iCi Restaurant, Fort Greene

All images © Valery Rizzo

In November I photographed iCi Restaurant in Fort Greene, an on going project to be continued next year. For now we concentrated on the food, chef and owner portraits and next year we will be shooting the interior and exterior of the restaurant as well as some farmer portraits since the food at iCi is sourced from local farms.

A French restaurant, opened in 2004 by owner Catherine Saillard a wonderful woman from Provence, with the idea of serving food produced locally from small farmers to the community. Catherine would not feed anything to her customers that she would not feed to her own children in respect to the environment and the quality of the produce. iCi is good casual farm-to-table organic dining.

Every four weeks they change the menu based on the availability from the market and what the growers are producing for that season. The idea is fresh, local and seasonal food paired with rare and unusual wines. All wines are biodynamic and natural wines, which they choose the same way they choose their food, meaning that they are sourced from small vineyards and responsibly produced by people that care about the land.

iCi’s chef Nate Courtland is an amazing talent, magically whipping up dishes which are pieces of art. Some of the dishes seen here are Steamed Bouchot Mussels, Bouillabaisse, Ricotta Tartine, Croque Madame, Radishes with Butter, Short Ribs, Housemade Ricotta Cavatelli, Warm Chocolate Pumpkin Brownie with Seasonal Ice Cream and Panna Cotta.

For more about iCi and directions click here.