Introduction

In 1995, I was a student in Syracuse University’s food service program and was asked to show around a special visitor who’d be speaking at my school that day: Danny Meyer.

At the time, the restaurateur had recently opened his second establishment, Gramercy Tavern, and his first, Union Square Cafe, was considered one of New York City’s best restaurants.

I took Danny to the Carrier Dome, where they put “Welcome Danny Meyer” in big lights on the scoreboard. Then we ate lunch. At the end, I asked if I could do a summer internship with him, and he connected me with his managing partner at Union Square Cafe, Paul Bolles-Beaven. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was my first real step to becoming a chef and, eventually, a restaurateur.

My internship at Union Square Cafe was everything you would expect from one of the country’s most influential restaurants. It was informative, challenging, and eye-opening, but most of all it taught me about hospitality. I learned how much time, effort, and training it required to offer guests exceptional service, and I filed these lessons away in case I ever had the opportunity to run my own restaurant.

After I graduated, I returned to Union Square Cafe to work in the front of the house. My duties there ranged from answering phones and hosting to taking wine inventory. Curious about what was happening in the back of the house, I spent my days off in the organized chaos of the restaurant’s kitchen. There, sous chefs Kenny Callaghan, Stephen Sherman, and Elise Loh put me to work while opening their hearts and minds to me.

A few months later, I realized that I didn’t have the patience to work as a host for a couple of years until a management position opened up. As I started to look around for another job, Michael Romano, the restaurant’s executive chef, offered me a position as prep cook. I accepted and spent the next six months peeling potatoes, frying calamari, and cleaning artichokes. I loved the work, and became competent enough to move up through the kitchen ranks over the next couple of years, amassing knowledge about cooking, teamwork, and hustle. Michael had an incredible knowledge of French and Italian cooking, and Elise had an extensive palate for Asian flavors.

While cooking at Union Square Cafe, I also met Floyd Cardoz, who was preparing to open another Danny Meyer restaurant, Tabla. The food he was developing for Tabla was unlike anything I’d seen or tasted: Rooted in his Indian culture, he executed the elevated French techniques he’d perfected as the chef de cuisine at the esteemed Lespinasse. I liked Floyd’s demeanor in the kitchen: He was kind, respectful, and always willing to teach me something new. We hit it off, and he asked me to come work with him. I started at the newly opened Tabla in 1998 as a line cook, and eventually became the restaurant’s first chef de cuisine. I learned a lot during the seven years I cooked with Floyd, not only about technique and Indian ingredients, but most importantly about how to balance sweet, sour, spicy, salty, and bitter flavors, as well as how contrasting temperatures and textures can make a dish so much fun to eat. This experience laid the groundwork for how I cook today.

I eventually ran out of rungs to climb at Tabla, so Floyd connected me with Tom Colicchio, who hired me for a project he was consulting on, a members-only organization in Midtown Manhattan called the Core Club. Leading up to the opening, I honed my skills at Tom’s restaurant, Craft, along with Damon Wise, Craft’s executive chef. Together, Tom and Damon helped me build the confidence to be the Core Club’s executive chef when it opened. I developed breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus that adhered to my approach of using seasonal ingredients, manipulated as little as possible, while balancing the flavors and textures I’d developed at Tabla.

At every one of my restaurant jobs, I spent as much time in the Union Square Greenmarket as possible, not only to source food, but to find inspiration. So it’s no surprise that my next job came from a connection there. One day I was at the market, visiting one of my favorite farmers, Franca Tantillo. She turned to me and said, “Hey, Dan, do you know Jean-Georges Vongerichten?” The famous chef was nearby, picking out some cucumbers. She made an introduction, and two days later I was interviewing with him for a job. I accepted a position as the chef of the Mark Hotel, where I was not only fortunate enough to be part of a buzzy hotel opening, but I also became part of Jean-Georges’s team of roving chefs who opened restaurants in Arizona, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and beyond. This team was led by JGV’s longtime chef and VP of operations, Danny Del Vecchio. Danny is an incredible person who versed me in Jean-Georges’s cuisine, but more importantly taught me a lot about organization. He was a master at building teams and opening restaurants, and I count him as not only a dear friend but a mentor.

Once the Mark Hotel was open for room service, Jean-Georges came to me with the opportunity of a lifetime, ABC Kitchen. His business partner, Phil Suarez, ran two restaurants inside the ABC Carpet & Home building, and I had already spent some time there helping out. (I was also fortunate enough to befriend the restaurants’ general manager, George Kantlis, who would help me open Loring Place years later.) Phil and Jean-Georges wanted to revamp the restaurants with something more “farm to table,” which was then still a nascent concept in New York. Jean-Georges knew how influential the Greenmarket was to my cooking, and thought I was a natural fit to be the chef of ABC Kitchen. I couldn’t have been more excited.

While we prepared to open ABC Kitchen, I soaked up everything that Jean-Georges shared with me. Our palates were very similar—we both loved the high notes that acidity and spicy ingredients bring to a dish—so I didn’t feel like there was a huge learning curve. Greg Brainin, Jean Georges’s culinary director, also had an amazing palate, along with a devotion to technique. made an incredible impact on my cooking. We opened ABC Kitchen in 2010, and the accolades and awards soon started pouring in. I had access to amazing local ingredients and the freedom to cook my style of food: sophisticated but approachable and affordable, familiar yet always exciting and boldly flavored. My four-year tenure at ABC was an amazing experience, and I’m forever grateful for the opportunity that Phil, Jean-Georges, Greg, and the ABC Home team gave me. They helped me hone my skills, sharpen my palate, and made me a better leader. But most of all, they inspired me to become an entrepreneur and open my own place.

I found the space for my restaurant, Loring Place, in 2014, but it took another two years to finally open our doors. Like this cookbook, Loring Place is a culmination of my experiences cooking in some of New York’s best restaurants over the past twenty years, and an opportunity to spread my wings.