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Join us as Chef Robbie and Team Cook Dinner on The Farm at Glenwood Mountain!
This is a back to back night event you do not want to miss!
Dinners are Sunday 8/21 & Monday 8/22
This 4 course meal will feature ingredients found right here on the farm.
Call to make your reservations today.
**Limited seating available*
Since it opened late last year, Pasta Ramen, the by-invite-only refined Italian-Japanese pop-up functioned as a secretive speakeasy. Location and chef were kept hush-hush. Those who dined there were sworn to secrecy, I among them.
But now I can give the secret, most of it at least, away. So here goes:
Chef Robbie Felice of award-winning Viaggio in Wayne and Osteria Crescendo in Westwood and restaurateur Luck Sarabhayavanija of Ani Ramen in several locations in North Jersey are the two men behind the enterprise. Felice, a James Beard Rising Chef nominee, is the chef.
Robbie Felice, chef-owner of Viaggio Ristorante in Wayne and Osteria Crescendo in Westwood.
The two are taking their extravagant concept to Miami for the month of January — and have upped the cost of the 13-course feast from $317 to $379 (tax and gratuity included). Not cheap by any means, but supremely delicious.
For eight months, Chef Robbie Felice has been cooking Wafu cuisine at pastaRAMEN, a speakeasy-style restaurant that pops up in secret locations around New Jersey. There are two seatings a night at the exclusive spot, where 10 customers at each pay $317 per person for a 10- to 13-course omakase tasting menu prepared by the James Beard-nominated chef.
Most are intrigued by the secrecy of the event and the chef’s cred, but don’t know much about Wafu until they sit down to dinner.
The cuisine doesn’t have a lot of name recognition in the United States, but it’s pretty well known in Japan and Italy, where chefs have combined the flavors, ingredients and techniques from both cultures to create unique dishes. Felice is on a mission to build a passionate Wafu following here…
It’s not often that owners of a restaurant-to-be don’t want to let everyone know about their place. They usually are eager to get the word out.
But when asked a day after he was spotted working inside the shuttered Villalobos space on South Fullerton Street in Montclair, acclaimed chef Robbie Felice of Italian restaurants Viaggio in Wayne and Osteria Crescendo in Westwood, said, “I’m sworn to secrecy.”
Felice, who was nominated by the James Beard Foundation for a Rising Star Chef award though ceremonies were canceled due to COVID-19, was there with restaurateur Luck Sarabhayavanija, owner of the ever-growing empire of Ani Ramen House and the brand-new Mochinut Montclair…
Esther Davidowitz, NorthJersey.com
It didn’t take Robbie Felice much time to feel anxious.
Barely 24 hours after Felice, the chef and owner of Viaggio in Wayne and Osteria Crescendo in Westwood, learned that he was nominated for one of the most prestigious culinary awards in the world, was no longer feeling the heady joys of winning. He was now feeling the agonizing fear of losing.
Felice is a semifinalist for the James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year award. Rising Star Chefs, according to the James Beard Foundation, “must be age 30 or younger and display an impressive talent, likely to make a significant impact on the industry for years to come.” Felice is 29.
“I’m already scared of not making the final,” said Felice, sitting on one of the high stools that surround the large, sun-lit bar at Osteria Cresendo, his modern, 80-seat Italian restaurant, which opened in April. (His more rustic, 73-seat BYOB Viaggio celebrated its third anniversary year five months ago.)
Nominees include Missy Robbins, Gabriela Cámara, Jeremiah Stone, Fabián von Hauske, and more familiar faces.
By Bridget Hallinan Updated February 26, 2020
After announcing the “America’s Classic” award recipients last week, the James Beard Foundation is back with its highly anticipated semifinalist nominations for the 2020 Restaurant and Chef awards.
Released on February 26, the list is packed with familiar faces, including Food & Wine Best New Chef alums Missy Robbins, Misti Norris, Gabriel Rucker, Jeremiah Stone, and Fabián von Hauske. It’s also the first iteration of the awards to include the regional changes announced last September, which added California, Texas, and New York State as standalone categories, along with several reorganizations.
Come March 25, each category will be culled down to five finalists each, and the winners will be announced at the annual gala in Chicago on May 4. The Media Awards winners will also be announced on April 24, per the foundation’s website, and the Leadership Awards are scheduled for May 3.
New Jersey chefs earned seven spots on the semifinalist list for the James Beard Foundation Awards, among the most prestigious culinary awards in the world.
The nominees include Marciel Presilla of Cucharamama in Hoboken (a 2012 winner of Best Chef-Mid Atlantic and 2013 winner of Cookbook of the Year), Joey Baldino of Zeppoli in Collingswood (this will be his ninth nomination), five-time nominee Dan Richer of Razza in Jersey City, Cookie Till of Steve and Cookie’s in Margate, Robbie Felice of Viaggio Ristorante in Wayne, Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer of Canal House Station in Milford, as well as the restaurant 15 Fox Place in Jersey City.
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The final round of nominees will be announced in Philadelphia on March 25 and the awards gala will take place on May 4 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Since the awards began in 1991, only two New Jersey chefs have received a James Beard award. Craig Shelton, then at The Ryland Inn in Whitehouse, and Maricel Presilla, chef at Cucharamama in Hoboken, both won best chef in the Mid-Atlantic region. Shelton in 2000; Presilla in 2012.
New Jerseyans aren’t afraid to tell you how amazing our food is. But the cuisine in the Garden State goes beyond pizza, bagels and Taylor ham, and one of the most prestigious food awards in the country is taking notice.
The 2020 James Beard Award semifinalists were announced Feb. 26, and seven New Jersey chefs, restaurants and restaurateurs were among those named.
Eight Garden State chefs and restaurants have been nominated for this year’s awards, which recognize excellence in the food world.
By Emily Bell | | February 27, 2020
It’s the 30th anniversary of the James Beard Foundation Awards, and Jersey has all the more reason to celebrate this time, with eight chefs and restaurants represented on this year’s list of semifinalists.
Among familiar names is New Jersey’s own mother of soulful heritage cuisine, Maricel Presilla of Cucharamama, who is nominated once again in the “Outstanding Chef” category. Presilla already has three James Beard Awards under her belt: “Best Chef Mid-Atlantic” 2012, “Cookbook of the Year” in 2013 for Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America, and a “Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America” win in 2015. An “Outstanding Chef” win would not only be deserved, it would cement her culinary legacy as a highly influential voice in our national culinary conversation.
New entrants on this year’s lists include Jersey City’s 15 Fox Place, which was nominated for “Outstanding Hospitality,” and Cookie Till, nominated for “Outstanding Restaurateur.” 15 Fox Place is a unique father-and-son-run BYO Italian prix fixe out of a home in the Journal Square section of Jersey City. (And yes, good luck to all of us getting a reservation now.) Cookie Till is from Steve and Cookie’s in Margate, as well as the more recent small batch bakery concept Ventnor No. 7311.
If you’re looking for the most drama of the list, you’ll find it—and a few very familiar New Jersey names—on the “Rising Star Chef of the Year” and “Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic” lists, respectively. Robbie Felice—fresh off being chosen for the Pasta World Championships—is a worthy contender for “Rising Star Chef of the Year.” Splitting the tension for Jersey representation in “Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic,” are Joey Baldino of Zeppoli, Dan Richer of Razza in Jersey City, and Melissa Hamilton and Christopher Hirsheimer, the culinary duo who recently turned their legacy into the brick-and-mortar Canal House Station restaurant. Baldino and Richer are perennial nominees; this is Baldino’s eighth year being nominated and Richer’s fifth.
James Beard Foundation Award finalists will be announced on March 25 and the James Beard Foundation Awards will take place on Monday, May 4 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Tickets go on sale in March and are $500 per person (that includes a walk-around tasting with 20 recent James Beard Award winners). Here are some Awards FAQs to brush up on while you mull a ticket and a flight.
Check out the full list
by Monica Burton Feb 26, 2020, 10:11am EST
Today, the James Beard Foundation announced its Restaurant and Chef Awards semifinalists for 2020.
While last year’s awards saw changes to address the gender and racial diversity of nominees and winners, this year, the Beards are focusing on geographic diversity. For the first time, there will be a Best Chef: California and a Best Chef: Texas among the awards. This ups the total Best Chef awards categories to 12 and relegates the other states that were once apart of the “West” category to a new “Northwest and Pacific” category that comprises Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington.
The James Beard Foundation also redrew the lines around several of the remaining Best Chef categories. A newly named “Mountain” category will include Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming; the Southwest category now comprises Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Nevada. Best Chef: New York City has morphed into Best Chef: New York State.
According to the Foundation, the changes are meant to address “changing population data, restaurant demographics, and culinary trends.” They also address the frequent criticism, as noted by Eater restaurant editor Hillary Dixler Canavan around last year’s awards, that the original geographic categories were unfair to the West, Midwest, and Texas: chefs from California consistently dominated in the “West”; Chicago stole focus in the “Great Lakes”; and last year, Texas was completely shut out of the awards despite being home to major dining destinations like Austin and Houston.
After the judges and committee members vote, this “long list” will drop down to five finalist nominees per category, to be announced on Wednesday, March 25 from Philadelphia. Winners will be announced during the James Beard Awards Gala in Chicago on May 4, where the previously announced six America’s Classics winners (one more honoree than in previous years) will also be acknowledged. (Meanwhile, media awards winners will be revealed on Friday, April 24.)
