NEW YORK is flled with

enterprising women eager to turn

up for breakfast at 8 a.m., decked
out in eye shadow and Akris. Tey
sip green tea and push a spoon
around a bowl of oatmeal while
speaking fervently of protecting
the brand.
I am not one of them.
But I had a genuine curios-
ity about observing the power
breakfast at the newly renovated
Loews Regency Hotel in Manhat-
tan. Id heard about moguls order-
ing one piece of dry toast and an
egg, paying, what, $30, $40? Its
no revelation that rich people are
crazy, but what compelled me now
was the cooking of the new execu-
tive chef, Dan Silverman, recently
at the Standard Grill, whose food I
always enjoy. Im far less interested
in his breakfast menu than I am
in dinner, but with him in the
kitchen, the place automatically
becomes a destination.
As I understand it, the power
breakfast was named by the Tisch
family, owners of the Regency, in
the 1970s, when New York City
teetered on the edge of bank-
ruptcy, and the investment banker
Felix Rohatyn and others held
meetings there to avert disaster.
From that grim beginning, the
breakfast gained luster as a place
for people who yearn to see and be
seen before their frst cup of cof-
fee. Ive read that Police Commis-
sioner William J. Bratton met the
lawyer and television commenta-
tor Rikki Klieman there; they later
married. I found that impressive.
If my husband had frst met me
at breakfast, I would have died a
spinster.
Te grand opening of the
Regency Bar & Grill was set for
Jan. 16. Having no pull to score
a coveted reservation, I asked
a friend who had been a pre-
renovation regular, Marty Granof,
if he would take me. Mr. Granof,
77, is the founder and co-owner
of Val DOr Apparel, a manufac-
turer of private-label clothing for
companies including Lacoste,
Ralph Lauren, the North Face and
Hanes. He delights in tormenting
my husband by asking the price of
whatever shirt hes wearing, then
telling him how much it cost to
actually make it.
Although Mr. Granof usually
arrived at 7:45 a.m., he reserved
for 8:30, kindly assuming that was
my idea of eating late. Te night
before, knowing that I needed
to be up and out, I slept only in
15-minute increments. By 5 a.m., I
couldnt sleep at all.
Continued on pg. C8
The
Daily
Dish
Ive been making this pasta
for a very long time, probably
since the 1980s, since its derived
from a Marcella Hazan recipe. Its
dead simpleone of the things
that I love about itand you can
precook the caulifower a day
ahead or so if youd like. I
usually do the whole thing
at once: cook the caulifower
in water, scoop it out and
then, later, cook the pasta in
the same water. Its already
boiling, and you want the taste
of the caulifower anyway, so why
not?
Te caulifower gets cooked
more, in a skillet with toasted gar-
lic, so dont boil it to death; you do
want it to be tender, though. And
in the original Minimalist recipe,
from 2000, I added the bread
crumbs to the skillet along with the
caulifower, but since I usually add
some pasta water to the skillet to
keep the mixture saucy, the bread
crumbs become soggy. Better,
then, to stir the bread crumbs in
at the very end. Tey should be
very coarse, ideally homemade,
and if theyre toasted in olive oil in
a separate skillet before you toss
them in, so much the better.
For a while now Ive been
cooking pasta recipes with less
pasta and more sauce. Tats a very
personal decision, I know, but you
could easily make this dish with
half a pound of pasta and two
pounds of caulifower, and it would
be excellent.
Pasta With Caulifower
Yield: 3 or 4 servings
Time About 40 minutes
1 head caulifower, about 1 lb.
Salt and black pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound penne, fusilli
1 cup coarse bread crumbs.
1. Bring a large pot of water
to a boil. Trim the caulifower, and
divide it into forets. Add about a
tablespoon of salt to the water, and
boil the caulifower in it until it is
tender but not mushy. Using a slot-
ted spoon or strainer, remove the
caulifower and set it aside. When
it is cool enough to handle, chop it
roughly into small pieces.
2. Meanwhile, in a large deep
skillet over medium-low heat,
saute garlic in olive oil, stirring
occasionally, until garlic is golden.
Start cooking pasta in same pot
and same water as was used for the
caulifower.
3. When the garlic is ready,
add the caulifower to skillet,
and turn heat to medium. Cook,
stirring occasionally. When pasta
is just about done it should be
two or three minutes short of the
way you like itdrain it, reserving
about a cup of cooking liquid.
4. Add pasta to skillet con-
taining the caulifower, and toss
with a large spoon until they are
well combined. Add salt and pep-
per to taste, along with just enough
pasta water to keep the mixture
moist but not soupy. When the
mixture is hot and the pasta is
tender and nicely glazed, mix in
the bread crumbs.
Contact Matilyn at:
ozmentma@quest.net
or
(455)-235-6506
The Minimalist:
Pasta with Caulifower
Matilyn
Ozment
Food
C
Saturday 9, May, 2014
Sun Times
How to prepare a balanced breakfast
Most people do not know
that breakfast should be
the largest meal of the
day. Here are two healthy
balanced breakfast ar-
rangements to show just
how much the average
person should be
consuming.
One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well -Virginia Woolf
This weeks
News room cook-of
Reporter: John smith
vs.
Designer: Rachel Choi
Egg-celent new ways
to prepare your favorite
breakfast dish
Pg. C7
DEATH BY COFFEE
Te American population has developed a
serious drinking problem. But Im not talking
about alcohol. Rather, the concern is with mass
consumption of cofee.
Te morning line at a Starbucks in a
populated location indicates the United States
obsession for a morning fx of cofee. In fact,
studies have shown that Americans consume a
collective 400 million cups of cofee throughout
a single day. But what converts a simple cofee
habit into a full blown addiction? And further,
what are the risks from this kind of depen-
dence?
Te term addiction is ofcially defned as
Te fact or condition of being addicted to a par-
ticular substance, thing, or activity. Te notion
of addiction ofen carries a negative connotation,
as it suggests that ones dependence on an exter-
nal substance is more powerful that the persons
will to operate without the substance.
While cofee is not as life threatening as regu-
lar consumption of alcohol or recreational drugs,
the cafeine from the cofee can in fact lead to
an addiction. For some, cofee is consumed as a
treat or on a special occasion; but for most cofee
enthusiasts, drinking a cup of cofee is as regular
an activity as getting dressed in the morning. Te
cofee consumption phenomenon is not specifc
to one region of the country, either; per house-
hold, residents of Chicago drink the most cofee,
with New York ranking second and Seattle rank-
ing third.
Read more on page C2
How cofee is slowly
taking over your life
Photo Cred: Jane Doe
54 %
of all Americans
over the age of
18 drink coffee
everyday
By Richard Sanchez
Sun Valley, CA
By Diane Montgomery
Sun Valley, CA
60% of all
Americans are
eating breakfast the
wrong way.
-Dr. Lisa Robbins