PROFILE: Downtown Lunch’er And Hopeful Food Network Star “Serena Palumbo”

As is customary here on Midtown Lunch, every Tuesday we’ll profile a different lunch’er and get their recommendations for places to eat in Downtown NYC. This week, we have Serena who is a finalist for the sixth season of “The Next Food Network Star” and also has an online cooking show called “Cooking In Manhattan.” She lists a pricey ingredient among her disliked foods.

Name: Serena Palumbo

Occupation: Attorney by day and cook by night

Where you work: on Wall Street

Age: 31, with good genes and good doctors

Favorite Kinds of Food: Italian, Sushi, Spanish tapas, South American. I was brought up with Italian food, and the best comfort food is a slice of eggplant parmigiana with some crunchy bread, or in the winter some ossobuco with gremolada and saffron risotto. Sushi is not really an acquired taste for me because I was brought up in Southern Italy with a great fish market so I have always loved raw fish.  Same applies for South American food, because ceviche and tiradito are really delicious. I also have a lot of South American friends and whenever I travel to their countries I try to have the full blown local experience like Anthony Bourdain in No Reservations! I love to go back to NY and bring the inspiration from those recipes with me!

Least Favorite Food: Caviar

Favorite Lunches Downtown: Ulysses (Pearl St. nr. Hanover Square) for the carving station and specials. I love their mac and cheese. Adrienne’s Pizza Bar on Stone St. (nr. Hanover Square) because the pizza and salad are great to share with my colleagues. I cheat on Keste when I can get a big group of co-workers to go with me. Financier (Multiple Locations) for their little financiers – the delightful little almond mini-muffins they give you with coffee.

The “go-to” lunch place you and your co-workers eat at too often:
The Golden Chopstick (Pearl St. nr. Hanover Square) – best Chinese takeout! They have the most amazing cashew nut chicken.

Place you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch:
I need to check out the Web site more often!

Dream job location, purely for lunch purposes, and why: Somewhere close to a fish market so I can get sashimi from the boat!

Anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers downtown?: Where do you find something healthy and tasty? Please drop me a line!

Well, Midtown Lunch recommendations aren’t necessarily healthy, but they sure are tasty. If you want to stick to the FiDi, you could check out the 99% Vegetarian Food Cart that just defected from Midtown (Liberty St. at Broadway), or I like the Middle-Eastern tinged buffet at Zeytuna (Maiden Lane at William). Anybody else have any non-street meat ideas for Serena?  And as always, if you would like to be next week’s Profiled Lunch’er (or know somebody you’d like to nominate), email us at downtownnyc@midtownlunch.com.

Photo courtesy of The Food Network

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