Stamford chef at Ridgefield restaurant ‘The Benjamin’ to make signature dish on NBC’s ‘Today’ show
RIDGEFIELD — A dish made by a chef at a new Ridgefield restaurant will be featured on NBC’s the “Today” show Tuesday morning.
Benjamin Traver, executive chef at The Benjamin, a French-American restaurant that opened in June at 20 West Lane, will prepare his olive oil poached halibut, which is one of the restaurant’s signature dishes.
The episode, which will be streamed live in Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, N.Y. at 9 a.m., will feature Traver’s dish as part of the show’s live cooking segment, with hosts including Al Roker and Sheinelle Jones. Traver, who lives in Stamford, will also share his ingredients for the dish.
William Lawless of Norwalk, who owns The Benjamin with Dave Studwell of Weston, and Rob Moss of Norwalk, said the halibut dish is “one of the most popular dishes that we do.”
“(Traver) will be walking through the process of how he does it and showing the steps from cooking from A to Z and then the final product,” Lawless said. “It’s a very complicated recipe that he does for it as far as the prep into the way that it’s poached.”
He added Traver has worked with the restaurant, which is named after Benjamin Franklin, from when it first opened.
Traver graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. Manhattan restaurants he worked at include Cafe Boulud, The Modern at the Museum of Modern Art, L’Accolade, and Chez Nick.
Traver was invited on the “Today” show after a friend of The Benjamin invited Libby Leist, executive vice president of the show to dinner there last August, shortly after the restaurant opened. When Leist tasted the halibut, she greatly enjoyed it, said Sarah Stabile, who does the public relations for the restaurant. Leist then suggested Traver prepare the dish on the show, Stabile said.