Marco Canora’s Brodo is Good for What Ails You

Even New York’s most celebrated chefs are getting into the fast-casual game.  All’onda’s Chris Jaeckle has a takeaway sushi spot. George Mendes specializes in sardines at his Madison Square Eats stand.  Marc Forgione is a major investor in Taquitoria, which serves inventively filled, rolled and deep-fried tacos.  And now, Marco Canora, the award-winning chef and owner of Hearth and Terroir, has joined the fast food fray with Brodo, erecting a makeshift takeout window in front of a previously unused entrance to his East Village restaurant, dedicated to selling broth.

To be clear, this isn’t a straight up soup to-go concept (although you can expect to see one in the future from The Clam’s Mike Price).  Instead, Canora is focusing almost exclusively on crystal clear consommé, made from the long-simmered bones of organic chickens and turkeys, and local, grass-fed cows, meant for sipping, not spooning, out of paper coffee cups.  (It’s also available in mason jars to take home!)  If that all sounds a tad austere, there are a few, albeit limited, options for jazzing up the collagen-rich liquid, such as freshly grated garlic or ginger, an earthy extract of mushrooms steeped in tea, a scarlet drizzle of beet kvass or a few fiery drops of Calabrian chile oil.

But serving an undeniably delicious product (Canora is a frequent James Beard nominee, after all) really isn’t the chef’s sole incentive at Brodo — a major
motivation was to preach the gospel of good health.  Canora is a poster child, of sorts, for the restorative powers of broth, which he used to nurse himself back into fighting shape, after 40 years of hard living left him pre-diabetic and overweight, with high cholesterol and (gasp!) gout.

Not that you need to be knocking on deaths door in order to appreciate Brodo; because as your grandmother undoubtedly told you, bone broth is a cure-all for everything, from poor digestion to heartache to the common cold.  And if you’re anywhere near the East Village next week (in case you hadn’t heard, an Arctic outbreak is pushing wintery weather right to us), it also makes for an spectacularly soothing lunch.