A Taste of New York City in Pittsburgh

By Vice Chargé de Presse Ken McCrory

Is New York the greatest restaurant city in the world? Of course, folks from San Francisco or New Orleans, not to mention Paris and even London might give you an argument. New York can beat its domestic contenders on sheer volume of restaurants and while Paris has many of the world's greatest restaurants, it can't match New York's combination of variety of cuisine at the highest quality. Certainly London is rapidly developing a reputation for international cuisine, but it has yet to see the number of truly great international restaurants that New York has.

Whatever your opinion of "the greatest", those who are within easy driving or flying distance of New York are truly fortunate. But, what if you don't have time to get to New York, or visit eight or so of its greatest restaurants once you do get there? Well, you could've come to Vallozzi's Restaurant in Greensburg, Pennsylvania on April 30, 2000. That's right, it was time for another Pittsburgh Chaîne road trip!

This time we journeyed to Greensburg, a city of about 17,000 situated an hour east of Pittsburgh. Our gracious host, Maître de Table Restaurateur Ernie Vallozzi has been a Chaîne member for many years, but hadn't hosted a dinner for some time. Ernie has been busy experimenting with a number of ideas and locations while always maintaining his high quality base at Vallozzi's. This attention to "home" is what has made Ernie a regional legend.

For the Chaîne dinner, however, Ernie decided to leave home. He proposed a dinner featuring dishes from great New York restaurants to Bailli Barbarba Hanowich. Barb readily agreed, since this was the first time the Pittsburgh Chaîne would experience this type of dinner. In another first for the Pittsburgh Chaîne, one of the two head chefs for the dinner was a female - Chef Gina Mrdjenovich. Gina was joined by Chef Bill Mangan in taking up the challenge of reproducing dishes from eight of "New York's finest". How about this list?

· Chanterelle
· Cipriani
· Daniel
· Le Bernardin
· Mercer Kitchen
· Montrachet
· Union Square Café
· Vong

The evening got off to a great start with hors d'oeuvres from five of the aforementioned restaurants. The fried calamari with rémoulade sauce would have fooled even Maguy LeCoze into believing she was at Le Bernardin. The delicate crab spring rolls (Vong), fresh tasting bruschetta rosa (Union Square Café) and cheese tartlets (Daniel) all combined to put us in a "New York State of Mind". For drinks we were offered Cipriani's signature cocktail, a Bellini, or for those who like their champagne straight, Veuve Cliquot Ponsardin.

The opening course was courtesy of the great Daniel Boulud from the eponymous Daniel, a lobster ravioli on spinach leaves in a delightful ginger broth, interestingly accompanied by one of my favorite sparkling wines, a 1995 Schramsberg "Blanc de Blanc". The second course was daring and different - fresh pea soup from Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Mercer Kitchen. This was accompanied by one of Tuscany's most enjoyable white wines Teruzzi & Puthod Terre di Tufi.

Nobody does fish like Le Bernardin, so the chefs chose this great restaurant's poached skate with brown butter - a wonderful example of simplicity and taste. Duckhorn is one of the great California vineyards and their 1996 Sauvignon Blanc was a perfect accompaniment to this delicious dish. Union Square Café is known for its "new American cuisine" and the slow cooked roast leg of veal with shiitake mushrooms and goat cheese sauce was a wonderful example from New York's most popular restaurant. A strong red 1994 Chateauneuf de Pape from the Rhone Valleys largest producer , Guigal, was a delightful pairing.

It sometimes seems that Drew Nieporent has opened more restaurants than New York has taxis. Montrachet was one of his early efforts and is still considered one of the best. After tasting their salad of grilled quail with balsamic vinaigrette you would've gotten no disagreement from members of the Pittsburgh Chaîne. We closed our dinner with a plum clafouti from pastry chef Terry Bannon by way of Chanterelle. This was accompanied by a sweet but refreshing Marcarini Moscato D'Asti. This final wine selection, like all the others, was thoughtfully and perfectly selected and paired by Jim Manolakos.

For several hours Ernie Vallozzi and his crew made us believe we were touring New York City. As we stepped into the cool spring air, I almost expected to hear the City's urban cacophony. Just as I was thinking about the painful process of trying to find a New York City taxi, an eager young valet said "your car will be here in a minute, sir" - which it was. As the smiling young man held the door of my car, I though "New York City's food with Greensburg's friendliness - now that's a great combination!"