After her celebrated run at Mena in Tribeca, Chef Victoria Blamey has returned to New York’s culinary scene, taking the helm at Blanca in Brooklyn—a restaurant revered for its daring tasting menu and intimate 12-seat setting. With support from Carlo Mirarchi, Blanca’s original founder, Blamey brings her inventive, globe-trotting techniques and Chilean heritage to a new chapter at the once Michelin-starred gem.
Set behind Bushwick’s famed Roberta’s, Blanca offers an immersive, nearly three-hour culinary journey that pushes the boundaries of fine dining. Each course showcases Blamey’s meticulous attention to detail. The menu doesn’t reveal how much work each course entails; that the fermentation process takes days; that before the end of an evening’s service Blamey is preparing dough which needs 19 hours to process; that the spinach leaves take hours to press and wrap; there are shells to shuck; the Donabe rice pot has to be continuously stirred; and a wood oven outside needs regular attention. Beyond the kitchen, Blanca’s experience is enhanced by an extensive natural wine list and music as eclectic as the food.
Executive Chef Victoria Blamey and Chef and Co-owner Carlo Mirarchi sit down with Forbes editor Maggie McGrath to discuss Blanca’s revival, their creative process, and what’s next for the iconic restaurant.
Read more on Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinwolfe/2024/01/26/stars-have-aligned-chef-victoria-blamey--blanca-in-brooklyn-are-reborn/
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Set behind Bushwick’s famed Roberta’s, Blanca offers an immersive, nearly three-hour culinary journey that pushes the boundaries of fine dining. Each course showcases Blamey’s meticulous attention to detail. The menu doesn’t reveal how much work each course entails; that the fermentation process takes days; that before the end of an evening’s service Blamey is preparing dough which needs 19 hours to process; that the spinach leaves take hours to press and wrap; there are shells to shuck; the Donabe rice pot has to be continuously stirred; and a wood oven outside needs regular attention. Beyond the kitchen, Blanca’s experience is enhanced by an extensive natural wine list and music as eclectic as the food.
Executive Chef Victoria Blamey and Chef and Co-owner Carlo Mirarchi sit down with Forbes editor Maggie McGrath to discuss Blanca’s revival, their creative process, and what’s next for the iconic restaurant.
Read more on Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinwolfe/2024/01/26/stars-have-aligned-chef-victoria-blamey--blanca-in-brooklyn-are-reborn/
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00♪♪
00:08Blanca is one of New York City's
00:10most exciting dining destinations.
00:12This 12-seat, intimate restaurant
00:15is tucked away behind Roberta's in Bushwick,
00:18and it has been earning rave reviews
00:20from food media and diners alike.
00:23It was recently named the number-two restaurant
00:25in all of New York City by The New York Times.
00:28And we are here with executive chef Victoria Blamey
00:32and chef and co-owner Carlo Mirarchi.
00:35Thank you both so much for sitting down with Forbes.
00:37Thanks for having us.
00:39So, Carlo, let's go back to the beginning of Blanca.
00:42This opened in 2012.
00:44What was your vision at the time,
00:46and how has that changed for the 2024 iteration?
00:50So, Blanca had started initially as a tasting menu
00:55I was doing inside of Roberta's.
00:58Chef David Kinch, who's kind of a mentor
01:00and a very good friend of mine,
01:02had come into the restaurant,
01:03and I just sort of threw together a menu for him.
01:06And he started telling people that he was friends with
01:09and other chefs and stuff that they should come in
01:12and try just having a menu at Roberta's.
01:17And that ended up becoming popular, thank God.
01:21And we decided that it made sense
01:24to expand that into its own restaurant.
01:27So that's how Blanca started.
01:28And, of course, like so many other restaurants,
01:31March 2020 happens, COVID happens, shutdowns happen.
01:35Blanca closed and then reopened four years later.
01:40Take me back to March 2020.
01:42Did you think you'd ever be reopening again?
01:45I was definitely not sure if it was going to happen.
01:50I wasn't sure about where tasting menus stood
01:55in New York City anymore.
01:56I wasn't sure if people even wanted
01:57to eat this way anymore.
02:00It was definitely a tug of war with myself.
02:04And with all the other projects that we had going on,
02:06it seemed less and less feasible.
02:10And it was not something I was willing to do
02:13unless I was able to find a partner
02:15that could actually do the job
02:20and do justice to the restaurant.
02:21And Victoria is that person.
02:23Enter Victoria.
02:25What made you want to join this project as executive chef?
02:29I mean, I think Guadalupe was just such an unlikely
02:33situation to happen in general.
02:36A, obviously I'm known about Cardo.
02:41I had a friend, we used to work here for him,
02:45and I came to a restaurant like three times.
02:48And I'm not a big fan of working in Brooklyn in general.
02:53So I've been much more focused always in Manhattan.
02:56So I think there were, it's like funny,
02:59I think when things are very kind of weird
03:03and I don't know whether the rationale makes sense of it,
03:07in my brain, okay, like in my opinion,
03:09like all my very close friends,
03:11they're like, this makes sense.
03:13And I'm like, does it?
03:15Yeah, it's like, I don't know.
03:16And then, you know, closing Mena was really hard.
03:19I mean, and to be honest, I dealt with a lot of,
03:22just kind of like I feel embarrassed when that happened.
03:26Dealing with kind of a lot of emotions.
03:29Again, I'm a very emotional person in a sense.
03:31And then just kind of tired of the ups and downs.
03:36And, you know, I think sometimes we struggle
03:38with like, where the hell is everything going?
03:42But I thought it was like, I was like,
03:44why would Arnold be interested in me?
03:46So I got a phone call from a friend of mine,
03:48a friend that we have in common.
03:50And then she's like, it makes so much sense.
03:52I can't believe I didn't think about it.
03:53So he was upset at himself for not thinking about the idea.
03:57And then she kind of connected us.
03:59And it took like nine or 10 months, I think,
04:02on conversations, extremely busy person over here.
04:06So then I was saying, oh, this is,
04:06I don't think it's gonna happen.
04:07But I thought it was just interesting.
04:11Obviously, I had fond memories.
04:14I always thought that is one of the few restaurants
04:16that actually had such a insignia
04:20of being a chef's tasting menu,
04:22not the BS of like, oh, this is a restaurant
04:25and you have a tiny, tiny kitchen,
04:26but it is a chef's tasting menu.
04:28It is a chef's driven restaurant.
04:29And you don't have the equipment.
04:32You don't have the infrastructure
04:34to actually develop what you need to do.
04:36So part of as a chef, you know,
04:39and I think in general, when I've ever worked for someone,
04:42being an executive chef is being
04:44just plainly an investor, you know?
04:46And the point of view is just so different.
04:50And I think all of those things,
04:52all those, the elements together
04:54kind of make sense in my head.
04:55And then I was obviously apprehensive,
04:57but I think in general, I've always jumped into things
05:00that I've been slightly scared and apprehensive about.
05:03Going back to what you said
05:04about working for an investor versus a chef,
05:06Carlo, what did you see in Victoria as a chef
05:10that made her the right executive chef for Blanca?
05:13What did you see in her as a chef in 2024?
05:16From a culinary perspective,
05:17we have a very similar vantage point.
05:21I think we articulate things in the same way.
05:24We have a very similar aesthetic.
05:26We let ingredients speak for themselves
05:29while still having a voice.
05:33And I think that's really, really important.
05:35And especially in this restaurant,
05:37it doesn't have to be my voice anymore,
05:39but it has to be someone's voice.
05:41And how do you collaborate?
05:43What's the balance between when someone's eating here,
05:45they're eating a Victoria Blainey dish
05:48versus a Victoria Blainey dish with a Carlo Maracci dish?
05:52Well, I mean, I think with time,
05:54I think it's interesting to see the moment
05:57when we opened that was January
05:59till now that we're almost in September.
06:04I think it's more about the guests
06:06sort of what the expectations they have.
06:11Obviously at the beginning, I was much more timid.
06:15You can get on that.
06:17About trying to understand how to represent the brand.
06:21I am very aware that when you're in another place
06:25that is not your own,
06:27kind of like how do you balance, you know what I mean?
06:30The space, the identity of that space,
06:33and then your own identity.
06:36And I think Carlo, this was a long time ago,
06:39he said to me, this is almost like
06:41why you'd be waiting your whole life situation.
06:43And I think part of that is very true.
06:46I can be myself here.
06:49There's obviously a very blurry line of what is the guest,
06:53the chef, the kitchen, the front, the back.
06:57And I think in that aspect, it can be interesting,
07:01but it can also be obviously intense
07:04because of emotions and obviously the energy in that room.
07:09But I just feel like it's almost impossible
07:13that your own personality is not gonna be part of it.
07:17And then how do you feel, Carlo, as a chef yourself?
07:19Have you had to pull back and let Victoria do her thing?
07:23It's sort of like watching someone drive your car.
07:27Wow, that's true.
07:28And in the beginning, you're nervous
07:31and you are very, very, you're like, ah!
07:33But, ugh!
07:34But, ugh!
07:35Did you warm it up?
07:36All that kind of stuff.
07:37And then in the end, your tour, not in the end,
07:40but as things move forward, you're like,
07:43that is a sleek automobile.
07:46I like the way it sounds.
07:48I like the way it looks.
07:50I like the way it smells.
07:52Yeah.
07:53So what is the Blanca brand?
07:55Victoria mentioned it.
07:56Is that something that you defined at the beginning
07:58and had her cook to, or is that an ever-evolving idea?
08:02I think it's ever-evolving.
08:03There's definitely, I think,
08:09an approach to the food
08:10and a certain system of values
08:15that we apply to what we do.
08:17But it should always be evolving.
08:19It should always, you should always be challenging yourself.
08:21We should be challenging ourselves.
08:23We should be trying to be better with each service.
08:27And, you know, being stagnant
08:31is not something that works for us.
08:34We'll get to the dining experience in just a second,
08:36but Carlo, I want to go back to something you said
08:38about the consumer appetite,
08:40no pun intended, for a tasting menu.
08:42We've heard so much about inflation,
08:43which I'm sure you both see as your sourcing ingredients,
08:46but when you think about pricing,
08:47when you think about opening a restaurant
08:50that's doing a chef's tasting menu,
08:53how did you make that decision
08:54and how do you think about the pricing of this?
08:57So it's definitely something
08:58you want to take into consideration.
09:00And I think that the attitude of diners have shifted a bit.
09:05And this is not necessarily
09:10the way that people want to celebrate restaurants
09:14as often as they once did.
09:16However, when it comes to actually being able
09:18to express your cuisine and your food
09:21and have a, I think, a total experience,
09:23that a tasting menu is kind of the only way to really do it
09:25because it allows you to really have a rhythm
09:27and a balance in all your flavors
09:29and ingredients and how you approach the entire meal
09:32from start to finish.
09:33It just allows you that control
09:34that I think you kind of need.
09:37Even personally, myself,
09:38I'm not someone that goes out to eat tasting menus.
09:41If I do, it's very, very rare, rare.
09:46So it's obviously something very specific,
09:49something that is catering to a very specific audience,
09:53but I do think it is a necessary part of,
09:58or an important part of culinary tradition
10:01and also is something that drives gastronomy forward.
10:06Let's talk about the dining experience.
10:08Obviously, hyper-seasonal, hyper-local, the menu evolves,
10:12but broadly speaking, what can someone expect
10:14when they come in to eat your food here?
10:17I mean, definitely there is hyper-local,
10:19but I think in general,
10:21there's more about quantity also of produce and product.
10:26I don't mean this in a sort of bourgeois way.
10:30I mean, in like, you know,
10:31trying to find what is the best olive oil
10:35that we think is gonna go with this dish, you know?
10:38What is the best, you know,
10:40fish that I think will go with the sauce that we're making?
10:43I think in general, for sure,
10:46it tends to people to think, you know,
10:49that a tasting menu has to be bourgeois
10:52and it has to be sort of for like creme de la creme
10:56or the top of the 1% or whatever.
10:59I don't think the food has to reflect that.
11:01I do think that the produce has to be obviously important,
11:06you know, because you speak through that.
11:09I do think that also it is not that easy
11:11to do that in general.
11:13So I think people have to expect, you know, great produce,
11:16but also something fun and something different
11:19to actually see and eat.
11:22I think it's not about something that is,
11:26it's not about being simplistic or not.
11:28I think it's more the approach of like,
11:30oh, this is fun.
11:31I haven't tried this way before.
11:32Oh, I haven't had, you know,
11:34the sauce that is very traditional with X, Y, C on it.
11:38This is really unique.
11:40So in the sense of like,
11:42is there anything really so original these days?
11:45I'm not sure.
11:46You know, I don't think really anything we do these days
11:50is like, oh, I've never seen this before.
11:51You know, I think that we will,
11:53keeps like turning around and around
11:54and kind of shifting is like fashion.
11:56And it really truly is not like the moment of like Ferran
11:59and coming out with, you know, SIS,
12:02the guns and the spumas and, you know,
12:04all this stuff that happened, I remember in the 2000s.
12:07So, but you still have creativity, you know,
12:10creativity, it is still part of reinvention.
12:12So I think people are supposed to be on an adventure.
12:16It is not for someone definitely
12:18that wants to just have a very traditional meal.
12:22You know, that's not what Blanca is meant to be,
12:26but it's also not about trying hard.
12:27You know, it's about the deliciousness.
12:29I think if something also can be aesthetically appealing,
12:34great, but it's a combination of all those, you know,
12:37I hope we can achieve that, you know.
12:40Whenever, whenever she,
12:42whenever I'm in the kitchen helping out,
12:44she always looks at me like I'm going to go
12:46and plate something.
12:47And I'm like, I'm not plating that.
12:49I'll, I'll stick to the grill.
12:51I'm not plating anything.
12:54Wait, why?
12:55Because it's not, it's not plating enough for you?
12:56I just don't like plating.
12:57Oh.
12:58I mean, I'm not, I'm not very good at it, to be honest.
13:03Oh, that's so funny.
13:04You know, the first, we were doing a Friends of the Farm
13:07and I was like, I wonder, you know, you always said this,
13:10this, it is interesting working with another chef
13:14because obviously I've worked with many,
13:15but under them, right?
13:17And there's obviously a great deal of narration.
13:21If not, that partnership wouldn't work.
13:24But you never know, you always a little afraid
13:27of what area you were kind of like, you know,
13:30just about to enter.
13:31So I was like, I wonder how is she
13:34when I get involved plating, you know?
13:36And then of course, you know, you're very,
13:39the dishes that you make and how I feel about them,
13:42they're your children.
13:44So you're very kind of overprotective
13:46when you're like, no, it's not like that.
13:47And then you send it in go, obviously,
13:49and try to teach people like,
13:50you know, that's not the best way to do it.
13:53But there's so many emotions, you know?
13:55So at the beginning, I was like, what is he gonna do?
13:57I was like, what is he gonna do now?
13:58But then he was just so chill.
14:00He was so relaxed, you know?
14:03I put away more, I'm more hyper about it.
14:08I don't, I'm not a bipartisan that says to be like,
14:12oh, I'm gonna shift my moods, do a service, thankfully,
14:15you know?
14:16But, you know, I do definitely have a really focused,
14:20like, oh no, this has to be that way, you know?
14:24And then I'm like, okay, it's fine.
14:25That wasn't the time.
14:26But then he was just very comforting.
14:28So it was just really funny
14:29whenever he was coming here to grill.
14:31You talk about the lamb coming on and off
14:34and the most touched piece of meat,
14:36and without giving away the house secrets.
14:38For a tasting menu like the one that you are creating,
14:41I imagine there's so many steps behind the scenes
14:44that diners can't even comprehend are happening.
14:47Can you talk about that process a little bit?
14:50How much more work is going on than what we see?
14:53I mean, a lot, but I don't think there's secrets, you know?
14:56I don't believe in secrets.
14:59I had actually, I've been lucky that even though
15:02of the hardships of my career, you know,
15:05I never had anyone not telling me how things worked,
15:09that a question wasn't answered,
15:11that someone didn't tell me a recipe that, you know,
15:14so I don't work that way either.
15:16You know, I don't think, someone asked me,
15:17usually we have a lot of diners that are really curious,
15:20you know, like right now we have a tomato
15:22that is like dehydrated for 14 hours,
15:25and we warm again, then has sherry amontillado,
15:27then it has like glaze, and it's just more than I'm like,
15:29do you really wanna know the steps?
15:31Because I can be here like for a good five, 10 minutes
15:34to tell you how this tomato came to be.
15:36So I find it that the less people know the better,
15:41just to not sound obnoxious of like,
15:43why are we doing it that way?
15:44But in general, the food that I make is not intentional,
15:48does have layers, you know,
15:50and the layers are meant to express flavor.
15:53So I think, yeah, you know, there's prep that we all do,
15:58the only four people with me,
16:00so it's a very small team to achieve the things
16:04that we wanna do,
16:05and I think the team that we have is absolutely incredible.
16:09They're very passionate, they're young, you know,
16:13and they're very, they have great values
16:15and interests of the cuisine,
16:18apart from being very individuals, to be honest with you.
16:20So we all have a, you know, there's moments obviously
16:23that sometimes you're frustrated or tired,
16:25mainly because someone's tired,
16:27that you're like trying to maybe cut a border or something,
16:30I'm like, hey, you know, it's so intentional what you do
16:33that it can get a little bit overwhelming.
16:36So yeah, there's processes, fermentation, you know,
16:40there is dehydration, you know, we work with great product,
16:44we do our own sorbet with our fruit, you know,
16:47we try to work on new things
16:48and might be attempting a failure, I don't know.
16:51So, and nothing's really a secret, you know,
16:54the bread, for example,
16:56a good friend of mine helped me actually do it.
16:58I'm not a baker, I'm not baking bread though,
17:00I did it really early in my career
17:02and I suffered a lot
17:03because the chef was mad at me all the time.
17:05I had to do 15 different loaves of different bread,
17:09it was a disaster, I nearly got fired
17:12and it was my internship, I was like, wait, I can get fired?
17:15I was like, I'm working for free.
17:17But you know, so I think a lot of that
17:18is what we bring in here and the desire to even do more,
17:23you know, sometimes it just have to come to the reality
17:25during the realization of like,
17:26yeah, I can grow my own tea, I get it.
17:29So I wanna, you know, pair that with the best producer
17:32that we have, so see what is that collaboration?
17:34I think collaborating with people that you admire
17:37and people that do work things
17:38is one of the luckiest things that we do here
17:41and I thoroughly enjoy it, yeah.
17:45So I think a good way to make guests understand
17:49or people understand in general
17:50is that for every one dish that's on the menu
17:53as a complete dish, there's 10 that didn't get on.
17:56So you multiply that by 19, 20, you know, 15,
17:59whatever formative courses it is,
18:00you realize how many iterations you end up having
18:03of certain dishes or how much just straight up attempts
18:08you make that fail and a lot of, that's how you learn.
18:11That's really interesting.
18:12So they're not on the menu because they failed
18:15or because you took a vote
18:16and decided what made the menu is better?
18:19There's no voting.
18:20No, I mean, I know that, yeah.
18:23It's like, there's really not a vote going here.
18:26But no, I mean, I mean,
18:29something that I learned a long time ago
18:31is that if you're going to take something off a menu,
18:34the thing that replaces it has to be better.
18:36And if something isn't good enough,
18:38you have to have an honest conversation with yourself
18:40and realize that you can do better.
18:42Yeah, I mean, I think that also those dishes in general,
18:45to be honest, it's like, there's very different
18:47the moment when you're working on a menu
18:48when you're reopening,
18:49which I did five tastings with Ricardo
18:51and I was like, then one of the taste was really great
18:55and we start picking, you know,
18:56and it's true that you get into the nitty gritty of it,
18:59but the moment you're opening,
19:00things are a little bit more fluid, you know?
19:04And I think there's a conversation with yourself.
19:08And also, you know, here,
19:09I think there's something wonderful too that is not,
19:12and I mean, this with so much respect,
19:13you know, we're not normal in the sense of like,
19:15I don't have 20 people.
19:17So there's a little bit pressure of like,
19:18every single bite someone's gonna go and have
19:20has to be absolutely perfect.
19:22In general, it's something that is really good.
19:23And when we're changing something,
19:25sometimes it might change throughout a week, you know?
19:28Oh, interesting.
19:29And at one point you're like,
19:30okay, you know, I think it makes more sense
19:31if we put it right here on the menu
19:33and then instead of somewhere else, you know?
19:37And also seeing the diner, you know,
19:39sometimes the experience with that, for sure,
19:41you see them, how they interact with something
19:43and if it's awkward for them, you gotta adjust.
19:46It's immediate, you get immediate gratification.
19:48Yeah.
19:49For better or worse.
19:50It's not always gratification.
19:51That's a little scary.
19:54But it does, you have incredible insight
19:57into the food and how people, like Victoria said,
20:01how people eat it is a huge part of the experience.
20:04And sometimes in your head, you know,
20:06you're not the one eating it for the most part,
20:08or you're tasting it constantly, but you're not sitting down.
20:11Yeah, sitting down, you don't have the cutlery,
20:13you know, it's different, you know?
20:14So at one point, for example, a few days ago,
20:16I see someone that was like,
20:17I think they're struggling with this tomato.
20:18It's like leather.
20:19I was like, okay, we're gonna change a knife, you know?
20:22But it is so, it's one of the positive outcomes
20:26of having such an open kitchen, you know,
20:28that you see things.
20:30Problem two is like, I can just see everything, you know?
20:33Like sometimes it can be like, okay, I should not,
20:35I'm just gonna move away, just put the blinders.
20:37I've seen someone just push a dish that I had once
20:40and I was like, oh, okay, I guess she didn't like it.
20:43It's so interesting though, because as a diner
20:45and as someone who is not always the most confident cook,
20:48when I have trouble cutting something
20:49or when I'm not tasting the notes
20:51that I think I should be tasting,
20:52I assume the problem is me.
20:55And it took a friend who went to culinary school
20:56telling me like, no, trust your taste buds.
20:59Also, it's okay just to not like something.
21:01And also, to be honest with you, they get trained.
21:03You know, my taste buds were not the same
21:05than when I was, I don't know, eight years old.
21:08So also it's an exercise, you know?
21:11The more you eat, the more you wear out.
21:13I mean, when I was a younger cook, gosh,
21:14I used to spend all my money going out to eat, you know,
21:17in England when I was working there.
21:19So you wanna try a lot.
21:22You wanna try everything.
21:23And then at one point, no.
21:25Now you don't wanna go out to a tasting menu.
21:28And you actually are so in tune
21:30with a lot of things and everything that you're like,
21:32okay, you know, this is just for technique
21:35and it shouldn't really, I'm not gonna really say anything,
21:38but it was not an enjoyable meal.
21:40And you try, you know, the other day we had a really cool,
21:43sort of we always have a first meeting here at noon
21:44when the cooks are here.
21:46And I said, okay, I said,
21:47what happens when you have a so-so experience?
21:50I said, how do you evaluate that?
21:51You know, instead of being just saying bad or good,
21:54how do you give constructive criticism
21:56to a meal that probably could have been better
21:58and what failed, you know?
21:59And then the answers are usually, you know,
22:02something that has to rely on the cooks, obviously,
22:04on the flavor, the heat, and the elements of technique.
22:08And I thought it was a really interesting
22:09sort of meeting to have,
22:10because you wanna not only have fun when you go out and eat,
22:14but when you're a younger cook,
22:15you also wanna be like, okay, why didn't I like this?
22:18Is it the combination of the flavors?
22:20Is it the technique that's poor?
22:21Is it also that my pasta's overcooked?
22:23Why is my pasta overcooked
22:24when they're only doing 30 covers?
22:26Yeah, is it technically wrong?
22:27Is it conceptually wrong?
22:28Do I just, does it just not appeal to me?
22:30How much are you thinking about
22:31pushing diners' palates forward
22:33when you're putting together a dish?
22:35I mean, we talked about the feedback that you get here.
22:38I mean, generally, a lot,
22:40but obviously, again, it has to be tasty.
22:43You know, I don't, I mean, unless something is like,
22:46I don't know, I mean, some people, you know,
22:48we had this snail pasta forever on the menu,
22:51and not everybody were like,
22:54not everyone was just like, well, it's amazing,
22:55but then, it's funny, the more covers we're doing,
22:59the time has passed, people love the dish.
23:02Is it an easy one to eat?
23:03I mean, you gotta love snails,
23:05but it's not a snails that is typical
23:06with tannin butter and garlic,
23:07so they had lavender, it had a story behind,
23:10you know, I was at this place in Bobbio
23:12with this guy that had lavender, snails, and blah, blah, blah.
23:16So, you know, that, to me, was also interesting,
23:19because that, I think, represents a lot of the beginning
23:21of, like, the reopening with Carla and myself,
23:24and I started to understand how he would see food,
23:27and I was so surprised that he liked it,
23:28you know, I was really nervous to do pasta for him.
23:30You know, I am, I've done pasta before, I've learned,
23:33I'm not a pasta person, you know,
23:36and definitely, I don't see, for me to do pasta here,
23:38it's like, oh, I'm gonna do, you know,
23:41eggplant and peppers, you know?
23:42I mean, that's not what I had when I was here,
23:45and I don't mean in a bad way,
23:46I just mean, like, this is what we do here,
23:47some things, a different perspective,
23:50do you wanna put your finger on it?
23:51You can try, that's not why I'm serving you that,
23:54you know, it's not for you to say, oh, this is French,
23:56you know, there's some people that they think they know,
23:59and good for them, but, yeah.
24:01So, we have a lot of synergy, this is a good example,
24:05so where my dad is from, in Calabria,
24:07snails are used in pasta, traditionally,
24:09they're foraged and everything,
24:10so she, we're talking one day, and she just says,
24:13oh, I wanna do a snail pasta,
24:14and I'm like, fucking great, let's go, perfect.
24:18I know, and then he was like, oh, I'm not sure, yeah,
24:21and then we went into, then he's like,
24:23there's snails in our garden,
24:24so, you know, after he said that to me,
24:25this is almost like six month open,
24:27I was like, okay, you guys need to say snails in a garden,
24:29they're like, no, I, well, because for me,
24:31it was like, I wanted to put herbs that the snails eat,
24:34but then at the same time, the snails that I saw in Bobbio,
24:37they were in this beautiful garden,
24:39in front of this beautiful lavender field,
24:41next to all these apiaries,
24:44you know, it was like a dream sort of land,
24:46I still don't get it,
24:47why people would fall in love with Italy
24:48and places like that,
24:50sometimes I feel like New York,
24:53it has, you know, that image of,
24:56like, something takes you back, it's hard,
24:58you know, it's such a cosmopolitan city,
25:01with so much concrete, you know,
25:02that you can be in Bobbio,
25:04maybe it's something that's not that amazing,
25:06but the landscape and everything's gonna take you
25:09to that place and just be, and just in love with it,
25:13here, you have to create that experience
25:16with different things, you know,
25:17it's a city, you know,
25:19it's one of the most important cities in the world,
25:22you know, that is all about,
25:24I can get anything, right,
25:26doesn't mean that is always gonna be
25:29a great food experience, I don't know,
25:31some people, they wanna have one person
25:33and a couple have said,
25:34well, I don't see the storytelling here,
25:36and they were kind of bothered, you know,
25:38and I was like, well, I get it,
25:40you know, they wanna think that their meal
25:42has to make sense from A to Z,
25:45and why, do you know me, do you know Carlo,
25:48does it make sense for you
25:50that I'm gonna supposed to give you a trip of Chile,
25:53I'm not in Chile, if I were in Chile,
25:55I will definitely have to have the pressure
25:57to represent something that is more local,
26:00if I were where Fabricant was,
26:03you know what I mean, the same,
26:05I think here is like you take yourself
26:08to expose that, you know.
26:10We started this conversation talking about
26:13Blanca reopened after four years,
26:14Carlo, what was the hardest part about reopening after?
26:18Everything, everything, that's my answer.
26:23You have received critical acclaim though,
26:25as I learned right before we started filming,
26:27we cannot say that you have a Michelin star
26:30because when two Michelin stars,
26:32you had two Michelin stars before you closed,
26:35but now you have to re-earn it.
26:37Now we gotta climb back.
26:39Well, I was gonna ask about the critical reception,
26:41right, the New York Times has rated you
26:43tremendously highly, the New Yorker,
26:45rave reviews across food media,
26:47how much do you think about the critical reception
26:49when building the restaurant, when building the menu?
26:51No comment.
26:54I think you think about it more at the beginning
26:56and then you're thinking in a much more different space.
27:02How many will be allowed to say
27:03that you don't think about it?
27:04Because you know what, it's not only,
27:06it's not so much like you cook for the reviews
27:09or you want to have a place with those reviews,
27:11it's also that you think about business.
27:13There's economics.
27:14Yeah, definitely, I think people sometimes
27:16they don't wanna talk about the truth,
27:17but New York is a place of business.
27:19You did not come here to just the love of art,
27:22you know what I mean?
27:23It's of course a love for the cuisine,
27:25a love for the gastronomy and all of this,
27:27but the hardest thing to do in New York
27:29is to stay alive and open.
27:31I've seen it firsthand.
27:33He knows me, I text him sometimes.
27:35I'm a very highly worried person about these things.
27:40And I think, of course, critics bring you people.
27:43Do they bring you the right people that time?
27:45Not necessarily, but they bring people.
27:49It's pretty much the thing of years and years ago.
27:52You're a painter, you need someone
27:53to basically come to paint for them.
27:56Yeah, you need them.
27:58So it's a relationship that it goes both ways.
28:02So you definitely think about it at the beginning.
28:04I think that later, we were extremely happy
28:08and surprised about the number two.
28:11But then you just start thinking about what is also,
28:13what's our own standard?
28:16What's our own, where are we going forward tomorrow?
28:20What are we doing today and tomorrow?
28:21Not further than that.
28:23And then what summer was winter?
28:26It's an ecosystem, effectively.
28:28I mean, I think it's, if not here,
28:31it's the most obvious place to see it,
28:34that anywhere else.
28:36How long did it take for momentum to build?
28:38Or was it from day one on reopening,
28:40people were eager to see you back?
28:42It definitely is slow to start,
28:43but I think that allowed us to get comfortable.
28:47Yeah, I mean, definitely by the beginning,
28:49it was like, some people didn't know we were open.
28:52It's like, oh, they reopened.
28:54It was the whole thing of like, it's fine.
28:56And then definitely, obviously,
28:57when we made it on the number two,
28:59and the times have changed.
29:01And then that was just fully booked.
29:03I will say also that when Helen's review,
29:05that also changed in a good way.
29:07The people that we got from the week
29:09right after the review,
29:10there were people like some from Spain,
29:12some from I don't know where,
29:13and they're like, so different.
29:15I really loved it.
29:16Because a lot of people said to me,
29:17you're such a trooper to take that review so well.
29:21And I'm like, okay, I was like, oh my God,
29:24I said, was it a bad review?
29:25I said, I don't, because I remember texting Carlo,
29:27you know, I was, I think I was about to go to Copenhagen
29:30just for like 36 hours.
29:32And I'm like, you know, it took me like a second time
29:35and a third time to read it.
29:36And I said, no, I think it's actually good.
29:38I said, are you happy?
29:39He said, I'm extremely happy.
29:40And then people would be like, I'm so sorry.
29:42I was like, okay, shit, I thought it was actually good.
29:44And the people like you were like, yeah,
29:46I just wanted something different.
29:47I don't want to either see, I was gonna say,
29:49I read that review, I didn't think it was negative.
29:52I was like, okay, I'm gonna eat caviar and sea urchin.
29:53So, you know, we do a sea urchin ceviche, you know,
29:56I mean, you want to do things that are like,
29:58obviously speaking to who we are.
30:01So I will say that, of course, those things are necessary.
30:04You know, we don't do it for it.
30:07That's the fun thing.
30:08You really, it would be really wrong to start cooking
30:11because that's what you want, but maybe some people do.
30:14I think you're lucky when you get to express your art
30:17and that's what we do.
30:19All right, I know you have to go,
30:20but one final question for you, Carlo,
30:21because you have Roberta's.
30:22I saw the news that Roberta's is opening in Miami.
30:25You have Foul Witch in the East Village.
30:27How do you think about expanding your chef footprint?
30:32We base it on our staff and our teams.
30:35And when we have the individuals that we think are ready
30:38for the next step in their career,
30:40we try to build something around them.
30:43Thank you both so much for sitting down.
30:45I know you are incredibly busy.
30:46Thanks for spending time with us.
30:48Yeah.