If you love Japanese food as much as I do and want to treat yourself to a very special and most luxurious meal, go to ITO the next time you're in New York City.
ITO is owned by best friends, Chef Masa Ito and Chef Kevin Kim who met a decade ago while working in California. Their 16-seat sushi omakase restaurant offers two-hour tasting experiences that feature seasonal ingredients, premium fish flown in from Japan, and fine sake and wine pairings. And because the restaurant space is small and intimate, both chefs personally oversee sushi service right at the counter. Earlier this week, I enjoyed a wonderful meal with Ray Mizrahi, president of Black Diamond Gourmet, my publicist John Rice from Susan Magrino Agency, and my longtime makeup artist Daisy Schwartzberg Toye.
Enjoy these photos.
ITO New York is located in downtown Manhattan. Chefs Masa Ito and Kevin Kim prepare and serve dinner from this large counter – traditional Japanese favorites with their own unique and modern interpretations. There are two dinner seatings a day. We sat down for the first seating at 6pm.
It takes a lot of time to set-up for the two dinner services. Preparations begin each day at noon.
Each course is beautifully presented.
This is Sake Sashimi – king salmon, ponzu, myoga, topped with micro cilantro.
This is Kanpachi Sashimi, also known as yellowtail or amberjack. It has a clean, crisp bite with a delicious buttery flavor. It was served with Maitake truffle and fried kelp.
Next on the tasting menu was this Meiji Maguro Sashimi, or bluefin tuna, with garlic soy, sliced pearly onions, wasabi sprouts and crispy nori topped with micro cilantro.
This appetizer is called Uni Ikura Hokkaido. It is uni with marinated salmon roe, sea urchin and osetra caviar from Black Diamond Caviar.
After the appetizers we all enjoyed a comforting bowl of seasonal miso soup. The base of traditional miso soup is a simple combination of dashi, the stock, and miso, a fermented paste created from soybeans, sea salt, and rice koji.
Next was the Red Snapper from Ehime, served with yuzu juice and sea salt.
This is Scallop Hokkkaido with dashi soy sauce.
Sawara, also known as Spanish mackerel, is known for its whitish color, light meaty flavor, and opaque appearance. Here it is served with ponzu sauce.
Masu, or Masu-Zushi, is a type of pressed sushi. It consists of a bed of vinegar rice topped with a thin layer of vinegar trout. It is so very fresh and served with dashi soy sauce.
This is called Kohada, or gizzard shad, a silver-skinned fish. It is served with nikiri soy sauce.
Plum sake is a traditional Japanese alcoholic drink made from ume plums and sugar. It was delicious.
Next we all tried the Akami with nikiri soy sauce. Akami refers to the leaner portion of maguro or tuna with very little to no fat.
And this is Shiroebi with rice, dashi soy sauce and nori.
Here Chef Masa shows us all a box full of sea urchins, or uni, from Hokkaido, Japan.
We were each served a piece of Uni Hokkaido with Nikiri soy sauce.
And the last piece was Wagyu Beef Myazaki seared with homemade soy sauce and topped with shaved black truffle. We all loved every course.
Ray brought me a lovely cake made by Loser’s Eating House in Soho. It is salted coconut and vanilla bean – two of my favorite flavors.
The size is just perfect for our group of four.
For dessert, Ito served White Chocolate Miso Custard – so rich and so creamy.
We couldn’t finish dinner without a photo! Here is or group – John Rice, myself, Ray Mizrahi, and Daisy Schwartzberg Toye. Behind us is sushi master, Chef and Owner Masashi Ito. Thanks for a most delectable meal. For more information, go to the ITO web site or just click on the highlighted link. ITO also has another location in Las Vegas. Treat yourself to one or both – you’ll love it.
Winter is the best time to cover garden beds with a rich layer of organic compost.
Fortunately I am able to make it right here at my Bedford, New York farm. During the course of the year, my outdoor grounds crew amasses large amounts of organic debris - felled trees, branches, underbrush, etc., but none of the material goes to waste. The wood is either repurposed quickly as milled lumber, chipped and returned to the woodland as top dressing, or mixed with other biodegradable materials including chicken and horse manure to make compost - that nutrient rich “black gold” that's spread generously over all the gardens to protect plants and growing bulbs and keep them insulated until spring.
Enjoy these photos.
Another very big and important task that is done regularly around my farm is top dressing all the garden beds with nutrient-rich and protective compost. This is it! I make it right here in my compost yard.
Right now, my outdoor grounds crew is covering garden beds all around my home with beautiful compost.
This is my long pergola garden – freshly dressed with compost.
And this bed is in front of my main greenhouse. The boxwood shrub is tucked safely under protective burlap and the surrounding area is covered with a layer of compost to insulate all the bulbs below.
Here’s a closer look at the compost, what gardeners call “black gold” because of all the nutrients it adds to the existing soil.
And much of it starts right here in my chicken yard. My roosters, hens, turkeys, geese, pheasants, and peafowl all help to create my valuable compost.
… And so do my five donkeys and five horses.
Compost also includes some of the organic debris from the woodland. During the course of the year, these felled tree limbs and branches are piled neatly by the side of the carriage road. When possible, it is either chipped and returned as dressing in the woods, or carted away and brought to the compost yard and saved for the tub grinder.
The debris is piled up high in one neat area. This gets processed through the tub grinder which I rent once a year or once every two. A tub grinder is able to grind the wood to produce finer material.
Here is the animal waste and hay collected in another area – this also gets processed.
And here are other piles – leaf mold, or composted leaves, and other organic brush and plant debris – all carbon-rich materials in various stages of decay.
After it is all run through the tub grinder multiple times, it is left to decay naturally under giant tarps and made into garden compost – filled with nutrients.
This compost is well decayed. The rich, dark, and crumbly compost can now support proper soil structure, improve water retention, and promote beneficial microbial life back in the gardens.
Here, Phurba fills a wheelbarrow with compost. I am so proud that I can make this material right here.
Because of all the ground they need to cover, my crew works in an assembly line process, which is fast and efficient.
Weeds are removed before any top dressing is applied. Covering the garden beds with compost will also help deter future weeds… we hope.
The pesky weeds are bagged and completely discarded.
And then as each wheelbarrow is filled, it is brought to the cleaned bed and unloaded in piles. Here is Adan delivering more compost to the pergola garden.
And by hand, a three to four inch layer of compost is spread over all the beds. I prefer this done in winter when flowers are not in bloom and the crew can gingerly walk through without disturbing any growth.
This area is part of my Stewartia garden, where I plant various perennials, spring blooming bulbs, and of course, Stewartia trees.
And this is the garden surrounding my Basket House below the towering bald cypress trees – all bare of their feathery fern-like foliage.
If you can, cover your gardens with a good layer of compost. It’s nature’s best soil conditioner and a wonderful way to beautify the gardens and give back to the earth.
Here at my farm, patches of snow and ice cover the ground, but inside my greenhouse there's a flurry of spring activity. My head gardener, Ryan McCallister, is already starting flower seeds in preparation for the coming growing season.
We sow thousands of seeds every year - all those wonderful seeds I enjoy purchasing during my travels and seeds we order from our favorite sources. Our first trays include a selection of lupines, delphiniums, and campanulas.
Ryan chooses all the necessary seed starting trays. These can be saved from year to year, so don’t throw them away after the season. Seed starting trays are available in all sizes and formations depending on seed needs.
He fills several trays with a pre-made seed starting mix that contains the proper amounts of vermiculite, perlite, and peat moss.
Miracle-Gro Seed Starting Potting Mix comes in handy, light eight quart bags. Because we seeds so many trays, I like to keep a goodly amount of potting mix in the head house ready to use. I store soil mixes in large stainless steel bakery ingredient bins – so durable and useful.
I use Miracle-Gro Seed Starting Potting Mix, which is specially formulated for fast root development.
Using a finger or the end of a closed thick marker pen, Ryan makes a shallow hole in each cell of the tray.
The hole just needs to be big enough for the seed to be dropped in and then covered with more potting mix.
Small wooden markers identify the specific flowers and varieties, so we can keep track of the kinds that grow best in my gardens.
Ryan prepares markers for the lupines, writing down the flower name and variety. The bag on the left contains seeds from flowers we’ve grown in the past.
Lupine seeds are oval shaped, shiny, and light brown in color. They are also a good size, making them easy to see and handle.
Here, Ryan drops the seeds into the cells by hand – about two for each cell. Germination is never guaranteed, so multiple seeds are always planted. This provides a better chance at least one will take root.
Once the entire tray has been filled, Ryan adds more potting mix to cover the seeds.
He carefully levels the mix over the tray. And then he lightly pats the soil down, so the seeds have good contact with the soil.
Seeds will germinate in about seven to 10 days in optimal temperature and lighting environments, which is 50 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit under bright light. Then they will get selectively thinned so the stronger seeds are left to continue growing.
Our favorite greenhouse kitty, Blackie, loves to watch all the activity in the greenhouse.
Next, Ryan prepares markers for delphiniums. Delphinium seeds are good to start indoors about six to eight weeks before the last frost.
Delphinium seeds are very small, brown, and triangular in shape – be careful when pouring them out of the packet.
Again, Ryan drops a couple seeds into each cell of the tray.
And these are pelleted campanula medium seeds. These campanulas are also known as Canterbury Bells, those tall biennials with showy cup-and-saucer shaped flowers. Pelleting is a process where seeds are coated so they are easier to see and handle when sowing.
Next, Ryan covers the campanula seed tray with a layer of vermiculite. Vermiculite is a mica-like mineral often used as a soil amendment. It is mined out of the ground, exfoliated, treated with high heat and pressure to force it to expand. The porous surface is great for retaining moisture and nutrients.
All the trays are given a good and thorough drink.
And then some trays go into a commercial-sized Urban Cultivator, which can hold up to 16-trays. The Urban Cultivator’s pre-programmed control center adds just the right amount of water, light, humidity, and air for the seeds to germinate.
And look, after just three days, a lupine has already poked through the soil. We’re off to a great start. And then it’s back to starting more seeds, but we have many more trays to go. Seeds are usually started about two months before the last frost – we will be planting seeds well into March.
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