Three Dishes » Amanda Cohen http://www.threedishes.com Sat, 17 Jul 2010 02:51:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Amanda Cohen http://www.threedishes.com/amanda-cohen/ http://www.threedishes.com/amanda-cohen/#comments Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:10:48 +0000 Anjali Kumar http://www.threedishes.com/?p=109 in the East Village in NYC. After graduating from the Natural Gourmet’s Chef Training Program, Amanda worked in many of New York City’s vegetarian restaurants, including Other Foods, Angelica’s Kitchen, Pure Food and Wine, and Heirloom, which won Time Out New York’s Reader’s Choice Award for “Best New Vegetarian Restaurant.” Amanda has also worked at DinerBar in Spanish Harlem and was the first chef at Teany, Moby’s teahouse on the Lower East Side. ]]> Amanda, what is the dish that:

  1. inspired your love of food:

    I hate this question because the answer is you have to eat and if you don’t love food then what’s the point? I never understand people who don’t love eating and drinking. Because you’ve got to do it or you die so you need to love it or you’re just doing chores. If I had to pick the moment when I first noticed food it was when my family would go on vacation and the day would consist of “Go to the museum, where do we eat?” We went to Paris in the early Eighties when a lot of chefs who are Michelin-starred now were just starting to be recognized and they were pushing the boundaries of classical French cuisine in smaller restaurants and I just remember having one amazing meal after another.

  2. is your signature:

    I’d say it’s the portobello mousse. People are always surprised by how rich and decadent it is, even people who don’t like mushrooms. I’ve seen people come to the restaurant against their will, dragged there by their date, and they really don’t want to be eating vegetables, and then they eat the mousse and realize that vegetables aren’t punishment and you can see them relax and start enjoying their meal. It’s the gateway drug.

  3. you cook on your night off:

    I order take-out. The last thing I want to see on my night off is a
    kitchen.

Can we have an extra helping? (Or two, or three?)

  1. What is the best meal you have ever had?

    I was in Beijing a long time ago and I wound up in a Chinese vegetarian restaurant whose name I can’t remember. It was a big bare room with bright lights and it was ugly as sin. I’m not even sure how I ordered but I had a ton of dishes, mostly mock meat, and each one was more amazing than the last. I had to eat them all by myself, and I just remember thinking that I was finally finished and then another plate would show up and it would be something I’d never heard of, or only seen in some anemic, watered-down form, and it would be cooked perfectly and taste even more amazing than what I’d been eating right before. It’s probably been bulldozed by now.

  2. What is your idea of comfort food?

    French fries with as many condiments as possible: mayonnaise, hot sauce,
    barbecue sauce, vinegar, curry.

  3. Fill in the blanks: If I go to [blank], I must have the [blank].

    If I go to Grand Sichuan, I must have the dried tofu and the vinegar
    potatoes.

]]> http://www.threedishes.com/amanda-cohen/feed/ 0