“Fuck you if you want to be French,” cries Cesare Casella in the latest chapter of The Amazing Adventures of Casella and Bouley in the kitchen. The force field that is David Bouley and the immoveable object that is a Tuscan chef, Cesare Casella met in the kitchen yesterday to work together on Italian dishes for the menu for Bouley’s supposedly about-to-open Secession, where Danube was. Why did Casella leave so early Monday?
“David disappeared in the middle of the cooking so I left.” Comes a frantic call on his cell from Bouley asking why. “No problem,” Casella responds. "I leave my executive chef working with your executive chef,” says Cesare. The two agree to return for another bout.
About the calamari. “Bouley says he is liking the calamari but it would be better with some orange and lemon. I say ‘Fuck you if you want to be French. You ask me for Italian. Fuck you orange and lemon. When you cook Italian you do the recipe and then you take away one ingredient’," says Cesare. “That’s Italian.”
Bouley, a whirling dervish still talking about opening both Secession and the new Bouley across the street in the next ten days, could not be found by a staffer who went to look for him. Bouley’s reservationist would not take my anonymous reservation. “Not for two or three weeks,” she said.
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