I first heard of Mina Stone years ago when a friend did some work for the artist Urs Fischer. He reported back, they have a chef there cooking for everyone! We talked about when you sit down at a big table and share a meal and how it really changes the atmosphere of the place—eating with your coworkers and having that moment of connection. I wrote her name down in a notebook and forgot about it until her lovely cookbook, Cooking for Artists, came out. It’s full of art and simple recipes in her Greek-ish style. I’ve used it often, cooking for my family and in the Put A Egg On It studio kitchen. When I heard she was taking over the PS1 restaurant space, I was super psyched to see how her style would translate to a full-on restaurant. Heather Clark and I cruised over to check it out, and had a gorgeous meal of tiny plates in the process.

Mina by the window in her restaurant at PS1.

Simon: Hello! I want to start with a question around going from home cooking to restaurant cooking and some of the things you learned in the process. Do you have any stories about that, things you weren't expecting or ways you had to change?

Mina: Yeah, it’s really interesting. I said, as we were opening this restaurant, that if I were to open up a second one I would really want to actually have home kitchen equipment in the restaurant. All the restaurant equipment freaked me out and was a learning curve. I was actually wondering if that changes the taste of food? Cause you know, I've always been obsessed by why, when you go to a restaurant, you always leave and are like “oof” but you never really feel that way when you have a home-cooked meal. I thought, “Maybe it's the equipment? Maybe it's the ovens or the . . . ?” And now I’m like, “Maybe it’s the sanding solution?”

Simon: Maybe!

Heather: Also the butter and salt.

Mina: Yeah. Basically, the learning curve in opening a restaurant is learning all the department of health codes. And doing everything in the right way has actually really given me so much respect for people who operate restaurants and, oh my god! But I'm trying to really adhere to keeping the same quality of ingredients that I used in cooking out of my house. So you know, we might be totally screwing ourselves because we're just like, pouring high quality olive oil all over all the food.

Simon: It's so good though! We interviewed Gabriela Camara from Contramar in our current issue, and I asked her that same question actually. She was like, “You know when I was first in the kitchen, I was constantly putting stuff from the spoon on my arm and licking it, and everyone was like ‘You can't do that!’” and she said it was the most difficult muscle memory sort of thing to stop doing in the kitchen.

Mina: Yeah!

Simon: I can imagine myself doing the same thing, just not knowing all the sort of etiquette that one needs.

Mina: Yeah totally, there is all this etiquette. What's really fun about the restaurant kitchen is I learned all the lingo! Like “Heard!” — I use that now in my life, somebody says something and I'll be like “Heard.” It has such a good connotation.

Simon: Totally. What are some other ones?

Mina: “All day!” When the tickets are coming . . . One dish comes in and then a second of the same dish comes in, then someone says, for example, “two Muhammara toasts all day” just meaning like, it’s complete, that's all. So someone isn’t like “Wait is it one? Or two? Or three?”

Heather: I heard that one on a tv show but I didn’t know what it meant.

Mina: It’s so arbitrary too, you could pick anything for it to mean that, so yeah.

Simon: I like that one.

Mina: So there’s learning the lingo and then also the things that people say that like, “Hot behind!” or “On your left!” are very real and there are reasons for it. Even like people calling you chef, which I was really weirded out by and which does not happen in my kitchen actually, but when shit is crazy you really do need the efficiency of someone just saying “I got it, yes chef,” you know?

Heather: Totally.

Mina: So that made sense to me suddenly.

Simon: That’s cool. The other question that I love to ask is, what do you daydream about when you cook?

Mina: I get kind of meditative about the complete project when I'm cooking and then, I guess, I daydream about the person eating the food. I don’t know if that sounds weird or not!

When I cooked for artists throughout the past 15 years, I was daydreaming about them and then thinking, “Well if they ate this today, what are they gonna want the next day?” It’s like, I’m kind of becoming them, through what they eat. And then sometimes, it’s related to what I want to eat as well, so some tapping into myself and my own appetite.

Simon: Yeah. It's like finding a connection with the people that you’re serving.

Mina: Yes, and it's about really checking in with me. For example, I just got back from Miami. Firstly, it’s so nice, why don’t I live there!? And I was cooking a big dinner for these artists, Dara Friedman and Mark Handforth — just the loveliest people. I created this Greek menu for them and then thought, “Wait, I'm in Miami” and there is this place, do you guys know Miami?

Simon: A little bit.

Mina: What is that place called, El Palacio de los Jugos?

Simon: Yeah.

Mina: I love that place more than anything, I go every single day when I'm there. (laughs) I went there on this trip and suddenly, “I don't want to make Greek food, it’s something I’ve been making at the restaurant forever” and I started tapping into Miami and daydreaming about Miami and thinking about Cuban food and just being like, “This lime!”

Simon: Yeah like “What can I do?”

Mina: It's kind of like, I daydream about what is going to be inspiring.

Heather: This is the best gluten-free muffin I have had in my entire life. I’m sorry, it’s still warm and it’s too good to stop eating, did you want some?

Simon: Say what? It’s gluten free?

Mina: Haha, yes.

Heather: One of my very good friends is gluten-free and whenever she gets a baked good, I’m like, “Oh thanks, so nice and kind of you to share!”

Mina: They’re disgusting.

Simon: Yeah, like “Where is my water?”

Mina: I really don't know why! We don't do anything complicated, we just substitute the flour in a regular recipe. No binder, that's it!

Simon: My other question is another daydreamy one. I've read a bit about your family culinary inspiration, but do you have any unusual or non-culinary inspirations, perhaps literary or art-related?

Mina: I would say color, off the top of my head. I like everything in front of you to be colorful.

White anchovies are Simon’s favorite food.

Simon: I feel like the palate of this restaurant lends itself to color really popping on the plate.

Mina: Definitely. And that was the idea. Actually, your question ties into the design of the restaurant. Which was to provide a respite of the fact that, because the food is based on home cooking, it's kind of a concept of no concept. So you can come and enjoy a good meal and maybe just decompress.

Simon: Totally, it’s very relaxing in here.

Mina: Yeah that's the idea, it's kind of Greece meets Miami, two of my favorite places.

Simon: With the craziness of going to PS1 on a crowded day, it would be nice to come in here and relax.

Mina: Yeah, yeah!

Heather: Did you approach writing the menu differently for this place than you did when you catered?

Mina: Yes and no. On one hand, like what we were talking about earlier, I think just tapping into what people would like to eat in these weird hours between 12 to 6. Like, somebody’s going to want a hot lunch, somebody’s gonna want a salad and a soup, and then somebody will want a glass of wine and some snacks. So I tried to build the menu around that concept. And then when I cook lunches and catering and stuff like that, I like every dish to be able to work together. I think that you could actually order every single thing on the menu and still have it be really balanced. You wouldn’t be getting just a bunch of carbs or something like that. It would be salads and meze and fish, you know?

Heather: Are you planning on changing the menu to reflect what's put on at PS1? Do you feel like you’re inspired by or collaborating with the artists being shown?

Mina: I do a little bit, and it actually caught me off guard.

Heather: Cool!

Mina: I usually say no, but I think really, like for example the show across on this floor, I ended up going through the exhibit, and then stepping into an environment that is completely different didn’t really make sense to me. I felt really proud to have, even just the music playing or . . . almost more food of the Middle East. I was proud that ended up working together, instead of walking into a totally different, like peppy environment that didn't make sense with how people are processing.

Heather: Yeah. It's so good that you guys can come from this and then take a break and go see something. It's much different from most people’s fifteen minute break at work.

Mina: Yeah.

Heather: I read that you said your cooking is really inspired by your grandmother. Is there a dish that you really feel her presence in?

Mina: Yeah the chickpeas, the braised chickpeas are something she would always make and it was so good!

Heather: Cool.

Mina: And I think that that dish, I don’t think there is that much exposure to Greek home cooking or Greek peasant cooking, like people don’t know a lot about it. Like the Italian version of it, the French, I don't think people are as aware of what Greek home cooking is.

Simon: It doesn't seem so. I think in New York there are Greek diners, and then there is Greek food like fancy . . .

Mina: Exactly.

Simon: And both are good. But this is just like a middle thing that is totally different.

Mina: Yeah. I think it's really different, you know even some of the . . . and I love so many Greek restaurants, I love the diner, I love the high end stuff. I'm into it. I just never see lentils, I never see chickpeas on the menu, I never see the dishes I grew up with everyday, like braised green beans with potatoes, that you eat as a main meal.

Simon: That sounds so good.

Mina: And it's vegan! There's no meat, and it's just everyday food in Greece. So I'm not necessarily trying to do that here, I just feel like it's naturally happening because that's what I cook. So.

Simon: Awesome!

Heather: These napkins are so cute, I'm dying.

Mina: Thank you!

Heather: I feel like you can always tell when you’re in a fancy restaurant when you go to the bathroom and they have these kind of paper towels.

Mina: Yeah like “I’m a step up!”

Go visit Mina’s at PS1 and don’t go easy on the olive oil, it’s extra good!

ONE MINA STONE, ALL DAY