THE GREAT WHITE WAY
[fEAST] profile
THE GREAT WHITE WAY
toque of the town
From top: White’s Ristorante Morini is the uptown outpost of Osteria Morini in Soho; chef Michael White, who last month received the 2014 Careers Through Culinary Arts Program Award of Honor in NYC for his commitment to nurturing the next generation of chefs.
Inside the life and kitchen of Micha el White, the superchef behind some of NYC’s favorite eateries.
The nightly lineup of shiny Bentleys, BMWs and Rolls-Royces in front of recently opened Ristorante Morini on upper Madison Avenue proves once again that Michael White’s signature handmade pasta is catnip to well-heeled cognoscenti. Hailed as a contemporary hero of Italian gastronomy, White is both the co-owner and culinary mastermind behind the Altamarea Group, which comprises seven of the hottest restaurants in Manhattan (Marea, Osteria Morini, Ai Fiori, Nicoletta, Costata, The Butterfly and Ristorante Morini) as well as two restaurants in New Jersey, one in Washington, D.C., outposts in Hong Kong, London and Istanbul, and a recently announced partnership with Richard Gere to operate the restaurants at the actor’s upstate hotel, the Bedford Post Inn. Launched in 2009 by White and Ahmass Fakahany, a former Merrill Lynch president and COO, the company is growing at a pace that rivals the epicurean empires of Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mario Batali. It seems White, whose cookbook, Classico e Moderno, was released last fall, is a chef with a head for business. Here, he shares his recipe for savory success. 120 M ANH ATTAN APRIL 2014
white photo by evan sung; morini photo by anthony jackson
By Bonnie Davidson
You recently opened Morini Istanbul. Did you have to adapt your Italian food for the Turkish palate?
Turkey is one of the largest consumers of pasta in the world. The only facet of cooking we had to change was, obviously, taking out pork. But we use bresaola [salted beef] prosciutto, lamb prosciutto. And there’s wonderful seafood there. We’re using wild sea bass and langoustines. It’s a beautiful, growing city. What’s next for you?
We have a project in Los Angeles. We want to finish the extension of Osteria Morini, a small enoteca with small plates. And we took a large space on Park Avenue that I’m not at liberty to discuss right now. We’re also doing a Nicoletta Pizzeria in Washington, D.C., as well as Bernardsville, N.J. What drives you to keep expanding?
I get high on opening restaurants. Italian jobs
ai fiori photo by noah fecks; terrina photo by anthony jackson; trofie nero photo by evan sung
From top: The interior of Ai Fiori, where White reinterprets the cuisine of the French and Italian Rivera; Ristorante Morini’s Terrina—foie gras and rabbit terrine served with heirloom apples, fig mostarda and toasted brioche; Ai Fiori’s Trofie Nero, with ligurian crustacean ragu, seppia, scallops and spiced mollica.
You currently run 13 restaurants around the world. That’s pretty impressive!
Well, I don’t want to sound pompous—the Altamarea Group just passed its onethousandth-employee mark, so I have a lot of help. It’s no longer just me cooking handmade pasta, that’s for sure. But on a typical day, my wife and I are up at 7am. I make coffee, turn on my iPad and read all the reports from the night before. I already have numbers from Hong Kong because they’re 12 hours ahead of us. Then I get Istanbul, London and, finally, New York. I go to our headquarters in Soho, visit the restaurants—I can be in three or four places— and end my day cooking at Ristorante Morini. I’m usually home by 11pm and work on my iPad while I watch TV, which drives my wife nuts. Why are your restaurants so popular?
We pay incredible attention to detail— graphics, beautiful Italian plates, architecture,
And on cooking?
That’s the best part. I cook, then go out into the dining room and somebody says, ‘This is the best garganelli I’ve ever had!’ I get instant gratification 300 times a day. M
presentation of dishes. They’re all neighborhood restaurants that meet the specific needs of their areas in terms of the age of the crowd, the price points.... They have a patina that speaks to quality. But at the core, it’s our handmade-pasta program. The pasta is made the same way at Marea, Ai Fiori, Osteria Morini and Ristorante Morini. This Norwegian kid from Beloit, Wis., and pasta are synonymous. Your newest NYC spot, Ristorante Morini, is particularly hot right now.
I know! That restaurant really is, pound for pound, the briskest—is there such a word? (I speak Italian at home and my daughter and I make up words all the time.) It’s set the pace as the fastest of any restaurant I’ve ever opened and has already well exceeded our expectations. We set certain goals, but I’ve blown through those already. 121 M ANH ATTAN APRIL 2014
THE GREAT WHITE WAY
toque of the town
From top: White’s Ristorante Morini is the uptown outpost of Osteria Morini in Soho; chef Michael White, who last month received the 2014 Careers Through Culinary Arts Program Award of Honor in NYC for his commitment to nurturing the next generation of chefs.
Inside the life and kitchen of Micha el White, the superchef behind some of NYC’s favorite eateries.
The nightly lineup of shiny Bentleys, BMWs and Rolls-Royces in front of recently opened Ristorante Morini on upper Madison Avenue proves once again that Michael White’s signature handmade pasta is catnip to well-heeled cognoscenti. Hailed as a contemporary hero of Italian gastronomy, White is both the co-owner and culinary mastermind behind the Altamarea Group, which comprises seven of the hottest restaurants in Manhattan (Marea, Osteria Morini, Ai Fiori, Nicoletta, Costata, The Butterfly and Ristorante Morini) as well as two restaurants in New Jersey, one in Washington, D.C., outposts in Hong Kong, London and Istanbul, and a recently announced partnership with Richard Gere to operate the restaurants at the actor’s upstate hotel, the Bedford Post Inn. Launched in 2009 by White and Ahmass Fakahany, a former Merrill Lynch president and COO, the company is growing at a pace that rivals the epicurean empires of Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mario Batali. It seems White, whose cookbook, Classico e Moderno, was released last fall, is a chef with a head for business. Here, he shares his recipe for savory success. 120 M ANH ATTAN APRIL 2014
white photo by evan sung; morini photo by anthony jackson
By Bonnie Davidson
You recently opened Morini Istanbul. Did you have to adapt your Italian food for the Turkish palate?
Turkey is one of the largest consumers of pasta in the world. The only facet of cooking we had to change was, obviously, taking out pork. But we use bresaola [salted beef] prosciutto, lamb prosciutto. And there’s wonderful seafood there. We’re using wild sea bass and langoustines. It’s a beautiful, growing city. What’s next for you?
We have a project in Los Angeles. We want to finish the extension of Osteria Morini, a small enoteca with small plates. And we took a large space on Park Avenue that I’m not at liberty to discuss right now. We’re also doing a Nicoletta Pizzeria in Washington, D.C., as well as Bernardsville, N.J. What drives you to keep expanding?
I get high on opening restaurants. Italian jobs
ai fiori photo by noah fecks; terrina photo by anthony jackson; trofie nero photo by evan sung
From top: The interior of Ai Fiori, where White reinterprets the cuisine of the French and Italian Rivera; Ristorante Morini’s Terrina—foie gras and rabbit terrine served with heirloom apples, fig mostarda and toasted brioche; Ai Fiori’s Trofie Nero, with ligurian crustacean ragu, seppia, scallops and spiced mollica.
You currently run 13 restaurants around the world. That’s pretty impressive!
Well, I don’t want to sound pompous—the Altamarea Group just passed its onethousandth-employee mark, so I have a lot of help. It’s no longer just me cooking handmade pasta, that’s for sure. But on a typical day, my wife and I are up at 7am. I make coffee, turn on my iPad and read all the reports from the night before. I already have numbers from Hong Kong because they’re 12 hours ahead of us. Then I get Istanbul, London and, finally, New York. I go to our headquarters in Soho, visit the restaurants—I can be in three or four places— and end my day cooking at Ristorante Morini. I’m usually home by 11pm and work on my iPad while I watch TV, which drives my wife nuts. Why are your restaurants so popular?
We pay incredible attention to detail— graphics, beautiful Italian plates, architecture,
And on cooking?
That’s the best part. I cook, then go out into the dining room and somebody says, ‘This is the best garganelli I’ve ever had!’ I get instant gratification 300 times a day. M
presentation of dishes. They’re all neighborhood restaurants that meet the specific needs of their areas in terms of the age of the crowd, the price points.... They have a patina that speaks to quality. But at the core, it’s our handmade-pasta program. The pasta is made the same way at Marea, Ai Fiori, Osteria Morini and Ristorante Morini. This Norwegian kid from Beloit, Wis., and pasta are synonymous. Your newest NYC spot, Ristorante Morini, is particularly hot right now.
I know! That restaurant really is, pound for pound, the briskest—is there such a word? (I speak Italian at home and my daughter and I make up words all the time.) It’s set the pace as the fastest of any restaurant I’ve ever opened and has already well exceeded our expectations. We set certain goals, but I’ve blown through those already. 121 M ANH ATTAN APRIL 2014
