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the buzz

“One-on-One with Maialino Chef Nick Anderer”

Opening a restaurant is a big responsibility for any chef. But when you’re opening the restaurant for Danny Meyer, and that restaurant will anchor the Gramercy Park Hotel, well, the pressure’s kind of on. I had a chance to chat with Nick Anderer, the chef of Danny Meyer’s first foray into Italian food, Maialino about how they developed the menu, the pressures of creating the perfect Buccatini All’amatriciana, and where to eat when in Rome.

Strong Buzz: How did you develop the menu?

Chef Nick Anderer: Danny came to me in the beginning of the summer and said what do you think about opening a Roman trattoria? I was shocked. I was thinking, this is too good to be true. Danny and I took two weeks in Rome and we ate like five meals a day for 14 straight days. We ate all the classics and took inspiration from everywhere. We loved places like Checchino, Al Moro, and Antico forno Roscioli, which is a wine bar, retail shop, with a bakery across the street. It is one of my favorite places for pizza bianco. They do the classics very well there, too.

SB: Did you find design inspiration from your eating tour, too?

Yes. A lot of the design elements came from the urban landscape. The color and pattern of the floors in our bar area are sort of inspired by Danny’s vision of the Pantheon floors. We stopped at the Pantheon every morning just to see it. We also drew a lot of inspiration from salumi shops and the overall layout of a look and feel of a trattoria, with wainscoting and eclectic mix of pictures paintings and artwork on the walls.

SB: How did you decide what to put on the menu?

It’s a greatest hits of what we had in Rome married with the best of what New York has available. We found a benchmark in Rome and then we tried to work from there. For pastas, some we make in house and we buy artisanal dried pastas too.

SB: What dish challenged you the most?

Buttracini all’amatriciana (a classic Roman dish made from diced guanciale cooked with diced onion in lard or oil with tomatoes and some hot chili flakes and pecorino). It’s really hard to find the right ingredients, first because it’s illegal to get Italian guanciale here in the States so we had to find some really good stuff. We tried to make our own and tried to develop that rich flavor in the dish. You can have it 20 times and try to execute it and then see how far off you are. Ours has come a long way both through the marriage of making our own and sourcing from La Querica in Iowa. It was a lot of fun to work on this dish. Doing a menu like this you do dishes that every chef feels they can do, but when you are really scrutinizing you realize you are so far off from the classic and it misses what you had in Rome. It’s hard to come up with the greatest restaurant version of a classic dish. I credit my sous chefs and my entire team to help scrutinize and be critical of every last detail. It was fun to finally nail it.

SB: Did you seek the help of any other chefs or mentors?

Michael Romano was a great help to us. He put his two cents in and it was great to have him around for motivational skills and knowledge of the business. Michael Anthony, too, was very influential with a keen sense of farm to chef approach and he is a great source of inspiration.

SB: Where did your love of cooking come from?

I guess it started with my mother who is a great cook. I have two brothers with big appetites and there was a lot of eating at our house growing up. So I guess my initial beginnings start there. She taught me how to cook. Then in college my junior year that was when I went to Italy I was loving the art but I was loving the food even more. I didn’t go to culinary school. While I was in college at Columbia, I begged my way into kitchens. By the time I was finishing classes, I was working full time in restaurants. I interned in finance for a while but I decided to drop it all and go full time into cooking. I got a job at the Water Club and then with Larry Forgione at An American Place.  Then I moved over to Babbo and then I went to Italy and then Gramercy Tavern where I have been for the past six years, the first three years under Tom and then under Mike Anthony.

SB: Where do you like to eat other than your own restaurants?

I go to Momofuku Milk Bar on weekends for breakfast sandwiches. I love L’Artusi in the West Village. I really want to check out Corton. I have been hearing great things.

SB: Speaking of where to eat, when I come to Maialino, what should I order? What is your must have meal?

I’d encourage you to try something from each section of the menu-- antipasti, primi and secondi. Have the Mailiano as a secondo. It has taken off just really simple slow roasted suckling pig with potatoes and rosemary, have some pasta roman classic all’amatraciana and Carbonara, and we do a great ravioli with egg yolk and spinach ricotta lemon and sage. For dessert I would definitely want you to try the affogato fiori de late gelato with espresso and the tartuffo, pine nut tart.

(Author’s note: I went to Maialino last week and took Nick’s advice on what to eat. It was spectacular. I suggest you do the same. Yum.)

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Posted: November 22, 2009 - 3:41 pm

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