“Chef’s Table” Featuring Chef Dave Pasternack

On this episode of Chef’s Table, James Beard award-winning journalist, Scott Haas, sits with Dave Pasternack at ESCA in New York City.

Esca, in the heart of Broadway, is an amazing exception to the vast array of tourist dives and old school haunts in that part of Manhattan.It’s one of the best fish and shellfish restaurants in the United States, and that’s all due to the genius of Chef Dave Pasternack.

Dave is humble, a working stiff, gruff in speech and demeanor; he talks like a guy who’s been fishing all day. So how does Dave do it? Is it his access to great product? A gentle touch despite his gruff manner? A talent at scouting the best the sea has to offer?

Perhaps the most striking thing about Dave is his ability to leave well enough alone.
His stunning knack for finding the best product is evident on every plate.

That’s the most remarkable about the food that he’s turning out at ESCA … the simplicity of it.
Now Dave Pasternack sits down with us on Chef’s Table.

About: Dave Pasternack

When Chef David Pasternack is not in the kitchen at Esca -- his seafood mecca in New York City -- he can almost always be found fishing. A 2004 James Beard Foundation Best Chef award winner, Dave has been known to bring his own morning catch into the restaurant for service. Dave's cookbook, The Young Man & the Sea, is a testament to this philosophy, with many of the recipes consisting of only three or four ingredients. Most recently, he opened Il Crudo, the fish restaurant at Eataly.