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The Hottest Dishes, Ever
Photo: Amy Sussman/January Images/Shutterstock
All month, Grub Street has been documenting New York’s past through its assorted restaurant scenes. The focus has been the people, but this is not to say the food was completely secondary. Certain dishes have always had a way of breaking through to mass awareness and acclaim. To cap off the series, we present 14 of the buzziest individual dishes in the city’s history, the culinary innovations that were delicious and sophisticated enough to create little scenes entirely of their own making.
1913
Oyster Pan Roast at Grand Central Oyster Bar
Invented by a Black chef named Thomas Downing at his eponymous oyster house nearly a century earlier, the mix of shellfish, shallots, butter, and chile sauce really took off in midtown.
1919
Vichyssoise at the Ritz
Chef Louis Diat took hot potato-leek soup, served it cold in a rooftop restaurant, and made history. It was such a sensation that FDR’s mother had eight pints delivered to her at home, and within four years, Diat put it on the menu permanently so people could order it in winter.
1930
Sunset Salad at 21
An off-menu mix of shredded iceberg and cabbage, beef tongue, and chicken breast. The bacon-and-watercress-flecked Lorenzo dressing was named for the server who invented it.
1960
Cotton Candy at The Four Seasons
“Serious” regulars may not have partaken in the pink strands of candy spun here, but the civilians who managed to make it into the Seagram Building practically demanded it.
1975
Pasta Primavera at Le Cirque
Creamy spaghetti filled with mushrooms and broccoli: One of the most imitated and popular items ever, despite not being listed on the menu.
1984
Corn Cakes With Caviar at Arcadia
Chef Anne Rosenzweig ditched the blini in favor of corn cakes reminiscent of the hoecakes of the American South. The approach reeled in the city’s most fashionable and powerful residents — Geoffrey Beene, William Lauder — and landed her on the short list to become the Clintons’ White House chef.
1994
Chocolate-Caramel Tart at Gramercy Tavern
Claudia Fleming helped lay the foundation for modern American pastry when she took the classic French chocolate-ganache tart and made it sophisticatedly extra. Her slices balanced on chocolate-dough crust, contained an added layer of caramel, and got a hit of savory edge from a shower of fleur de sel.
1995
Braised Short Ribs at Lespinasse
Gray Kunz did more than any other chef to elevate a humble bistro cut to Michelin-caliber levels of fine dining.
1997
Taylor Bay Scallops With Uni and Mustard Oil at Union Pacific
At the time, sea urchin was still considered an “acquired taste” by many white diners. Chef Rocco DiSpirito showed them the way.
2000
Foie Gras Soup Dumplings at Annisa
The French-trained Chinese American chef Anita Lo took a Chinese specialty readily found in Flushing and Chinatown and gave it a zhuzh of “prestige.”
2005
“Eggs Benedict” at wd~50
Wylie Dufresne’s modernist reimagining of a brunch classic: It was easy to understand, impressive to see, and instantly familiar to eat.
2006
Meatball Sliders at Little Owl
Chef Joey Campanaro kicked off the slider revolution at this tiny destination restaurant masquerading as a low-key neighborhood joint.
2007
Steamed Pork Buns at Momofuku Ssäm Bar
Dave Chang’s riff on Taiwanese pork buns were on the menu at his original Noodle Bar three years earlier, but they went wide when the bigger, slightly more comfortable Ssäm Bar started serving them for dinner. (And as far as we know, Chang never tried to trademark these.)
2012
Kung Pao Pastrami at Mission Chinese Food
How to introduce unfamiliar (and, yes, white) New Yorkers to the tongue-numbing joy of Sichuan peppercorn? Add it to some pastrami and watch the people line up — literally, in this case.
This post has been updated to correct Gramercy Tavern’s opening date.
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