I bumped into Seamus Mullen at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York City where he was part of Corningware’s 
Fashion Kitchen, demonstrating recipes served in the new colorful CW bakeware. His roasted kabocha squash with pomegranate yogurt was my favorite, but had way too many steps and ingredients to share.
I suggest instead you try cooking from Seamus Mullen’s Hero Food or stop in at one of his restaurants, serving his inventive modern Spanish cuisine — if you’re in NYC or London. There’s Tertulia (West Village) or El Colmado (Gotham West Market) in NYC and the just-opened Sea Containers, the signature restaurant in the new Mondrian Hotel (London). This fall Seamus will open El Colmado Butchery, a Spanish tapas bar-meets-butcher shop in the Meatpacking District (Little West 12th Street) that will serve food and wine, plus have a working butcher counter.
I caught up with Seamus after the Fashion Kitchen to get his responses to our guest foodie questions.
– bonnie
Which food product or gadget would you never give up? Olive oil! I could not cook without olive oil. Not only is it the foundation of any Mediterranean-based cuisine, with an incredible range of varieties and uses, it’s also really good for you and chock full of healthy fats. As someone who’s battled rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that attacks the joints, eating foods with anti-inflammatory properties has been a huge part 
of how I’ve been able to turn my health around.
What do you like to serve when you entertain? I like to keep things fairly simple and uncomplicated. As a professional chef, things are complicated enough in the kitchen at work, so at home, I want to keep it laid back. The point of entertaining is to have fun with your guests and show them a good time, not to be sweating over the stove all night. Tacos are one of my favorite things to serve at home – you can do most of the prep in advance, and everyone helps themselves so it’s really fun and interactive. I’ll marinate some skirt steak and pork and grill those up, and I always make my own salsa verde.
In the summer, I love making paella outside, which is where it’s meant to be cooked. Paella is the ultimate one-pot meal. Everyone loves gathering around the giant pan over the open fire – visually it’s very impressive. And delicious.
In the wintertime, it’s all about rich, hearty stews. Again, keeping things simple so that you can actually enjoy yourself and spend time with your guests. You can make stews in advance, with varying degrees of complexity or simplicity, depending on how ambitious you’re feeling.
Describe your “last meal?” Heirloom tomatoes with Cantabrian anchovies, fresh burrata, arbequina olive oil, fifty-year-old balsamic vinegar and fresh herbs. Santa Barbara sea urchin with toro tuna, finely minced and topped with Osetra caviar and fresh wasabi. And lots of sushi.
What food is your secret guilty pleasure? Ice cream. I try to eat very healthy most of the time, but I’m a sucker for enjoying late night ice cream.
What is your go-to neighborhood restaurant? There is a wonderful little Japanese restaurant in Brooklyn Heights called Hibino. It’s on Henry Street just south of Atlantic Avenue. They have excellent sushi and wonderful small plates called obanzai, which is a style of home-cooking from Kyoto. It’s a very casual, unassuming spot but it’s leagues above your average sushi delivery joint.
What is one food product most people don’t know about, but should? It’s not that people don’t know about it, it’s that people don’t know enough about it or appreciate anchovies! Anchovies have a terrible reputation here in the United States, and probably rightly so, because most people have not experienced anchovies or sardines the way they produce them in Europe. Spain especially is famous for their preserved seafoods. Anchovies can be incredibly delicious. They definitely pack a lot of punch, so I wouldn’t suggest eating them by the mouthful. But a little goes a long way, and they are incredibly good for you as they are very high in Omega-3 fatty acids. At Tertulia, we serve Tosta Matrimonio, a tapas dish of black and white anchovies with sheep’s milk cheese and slow-roasted tomato on a flax and quinoa crisp. We’ve made many an anchovy convert from this one little dish! I use anchovies in a variety of ways – I’ll chop them and toss into salads or even scrambled eggs at breakfast; I also use them often to make vinaigrettes and sauces.
Describe your worst kitchen disaster and how (if possible) you saved it: The most recent memory is when we first opened Tertulia. I believe it was one of our very first dinner services – if not THE first dinner service – and I was working on our brand spanking new wood-fired grill. It’s a full dining room and I’m busy managing all the tickets and grilling some steaks at the same time when the new ansul system gets incorrectly triggered. That system then dumps white powder all over my beautiful new grill, ruining pretty much all the dishes we were making at the time, including those gorgeous steaks. We couldn’t use the grill for the rest of service so we had to make do without it.
Who was your most influential mentor? I think I learned the most about cooking (and not just Spanish cooking) from Jordi Vilá, the chef I worked for at Alkimia. His food is very much rooted in Catalan tradition, but incorporates new ingredients and techniques that not only bring out the best in Catalan cuisine, but makes it his own. I was really inspired by this confluence of tradition and technique and it’s something I try to instill in my cooks every day.
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