Foodievents

Le Fooding vs. Omnivore: Who Is Le Plus Brooklyn?

Photo: Dan Woodger

The friendly French-food-festival rivals Le Fooding and Omnivore return this fall with competing schedules of dinners, demos, and al fresco feasts (both located in outdoor Brooklyn markets). Who earns the most artisanal cornichons on our Très Brooklyn meter?

Le Fooding Brooklyn Fling
September 19-23; various locations; lefooding.com
Why Brooklyn? According to founder Alexandre Cammas, “[Brooklyn chefs] are fans of street food, love the avant-garde, and some of them, of course, are hugely talented.”
Highlights: Michelin-star-giver-backer Alain Senderens’s dinner at Maimonide of Brooklyn is sold out, but you can sample Paris pastry guru Pierre Hermé’s handiwork (albeit “a bite of fruit”) at a “campfire” hootenany of sorts at the Williamsburg Flea, or join the hoi polloi at “Luncheon in the Dust” picnics at the Fort Greene Flea and the Williamsburg Flea.
Très Brooklyn Meter It doesn’t get any more New Brooklyn than the Franks (Castronovo and Falcinelli), even though they grew up in Old Queens. They’re cooking dinner on September 20 with super-locavore Charleston chef Sean Brock at Frankies 457 (sorry, also sold out). But Nespresso and San Pellegrino as sponsors? C’mon, guys, couldn’t you get Sixpoint or Manhattan Special to kick in?
Rating: 4 out of 5 cornichons

Omnivore New York Tour
September 20-23; various locations; omnivore.com
Why Brooklyn? “ ‘The Young Cuisine’ we promote is in ebullition in Brooklyn. Brooklyn represents the actual center of creation,” says Omnivore’s Paula Reisen.
Highlights: Master classes are industry-only, but tickets for some of the festival’s signature F***ing Dinners, including a $100 ten-course feast by Mission Chinese Food chef Danny Bowien and another that pairs chefs Dominique Crenn (of San Francisco’s Atelier Crenn) and Alexandre Couillon (of La Marine in Noirmoutier, France), are still available. Tickets to the Omnivorous Party finale are free to reserve, but food will cost you.
Très Brooklyn Meter Holding a food festival in a vacant lot outfitted with “reclaimed” shipping containers (Dekalb Market) speaks volumes. And the lineup of chefs (including Ivan Shishkin of Moscow’s Delicatessen and Gita Seaton, who runs Montréal’s Nouveau Palais diner) is terrific. Taunting us, however, with a dinner for only twelve at Bushwick’s Blanca that predictably sold out in about a minute is downright cruel and goes against the egalitarian spirit of the New Brooklyn movement, non?
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 cornichons

See Also
Rounding Up the Season’s Food Festivals
What You Need to Know About the 2012 New York City Wine & Food Festival

Le Fooding vs. Omnivore: Who Is Le Plus Brooklyn?