Chef's Night Out

Brooks Headley played drums in countless important punk bands: Born Against, Universal Order of Armageddon, Wrangler Brutes, and Skull Kontrol among them. Coming up on two years ago, Born Against bandmate and writer Sam McPheeters profiled Brooks and his transformation from that guy banging on things behind that other guy screaming into the esteemed executive pastry chef of Manhattan’s Del Posto over the course of 10,000-plus words in the pages of Vice. The Dessert Psycho was an important piece, and (to us at least!) it marked the beginning of a resurgent and astounding amount of well-deserved attention for the restaurant that culminated in Del Posto—at the hands of executive chef Mark Ladner—earning four stars from the New York Times, and this, Brooks’s own Munchies episode. As part of a small dinner hosted in one of Del Posto’s private rooms, Brooks invited along fellow four-star executive pastry chef Michael Laiskonis, of Le Bernardin, and our presumptive winner of tonight’s James Beard award for Rising Star Chef, Momofuku Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi. As culinary bona fides go, we’re completely confused how this all came together so nicely.

Top Chef Stephanie Izard lets us in on her secret to winning at life — work eighteen hours, party four, sleep two. The chef of Chicago grub hub, Girl and the Goat, takes us deep into the food scene, known primarily for its heavy cooking (think deep-dish pizza and chili dogs) to introduce us to a crew of Chi-town chefs who are taking America’s heartland global — where casseroles and Cassoulet collide.

April Bloomfield, the woman who gave the middle finger to the highbrow/lowbrow food divide and brought gastropubs to New York, gives us a peek into the culinary empire — the Spotted Pig, the Breslin, and the John Dory Oyster Bar — that she and her partner Ken Friedman are building. Bloomfield, equal parts badass and softie, takes us to her favorite haunts and lays down her philosophy on cooking and life (in short, don’t be a wuss). The night ends in a beautiful blur of pickelbacks and pong at the Breslin.