Phil Lempert TODAY Food Editor • Profile • E-mail

This week’s recipe was stolen from Laurence Edelman, executive chef of the Mermaid Inn, uptown New York City location.

The Mermaid Inn has been a well-established East Village restaurant in New York City for years and recently their new location was voted best new Upper West Side restaurant in Time Out New York magazine’s Eat Out Awards.

With a menu focused almost exclusively on fish and seafood, the restaurants excel at creating culinary aquatic delights, like the towering lobster sandwich and the summer shrimp risotto with basil, cockles and lemon peel.

They also give back by donating five percent of their sales every Sunday night to Kiva.org, a nonprofit microfinance organization that distributes loans to low-income entrepreneurs in developing countries.

About the chef: As a child, Laurence Edelman happily ate foods that strike fear in the hearts of some adults. His father indulged his son’s eccentric cravings with blind tastings of escargot, raw oysters, pickled fish and caviar — atypical fare for the average kid in South Orange, N.J. 

In New Orleans, Laurence took on his first kitchen position at the legendary Cooter Brown’s, where he worked as a short-order cook and at the raw bar shucking wild Louisiana oysters.

He then moved to Boston and shifted into the fine-dining realm, as a line cook in Harvard Square’s highly popular UpStairs at the Pudding, then as a cook at the French bistro Sel de la Terre. Later, as the sous chef at Temple Bar, Laurence enjoyed creating daily specials.

In 2002, Laurence moved to New York City ready for greater challenges, honing his skills at various restaurants until he accepted the sous chef position at Jonathan Waxman’s Barbuto. While there, he focused on fresh ingredients with a menu that changed daily according to the greenmarket, until he was offered the position of opening executive chef at The Mermaid Inn uptown, where he is particularly excited about the opportunity to expand the raw bar, having spent time researching the city’s best raw bars and even working on the boats at Widow’s Hole oyster farm. He will adapt his fresh, seasonally driven cooking style to a seafood-centric menu and incorporate flavors from his adventurous palate.

The Mermaid Inn
568 Amsterdam Ave 87/ 88
New York, NY 10024
212-799-7400
www.themermaidnyc.com

Seafood spaghetti with a salad on top is served at The Mermaid Inn for $18. 

Want to nominate your favorite restaurant dish for a “Steal This Recipe” feature? Just e-mail with the name of the restaurant, city and state, and the dish you would like to have re-created. Want to know more about Phil and food? Visit his Web site at www.supermarketguru.com.

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