On a recent Saturday night, The Supper Room – a brand-new NYC dinner club – held its inaugural event in a Williamsburg loft. The sold-out event served a crowd of more than 50 guests an elegant five-course tasting menu that included salt-cured duck, seared sea scallops with a pea shoot and fennel salad, Berkshire pork belly with sautéed ramps, and chocolate-spice rubbed steak with a smoky potato puree. Diners finished off the night with a rich Catalan version of crème brulee and red velvet cake balls provided by Sweet Jewels NYC. It wasn’t just about the food, though – guests enjoyed live music courtesy of Brazilian guitarist and singer Veronica Nunes while also admiring a photo exhibit by Daniel P. Eiras. Best of all, the event was for charity – all of the proceeds were donated to Doctors Without Borders.
The fundraiser came together thanks to Supper Room organizers Arden Lewis, Executive Chef, and Stacey Alicea, Director of Events. With this club, they hope to showcase emerging artists and musicians while providing innovative food, all in the name of charity. A graduate of the French Culinary Institute and currently working at Maialino, Danny Meyer’s Italian trattoria in the Gramercy Park Hotel, Arden answered some questions for The Scout and revealed what it really takes to pull off a delicious and inspiring meal for 50-plus eager diners using just one stove in an unfamiliar apartment.
The Scout: How did the idea for the Supper Room start?
Arden Lewis: This is something I have personally been wanting to do for about three years now….I had been out of the country for a few months traveling and when I came back, I was talking to my now-partner in The Supper Room, Stacey Alicea, with whom I have known for almost 15 years. The topic of throwing a dinner party came up and we realized that we were on the same page. One of her friends, Titi Yu…had expressed to Stacey that she wanted to do some sort of dining event at her loft, and that’s how we ended up at the location in Williamsburg. Add to that, Stacey’s boyfriend Daniel P. Eiras had some amazing photographs that we felt needed to be exposed to the public. We both are huge fans of music and knew that we wanted live music to be a part of the program. Veronica Nunes has a truly beautiful voice and it was clear that her live bossa nova would be a perfect fit for the evening we envisioned. It was [obvious] that we both wanted to have a casual and inviting event that showcased food, art and music.
The notion of raising money for a non-profit came about because we starting talking about this idea around the time of the tragic earthquakes in Haiti. However, with everyone’s schedules and general timing, we didn’t have the opportunity to have a benefit for the victims of the earthquake. We realized that we were still in a position to help people…so we discussed what organizations we were interested in. Doctors Without Borders was chosen as Dan is familiar with the organization and we felt that they had a mission that we felt good backing.
The Scout: How did you create the menu? Were there specific ingredients you knew you definitely wanted to include?
AL: It took a while to develop the final menu, in part because I am very particular — bordering on obsessive — about the food I cook, but also because I was job hunting as well. I wanted the menu to be like a story about my travels. I spent the better part of the last two years traveling around the world to different countries like Morocco, France, Portugal, Spain and Italy. But I also envisioned myself as the diner and wanted the menu to be a natural progression. In short, I wanted the menu to be a complete experience.
The final menu definitely had a lot of Spanish influence, from the use of Garrotxa cheese in the first course and the Idiazabal cheese in the potato puree to the dessert course of Crema Catalana….You can see hints of Morocco and my own West Indian heritage in the pork belly course, where I used roasted fenugreek and ras al hanout to spice the pork belly. But also I adapted many techniques, ideas and ingredients I have learned from restaurants I have worked at. A major philosophy of mine which I learned, especially during my time at Public restaurant in Nolita, and wanted to incorporate in the final menu was the proper balance of savory, sweet and acid in all of my dishes.
Overall, I like to experiment with classic dishes and ingredients and develop them into my own dishes. I cook for me first. The dishes I create aren’t for other people (although ultimately I want to share them with other people and I want them to enjoy the food). I need to be in love with a dish before I offer it to other people; otherwise, what’s the point? And that’s basically what drove the menu.
As far as specific ingredients, I knew for sure that I wanted to serve the salt-cured duck. It is one of my favorite items to prepare (and eat!). I learned the basic recipe from Chef Matt Hamilton while we were at Public together. Over the years I must have made it 15 to 20 times, playing with different spices and flavors. I also wanted to have Idiazabal cheese on the menu. After having it in Spain, I just felt that there is no one in this world who couldn’t love this smoky, tangy delight and I felt that it was my duty to share it with as many people as possible! I knew I wanted to do pork belly as well. Pork in general is one of my favorite meats to eat. It is just so flavorful and exciting to work with.-break-
The Scout: As you began prepping and cooking, what were some of the unexpected obstacles that appeared or mishaps that occurred?
AL: I lost everything on my computer in the weeks before the event, including recipes, so I had to shop for and cook everything from memory, which was somewhat stressful because I don’t have the best memory and those dishes had a lot of ingredients and there was a lot of preparation and planning involved. And even though I had cooked everything on that menu before, I had never prepped or cooked those dishes for 50-plus people before that night.
As I was busy all week at work [in his new position at Maialino] in the days leading up to the event, I had to do most of my shopping and prepping the day before. Loads of fun! Not to mention I also misplaced my cars keys (which I never do!), so had to lug over 50 pounds of meat and seafood around Brooklyn and the subway. Add to that the fact that none of the vendors that used to carry a few of the items I wanted [actually] had the items I wanted the day before, or the day of, the event. But I worked with a great group of people and had a few of them scouring lower Manhattan and Brooklyn just hours before the event.
Also, stove and oven space turned the event into what seemed like a challenge straight out of Top Chef. Trying to cook 5 to 7 pounds of mushrooms and 15 pounds of NY strip with one stove/oven and an electronic skillet (thank God I had that thing!), then plating it all while preparing a Crema Catalan is no joke! Then there was a restaurant-amount of food that needed to be stored in a refrigerator that is normally used to store food for five people. But you have to just take what you have and call a few audibles.
That’s how I ended up with the shot of Crema Catalana with the caramelized bananas [for dessert]. With no space in the refrigerator, I had to store the hot crema in an ice bath. The goal was to get it to a creme brulee consistency so that I could brulee the top of the crema. However, with no space big enough to hold the amount of ice needed to get that amount of crema cold enough to set, I ended up with a delicious custardy drink with less than 10 minutes to serve dessert. Sometimes you have to roll with the punches, so with a cool custard drink and 50-plus shot glasses in hand, I added some rum and poured it in the shot glasses with a caramelized banana in each glass and [called it] dessert!
There were many more audibles that had to be called that day, but to honest it made the night (as stressful as it was) so much fun and exciting!
The Scout: How did you feel the evening went as a whole?
AL: As a whole, I think the event went spectacularly well. I hit a lot of road blocks, from budget limitations to manpower to space limitations, but with the group of people I had working with me everything came together in the end and I was extremely happy with the outcome.
One of the best things to come out of this experience for me is knowing that I have surrounded myself with an extraordinary group of people, and that we can only go up from here.
The Scout: What’s next for The Supper Room?
AL: I can’t say what we have in store for next time. We are taking it event by event, but the important thing is that we know there will be a next one. Who knows what or when it will be, but I do know that our diners will enjoy another fabulous experience courtesy of The Supper Room.