June - WarmPalate.com by Chef Pasquale Martinelli

Home Is Where the Art Is
FrontDesk / May-June 2013
The close quarters and devoted service at Erminia make eating
a meal there as satisfying as reading your favorite novel. BY Chris Cuomo
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When a restaurant has been around for 30 years, there’s usually a good
reason. And when the patrons are intentionally tightlipped about it,
there’s always a very good reason. Erminia is, as Nabokov might say, a
12-table dance on your palate.
Small, quaint, quintessential—food-making tools from the Old
Country hang as reminders of what was and what is to come. The
intimacy—again, just 12 tables—is intentional, to allow for unique
attention to… well, everything. Southern Italian food, when it’s made in
an authentic home (like my mother’s) is simple, with flavors that work
because of season and reason. And the best ingredient is one you can’t
plant: love. Erminia is such a home.
The men who greet and feed you, Pasquale Martinelli and Nikola
Camaj, are as interesting as the meal. Nikola is the owner, and Pasquale
is the almost-too-handsome (judging by my wife’s attentiveness) narrator
of the storybook meal. The jobs of buying, preparing and serving are
shared, and Pasquale explains each dish like a story: how a risotto should
move, why pork loin was chosen for the piccata, which olive is in season.
The best news may be that if you can’t get one of Erminia’s precious
seats, you can still get the Pasquale and Nikola experience through their
new catering service, WarmPalate.
Erminia 250 E. 83rd St., 212.879.4284, ErminiarEStaurant.com
Photo: Evan sung
Dining
See food
Pan-roasted jumbo
sea scallops topped
with grilled vegetables
and fried artichoke.
DINING
Mexican Revolution
Alex Stupak first made his name elevating desserts into
works of art at WD~50 and Alinea. This year, he was a
semi-finalist for the Best Chef in NYC award from the
James Beard Foundation. Now, for his second act,
the chef raises the bar with inventive Mexican fare at
Empellón Cocina and Empellón Taqueria. BY CRISTINA CUOMO
I began as a cook and became
a pastry chef by accident. Mexican is
what I love eating most and it’s not
nearly appreciated enough. When you
read about Mexican restaurants it’s
typically focused on where to fi nd the
best cheap eats. We have a restaurant
that has the courage not to serve tacos.
It’s a small step, but Empellón has
an agenda.
MEXICAN?
HOW DO YOU BALANCE TWO LOCATIONS?
It’s really tough. You need to be free and
fluid between the two. I currently spend
twice as much time at Cocina because we
are younger there and much still needs to
be developed.
FAVORITE MENU ITEM? The Arctic Char
with Sweet Potatoes and Husk CherryChipotle Salsa. It exemplifies modernity
and core Mexican cooking theology while
still being a delicious dish.
WD~50 and
Momofuku Ssäm Bar are two of them.
The chefs are friends and mentors, and
they are also crazy individualists who
live without fear. You can taste it in
the cuisine.
FAVORITE RESTAURANTS?
FAVORITE INGREDIENT? Masa.
It’s a dough
made from nixtamalized corn that’s
used for tortillas and tamales. It’s a
highly manipulatable substance and as
a pastry chef I love that you can make
new forms from it.
Empellón
literally translates to push or
shove. For me it’s about pushing
yourself beyond your personal limits
and comfort zone. Nothing great is
ever comfortable or natural.
WHAT DOES EMPELLÓN MEAN?
EMPELLÓN COCINA 105 FIRST AVE.,
212.780.0999; EMPELLÓN TAQUERIA 230
W. 4TH ST., 212.367.0999, EMPELLON.COM
FrontDesk / May-June 2013
HOW DID YOU GO FROM DESSERTS TO
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