How to Make Sweet Chili Crab Dumplings

After my great brunch at Perry Street, I wanted to learn how to make the sweet chili crab dumplings. I called Cedric, the chef de cuisine, and he agreed to teach me how to make them:

Cedric has been the head chef at Perry Street for about a year and has been wowing critics with his simple but delicious cooking. He told me that he plays with recipes after work and has his dad, Jean Georges, come downstairs to the restaurant to critique them (his dad lives upstairs!)

Before Cedric mixed the Peekytoe crab with the mayonnaise, he went through all of crab with a black light to get rid of any shells that might’ve made their way into the container. Also, to make the cilantro oil, Cedric microwaves the cilantro, puts it in the blender, and adds salt and oil to it to coat the crab dumplings.

I had a great time with Cedric and we ended up going to the Greenmarket together afterwards:

I’ve never been to the Greenmarket so early but all of the restaurants were there picking up goods for the day – we ran into Dan Barber from Blue Hill, too! Cedric just changed the menu at Perry Street for the fall and I’m heading to dinner there soon to try it out. A huge thank you to Cedric for filming the segment with me and Erika, the wonderful friend who agreed to help me film even though we had to meet at 7am!