NYCWFF: Batali, Colicchio and Nilsson On The Future of Restaurants

Mario Batali, Magnus Nilsson and Tom Colicchio

By Kelly Dobkin

Scarfing burgers with Rachael Ray is fun and all, but NYCWFF also offers an array of decidedly more intellectual events such as the Food & Wine-hosted panels which almost always feature a great crop of heavy-hitting chefs weighing in on a range of industry issues. This morning's panel entitled "The Future of Restaurants" hosted by Food & Wine editor Dana Cowin featured Tom Colicchio, Mario Batali and chef Magnus Nilsson of Sweden's New Nordic media darling, Faviken. The group weighed in on a variety of topics like Pete Wells' recent criticism of tasting menus, trend-oriented restaurants and four-star restaurants. Here are some of the choice quotes from the hour-long panel.

"In NYC in this day and age, it's hard to get six people to agree on anything." - Mario Batali on tasting menus.

"It's not just about the taste it's about actually eating something." - Magnus on the portion sizes in tasting menus.

"Is there dinner involved?" - Mario in response to Dana describing an uber-trend oriented restaurant.


"Ssam Bar would never have gotten three stars twenty years ago, there's just no way." - Tom Colicchio on the evolution of dining styles and food criticism.

"Del Posto is our least profitable restaurant - it costs that much more to create that experience." - Mario Batali on the cost of running a fine-dining restaurant.

"The most important thing as a chef or a restaurateur is you have to make the most out of the possibilities of what you have in your situation. Different things make sense in different situations." - Magnus on choosing ingredients for a restaurant/menu.

"I like to tell my customers - that pig was a vegetarian!" - Mario Batali on vegetarianism.