Deep beneath the dining room of Del Posto, the palatial Italian restaurant on 10th Avenue, stands a 50-gallon steel caldron that is employed for a single purpose: making chicken soup.

This is no ordinary Jewish penicillin. The kitchen crew led by Mark Ladner, the executive chef, concocts the elixir through a process that involves no fewer than 90 hens. Over three days, the flavor of the soup (which has been served since January in a few sips as part of the free "assaggi" courses that precede each meal) becomes more intensified with each wave of gently boiled poultry: 30 whole cleaned chickens, then another 30, then 30 again.

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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/