Chef Martin, what is the dish that:

  1. inspired your love of food:

    Eating a fluffy baked potato doused in schmaltz from my mother’s baked chicken and linzer torte from the now defunct Blacksmith House in Cambridge, MA.

  2. is your signature:

    Over-the-Top Cheesecake – New York-style cheesecake covered in rich brownie, dulce de leche, ganache and toffee. And Rugelach pinwheels.

  3. you cook on your night off:

    Seared tofu with broccoli, water chestnuts and spicy garlic hoisin sauce over brown, wild and red rice pilaf.

Can we have an extra helping?

  • What one new ingredient should I add to my pantry and how should I use it?

    Za’atar – a spice blend widely used in Israel and through the Middle East. Sprinkle it on hummus with EVOO, on black cod or other similar fish and bake with tomatoes, cilantro and red onion, on lamb, on grilled eggplant, its uses are endless!

Chef, can you share a recipe for one of these dishes?

Over-the-Top Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 crumb-crust recipe, made with finely ground graham crackers
1lb 8oz Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
5 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla

Make crumb crust as directed in separate recipe. Preheat oven to 450 EF.

Beat together cream cheese, sugar, flour, and zests with an electric mixer until smooth. Add eggs and yolks, 1 at a time, then vanilla, beating on low speed until each ingredient is incorporated and scraping down bowl between additions.

Put springform pan with crust in a shallow baking pan. Pour filling into crust (springform pan will be completely full) and bakein middle of oven 15 minutes, or until puffed. Reduce temperature to 200 EF and continue baking until cake is mostly firm (center will still be slightly wobbly when pan is gently shaken), about 1 hour more.

Run a knife around top edge of cake to loosen and cool completely in springform pan on a rack. Chill cake, loosely covered, at least 6 hours. Remove side of pan and transfer cake to a plate. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Crust

1 1/2 cups (5 oz) finely ground graham crackers or cookies such as chocolate or vanilla wafers or gingersnaps
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

Stir together crust ingredients and press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of a buttered 24-centimeter springform pan. Fill right away or chill up to 2 hours.

Toffee

1/2 pound unsalted butter
10 1/4 oz sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 1/4 fl oz water
11 x 17-inch or 12 x 18-inch jelly roll pan, covered in buttered foil or parchment

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients. Return to heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture reaches 300 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat and pour out on buttered pan spreading the mixture with the back of a spoon to fill the pan. Before the butter crunch hardens, but when it is firm enough to handle, turn it out onto a large parchment-covered cutting board and peel away the foil. Allow the toffee to cool completely. Chop the toffee into 1/4 inch bits, leaving a few 3 inch shards for decoration.

Dulce de Leche

1 can of condensed milk

Puncture two sides of the can and put in a pot with water that comes 3/4 up the side of the can. Simmer the can for 3 hours. Carefully remove the can from the pot, open and pour out the dulce de leche.

Brownies

1 lb 12 oz chocolate liquor (unsweetened chocolate)
3 lbs 83% butterfat butter (European butter)
3 lbs brown sugar
2 lbs 10 oz sugar
2 tbsp pure vanilla extract
24 large eggs
2 lbs 2 oz all-purpose flour

Melt together the butter and chocolate. In a standing mixer, mix together the sugars, vanilla and eggs. Slowly mix the the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Add the flour and mix until incorporated. Pour the brownie mixture into a greased full-sheet baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake in a 350 degree oven or a 325 degree convection oven for 40 minutes. Let the brownies cool completely overnight before cutting.

Assembly

Once the cheesecake as cooled and is removed from the pan, pour 1/4 cup of warm ganache on the top of the the cake leaving a one inch ring around the edge. Pile brownie bits on top in a mound, about two inches high in the center. Sprinkle on the toffee bits. Using a squeeze bottle filled with warm dulce de leche, zing the top of the brownies with the caramel. Sprinkle toffee bits on top of the dulce de leche, using the large pieces to decorate. Enjoy!