Alfred Portale

This week's Please Explain is all about squash with Chef Alfred Portale and Zaid Kurdieh, a partner operator of Norwich Meadows Farm. 

Chefs Alfred Portale, of Gotham Bar and Grill, and Bill Telepan, of Telepan and the new Telepan Local, talk about the Gotham Bar and Grill’s 30th anniversary and to discuss what makes a restaurant last for decades in NYC. To celebrate the longevity and many achievements of Gotham Bar and Grill, the restaurant is offering, among other things, the GOTHAM30 Menu Series developed in collaboration with chefs Bill Telepan, Tom Colicchio, Thomas Keller, Jonathan Waxman and Daniel Boulud.

Alfred Portale, Executive Chef & Partner of Gotham Bar & Grill, and Tim Stark, of Eckerton Hill Farms, discusses “Greenmarket to Gotham.” All summer, Gotham has featured a different farmer each week and (almost) exclusively uses their produce for a two-course, vegetarian lunch menu (for $25). The series is also a fundraiser for Grow NYC's program "Grow to Learn" that helps schools plan, implement and manage their school gardens. Tim Stark's farms, in Pennsylvania, are famous for their tomatoes and chiles; he’s also the author of Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer.