There is a new holy trinity of cooking. It's not ingredients but two chefs and their investor. This trio of chefs Mario Carbone, Rich Torris and their investor Jeff Zalaznick are chaning the way the New York and Miani are eating and partying. They are taking over and doing it in a remarkably short time.
Regular contributor Julia Moskin wrote about this trio in today's section of the New York Times Food section. Not since Warner Leroy took over Tavern on the Green in the Seventies have three entrepreneurs made such an indelible mark on Manhattan's culinary scene. Their group, Major Foods, is also a powerhouse in Miami, moving their headquarters there.who are they and how did they get this much clout?Chefs Torrisi and Carbone are from the outer boroughs. They grew up with homemade Italian cooking which was and still is a huge influence on what they make.They were fledgling chefs when they met Mr. Zalaznick, just emerging form such known eateries as Da Posto and Boulud. Chef Carbone cooked Italian while Chef Torrisi leaned more to the French, Their partner comes from a family worth billions.Mr. Zalaznick's grandfather is financier and real instate investor Paul Milstein. His name graces the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life in the Museum of Natural History, Milstein Hospital in Upper Manhattan and the Milstein Division of the New York Public Library. There are connections to the city's most powerful families like the Tisches and the Le Fraks.
This does provide money to experiment and expand as it has for th e last ten years with them. They were able to open up Carbone in Greenwich Village and the sandwich shop Parm, They exploded on the MIami restaurant scene with Carbone's South Florida extension. There is ZZ's Club,a private and posh food club that offers such dishes as the supremely tender Wagyu beef at $250 (!!!!) a plate and salmon teriyaki at $48 a plate.It also has a cigar and backgammon terrace. They also have Sadelle's, a homage to Jewish cooking in New York ,Miami and now Riyadh, Saudi Arabia along with the Dirty Laundry and The Grill which celebrate American cuisine.(their prices for a sit down Thanksgiving meal are outrageous - even for New York)Some fellow restauranteurs are skeptical of their success. Kevin Boehm and his business partner Rob katz are going for a low key approach and tailor their restaurants like the Girl And Goat chain to the communitiues they're in. They also feel that expanding in different markets will be challenging down the road. However Major Food Group seems impervious to tis, even thriving in Miami during the Covid lockdown.
Will this trinity overtake the market? Probably on the high end range for a while. It's their time to shine and it shining brightly.
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