There is plenty on LIBA’s menu to catch an Italian food lover’s eye, from bluefin tuna carpaccio with pistachios to brick-oven bread served with olive oil, grilled peppers and olives. The restaurant’s seasonal vegetables, simply prepared seafood and generous use of garlic and lemon also recall the cooking of Southern Italy, where many of the same ingredients are used daily.
But LIBA’s menu travels well beyond Italy. The new kosher restaurant in Brooklyn draws from Chef Maayan Glass’ Mediterranean and Middle Eastern roots, with dishes such as Tartlet de Tunis, Kebab Napoleon and bread baked in an 800-degree brick oven.
In a recent conversation with Appetito, Glass dicussed the ingredients that define LIBA and what he hopes diners remember on the ride home.
What ingredients or flavors best represent LIBA's identity?
Olive oil, garlic, chili and lemon. These are the foundations of LIBA’s cooking and the flavors we return to most often. We use them simply and intentionally—not to overpower the ingredients, but to bring out their natural character and allow the produce to shine.
Which dish took the longest to get right?
We dedicated months to developing and perfecting the recipes. Some dishes came together after only one or two moves. We tasted them, looked at each other, and said “This is it.” Others required much more research, testing and fine-tuning. Our bread, for example, went through a long development process before we found exactly what we were looking for. The same was true for our dry-aging process. We tested different cuts of meat across different aging periods to understand what produced the best flavor and texture.
What's one rule of cooking that you love breaking?
Balance for the sake of balance. Some ingredients want to be pushed to the edge—to be extremely acidic, spicy, sweet, bitter or smoky, and we let them be. Not everything needs to be rounded out or corrected. Food isn’t mathematics.
What role does the brick oven play in your day-to-day cooking?
We use it during prep to char vegetables and build flavours, and during service to bake our bread and finish many dishes. It's the heart of our kitchen.
Is there a dish you think guests will be surprised by?
I hope all!
When you taste a dish for the final time before it goes on the menu, what are you looking for?
The most important: does it taste good? Then I ask myself what story it tells and how it will find its way to a guest's heart?
What do you hope people are talking about on the ride home after eating at LIBA?
I hope they’re checking their calendars with each other, trying to figure out when they can come back.
If you had to cook one meal that tells your story as a chef, what would be on the table?
A salad made with every vegetable that is at its absolute peak at that moment.
What has been the most rewarding part of opening this restaurant?
Watching something that lived in our heads for so long become real. You spend months talking about the food, the space, the feeling and all these tiny details, and then one night you look around and there are people sitting at the tables, eating the food, drinking, talking and experiencing exactly what you imagined.
Love discovering Italy one bite at a time? Subscribe to the free Appetito newsletter for the latest in Italian food, travel and favorite recipes.
