(gentle music)
- [Ignacio Mattos] I love going to places
where I know what I'm going to get.
Like, if I'm going to go eat this place
I know they do these things really well
then I always get that thing.
So, Estela, it's meant to be that.
(gentle music)
This is Ignacio Mattos. We are at Estela
and this is where Hollywood eats in New York City.
What I feel when I walk into the kitchen
is complete comfort.
It's just like, I'm part of it.
(lively music)
I've been doing it for so long that it's like
total comfort and ease.
Orchestrating a kitchen, it's just seeing it
operating at a certain level of efficiency.
It's pretty gratifying.
(lively music)
And walking out the door and saying "that was good."
It's just cracking that little smile and saying okay,
and we do it tomorrow again.
It's just a good feeling.
(lively music)
So, we're going to do endive salad.
Very simple.
- Endive salad with walnuts, anchovy, and ubriaco rosso,
which is a type of cheese.
- [Ignacio] It's quite transparent food.
It's very clean and some say it's bold.
- It's bold, but it's familiar.
- [Ignacio] But it's how we like eating.
We like direct but clean flavors.
We do have some breadcrumbs,
toasted walnuts,
an anchovy vinaigrette with the notorious chunks of anchovy.
Very generous.
And now we kind of work it out.
And there's some of the cheese.
So, you have all these rich elements, right?
At the bottom.
It's very deep in flavor.
And then we're going to do endives, and they have this
very light, vibrant, and alive and refreshing texture.
(light music)
There's a little bit of hiding in how we present the food.
It's a sense of discovery.
Olive oil, and it's done.
(lively music)
I want it to--you look at the plate and you're like,
okay, this is Estela.
They say, "that's Estela."
The endive salad, Estela.
The tartare, Estela.
(lively music)
I'm very grateful for what New York
gives to everywhere else.
New York dictates all trends.
The place has got certain recognition
but still a neighborhood place.
And we have a lot of these regulars
that are here, like, 3 or 4 times a week.
And this is the beauty about New York,
nobody cares who you are.
You're like, cool, you are so-and-so, great.
But one-- I might interrupt,
yes, it can change, if you get
President Obama coming to the restaurant.
So, this friend was sitting there and it was like,
"listen, the President of the United States coming."
We kicked our friend off the table.
He didn't believe us, he's sitting,
all of a sudden see Obama, he's in tears.
And it was truly insane.
So they sat there, they had a certain time to be in and out.
And it was very beautiful to see what a generous being.
The presence of this guy.
He walk in, everybody was cheering.
It was crazy.
So we're doing this ricotta dumpling.
- While those are cooking,
this is the mushroom broth
just made from bud mushrooms that we melt with butter.
- You should put it on a chart and sell it.
Like, you put it in a microwave and just drink it.
It would be the perfect cure for a hangover.
We're working on that.
I just love doing what I do.
There is a creative outlet to it
within that comforting element
but it also, it's regenerating
and coming out with new ideas and new dishes
but it's still how we keep our DNA intact
that we find the identity of the place itself.
I have very clear what the purpose is
of what it is that I do.
It's providing this experience and taking care of people
and making sure that people are connecting.
For me it's very important
the integrity and the quality and the experiments,
no compromise, no matter the goal that we have.
(lively music)