By Patrick Hedlund
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — The chef at Keith McNally's high profile new restaurant, Pulino's, was arrested in the East Village last week for carrying a pocketknife he says his mother gave him as a gift, the New York Post reported.
Award-winning chef Nate Appleman, who heads the kitchen at the much-hyped Pulino’s Bar and Pizzeria on the Bowery, was walking home from a shift last Wednesday afternoon when police noticed a chain running from his belt to his pocket, the Post reported.
After three police cars surrounded the chef, they found a small pocketknife and arrested Appleman for weapons possession, the Post added.
"It's a pocketknife that's two inches long that I used to cut boxes at work," Appleman told the paper. "I've collected knives since I was a kid. My mother gives me a knife every year on my birthday. This knife is the one she got me this year."
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office would not comment on the incident, saying that Appleman has not been charged but has been issued a desk-appearance ticket to in court April 27.
He won the James Beard Foundation’s Rising Star Chef award in 2009 for his work at restaurants in San Francisco.
Pulino's, located at the corner of E. Houston Street, is powerhouse restaurateur Keith McNally's latest offering after a string of downtown hits.
