Q & A with Amanda Cohen
There’s a lot of respectable vegetarian restaurants in New York these days — raw, macrobiotic, and even microbiotic food. Most are guilty of mock meats, like faux franks, veggie bacon and tofurkey. Not Amanda Cohen. She lobbies against them at Dirt Candy, her new — and controversially named — tiny restaurant in the East Village. Yes, the name is awful and no one can resist poking fun. “At least people remember it!” Cohen says and, if she do it all over again, she’d keep the name. Her inspiration is sincere: “Vegetables are mother nature’s candy.” She’s also gotten quite a bit of press on her review of a New York Times dining brief about Dirt Candy.
To think, Cohen used to deep fry buffalo wings for a living. She changed directions, working in some of the city’s best vegetarian restaurants, including Angelika Kitchen, Pure Food and Wine, and the now shuttered Heirloom.
A healthy lifestyle isn’t Dirt Candy’s agenda. It’s taste. And she’s happy to admit that she eats fish. On the menu at Dirty Candy is a golden beet parpardelle with yogurt, pistachios and honey, and an intense carrot risotto with carrot drops and curls.
Single/Married/Divorced?
Married.
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I wasn’t really sure – it took a long time. I actually went to school to be a cultural anthropologist. But I soon discovered that cooking was what I wanted to do, so I went to cooking school.
What was your first job in food? What did you learn?
I was sixteen and a food runner at a country club in Toronto. I guess one thing I learned is that pastry walk-ins are the best place in the world! Just walls of pastries, so as a 16 year old you think, “I must be in heaven!” It was great to eat whatever I wanted (my friend’s mother worked there) and not have anyone tell me what to do.
You worked at a lot of restaurants, but Dirt Candy is your first solo effort. That’s a tough decision and a huge undertaking. What compelled to do it and what was the process like for you?
I sort of wanted to introduce new vegetarian cooking, and since I had nowhere left to go (having worked at virtually every vegetarian restaurant in New York) I decided to move forward. It was the most hellish experience of my life. This restaurant is only 350 square feet and it took 1.5 years to build it. Everything that could go wrong? It went wrong – sometimes twice! I had two contractors…oh it was a mess. But it was worth it. I always wanted my own business, and I like that I have full control and freedom. I mean, we only have one server here so this place is very manageable.
Before Dirt Candy, you worked with Matthew Kenney at Pure Food & Wine. You’ve also gone on record saying he’s not an easy chef to work with. Why is he so difficult?
He knows what he likes and he’s very particular with a definite style. And for me, it was hard as his sous chef to learn that style. But I’ve taken a lot of what I’ve learned from there with me. We do a lot of dehydrating, raw food, and “cooking” of food with acids and such.
Follow that up with getting sued by Jeffrey Chodorow. How did that happen?
Oh that’s a looooonnnng story. In short, Matt was leaving Pure Food and Wine and it was all based on who was leaving. I got tangled up in the legalities of it – and it was all very complicated.
Back to Dirt Candy, did working at places like Angelika Kitchen and Heirloom inspire you to open a vegetarian restaurant of your own?
No – I would say the inspirations were really the tiny East Village restaurants like Jewel Bako. I like restaurants that are very concentrated in what they serve. Also, there was a man in Paris named Daniel Rose who had a restaurant called Spring that was essentially a one-man operation. The dining room was an extension of his kitchen, and that just made me think – if he can do it, I can do it! It was a great relief. It’s great to know that you can be a weird and different restaurant and still make it.
The restaurant only has 18 seats. Do you prefer small spots when you dine out?
I think it depends. I like what we do here. Chef counters are cool but can be very intimidating, though interesting. I always worry – “Oh no, do they want to be talked to?” etc. But hey, big restaurants are also exciting because it’s almost like magic – you can’t see where all of the food is coming from!
Nobody can seem to help themself when it comes to poking fun at the restaurant’s name. Dirt Candy. We have to ask, what inspired the name?
We went through a lot of names. “Dirt Candy” made a lot of sense because it’s, you know, vegetables from the earth, mother nature’s candy. I really didn’t think it was a negative name but hey – people remember it! There are so many one-word names out there and I find them so boring! I wanted something different, with two words and a couple of syllables in there.
If you could do it all over again, would you change the name?
I don’t think so – I like it. Sometimes I think “Oh no, it’s too late to change it!” when I read these reviews, but then I stop and think. The name “Dirt Candy” doesn’t scream vegetarian, and it represents how we want to have fun. We like each other here and we’re happy and joyful. Though our food is serious, we don’t take ourselves seriously.
You recently received a middling Dining Brief from the New York Times. You followed it up with a review of Oliver Schwaner-Albright’s review. Of course, you’d be disappointed, but what compelled you to write back?
Well actually we do “Reviews Reviewed” which is a running feature on the site. I just want to let people know how it feels to be reviewed. Tone is hard to convey online, so I think when I wrote that response to the dining brief, my light-hearted tone didn’t come across. The New York Times came when we didn’t have gas, so everything was twice as hard to do. I wish there was more constructive criticism, and I’m disturbed that people thought I was lashing out. I just want to let people know what goes on behind the scenes of a restaurant review – the before, during, and after.
Has it been difficult or an interesting challenge to find substitutes for things like beef, fish and chicken?
It’s definitely hard to get that chewy texture, that juicy inside with the crispy outside. I haven’t eaten meat in a long, long time but I understand that that’s the texture people desire – who doesn’t?
You were known for your buffalo wings at the Diner Bar. When and why did you decide to cook vegetarian? Are you a vegetarian yourself?
I was a vegetarian since I was 15, and I actually started out cooking in vegetarian restaurants. But after 9/11, Diner Bar was the only job out there for me. It was definitely my most meaty job, but I believe that in order to be a good chef, you have to have experience with all types of food. If you work in vegetarian restaurants all your life, you can’t be with varied people. It’s good to know how to sear meat or filet a fish, because then you can apply those skills to vegetables. To answer the second question, I now eat fish because I realized that I was really limiting myself by going to all of these wonderful restaurants and only getting the vegetable plate.
If you had your drothers, would you order do you prefer tempeh or meat?
I think tempeh is great when done right – it’s a part of Malaysian cuisine. However, I don’t believe it’s the be all, end all of vegetarian cooking.
What culinary trends do you embrace?…
That’s a hard one. I’m so consumed by this restaurant that it’s hard to notice. I guess the trend of small restaurants – I hope it will continue and I definitely think it’s a good thing.
What culinary trends do you wish would just die already?
Odd-shaped plates or giant plates with a tiny bit of food in the center. It drives me crazy!
What’s your favorite dish on the menu at Dirt Candy?
It’s a tie – how’s that? The portobello mousse is one. When one breaks as we’re molding them we so excited because we get to eat it. And then the beet papardelle – it’s a new dish so it’s very exciting.
What’s your least favorite (and yes, you must pick one)?
I would say the spinach soup because I would never order soup in a restaurant and I’m just not a huge fan of soup in general. I think it goes back to when I was little and I spilled chicken soup all over myself. Since then that repulsive smell has stayed with me. I hate it!
Where in New York do you like to go for great vegetarian cooking?
I almost never go to the same restaurant twice. But I do love Asian restaurants, like Tiffin Wallah, Grand Sichuan, and the Thai restaurants in Queens. I rarely go to specifically vegetarian restaurants. Oh, I know – Babbo. I had some excellent vegetarian pasta there.
Any new projects on the horizon? Spill the beans….
To get more than five hours of sleep *laughs*. We’re only five months old, so for now I want to make a profit instead of breaking even and make Dirt Candy better.
Address: 430 E. 9th St. (btwn. 1st Ave & Ave. A)
Phone: (212) 228-7732
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Great interview!
I love the name, Dirt Candy!!! That’s an awesome choice I think. Really makes one stop and go, “Huh?!” and then ponder it.
I’d try Amanda’s restaurant on her restaurant name alone, just for the experience. And from the sound of things I’d be back. I’m not a vegetarian mind you, but I love vegetables and regularly make just a meal of them alone.
-Harold
http://www.sellmoremeals.com/