Taste Of Tennis 2011: Meatballs, Weight Loss, And Game-Winning Dishes
Last night at the W New York hotel tennis stars like Rafael Nadal and James Blake joined some of the heavy hitters in the culinary world for a full service game of fun and food all in the name of charity at the annual BNP Paribas "Taste of Tennis" event. The green carpet was buzzing as a cavalcade of chefs paraded their mini-plates of goodness for all to see and taste. New York restaurants like Zylo, Sushi Samba, Public, and BLT Bar & Grill were well represented as well as head chef of Sra. Martinez in Miami, Michelle Bernstein.
The host of the event, AJ Calloway, a motivational speaker and television correspondent for EXTRA called Taste of Tennis is his favorite event of the year, and was most looking forward to seeing Rafael Nadal. When pressed about his favorite cuisine, Calloway enthusiastically shouted, "Doubles! Richard's Bake and Shark!" Though he may have been under the influence of this Trinidadian reporter.
If Cooking Were a Sport, What Would Be Your Ace?
For the most part, chefs were happy to divulge answers to this question.
[[{"fid":"5693578","view_mode":"full","type":"media","attributes":{"class":"media-element","data-delta":0},"fields":{"format":"full","alignment":"center","field_image_alt[und][0][value]":"","field_image_title[und][0][value]":"","field_image_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_image_credit[und][0][value]":""},"field_deltas":[{"format":"full","alignment":"center","field_image_alt[und][0][value]":"","field_image_title[und][0][value]":"","field_image_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_image_credit[und][0][value]":""}]}]]Bill Moore of Bahama Breeze, Push Cart Foods in Brooklyn stood by the mini-plate he prepared for the event as his game winning dish: crispy shrimp cake with spicy remoulade sauce, jerked popcorn and watermelon chutney.
Chef Anita Lo of Annisa expressed that, "Cooking isn't a sport and it's not about competition, it's about sharing." Wonder how Mario Batali feels about her "sharing" him by a whopping 54-45 on Iron Chef... Chef Michelle Bernstein said she would have a sure winner with oxtail stew atop of a chunk of bone marrow with a bit of gremolata and fried capers.
Meatball Shop Working on New Book and West Village Balls
[[{"fid":"5693579","view_mode":"full","type":"media","attributes":{"class":"media-element","data-delta":1},"fields":{"format":"full","alignment":"center","field_image_alt[und][0][value]":"","field_image_title[und][0][value]":"","field_image_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_image_credit[und][0][value]":""},"field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"full","alignment":"center","field_image_alt[und][0][value]":"","field_image_title[und][0][value]":"","field_image_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_image_credit[und][0][value]":""}}}]]Daniel Holzman of The Meatball Shop was asked what his game-winning dish would be, but with one condition, that he couldn't say meatballs. "A piece of poached black bass," he cheerfully answered. Holzman and his fellow co-owner and manager, Michael Chernow, also revealed that they're working on a cookbook to be published November 1st and a new Meatball Shop slated to open in the fall, in the West Village.
Maybe it was the fuzzy green balls flying in the air, but The Daily Meal couldn't help but ask Holzman (who was sporting the Tom Colicchio, clean-shaven head look) if his baldness was a subconscious message to remind us about meatballs? Holzman replied, "Absolutely. I actually started this with my grandfather, my mother's father, may he rest in peace. I picked those genetics carefully... and it's not only to remind you of the meatballs." No comment.
Athletes: Off the Court, But Still Game
The tennis stars on the green carpet weren't shy about broadcasting their love affair with food. Vera Zvonareva, the Russian, #2-seeded women's tennis player in the world, admitted that her ultimate guilty pleasure was anything chocolate, particularly her mother's Neapolitan cake.
The 27th-seeded men's tennis player, Marin Cilic said his secret for not missing food from his motherland, Croatia, when on the U.S. Open tour: his godmother. She travels with him and makes home-cooked food soups. Here's the inside scoop on his pre- and post-game eating habits: "I eat a lot of carbohydrates, that's the thing that we always have to eat and fill up our body with. They give us more energy and save us afterwards, helping us to recover. After a game I eat a lot of proteins like fish and steak."
American and 8th-seeded tennis player Mardy Fish shared a different kind of experience with food, explaining his recent struggles with weight loss:
"The beginning for me was the hardest part. I had so many bad habits. I would eat so many bad things. They weren't necessarily bad things. Just eating at the wrong times. It was about figuring out the right times to eat, or the right things to eat, where I could get the same thing for less calories. Something like vitamin C, you could get it in a glass of orange juice or you could get it somewhere else instead of orange juice, which has a ton of calories. Cutting down on a lot of little things. Educating myself on what was good and what wasn't."
Fish's wife, attorney and briefcase model, Stacey Gardner was by his side and dished that her favorite place to eat on the tour is Mr. Chow in Midtown.
[[{"fid":"5693580","view_mode":"full","type":"media","attributes":{"class":"media-element","data-delta":2},"fields":{"format":"full","alignment":"center","field_image_alt[und][0][value]":"","field_image_title[und][0][value]":"","field_image_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_image_credit[und][0][value]":""},"field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"full","alignment":"center","field_image_alt[und][0][value]":"","field_image_title[und][0][value]":"","field_image_caption[und][0][value]":"","field_image_credit[und][0][value]":""}}}]]One of the night's biggest stars, New York native and former Harvard student, James Blake said that his favorite places to eat while attending Harvard were definitely, "Tommy's and Pinocchio's pizza." Blake is also a renowned humanitarian, he received the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year award in 2008 and spearheads the J-Block program where his fans get the chance to purchase merchandise and raise money for the Thomas Blake Sr. Memorial Cancer Research Fund (it's named after his father who died of stomach cancer in 2004).
When asked, what he thought the J-Block kids would be most jealous of him eating at the Taste of Tennis, Blake responded: "I don't think they'd be jealous of anything I eat, they'd be jealous if I get to drink anything because that's what they're interested in!" He also mentioned that the night before a big game, he stocks up on a protein: chicken, fish, or steak. And that on the day of a game, he likes to eat simple foods that are easy to digest like plain pasta or a plain bagel, maybe some fruit in the morning.
And unlike on the court where love means nothing, "Taste of Tennis" ended with love bringing together great players and chefs united to help underprivileged children in need — a win for all.