Most New Yorkers know chef Leah Cohen from her acclaimed Southeast Asian street food-inspired restaurant Pig and Khao, which first opened on the Lower East Side in 2012. Others may recognize the chef from her approachable cooking videos where she pulls from her Filipino-Jewish heritage to share Asian recipes and create delicious dishes from her home kitchen in New Jersey.
Still others remember Cohen from season 5 of Bravo’s Top Chef and appearing on various Food Network shows including Beat Bobby Flay, Guy’s Grocery Games, and Tournament of Champions.
Cohen, who also authored the cookbook Lemongrass and Lime, mostly focuses on her family life in Jersey with her husband and two sons, and putting most of her energy into Pig and Khao on the Upper West Side. It opened in 2024 and currently has a new Kamayan menu. Traditionally, Kamayan feasts are celebratory and feature plates of food served in banana leaves that are meant to be shared with a group in a communal experience.
At Pig and Khao Kamayan serves eight to fourteen. Guests can choose between pork belly lechon or spatchcock chicken, which come with a whole fish, lumpia, garlic rice, rice noodles, salads, fresh fruit, and ube soft serve for dessert. Be sure to book at least three days in advance, Cohen advises.
“We started a new large-format dining option which is a Kamayan, which means ‘eat with your hands’ in Tagalog,” Cohen said. “It’s a really common Filipino style of eating; it [requires] a minimum of eight people and maximum of 14, but we could do more. It’s a fun, new unique dining experience that people can either try for the first time or try again.”
We caught up with Cohen to hear about her favorite places to eat—with her friends, family, kids, and husband—in and around the five boroughs when she’s not on the line.
Friends Let Friends Eat at Shukette
“Shukette is my spot. I love the food and chef Ayesha Nurdjaja is a good friend and I’m lucky that if I give her a little notice, she’ll squeeze me in. The food is just so delicious; all the rips and dips are phenomenal. I always fill up on all that stuff and by the time the mains come, I’m full [laughs].” 230 9th Ave., Chelsea, shukettenyc.com
Date Night in Brooklyn
“I went on a double date recently with my husband and friends in Brooklyn to a place called LaRina in Brooklyn. It was so good and they have a really cute outdoor area. I also like Theodora while I’m in Brooklyn. They do an open-fire grill; the food is simple (in a good way) and it has a lot of flavor.”
LaRina Pastificio & Vino, 387 Myrtle Ave., Fort Greene, Brooklyn, larinabk.com; Theodora, 7 Greene Ave., Brooklyn, Clinton Hill, theodoranyc.com
Award-Winning Korean
“We went to that Korean place in Chinatown, Sunn’s, which was really good. That’s a new favorite of mine and Ben’s as well. I’ve known [chef] Sunny Lee for awhile—she’s been doing pop-ups for years. She’s in the [New York Times’] top 100 best NYC restaurant list!” 139 Division St., Chinatown, sunnsnyc.com
Opening of Drāvida
“I actually went to a friends and family dinner recently and it was really, really good. It’s chef Aarthi Sampath’s new [South Asian and] Indian restaurant and the food was so good. Even for friends and family it was really solid! I’m really excited to go back in a couple of months and try more.” 211 1st Ave., East Village, dravidanyc.com
Small and Mighty Korean Spot
“My husband and I went out to ARIARI in the East Village for Korean food. It was really cool. The food was really good—I like that style of Korean food. It’s different from your usual traditional Korean food, it’s like Busan bar food. It’s a small space, though, and hard to get in there because there aren’t that many seats, but I’d go back.” 119 1st Ave., East Village, ariarinyc.com
Go For the Ginataang Alimango
[Drāvida is] close to NAKS, which is one of my go-to spots. When I’m there, I like the Ginataang Alimango [slow simmered dungeness crab in aromatic coconut sauce]. They take the meat out of the crab and they cook in this spicy coconut sauce and they stuff it back into the crab shell. It’s perfection. They also do a pancit with pork belly and an egg and they mix it up table-side. Those are my two favorites.” 201 1st Ave., East Village, naks.nyc
Must Try Brunch
“Tradicionale with chef Anton [Dayrit] in Chelsea is another place I like—he’s doing really great food over there. They just started doing brunch, so I’m really excited to try it. Their Kinilaw [steelhead trout, coconut milk, coconut vinegar, coconut water, tropical fruit, cilantro, chili, crispy shallots] is a Filipino-style ceviche, even though Filipinos hate saying that. It’s like a vinegar-cured fish dish and he adds fruit to it which lends a sweet-savory and acidic complex that I really love.
And he does dinuguan tacos [dark pork stew, crispy chicharron, corn tortillas, cilantro, homemade chili oil]—he does dinuguan pork stew in a taco form! The last time I was there I ate the entire menu.” 156 9th Ave., Chelsea, tradicionalenyc.com
