Lopez preparing the pizza dough for family meal. Photo: Margie Merritt.

Though the restaurant world is dominated celebrity chefs and high-profile pop-ups, the real story is much more intricate – and interesting. Restaurants in New York state employ over 800,000 people, making up nine percent of state employment.

Restaurants are in the midst dramatic changes, largely driven by new consumers and technology. Traditional fine dining is giving way to higher quality fast casual hybrid shops, which appeal to the high-spending millennial market. Operations are changing, too — wages, tipping, payment options and automation.

We sought out people behind-the-scenes who make NYC one of the best food cities on the planet: a Chinese chef whose kitchen makes 3,500 fish balls a day, a pastry chef, a legendary sommelier at the well-known end of the spectrum. They have to eat dinner just like the rest of us, though it’s often not what we’d define as a meal.

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[1] http://www.restaurant.org/Downloads/PDFs/State-Statistics/2016/NY_Restaurants2016

Emily Churchill