Category — chefs

I’ve given up on the goofy parody of Iron Chef  that appears today on the Food Network, but last week was an exception. David Kinch was battling Bobby Flay and I was a little more than interested in the outcome. Not that a win on Iron Chef means anything, but after visiting Manresa three times in the last 12 months I am convinced it’s the best restaurant in the land, or at least one of the few that could make that claim.  Add to that the horrendous lunch I had at Bobby Flay’s Bar Americain and you have yourself an epic battle between good and evil.

Skip to the end. Kinch didn’t as much win as he slaughtered Bobby Flay on national television. Aside from enjoying the public humiliation of someone as cocky as Flay, what really grabbed me were the dishes Kinch created for the competition. There were a few signature touches – use of subtly  seasoned raw geoduck Kinch has mastered and yet another installment in the “into the garden” series featuring edible dirt that elevates the dish from an ordinary salad to a sensory experience. But then there were the new dishes. Red cabbage borscht with pear sauerkraut and mustard cream. Cabbage napoleon. These are things I must eat. Coi and possibly Cyrus are on the agenda for my next Bay Area trip, but I fighting the urge to be at Manresa again.

This post is an amalgamation of the two of the best meals I had in at Manresa 2008 (third was a bit less successful and came in winter of 2009). The dinner in June was about as close to a perfect meal as you can get. Perfect meals are rare even at the best restaurants, so I feel fortunate to have hit Manresa at just the right moment to experience one.

Each meal begins and ends the same way – with savory (red peper and block olive) and sweet (strawberry and chocolate) petit fours that bookend each meal. Some of the amuses change from meal to meal, such as the expertly crafted golden purses filled with crab or oysters topped with Japanese sea urchin.

The lavender lemonade with a sprig of garden mint was one of the most simple and interesting first courses I have seen in a while, served with what looked like a soap bubble that covered the top of the glass. Pull the mint sprig and the bubble bursts. Interactive food au naturel, no iPod required.

Carrot "white satin" and foie gras royale

The foie gras royale is one of the Manresa signature dishes that makes an appearance at many meals. The royale has the texture of mousse and richness of a custard, with a subtle foie gras flavor that seems the build towards the bottom of the cup.

Arpege farm egg

Another signature amuse with vertical construction – eat it layer by layer and you may find yourself tasting jarring amounts of sherry and maple syrup. Drive the spoon all the way to the bottom of the shell and all the flavors magically combine with the soft coddled yolk to produce one of the finest dishes ever conceived. The original egg at L’Arpege in Paris is slightly better than the version served at Manresa, but it doesn’t make me love eating this dish any less every time I visit.

Sea bream with shellfish, bonito broth,
golden raspberries, green curry oil

Every time I taste the stunning crudo preparations at Manresa I am reminded just how wide the gap is between truly fresh seafood and what your find in your better than average sushi bar. The portions at Manresa may be small, but the fish is good enough to reset the idea of what “fresh” really tastes like. Geoduck, especially, tastes dramatically different here – tender, yet crisp texture with a slightly sweet finish. I’ve had geoduck in other places, but it just doesn’t taste the same.  

Horse mackerel, ginger, seaweed ice, lemony herbs

The incredible aji I had at at Sawa Sushi just weeks prior to this meal was of better quality than the mackerel at Manresa, but what really made this dish was composition of flavors. Kinch has a singular talent for creating conceptual dishes that allude to the environment of the main ingredients. This dish achieves that with a bit of seaweed flavored ice slushy. 

 Kindai tuna cheeks, roasted peppers,
sweet garlic, crispy potato

There is nothing remotely conceptual about the Kindai tuna cheeks at Manresa – just the the most intense tuna flavor I have ever encountered. Explanations of dishes at Manresa always seem to be muddled, so I completely tuned out when the server went into a long story about universities, fish farming and rare tuna varieties that are somehow going to save the wild tuna populations some day. *Yawn.*

After the first bite I wished I had listened to the whole story. The taste of Kindai tuna cheeks is difficult to describe – imagine the texture of barely cooked high grade wagyu (to be honest, the threads of the top end of BBQ brisket are a better proxy, but that makes me sound like such a Texan…) with the flavor of the some exceptionally expensive toro. You’re getting close.

Turns out Manresa is one of a handful of US restaurants to serve Kindai tuna – the first farm raised bluefin tuna in existence. You can read more about it here, but to the best of my knowledge all the available Kindai cheeks go to Manresa. And they are absolutely stunning. 

Into the vegetable garden…

Into the vegetable garden… is one of the most famous Kinch creations and for a good reason – it’s a remarkable dish for it’s simplicity, depth and conceptual design.

If you have a concrete mind with a pragmatic bend, this is going to be one of the best salads you have ever had. Manresa is famous for quality of its vegetables and the seasonal produce here is either barely poached or completely untouched, preserving as much of the natural flavor as possible. I am pretty certain the dish is seasoned with nothing more than the poaching jus. As with any garden, you are just as likely to find a perfect carrot that tastes as if it was pulled from the ground minutes before it hit your plate, as you are to stumble onto weeds or flowers many of us don’t associate with salads.

If you fancy yourself as an abstract thinker, this dish will really surprise you, because the composition actually creates the imagery of a vegetable garden. The edible dirt made from parsnip and roasted chicory root plays a sensory role by emulating the environment of the garden. Two of my Manresa meals were eaten alone, allowing my mind to wonder if this is the way garden bugs perceive their natural habitat – eating their way through vegetables, weeds flowers  with a little bit of grit in their teeth from the dirt. Sounds a little far fetched, but you have to amuse yourself somehow when you eat alone.

 
Abalone, garden basil, courgettes, slow egg

Abalone has appeared in each of my dinners are Manresa and has never disappointed; a rarity for this ingredient. I don’t have a photo of my favorite abalone dish (grrr poor lighting), but you can see a nice shot of it here. 

The Autumn “Tidal Pool”: Foie Gras, Abalone, Uni in Mushroom Dashi sounds like a total mess of flavors that do not belong together. In truth, eating it as a soup I thought the dish was offensively strong. I like food aggressively seasoned, but the amount of salt in the “pool” was high even for me, clobbering the foie gras, uni and anything in between. The dish tasted harsh.

Just as I gave up and tried to fish out the edible  bits, all the flavors came into focus. All it needed was careful calibration of amount of sea flavored dashi in each spoon. Another example of Kinch’s ability to weave the environment into a dish or a mistake in the kitchen?

Kokotxas, stewed smoky white beans, country ham

Where the tuna cheeks  cheeks are all about intensity of flavor, the standout element of kokotxas at Manresa is the ethereal texture of the cod cheeks. Country ham is used more like fat netting here, lending richness and depth to the cod.

Wood Pigeon

I get less and less enthusiastic as the most epic meals get closer to meat courses. More often than not, they don’t measure up to the rest of the dishes and Manresa was no exception. The meat courses at my first Manresa dinner were good, but unremarkable.

On my second visit, just as the meal was hitting what I thought was the absolute high point, David Kinch exceeded all expectations and delivered what I still consider to be the best meat courses I have ever had. It all started with the tableside presentation of the salt roasted wood pigeon, which then took a detour to the kitchen for carving.

 
Wood pigeon, apple puree, sorrel, ramps, morels

It’s difficult to describe the flavor and texture of this dish without resorting to banalities. The flesh was perfectly rare and cooked with remarkable consistency throughout both leg and breast cuts, but the flavor was close to what I imagine Lilliputian lambs would taste like if they have been fed of milk and honey most of their short lives. Which is to say, really fracking good.

If you visit Manresa, call ahead and beg them to prepare the wood pigeon for you. It’s worth the indignity.

Roast saddle of lamb with turnips

Just as I was trying to re-calibrate my new standard for perfectly roasted foul, another meat course appeared. The dish was giving off such intense aroma that I knew it was lamb long before it reached my table (this is a good thing). As perfectly as the wood pigeon was cooked, this lamb somehow matched it.

I had a similar lamb preparation on my third visit to Manresa and it didn’t have nearly as intense of an effect, so clearly things were firing on all cylinders in the kitchen on this particular night. Though another explanation is that we perceive food differently when we dine alone, versus meals we share with dining companions who compete with food for attention. This is a topic for another post, but for some reason my solitary meals often end up being the best meals.

 
Comte de garde exceptionnel 2003 (Bernard Antony)

Few cheeses I have sampled match this extraordinary cheese course. Deep bursts of flavor (and sound effects) from crystallized lactic acid.

 
Chocolate, blackberry napoleon,
cucumber sherbet, shiso leaf

Desserts are not a strong point at Manresa, but this combination of chocolate, cucumber slices and cucumber sherbet really grabbed me. I really didn’t think the combination would work, but the chocolate actually amplified and complemented the flavor of the cucumber. And as all the best dishes at Manresa, it showed that ingredients we often take for granted can be used in new and unexpected ways.

David Kinch may be the prototype for the new generation of great chefs. Spanish name aside, the flavors seamlessly span the globe without ill effects. The food incorporates touches of modern techniques, but they are used to carefully enhance natural flavors, rather than defy the laws of physics. Some of the best dishes have a conceptual arc, yet never cross the line between food and post-modern art.

Most important – produce at Manresa is unlike any I’ve ever had (that includes L’Arpege), except for a select few Tenacity dinners, making Kinch’s efforts in sourcing and growing his own produce an example of what we will all expect from the best chefs and  restaurants in the future. Quality of the ingredients makes all the difference at Manresa, elevating it far above any other restaurant I have come across.

1. Petit fours – red pepper and black olive
2. Lavender lemonade, garden mint
3. Golden purses
4. Sweet corn croquettes
5. Carrot "white satin" and foie gras royale
6. Arpege farm egg
7. Sea bream with shellfish, bonito broth, golden raspberries, green curry oil
8. Horse mackerel, ginger, seaweed ice, lemony herbs
9. Kindai tuna cheeks, roasted peppers, sweet garlic, crispy potato
10. Into the vegetable garden…
11. Abalone, garden basil, courgettes, slow egg
12. Kokotxas, stewed smoky white beans, country ham
13. Wood pigeon, apple puree, sorrel, ramps, morels
14. Roast saddle of lamb with turnips
15. Comte de garde exceptionnel 2003 (Bernard Antony)
16. Cherry sorbet with reine de pres, noyaux, almonds
17. Apricot, fig leaf
18. Chocolate, blackberry napoleon, cucumber sherbet, shiso leaf
19. Petit fours – strawberry and chocolate

I don’t travel to DC area very often. When I do, I am constantly reminded that I am within driving distance of minibar, the Jose Andres’ restaurant within a restaurant, which has been near the top of my list of places to visit for the past year.

Liquid olives

I have seen enough of the dishes created by Jose Andres to know he is a brilliant chef with an uncommon talent for using complex techniques to create simple dishes that build on natural flavors of the ingredients. The meal I cooked at home using the more traditional recipes from his Made in Spain shows on PBS was as simple to prepare as it was great; perfect for the home kitchen.

Jose Andres owns several traditional Spanish and Mexican restaurants in DC, but minibar is his personal playground where he tosses as many as 35 tiny, El Bulli inspired courses at a handful of diners each night. There are only six spots in each seating, making reservations somewhat elusive. Last time I was in the area minibar was closed for the hated "winter holiday" (damn French), making things even more difficult. The food is about as close as you can get to the progressive cuisine that makes Spain one of the most interesting food destinations on the planet.

Before Alison Cook  mentioned Bazaar, I had no idea Jose Andres ventured out beyond the DC area, much less as far as Los Angeles.  The menu read like a greatest hits collection from more traditional Jaleo and modern minibar,  which all but sealed the deal.

First surprise at Bazaar: the space is striking. I don’t really care how restaurants look and over the top interiors in LA  grate on my nerves, but the collection of spaces that make up the Bazaar designed by Phillip Starck takes hotel dining to another level.

Moss at SLS Hotel

Patisserie at SLS Hotel 

Bar seating at Bazaar, jamon iberico on display

Lighting at Bazaar is especially great. The restaurant is submerged in darkness that cleverly hides all the botched plastic surgeries in the room, while illuminating the chef areas and each place setting.

 
Open kitchen at Bazaar

Second surprise: Marcel, the near-miss Top Chef, fills the Executive Sous duties in the Bazaar kitchen. Marcel’s cooking style and,  more important, diva attitude is a perfect fit for a restaurant in Los Angeles. When he wasn’t manning the foam siphon, Marcel was taking photos with guests. LA may not care about food, but they sure do love their celebrities. 

Marcel, foaming and liquid nitrogenating his way to fame

Third surprise: the food is outstanding. None of the dishes felt “molecular”, nothing misfired, nothing seemed contrived. Even the dishes that weren’t as impressive as others were still fun to eat. The only dish I remotely disliked was the Butifara sausage from the traditional side of the menu and even it probably tastes exactly as it does in Catalonia. For a restaurant walking the not so fine line between modern and traditional cuisine, and a kitchen operating less than 6 months and 2,700 miles away from the chef who’s name anchors the menu that’s nothing short of remarkable.

  Olives “Ferran Adrià” old and new
liquid and traditional stuffed with piquillo and anchovies

I’ve had my share of liquid spheres, but this one was one of the best. I especially liked the traditional olives stuffed by the piquillo pepper and small strips of anchovy that tasted more buttery than brined. The only other fish I have come across with the similar texture was the needlefish at Urasawa and the herring fillets the Dutch eat on hot dog buns as street food. The liquid olive are meant to be eaten last exploding with clean, pure olive “essence” without a trace of solid texture.

“Philly cheese steak” – air bread, cheddar, wagyu

This one was featured on an amusing episode of No Reservations where Anthony Bourdain fawns all over Jose Andres and giddily devours a minibar meal despite his insistence that his street food eating sensibilities clash with such high concept food.

The “air bread” is a hollowed out torpedo roll filled with what tastes like goat cheese (what cheddar?) and topped with a few nice slices of wagyu. My friend and I agreed that the Jose Andres interpretation does not capture what makes the Philly cheesesteak great (its Cheeze Wheez, give it up), but it didn’t make much difference. It tasted great anyway.

Salty wrinkled potatoes , “mojo verde”

If you like aggressively seasoned starches, this dish is for you. Each potato was perfectly cooked, each had a healthy amount of salt cut by just the right amount of acidity from mojo verde. The potatoes were nice, but they didn’t really fit the modern dishes I ordered. The moral of this story is – be careful how you construct your meal.

Ajo blanco – white gazpacho, tomatoes, grapes, raisins

Very nice mild custard of firm panna cotta consistency that carried the flavor of whatever you happen to grab from the top. My favorite was the tomato “caviar” with a few petals of flowers.

Sea urchin, pipirrana, Andalusian vegetables

I ordered the sea urchin with steamed buns from the modern side of the menu, the canned urchin served from the traditional tapas set came out instead.  The dish was good, but the pico de gallo tasting pipirrana makes it a better fit for people who aren’t 100% sold on sea urchin.  I am not one of these people, so I asked for the right dish.

Sea urchin, avocado, steamed buns

The dish I actually ordered turned out to be spectacular – the steamed buns and thinly sliced avocado is a perfect complement to sea urchin. The only regret I have is that I didn’t order this last. It would have made a perfect dessert.

My friend dislikes sea urchin, but was determined to try it again he came across a specimen of superb quality (this was it) and loved it as well.  I have seen uni conversions at serious sushi bars before, but witnessing it at a Spanish restaurant was unexpected.

It didn’t occur to me until I saw the photo, but this is essentially an uni slider. Coming soon on the menu at Little Big’s?

American caviar cone

A perfect bite of waffle cone filled with creme freche and caviar. This would have been better had it been an unexpected amuse or if I had actually ordered the dish. I was hoping for caviar with steamed blini instead, but it never came.

To be honest, I don’t get the fascination with ice cream cone dishes. It was cute when Thomas Keller did it at TFL. Time to move on.

King crab, raspberry vinegar

Great dish from the canned tapas set that requires a little bit of care. Take a bite of the crab and raspberry together and all you taste is the berry. Eat them separately and the raspberry vinegar works quite nicely to accent the crab with acidity and slight notes of fruit.

Not your everyday Caprese 
cherry tomatoes, liquid mozzarella

Along with the olives and sea urchin this was one of my favorite dishes of the night.  The tomatoes are real – pristine cherry bombs that explode with tomato flavor under slightest bit of pressure. The mozzarella is a not – another liquid sphere that delivers the intense burst of cheese flavor without the texture. This one works best with all ingredients eaten in one bite.

I had a version of this staple last time I visited Alinea. The frozen mozzarella foam served over liquid tomatoes and basil spheres tasted like a bland V8 flavored snow cone. The dish was a disaster.

In contrast, this was one of the finest Caprese salads I have ever eaten, mainly because Jose Andres knows when to stop before science becomes weird science. Much respect.

Cotton candy foie gras

The famous minibar dish was everything it’s meant to be – silly, fun, delicious. Yes, the foie got lost in the candy, but there is still something really satisfying in biting into a childhood classic and finding a hunk of chilled liver.

Taking a slight detour, a few other foie dishes you should try – the pop rocks crusted foie lollypop at Graham Elliot in Chicago, foie gras club sandwich at Le Reve in San Antonio, foie bon bons at Catalan in Houston and my personal favorite (if you can convince him to make it) the cocoa dusted pave of foie and foie gras milkshake dessert from Randy Rucker, now at Rainbow Lodge in Houston.

Tortilla de patatas “new way”
Warm potato foam, egg 63, caramelized onions

The server failed to tell us how to eat this one, so the first few bites were a bit like eating salty potato porridge. Not good. Once we dug in deeper to broke through the yolk however, the salt balanced out and this turned out to be an excellent dish.

This is the Spanish version of the L’Arpege egg. Highly recommended. 

Paella-style pasta, monkfish, shrimp, seafood broth

Surprise hit from the traditional side of the menu. The taste was classic  paella, but the texture was that of light strands of pasta. Add a dollop of garlic aioli to each spoonful and this is a great, great dish.

“Butifarra” pork sausage
white beans, ceps Senator Moynihan

The only dish I didn’t care for. The white beans were nice, but I thought the sausage tasted like a run of the mill frankfurter. I think Texans are forever ruined by German influence to appreciate something like this.

Hot chocolate mousse, pears, salty hazelnut praline

My dessert was good, not great. Don’t think I’d order this again.

Nitro coconut floating island, passion fruit, vanilla

If you roll your eyes every time a restaurant goes overtly molecular, use of liquid nitrogen is more than a gimmick here. The dome acquires shape and texture – frozen at the top, perfectly soft and fluffy in the center – without giving it the vile gritty texture of hardened meringue.

Traditional floating islands are a sugary mess. The version served at Bazaar is a huge improvement – icy meringue, acidic passion fruit and bananas make turn this dish into throwback to ice cream sundaes, of sorts. I like.

Full set of photos from Bazaar. Well worth a repeat visit and then a few more after that.

The 2009 edition of the UK Michelin guide was released last week and Joel Robuchon added yet another star for his L’Atelier in London. Ironically, Robuchon has told the Michelin people to piss off, saying "as long as Michelin remains stuck in the past, I have no interest in being mentioned in it".  Today he has more stars than any chef in the universe.

Not everyone is thrilled with what Joe Robuchon is doing with his haute chain. Many people say the Paris location in particular isn’t up to the task . I visited the L’Atelier in London a while ago and thought both the food and the concept are fantastic.

High end cooking is usually reserved for special occasion restaurants. Places where you make a reservation weeks in advance, wear your most uncomfortable clothes, spend a small fortune on a meal and spend hours in company of not always attentive servers who make you feel as if you are lucky to be in their presence. Take the special out of the occasion and fine dining for the sake of food is a full time job. Tedious, predictable and mildly annoying.

With his L’Atelier concept Joel Robuchon turns the whole thing on it’s head. There is a dining room, but the best seat in the house is at the bar in front of an open kitchen. The whole thing resembles a sushi bar, though the fish has been replaced by dramatic displays of produce and a giant leg of jamon iberico mounted in a stainless steel harness.

Most of the menu consists of small plates (the ham isn’t the only nod to Spain), few large mains and desserts. You are just as likely to share the counter with someone who popped into L’Atelier for a snack as someone demolishing  a 12 course meal.

I didn’t do my usual romp through the menu and ordered a more reasonable lunch instead. It wasn’t cheap, but it was less expensive than what you’d usually spend for meal prepared at this level. The dishes had fancy French names, but were remarkably focused and restrained.

The starter with daunting name of “Le Jambon "Iberico de Bellota’ taille par nos soins escorte de pain toaste a la tomate” turned out to be few sublime shavings of the best ham in the world. It looks like this and it was delicious all on it’s own.

I still don’t really know what a cocotte is, but I ordered the “L’Oeuf cocotte a la creme legere de champingnons des sous-bois” and got a egg something or the other topped with wild mushroom froth. It was light, it was bursting with flavor and it tasted of egg yolk. To this date I think it rivals the L’Arpege egg as a perfect way to start every meal.

 La Caille au foie gras et caramelisse
avec une pomme puree truffee

The foie stuffed quail was very well prepared – tender and crisp in all the right parts – but the Robuchon’s signature mashed potatoes (rumored to have an obsene amount of butter) were in a league of their own. They remain a reference point for potato dishes for me.

I closed out with “un dessert je ne me souviens pas”, loosely translated as some dessert I no longer remember. I am pretty sure it had lemon and meringue.

L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon may be a chain, but it’s a chain I’d be thrilled to have in my home town (not happening). Despite having similar menus, apparently not all locations are the same and some cook at a very high level, which explains why someone from Paris would spend their time going to a French chain in New York. It also explains why Robuchon continues to amass Michelin stars without even trying.

In a few hours I am leaving Sydney and getting on a plane back home, though not before stopping by Manresa for one final meal of this trip. No visit to Australia seems complete without an unfortunate a streak of disappointing meals, but unlike last year there were just as many great meals to balance them out.

Brent Savage at the Bentley Restaurant continues to be one of my favorite chefs anywhere. I love everything about Bentley, serious food served without the prerequisite bullshit that usually comes with it, truly creative dishes that let superior ingredients speak for themselves when the time is right, the fact that it can pull off a liquid nitrogen Hemingway without coming across as a gimmick,  and the very idea of a $50AU 8 course lunch in a city like Sydney. Or Houston, now that I think about it.

Quay was everything L2O should have been, with really strong dishes built around great fish and produce at the same level as Manresa (and better than L’Arpege). No one seems to have heard of Peter Gilmore outside of Australia and he deserves far more credit than he currently gets.

And finally, despite where the Restaurant Magazine ranks Tetsuya’s in comparison to others, I thought my meal there was better than French Laundry and one of the best I have had anywhere. Food should put you in your happy place and Tetsuya’s did just that. I am going back to all three next time I am back in these waters.

Smoked trout, avruga caviar, egg yolk

Until I get all the pictures up, you will have to make do with just one. The smoked trout and avruga caviar was one of the best dishes at Tetsuya’s. Avruga caviar is a bit of nonsense (it’s actually herring roe), but the real standout here was the frozen yolk that tasted as if it has been slowly poached to soft boiled egg consistency. The dish had the texture and flavor of perfectl breakfast of eggs, smoked fish and caviar.

More to come later.

Much like Robb Walsh I have been spending a bit of time at Beaver’s lately.  Since Jonathan Jones took over kitchen I find myself going to Beaver’s on regular basis as the food gets better and better.

The best bets at Beaver’s are on the blackboard, where the specials are often more interesting than the regular menu, though these days even the regular menu seems better and more consistent. One night when I went a little overboard with the specials JJ appeared from the kitchen with a BBQ sampler, obviously excited about the results he has been getting from the smoker, just to see how far he could push me.

The BBQ, a letdown in the past, was excellent.  It didn’t hurt that JJ coughed up the awesome burnt bits of the brisket off the fatty end that chefs and pit masters usually hoard of themselves.

The roasted oysters and chorizo were served with a flaming center piece reminiscent of the dramatic presentations at America’s. I like fire.

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