Ever since 1999, when Chef Gabrielle Hamilton put canned sardines and Triscuits on the first menu of her tiny, 30-seat East Village restaurant, Prune, she has nonchalantly broken countless rules of the food world. Prune has always been an idiosyncratic restaurant, with no culinary mission other than to serve what Hamilton likes to eat in an environment in which she wants to eat. Hamilton won the James Beard Foundation’s Best Chef NYC in 2011. She has written for numerous periodicals and her New York Times best-selling memoir, Blood, Bones and Butter garnered a James Beard Award for Writing and Literature in 2012.

Prune
With every chipped plate and hand-written to-do list, Hamilton’s “presence” is all over Prune. Spend a day at this idiosyncratic establishment to see what drives this chef and her “family.” She prepares three Prune classics: smoky eggplant, celery salad and sweetbreads.