Chelsea Market Chef Competition
What happens when two acclaimed chefs, working thousands of miles apart in Bangkok and New York, discover a shared Mediterranean culinary language?
During this exciting ‘once in a lifetime evening’ One chef was Brian Rodriguez of Sirocco by lebua, the celebrated rooftop restaurant high above Bangkok.
And the other Alessio Rossetti of La Devozione, the New York pasta destination created by century-old Pastificio Di Martino.
Both chefs answered that question with a fantastic collaborative tasting menu that began in Bangkok and has now traveled to New York.
Chelsea Market Magic
The setting for what could be a historic dinner happened at “The Oval.” This is a intimate fine-dining “counter” tucked inside La Devozione at Chelsea Market.
If you’ve been to Manhattan, you might have walked through the historic Chelsea Market.
This block-length retail space has an upscale reputation. Yet until that evening I did not know it had gourmet restaurants such as La Devozione.
When you walk in as La Devozione you at first see a “normal” restaurant, before suddenly arriving at the beautifully set oval space.
The reveal felt almost theatrical. Even more surprising was the surrounding display of pasta—long, short, enormous, ridged, delicate—in shapes I had never seen before.
That curiosity would become part of the evening.
Pastificio Di Martino, founded in 1912, is now in its fourth generation of pasta production. When I first read these words, as you are reading them now, it did not mean much to me.
Then, after hearing speakers talk about the food culture in southern Italy, I discovered that the shape of the pasta they would enjoy at their evening meal had near religious significance.
And in that light, La Devozione treats pasta not simply as a vehicle for sauce but as an ingredient with its own character.
The company produces more than 120 shapes, each intended to create a different experience on the palate.
A delicate spaghettini, for example, calls for a lighter preparation, while sturdier shapes can stand up to richer sauces.
The collaborative dinner put that philosophy into delicious practice while allowing both chefs room to play.
The New York dinner was actually the second chapter of the collaboration.
Chefs Rodriguez and Rossetti first presented the menu at Sirocco in Bangkok in May, before bringing the experience to La Devozione this fall.
That round trip between two very different cities gave the project more substance than a one-night guest-chef appearance. Sirocco brought the perspective of a Mediterranean restaurant operating in Bangkok.
La Devozione brought more than a century of Italian pasta tradition. The interesting part was seeing what happened when those two worlds met at the table.
One of the evening’s standouts was the spaghettini with clams. The flavor was astonishingly fresh and concentrated. It was also a perfect illustration of why the shape of pasta matters, as the fine strands carried the delicate seafood without overwhelming it.
Another memorable course brought a completely different kind of pleasure. Lobster arrived in a playful Breakfast at Tiffany’s-inspired presentation, served in a Tiffany-blue cup. It was whimsical, unexpected and, most importantly, delicious.
What made the evening more than a simple guest-chef appearance was the sense of exchange between the two kitchens.
During the evening, I watched the two chefs carefully. To be honest, I was half-expecting to catch some sign of competition between them.
Instead, each seemed intent on executing his own dishes, his own way.
I also found myself trying to identify where one culinary identity ended and the other began.
At first, I expected the tasting menu to make the differences between the two chefs more obvious.
During the meal, I tried to evaluate whether one dish felt more Italian or more influenced by Bangkok.
The answer was that there was a strong Mediterranean thread running beneath the menu, not quite Italian and not quite Thai.
Then again, there was the structure of the pasta itself.
The shape of the pasta seemed to frame the premium-sourced clams, shrimp and lobster, giving them presence without overpowering them.
A great evening with a fresh look at how two talented chefs approach pasta.
