Interview

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Le Fooding, the Parisian signature food, music, and art festival, landed in New York on Friday and Saturday evenings at PS1 in Queens to benefit Action Against Hunger. In anticipation, I stopped eating on Thursday to give my palate a big rest and, of course, prepare for the caloric deluge.

The line around PS1 wrapped around the block–there seemed to be significantly more than the predicted 1000 guests–but things moved quickly and before I knew it, I was inside, surrounded by cavernous, Where the Wild Things Are-type structures. However, there were no monsters in sight here–or kids for that matter. Instead, Paul Sevigny was perched at the top of the stairs spinning for les foodies.

The cuisine on the first night was a mixture of Parisian staples of wine and cheese, barbecued sirloin, and grilled pork ribs, along with New York fare like Momofuku Bo Ssam and WD 50's grilled chicken necks (my personal favoriate was the corn with scallop butter from Diner in Brooklyn). Belvedere mixologists served dramatic dry ice concoctions that we're sure to see around Manhattan in the coming months. On the second–slighly calmer–night, people turned out for Daniel Boulud's traditional moroccan couscous. The evening's winner was the Minetta Tavern's black burger–the spectacle of its preparation alone was worth the price of admission. Art to accompany everything from Ft. Greene's General Greene's beef head tacos from Ft. Greene's to Paris's Le Chateaubriand's steak with charred aubergine was projected into the sky.