Joshua Ozersky (August 22, 1967 – May 4, 2015) was an American food writer and historian. He first came to prominence as a founding editor of New York Magazine's food blog, Grub Street, for which he received a James Beard Foundation Award (with co-editor Daniel Maurer) in 2008. He was the author of several books, including The Hamburger: A History -Colonel Sanders and the American Dream, and Archie Bunker's America: TV in an Era of Change, 1968–1978 . He was Editor-at-Large for Esquire, writing about food and restaurants. He also wrote frequently for The Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, and The New York Observer, among other places. Although read primarily as a food writer, he has said in numerous public appearances that he disliked "food writing" as such, and that his strongest influences were G. K. Chesterton, Thomas Babington Macaulay and A. J. Liebling.
Ozersky was born in Miami in 1967. He moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1979 when his father, the painter David Ozersky, got a job as a stage technician in the first of the area's casino-hotels, Resorts International. He attended Atlantic City High School and Rutgers University. His mother, Anita Ozersky, died suddenly when he was 14 years of age. Of his interest in food, he has said in interviews, "I was a friendless child, and a solitary and celibate teenager ... my father and I only spoke about movies and food, and food far more than movies. He was a great gastronome and taught me to self-medicate my loneliness with steaks and sausages."[4] He later attended New York University's School of Journalism and started work towards a doctoral degree at the University of Notre Dame, where he eventually received a master's degree in American history.
After graduating from Rutgers University in 1989, Ozersky wrote for several publications on media and cultural history topics, most frequently in Tikkun. The first articles he was paid to write appeared in a short-lived satirical weekly called "The Hoboken Review," based in Hoboken, NJ, where Ozersky lived at the time.[7] Among his earliest works for The Hoboken Review was an article titled, "I like it greasy," in which he celebrates his disdain for overly-health-conscious eating—a recurring theme in his future food writing. From 1990 to 1993 he wrote two weekly columns for the West Side Spirit, a free weekly newspaper in New York City: a semi-humorous "TV Picks" column and a cheap-eats column called "The Impoverished Gourmand" under the name "Casper Gutman." Many consider this guise, which was loosely based on the character from The Maltese Falcon, as a forerunner of "Mr. Cutlets," his later fictive persona. In the mid-1990s, he wrote for Suck.com under the name "The Boob", as well as for Newsday, where he frequently contributed essays on culture and media. His book "Archie Bunker's America: TV in an Era of Change" a cultural history of television programming, received a disappointing critical reception. Although his ambition at this time was to establish himself as a public intellectual after the example of his mentors, Neil Postman and Mark Crispin Miller, he eventually turned to food writing full-time with the publication of his 2003 book "Meat Me in Manhattan" 2008's "The Hamburger: A History" was a critical success, receiving positive reviews in publications on both sides of the Atlantic, including The Economist, The Times, The Observer and Forbes.
Subsequent to "Meat Me in Manhattan"'s publication, Ozersky was a contributing restaurant critic for Newsday (2004–2006), and wrote regularly for the website Slashfood and the New York Law Journal. He became the founding editor of New York Magazine food blog Grub Street,[13] a position he held until 2008, when he moved over to Citysearch as National Restaurant Editor. There he ran a daily food blog based on the model of Grub Street called The Feedbag, along with his regular Citysearch duties.[14] He left in 2009 to start Ozersky.TV, a venture with Eater founder Ben Leventhal, featuring short films about restaurants and cooking, which debuted in July 2010. He wrote the "Taste of America" column for Time from 2010 to 2012. Both Ozersky TV, "Taste of America," and his work in The Wall Street Journal was nominated for James Beard Awards. Essays by Ozersky were also included in "The Best Food Writing" anthologies of 2009, 2012 and 2014.
In 2010, Ozersky was criticized by Robert Sietsema Writing about his wedding in Time without disclosing that the chefs who participated donated the food as wedding gifts. Ozersky defended himself, saying that the chefs involved were among his closest friends, and that the most prominent of them, Michael White, had his daughter in the wedding party as a flower girl.
Ozersky was found and pronounced dead in his Conrad Chicago hotel room on May 4, 2015, while in the city for the James Beard Foundation Awards. Officials said the autopsy reveals he died after suffering a seizure in the hotel shower and drowned.
Ozersky was the founder of Meatopia, a large meat-centric outdoor culinary event, which has been held in New York City for the past ten years. In 2013 Meatopia events were held in London, England and San Antonio, Texas, with more cities planned for 2014. Meatopia held a very small event in 2013 in New York City while focusing the majority of its efforts on the London and Texas events. Each year has had a different theme such as "Slaughter of the Innocent" (baby animals); "Lamb Bam Thank You M'aam" (whole lambs); "City Meat," (NYC 2012) in which the festival was divided up into multiple "neighborhoods" such as Offalwood, Carcass Hill, and Beaktown; and most recently (NYC 2014) The Carnivore's Ball, a celebration of the 10th annual Meatopia which was hosted by Michael Symon. Meatopia has been called "a glorious city of meat" by The Huffington Post[and "a bacchanal of pork, beef, lamb, chicken, duck, turkey and quail" by The New York Times.
JOSH
Josh Ozersky was one of the Great Food Writers of All-Time. He had a style of writing and chatting on food, that was all his own. There was no-one quite like Josh. The closest to this Giant of Food Writing and pontificating would be the late great Anthony Bourdain. Another Giant. These two men were a great gift to The Food World and its millions of fans. And they both left us far too soon, and millions mourn them.
Josh was not nearly as well know and popular as Anthony, but he was certainly his equal. They both had their own styles, which were both absolutely wonderful, yet different. Hey, they were wo different human beings.
When Josh passed away, he was only 47 years old. Anthony Bourdain was 61 when he passed. It was a tremendous loss and the World Mourned. Tony had millions of fans. The world still mourns Bourdain's passing, and pine for him. Sadly these two giants of human beings (food writers / hosts) are sorely missed, and will always be remembered.
RIP
JOSH OZERSKY on BURGERS
At The SPOTTED PIG New York
OZERSKY on BURGERS
"The Burger is Omnipotent and Irresistible"
"It's the most Single Powerful Force in The Food Universe"
"But, Better Than Filet Mignon cause It Has Flavor"
"A Hamburger is the most Universal Symbol of What it Means to Be
an American"
"To turn away from the Hamburger would be to abrogate everything
that makes us American. Or Human for that Matter"
"HAMBURGERIZE" !!!
"This is Like BURGER BLING. This is like a Status Symbol of Conspicuous Consumption"
(On Eating a BLACK LABEL BURGER)
"The Worse Things are, The More People Need a Great Cheap Food"
If you're looking for a hot and cozy fall recipe, look no further than Rao's. Known for its exclusivity and esteemed reputation, New York City's Rao's restaurant has been serving up authentic Italian food since 1896.
Here, Dino Gatto, the Executive Chef of New York City's Rao's Restaurant, shares his tips for how to make the juiciest meatballs:
For mouthwatering meatballs it's important to only use the freshest and best quality products.
In this recipe, you will find that we add the water, cheese and breadcrumbs in layers, which allows the breadcrumbs to be separate from the water. If you add the water, then breadcrumbs ... by the time you get started to mix, the water will be absorbed into the bread and will be hard to mix and dry, which also makes it hard to roll.
The longer the meatballs simmer in the sauce, the softer they will be inside and also have the crust from them being fried.
"RAO'S"
East Harlem
New York City
RAOS MEATBALL Recipe :
Ingredients :
1 pound Ground Beef
1/2 pound Ground Veal
1/2 pound Ground Pork
2 Eggs (beaten)
1 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
2 tablespoon fresh chopped Italian Parsley
1 teaspoon each Sea Salt & ground Black Pepper
1 Garlic clove, peeled and minced fine
2 cups fresh Breadcrumbs
1 cup water
1 cup Olive Oil
1 Garlic clove, mashed
1. In a large mixing bowl, add the Beef, Veal, Pork, Parmesan, parsley, salt & black pepper, minced garlic, and mix together using your hands (don't overmix).
2. Add the bread breadcrumbs to the meat, and combine. Slowly add the water a little at a time as you mix with your hands.
3. Shape the mixture into 3" Meatballs.
4. Add the Olive Oil to a large frying pan with the mashed Garlic. Cook the Garlic until it is lightly browned. Remove the garlic and discard.
5. Fry the Meatballs in batches, browning on all sides.
6. Frying the Meatballs in batches, remove the browned Meatballs, and set aside on a plate.
7. Once all the Meatballs have browned, cook the Meatballs in Tomato Sauce for 15 - 20 minutes, at a slow simmer.
Serve with Spaghetti or other Pasta, or make a Nice Meatball Sandwich.
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Arrange racks in top and bottom thirds, and line two rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.
Step 2
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, sea salt and baking soda. In a medium bowl, whisk together sour cream, milk, vanilla, lemon zest and almond extract.
Step 3
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Step 4
Reduce speed to low and beat in ⅓ of the flour mixture, then ⅓ of the sour cream mixture. Repeat until both mixtures are incorporated, scraping sides of bowl as necessary. (Mixture will be the consistency of thick poundcake batter.)
Step 5
Dollop heaping ¼-cup scoops of batter onto prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. (You should have 12 to 14 cookies.) Bake for 6 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets. Continue to bake until the cookies have firmed up and spring back when lightly pressed in the center, 6 to 9 minutes. (They’ll brown only on the bottoms.) Take care not to overbake, or they will dry out.
Step 6
Transfer baking sheets to wire racks and let cool for 15 minutes, then transfer cookies directly to racks to cool completely.
Step 7
While the cookies cool, make the glaze: Place the confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and whisk in 3 tablespoons boiling water, the corn syrup, vanilla and salt. Continue to whisk, adding more boiling water as needed, until you have a thick yet spreadable frosting that is the texture of hot fudge sauce. (Too thick is preferable to too thin.) Flip each cookie over and spoon glaze over half of its flat side, spreading to edges with the back of the spoon. Place on wire rack to set. You will have vanilla frosting left over.
Step 8
Whisk melted chocolate into vanilla frosting, then whisk in cocoa and enough room temperature water to make a thick yet spreadable glaze. Glaze the bare half of each cookie. Let glaze set for at least 1 to 2 hours before serving.
FOR THE COOKIES
2cups/255 grams all-purpose flour
1teaspoon baking powder
½teaspoon fine sea salt
¼teaspoon baking soda
⅓cup/80 milliliters sour cream or whole-milk yogurt
⅓cup/80 milliliters whole milk
2teaspoons vanilla extract
1teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
¼teaspoon almond extract
½cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
¾cup plus 2 tablespoons/200 grams granulated sugar
2large eggs, at room temperature
FOR THE GLAZE
2½cups/300 grams confectioners’ sugar
Boiling water, as needed
1½tablespoons light corn syrup
1teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of fine sea salt
2½ounces/70 grams unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
Melissa Clark, a food columnist at the New York Times, states that these cookies aren’t just a New York staple, they’re a major part of Jewish culture. According to her, “Black-and-whites have been an entrenched part of the very robust Jewish cookie scene in New York City for a century.”
However, these cookies have a long-debated history about their creation. Specifically, is it really a cookie?
According to Molly O’Neill, black and white cookies are “broken promises” in that they’re floury cakes baked in a cookie shape. Essentially, they’re “drop cakes” because the batter resembles what you’d find in the batter of a cupcake, with a little extra dough so it does not run all over the place.
Nonetheless, people love them and flock to their nearest bakery for a bite of its vanilla, chocolatey goodness.
The Origins of the Black and White Cookie
The cookie is believed to have been created by Glaser’s Bake Shop, which was opened in 1902 by Bavarian immigrants in Manhattan. Many others believe the cookie began as “half-moon” cookies that were served at Hemstrought’s Bakery in Utica, New York. While it’s hard to tell where these cookies’ roots lie, each story shares one common element: they come from German food traditions.
While these cookies seemingly have been around forever, it wasn’t until the 1940s and 1950s they became popular. During and after WWII, American soldiers reintroduced the cookie to Germany, which inspired the name “Amerikaner”. The term is actually derived from the shape of Brodie helmets worn by U.S. soldiers during the World Wars.
