Monday, June 08, 2009

Interview with BITE Food




Founders of catering company BITE Scott Skey and Nick Hosea answered kindly my questions satisfying my curiosity. Scott did the writing.


FB: How you came up with BITE?

BITE: Our first decision was to work together - whatever project we came up with - based mostly on the compatibility of our divergent but complementary restaurant backgrounds. We decided against the obvious choice - opening a restaurant - in favor of the relative freedom of culinary event production, as we were drawn by the challenge of continually changing projects.
Nick's focus has always been pastry, and his NYC experience has been in high visibility/volume restaurants (Nobu, Mesa grill, Bolo). Mine has been in "savory" (meats, fish, veg, sauces) in very small, mostly ultra-luxe places (March, 9 jones, Caviar Russe).


FB: What’s your favorite canapé from BITE?

BITE: Needless to say, we don't have a favorite (like picking a favorite child). Furthermore, an exciting thing about event menu design is that no canapé has the exact same resonance in different settings, so a canapé we might find perfect for one occasion may play lackluster in another.
We do, however, have signature canapés that transcend season and setting. On the savory side, our "tartare of wagyu beef" is a consistent favorite. Of the petits fours, we serve the bite "mallomars" (ancho caramel ganache, cocoa macaroons, dark chocolate glaze) at every event we do.

FB: Who is your ideal client?

BITE: Our ideal clients (we have a lot of them) have the confidence to simply let us do what we do - and, importantly, the grace to make their guests feel honored and welcome.

FB: Come summer, what you should be serving?

BITE: Summer flavors are huge - ripe, raw and lurid. Summer is the season for extravagant spicing, super tropicals, charred meats and tons of fresh herbs. The touchstones are corn, peaches (and all stone fruits), melons and (late summer) heirloom tomatoes.

FB: A high-quality catering company will have to certainly offer….

BITE: Intelligent - and truly customized - menu design.

FB: What is your culinary secret?

BITE: It's not really a secret, but Nick and I try to include an umami component in almost every dish - be it high grade soy, Parmesan, miso, sun-dried tomato... Also fresh herbs are essential to bringing a dish to life - we always define a dish in terms of the lead herbal note and never repeat it elsewhere in the menu.

FB: Your favorite tastes?

BITE: I love steak and organ meats (sweetbreads, marrow, kidneys). Nick is crazy about pasta and bread. And candy.

FB: And favorite drink?

BITE: We both love raw spicy ginger juice, and use it in almost all our cocktails.

FB: What you don’t like to cook?

BITE: Nick hates salmon.

FB: 3 favorite must- haves in the cupboards of BITE are:

BITE: Japanese soy, candied ginger and sherry vinegar

FB: Your next step will be to…

BITE: We may open a pastry boutique in the next couple of years - but bite will always remain a compelling and rewarding challenge.

FB: And finally, what is your favorite gastronomic destination?

BITE: Neither of us have one right now - sorry.

Bite Food, bite@bitefood.com, 917 676 1320







1 comments:

franchise me! said...

τελειο ποστ. το έδωσα λινκ.
φιλιά