Behind the Scenes at the Bites with Bowery Dinner with Tom Colicchio

A few weeks ago, we held the first “Bites with Bowery” dinner, co-hosted by our partner and advisor Tom Colicchio. We invited an intimate group of chefs and industry experts, food and culture writers, bloggers, and content creators to experience firsthand what Bowery is about — the purest produce imaginable.

The setting was Little River at Riverpark, a sleek metal and glass cube that juts out against the East River in NYC, and is one of Tom Colicchio’s farm-to-table restaurants famous for featuring produce from their own urban garden. That night, however, Bowery greens were the only produce on the inventive four-course menu by Chef Colicchio.

Upon entering the cube, guests were greeted by two large, 8 foot edible living walls made from Bowery produce! While some of our guests found this so tempting they considered snacking straight off the wall, we successfully ushered most over to the bar to try the featured cocktail, a spring & sorrel tonic garnished fresh-off-the-stem from a bartop arrangement of red and green Bowery sorrel.

As guests mingled, Chef Colicchio got to work on the first course: tuna crudo with Bowery wasabi arugula.

Before guests sat down to enjoy, Irving Fain, Bowery’s CEO and co-founder, welcomed guests and explained the purpose of the evening — to create a current of support for our vision to provide better access to fresh food in urban environments by transforming the face of agriculture.

Chef Colicchio also said a few words and invited guests to taste a leaf of Bowery wasabi arugula, one of his favorites, directly from their plates. When Colicchio first learned that we can manipulate the flavor of our greens by using our software system BoweryOS to tweak certain variables such as nutrients and light intensity, he asked if we could increase the spice level of this crop for his restaurants. Our guests seemed to think we had hit the mark, as a collective murmur broke out in the room when the spice kicked in.

Needless to say, everyone left the meal feeling full and inspired by the part we all play in transforming the future of food. Guests were invited to recreate a gourmet experience at home using a package of Bowery arugula and some small-batch green goddess dressing made with Bowery herbs. We invite those of you at home to do the same using the chef’s recipe below.

Green goddess dressing

1 cup sour cream
2 cups buttermilk
¼ cup parsley
¼ cup Bowery basil
¼ cup chives
1 each garlic clove
1 tbs red wine vinegar
Salt to taste

Place all ingredients into food processor and blend till herbs thoroughly incorporated.

We want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who attended and supported our first event, and to everyone who has supported us in some way or another so far. We look forward to continued opportunities to share our produce with the world.

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