From left: Juan Morales, Michael Hung, Angelo Sosa, Jeremy Loomis, and Chantal Thornton.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY HEATHER WILLENSKY
Pier 57, one of the largest dock buildings in New York, juts out over the Hudson River. For most of its 117 years of existence, the building was full of the grunts of stevedors and warehousemen as they loaded and unloaded steam ships. Now, a different sort of traffic hums through the building. Much of the 630,000 square feet is occupied by Google, but on the ground floor, a food hall buzzes with dumpling mongers, oystermen, karaage-sellers, and taqueros. For one night in January, however, it was filled with the bounty of Palm Springs.
In the gleaming open kitchen of Platform by JBF, a showcase for chefs established in 2023 by the nonprofit James Beard Foundation, five chefs from the Coachella Valley took over the stations. They were there to preview Palm Desert Food & Wine, which runs March 21–24 at The Gardens on El Paseo, to a room full of New York gourmands, food influencers, and aficionados of the California desert. Like the Planeteers, each wore their own uniform as they tended to their food. Angelo Sosa of Top Chef fame wore a double-breasted jet black chef coat. Also in black: Jeremy Loomis of Trio Restaurant. Juan Morales of Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage, Michael Hung of Steve Hermann Hotels restaurants The Colony Club and SO·PA, and pastry chef Chantal Thornton of Parker Palm Springs elected for crisp whites. Assisted by a crew from the James Beard House, the chefs worked head down, often helping each other — a tangle of ambition and limbs.
Chefs preparing dishes.
Angelo Sosa.
As the chefs crafted their plates, we diners mingled. Servers carrying trays of technicolor disks — ember-roasted purple yam atop 26-month aged tepary bean molé negro — and mounds of Alaskan king crab with burnt leek aioli and miso salsa macha, wove between us. Before they could even fully pronounce the name of their cargo, their trays were emptied. Appetites were, apparently, whet.
Sosa, whose Tía Carmen restaurant recently opened at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa, played the part of evening emcee. With his hair carefully coiffed and a smile easily deployed, he told a story about cooking as a child with his Dominican aunt, Tía Carmen. As he spoke, servers silently deployed the first course: tuna crudo in a bright yellow coconut broth, accented by smoked chili oil, dill, and jicama. Sosa’s culinary influences range from Southeast Asia to the Caribbean to France.
Chefs working in the kitchen.
Juan Morales.
Jeremy Loomis.
Equally delicious, as evidenced by clean plates heading back to the kitchen, the next course by Michael Hung clung closely to the Coachella Valley terroir. Dates are, and have been for the last hundred years, the life marrow of the desert destination, where the dry heat and access to subterranean aquifers mimic the climes of North Africa and the Middle East. More than 95 percent of dates in the United States come from the California agriculture hub. It was only fitting that they played a starring role. Hung’s course, a roasted bone marrow tartine, presented a decadent yet taut balance of flavors. The slight bitterness of the black rye (from Coachella Valley bakery Aspen Mills) — topped with unctuous bone marrow, crunch from sunflower seeds, and brininess of transmontanus caviar — was woven together with the sweetness of the date emulsion. (The crisp minerality of a Domaine Laetitia Ducroux Sancerre also helped.)
Angelo Sosa's Tuna Crudo in Coconut Broth.
Again and again, dates manifested in their full array. In the next course, Jeremy Loomis’ wild boar pappardelle, a celebration of local farms including mushrooms from Canyon Creek and Swiss chard from Aziz Farms, incorporated a fermented date syrup that added an almost balsamic tang. In Chantel Thornton’s final course, a sticky apple-date cake paired with a 20-year-old tawny port, the sweetness of dates finally unfurled in all its glory.
By the end of the night, loosened by wine and the conviviality of the meal, the diners had fallen into deep conversation (overhead topics included: love, line dancing, and Udo Kier). If we were surprised that the chefs did not bid us farewell, it’s because they too had bonded and could be found in the kitchen doing bumps of leftover caviar and high-fiving for a night well done.
Michael Hung's Roasted Bone Marrow Tartine.
Jeremy Loomis' Wild Boar Pappardelle.
Juan Morales' A5 Kobe Tenderloin.
Chantal Thorton Sticky Apple-Date Cake
It’s a Date!
Date palms arrived in the Coachella Valley in the 1890s. While exploring overseas during expeditions led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, researchers discovered the arid environs of the Middle East bore many similarities to the Coachella Valley. Fascinated by the sugary, shriveled fruit and eager to grow it stateside, they imported seeds and offshoots to test their adaptability to the Southern California terrain.
Chefs using local dates.
The dates flourished and grew into the area’s most important crop. The Coachella Valley has become the country’s largest supplier. One of the sweetest fruits, dates contain essential nutrients including fiber, B vitamins, and minerals like potassium and copper.
During the Palm Desert Food & Wine preview dinner at Platform by JBF, local dates peacocked their versatility in various forms, subtly teasing date-related events happening during the festival that include a bus tour of local farms led by celebrity chef Aarti Sequeira and a cooking demonstration with her and Aziz Farms co-owner Mark Tadros.