrating its 25th year and recently made a "huge departure" by eliminating family-style service, though some large format items like the ribeye remain. Colicchio stresses that a restaurant must constantly evolve, stating, "If you're not evolving, you have a tendency to start slipping backwards." The kitchen maintains an old-school cooking philosophy, making everything in-house: bread, pasta, stocks, and sauces, asserting, "there's no other way I want to cook." Short ribs are a long-standing best seller, requiring a three-day process involving curing overnight, searing, 3 hours of braising at 325°, cooling overnight, and then glazing for service. Colicchio dislikes the modern trend of sharing food placed in the center of the table, calling it treating the menu like a buffet and a "pet peeve." The chef emphasizes the importance of experience for young cooks, noting that newcomers often want to be sous chefs immediately but "haven't spent enough time" or gained necessary reps. A new tasting menu featuring fresh, live king crab from Norway—costing around $1,000 per crab—is being implemented, demonstrating the high cost of ingredients.

Context: Chef Tom Colicchio provides an inside look at the operations of his long-running New York City restaurant, detailing the commitment to quality, the evolution of the menu over 25 years, and the rigorous preparation methods used for signature dishes like dry-aged ribeye and braised short ribs. The discussion also touches upon his experience as a TV judge and his philosophy on kitchen mentorship and customer dining habits.

Detailed Analysis

Tom Colicchio details the operational philosophy sustaining his restaurant across 25 years, centered on relentless evolution and making nearly all components from scratch, including stocks, sauces, and pasta, which he insists on making with water instead of egg yolk for certain shapes like anneloni. He walks through the multi-day process for short ribs, which start with trimming and curing, followed by searing and a three-hour braise, ultimately yielding a highly popular dish that customers would revolt over if removed from the menu. The kitchen demonstrates problem-solving when adapting a celery root cannelloni to a free-form raviolo due to ingredient size constraints, showcasing flexibility. Colicchio also discusses sourcing premium ingredients, such as live king crab from Norway costing upwards of $1,000 per unit for a new tasting menu, contrasting this with his early days sourcing from the green market. Furthermore, he expresses frustration with the contemporary dining trend of excessive sharing, which he compares negatively to a buffet, while also stressing that kitchen staff need substantial time and practice to truly improve their craft, rejecting the notion of a simple 'secret' to cooking success.