Christine Nunn of Picnic on the Square on the one technique home cooks should master
March 4, 2015 Last updated: Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 1:21 AM
The Record
Christine Nunn of Picnic on the Square, Ridgewood
Christine Nunn wasn’t always on course to work in the kitchen — the 50-year-old chef and co-owner of Picnic on the Square in Ridgewood was once a journalist, and worked for the Ridgewood News after graduating with an English degree from Montclair State University in 1986.
By 2001, the Fair Lawn resident was working in Manhattan doing technical writing, but after 9/11, she decided that life was “too short to not do” exactly what she wanted to do.
She enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America in January 2002 and even lived in the dorms for a semester at age 37 (which was “horrifying”). She graduated in December 2003 and created the catering company Picnic. In 2005, she opened a storefront in Emerson, where she stayed for five years before opening Picnic, The Restaurant in Fair Lawn, which garnered rave reviews. After 2 1/2 years, Picnic served its last meal on New Year’s Eve 2012.
In 2013, Nunn published “The Preppy Cookbook” and worked as executive chef at Grange restaurant in Westwood. Three months ago, she opened Picnic on the Square in Ridgewood. The lovely, brick-walled 34-seat New American restaurant received 2 1/2 stars from The Record last month.
Here, she talks about the technique home cooks should master and the best way to cook fish.
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