March 14, 2014
Chef Damon Baehrel owns what could quite possibly be the most exclusive restaurant in the world, with a wait list that stretches 10 years.
Up until recently, Baehrel's home in the sleepy town of Earlton, New York, about three hours north of Manhattan, was the most sought-after restaurant you'd never heard of.
But the power of the internet and social media, combined with old-fashioned word of mouth have transformed the eponymously named restaurant and a humble chef into a viral phenomenon, turning the 16-cover basement bistro into perhaps the most exclusive reservation on the planet.
Why all the fuss? It's a combination of factors.
Baehrel is not your typical chef. He says he is self-taught. Not from cookbooks penned by Michelin-starred chefs, or globetrotting travels around the world.
The 'Luddite' — he doesn't own a cell phone and shuns the internet — doesn't look up YouTube videos or spend marathon weekends watching food TV to come up with pine needle-brined pork cooked in hickory sap, a kind of cookery he calls "native harvest cuisine."
Instead, he watches nature.
