Victoria Blamey is Back.
Catch her for two nights in Residence at UPSTAIRS Public Records and then at her new place in Brooklyn opening at the end of the year.
My friends,
There are many talented chefs in this city, but one of my all time favorites is Victoria Blamey. If you’re scratching your head, trying to place who I am talking about, I’m glad you’re here reading this because she is just fantastic. And also because she’s soon going to be back to cooking for us, at a to-be-named restaurant in Brooklyn, hopefully by the end of the year.
I first got to know Victoria when I profiled her for New York Magazine back in 2021, when she was the opening chef in residence at Fulgurances Laundromat, hot off another residence at Blue Hill. But Victoria has been cooking for over 20 years.
Born and raised in Santiago, Chile, Victoria has cooked in some of the most celebrated kitchens around the globe: The Vineyard at Stockcross in Newbury, UK; Interlude in Melbourne, AU; Mugaritz in Errenteria, ES; and Abac in Barcelona, ES.
In 2010, Victoria arrived in New York and worked alongside Paul Liebrandt at Corton, and was then on the opening team of Atera with Chef Matt Lightner, which earned 2 Michelin Stars. In 2016, she became the executive chef of Chumley’s, which received two stars from The New York Times and was highlighted as one of Esquire’s “Best New Restaurants in America 2017.” In 2019, she joined Gotham Bar & Grill as executive chef, receiving a three-star review from NYT. So yeah, she’s a star.
When I met her at Fulgurances, she was finally in a place to set her own vision down on the page, an opportunity that was thrilling to someone so often relied on to ghost write someone else’s culinary story.
“I had never been presented with the opportunity to just do me,” she told me then. “This was the first time I was given the chance to say what I wanted to say about my roots and South America and food and culture.”
At Fulgurances, and then later at her beautiful restaurant Mena, (which shuttered unexpectedly after five months because of the poor judgment and unwieldy patriarchy of the restaurant’s owners), I was completely blown away by her food and her elegant and innovative approach to ingredients. “I think it’s an expression of who you are and where you’ve been – of your experiences,” she said.
Her menu at Fulgurances looked to the sea, shining a light on underutilized crops like seaweed. “I grew up eating seaweed in Chile,” Blamey told me. “I love that marine brine and I love seafood — and when you see how sustainable it is and how nutritious seaweed is, why would you not want to work with it more?”
Her food was dazzling: sheer slices of the silver Monkfish crudo rolled in a mix of dry sea lettuce and cacho de cabra chiles, then torched quickly, and paired with bok choy, pickled sugar kelp leaf, candied dulse, and more cacho de cabra.
In a riff on barley risotto, the grain was nixtamalized and paired with cracked red wheat, then cooked with pistachio butter, lovage, mint, green garlic, tarragon, English peas, razor clams, and spruce tips.
But the most impressive of all might have been a dessert: a cloud of white dotted with what might be chocolate sprinkles elsewhere, but is — you guessed it — seaweed. Blamey had infused rich Colombian chocolate ganache with Irish Moss seaweed, then layered on kombu butter, and toasted hazelnuts. It was crowned with a frothy milk cloud and sprinkled with dulse seaweed cured with unrefined cane sugar. It was mind blowing.
Now we come to the best part of this post (Yes I buried the lede!). This week Victoria is leaning into her love of seaweed and all sorts of vegetables for a completely plant-based dinner at UPSTAIRS at Public Records in Gowanus. “I bet you guys didn’t know that I have done vegan dishes for the past 6 years?!,” she wrote on Instagram. “Honestly, without the intention of doing plant based I have been around it for a long time.”
Victoria will be cooking for two very special nights, showcasing her unique vision and culinary style. I’ll be there and hope to see you there too! And soon I’ll be able to tell you where to find her next! xoxo
Book your ticket ($65 per person) now on Resy for a three course meal plus welcome cocktail. Dinner is Thursday and Friday, 10.26 - 10.27 at UPSTAIRS at Public Records, located at 233 Butler St, in Gowanus, Brooklyn.