Good morning! Today we have for you:
New York’s best, in your kitchenIt has been a year since I hung up my restaurant critic wig, and there are moments when I miss that job. Not so much the eating-every-meal-out part — I really missed cooking at home — but the research part. I loved getting into chefs’ heads to understand what inspired them. The good news is that I get to do that once again on Monday, May 18, and that you can join me! To celebrate the release of Ligaya Mishan’s very erudite list of New York City’s 100 best restaurants, I’ll be interviewing Paul Carmichael, whose restaurant Kabawa took the top spot for 2026. Ligaya will of course be there, speaking about how she crafted the list. And we’ll be joined by the brilliant Where to Eat editor Nikita Richardson, who will chat with Jess Shadbolt and Annie Shi of King. (Shi also owns the wine bar Lei.) All seats have been claimed, but you can join the event livestream here at 6:30 p.m. on the 18th. Even if you don’t live near New York City, you can still get a taste of some of these restaurants through New York Times Cooking, where we’ve published dozens of chefs’ recipes specifically adapted for the home cook. One of my favorites is utterly simple: the insalata verde from Via Carota (as adapted by Samin Nosrat). Instead of tossing everything together like most salads, Via Carota assembles its version carefully, with fluffy ruffles of butter lettuce, watercress and frisée layered with a shallot-forward, thyme-scented dressing. Is it green salad raised to its ultimate manifestation? You’ll just have to try it and see. Featured Recipe Via Carota’s Insalata VerdeMore (restaurant- and season-inspired) food for thoughtBeef patties: Right next door to Kabawa is Bar Kabawa, Paul Carmichael’s more casual spot with a long list of rum cocktails and a shorter one of excellent Caribbean patties. Yewande Komolafe’s take is fragrant with orange, ginger and chiles, and calls for purchased puff pastry to streamline the process. Save these flaky crusted parcels for the weekend; they’re well worth the effort. Feta-brined roast chicken: A perfect pairing with any green salad, this golden-skinned bird was inspired by one from Souvla in San Francisco. Brining the chicken overnight in a salt solution spiked with feta adds complexity as well as tang. Adas polo ba khorma (Persian lentil rice with dates): I adapted this pantry-friendly recipe from Nasim Alikhani, the owner of Sofreh in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. The lentils and rice are cooked together in the same pot, and then combined with caramelized onions, chewy dates and a drizzle of yogurt to make for an easy, restaurant-quality meal. Golden Diner’s tuna melt: Salt-and-vinegar potato chips sandwiched into the butter-crisped rye toast gives Sam Yoo’s tuna melt, here adapted by Alexa Weibel, its irresistible crunch. Bread and butter pickles, mustard and Tabasco stirred into the tuna salad add a piquant brightness, and the combination of American cheese plus mayo makes it very creamy. It’s the next level lunch every tuna lover deserves. Strawberry shortcake: Strawberries are finally back in season, and I want to put them in everything. Nancy Harmon Jenkins adapted these flaky, biscuit-based shortcakes from the English food writer Jane Grigson. The move is to top these with extravagant billows of whipped cream, because strawberry season is fleeting and we all deserve it. That’s all for now. If you need technical assistance, you can send an email to the genius minds at cookingcare@nytimes.com. And I’m at hellomelissa@nytimes.com if you want to say hi. I’ll see you on Sunday. For a limited time, you can enjoy free access to the recipes in this newsletter in our app. Download it on your iOS or Android device and create a free account to get started.
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