Almost one year ago, I learned about PETA’s faux foie gras challenge via the Village Voice, which wrote in my Portobello Mousse as a candidate. Well, hell, if Sarah DiGregorio at the Village Voice thought I should enter I figured I may as well enter and so I sent off the recipe for the vegan version of the Portobello Mousse. And much to my surprise, this week I found out that I won!

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A victory for mushrooms!

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Thanks to everyone who voted for Dirt Candy in Metromix’s “Best of NYC” poll! Because we won “Best Vegetarian Restaurant!” Yay! Winning! Feels good! Tastes like bunnies! Lasts forever!

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This means that you guys have made Dirt Candy the “Best Vegetarian Restaurant” in amNew York, L Magazine, Citysearch and now Metromix. And we were honored for having the city’s “Best Grits” by the Village Voice. Every single one of these accolades is because of you. By eating here, by telling your friends, by letting me know what you like and dislike and by voting you’ve done this. Thank you! Now give yourself the rest of the day off!

What is the internet made for besides pornography? Voting! And voting is better because you can tell your friends about it. Right now Metromix is doing their “Best of New York” voting and Dirt Candy is nominated for “Best Vegetarian Restaurant.” Come on, everyone! We can win this! Democracy in action!

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Vote for Dirt Candy here.

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Democracy cat wants you to vote

for him to get a bigger box!

(And for Dirt Candy to win

“Best Vegetarian Restaurant!”)

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Metromix has named me (and therefore my sous chef, Jesus, and the rest of the staff at Dirt Candy) Chef of the Year. This is awesome and I couldn’t be happier. You can see my ridiculously silly photo and read an interview here.

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But I’m gonna keep trying!!!

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The previous Metromix Chefs of the Year are Ryan Skeen – 2008 (formerly of Irving Mill and Resto) and Joey Campanaro – 2007 (Market Table, Little Owl) and I’m surprised and humbled to be in such heady company.

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As is becoming annoying regular, however, I do want to make one clarification. In the interview I utter the following, “Q: Does vegetarian food get a bad rap?
A: It does, and people can’t look behind what vegetarian food is about and not what it’s not about.”

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Say what? Was I drunk? What I meant to come across here is that too often vegetarian food is about what it’s NOT and not about what it IS. It has NO meat, it has NO dairy, it is NOT cooked, it is NOT this, it is NOT that. Why can’t we focus more on what it has to offer rather than the puritanical idea that it’s valuable because of what it doesn’t offer? Instead of restraint, and caution, and avoidance, let’s celebrate excess, and headlong abandon and inclusion. Okay, I don’t cook meat. So what? Because the food I cook is about kimchi, and grilled eggplants, and pickled eggplants, and hush puppies, and doughnuts, and orange beurre blanc sauce, and grits, and tempura poached eggs, and pickled shittakes, and portobello mousse, and truffles, and broccoli rabe, and maple butter, and tomato pearls, and slow roasted potatoes, and paella, and popcorn pudding, and saffron tomato broth, and…well, you get the picture.

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I don’t want you to eat at Dirt Candy to avoid meat. I want you to eat here to  embrace vegetables.

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All of us at Dirt Candy want to say “thank you” to everyone who voted for us in the Citysearch “Best of NYC” poll, and to everyone who has eaten here. Thanks to you guys, in the past week Dirt Candy has:

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- been voted “Best Vegan Restaurant in NYC” by Citysearch. (Go DC customers!)

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- been selected “Best Vegetarian Restaurant in NYC” by amNewYork

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- and been selected “Best Grits” by the Village Voice in their “Best of NYC” issue. (Even more awesome – if you Google “best grits” DC comes up second!)

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To thank all of you for all your support, we’re going to start a photo series in honor of Halloween in which I reveal my personal scariest monsters.

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#1.) The Leprechaun

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Oh, god, it’s horrible. What are these things? Nothing more than kleptomaniac, Irish midgets who only wear one color like your crazy great aunt. Can you imagine – you’re sitting there minding your own business and suddenly a pack of these dirty little creatures swarm you and steal your shoes? Leprechauns are the worst. Plus, they have outrageous accents like tour guides at Epcot Ireland and they drink green beer. And I bet they smell like rotten potatoes.

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For everyone who has wondered about a Jewish conspiracy to control the world, I was just inducted into Heeb Magazine’s “Heeb 100” which is sort of the next best thing. It’s a list of “smart, innovative and young” jews who are expected to control the world in the near future, or at least small portions of it. I met with a rabbi recently to talk about getting certified kosher, and it was fun explaining to him about Heeb and how, no, really, the word Heeb is a good thing now. It’s just that white people can’t say it, or you have to jack them up.

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Then, in the October issue of Gourmet Magazine, Dirt Candy wins a “Golden Egg” award for “Funniest In-House Blog.” So in one month, the print media has proclaimed Dirt Candy both funny, powerful and Jewish. This must be how Jackie Mason feels every day.

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Dirt Candy declared officially funny.

Now everyone has to laugh at all my jokes.

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My Heeb 100 profile. Right out there for the world to see. If you are also on the Heeb 100 and you come to Dirt Candy for dinner, merely give the “secret sign” and receive your discount. (For the curious: the “secret sign” discount also gets us half off MTA fare, lower rent, early bird special at Per Se and reduced medical fees.)

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Well, that was fun. I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of the rock n’roll chef lifestyle before, but with the Starchefs Congress in town I got a chance to live the dream, and it made me feel kinda cool.

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We’re back to normal business here at Dirt Candy, but after the break: humiliating stories, beaten by ice, lots of pictures and the flower arrangement that almost killed me.

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This Sunday the Starchefs Congress starts and it’s probably the biggest industry event of the year. I’m incredibly honored to have been named one of their Rising Star Chefs but this means that from Sunday through Tuesday I’m going to be wrapped up in events at the congress. So expect the next post on this blog to be a recap on Wednesday of everything that happened at the Congress.

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In the meantime, here’s a really nice interview they did with me. It’s long, but I feel like it’s one of the first times I’ve gotten to just talk, and talk, and talk in public and I’m hoping I don’t sound like too much of a blowhard and that it gets across some of what I’m trying to do at Dirt Candy.

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Dirt Candy will be open like normal on Friday 9/18 and Saturday 9/19 but we’ll be closed on Tuesday 9/22 due to the Starchefs Congress. But we’ll be back to normal on Wednesday 9/23.

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StarChefs just announced their New York Rising Star Awards and I’m one of the 16 winners. Yay! I’m one of the “specialized” nominees so technically I’m a recipient of the Sustainability Award, but still! Other folks in there are Jason Neroni from 10 Downing, Isao Yamada for Upstairs at Bouley, Harold Dieterle for Perilla, Brooks Headley from Del Posto and Claire Paparazzo from Blue Hill who gets a specialized award as a sommelier.

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There’s a big event on September 22 (you can get tickets here), and all us winners had to meet up to do a photo shoot last week at the Mandarin Oriental which was a little bit like the first day of school. Would everyone else already know each other? Would there be cliques? Who would talk to me? Would someone steal my bag and push me in a puddle?

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Photos and more on the next page.

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I’m really stoked that in the new issue of L Magazine, Dirt Candy was named “BEST GREEN RESTAURANT YOU COULD TAKE YOUR HAUTE CUISINE FOOD SNOB TO.” Despite ending their sentence in a preposition (which I don’t think is such a big deal these days), this is otherwise totally cool. I try hard to be green at Dirt Candy, and I try to be sustainable, but I really don’t want to brag about it or make it a big part of how I present myself. To me, it just makes sense to do these things but I’ve seen several places brag a lot about being organic and green and sustainable that aren’t, and it’s made me shy about it. So it’s nice when someone else says it for me! Here’s their write-up:

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“BEST GREEN RESTAURANT YOU COULD TAKE YOUR HAUTE CUISINE FOOD SNOB TO
Dirt Candy
If Candle Café is your Chanel-wearing stepmother, Dirt Candy (430 E. 9th St) would be your Westwood-wearing kooky aunt. They make no outward claims to any kind of ideological position (though they are very eco-minded, as a matter of course), but focus rather on how interesting, even experimental, a kitchen can get with vegetables (aka, dirt candy). Standouts include: jalapeño hush puppies with maple butter, grits topped with pickled shiitake, and zucchini ginger cake. The level of inventiveness (and risk taking) here is sure to impress even the snootiest haute cuisine enthusiast.”

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I’m also named with Birdbath, the Red Hook Community Farm, the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm and Candle Cafe, which is pretty cool.

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Read the full list of award winners here.

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