We’re always keen to know where chefs choose to dine, ostensibly because they know more about food and what goes on in restaurants than we do. But isn’t it the chefs’ inexperience, as much as their expertise, that makes their dining eatineraries so compelling? With the exception of globetrotting figureheads they generally work mealtime hours. Starved for dining-out opportunities they are desperate to make the most of each one, unlike jaded food critics who can seem equally determined to make the worst of each meal out.

Chefs on holiday are not so much sightseers as biteseers on a mission, combing the kitchens of Copenhagen or San Sebastian or Tokyo or Paris or – who knows? – Newcastle in search of inspiration, fresh ideas, foreign flavours old and new. That appeared to be Isaac McHale‘s purpose while in New York as a scout with both his future and that of his new employer, Elliot’s Borough Market, in mind. His traveler’s notebook carried  a hand-written list of must-try bars and restaurants in Manhattan and Williamsburg recommended to him by colleagues (see copies below).

So what did I, a food critic who covered the New York dining scene for 15 years with The Daily News, make of McHale’s list? Mainly that if this enormously gifted young chef followed his notes and learned his lessons well, one thing was certain: When Elliot’s opened this autumn you could be sure it would be doing killer margartias, caipirinhas and mojitos.