Craft opened in 2001 on an idea that sounded almost too plain to work.
Colicchio stripped the restaurant down to its ingredients and handed the composition to the diner. You chose your proteins, your vegetables, your sides, and the kitchen cooked each one with a discipline that hid how hard it was. Nothing on the plate was decorative. The food was the argument, and the argument was that sourcing and technique were enough. The James Beard Foundation named Craft the best new restaurant in America in 2002. The New York Times gave it three stars. A generation of cooks passed through that kitchen and went on to open their own rooms across the city.
