64 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JULY 2018
PRESS BUZZ: MAIN
DISH
CHEF DAVID BURKE:INSPIRED CULINARY CREATIVITY
By ERIC VOORHIS
In 1989, Chef David Burke, then-executive
chef of New York City’s River
Café, was shocked to read that USA
Today placed a menu item he created
on a top 10 list of worst dishes in
America.
“I was so devastated,” Burke recalls.
“Everyone was reading this thing. I
kept going back to the sous chef and
the manager of the restaurant – ‘was it
really that bad?’ But everyone liked it.”
The dish in question was a noodle
cake with calamari and oysters, according
to Burke, “a risky dish, but it
was delicious.”
Two days later, esteemed New York
Magazine critic Gael Greene spent
a few hundred words praising the
same exact dish.
“It was one critic’s opinion verses
another,” says Burke. “You can’t always
please everyone. I certainly try.”
Decades later, Burke aims to please
critics and patrons alike after rebooting
the entire food and beverage
program at The Garden City Hotel. He
brought two new restaurants to the
premises, King Bar by David Burke
and the Red Salt Room. The hotel
brought in Burke to revamp the hotel
restaurants and work with an existing
team that includes Executive Chef
Ari Nieminen, whom he previously
worked with at The River Café.
“It’s nice to be working with some
familiar faces,” says Burke. “We
already have that relationship. We
know where we’re both coming
from.”
Over his 35-year career, Burke has
helmed some of the city’s top-rated
restaurants, including the Park
Avenue Café, before becoming vice
president of culinary development
for the Smith & Wollensky Restaurant
Group in 1996. Fifteen years
ago, he branched out on his own and
opened several new spaces including
davidburke & danatella, David Burke
Townhouse, and David Burke at
Bloomingdale’s. These days he’s more
focused on newer NYC restaurants
Woodpecker and Tavern 62 along
with BLT Prime in Washington,
D.C. Asked how many restaurants
currently have his name attached
and Burke maintains a lighthearted,
“Who knows.”
Along with dozens of prizes and
accolades such as appearances
on Bravo’s Top Chef Masters and
induction into the James Beard
Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food
and Beverage in America, Burke
received a prestigious title from
Time Out New York in 2003: Best
Culinary Prankster. He’s known for
his creativity, introducing odd flavor
combinations, pairing strange ingredients
and using new techniques. But
it’s all based in solid fundamentals,
according to Burke.
“As crazy or great something is,
you have to have a reason for it,” he
says. “And there has to be some fundamental
foundation or groundwork
from a regional perspective, seasonal
perspective, or digestive perspective.
You can’t just pull things out of
midair.”
The Garden City Hotel restaurants
feature many of Burke’s signature
dishes, such as clothesline candied
bacon with black pepper and pickles
($19); pastrami smoked salmon carpaccio
with arugula and honey mustard
($16); fresh Maine Lobster either
poached in butter or served “angry
style” with garlic, lemon, chilies, and
basil; and a variety or cuts of beef aged
using Burke’s patented dry aging process
using Himalayan pink salt.
All of which are surely coming to
patrons’ top 10 lists of favorite dishes
soon.
King Bar by David Burke and the
Red Salt Room are located at the
Garden City Hotel, 45 7th St., Garden
City. They can be reached at gardencityhotel.
com or 877-549-0400.
Celebrity Chef David Buke
launched Red Salt Room and King
Bar at Garden City Hotel.
Burke is known for his clothesline candied bacon. (Photo by Matthew Kropp)