How he chooses where to eat when traveling:
I truly just want to go to casual restaurants. I mean, if I’m going to Paris or London, I’ll always eat at a fine dining restaurant, but mostly it’s going to be casual and I’ll always rely on my colleagues’ recommendations. Whether I’m going to Paris and [chefs] Pierre Gagnaire or Frédéric Anton’s are recommending something, or going to London and having chefs [Jason] Atherton or [Gordon] Ramsay recommending something, that’s where I’m going. But again, food is not the reason that I travel. I deal with food every single day. I want to be able to enjoy some of the cultural things about a city and just explore and walk around and experience it as a local would experience it.
A place he feels is underrated for its food:
Portugal, although I think it’s becoming a relevant player in world gastronomy and wine. I was there two and a half years ago and just had a wonderful time exploring Lisbon and experiencing its food, both at more traditional restaurants, and the new fine dining restaurants, watching some of the younger chefs do some beautiful food based on their history and culture and learning about Portuguese wines from the sommeliers, who are so enthusiastic about what they’re doing in the country.
The best vacation he’s ever taken:
We go to Mexico every year, so that’s my favorite. Being on the beach, seeing what [the country] has done over the past 30 years with its wineries, and certainly with the tequila and mezcal programs. The wines have really grown to a superior level. The chefs there are doing some extraordinary work, with local cuisine or reinterpreting historical cuisine. Cabo San Lucas and the whole strip on the Sea of Cortes has turned into a mecca for Americans, but there are still places to go, in the smaller cities, or even in San Jose and San Lucas, that are very culturally oriented to that old-school Mexican cuisine. And then, yes, there’s great golf, great beach, great spas.
A hotel amenity that means a lot to him:
I don’t really do room service, so I think probably the most important amenity in a hotel room, anywhere, is going to be the availability of a coffee machine. I want it in the room. Running downstairs to get a coffee at the coffee station in the lobby, that’s always an option, but I want to wake up in the morning and have my first cup of coffee and relax and start my day before I go out. I don’t want to get dressed to go downstairs and get a cup of coffee, and I don’t want to wait for room service. I don’t need that whole room service experience. So I think the most important thing is a really good coffee machine.
What he does when he’s back in New York:
The first thing I do is go grocery shopping. I don’t really eat out a lot when I’m in New York, but I do have some favorite restaurants: Yakitori Totto, Marea, and Bar Masa, which is right next door to Per Se. I can pop over during service and get a bite and go back to work without having to leave the building. It’s pretty routine. There’s not a lot of exceptional things I do when I’m in New York, except spend time with my team at Per Se.
The destination that’s next on his list:
Vietnam. I love the food history, with the French influence and the way that the Vietnamese have interpreted that in their own cuisine. The history of Vietnam, the beaches, and what I’ve heard of the hospitality—that’s one place that I’ve not been that I would like to go.
