Dinner at the Long Table

Starred review from July 18, 2016
With nine outer-borough eateries and shops in his portfolio, Tarlow, more than anyone, has been responsible for defining Brooklyn’s artisanal food scene. But perhaps a more pertinent credit on his résumé is that, along with Dunn, he runs the arty food magazine Diner Journal. For never has a cookbook felt more like a literary journal than in this debut effort by the publisher-restaurateurs. Tarlow and Dunn begin with a 10-page poem and photo work entitled “Eat Sunshine” (“bathe in olive oil/take care of strangers”). Next, there are recipes and instructions for creating 17 different feasts or informal dinners. As in a collection of short stories, each piece has a gripping title (“The Tomato and the Sea,” “A Clam for Twelve”), poetic turns, and romantic notions. The “Ragu at the End of Winter” is a three-day affair beginning with a Friday trip to the butcher, a Saturday of browning and simmering, then a Sunday noon pasta course followed by a platter of veal shanks, coppa, ribs, meatballs, sausages and oxtail. A wedding anniversary dinner begins with bouillabaisse condensed to three little words—“Stock. Nuance. Scum.”—and joined by a saffron rouille, olive tapenade, a plate of squid and “fruit as an illusion,” small bowls of poached pears. Photographs, by the Canadian duo Michael Graydon and Nikole Herriott, are not so much instructional as atmospheric. Are we in Williamsburg or Toronto, Marseilles or Rome? This long table has a leg in each.