Peter Pastan

Coming Up

Today, Peter Pastan is chef of 2 Amys and chef of Bar del Monte. Read together, those roles suggest a cook working across two rooms of the same practical idea: food that arrives with ease, keeps its shape, and does not require explanation to carry the table. The style implied here is direct and controlled, with enough looseness to feel lived-in and enough precision to make the plates land cleanly.

Where They Are Now

“Just have a normal meal, if this makes any sense in Washington, DC.” Pastan’s dryness is part of the point. “Normal” here is not shorthand for plain or forgettable; it points to a steadier kind of dining, one that trusts rhythm, familiarity, and foods that read immediately. In a city where dining can tilt toward display, the value of a meal that does not strain to announce itself is easy to understand. Pastan’s language returns to immediate satisfactions: the crackle of fried things, the lift of salad-y things, the salty weight of anchovy things, the compact bite of some little sausages. That sequence matters. It moves from light to bracing to rich without losing balance, which is exactly how the cooking reads on the page: varied, legible, and built to keep the table moving. Nothing in the description asks for theory. It asks for appetite, timing, and the confidence to serve things at their best without overworking them.

In Their Words “We have fried things, salad-y things, anchovy things, some little sausages.” The line is useful because it tells you how the kitchen thinks. Fried things suggest crunch and heat; salad-y things bring freshness and release; anchovy things carry a direct savory edge; some little sausages add density and snap. Put together, they read like a working menu built around contrast and repetition, the kind of short list that can still cover a lot of ground when the cooking is right.

Honors

No specific awards are cited for Peter Pastan.