Bringing Fourth Flavors

To create a flavorful Fourth of July for Club Members, one of New York’s top chefs returns to where his culinary journey began.

Before the gleaming tower of Tokyo Midtown brightened the area past Roppongi’s iconic crossing, the bustle quickly tapered off into dark streets meandering toward the National Art Center.

It was in this small neighborhood in the early 1990s that Gramercy Tavern Executive Chef Michael Anthony, who will visit the Club from New York this month to cook up the Club’s Independence Day menu, got his start.

“I stumbled upon it by writing a letter to Clint Hall, the then culinary critic of the International Herald Tribune,” Anthony recalls. “I wanted to get some practical experience to put in an application to the Tsuji cooking school. I asked if he had suggestions for where to start. ‘I know someone,’ he wrote back.”

Hall agreed to meet Anthony and introduced him to Bistro Shima, run by a woman who had worked for years at a legendary restaurant in France. “Shizuyo Shima was an incredible pioneer as a female chef and as a Japanese cook,” Anthony says. “I basically sat down very nervously in an interview and I had to promise that I would follow the rules and work hard. Little did I know, I was stepping into the lion’s den. Looking back, I’m quite thankful that she treated me seriously. She taught me most of the foundation of what I needed to know to get a start in this business.”

Landing at Bistro Shima was the culmination of a journey that started the day after Anthony graduated from Indiana University. He moved to Tokyo and began trading English lessons for cooking lessons. “I was living in Kita Koshigaya and met a group of middle-aged women. I tapped into these circles and learned how people cook at home.”

The influence of home-prepared dishes carried from his apprenticeship at Shima Bistro to his formal training at the École Supérieure de Cuisine Française in Paris and on to New York and Gramercy Tavern.

“I use the influence of how we like to eat at home to inspire dishes at the restaurant, because ultimately we are trying to confuse the notion of whether people have gone out or come home to eat,” explains Anthony, who is now leading the transformation of dining outlets at the historic Waldorf Astoria in addition to guiding Gramercy Tavern.

“Instead of taking the most complex, precise of cooking techniques that I learned, I employ the way home cooks put together simple dishes that are fresh and lovely. It builds into hospitality and warmth, an all-American approachability.”

Anthony is excited to bring his skills and philosophy back across the Pacific to delight the taste buds and memories of Members as the Club marks America’s 248th birthday.

“My parents were pretty social and loved to throw Fourth of July parties,” he recalls of growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio. “These were like the stereotypical events with sparklers and fireworks, and we would invite neighbors over and play softball.”

Food also played a key role, and Anthony wants to share that experience with Members. “We’re gonna serve watermelon, we’re gonna serve corn, we’re gonna serve a burger,” he says. “We’re gonna serve foods that connect with childhood memories.”

“For the Club, I’m going to do a slightly more contemporary version of a tiny tart, with compressed watermelon served with heirloom tomatoes and herbs,” he continues. “It’s a more delicate bite, and hopefully one that will satisfy, eyes closed, someone who might’ve grown up in the Midwest who has memories of spitting watermelon seeds around the backyard.”

The burger Anthony will offer has origins in his early years at Gramercy Tavern. “I swore I would never, ever put a burger on our menu,” he reveals. “I wanted people to see our restaurant through the lens of a wide variety of nuanced foods. You can get a burger anywhere. And yet we cooked on a wood-burning grill. We had a great pastry chef who was an excellent baker.”

Reality hit. “As Americans—and it’s not just us, it’s the world—we cannot get enough of burgers; there’s this insatiable and insane appetite for this American sandwich,” he admits. So, he crafted one, and it has become the most popular thing on the menu.

Anthony will serve up a smashing Wagyu-Angus variation of his burger at the Club’s Independence Day After-Party at 51 East on the evening of July 6 and at American Bar & Grill from July 1 to 12.

“We’ll top it with caramelized onions and browned mushrooms and serve it on a beautiful, soft, squishy brioche bun that has just a touch of sweetness,” he describes with delight.

Anthony says that putting the burger on the Club’s menu is an attempt to cook up pure pleasure and a little something more. “It’s me taking off that attitude and hat that I’ve worn for so long. I’m not talking about the future of contemporary American cooking, I’m just saying, you know what, it’s the Fourth of July, y’all. Let’s eat something we love.”