Frankie Edozien Pierre Thiam, pictured holding his book “Yolele,” competed on “Iron Chef America.”

Pierre Thiam, owner of the Brooklyn restaurants Yolele and Le Grand Dakar, competed against Bobby Flay in “Battle: Papaya” on “Iron Chef America,” which aired Sunday. Mr. Flay won the cooking contest, but Mr. Thiam said he was more concerned with competing against himself, a battle he feels he won.

Tonight at Le Grand Dakar, at 285 Grand Avenue, you can ring in summer and celebrate Mr. Thiam’s “Iron Chef” appearance at the Senagalese Summer party, which will feature African music and art, food and unlimited sangria. Tickets are $25 ($30 at the door).

We sat down with Mr. Thiam to talk about battle papaya, as well as tonight’s party. Here is the condensed interview:

How did you get to be on Iron Chef?

They called me one day. I got a message that there was a call from California to call back. And I called back and it was “Iron Chef,” asking me to be on the show.

What did you do to prepare?

I had about a month’s notice before the show, so I selected my sous chefs. At the time I was giving a class at the French Culinary Institute. I did a session. I realized that they had the whole amazing state-of-the-art kitchen just like the one on “Iron Chef,” and they allowed me to use the kitchen for my training. Every week I would go three or four times with my team, and we would just prepare, have fun with those toys and gadgets in the kitchen.
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Andrea Swalec Just Taste It owner Christina Ross thinks that in a recession, people need comfort food.

Who opens a business during a recession? A Brooklyn mom who’s as handy with a jackhammer as she is with a spatula.

Six months ago, Christina Ross opened Just Taste It, the tiny, “New American-slash-Southern” restaurant on Fulton Street between Vanderbilt and Clinton.

A Bedford-Stuyvesant resident who grew up in Midwood, Ms. Ross, 31, spent 10 years repairing  the city’s subways until injuries from a October 2008 car accident changed her plans.

“I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go back to work,” Ms. Ross said. “And I really loved what I was doing. I had to think, ‘What am I going to do with myself now?’ My husband was like, ‘Think about what you really like to do.’ So, I sat there and was like, ‘I love cooking.’”

With the economic downturn in full swing, Ms. Ross cashed in her pension, ran up her credit cards and opened Just Taste It.

Ms. Ross sat down with The Local to talk about her business, her background and the changing face of Clinton Hill.

Were you afraid to open a business during a recession?

I don’t think I was afraid to open this type of business during a recession, mainly because food is a comfort. You might not go to a high-end restaurant [during a recession], but people still like the comfort food. And I’m doing something that, if you’re working long hours or dealing with kids, you still have something that’s at a decent price, that’s kind of fast. And, for the most part, a lot of our items are healthy.
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Serena da Conceicao The Green Apple Cafe has been closed for a few weeks, neighbors said.

The Green Apple Café, at 110 DeKalb Ave., closed on Feb. 28, said a woman who would only identify herself as “an interested party in the building” when The Local called the number on the for-rent sign in the window. She declined to say what new business would open in the space, but said, “Hopefully it will be an asset to the community.” There were no active building permits at this address, according to an online search of the Department of Buildings.

A reverse phone number search showed that the number on the sign belongs to Nidoj Realty Corporation, which owns the building.

Former Green Apple owners Misha and Tatyana Chiporukha did not reply to requests for comment.

Community contributor Serena da Conceicao offered these reflections on the demise of the café – and a novel idea about how to help local small businesses:

The Green Apple Café closed. Usually I just saw the slightly scruffy, long-haired barista smoking cigarettes outside, watching Brooklyn Tech students cover the sidewalk in waves, hardly aware of the commuters treading opposite them.

What happened?

I went in there once. You could see it was in trouble, although the coffee was strong and those pre-wrapped, homemade sandwiches looked good. I wonder if the boxes of tea and other dry goods ever felt the scrape of the counter or heard the ring of the register. In that location, the customer base was mostly students and hospital employees. Most of us passed Bittersweet first.

I’m sure all of us could have provided enough input (criticism?) to help keep the Green Apple open. It makes me want to build precious little opinion boxes and hand them out to local businesses – places for “anonymous suggestions,” with a notepad and glitter pen attached.

Good luck in your new venture, Green Apple Café owners. And thanks for trying.

What do you think of Ms. da Conceicao’s idea? Let us know in the comments below.

Andrea Swalec A knee injury slowed down Djamal Zoughbi, owner of Kif, but he plans to reopen the restaurant on Friday.

The Local spied Kif’s security gate pulled halfway up on Sunday, so we stopped by to ask if the restaurant would reopen.

Owner Djamal Zoughbi, who was inside painting and listening to French composer Maurice Ravel, said he hopes to open the French/Moroccan restaurant’s doors again on Friday. Kif closed its doors in January, as Clinton Hill Blog reported.

Mr. Zoughbi had knee surgery in January and had planned to close the restaurant for only a few days, he said. Instead, he spent two months resting in his hometown, Paris. “My body said stop, so I listened. I had no choice,” he said.

In addition to a new paint job, Kif will have a new menu, with more tapas dishes and more organic food. The restaurant will open for breakfast, offer a wireless Internet connection and sell “picnic boxes” to take to the park, Mr. Zoughbi said. Also, Kif will sell Moroccan products like preserved lemons, olives, spices and argan oil.

Two chefs from Las Vegas will join the staff: Nicholas Littell, formerly of the French restaurant Joël Robuchon in the MGM Grand Hotel, and Steven Ferdinand, formerly of the French restaurant Le Cirque at the Bellagio Hotel.

What won’t change, though, are Kif’s prices, Mr. Zoughbi said.

Kathryn Kirk Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and restaurateurs at the Dine in Brooklyn kickoff event at Brooklyn Borough Hall on March 2.

‘Dine in Brooklyn’ kicked off on Monday with more than 200 restaurants, many in FG/CH, serving up three-course dinner menus for $25 and lunch menus for $20.10.

The 11-day culinary fest is Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz’s annual initiative with Best of Brooklyn, Inc., a company that tries to promote tourism to the borough.

This year some restaurants are dropping prices even lower with special meals-for-two offers ($20.10 for brunch or lunch and $25 for dinner menus). Read more…

Welcome to Friday. What are your weekend plans? Dinner out?

With all its restaurants, old standbys and newcomers alike, and the food vendors at the Flea (more on them later today), this neighborhood is really a diner’s paradise. Today, as restaurants stock their pantries with raspberries and chocolate for Valentine’s Day, one of the busiest eating out nights of the year, we’re reminded that food service employees don’t have it as good as we eaters. For one, restaurant folk are just beginning the busy part of their week. While nine-to-fivers brunch and canoodle over dinner for two, cooks, servers and staff spend the weekend working late, coming in early or both. Of course, that comes with the territory in the service industry. But what’s got us thinking this morning is this story from the Brooklyn Paper about yet another Brooklyn restaurant, One Greene Sushi Lounge this time around, that’s accused of not properly paying their workers.

Who out there works in restaurants, cafes and bars in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill? Do you make a livable wage? Diners, is this something you think about when you eat out?

Chris O’Shea Robin Richardson, left, and Biola Odunewu started the Pillow Cafe-Lounge in 2004.

Biola Odunewu and Robin Richardson, co-owners of Pillow Cafe-Lounge have served up their organic and health-conscious sandwiches and breakfast foods to Fort Greene since 2004. Yes, there are pillows, but the co-owners have found that there’s more to building a comfortable neighborhood café than that. Ms. Odunewu, who has lived in the neighborhood for 10 years, and Ms. Richardson, who has lived here for for 21 years, discussed how they established their business in a changing neighborhood. And in the process, they even admitted to enjoying Rod Stewart.

How did you decide that you wanted to open a business?

Odunewu: I always wanted to open a café, and both of us live in the neighborhood. There was nowhere to really get breakfast and sandwiches at the time. Then I got laid off work and so I was like, “Let’s do this now.” We eventually found a space that was small enough that we could manage it with just the both of us.

And how was it when you first opened?

Odunewu: Slow. Really, really slow. For the first month we were like, “Okay, I don’t know…” Then it caught on. It seemed to have coincided with everyone starting to move here. We started having the same people come, and I liked seeing the same people over again because I felt that meant we were doing something right.
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Amy Sly Kush’s owner and chef, Samuel Beket.

The odds are good you’ve passed by Kush Café at 17 Putnam Avenue and never noticed it. Nestled in the middle of the short, cramped block, near the triangular corridor where Fulton, Grand and Cambridge Place intersect, the restaurant, which opened in 2005, is known for its upscale, French-influenced pan-African dishes. Its red awning is a gateway into an African-styled bistro, complete with a full bar, pan-African artwork and a friendly chef, Samuel Beket, who regularly mingles with his customers. Mr. Beket has good reason to survey his patrons: He’s also the owner.

As the youngest of seven children, growing up just a stone’s throw from the sea in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Mr. Beket was never supposed to run a restaurant. In his family, there were traditions: His father was an accountant; his brothers were accountants; his sisters were accountants. And if everything worked out as planned, he too would have studied accounting and gone on to open a successful practice in America.

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The author, rear right, and his friends at their semi-private table at EN.

Updated Jan. 8. See bottom of post.

It’s been a long time since EN of Africa, the Nigerian restaurant at Lafayette and Cumberland, was expected to open.

It finally has, but you know what? With the way things went down when my friends and I visited, perhaps the owners should have waited a little bit longer.

The staff was really nice and welcoming, but late-arriving entrees, cold food, missing menu items galore, check mix-ups were a little too much to handle.

Anyway, here’s a play-by-play:

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