I’m taking a break from espresso. I can’t remember the last time I ordered one at a cafe or attempted to make it. At home, my Rancilio Silvia with PID kit has been collecting dust for almost a year. There are simply too many variables: time, temperature, pressure, grind size, tamping uniformity, etc., which need to be re-adjusted continuously throughout the day as the environment changes. It’s not that I don’t like espresso, but it’s too temperamental a drink; it’s inconsistent, even for the best barista.

Espresso is a hobbyist’s drink: an oftentimes futile quest for perfection. The perfect shot is unlikely to be found at a high-volume store as the variables are too many and difficult to control. For me, 2012 was the year of drip coffee. Coffee shops started to take pride in their filter coffee instead of it being an afterthought to the espresso machine. Some shops, mostly in the United States, are regularly calibrating their extraction with a refractometer.

Compared with espresso, the dozens of drip methods (chemex, clever, V60, bonmac, nel, etc..) are more forgiving, allow for greater control of the myriad variables, and are less prone to human error. Once the variables are set and “locked-in” the extraction can be repeated with a great deal of success. The clover machine–recently acquired by Starbucks–does a fantastic job of brewing a fully-automated cup of drip coffee. There are no fully-automated espresso machines that can yield quality shots as consistently as that of their drip coffee counterparts. (Sorry, Nespresso.)

Last year, I wrote about my five favorite espresso shots; this year, I am sharing my five favorite cups of drip coffee.

#5 La Avellaneda, Mexico D.F., Mexico (Jul 23, 2011 / Yama Coffee Siphon) (Photos)

Hidden inside Mexico City’s Coyoacán, a few blocks from Frida Khalo‘s home, lies a quiet drip bar serving Mexican beans from the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Veracruz. While the Americano still dominates cafe culture in Mexico, it’s refreshing to find a burgeoning third-wave coffee scene in Mexico City. La Avellaneda is one of the only cafes in Mexico to carry an aeropress, clever, and siphon. My coffee from Coatepec, Veracruz was brewed on a siphon, and had medium acidity highlighting the beans’ dark berry flavor.

#4 Café Magnífico, Barcelona, Spain (Oct 31, 2012 / V60)

As one of Barcelona’s only roasters, Café Magnifico does a great service for the city. Not only does it supply most of Barcelona’s third-wave shops, but it takes its time to carefully educate customers of bean varieties, origin, and extraction methods. It’s the Johan & Nyström of Barcelona. My cup of coffee–Guatemalan beans dripped through a V60–was served in a wine glass to increase aeration and bring out the coffee’s bouquet. (It was strange to swirl a cup of coffee, I admit, but these glasses are designed to disseminate aroma.) These beans had medium acidity and notes of red fruits, with a subtle chocolatey body to give it substance.

#3 L’Ambre, Tokyo, Japan (Oct 6, 2012 / Nel Drip)

Stepping into L’Ambre is like stepping back in time: some of the beans it serves have been aged for more than 50-years. The suited staff brews with solely nel drip, emanating a serene intensity that could only exist in Japan. My coffee was a Colombian “demi-tasse” with beans from 1954. Despite being half a century old, the beans tasted and smelled fresh: they were aged green and roasted a few days prior. After hand-grinding the beans, our barista tightly dripped 180g of water through 80g of grounds. The result was full of body with mild acidity, intense and slightly viscous with a strong nutty flavor.

#2 Drop Coffee, Stockholm, Sweden (Jul 7, 2012 / V60) (Photos)

Since Drop Coffee started locally roasting its own beans last year, it became one of Stockholm’s best coffee drip shops. Drop serves single-origin beans with an emphasis on Latin Ameria, dripped through a V60. My Colombian coffee came from Finca Cerro Azul. Full of acidity with a viscous mouthfeel, this coffee had a lot of character. On the one hand it was fruity: cranberries and cherries hit the high notes, but there was also structure underneath with its subtle chocolate and tobacco-like flavor.

#1 The Coffee Collective, Copenhagen, Denmark (Jul 8, 2012 / Espro Press)

The first time I visited The Coffee Collective in 2009, I was impressed. When I returned in 2012 for the MAD conference, it was no coincidence that the Airbnb apartment I found was directly above the original Jægersborggade location. The unpretentious and extremely knowledgable staff carefully brews each cup using one of several extraction methods, depending on the bean. The cup that blew me away last year was the Hacienda La Esmeralda from Cañas Verdes in Jaramillo, Panama. Flavors of apricot, pineapple, and peach jumped out from the cup with strong acidity, but were balanced by the bean’s subtle spice and bread-like body from the Espro press pot.

Honorable Mentions:

• Be a Good Neighbor Coffee, Tokyo, Japan
• Blue Bottle Williamsburg, New York, United States
• Café Rococó, Mexico D.F., Mexico
• Caffè Streets, Chicago, United States
• Little Nap Coffee Stand, Tokyo, Japan
• Novo Coffee, Denver, Colorado
• Panther Coffee, Miami, United States
• Sightglass Coffee, San Francisco
• Shozo Coffee Store, Tokyo, Japan
• Sweetleaf Williamsburg, New York, United States

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• Favorite Espresso of 2011
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In compiling this list, I faced the difficult task of choosing dishes that stood out on their own, outside the context of the meals in which they appeared. My favorite dishes from this year are very different from my favorite meals, which can be viewed here.

For me, 2012 was an incredible year. It brought me from Noma to Sukiyabashi Jiro, from Tickets to Saison and Masa. Nearly 200 Michelin stars later, 2012 was the most diverse eating year of my life. But despite the many dishes I’ve consumed (and pounds I’ve gained) in fine-dining restaurants, the dishes that stick out in my mind this year are the simplest ones. Not the caviar and foie gras from Europe, but rather the shellfish tostadas from Mexico’s Baja peninsula and fresh fish from Tokyo.

Of all the places I’ve visited this year, these are the dishes that particularly stood out ranked one through twenty five.

#25 Torta ahogada (Xoco, Ilinois, United States) (Photos)

This is an example of a dish where Rick Bayless and Amado Lopez take the traditional Guadalajara version of this “drowned sandwich” and improve upon it. By using a crispy French baguette and standing it upright, the bread doesn’t get soggy (unless you want it to). I find myself grabbing one of these every time I’m in Chicago.

#24 Chimney smoked lobster (Ekstedt, Stockholm, Sweden)

In a restaurant whose kitchen doesn’t use electricity, chef Niklas Ekstedt cooks everything over an open fire as it was done centuries ago. This firm lobster dish has hints of smoke and nut and is intensified by the sweet taste of butter.

#23 Gemelli con le sardi (Next: Sicily, Ilinois, United States) (Photos)

I was skeptical about Next’s Sicily menu, but this dish simply blew me away. Introduced as the “emblematic dish of Sicily” a perfectly cooked gemelli adorned a colorful Sicilian plate crowned with currants, pine nuts, fennel, mushrooms, and a sliver of seared sardine. This dish showed me that Chef Dave Beran‘s rustic cooking is just as compelling as his fine-dining cooking.

#22 Mole amarillo (Yu Ne Nisa, Oaxaca, Mexico) (Photos)

I brought my friend The Ulterior Epicure on my second visit to this Oaxacan eatery. I mentioned to Chef Doña Ofelia how I’d always been meaning to try an authentic mole amarillo from the Istmo. Insisting that hers was the best, she snapped her fingers and a cook ran out to fetch a ten pounds of yellow tomatoes. We returned the next day where she presented us with shrimp rice cooked in yellow mole, topped with fried plantains. The balance of sweet, salt, sour, and spice was incredible. This dish is worth a trip to Oaxaca alone.

#21 Mollete de papada (Tickets, Barcelona, Spain) (Photos)

In this Spanish-style arepa, Chef Albert Adrià makes a three-bite warm sandwich of pulled pork chin stuffed with Iberian lard. The pork is succulent and subtly sweet while the lard intensifies its natural juices.

#20 ”Fusilli” (Frasca Food & Wine, Colorado, United States) (Photos)

A classic dish done very well; San Marzano plum tomato sauce, béchamel, and a dash of Parmigiano-Reggiano. The mix of acidity from the bright tomato sauce with the salty, cheesy parmesan-béchamel is what made this dish.

#19 Blue lobster (Frantzén/Lindeberg, Stockholm, Sweden) (Photos)

This dish of blue lobster with yellow girolles, apricots, and Tasmanian winter truffles was both colorful and delicious, held together with a touch of butter. Chef Björn Frantzén‘s cooking is better than ever, drawing his technique from Japan and France emphasizing local Swedish ingredients.

#18 Peeky-toe crab (Atera, New York, United States) (Photos)

Chef Matthew Lightner’s ligher cooking comes through in this dish where a chilled lump of crabmeat sits in a fragrant gel of wild ginger gelée dotted with tapioca and toasted shrimp.

#17 Salmon trout (Amaranta, Toluca, Mexico) (Photos)

Chef Pablo Salas‘s Amaranta should be getting a lot more attention. My meal last year was one of my top ten of 2011. This year, I returned with my friends docsconz and petermerelis. Focusing on food from the land-locked Estado de Mexico, Chef Salas is a proponent of local lake fish, particularly salmon trout. The texture of this fish is firm like wild salmon with thin striations of fat even though its flavor is milder. Salas explained that he feeds the trout crayfish to enhance their flavor. The trout was rubbed in adobo spices, sauced with a manzano chile cream and served atop a bed of esquites. (Full disclosure: this meal was comped as part of Mesamerica.)

#16 Pigeon rice (Quique Dacosta, Dénia, Spain) (Photos) (First post / Second post)

Chef Quique Dacosta removed his dedicated à la carte rice menu a few years ago in favor of two more varied, tasting-only options. Chef Dacosta is one of the world’s experts on Spanish rice, and while I do miss the old menu, traces of it remain scattered throughout the new menus. Here, liquorice and orange flavors brighten up the intense flavor of the rice.

#15 Esquites (Eno Petrarcha, Mexico City, Mexico) (Photos)

I didn’t know Eno made esquites–boiled corn cut fresh from the cob topped with mayonnaise, spices, and queso cotija–until I saw Chef Enrique Olvera eating a bowl of them for lunch. This is a street food that Chef Olvera improves upon by mixing several varieties of corn, whipping the mayonnaise from scratch, and grating cheese sold by a local vendor. These are addictive.

#14 House soba (Matsugen, Tokyo, Japan)

A bowl of house-made soba noodles dressed with bonito flakes, two varieties of seaweed, scallion, cucumber, shallots, and a dab of freshly grated wasabi. Crowning the middle a sunny-side up egg whose yolk pours out when mixed.

#13 ”De eso” (Itanoní, Oaxaca, Mexico) (Photos)

A simple dish of a corn tortilla, hoja santa, and quesillo. Itanoní is essentially a tortillería that happens to serve food. Each tortilla, made from one of three varieties of masa (white, yellow, or blue) is pressed to order. The tortilla is thrown atop a comal until it inflates, and layered with a fragrant hoja santa leaf and stringy quesillo. This is a dish that shows how far a well-made tortilla can go.

#12 Diver scallop and plantain (Quintonil, Mexico City, Mexico) (Photos)

Sweet diver scallop from the Baja dressed with olive oil, herbs, and warm plantains. The plantains added a nuttiness to the already-sweet scallops enhancing their flavor. Chef Jorge Vallejo knows when to step back and let great ingredients speak for themselves.

#11 Mackerel and sea urchin (Laja, Baja California, Mexico) (Photos)

Chef Jaír Téllez of Laja and MeroToro is a genius and should be receiving a lot more attention than he currently does. His dishes don’t look particularly “Mexican,” but he will be the first to remind you that all the ingredients indeed come from the Baja … even the olive oil. This simple dish at a hacienda in Mexico’s wine country embodies Chef Téllez’s seafood-focused Baja-style cooking.

#10 Back cove oyster (John Shields, United States / restaurant coming soon)

This was my first experience with the cooking of Chef John Shields, formerly of Town House, at an event at Elements in New Jersey. This dish, a raw oyster under a bed of raw new spruce leaves, blanched spinach, and an infusion of various seaweeds that gave it a fresh herbal-umami combination. Shaved atop the dish was chilled radish milk binding everything together. This dish left a lasting impression on me because I haven’t encountered many dishes where herbs actually enhanced the flavor of raw shellfish. I can’t wait to see what Chef Shields opens next. My only regret is not having visited Town House before it closed.

#9 Hokkaido crab salad with sea cucumber roe (Sushi Yoshitake, Tokyo, Japan)

In this dish, different cuts of chilled Hokkaido crab were lightly dressed in dashi and topped with a dollop of creamy sea cucumber roe. The roe tasted like sweet sea urchin with an intensity similar to shrimp brain.

#8 Cheeseburger (Husk, South Carolina, United States) (Photos)

Chef Sean Brock‘s version of the iconic American cheeseburger. This is a burger where the bun intentionally gets soggy after a few minutes. It’s overflowing with American cheese, sour pickles, and crispy white onions.  It’s the best version of the generic fast-food burger that I’ve tasted.

#7 Shellfish risotto without rice (Manresa, California, United States) (Photos) (Post)

This is the kind of dish where Chef David Kinch really shines, a fundamentally Japanese dish with a subtle European influence. The broth was made from infused rice water, and when combined with the finely chopped root vegetables, created a texture and creaminess similar to risotto.

#6 Grains and seeds (Atelier Crenn, San Francisco, United States) (Photos)

In this dish, Chef Dominique Crenn served smoked and toasted grains and seeds of varying textures and flavor. Bottarga was shaved atop the pile of grains adding an intense salting to the dish. The combination reminded me of chicharrón, bringing out the inherent meaty flavor of the nuts.  A dashi broth was poured table side to bring everything together.

#5 Diver scallop aguachile (Los Aguachiles, Quintana Roo, Mexico) (Photos)

The best shellfish in Mexico comes from the cooler waters of its Pacific coast, but Los Aguachiles in Playa del Carmen does a phenomenal job with the seasoning. In this creative take on an aguachile, Baja diver scallop is topped with local greens, deep-fried onions, raw onions, cucumber, and an array of homemade salsas. The toasted onions add an umami that compliments the sweetness of the shellfish.

#4 Sea urchin tostada, diver scallop (La Guerrerense, Baja California, Mexico) (Photos)

At the end of the day, this is what I want to eat almost all the time–the food that dreams are made of. At this Ensenada street stall, introduced to me by my friend Bill Esparza, Doña Sabina Bandera prepares a daily assortment of ceviches as well as live clams and scallops. It’s best to start with a yellow corn tostada with a layer of one of her ceviches before piling on the raw shellfish, avocado, and spicy condiments.

#3 Lean tuna (Sukiyabashi Jiro, Tokyo, Japan) (Photos) (First post / Second post)

When it comes to the perfect piece of akami, or lean tuna, Chef Jiro Ono is the one to prepare it. Lean tuna is the most revealing of all cuts of tuna since the fattier cuts can hide imperfections in the quality of the fish. Chef Ono prepares it with a masterful understanding of timing, making sure that it gets to you quickly: after about 5 seconds the warm rice begins to warm the cool fish.

#2 Live clam tostada (Mariscos “El Güero, Baja California, Mexico) (Photos)

At this Ensenada street stall, live clams are shucked and served atop a yellow corn tortilla so quickly that they’re still moving on the plate. El Güero generally carries a variety of seasonal clams. In this tostada, almejas chocolatas and almejas pismos are dressed with cilantro, scallions, red onion, a mixture of raw homemade chiles, and a generous squirt of lime.

#1 Radish and oyster (Geist, Copenhagen, Denmark) (Photos)

This dish embodies everything I like about Bo Bech‘s cooking: it’s simple, original, precise, and focused. Here, raw radish was sliced into strings to mimic spaghetti. The sauce was made from raw gillardeau oysters, sheep’s yogurt, and a dash of lemon and black pepper. What first struck me about this dish was how it smelled: so pristine that it hardly resembled an oyster.  Rather, it had the sweet honey-like smell of shellfish. The lemon added a hint of acidity to brighten up the yogurt and the black pepper added a very subtle heat at the end of each bite. The radish was sweet and crunchy. Chef Bech is onto something: a pure and clean style of cooking emphasizing vegetables using meat and fish solely to enhance their flavor.

Related Posts:

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• Favorite Meals of 2012
• MAD 2012 w/ Enrique Olvera
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There is no question that 2012 was the best eating year of my life, with experiences in places ranging from Copenhagen to Kyoto. To create this list, I examined the dining experience as a whole, factoring in the progression of dishes and overall story they told. I can only hope 2013 will bring as much culinary excitement as this past year has.

One theme that links my top 10 meals of 2012 is the focus on intensification of flavor.  Cooking with fats is not the only way to maximize flavor. The Japanese intensify flavor by aging, cooking over a wood-burning fire, or using a pure umami-rich dashi broth. In Denmark, many of my best dishes were served raw or still alive. This theme, a focus on intensifying an ingredient’s natural flavor, led to a reduction of fats being used in the cooking process of many dishes. An unintentional side effect of this is the health benefit of lighter cooking. Chef Joshua Skenes of Saison, for example, didn’t even realize he was cooking without butter. The Japanese have been doing this for thousands of years, but recently other restaurants like Relae and 41 grados have sprung up  embodying similar principles.

Only time will tell how these restaurants develop in 2013. Happy New Year.

Below is a list of my top ten favorite meals from 2012.

#10 Pujol, Mexico D.F., Mexico (Chef Enrique Olvera) (Photos)

Mexican cuisine remains underrepresented given the richness of its culinary history . Highlighting the flavors of its thirty one states, Chef Enrique Olvera showcases original and exciting flavors in a simple fashion. His cuisine has become increasingly minimalist and focused over the past year, now making Pujol one of the most exciting restaurants in the world. His meals tell a delicate story from exotic ant larvae atop a thin tostadita to a bright and acidic nopal cactus salad. When dining in Mexico City, this is the place to go.

#9 41°, Barcelona, Spain (Chef Albert Adrià) (Photos)

Albert Adrià’s 43-course tasting menu is separated by geographic region — much like at elBulli — taking diners on a tour of Denmark, Mexico, Peru, Japan, and the Mediterranean. The menu is colorful, polished, and varied with an emphasis on the flavors of the sea. The platings are stunning and the flavors just as interesting. The meal was cohesive and without pretense, featuring original creations of chef Adrià as well as some classics from elBullí.

#8 Noma, Copenhagen, Denmark (Chef René Redzepi) (Photos)

What makes Noma special is its access to the unique ingredients of the cold north atlantic, combined with flawless execution and creativity of its team. Chef René Redzepi knows when to step back and let an ingredient speak for itself, but also how to minimally season it to enhance its flavor.

#7 La Teca, Oaxaca, Mexico (Chef Deyanira Aquino) (Photos)

In a restaurant run out of her home in Oaxaca, Doña Deyanira Aquino serves the regional cuisine from Mexico’s Isthmus of Tehuantepec. During my meal — eaten in her living room — chef Aquino scurried back and forth from her kitchen to our table serving classics like her estofado de bodas (wedding stew), molotes de plátano macho (plantain cakes topped with yogurt and fresh cheese), and garnachas (fried masa, spiced meat, fresh cheese). In many ways, the meal had the wholesomeness of eating at grandma’s house — full of hearty dishes from the Istmo. I felt like I would get in trouble if I didn’t finish a plate; thankfully, this was not an issue.

#6 Sushi Mizutani, Tokyo, Japan (Chef Hachiro Mizutani)

This was a meal less severe and more slowly paced than Sukiyabashi Jiro and Masa, yet with equal — if not greater — fish quality. The rice had slightly less vinegar, which helped it to take a step back making the fish’s flavor more apparent. The procession of courses was like clockwork — each piece of fish equally timed — while chef Mizutani interacted with us in a serious, yet friendly, manner. This was one of the greatest sushi experiences of my life.

#5 Ishikawa, Tokyo, Japan (Chef Hideki Ishikawa) (Photos)

At Ishikawa, Chef Hideki Ishikawa serves a traditional kaiseki meal with an emphasis on shellfish. Sea urchin, crab, abalone, and eel dominate the winter menu. The highlight was a black perch soup served in a traditional lacquer bowl, where a pure and subtle dashi broth brought out the fish’s natural sweetness.

#4 Relae, Copenhagen, Denmark (Chef Christian Puglisi) (Photos)

This was a meal that really took me by surprise. Chef Christian Puglisi’s cuisine is straightforward and focused, with rarely more than a handful of ingredients on the plate. He has a masterful understanding of acidity and when to use it to enhance an ingredient’s flavor. Every dish was balanced and wholly creative with original flavor combinations. My first meal at Relae was my best in Copenhagen.

#3 Sawada, Tokyo, Japan (Chef Koji Sawada)

When someone asks where the best sushi experience can be found, I now have an answer: Sawada. Chef Koji Sawada humbly serves some of the freshest cuts of fish I’ve ever experienced — some raw, some torched, others cured.  There is an emphasis on shellfish: clam, sea urchin, salmon roe, and scallop. The rice is exceptional with a distinct whole-grain flavor that supports the generous acidity found in the rice. The experience is quick but relaxed with chef Sawada interacting with all diners.

#2 Saison, San Francisco, United States (Chef Joshua Skenes) (Photos)

As good as Saison was in 2011, it was even better in 2012. The meal now tells a cohesive story where each dish eloquently leads into the next. My first meal of 2012 featured over thirty courses where not a single one contained an ounce of butter. Chef Joshua Skenes is obsessed with maximizing flavor where, much like the Japanese chefs, the natural result leads to aging techniques, umami-rich dashi broths, and flavor intensification through the use of fire. It’s only a matter of time before Chef Skenes gains his third Michelin star. For these reasons, Saison is currently the best restaurant in the United States.

#1 Kitcho, Kyoto, Japan (Chef Kunio Tokuoka) (Photos)

Eating out regularly can sometimes feel like listening to music with the volume turned on maximum — a collection of flavors and scents each trying to stand out against each other. That’s why I love Japan: it’s as if a chef stepped in and turned down the volume. Instead of loud flavors competing against each other, there is harmony. Flavors which were once lost in the noise become the spotlight in Japanese kaiseki cuisine.

Kitcho is a restaurant where the sum of the meal is greater than its parts. A dashi broth so clean and balanced sets the foundation for much of the meal, letting the ingredients’ natural flavors come through. The entire dining experience at Kitcho is ethereal, from the private tatami room in which the same waitress quietly serves each of its courses, to the vibrant colors that stand out against the black lacquer table. This is truly one of the world’s greatest restaurants.

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Enrique Olvera:

Good afternoon everyone, I would like to first thank Rene, Ali and all the staff at noma and MAD for the hospitality and opportunity to share our work in one of the most exciting food events in the world.

I would also like to introduce you to Alex Dzib, alex has been part of our family for a few years now and he will be assisting me in the cooking demo.

And last, but defenetly no least is Mr. Adam Goldberg, a foodwriter from NY that has visited Pujol at least twenty times in the past year. So because I can be as objective about my cuisine as my mother can be objective about me and because he has beaten the record of most visits in a year, I wanted instead to let Adam talk about his experience at Pujol and I will talk about our thought processes a bit later.

So before we finish our very short 23 minutes here is Mr. Adam Goldberg.

Adam Goldberg:

It’s an honor to be sharing this stage with Enrique, talking about Pujol and Mexico, which I believe is one of the most exciting places in the world to eat right now.

There are four things that make Pujol particularly special for me, and I’d like to share them with you: Balance, Love, Appetite, and Tradition.

Balance.

Eating out is, fundamentally, a exchange of trust. A diner offers his time, money, and appetite in exchange for a good experience. But why is the experience limited to just the meal? How do you feel after the meal? The next morning? Understanding that appetite changes throughout a meal is crucial to the overall experience.

Every restaurant experience is one of diminishing returns: food tastes better when you are hungry. Pujol is one of the first restaurants I’ve visited outside of Japan where this is taken into account.

Related Posts:

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• Pujol Revisited
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In this sense, Pujol has evolved significantly since my first visit in 2010. It is now not only a restaurant that recreates ancient dishes, but a restaurant that pushes Mexican cuisine forward by creating new ones. In the beginning Pujol looked inward at Mexico’s rich culinary history, cataloging, studying, and improving upon very old dishes. Pujol still does this but with more confidence, now looking outward as well, placing one of the oldest cuisines into the context of international dining.

Enrique Olvera’s cuisine is humble; you’ll be hard-pressed to find caviar or foie gras at Pujol, let alone at local fondas throughout the country. I’ve never seen black truffle on the menu although huitlacoche, the mushroom that grows inside corn kernels south of the border, is in abundance. Chef Olvera’s cuisine is local, and that’s likely unintentional: that’s just how things are done in Mexico.

Full disclosure: Having enjoyed Chef Olvera’s food tremendously, I have since been to Pujol nearly twenty times over the past few years, and have come to know him on a personal level. I haven’t seen a bill for my last four meals. After awhile, I suppose Chef Olvera began to wonder why the same pale gringo with a camera kept coming back. The answer is simple: Pujol is one of the most interesting restaurants in the world.

Though the menu changes several times a year, one course that has been served each time I’ve visited is a hollowed out gourd of elotitos tatemados con mayonesa de café y polvo de chicatana, smoked baby corn with coffee mayonnaise dusted in salty ant powder. The subtle acidity from a splash of lime lifts the creamy mayonnaise, while the smoke and ant powder contribute an addictive umami to the otherwise meatless dish. This snack is a tribute to the Mexican street vendors selling corn until the late hours of night.

As the restaurant evolves, simple deconstructions like a quesadilla in a shot glass (2010) are being replaced with more original flavor combinations based on Mexican fundamentals. Take for instance Chef Olvera’s pescado del día en ceniza de cebolla, a lightly seared filet of snook dusted in onion ashes served with a nutty green mole. The green mole lacks any sweetness whatsoever, so the flavor is of pumpkin seeds and savory herbs. What’s fascinating is how the charred onion layer concentrates the flavor of the green mole adding a subtle bitterness, much like how a burnt tortilla tempers a Pueblan or Oaxacan mole’s sweetness. A single thin slice of serrano pepper adds an additional element of spice. This dish rests inside a sweet white onion layer and is eaten with the hands. It would be difficult to think of a more balanced dish.

A staple of Chef Olvera’s cooking has been take a regional street food, study its flavors in depth, and enhance them. This is more than a cosmetic change, e.g., serving a taco on a plate: you won’t be able to find this ingredient quality and attention to flavor elsewhere.

Sopes, a street food from Culiacán, Sinaloa, are ovular sheets of grilled masa traditionally topped with meat, fresh cheese, and acidified cream. In his sope de erizo, Chef Olvera takes this traditional street food and substitues the meat and cream with a thick layer of floral and creamy Ensenada sea urchin roe, brightened with a thin slice of raw onion. The urchin is lightly torched, mimicking the flavor of masa toasted on the comal.

Barbacoa tacos, a central Mexican dish of sheep slow-roasted in deep pits underground, is enhanced at Pujol with an avocado cream, spicy serrano chiles, and a poblano pepper tortilla. The sheep is very carefully slow-roasted for 24-hours producing a succulent, concentrated cut of meat. This is a dish that frankly, is tastier than any street version I’ve had.

If Mexico City had an official dish it would likely be tacos al pastor, the Mexican version of doner kebab kicked up with pineapple and cilantro. Served on rotating spits throughout the city, sheets of pork and pineapple are shaved off in one fell swoop into a corn tortilla. It’s a heavy dish in which the tortillas are sometimes dragged through a layer of dripping pork fat before stuffed with pork. Chef Olvera’s version is clean and lacks visible oil, where pork is replaced with snook.

One of the unique qualities of Mexico is its abundance of unique fruits, vegetables, and herbs that don’t grow elsewhere. To showcase Mexico’s produce, Chef Olvera creates his versions of the Gargouillou. The difference is, unless you’re familiar with Mexican cuisine, you probably haven’t heard of many of the ingredients.

La Milpa, literally translated as “the cornfields,” is the place where the vegetable foundation of Mexican cuisine begins. ” Chef Olvera pays tribute with a wooden slab holding colorful local squash, zucchini blossom, jumiles, pipicha oil, and small tomatoes. Binding the dish together are puréed beans and fresh cheese.

In a minimalist version of the garden dish, ensalada de nopales, Chef Olvera explores acidity and herbal freshness coming from the nopal cactus (served fresh and dehydrated) sweetened with green pea shoots.

Even heavy dishes, such as the Yucatecan bald pig in a pork reduction with bean salsa, are well-balanced in the context of the rest of the meal — rare to find a meat course that doesn’t weigh you down elsewhere. The pork fat contrasts against the splash of lime in the pork reduction and the spice of the yellow chile.

A meal at Pujol is a culinary tour of Mexican cooking with Chef Olvera as your guide. Some of the courses are hundred year old dishes brought up to date, others are creations using Mexico’s ingredients and techniques as a foundation for creating something new.

Mexican cuisine is incredibly regionalized; it’s difficult to find a restaurant that serves fine dining pan-Mexican cuisine without sacrificing quality. There are only a few restaurants that do this. (Two that come to mind in the U.S. are Topolobampo in Chicago, and lately Gran Eléctrica in Brooklyn.) Pujol is one of these restaurants, showing each region of Mexico at its best.

Having trained at the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Olvera also has the outside perspective of his country’s cuisine that is necessary to make it approachable to the rest of the world. He has a unique ability to summarize Mexican cuisine in a handful of courses so that the meal is enjoyed by locals and foreigners alike.

Mexico is a country whose food is often neglected, partly because of the lack of modern chefs creating new dishes and pushing it forward. Enrique Olvera is bringing this cuisine to the international spotlight where it rightfully belongs.

Related Posts:

• Favorite Dishes of 2012
• MAD 2012 w/ Enrique Olvera
• Café Passmar
• Pujol
• Favorite Drip Coffee of 2012

As most baristi will agree, coffee is temperamental.  The hardest part of the extraction process is consistency.  A great espresso comes with no guarantee of one just as good the next. It is imposible to name a single shop with the most consistently good espresso, because there is no such thing as consistently good espresso. It is only possible to share where and when all the variables, ranging from the barista to the weather, aligned to create an incredible extraction.

In this list, I present the top five espresso shots I’ve had this year.

#5 Kafé Esaias, Stockholm, Sweden (Nov 21, 2011 / La Marzocco Strada MP) (Photos)

This shot was pulled from da Matteo‘s Guatemala beans which, while bright, were tempered by the beans’ darker nutty flavors. Barista Charl draws some of the finest latte art I’ve ever seen, from an ornate rosetta to a fish swimming in the ocean.

#4 The Queens Kickshaw, Astoria, NY (May 25, 2011 / La Marzocco Strada MP) (Photos)

This shot was made with Coffee Labs beans from Nayarit, Mexico, full of berry notes with a gentle acidity. The flavor was remarkably like strawberry — add a dash of milk and it would have been strawberries and cream. Owner/Barista Ben Sandler is obsessive with the quality of his espresso, often pulling multiple shots until the extraction is perfect. This was the shop that opened my eyes to the burgeoning culinary scene in Astoria. Go.

#3 Nozy Coffee, Tokyo, Japan (Jan 3, 2011 / Synesso Cyncra)

At Nozy, espresso is pulled from a variety of single origin beans, each generally high in acidity and fruit notes. The shop is located just outside the city center, creating a calmer suburban atmosphere in which to enjoy a cup of coffee. The staff is young, but don’t let that be misleading: they are very experienced. This cafe is a must visit for any coffee lover while in Tokyo.

#2 Bear Pond Espresso, Tokyo, Japan (Jan 2, 2011 / La Marzocco FB80)

Barista Katsu Tanaka has strict guidelines for his espresso. So much so, in fact, that his shop in Shimokitazawa only serves espresso between the hours of 10 and 12pm, when he is personally in house to pull the shot. He has a strong dislike for sourness and shies away from acidity. The result is a thick, chocolately shot with a subtle hint of smoke. His extractions are so viscuous, one could likely turn an espresso cup upside down without any liquid spilling out. A visit to Bear Pond Espresso is worth a trip to Tokyo alone.

#1 Sweetleaf Coffee and Tea, Long Island City, NY (Nov 15, 2011 / La Marzocco Strada EP) (Photos)

Sweetleaf was the first cafe in New York City to receive La Marzocco’s Strada EP, the newest electronic paddle version of its popular Strada series. This machine allows baristi to focus on the myriad other variables of the extraction while the machine handles the pressure profiling automatically. When co-owner Rich Nieto received this machine he said, “all hell broke loose” in learning how to use it. It’s clear that the time and effort the team at Sweetleaf put into mastering this machine has paid off. This was not only my favorite shot of the year, but likely that I’ve ever had. The shot, pulled from Ritual Roaster‘s Volare beans from Guatemala, was extremely balanced, straddling the line between fruit and acidity. The texture was smooth like velvet leaving behind a creamy, buttery mouthfeel. I can’t wait to see what happens in 2012 as Sweetleaf further masters this powerful machine.

Honorable Mentions:

• Blue Bottle Coffee, Williamsburg, New York
• Café Passmar, Mexico City, Mexico
• Johan & Nyström, Stockholm, Sweden
• Ritual Coffee, San Francisco
• Stumptown Coffee, New York

Related Posts:

• Favorite Drip Coffee of 2012
• The Queens Kickshaw
• Sosta Espresso Bar
• Gocce di Caffè
• Favorite Dishes of 2012

A few events in particular made 2011 one of the most exciting eating years in recent memory. The closing of El Bullí, perhaps the most hyped restaurant of the decade, passed the spotlight to other deserving restaurants like Quique Dacosta and Sant Pau for the first time. Hopefully 2012 will bring these restaurants the international attention they deserve.  Sean Brock continued to promote the incredibly varied and delicious cuisine of the American South, inspiring other American chefs to look into the rustic cuisines of their childhoods and bring them to the dining room. Mexican cuisine started to gain more international attention, led by the refined cooking of chefs like Enrique Olvera. And chefs like Joshua Skenes reminded us that the simple cooking techniques are often the most diffiult, requiring unwavering attention and patience.

Only time will tell how these restaurants develop in 2012. Happy New Year.

Below is a list of my top ten favorite meals from 2011.

#10 Amaranta, Toluca, Mexico (Chef Pablo Salas) (Photos)

An hour west of Mexico city lies the landlocked state of Mexico, home of Toluca-native Chef Pablo Salas. Chef Salas uses ingredients and techniques from his home region to create rustic pan-Mexiquense dishes not typically found elsewhere in Mexico.

#9 Mistral, Stockholm, Sweden (Chef Fredrik Andersson) (Photos)

At Mistral, each course was a minimalist work of art, highlighting the varied scope of flavors and textures found in locally harvested Swedish vegetables. This meal—paired entirely with white wines—was light and fresh, exposing the rich produce available throughout the country. Chef Andersson has a unique understanding of balance, combining different vegetables to create a synergy that makes nature taste its best.

#8 Frantzén/Lindberg, Stockholm, Sweden (Chefs Björn Frantzén and Daniel Lindeberg) (Photos)

This was a meal utilizing traditional cooking techniques to take advantage of Sweden’s finest ingredients. With an emphasis on slow cooking and a blatant obsessiveness over ingredient quality, Chef Björn Frantzén takes exceptional care to enhance each ingredient’s natural flavor. It is only a matter of time before this restaurant receives its third Michelin star.

#7 Sant Pau, Sant Pol de Mar, Spain (Chef Carme Ruscalleda) (Photos)

At Sant Pau, Chef Carme Ruscalleda melds her wild imagination with traditional Catalan cooking to create an experience both unique and inspiring. Her use of color and appreciation for fine art makes her platings some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Most importantly, the cooking was exact and meticulous, with each colorful ingredient contributing to the dish’s flavor as well as creative presentation.

#6 Manresa, Los Gatos, California (Chef David Kinch) (Photos)

With a masterful understanding of ingredient quality and simplicity, Chef David Kinch knows when to step back and let nature speak for itself. My meal here in 2011 was refined and comfortable: this restaurant has really transitioned from a local, neighborhood place to one that deserves a lot more international attention than it’s currently receiving. The restaurant currently has two Michelin stars, but if this isn’t a three star restaurant at this point, I’m not sure what is. In the meantime, now is the perfect time to go; I have a funny suspicion the restaurant is about to get a lot busier.

#5 El Bullí, Roses, Spain (Chef Ferran Adrià) (Photos)

This was a magical meal where the cumulative experience was far greater than each individual course combined. My recent meal emphasized progressions of flavor, where three or four courses in a sequence balanced each other out, rather than the individual components of a dish by itself. The interactivity of the meal was nonpareil, with our table full of fun and excitement at every course.

#4 Pujol, Mexico City, Mexico (Chef Enrique Olvera) (Photos)

Mexico has a rich and varied culinary history that remains relatively unknown outside of the country. What makes Pujol particularly special is how its talented chef, Enrique Olvera, takes traditional nostalgic Mexican dishes, de-constructs, improves, and later re-assembles them for the dining room. Chef Enrique Olvera is at the forefront of exploring and sharing his country’s incredible cuisine with the rest of the world.

#3 Husk, Charleston, South Carolina (Chef Sean Brock) (Photos)

The American South remains full of mystery and legend, with Chef Sean Brock leading a new culinary movement to uncover its past and bring the Southern dishes he grew up with into the dining room. His obsessiveness over ingredient quality and flavor is creating a market for small regional farmers to re-grow ancient grains that haven’t been seen south of the Mason-Dixon line in over a hundred years. 2011 was a very exciting year for American cuisine. If things continue on this path, 2012 will be even more exciting.

#2 Quique Dacosta, Denia, Spain (Chef Quique Dacosta) (Photos)

Quique Dacosta is currently the most exciting restaurant in Spain. My second meal at Quique Dacosta fused the simplicity of local ingredients with highly conceptual, precise cooking of Chef Dacosta that told a cohesive story about the region and its history. This was a beautiful meal full of surprises, both visually, and in terms of flavor.

#1 Saison, San Francisco, California (Chef Joshua Skenes) (Photos)

My meal at Saison took me by surprise. Made as a last-minute, same-day reservation per the recommendation of my friend Chuck, Saison was my favorite meal from 2011. Each course had an element of fire from the outdoor hearth, whether seen in roasted bones used to make a sauce or in a piece a meat being cooked directly over the embers. With a firm understanding of a kind of simplicity that captures the essence of what makes Japanese cuisine so special, Chef Skenes is able to leverage Saison’s hearth to accentuate and broaden the natural flavors of fish and meat without distracting from the ingredients’ natural flavors.

Related Posts:

• Favorite Dishes of 2011
• Favorite Dishes of 2012
• MAD 2012 w/ Enrique Olvera
• Pujol Revisited
• Manresa

For me, 2011 was a year of many discoveries. It was the year I had the realization that Mexico is on par with some of the greatest culinary destinations of the world, including Japan, China, France, and Italy. It was a year where the food scene in Sweden skyrocketed forward and is now on track to catch up with neighboring Denmark. It was also a year where I realized one does not have to travel very far for exceptional eating. Some of the best restaurants are right here in the United States, and San Francisco, Charleston, and Chicago are leading the pack.

This list was inspired by the wonderfully varied posts by my friends Chuck Eats and the Ulterior Epicure, with whom I shared many of the below meals. It was particularly interesting how our varied tastes led to different determinations of favorite dishes of meals we both thought were exceptional.

Of all the places I’ve visited this year, these are the dishes that particularly stood out.

#25 Birria de lengua de res (Birria “el Zalate”, San Jose del Cabo, Mexico) (Photos)

Stewed cow tongue topped with crispy raw onion, cilantro, and finished with a squeeze of lime. The meat so soft it could be eaten with no more than a spoon. The stew was served with corn tortillas.

#24 Espardenyes (Rafa’s, Roses, Spain) (Photos)

When shellfish is this fresh, it rarely needs more than a dash of salt and olive oil to create an outstanding dish. Even though El Bulli is closing, Rafa’s remains one of the most delicious local restaurants in town.

#23 Onion, ricotta, shortbread crumble (Eleven Madison Park, New York) (Photos)

A slowly roasted onion with layers that, when spread open, looked more like a flower than a vegetable. The subtly sweet onion was served with warm ricotta, a crunchy shortbread crumble, and diced pickled onion.

#22 Summer fruits and vegetables (Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills, New York) (Photos)

A beautiful slab of garden vegetables, fruits, and herbs that was as fun to eat as it was delicious. Each bite was different was a different combination of flavor and texture that all seemed to work together.

#21 Raw lamb with kale (Mistral, Stockholm, Sweden) (Photos)

Sheets of raw lamb with fried and air-dried chips of crispy kale. As the only meat course during this meal, when taken in context, the flavors were more akin to a fish than a meat. The pairing with this dish was also exceptional, a buttery glass of champagne “comme autrefois.”

#20 Sea urchin, abalone, salmon roe cocktail (Donguri, New York)

A martini glass of abalone, sea urchin, and salmon roe with a light vinaigrette and sprinkled with fresh herbs. With shellfish this fresh, minimal preparation is all that is needed to create an exceptional dish. The only problem with this dish was how quickly it was finished.

#19 Tabacco, funghi porcini, & noci (Il Canto, Siena, Italy) (Photos)

What was once a place where I had one of the worst meals of my life recently served me one of the most hauntingly interesting dishes I’ve had in recent memory. Slices of raw porchini mushroom covered in mushroom dust and raw tobacco. The tobacco-sting somehow made the mushrooms taste sweet. I am now convinced Chef Paolo Lopriore is a genius who is not afraid to take risks, even if it leads to some dishes not sitting well.

#18 Structures of Peach (Schloss Berg, Germany) (Photos)

Chef Christian Bau, at the forefront of the “new German cuisine” movement, has a commanding understanding of textures and complimentary flavors. In this dish, decorated with spheres of different textures and flavors of rose, champagne, and red fruits, everything comes together into a light and fruity dessert lifted with a hint of champagne.

#17 Tomato Velvet Maresme King Prawns (Sant Pau, Sant Pol de Mar, Spain) (Photos)

This dish consisted of prawns just barely cooked sitting atop a carrot-prawn bisque. There was a beautiful vegetal sweetness from the carrots that nicely complimented the prawns. Chef Carme Ruscalleda is truly one of the greatest chefs in Spain whose cuisine will hopefully receive more attention now that neighboring El Bulli has closed.

#16 Cemita de Milanesa (Cemitas Lupita, Cholula, Mexico) (Photos)

Thinly pounded and breaded veal cutlet served with herbaceous pápalo (Bolivian coriander), hand-pulled local quesillo, freshly scooped avocado, sweet and smoky chipotle, and crispy red onions, is drizzled with olive oil and served inside a scooped-out sesame-egg roll. This seemingly simple sandwich, made at a small stand at the back of a hectic market in Cholula, is one of the most complex tasting and delicious sandwiches I’ve ever eaten. This sandwich is worth a trip to Cholula alone.

#15 Pozole de Hongos (Topolobampo, Chicago) (Photos)

This dish showed me that Chef Rick Bayless has a masterful understanding of Mexican sauces and their flavors, and most importantly, his ability to reproduce them in the kitchen. This variation of pozole was one of the best pozole dishes I have ever eaten, with just the right amount of subtle smoky spice dancing on the tongue until the last bite.

#14 Beets cooked over the embers (McCrady’s, Charleston, South Carolina) (Photos)

These beats soaked up the flavors of the fire during the slow roasting which, when combined with the caramelized sugars of the beets, made one of the best tasting beets I’ve ever had.

#13 Caviar and Hazelnut (El Bulli, Roses, Spain) (Photos)

Caviar sitting in a hazelnut cream sitting next to balls of spherified hazelnut in a caviar cream. In this yin-yang of caviar and hazelnut, it was difficult to pick favorites: both sides were exceptional.

#12 Boiled meats … not boiled (Osteria Francescana, Modena, Italy) (Photos)

Boiled meats is a particularly nostalgic dish for Chef Massimo Bottura who grew up eating them in his home. As a homage to his roots, chef Bottura created a skyline of different parts of beef and pork sitting behind a vegetal foam made to resemble central park. This New York City tribute was inspired a recent trip.

#11 Vuelve a al vida (MeroToro, Mexico City, Mexico) (Photos)

The former chef of Ensenada’s Laja, Jair Téllez, recently opened a Baja-style seafood restaurant in the heart Mexico City. Despite being in the middle of the country, the fish is unbelievably fresh. This chilled dish, based off the Mexican “return to life” tomato drink known for alleviating hangovers, features chunky stripes of sea urchin and barnacles with cubes of fresh cucumber and flakes of parsley. I could eat this dish all day.

#10 Marinated mackerel and sesame ice cream (La Vie, Osnabrück, Germany) (Photos)

I know I love a meal when I anxiously await the next course. This was the case at La Vie, where I was sitting at the edge of my seat in anticipation. For this appetizer, wedges of mackerel sat next to a subtly sweet sesame ice cream the nutty taste of which still lingers in my mouth. The flavor of sesame really complemented the oily skin of the mackerel. This dish was chilled, fresh, light, and full of flavor.

#9 Sashimi on ice (Kozue, Tokyo)

Few things make me happier than a plate of fresh sashimi. Here, slices of sweet shrimp, red snapper, fatty tuna, fluke, sea urchin, and squid are served on a bed of shaved ice keeping them chilled until the very last minute.

#8 Chocolate (Alinea, Chicago) (Photos)

For this dessert, Chef Achatz stepped out of the kitchen, rolled out a silicon table cloth, and began plating our table with dessert. Before our eyes he created a gorgeous edible painting, splashing sauces of blueberry, chocolate, and caramel. This dish was as delicious as it was interactive and exciting. Chef Achatz is truly thinking outside the box not just for flavor, but also for the dining experience as a whole.

#7 Taquito de barbacoa (Pujol, Mexico City) (Photos)

Choosing favorite dishes from Chef Enrique Olvera’s 2011 menus at Pujol was painfully difficult: there were too many. In this dish, eaten in the fall, slowly roasted pork was laid over a poblano-infused corn tortilla and topped with serrano chile, small dollops of poblano cream, and a smoky and tangy chipotle sauce. With dishes like this, Chef Olvera reminds us that Mexican cuisine should be receiving a lot more attention than it does, and that it has a cultural depth and flavor palate that competes with the greatest cuisines of the world.

#6 Scallop in three servings (Frantzén/Lindeberg, Stockholm, Sweden) (Photos)

With this dish, Chef Björn Frantzén demonstrated his deft understanding of Japanese cuisine and his ability to apply it to Scandinavian ingredients. For the first part, a scallop was cooked in its shell with a lemon sabayon and topped with shaved truffle. Then, the second part was served raw after having been marinated and bound in confit of its roe with a bouillon of dried scallops, algae, and dried girolles. Lastly, for the third serving, the cooking juices were poured into the shell and drank as a soup.

#5 Chile en Nogada (El Mural de los Poblanos, Puebla, Mexico) (Photos)

A breaded poblano pepper stuffed with minced pork, nuts and dried fruits, topped with a chilled walnut cream sauce and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds and fresh parsley. August in Puebla is my favorite time of the year: walnut season. It’s the only month of the year when chiles en nogada should be eaten. This dish, created by nuns to represent the colors of the Mexican flag, is truly one of Mexico’s greatest dishes. And El Mural de los Poblanos serves the best version of it I’ve ever tasted.

 #4 Chufas (Quique Dacosta, Spain) (Photos)

Local tigernuts and chocolate-covered foie gras in white truffle cream broth. The dish was spotted with house-infused white truffle oil. The mixture of sweet, salty, and vegetal is what made this dish so interesting. Chef Quique Dacosta’s cuisine is original, spontaneous, and exciting. With this restraint in particularly, it was unbelievably difficult picking a favorite course from my three meals.

#3 Flight of fish (Saison, San Francisco, California) (Photos)

A seemingly simple assortment of sea bream, lobster, pen shell clam, horse mackerel, kindai bluefin tuna belly, amber jack, and striped jack had very complex tastes. The bones of each fish were slowly roasted over Saison’s open hearth and infused into white soy, creating a separate soy sauce for each fish which was discreetely brushed atop. Skene’s “bone sauce” added a depth to each piece of fish without overpowering its delicate natural flavors.

#2 Raw milk panna cotta, Monterey bay abalone (Manresa, Los Gatos, California) (Photos)

A warm panna cotta topped with an abalone gelée, sprinkled with fresh abalone. The creamy, milky panna cotta was a brilliant accompaniment that brought everything together without distracting from the subtle flavor of the abalone. This understated dish was full of the flavor of the deep sea.

#1 Smoked trout rib (Husk, South Carolina) (Photos)

An impromptu dish Chef Sean Brock contrived, made from parts of a fish ordinarily considered scrap, turned out to be my favorite bite of the year. The smoky meat of the trout hugged its thick plank of spine: we had to work for the delicious meat. The sweetness of the barbecue glaze in combination with the subtle smoke made this finger-licking dish my favorite of 2011.

Related Posts:

• Favorite Meals of 2011
• Favorite Dishes of 2012
• MAD 2012 w/ Enrique Olvera
• Pujol Revisited
• Manresa

It was four years since my last visit to the French Laundry. Since then, Chef de Cuisine Corey Lee left and opened San Francisco’s Benu, with Timothy Hollingsworth taking his place. It’s an interesting situation being the chef de cuisine at a restaurant of this caliber where the executive chef no longer cooks. On the one hand it’s an incredible opportunity for a chef to propel his career, but unfortunately, the dishes still have to further the concepts and passions set forth by someone else: Thomas Keller.

Sometimes there’s synergy between an executive chef and a chef de cuisine, and at other times, a discontinuity. While I’ve never been lucky enough to eat dishes prepared by Thomas Keller, Chef Hollingsworth comes close to what I’d imagine chef Keller’s cooking to be: precise and composed. My last meal was delicious, but it felt sterile and soulless. This time around it was better: there were glimpses into chef Hollingsworth’s inspirations.

This was my first time at French Laundry for lunch service, and the dining room felt very different. Candle light was replaced by bright sunlight pouring in through the windows. The mood was more casual, the ambience lighter and more approachable. It felt less intense.

Our meal started with an iPad, holding an electronic copy of the restaurant’s wine list. Having simply heard that the restaurant handed iPads to diners to choose their wines I might have thought it was gimmicky, but it was actually really helpful. For the first time I could search through a wine menu and filter by the grapes I liked.

Our meal started with a glass of champagne and some small snacks.

Warm gougères - Piping hot puff pastries of cheese, with a generous helping of salt to really focus the flavor.

Salmon cornets – “Grab a cornet and eat it in two bites,” our waiter instructed us. There’s a reason these black sesame cones filled with salmon, dill, and red onion crème fraîche are always on the menu: they’re delicious.

Oysters and Pearls - A sabayon of pearl tapioca with Island Creek oysters and a generous dollop of white sturgeon caviar. This is a very rich dish that is unbelievable every time. My friend the ulterior epicure likens the texture of the sabayon to “warm mayonaise.” While he has a point about the dish’s creaminess, for me the refreshing brininess of the caviar really helps cut through the fatty mouthfeel of the butter. The 3-bite portioning also helps, although I would have no problem eating three of these. This course remains one of my favorites of Thomas Keller.

Royal Ossetra Caviar, Compressed Summer Melon, Nasturtium and Black Pepper Crème Fraîche – This was a dish that was far prettier than it was tasty. In fact, it looked like the ingredients were chosen for their aesthetic value rather than their flavor: what did the mealy flavors of the flowers contribute to the dish? The melon helped bring out the minerality of the caviar, but everything else on the plate was mere decoration, or at least I didn’t get it.

Moulard Duck Foie Gras “En Terrine,” French Laundry Garden Strawberries, Cucumber, Young Coconut and Greek Basil – This was the first time I didn’t like one of The French Laundry or Per Se’s foie gras dishes. This was really disappointing. The golden, buttered brioche was warm, rich, and perfect — it was even replaced half-way through the course. But the liver itself was flavorless tasting like dense whipped cream. The basil seeds looked great on the plate, but they really didn’t add anything to this dish either. The two supplemental courses I was the most excited for: the ossetra caviar and the foie gras, were the most disappointing of the afternoon.

A little bit down from the previous two courses, we splurged and ordered a white burgundy, a 2006 Puligny-Montrachet 1re Cru Les Folatières. This was a younger sister of one of my favorite white burgundies, one that we ordered at El Bullí in 2010. Its flavor was of apricot and honey. This marked the point where our meal took a turn for the better.

Spanish Mackerel “En Escabèche,” Heirloom Tomatoes, Crispy Artichokes, Mizuna and Pine Nut Vinaigrette – A bowl of mackerel and colored vegetables. The strength of the mackerel helped it stand up to the fried artichokes. This was a dish about textures, every bite was a different combination of crunchy and smooth. I thought this course was brilliant.

Atlantic Cod “Confit à la Minute,” Summer Squash, Toybox Tomatoes, Parsley and Sweet Garlic Cream - A large filet of atlantic cod wrapped in squash with tomatoes and garlic cream. The cod itself was pretty flavorless, but the squash helped add a bit of vegetal flavor and texture. The tomatoes added a hint of acidity. This dish was about everything except the fish.

Sweet Butter-Poached Maine Lobster Tail, Fennel Bulb, Mission Fig, Marcona Almonds and Aged Balsamic Vinegar – Supple chunks of sweet lobster claw over sweet corn with fig. The real highlight of this dish was the crunch of the sweet corn with the richness of the salty butter. The lobster claws were a bonus. The fennel and marcona almonds didn’t add much to this dish, but the corn and lobster was so fantastic I really enjoyed this course.

Devil’s Gulch Ranch “Épaule de Lapin,” Black Eyed Peas, Arrowleaf Spinach, Glazed Bing Cherry and Black Truffle-Maple Jus - Making the transition from fish to meat came a small rabbit loin  glazed in a black truffle and maple jus. This was a heartier dish served in a small portion which left us wanting more. This was a great course.

Smoked Liberty Farm Pekin Duck Breast, Royal Blenheim Apricot Purée, Romano Beans, Mustard Frills and Turnip “‘Mostarda” - Thin slices of thick-skinned duck with a fruity apricot purée to contrast against the duck’s fat. I would have liked that the skin be a little bit crispier to give some textural contrast, but the doneness was perfect — almost like a piece of lean tuna. Really liked this course.

Snake River Farms “Calotte de Bœuf Grillée,” Dill Pasta, Red Beets, Horseradish Mousse, Roasted Shallot and “Sauce Borscht” – A gorgeous, beet-read cut of grilled beef served over a “borscht” sauce. The acidity from the vinegar in the sauce really made this dish, cutting through the fatty mouthfeel of the beautifully marbleized meat. The beef was uniformly rare with a paper thin crispy surface from where it touched the grill that gave it just a hint of char. This was a great dish.

Before the cheese course and desserts, we stepped onto the patio and took a 45-minute break. The weather was absolutely perfect.

“Comté Reserve,” Eggplant, Sultana Raisins, Marcona Almonds, Frisée and Red Snapper Essence – For this composed cheese course, slices of 24-month aged comté were wedged between small eggplant and patches of frisée. I love comté; I really didn’t understand everything else on the plate. It just seemed arbitrary. Call me a purist, but I like comté by itself.

“Caramélia Chocolate “Crèmeux,” Gros Michel Banana, Georgia Peanuts, “Dentelle” and Salted Popcorn Ice Cream – A cylinder of sweet milk chocolate mousse contrasted against salty popcorn ice cream and caramel. This was a great dessert, really a balance of sweet and savory. The peanuts and crispy caramel layer added a textural contrast making this one of the few chocolate desserts I have enjoyed.

“Nectarine Melba,” Sicilian Pistachio “Pain de Gênes,” Andante Dairy Yogurt, “Biscotti,” and Raspberry Sorbet – A delicate pistachio cake crowned with slices of ripe nectarine. To the side was a biscotti crumble and a raspberry sorbet. This dessert was fruity, sweet, and full of color.

Coffee and Doughnuts - A Thomas Keller signature: cinnamon-sugared doughnut holes with a “cappuccino semi-freddo.” This dessert is always available at both Per Se and The French Laundry and with good reason: it’s one of the best. Simple balls of deep-fried dough coated in in cinnamon and sugar.

After coffee & doughnuts, we ordered some real coffee. Too bad there were no more doughnuts.

Mignardises – A selection of chocolates: (clockwise) olive oil, meyer lemon, peanut butter and jelly, michigan cherry, hazelnut, and ginger.

At the end of the meal we took a walk into the kitchen where Chef Hollingsworth and team were preparing for dinner service. The tone in the kitchen was remarkable: no yelling or shouting, everything was in order and the staff focused, calm, and collected. It felt like an operating room in its precision with Chef Hollingsworth its chief surgeon.

Would I go back? Absolutely. Chef Hollingsworth made the French Laundry worth re-visiting. But right now, it would be mostly for the experience, the service, and the way the restaurant allows diners to spend a relaxing meal with friends. The service is flawless, the wine list nonpareil, and the Napa valley gorgeous. The meal was good — better than my experiences under chef Corey Lee, but it still lacked that spark that I can only imagine existed when chef Keller was in the kitchen. As Chef Hollingsworth grows, he’ll be able to direct more of the restaurant’s culinary vision, hopefully pouring some of his own passion into the cuisine.

Open thoughts:

• How has the French Laundry changed since Thomas Keller stopped cooking?
• What are some differences you’ve noticed between chefs Corey Lee and Timothy Hollingsworth?
• How does chef Corey Lee’s cuisine at Benu compare to his cuisine at The French Laundry?
• Is it necessary for a restaurant to convey time and place?

Related Posts:

• The French Laundry
• Manresa
• Saison
• L2O
• Alinea Revisited

My journey at The French Laundry began with a trip through the garden. With an hour to spare before our reservation, we explored the autumn-colored late-season tomatoes practically falling off their vines in ripeness. I turned to my left and noticed, in shock, a farmer pruning the vines and discarding these perfect tomatoes. “We’re clearing the vines out today, want some tomatoes?” he asked. That may have been the fasted I’d ever ran looking for a bag; as I knew, The French Laundry grows and has access to some of the finest ingredients in the world.

During the first decade of the restaurant’s operation, Chef Thomas Keller melded California’s impeccable ingredient quality with innovative fine dining. The restaurant has won numerous awards and accolades, arguably making it the most famous restaurant in the country. We hoped to find the same inspiration that made the restaurant famous now that chef Keller is no longer in the kitchen. Our meal overall tasted very good, but it felt uninspired.

I loaded up three shopping bags with the freshest and sweetest tomatoes I’d ever seen. Onlookers thought I had a bit too much to drink, ravaging the tomato vines in a suit with a garbage bag. These three hefty bags of heirloom tomatoes made it to my car, back to my hotel, and on the plane with me to New York the following day. You should have seen the faces of TSA as bags of tomatoes passed through the X-Ray machines.

We brushed the dirt off our shoes and walked across the street to the restaurant.

Our table was a quiet one on the first floor in the corner of a hundred-year old house. The dining room was dimly lit and romantic with nothing but whispers and the clanking of utensils and glassware to be heard. We ordered a glass of champagne and settled in for our first course.

Gruyère gougères – Warm cheese puffs piped with Mornay sauce. These were generously salted and went nicely with a crisp glass of champagne.

Salmon cornets – Small cones of raw salmon tartar in a sesame tuile with sweet red onion crème fraîche. Our waiter asked us to pick a cone from the specially made holder; we ate it in our hand like a savory ice cream cone. These cones were outstanding, a balance of a sweet nutty tuile with fatty salmon and light vegetal crème fraîche.

Soupe de musquée de provence with kakai pumpkin seeds - A thick, creamy pumpkin soup with crunchy bits of pumpkin seeds. The flavor of the soup was earthy and rich. I liked the idea of a textural contrast, but the hard, shiny surface of the pumpkin seeds made for too stark of a contrast; the broth just slid off the sides without integrating.

Paired with a Schramsberg Vineyards, “J. Schram,” California, 1999

Oysters and Pearls – A sabayon of pearl tapioca with beau soleil oysters and white sturgeon caviar. This Thomas Keller classic is always on the menu at both Per Se and The French Laundry. This incredibly rich, buttery hollandaise-like sauce works great with the cold briny caviar and plump oysters. The remarkable thing about this dish is that it is always identical. After having this dish about a dozen times now between Per Se and The French Laundry, I don’t think I have ever noticed a difference. It is always a great way to begin a meal.

Sashimi of pacific kahala – Thin slices of Applewood smoked kahala served with blis maple syrup. Our waiter brought us a covered glass with thin cuts of kahala, and when the cover was lifted a small cloud of Applewood smoke was released. This was a dish where the puff of smoke smelled better than the fish tasted, or did not taste for that matter. The fish was relatively flavorless by itself. A dash of soy sauce may have helped to extract some of the flavors.

White truffle custard - Served in an egg shell with a ragoût of Perigord white truffle. This wasn’t a very fragrant dish despite the inclusion of white truffles, instead, the truffle added a mushroom-like earthiness to the custard that was addictive. After three bites the egg was hollow; we wanted more.

I generally don’t comment on wine pairings because I think they’re more about the experience of drinking wine with friends than enhancing the flavor of each course. However, this is one of the two best wine pairings I have ever had. The sweetness of the fruity, fortified wine really contrasted against the salty, earthiness of the truffles. The net effect was a stronger truffle flavor, as if eating this dish through a magnifying glass. The sommelier should win an award for this combination.

Paired with a Barbeito, Sercial, Madeira, Portugal 1978

Air-cured wagyu with 100-year-old balsamic vinegar - Thin, translucent slices of heavily marbleized wagyu beef garnished with arugula leaves, toasted pine nuts, and sweet, syrupy aged vinegar. This was the oldest vinegar I had ever tasted. I can only imagine the size of the original barrel. (I’ve heard rumors that 500L reduces to 1L in 75 years.) This was a composed meat course that I really enjoyed; the air drying of the fatty beef really helped to concentrate its flavor while reducing the fatty feeling in the mouth. That being said, I couldn’t help but notice a glaring sterility on the plate. The modernization of such a rustic dish somehow made it seem less appealing.

Paired with Naia, Verdejo, “Naiades,” Rueda, Spain, 2005

The French Laundry had held off on bread service due to our request for an extended tasting. But how can one say no to a buttery, shiny, caramel-colored bread such as this?

Hand-cut tagliatelle – Served with parmigiano reggiano and shaved burgundy white truffles. This was the highlight course of the night, and likely of all the meals I’ve had at Thomas Keller restaurants. This dish was straightforward and delicious: flour, egg, butter, parmigiano-reggiano cheese, white truffles, salt, and pepper. That’s it. The white truffles were unbelievably fragrant. This dish is proof that simple is sometimes better.

Paired with a Tor, Chardonnay, “Durell Vineyard,” Sonoma, 2004

Columbia river sturgeon confit à la minute – Served with potato rissolée, english cucumber, pickled pearl onions, sorrel, salmon roe, and dill crème fraîche. I love fish; it’s my favorite food. But a 6-bite chunk of white fish in the middle of an extended tasting, especially after a shaved white truffle course, is just boring. The best part of this dish was everything around the fish, the way the pickled onion interacted with the salmon roe and fruit. A good dish on its own, the river sturgeon was a let down after some of the other courses.

Paired with a Schloss Gobelsburg, “Renner,” Grüner Veltliner, Kamptal, Austria 2005

Sweet butter-poached Maine lobster mitts - Served over sautéed foie gras, hazelnuts, sunchoke purée, and a coffee-chocolate emulsion. This was another incredible dish, a surf and turf of lobster and foie gras. The liver was creamy, buttery, sweet while the lobster well-salted and also buttery. The coffee-chocolate emulsion gave off a slight bitterness which made the foie taste even sweeter (much in the same way that grapefruit can enhance foie gras’s sweetness as well). The ground roasted hazelnuts added a perfect textural contrast against the soft meats. This was a delicious, decadent course.

Paired with a Spencer Roloson, Viognier, “Noble Vineyard,” Knights Valley, 2005

The lobster and foie gras was also served with a selection of six different salts: sal gris, fleur de sel, black lava, himalayan, and local salts. It was fun to try the different salts, each with varying salinity and minerality. Our waiter left the salt tray on the table for us to enjoy with bread service.

Scottish red-legged partridge - Served with glazed chestnuts, caramelized splendor apples and spiced bread purée. I loved how the salty, crispy skin really brought out the flavor of the partridge. I really liked this course, but again, something about the course felt very sterile.

Paired with a Brewer Clifton, Pinot Noir, “Rio Vista,” Santa Rita Hills, 2005

Rib-eye of Elysian Fields farm lamb “plat de côte braisée” - Served with toasted pearl barley, niçoise olives, sweet peppers, and baby artichokes. This course was proportionally inconsistent with the other courses: 10-bites of meat in a tasting of this size induces palate fatigue. The meat itself was cooked very nicely with a uniform doneness throughout the interior and a lightly singed caramel skin. The meat was juicy and earthy, indicative of the cattle’s grass diet. This dish would have worked much better as part of an à la carte menu, but it weighed down the meal and was overshadowed by the tagliatelle and foie gras – lobster dishes.

Paired with Ridge, “Home Ranch,” Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot / Petit Verdot, Santa Cruz Mountains 2002

Tomme brûlée - Torched sheep’s milk cheese with a gratin of broccolini and sauce mornay. Both Per Se and French Laundry serve a cheese course but it’s always composed, usually paired with cooked or raw vegetables. This cheese from France’s Basque region was earthy and nutty. There was nothing particularly wrong with this course, but I’m a simple guy: I like my cheese, and a lot of it, by itself. Heck, I don’t even put it on bread.

Persian lime sorbet - A light citrus sorbet served with coconut granité. This refreshing course cleansed the palate, especially the oils from the warm cheese from the composed cheese course.

Coffee and Doughnuts - A Thomas Keller signature: cinnamon-sugared doughnuts with a “cappuccino semi-freddo.” Like oysters and pearls, the kitchens of Per Se and The French Laundry have the production of this dish down to a science. It is always consistent, always delicious. The cappuccino semi-freddo had a texture of a pot de crème with a fluffy mouse up top. It had the distinct taste of coffee without having much of the oxidized flavor coffee-flavored products sometimes have. Its sweetness was just right. This was delicious. The doughnuts were served hot.

Paired with a Domaine Fontanel, Rivesaltes Ambré, 1997

S’mores - Peanut butter parfait, caramel délice and sauce à la Guimauve flambée. The best part of this dessert was the salted peanut butter with its brittle-like sandiness. This dish was a bit of a stretch from a s’more, perhaps the connection is the “guimauve flambée” or burnt marshmallow.

Paired with a Kiralyudvar, Tokaji, “Cuvee Ilona,” Hungary, 2001

Mignardises - We finished the meal with a parade of sweets including marzipan, pumpkin pâtes de fruit, and small macarons.

Then came a vanilla bean pot de crème with a thin layer of sweet strawberry preserve at the bottom.

Last, a selection of chocolate truffles. These truffles were absolutely delicious, but at this point in the meal I was very full. I wish I could have put a few of them in a box to bring home.

I enjoyed the meal. There was nothing particularly wrong with it. In fact, it was technically flawless and well-executed. The ingredient quality was impeccable. The service was some of the best I’ve experienced in a restaurant. Given the lengths we’d travelled to eat here, our waiter made us comfortable and kept us laughing throughout the evening. The sommelier was incredible. But something still felt like something was missing.

I couldn’t put my finger on it until a few days after, at which point the problem with the meal became quite obvious and glaring: there wasn’t much character.  While this works for dishes that never change, like oysters and pearls, the salmon cornets, and coffee and doughnuts, once the assembly line went off track everything else felt impersonal and disconnected: like a museum tour of what fine dining should be, disconnected from time and place.

Would I go back? Absolutely. But I’d be driven more by the romantic idea of eating in Napa in an old house with friends over a long dinner with great wine. The restaurant does one seating for lunch and one for dinner, so diners are almost never rushed. After the meal the courtyard is open to continue the conversation, lasting long into the night. The French Laundry, for me, is more about the experience than it is the food, and while that’s not something I look for in a restaurant, there are times when the experience is what’s important.

Open thoughts:

• Must Thomas Keller to be in the kitchen to maintain the same quality of food?
• How important is the non-food experience when factoring in enjoyment of a meal?
• Is soul a prerequisite for good food?
• How much freedom is Corey Lee given to explore his own concepts?

Related Posts:

• The French Laundry Revisited
• L2O
• Alinea Revisited
• Alinea
• Sant Pau

I have since been back half a dozen times, each time a completely different menu and experience. Each meal has been progressively better. The ever evolving cuisine reveals a chef with tremendous versatility, precision, and passion. For these reasons, I believe Chef Kinch is currently the best chef in America.

In person, chef Kinch is soft-spoken and humble, rarely talking about himself or his current inspirations. The best way to understand chef Kinch is to understand his food. This is what makes each visit to Manresa special: each meal is a speechless conversation with chef Kinch, and he has a lot to say. During my first few visits, his food spoke of recent trips to France, revealing inspiration from Alain Passard and Michel Bras. He returned obsessed with vegetables, forging a partnership with Cynthia Sandberg of Love Apple Farms. More recently, his food spoke of visits to Tokyo and Kyoto: walks through tsukiji market and kaiseki meals at Koju. While chef Kinch’s cooking is enjoyed by everyone, it speaks even louder to diners who have eaten in Paris and Tokyo. David Kinch is a foodie’s chef.

One of the things I most admire about chef Kinch is his disregard for culinary politicking. Like Quique Dacosta of Spain, his cooking style reflects his current passions, regardless of what’s en vogue. Noma‘s ascension to the top of Pellegrino’s best restaurants list has not affected Kinch’s food in the slightest. This is a breath of fresh air. He’s a no-nonsense culinary rebel.

Manresa, named after the small Spanish north west of Barcelona, is about an hour south of San Francisco. A winding path leads from a quiet street to the restaurant. After passing the reception desk, the newly added modern dining room hangs left while the original dining room remains off to the right.

Black olive madeleines and roasted bell pepper pâtes de fruits – Our meal started with a Manresa staple, a cake-like madeline of black olive and a sugar-coated jelly of roasted red bell pepper. These two vegetal snacks, disguised as sweets, hint at the restaurant’s deep connection to local produce. It’s hard to describe these as delicious, but there is an addictive quality to them.

Roquefort cheese sablé – A crispy, salty, cheesy snack that really complimented the crisp green apple from our champagne.

Paired with N.V. Diebolt-Vallois Champagne Blanc de Blanc Brut à Cramant

Garden beignets, crispy kale, vinegar powder - Warm beignets counterbalanced with the subtle acidity of the vinegar powder. The crispy kale added a vegetal bitterness. This was a small arrangement of textures all held together by the leafy green taste of the garden.

An elemental oyster - A local oyster lightly poached in its own shell, topped with an ocean water gelée, and a sprinkle of nori flakes. The oyster was impeccably fresh — sweet and briny — and the subtle poaching enhance the oyster’s natural sweetness. The ocean water gelée extended the texture of the oyster making it taste twice the size. The umami of the dried seaweed enhanced the shellfish’s natural flavors.

Paired with Hangar One Kaffir Lime Vodka

This pairing with the vodka was too intense for me. While the vodka did have a clean taste and a pleasant citrus component from the kaffir lime, the burn of the alcohol distracted from the delicate flavors of the oyster.

Fig leaf curd, coriander granita, marcona almond, strawberry gazpacho - Wow. This was summer in a bowl. A rich lather of chilled strawberry gazpacho was poured into an herbal, ice cold coriander granita. This was an exceptionally fragrant and balanced dish highlighting the fresh produce of late summer.

 Japanese sardines with beets, watermelon, radish, and a garden sorrel sauce - A small sardine carried by the fresh vegetal bitterness of the chilled sorrel sauce. The sweet chunks of compressed watermelon and beets added a hint of sugar to an otherwise savory dish. This was a minimalist dish exemplifying how the freshness of raw vegetables can enhance the freshness of the sea. A simple dish with little cooking, where chef Kinch took a step back and let the natural ingredients speak for themselves.

Raw milk panna cotta, Monterey bay abalone and an abalone-dashi gelée - This was an exceptional dish, one that demonstrated chef Kinch’s deep understanding of Japanese cuisine and simplicity, and how to apply those techniques with local ingredients. With a texture like chawanmushi, room temperature raw-milk panna cotta formed the base of this dish. The panna cotta was covered with a thin layer of transparent abalone gelée.  The gelée was delicately salted and dotted with chunks of warm, meaty abalone. This was one of the most memorable dishes I’ve tasted this year.

Albacore tuna, runner beans, crispy bean shell bouillon, lemon verbena, olive oil - This was chef Kinch’s sashimi course in a traditional kaiseki sequence. The tuna was lean but still buttery with an herbal note that grounded the dish to California.

Razor clams – A small bowl of razor clams with wild rice, chrysanthemum and roast chicken gelée, topped with fennel fronds. This was another incredible dish. Chewy, plump grains of wild rice topped with chunks of razor clam whose meaty flavor was enhanced by the roast chicken gelée. The chrysanthemum and fennel fronds added an anise-like herbal dimension that kept each bite interesting. This was a dish that took me back to the rice courses from some of my favorite kaiseki experiences in Japan.

Paired with a 2007 Izadi Viura from Rioja

A summer tidal pool - A David Kinch classic, a dish that has taken on various forms over the years. This was the best version yet. Chunks of Monterey bay abalone, sea urchin, foie gras, local spot prawn, and hinoki mushroom swimming in a beautifully salted dashi broth. It was as if chef Kinch took a list of my favorite Japanese ingredients and combined them into one dish. This was a simple dish with a very complex flavor; sweet sea urchin and prawns, buttery foie gras, meaty abalone and earthy hinoki combined into a broth of absolute perfection. This is a dish where chef Kinch exercised culinary restraint, letting a simple dashi broth serve as the clean canvas for the natural flavors of the sea.

Paired with a 2009 COS Rami 50% insolio and 50% grecanico from Sicily IGT

Into the vegetable garden - A handpicked showcase of the day’s herbs from Love Apple Farms combined into a beautiful, colorful potpourri. I loved this dish and Kinch’s local interpretation of the gargouillou. This dish was a collection of textures both smooth and crunchy and herbal flavors ranging from sweet to bitter. My only complaint is that it’s a bit awkward to eat these delicate, almost weightless leaves with a full-sized fork and knife; it would have been easier with a pair of fine chopsticks or culinary forceps. This is a dish that connects Manresa to its surroundings, a reminder that California has the finest produce in the country.

Paired with a 2010 Domaine du Salvard Sauvignon Blanc from Cheverny

The meal could have ended right here and it would have been one of my all time favorite dining experiences. The last seven dishes made one of the best sequences in a restaurant I’ve ever had. What came was still outstanding, but of a very different foundation from the first half of the meal. The meal took a turn from Japan and headed back to Europe.

Late season fava beans - A risotto made from late season fava beans with a farm egg, morel mushrooms, and sheep’s milk ricotta. This was a very original, creative dish where the chewy fava beans were cooked to mimic the texture of risotto. The butter and generous salting carried this dish, enhancing the earthiness of the mushrooms. The ricotta thickened the sauce making it really texturally close to a risotto.

Paired with a 2009 Bruno Clair Rosé of Pinot Noir from Marsanny

Monterey bay abalone - A firm medallion of abalone cooked in brown butter topped table-side with a pesto of pickled cucumber and walnut. A few leaves of Malabar spinach added a vegetal, tannic component to the dish. The butter really helped bring out the flavor of the abalone, and the pickled cucumber pesto brightened the meatiness of the shellfish.

Poached halibut - Thick cuts of poached halibut served with thinly sliced young celeriac and romanesco. This was one of my least favorite courses of the night. There was nothing particularly wrong with the dish, but after a heavenly sequence of abalone, razor clams, sea urchin, spot prawn, and foie gras, giant chunks of poached halibut seemed boring. This would have been a great dish as part of a smaller tasting menu, but at this point in the sequence, it didn’t make much sense.

Paired with a 2006 Domaine de la Tournelle Terre de Gryphees Chardonnay from Arbois, France

Suckling porcelet – A generous cut of young pig served with chanterelle mushrooms, apricot-anise purée, courgette velouté, and a pistachio pesto. This was a heavier course and although fatty, the crispy skin really helped diversify the texture; the crunch was the best part of this dish.

Paired with a 2007 Jacques Puffeney Trousseau from Arbois France

Potatoes and duck fat “paillasson” – A crispy hash of potatoes cooked in duck fat, garnished with fennel and turnip. There were also small drops of bitter orange and olive. This was a very balanced dish with almost no oily mouthfeel, despite having been fried in duck fat.

Paired with a 2008 Domaine Maume from Gevrey-Chambertin

Summer berries and cream - Summer berries, both roasted and raw with a lemon cream. Underneath the berries was a bed of açaí granite and yogurt sorbet. This was light and sweet with the cream sauce giving the dish some substance, but the lemon ensuring it tasted bright and refreshing.

Paired with a 2008 Pride Mountain Cabernet Franc from Sonoma County

Chocolate-caramel cremeaux – Dollops of chocolate-caramel cream with fleur de sel ice cream and a popcorn custard. I really don’t like chocolate-flavored desserts (I love pure chocolate) but this was pretty good. Mainly because there wasn’t much bitterness in the chocolate, and the popcorn added a buttery, nutty component that made this really interesting.

Paired with a 2009 Earl Champalou Les Tries de Champalou Chenin Blanc from Vouvray

The cheese cart – Bent river, Blond d’Espèce, Pleasant Ridge reserve, Amarello de beta spacious, Garden Variety’s Moonflower, Gabriel Coulet Roquefort, Redwood Hill’s Bucheret, Chèvriere Cendre, and Cypress Grove Midnight Moon.

We chose a few pieces from the cart: Roquefort, Chevrière cendre (concord grape ash), Gouda-style Midnight moon, Cow’s milk Pleasant ridge reserve, and Bent River.

By this point in the meal, we were left with a gorgeous gradient of wines.

Petits fours - Strawberry pâtes de fruits and chocolate madeleines. We finished the meal much in the same way we started, only with fruit instead of vegetables.

I loved my recent meal at Manresa. The cooking was consistently flawless, and the flavors balanced and delicious. While this was an incredible tasting, the meal really felt like two tastings in a single sitting, one of Japan and one of France and Spain. I’m tempted to return to try the shorter menu next time in hopes that it could be even more focused.

The overall experience was refined and comfortable: this restaurant has really transitioned from a local, neighborhood place to one that deserves a lot more international attention than it’s currently receiving. The restaurant currently has two Michelin stars, but if this isn’t a three star restaurant at this point, I’m not sure what is. In the meantime now is the perfect time to go; I have a funny suspicion the restaurant is about to get a lot busier.

Related Posts:

• Saison
• RyuGin
• Les Ambassadeurs
• Favorite Meals of 2011
• Favorite Dishes of 2011

Chef Skenes is obsessed with flavor and how best to enhance it. In contrast to restaurants that over-embellish dishes and add complexity at the expense of flavor, Skenes takes away. Flavor is paramount for chef Skenes; everything else comes secondary. There is a firm Japanese influence in his cooking rooted in its simplicity, from his cuts of sashimi and live prawns to his use of sea vegetables. Skenes builds on this base of Japanese ingredients and applies fire, culminating in a magical and unique cooking style.

At the center of Saison is its hearth, an open wood-burning oven which nearly every dish utilizes in one form or another. Roasting over the hearth deeply intensifies the flavor of the ingredients. Sometimes Chef Skenes uses the hearth to roast an entire fish or meat, other times he’ll roast the bones as a component for a stock used to make a sauce to accompany a meat. Whether intense or subtle, the subtle smokiness and depth from the wood-burning hearth seems to make its way into every dish. The result is an addictive, rustic, wholesome flavor that makes every bite interesting.

The restaurant itself is set back in a barn-like industrial space off a quiet street in San Francisco’s Mission district. It was only after hearing the clanking of pots and pans that I realized I was in the right place. While the restaurant is soon to change locations, the current warehouse-like space is beautiful. The warm glow from the embers of the hearth permeates through one of the two dining rooms. The space is pastoral and romantic, its unassuming decor exemplifies the simplicity of the food Saison serves.

Reserve caviar – Wild reserve caviar from white sturgeon lightly smoked over the embers of the hearth. The smoking is just for a few seconds to firm the texture and add a smokey depth to the flavor.

Alongside the caviar was a Sardinian “music paper,” a thin cracker cooked in the hearth topped with a layer of smoked crème fraîche, artichoke citronne, artichoke purée, shad roe, egg yolks and whites, ficoide glaciale (ice plant), salt wort from Saison’s farm, and wild foraged herbs. This herbal garden was dusted with gold leaf.

Trio of canapés - Three plates of bite sized snacks.

The first was a Marin miyagi oyster filled with diced cucumber, borage, and drizzled with olive oil and a dash of fermented lime. Its flavor was bright, briny, and clean.

Second was a glass of tubers: giant carrot purée with parsnip milk and a purée made from crisp and roasted parsnip. Underneath was a creamy layer of salted egg yolk, oxalis tuber and leaves. The dish was garnished with mallow flower and crispy ice plant.

Third, a sandwich of sliced radish topped with radish gelée. Inside was bitter melon glazed with roasted pig butter and nasturtium honey. The delicate balance of sweet and bitter is what made this dish, and prevented the sweetness of the honey from becoming cloying.

Flight of fish - A selection of seven colorful fish, some aged and some straight from the sea.  From left to right: Red sea bream (aged 3 days), lobster tail wrapped in white radish, pen shell clam, horse mackerel, Kindai bluefin tuna belly, striped jack (aged 5 days), and amber jack (aged 7 days). With the exception of the Kindai bluefin tuna, all of the fish were wild and caught with a rod, line, and reel. This was a seemingly simple dish; it was only after speaking with Chef Skenes that I understood the great amount of detail that went into each piece of sashimi to deepen the flavor.

Each fish was brushed with a white soy sauce infused with the bones from that fish, lightly roasted over the embers of the hearth.  Chef Skenes calls this “bone sauce.”  While the subtle addition of “bone sauce” is imperceptible by looking, I couldn’t help but notice a meaty depth to the fish; an umami quality that enhanced each fish’s flavor.

The flight of fish was served with a rice crackling dusted with river vegetable, shrimp floss, and perilla salt. To the side was a small bowl splashed with a “bone vinaigrette,” a vinaigrette of wild seaweed, dried fish, and citrus infused with the roasted bones of the above fish.

This was an absolutely brilliant course, both conceptually and in terms of flavor. It was essentially a tour of the textures and flavors of the sea, each fish enhanced with aging and the smokey embers of the hearth.

Brassicas - Various wild strands of the mustard family (ruby streaks mustard, malabar spinach, arrowhead and oxheart cabbage) each either poached or gently roasted over the embers of the hearth until crispy. Toasted grains add texture to the dish, including barley, emmer wheat, wild rice, and sonora wheatberry. The broth, poured tableside, was made from wild seaweed and an assortiment of dried fish including flying fish, sardine, and bonito. Drizzled throughout the dish were puffed grains to add textural contrast.  Crowning the dish was a small quail egg.

Vegetable aspic – A transparent bowl of fava beans, peas, zucchini and squash roasted over the fire of the hearth. Burried within was a crispy chip of eggplant skin and a generous wedge of buttery avocado. All of the vegetables were bound with a gelée of tomato consommé. The vegetables and their consommé sat atop a corn pudding glazed in olive oil with pimenton de la vera and basil seeds soaked in basil water.

This dish was a balance of textures and temperatures all held together by the subtle smoke and meaty quality of the tomato consommé.

The vegetable aspec was served with a salt made from prawn roe. The salt had the concentrated taste of shellfish, which also tasted really, really good on bread with butter.

Crustaceans - A dungeness crab ragôut gently warmed in crustacean butter, served with santa barbara sea urchin and wild nasturtium leaf which had been gently roasted over the fire of the hearth until a crisp.  Our waiter added a cool meyer lemon whipped cream, and later poured in a crustacean bouillon table side, made from lobster, crabs, and spot prawns. This was unbelievable.

To the right was a live spot prawn just pulled from the tank and gently poached in its own sea water. The prawn was sweet and exceptionally fresh. I could have easily eaten a hundred of them.

Pasternack’s rabbit - Rabbit meat ground with foie gras and rolled into collard greens. This was gently poached in rabbit bouillon. Also in the bowl were kidney and liver roasted over the embers with herbs.  Most of the herbs, leaves, flowers, and tips were wild and foraged, everything else came from White Crane Springs community ranch.  Our waiter poured in a reduction made from rabbit bones slowly roasted over the embers of the hearth. This was a gamey, buttery chunk of meat that was enhanced by the vegetables and the subtle depth from the hearth.

Heartbreads – Medallions of heart breads from Four Story Hill farm. These are slowly roasted over the embers with berbere spices, brown butter, and fir honey. This was a magical combination of oozy, buttery, and rich veal hypothalamus coated in sweet and crispy honey. Again, the subtle hint of smoke from the hearth really added an element of depth to this dish.

Nuvola di percora – Warm nuvola di pecora piped into a freshly baked brioche with honeycomb. This was one of the most memorable desserts I have ever tasted. Salty and velvety nuvola di pecora oozing out of a light and fluffy butter brioche coated in a layer of thin, crispy honey.

When sliced in half, the sticky honeycomb cracked in two and the warm cheese poured out of the center. This was a dynamic dish that tasted great when placed on the table piping hot, and as it cooled and the cheese began to firm.

Preserved lemon A mixture of meyer lemon cream, lemon sorbet, and candied lemon from meyer lemon preserved on Jan 27, 2011. This was a mix of temperatures and textures all held together by the brightness of the lemon. The preservation process tempered the acidity making the lemon taste sweet with a hint of bitterness, rather than overly sour.

Melon – Melon with sparkling vanilla sorbet, and shiso cake.

Popcorn ice cream - A cool and creamy sphere of buttery popcorn ice cream, nicely balanced with a dash of salt.

Candied raspberries - The natural flavor of raspberry enhanced with a thin layer of sugar. The sugar crystals also added a textural contrast to the soft raspberry. These were addictive.

Chef Joshua Skenes is onto something big. Of all the restaurants I visited in the bay area during my recent trip, this is the meal that keeps haunting me. Skenes use of the hearth as a tool for flavor intensification defines his very unique cooking style. Every course had at least one component that was touched by fire. It’s this traditional cooking that makes Skene’s food rustic, honest, and straight-forward.

I can’t wait to go back. If Chef Skenes continues on his current track, with time, his cooking can only get better.

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Owner Ben Sandler is the barista in charge. While he’s made it clear from the beginning the Kickshaw is not only about coffee, they happen to serve a great shot; one of the best in the city, in fact.  Single origin coffees from Coffee Labs Roasters rotate in the grinder, most of the lots trackable online to a specific farm ensuring fair-trade practices. In addition to espresso drinks pulled from the Strada MP, the Kickshaw does V60 pour over and, more recently, 12-hour cold brew coffee on tap.

When talking with Ben, one quickly discovers his insatiable curiosity as he speaks enthusiastically about how he plans to tinker with this and toy with that; he’s always thinking of something new and exciting.  This explains the Queens Kickshaw being the first shop in New York — and perhaps the country — to serve cold brew coffee on tap. It explains the constantly changing rotation of artisanal beers and the ever changing single-origin beans in the grinder. It also explains the experimental dishes behind the counter, such as house-fermented berries used to make fruit shrubs. What really makes the Queens Kickshaw special is its juxtaposition of three seemingly different foods: coffee, beer, and grilled cheese. Only when they are under one roof in a shop open most of the day and night does the combination make sense.

The front of The Queens Kickshaw facing Broadway.  In addition to one of the few shops in the city with great coffee, it’s perhaps the only one open serving coffee of this quality until 1am.

Cafe Cortado, single-origin Nayarit Mexican beans - Two ounces of milk to two ounces of espresso.  These Nayarit beans had a subtle acidity that, when combined with the steamed milk, yielded a flavor similar to strawberries and cream.

Double ristretto of beans from Nayarit, Mexico – A single shot pulled from a 18g double basket. This shot was fragrant and fruity. While the La Marzocco Strada MP does allow for manual paddle control to adjust the pressure of the extraction, it seems like that feature goes unused: the paddle is simply too sensitive for baristi to manipulate. However, that doesn’t seem to affect the quality of the shot.

Cappuccino - A welcome morning shot of espresso with 5oz of steamed milk and a gorgeous rosetta.

Iced matcha tea - A concentrated shot of unsweetened whipped matcha tea with oversized cubes of ice. This is absolutely delicious; its flavor is grassy and bright.

From the beginning, the Kickshaw was set up to serve beer on draft from the existing tubing piped up from the basement. Given the limited amount of retail space, Ben explains, it was a natural extension to keep the cold brew in the basement and push it up through the tap. Apparently the first few cups that he served this had a hint of beer left over, which actually tasted quite good when combined with the coffee. I wouldn’t be surprised to see something like this on the menu soon.

Cold brew on tap - A chilled glass of concentrated cold brew coffee piped up from the basement through the tap line. The flavor was light and citrusy making it refreshing.

Fontina Val d’Aosta – An open-face sandwich of marinated mushrooms and basil pesto on focaccia. A cheesy, earthy blend of mushrooms and pesto with a semi-firm Italian cow’s milk cheese atop a springy focaccia. The cheese itself is woody which pairs really nicely with the mushrooms. This is one of my favorite sandwiches on the menu.

Manchego and ricotta – Grilled multigrain bread sandwiching manchego and ricotta cheeses with minted eggplant and capers. The first thing I noticed about this sandwich was the butter and how it brings out the flavor of nuts from the bread. This pairs well with the nuttiness of the Spanish sheep’s milk manchego, whose tanginess also helps reduce the buttery mouth feel. The bite of acidity from the capers adds another layer of complexity. This is a very good sandwich.

Cheddar and mozzarella - Thick wedges of buttery brioche pouring with white cheddar cheese. This is the quintessential sandwich that comes to mind when I imagine grilled cheese. The light and fluffy bread soaks up the butter on the griddle adding a bit of weight, while the griddle adds texture and a gorgeous golden-brown color. The balance of sweet butter and salty cheese is what makes this sandwich a classic.

Arahovas Feta – An open-face focaccia topped with feta, red pepper, and dill. A lighter sandwich with minimal saucing, led by the frutiness of the red pepper spread.

Egg & cheese - A morning favorite. Thick slices of crustless, buttered brioche sandwiching egg, ricotta, and gruyere with thyme and a maple hot sauce. The balance of sweet, spicy, and salty combined with the umami from the cheese makes this a great sandwich.

Great hill blue - Crunchy cranberry-raisin bread oozing with Great Hill blue cheese, prune jam, and fresh pears. This is my favorite grilled these sandwich at the Kickshaw. The balance of sweet dried fruit with the salty intensity of the blue cheese keeps every bite interesting.

Hellgate Farm Open Market - Recently on Sunday’s, Astoria’s Hellgate Farm has set up a stand inside the Kickshaw selling organic locally grown produce. All the fruits and vegetables are grown are grown in Queens utilizing the courtyard and roof of a townhouse just down the block. Tough to imagine a better way to enjoy a summer Sunday than starting with a shot of espresso pulled from a Strada MP and leaving with a basket of fresh tomatoes and mission figs.

The Queens Kickshaw is a shop that features several concepts at once: coffee, beer, grilled cheese, and occasional farmer’s market without spreading itself too thin.  The Kickshaw is at the forefront of a new wave of artisanal shops and restaurants opening up in this outer borough. If you haven’t ventured into Astoria yet, this is a pretty good reason to do so.

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Unlike pâtisseries such as Pierre Hermé which pride themselves on constantly introducing new and unique flavor combinations, Ladurée takes a much more straightforward approach.  Most of the macarons are single-flavor, with a few being a combination of two, at most.  This emphasis on simplicity allows Ladurée to completely focus on ingredient quality and taste, ensuring each macaron is the best of its kind.

Not only does Ladurée have the most true-to-life flavors, but the texture of their macarons is also the lightest and most delicate.  The inside layer of crème is modestly thin, preventing the cookie from becoming cloying.  This is also a boon for someone impatient like I am who sometimes can’t help not waiting for the cold cookies to warm to room temperature since the thin layer warms up more quickly.  These cookies are delicate, airy, and delicious.  They are the most mouthwatering cookies on the planet.

Downstairs at the Champs Élysées location, ordering a box of macarons to go is a very efficient process.  The counter is configured like an assembly line with one person helping to find the right size box and another to help fill it.

At Ladurée, moderation is very important; I try to never get more than 30 macaroons during a single visit.  The vanilla, pistachio, rose, and licorice flavors are my favorite, each one an unembellished concentrated representation of the natural ingredient from which the small meringue sandwiches were made.

The pistachio macaron has a pastel green shell with light brown specks. The flavor is sweet and nutty with a very subtle hint of salt. The texture is a bit more gritty than the other macarons, a reminder that this cookie does come from ground nuts.

A floral aroma dominates the rose macaron, with a subtle flavor of vanilla.  Unlike other rose flavor sweets, there is not the slightest bit of soapiness.

I think the most interesting flavor is the ink-black réglisse macaron, or licorice, a flavor that combines the sweetness of vanilla with the cool mouthfeel of licorice.  I don’t really like licorice and generally try to avoid it, but for some reason the licorice macarons are absolutely incredible, I believe one of the greatest dessert pastry flavors ever created.

Upstairs at the Champs Élysées location lies the tea room. It feels a bit like stepping back in time to Paris’ belle époque: opulent gold leaf leads to delicate porcelain and an eclectic mix of antique chairs suitable for royalty.  The service upstairs is a bit more “relaxed” than downstairs, so be sure to leave plenty of time for afternoon brunch.

Ladurée has the finest macarons in the world, but they also have excellent pastries.  Pastries are baked in the morning, so try to arrive early if you plan on ordering croissants.  The croissants are buttery and flaky with a unique cavernous interior that makes them appear extraordinary large.

The pain au chocolat aux amande, piped with a green almond paste and thin layer of dark chocolate, is nonpareil.  Unlike most croissants aux amandes which recycle day’s old croissants by re-baking them with a layer of sticky frangipane, these are fresh, crispy, and flaky.  These are some of the only almond croissants in the city that are not are not flooded with powdered sugar.

Ladurée’s kouglof amande, a sweet brioche of raisin and almond sprinkled with sugar, is phenomenal.  When freshly baked in the morning it retains moisture like a sponge without the slightest hint of dryness.  Hard to imagine a pastry that pairs better with a cup of French Press coffee.

When Pierre Hermé was still the executive chef at Ladurée he created the recipe for the Ispahan, a giant raspberry macaron sandwiching a rose water crème dotted with lychee. When Chef Hermé left to open his own shop, Ladurée retained the recipe along with the right to continue producing it. This pastry is a wonderful balance of flavors and is quite beautiful, but the even more impressive ispahan left along with Pierre Hermé.

Ladurée will always hold a special place in my stomach.  No matter what crazy or inventive flavors competing bakeries create, Ladurée remains a beacon for consistency and unequaled taste.  It is truly one of the most magnificent bakeries in the world.

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And this is what Rick Bayless’s Frontera Grill attempts to do. From my recent meal I got the sense that while the restaurant was good, it was at one point even better. The menu could not have been more enticing: no Tex-Mex fajitas, chili con carne, or taco bowl salads. Instead, dishes from the Yucatán to Ensenada were spread across three pages. The menu was a patchwork of the finest local cuisines found throughout Mexico. Chef Bayless’s extensive travel throughout Mexico and research of its cuisine was immediately apparent.

Unfortunately, a lot of the preparations were imprecise and flavorings lax. Excessive sweetness and dried out meat made some of the dishes that could have been exceptional taste much less so. Frontera Grill is a restaurant with tremendous potential that needs a dose of culinary upkeep.

The atmosphere was relaxed and lively. Buena Vista Social Club and Celia Cruz played in the background. Despite having a set reservation time, this is a restaurant where the tight-packed nightly churn required a short wait. While waiting we had a short look through the shelves of Rick Bayless cookbooks and mail-order salsas; the tomatillo looked just right with its thin viscosity and forest green color dotted by golden husk tomato seeds.

Guacamole and totopos – Thin, crispy corn tortilla chips with chunky guacamole. The guacamole was generous on the lime and sprinkled with white onion, a few leaves of cilantro, and radish wedges. The tortillas tasted very flat, without the intense flavor of corn which normally makes them so addictive. A pinch of salt helped to bring out the sweet corn flavor, but these were nothing to write home about.

Coctel de atún tropical - A martini glass of Hawaiian big eye tuna with chunky mango and an avocado-tomatillo guacamole. Though very sweet from the ripe mango, this was a delicious course. The acidity of the tomatillo really enhanced the bite of the lime without making the dish cheek-puckering sour. The greens sprinkled on top helped to add a bit of vegetal bitterness to slightly reduce the sweetness. This was my favorite course of the night.

Callos de hacha en aguachile - Slices of raw, sweet scallop in a chile water spiced with serrano pepper wedges. This was another great course that walked the tightrope between too much acidity and not enough. The lime added a bright note while the subtle flavor of the scallops could still be tasted.

Tostaditas de tinga – Small corn tortillas topped with a lump of pork stewed in chipotle. The flavoring of this dish from Puebla was just right, a delicate balance of tanginess and spice. Unfortunately, the meat was a bit dry which shouldn’t be the case for a pork stew. This dish is typically abundant with moisture, with excess stew running off the tortillas.

Flautas de camarón – Small flutes of deep-fried tortilla filled with shrimp, garnished with peeled orange, pickled onions, watercress leaves, güero chiles, and potato cubes. This was a dish that would have been best served simple. The flautas were excellent by themselves, but the sweetness of the orange combined with the already sweet tomato sauce made the dish cloying. The tomato sauce tasted a bit too much like a marinara sauce and not enough like a cooked salsa.

Birria de chivo - Red chile-braised Pleasant Meadow farms goat a top a plump fried sope. Unfortunately, the meat was pretty dry, and that was the focus of the dish. The stew beneath the sope has a musky, barnyard flavor that was really delicious. The iceberg lettuce added a fresh crunch that kept each bite texturally interesting.

Tacos al pastor – Frankly, this is a dish that shouldn’t be on the menu. Tacos al pastor really need a rotating pork spit to develop the right texture, slices of pineapple and a sprinkle of raw onion and cilantro. There was none of that here. This dish was stewed pork and onion in what tasted like a chipotle tomato sauce. This seemed more like fajita filling than the outrageously delicious Mexican street food. This was my least favorite course of the night.

Eating at Frontera really brought back some of my best memories of traveling in Mexico. Before I visited Frontera I had heard from a few Mexican friends who had been there several years back that the cuisine was better than much of the food in Mexico. While I don’t agree, I do think that there is potential for this restaurant to be much better than it currently is. There is too much of a discrepancy between how the menu reads and how the food is prepared. This may be because chef Bayless, with an in-depth understanding of Mexican cuisine, is essentially no longer in the kitchen. Hopefully the meticulousness of the preparation improves. The US could sure use a great Mexican restaurant.

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After two meals at Alinea, one of my biggest complaints was the lack of progression and seemingly disconnected structure of the meal.  Next’s Paris 1906 menu, on the other hand, was extremely concise and structured, telling a story and sharing the experience of eating in the city of lights at the turn of the century.

During my two visits to Alinea my favorite course both times was the Escoffier, the course in the extended tasting menu that took the table back to 19th century France.  Here, the entire Paris 1906 menu was based on Escoffier’s dishes.  The recipes of Auguste Escoffier in combination with modern cooking techniques and Chef Achatz’s and Chef Dave Beran’s meticulousness made this an incredible meal.

The service was light and fun, with our waiter making jokes and keeping us laughing throughout the meal.  The atmosphere was relaxed and experience enjoyable, despite its formality.  The reservation process was a little annoying, but that’s mainly due to the restaurant’s popularity.  Overall it seemed very open and fair, enabling anyone with flexibility to have an opportunity to dine here by trading reservations via their Facebook group.

Quail egg with anchovy
Rabbit boudin
Leeks stuffed with mushroom duxelles
Brioche with foie gras torchon and mustard seed apricot jam
Truffled egg custard with salted cod and lemon.

Hors d’Oeuvres - The meal started with a regal collection of canapés served on a silver platter.  Many of Escoffier’s recipes were designed for large dinners with grand presentations, and its clear that Next was trying to re-create that grandeur on a smaller scale — more appropriate for, say, a table of four.  The foie gras brioche with apricot jam was the highlight bite in this course, creamy buttery foie gras with a tangy bite from the apricot.

Potage a la Tortue Claire – Turtle consommé. A clear broth soup from concentrated stock, garnished with a mirepoix of celery, carrot, onion, and parsley leaves.  The intense flavor was simultaneously fishy and meaty.  A clear tribute to the French soups of centuries ago.  This was simple and pure.

Filet de Sole Daumont – Sole filet with a crawfish mousse-stuffed mushroom and a breaded ball of crawfish roe.  The sauce Normande was the highlight of this dish, both tangy and buttery.  It was truly reminiscent of a course from Paul Bocuse.  This dish was a reminder that classical French cuisine need not be stale and boring; when the sauce is prepared correctly the flavor is exciting and alive.  This was my favorite dish of the night.

Suprêmes de Poussin – A thin filet of poached chicken breast layered with a cream sauce.  To the left were medallions of braised cucumbers stuffed with chicken forcemeat.  The texture of the cooked cucumber was almost identical to Chinese winter melon, watery and mild adding a mild vegetal component to the concentrated forcemeat.  The chicken diamond was supple and juicy.  This was a very good course, but the flavor of cooked cucumber really took some getting used to.

Caneton Rouennais à la Presse – A giant platter of duck with a blood sauce made from pressed duck.  After roasting the carcass of the duck is pressed to extract the juices (blood) of the animal, which is turned into a rich, meaty sauce.  The texture of the duck was very tender, and the flavor earthy from the fresh rosemary in the center.  As with the sole Daumont, the highlight of this dish was the sauce; I was eating it with a spoon.

Next has an antique duck press used exclusively for this course.  This is one of two duck presses that I have ever seen, the other being at Tour d’Argent in Paris.  Though a pretty barbaric method of making sauce, it sure was delicious.

Gratin de pommes de Terre à la Dauphinoise – Alongside the duck came thinly sliced scalloped potatoes covered in stringy melted comté and filled with cream.  The salty potatoes carried a layer of crispy, toasted cheese.  This was great.

Salade Irma – A small salad of nasturtium blossom, asparagus and radish with a light cream sauce served after the main course in traditional French fashion.

Bombe Ceylan - An ice cream semi-sphere covered in cocoa powder over a chocolate cookie garnished with rum-soakced cherries.  This dish was pretty lackluster, with the coldness of the ice cream really making it difficult to get much flavor from the mild ice cream.

Mignardises - Salted caramels, beet pâte des fruits and round pistachio nougatines.

The Paris 1906 menu only lasted three months and the concept of the restaurant has now changed to Thailand.  Chef Achatz recently announced the following menu based on the experience of childhood.  With the focused themes helping to keep a unified structure of the meal, I think this restaurant has the potential to become one of the most interesting restaurants in the United States.  I can’t wait to return.

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Our meal at L2O was a back-and-forth mix of traditional Japanese kaiseki with modern French cuisine. The restaurant really shined when it stuck to the simple and authentic Japanese dishes, as chef Gras has a remarkably precise cooking style that highlighted the very subtle flavors found in fish and vegetables. Had I not known about chef Gras, I might have thought he grew up in Japan.

L2O also served some dishes that were a fusion of the two cuisines. This was the restaurant’s most interesting aspect. The richness of butter can really intensify mild flavors, particularly the subdued flavors of mushroom and cooked fish. But at times it seemed like two different chefs were cooking the meal, taking turns between French and Japanese styles. Sometimes their was synergy in the sequence of courses, other times dissonance.

The atmosphere at L2O was an ethereal experience that transported us to a Tokyo ryokan. The hostess led us through the main dining room into the private tatami room behind sliding rice paper doors. We were asked to take our shoes off before entering. Despite the evening chatter in the dining room, behind these doors everything went silent. Our waitress, with grace and poise, kneeled to floor level to introduce our tasting menu and take our drink order.

Oyster, frozen sake, rice wine vinegar
Tuna, tomato, hibiscus, foie gras snow
Kinmedai, ohba
Escolar Jamón, espelette
Shimaaji, red miso, radish, soy salt

We started the meal with a collection of small plates, all served at once. The tuna and foie gras snow stood out, frozen flakes of buttery foie gras contrasting against a subtle acidity from slivers of tomato. The kinmedai, or golden eye bream, was also a favorite, a lean and clean tasting fish minimally seasoned with shiso leaves. This dish was remarkably authentic in its purity.

Fluke, shiso, caviar – A slate grey disc of raw fluke top heavy with ossetra caviar. A cold, salty, and briny layer caviar seasoned the crisp and clean tasting fluke. A thin layer of shiso added a subtle refreshing flavor, contrasting against the buttery mouthfeel of the sashimi. This dish was as delicious as it was beautiful.

Sashimi platter, fluke, kampachi, kinmedai, shimaaji – These four slices of sashimi formed a gradient of fattiness from lean to slightly less lean as well as from white to pink. The fish was served chilled and was outstandingly fresh. This course came straight from Japan, and I loved it.

English pea, nameko – Switching gears from traditional Japanese to modern French we were served a creamy warm pea broth with pearls of plump sweet green peas, dotted with small nameko mushrooms. The flavor was vegetal and buttery, and the generous salting really helped bring out the subtle earthy flavor of the mushrooms. This dish was rather unexpected, but an interesting contrast against the light and delicate sashimi courses we had prior.

Tofu, itogaki, white miso – A tofu custard covered in flakes of dried bonito with a white miso broth. This was a very interesting mix of east meets west. The dish looked innocently European, almost like a panna cotta, but was dominated with the strong flavor of a dashi broth. I very much enjoyed this course.

Octopus, coconut, olive oil, sea bean – Medallions of octopus covered in a coconut cream drizzled with olive oil and spears of sea bean. This dish seemed out of place at this meal, a little too much like Spanish octopus and olive oil dashed with paprika.

Scallop, champagne – A fat chunk of pan seared scallop in a buttery champagne broth. This dish was delicious. The golden sear on one side of the scallop added a toasted flavor which really brought the dish together. The scallop was basically raw and translucent on the inside maximizing its sweetness.

Lamb tartar, shiro ebi, tarragon, pickled mango – Pink lamb tartar laced with pickled mango covered with a layer of sweet raw white shrimp. On the top was a small pile of greens. It’s dishes like this that remind me how much I prefer my shellfish and meat served raw. This was a very simple dish that stole the show; with ingredients this fresh, heavy seasoning is not necessary.The pickling process removed the sweetness of the mango and replaced it with a mild acidity that cut through the fatty mouthfeel of the lamb. The white shrimp was the sweetest component of this dish, and when combined with the lamb, created a surf and turf of chewy, sweet meat scattered with crunchy bites of bright mango. The tarragon added an herbal component which helped bring out the flavor of the meat.

Kampachi, yuzu, tapioca, black lime – Seared kampachi with a bright, buttery yuzu sauce. Underneath the filet was a pile of translucent pearls of tapioca sprinkled with the rind of black lime. Unfortunately, the fish was overcooked which really dried it out, but it had tremendous potential. I love the way the tapioca picked up the tangy buttery sauce.

Lobster, foie gras, surume ika – A thick lobster tail and scored surume squid resting beneath a foie gras foam. This was incredible, particularly the texture of the squid. Surume ika is a variety of squid that’s simultaneously chewy and crispy. When scored, it develops an addicting texture that’s a lot like grilled sea cucumber. The rich foie gras foam made the buttery poached lobster tail taste even richer. I loved this dish.

Pickled honshimeji, grapefruit – A savory, though acidic, palate cleanser of pickled small mushrooms with skinless grapefruit.

Miyazaki wagyu, beef, sake, potato – A small cut of heavily marbleized wagyu beef thoroughly cooked so as to maximize the textural contrast between fat and meat. There was nothing particularly wrong with the dish — it tasted great — but it was relatively boring compared to some of the previous courses.

I rarely find a grilled meat course interesting as part of a tasting. It usually feels forced, as if somewhere in the chain of command someone said, “hey we really need to have a piece of meat in here somewhere.” There was nothing particularly interesting or special about this dish, aside from the fatty quality of the meat, which I don’t really like anyway. The meal would have been stronger without this.

Dashi – A small bowl of pure, clear dash broth.

Caramel, manjari, espresso snow – A plum-sized sphere of caramel mousse covered in manjari and espresso snow. The flavor was dominated by the taste of oxidized coffee, which I didn’t particularly enjoy.

Macaron – A small lemon macaron marked the end of the meal, a bright and citrusy finale.

What made L2O particularly interesting was how each course went back and forth between authentic Japanese fare and modern French cuisine. But overall it seemed like the most successful dishes were the Japanese ones. Also interesting were the courses that blended Japanese with French, such as the pickled honshimeji mushrooms and grapefruit. The purely French dishes were the least interesting.

I can’t wait for my upcoming reservation at L2O to see how the restaurant has evolved over the past two years. The concept of French influenced Japanese kaiseki is fascinating, and there aren’t enough places that do it successfully here in the US. I believe L2O has the potential to make waves by combining the best of each cuisine, creating something original and new. Only time will tell..

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While the dining room still felt icy, the service warmed up, a little. Our waiter seemed genuinely friendly, cracking jokes and making us smile throughout the meal. Once in a while, however, someone else from the kitchen brought our food and seemed a bit more distant and, well, self-satisfied. I think we got really lucky, our waiter was great.

We ordered a glass of champagne and began the meal.

Golden trout roe, dijon, rutabaga, grapefruit – Amber beads of Michagan steelhead roe swimming in a squash broth with medallions of dijon mustard and black licorice. Here we had an unlikely combination of ingredients that worked very well together. The brine of the true roe countered any bitterness from the grapefruit, the result being something just slightly less sweet than an orange but with equal acidity. The dijon added a kick of short-lived spice. This seemed like Achatz’s version of “Oysters and Pearls;” instead of two plump oysters we had two medallions of meaty dijon mustard custard. The dish also had temperature contrast — warm medallions in a chilled broth. This was a great start to the meal.

Yuba, shrimp, miso, togarashi – A crispy stick of deep-fried tofu skin wrapped with a translucent shrimp speckled with black and white sesame seeds. At the base of the stick was a sweet and tangy miso cream. The best part of this dish was the sweet raw prawn and the toasty, nutty flavor the sesame gave it in combination with the yuba. Some bites tasted like buttered toast, one of the most delicious foods on the planet.  The miso paste at the bottom was very concentrated, even overpowering. Anything more than a quarter drop prevented me from tasting anything except the miso paste.

Octopus, eggplant, coriander, red wine - A fork carrying a cube of octopus purée topped with coriander and red wine gelée.   The fork hovered precariously in a specially-made bowl above an eggplant foam. I loved the sweet creamy texture of the octopus, but the flavor wasn’t obvious.  I also don’t think the eggplant did much for this dish.

Our waiter returned with three orange flags and placed them on our table. He explained that they would be used for a later course.  What could these be for?

Oyster leaf mignonette; scallop, hitachino, weizen, old bay; razor clam, carrot, soy, daikon – An oyster leaf served on the half shell of a real oyster topped with a traditional mignonette sauce.  The green leaf tasted very similar to an oyster, with the same metallic and briny aftertaste.  The scallop was buttery and sweet, and topped with a beer foam.  The razor clam was very savory and was garnished with root vegetables.

English Pea, olive oil, chamomile, green apple – In the first part of this trio of dishes, we were shown a sprouting garden of pea leaves growing from a sweet pea soup.  The flavor was fresh and vegetal, with natural sugars coming from the peas.

The upper dish was lifted away to reveal the second part of this dish, consisted of chilled freeze-dried peas with a spring pea meringue.  This was a beautiful potpourri of different textures and spring garden colors.  The flavor was savory with a hint of sweetness coming from the peas.  The texture was quite starchy.

For the last part of the trio, a frozen pea purée with green apple sorbet and frozen greek yogurt.  This was very sweet and perhaps would have been best served as a dessert.

By this point in the meal, I noticed that many of the courses so far had bowls and plates perfectly shaped for the function of the dish. I asked our waiter which came first, the concept or the plate? He told us it was a fifty-fifty split: sometimes the plates are designed by the artistic team and the kitchen uses those constraints to develop a dish.

Hamachi, west indies spices, banana, ginger – A chunk of yellowtail deep-fried in tempura batter, banana, and ginger skewered with a vanilla bean. This tropical bite was crispy and sweet, a nice contrast to the previous cold sorbet.

Wild mushrooms, pine, sumac, ramp - A collection of foraged mushrooms minimally cooked so as to maintain their textural integrity.  The mushrooms were earthy and nutty.  The pickled ramps offered an acidic contrast to keep each bite interesting.  The pine was fragrant and light.  The sumac held everything together.  This was a brilliant dish.

Hot potato, cold potato, black truffle, butter – This dish was just as good as I remembered it. So much so that I pleaded for another. In this Achatz signature dish, a piping hot carved potato is held above a cold buttery potato soup. When sliding out the skewer the hot potato mixes with the cold potato soup creating a mixture that is simultaneously hot and cold in the mouth. The truffle was remarkably fragrant and the heat from the potato helped to activate its aroma. There’s a reason this dish is always on the menu, it’s outstanding.

Short rib, olive, red wine, blackberry – This was a very complicated dish that required 100% attention to the instructions to enjoy. It’s also a dish that can be easily ruined if not done properly.

The flags our waiter had placed on the table were removed from their flagpole and laid over a four-sided asterisk elevating the edges into a bowl. the orange flag, we were now told, was a tomato pasta and we were about to make our own ravioli. In front of us was a plate of multiple toppings: smoked salt, blackberry, black garlic, and pearl onions.

Since the ravioli had to be folded there wasn’t a chance to easily re-season, it had to be done correctly the first time. Unfortunately, I put on a pinch of the tablespoon of salt, which was ten times more salt than necessary. I had over salted my dish making it inedible. The short rib, it appeared, was already salted. I destroyed my own dish, for which I accept responsibility, I just wish I had been warned about salt prior. This could have been a highlight dish of the night; instead frankly, it was awful. My dining companion who left out all salt, loved it.

Black truffle, explosion, romaine, parmesan – A single raviolo of black truffle stock topped with parmesan cheese, lettuce leaf, and a thin slice of black truffle. It’s hard not to love the creamy, meaty flavor of the parmesan and black truffle. The raviolo “popped” in my mouth like an adult gusher. This was great.

Agneau, sauce choron, pomme de terre – A recipe straight from Auguste Escoffier’s Le Guide Culinaire. As a 300-year old dish from a 100-year old cook book, this course was served on antique dishware. The wine glass was beautifully etched with birds and leaves. Here, two lamb medallions sat atop an equally shaped buttery puff pastry with potato. The flavor was buttery and rich. Wow.

Between this course and the Escoffier dish I had last year, Chef Achatz has clearly demonstrated a masterful precision with his cooking that equals some of the founders of modern French cuisine (Paul Bocuse). In a way, I wish more courses were like this. This was my favorite course of the night.

The Escoffier dish was paired with a glass of Cedar Knoll Vineyard’s 2006 cabernet, a dark fruit-forward wine with hints of black currant and vanilla.

Venison, cherry, cocoa nib, eucalyptus – Our waiter placed a bowl of ruffled eucalyptus leaves in front of us for a minute or two to appreciate the pine-like aroma of the plant. The bowl revealed a metal skewer just poking through the pile of leaves. When our waiter returned, he explained the dish: a tender medallion of deer topped with sweet cherry and bitter cocoa nib. I’m not sure if the cherry and cocoa nib enhanced the flavor of the dish but it sure made it unique.

This course stimulated my sense of smell as much as it did my taste buds. Chef Achatz pays as much attention to the visceral components of a dish, how it affects a diner’s sense of smell and touch, as the flavor itself.

Snow, yuzu – A conical palate cleanser made from liquid nitrogen-frozen yuzu. The shape resembled a snow cone, a tribute to American childhood nostalgia. Like being handed an ice cream cone, there was no way to rest this dish on the table until it was finished. The frozen conical dish also chilled the air around it heightening the fresh sensation as my face felt cool from its presence. The flavor was bright and clean.

Sweet potato, cedar, bourbon, pecan – Sweet potato, pecans, a cayenne cotton candy, and bourbon glee were placed in front of us on a block of very aromatic cedar. The aroma was evocative of a winter’s night in the mountains. The warm and cozy sensation this dish gave was particularly interesting as it followed the frozen snow cone, a pair of dishes that chilled and then warmed. The flavor was woodsy and sweet, the sweet potato tasted like a well-cooked carrot with a dash of brown sugar. The bourbon added a boozy component that helped counter the dish’s sweetness. This was wonderful.

Lemongrass, dragon fruit, finger lime, cucumber – A glass tube was rested in front of us with its contents suspended in liquid. It was fun swaying the cylinder back and forth before finally eating it, much like a kaleidoscope. I ate the dish with a single suck through the translucent glass tube, the flavor was light and crisp, dominated by the acidity of the lime. The dragon fruit didn’t have much flavor, but it sure looked pretty with its black-on-white seeds.

Chocolate, blueberry, honey, peanut – A dessert even more grand and spectacular than the last time. Our waiter removed all dishes from the table and unrolled a rubber table cloth. Another waiter placed down small bowls of blueberries, honey, peanut nugat, liquid nitrogen frozen mousse, and berry sauce. Chef Achatz himself stepped out of the kitchen and began to plate our table.

Much of the process was like watching Jackson Pollock at work, a splash of chocolate sauce here, a drizzle of peanut nougat there. Chef Achatz did all this without making eye contact or saying anything for that matter. When he poured the caramel onto the cloth I noticed the drops were self-forming into perfect squares. I broke the silence and asked him about this to which he replied, “have you seen Harry Potter … we call it magic.” My best guess is the tablecloth has some kind of capillarity that interacts with polar sauces, but I guess some things are better left a mystery.

The dish never got boring. Since this was a shared dessert for three people, each person picked and played with different combinations of ingredients making every bite taste different. This is the most memorable dessert I have ever had.

The funny thing about plating the entire table is that I didn’t realize how beautiful the design was until I got home and started editing the photos. When you’re sitting at the table and inside the work of art it’s a bit like looking at an impressionist painting a few inches from the work: it’s hard to see the big picture. Only when I got home and saw the photo with my wide-angle lens did I notice the bigger work of art. This was a pretty good example of how a camera can actually enhance the experience at a restaurant.

Surprise is a tremendous part of the enjoyment of molecular gastronomy. At dinner the dining room was still very quiet which meant that the scripted dish descriptions were delivered two or three times before our plate arrived. We didn’t have much surprise. At El Bulli, for example, the dining room was gregarious and relaxed which muted out the wait staff explaining the dishes; to us, every dish came as a surprise. It’s not an easy problem to fix, but I think focusing on lightening the severity in the dining room would make a better experience for everyone.

I enjoyed my meal. But while most of the dishes tasted very good they still lacked a story linking them together. Overall the meal felt disconnected to time and place and lacked the higher level harmony found at Quique Dacosta, El Bulli, and Sant Pau. Yellowtail with banana and vanilla? That’s delicious, but why? What’s the background story? Seems more like a tropical Carribbean treat. El Bulli seemed disconnected during my first visit, but upon returning it emphasized the concept of sequences — four or five dishes chained together to share a cumulative experience. That really helped.

While the meal was more balanced than in 2009, there was still too much sugar.  Some courses, like the sweet pea trio, might have been better served as a dessert.  The hamachi skewer was exceptionally sweet as well.  Is Chef Achatz pandering to a palate that truly demands this quantity of sugar?

I think Achatz’s concept at Next, choosing a quarterly theme for the meal, will link the dishes together in a way that will force chef Achatz and chef Beran to tell a story. The time and place will be central to the meal. Alinea still feels like a hit list of the chef’s best dishes.  That being said, I still hope to go back … in a year or two.

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Molecular gastronomy, or avant-garde cuisine, challenges the way diners interact with food.  The meal becomes as much about the  experience as it does about the flavor.  The challenge is to create a unique and exciting experience without sacrificing the taste.  Alinea was my first domestic experience with molecular gastronomy where the dishes were not only fun and exciting, but they tasted great, too.

Our menu, titled the “grand tour,” consisted of 24-courses each overlaid with grey orbs of varying opacity to indicate intensity, portion size and sweetness.  The color of the orb indicated the dish’s intensity: darker meant more intense.  The position of the orb indicated the dish’s sweetness: to the left meant savory, to the right meant sweet.  The size of the orb represented the size of the plate: bigger orb, more food.  We were given not a menu for the evening’s food, but a guide to help us with pace.

Roes, traditional garnishes - Glistening orange spheres of salmon roe paired with crème fraîche, lemon, and buttered brioche foam.  The acidity of the lemon contrasted nicely against the buttery brioche foam, with the light oceanic flavor from the roe bringing everything together.  This was a great start to a long meal.

Foie gras, daikon, shiso, yuzu – A spoonful of foie gras garnished with fennel and shiso sitting above a pool of peach juice and shiso foam.  Our waiter instructed us to eat the foie then quickly drink the juice.  Delicious.

Pork belly, iceberg, cucumber, thai distillation - Our waiter first handed us a glass of “thai distillation,” or distilled habanero chili.  By distilling the chili we were left with all the sweetness of the pepper without the spice. It was strange to eat because my mouth anticipated the heat but it never came. Instead, the flavor was bright and refreshing.  Then, our waiter instructed us to eat the pork belly crowned with iceberg lettuce, cucumber, banana, and basil seeds in a coconut sauce.  I thought the iceberg was too watery and took away from the delicate flavors on the plate.

Green almond, juniper, gin, sugar - Each corner of the solidified gin was seasoned differently.  It was hard to differentiate the flavors though since this was eaten in one bite.  This was a boozy, sweet and sour snack to refresh our palate.

Soft shell crab, carrot, five spice, duck – Half a battered soft shell crab atop a carrot puree with duck confit and drops of spiced prune puree, hearts of palm, radish, and wild flowers.  The spiced prune puree tasted similar to hoisin sauce.  On the plate we also had a crumbly, dry sesame meatball with crisp peas and black sesame seeds.  Though a bit sweet, this was one of my favorite dishes of the night.

Blue crab, carrot, five spice, duck – Continuing with the crab theme, a shot glass of thick pieces of blue crab with ginger ice, lychee, cinnamon foam, carrot, and shreds of duck.  The dish contained many of the same ingredients as the previous dish except here, the berry-like sweetness of the lychee brought out different flavors.  I’d never tasted sweet crab before; but I sure hope this wasn’t the last time.

Black truffle, explosion, romaine, Parmesan - A small ravioli filled with black truffle tea topped with a thin shred of Parmesan cheese and romaine lettuce.  Our waiter told us to eat this in one bite, or else it might splash our neighbors.  The ravioli “popped” in my mouth with the strong salty, meaty flavor of the truffle.  This short and concentrated bite left me wanting more (a lot more).

By this point in the meal I realized that each dish had very detailed instructions on how to eat it.  You really have to pay attention at Alinea, tuning out for one second can affect the outcome of the course.

Pigeonneau à la Saint-Clair – Wow.  This was the dish that showed me what chef Achatz is capable of.  A technically flawless, crispy, buttery, flaky tart carrying a fluffy quenelles of squab forcemeat, truffle jus, and thick medallions of mushroom.  The dish came from Auguste Escoffier‘s 1903 cookbook, Le Guide Culinaire.  In an avant-garde meal where everything feels like it’s from the future, it was refreshing to be served something from the past.  Is this considered molecular gastronomy? Unclear, I think. This was undoubtedly my favorite dish of the night.

Frozen disc of dijon mustard, passionfruit sorbet, and allspice – A small palate cleanser, the subtle spice of mustard with the sweetness of the passionfruit.

Bacon, butterscotch, apple, thyme - A strip of bacon hanging from a tightrope wrapped with apple leather.  Next to the bacon was a sweet potato with a cinnamon stick skewer.  This was a course with a really strange and arbitrary presentation.  It’s almost like Cirque du Soleil had some fun in the kitchen. The overall flavor was fairly sweet.

Hot potato, cold potato - This is a course that always stays on the menu at Alinea.  And with good reason: it’s delicious.  A skewered hot potato medallion crowned with black truffle hangs suspended over a cold potato soup.  The heat of the potato activated the aroma of the black truffle.  Our waiter instructed us to slide the skewer out of the bowl to combine the hot potato into the cold soup, and to eat it immediately.  The result was a swirl of hot and cold temperatures dominated by the fragrance of truffle and the buttery taste of the potato soup.  This was absolutely delicious.

Yuba, shrimp, miso, togarashi - A stick of deep fried tofu skin with a helix of shrimp wrapped around.  The shrimp was spiced with black and white sesame and chives.  The miso paste at the base was quite sweet.

White asparagus, arugula, white pepper, honey – This dish was presented as a clear glass cylinder in the center of a white bowl filled with white asparagus, arugula, white pepper, and honey.  Our waiter then lifted the glass which spilled the contained soup into the bowl.  The freshness of the arugula puree was immediately apparent, it smelled like freshly cut herbs.

At some point during our meal, our waiter placed a conical vase on the table.  We didn’t really pay much attention to it.  But now, the waiter poured a warm liquid into the vase and a char-smelling smoke erupted covering our table with the smokey smell of the grill.  This was a nostalgic course that transported us outside to a summer barbecue.

Wagyu beef, powdered A-1, potato, chips- A simple cube of wagyu beef with a crispy potato hash and A1-style herbs.  The meat was extremely tender and juicy.  The potato had a crispy shell but soft and moist interior, like a custard.  With this dish Alinea tapped into an American nostalgia that I could understand and relate to in a way that would not have been possible at Spain’s El Bulli or Tokyo’s Tapas Molecular Bar. This was essential to my enjoyment of this course.

Lemon soda – A fizzy dissolving packet of lemon soda.  The powder foamed in my mouth.  The carbonation really removed all remnants of grease after the chunk of wagyu.  The sour flavor made this fun to eat.

Bubble gum, long pepper, hibiscus, crème fraiche - A clear tube filled with hibiscus jelly, vanilla creme fraiche, and bubble gum-flavored tapioca.  The other end of the glass was hollow so we were instructed to “suck out” the ingredients as if through a straw.  The flavors were all pretty muted.  I could have skipped this course.

Watermelon, lime, nasturtium - A cocoa butter ballooon sphere holding a shot of watermelon juice atop a nasturitum puree.  The fresh grassy flavor of the nasturtium complimented the sweetness of the watermelon.  The lime added a subtle acidic kick.  This was pretty refreshing.

Transparency of raspberry, yogurt – A crispy, hard candy raspberry and yogurt flavored shell.  This was prettier than it was tasty.

Rhubarb, cheesecake, onion, lavender air - Our waiter brought out a linen pillow filled with lavendar-scented air.  On top of the pillow he placed a plate of rhubarb sorbet and goat-milk cheesecake.  The weight of the plate caused the lavendar air to leave the pillow at a rate pretty consistent to the speed at which we ate the dish; it lasted about 5 minutes.  Beneath the rhuburb sorbet were actually thin strips of onion.  Somehow the sweetness of the onion actually enhanced the flavor of the rhubarb without adding that raw onion spicy burn.  There was also a small cloud of cotton candy which was plain old fun to eat.  This was a really creative dessert.

Chocolate, blueberry, tobacco, maple – Our waiter removed everything from the table and laid out a flexible waterproof tablecloth.  Another waiter then brought over small ramekins of tobacco whipped cream, walnut shortbread, blueberry in four textures (pickled blueberries with red wine and port, blueberry jam), and spherified maple syrup.  Chef Dave Beran then stepped out of the kitchen and began to “plate the table.”  He explained that this dessert is designed to change the perception of how food is placed in front of us.   Interestingly, all of the blueberries were the same flavor but because of the textural change some seemed more acidic, others more fruity and even drier.  This was an incredible dessert where no two bites were the same.  Wow.

Pound cake, strawberry, lemon, vanilla bean - A medallion of pound cake with strawberry and a stick of vanilla.  The dish was shaped like a lollipop.  The inclusion of this dish seemed pretty arbitrary.

I really enjoyed the meal.

My biggest complaint is that I wish it told more of a story.  Most of the menu seemed like someone hit shuffle and mixed up the ordering of courses; there was little progression.  There was also a lot of sugar which can become cloying after twenty four courses.

Also, the service felt a little uncomfortable.  Everyone seemed nervous; the wait staff didn’t appear relaxed and welcoming in a way that put us at ease.  The presentation of the dishes was too rehearsed.  The minimalist decor in combination with the lack of music meant that anything above a half whisper could be heard by a neighboring table.  This also meant that during service, tables that were a few dishes ahead of us had their dishes described not only for themselves but also for most of the room.  By the time our plates came, we knew what we were getting.  Part of the fun of molecular gastronomy is the surprise, and there could have been more of it.

I knew I would be returning the next time I was in Chicago.  This experience challenged what type of food I consider to be molecular gastronomy.  The squab chef Achatz served was straight out of Auguste Escoffier’s 1903 Le Guide Culinaire, cooked and served exactly as described in the famous book.  Was this molecular gastronomy or avant-garde cuisine?  Hard to tell; but it was my favorite course of the night.  It was this course that inspired the creation of Next and its Paris 1906 menu.

At this point Alinea has become a truly iconic American restaurant, and Chef Achatz continues pushing forward with new flavors and concepts.  I’m glad I returned in 2011, the food was even better.

To be continued …

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The menu read very straight forward: a handful of dishes with a single main ingredient supported by a fruit, vegetable, liquor, or combination of the two.  The beauty of this menu lies in its apparent simplicity; it was refreshing to not have to read a laundry list of ingredients, or an ironic single-word title.

The service was a bit odd.  At first it seemed like the wait staff had just gotten home from work and we were intruding in their living room.  There was a sense of lethargy or general lack of enthusiasm.  But as the clock crept towards midnight (the Spanish eat late) and the restaurant’s service calmed, things livened up.

The formica-lined interior, red and white, seemed like it came from the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Everything was built in and slid out from a concealed drawer: the wine, glasses and utensils, even the cheese cart!  The staff dressed in all black with red cuffs and belts.  The only thing missing from the set was Keir Dullea going for a jog around the ceiling.

We started with a glass of Oriol Rossell Brut Nature Cava, a blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Meuiner.  The flavor was crisp and full of citrus fruits predominately grapefruit.

Amuse bouche, melon and clam - A small bowl of melon gelee with local raw clams.  What made this dish really special was the way the musky, almost butterscotch flavor of the raw cantelope interacted with the brine of the clam.  It completely held back the brine  while allowing the clam’s natural sweetness to come through.  It was an oceanic-filter.

Amuse bouche, rabbit terrine – A cylindrical rabbit terrine wrapped in summer truffle piped with almond cream.  The truffles weren’t particularly fragrant, and the terrine tasted more like butter than meat.  This was not a great bite.

King prawns with almonds and tarragon - This was a dish I could have easily repeated twenty times.  Two prawns lightly poached in their own salt water, laid across a streak of tarragon with an almond crème fraîche.  The barely cooked prawns were succulent and despite being from the ocean, tasted sweeter than they did salty.  The tarragon added a bright herbal note while the cool almond cream kept the dish grounded.  This was wonderful.

Sardine tartar with tomatoes and prunes - Small cubes of fresh sardine brushing against a tomato soup with a streak of red tomato paste and basil.   The Andalusian-style tomato soup is close to gazpacho in flavor, but thicker and richer.  It amazingly contains no cream; it’s thickened with bread and olive oil.  The tomato soup’s sweet vegetal flavor supported the lightly acidic raw sardine giving it body.

“After eight” foie gras - Lobes of buttery foie gras topped with a chocolate sauce and mint foam.  The dish was inspired by the English mints.  The refreshing coolness from the spearmint cut through any residual grease from the foie gras making this fatty ingredient somehow taste a bit lighter.  The chocolate added a hint of sweetness and bitterness.  I loved this plate.

Monkfish with saffron rice and zucchini flower - The highlight of this dish was everything except the main ingredient.  The saffron rice with zucchini flower and saffron sauce were outrageously delicious.  The saffron contributed a meaty quality to the broth and when combined with the texture of the rice, it stood on its own as a principal ingredient.  The monkfish, though juicy, seemed like an after thought to me.

Suckling pig with porcini and perigordini - A thick cube of suckling pig with porcini mushroom and a sauce made from mustard, black pepper, brandy, and “nata” the residual fat that floats from unhomogenized milk.  (By the way nata, I learned, tastes very good in drip coffee.)  The skin was crispy and the interior meat succulent and juicy.  The best part of this dish was the sauce.  I sort of wished the suckling pig was replaced by a thick wedge of buttered bread.

Kid with parsnips and cherries – A braised young goat shank with a tick of licorice, parsnip purée, and cherries.  The texture of the goat was much like lamb.  Since the goat was still young it didn’t have much of the barnyard taste that develops when the animal gets older.  The meat was very fatty, but unlike the suckling pig, there was no crispy skin.  This dish was frankly too soft and sticky for me.  But my friends at the table seemed to really enjoy it.  For me, one bite was enough.

Pigeon with mango and armagnac – A small piece of roasted pigeon with diced mango, lavender, and an armagnac sauce.  The pigeon was served with a purée made from the liver.  This was a great dish.  Due to the odd shape of the drumstick, every bite of the pigeon tasted different: some crispy, others soft and juicy.  There was significant textural diversity.

Cheese course - A collection of local cheeses, Tou de Til.lers, Piramide del Quirol, Cabra de la Garrotxa (Bauma), Taleggio, Torta de la Serena, and Blau de l’Avi Ton served with membrillo.

Pistachio soufflé with lime - A spongy pistachio soufflé served out of its ramekin with a lime sauce.  The toasted  pistachio flavor softened the acidity of the lime.  This dessert was well-balanced and quite colorful.

Strawberries with orange and yzaguirre - Sliced strawberries with orange sorbet floating in a yzaguirre broth.  The broth actually had beef stock in it, which might sound strange, but its slight fattiness really complimented the acidity of the orange sorbet and tartness of the strawberry.  This was a wonderful dessert, probably my favorite course of the night.

Peach salad with beets - Sliced peaches with beet sorbet.  I loved how the vegetal sweetness of the root vegetables interacted with the tartness of the peach.

Petits fours - warm chocolate cake, whisky chocolate squares, mango custard squares.  The warm chocolate cake was a nice touch, really ensures their freshness and prevents the small pastries from drying out.

I really like what chefs Oriel Ivem and Guillem Pla are doing: taking traditional Catalan ingredients and cooking preparations and adding a modern twist.  But I wish the restaurant could move beyond the notion that each main course needs a huge chunk of meat or fish.

The most interesting part of all the main courses was everything except the meat.  I would have been much happier with significantly smaller portions of meat and fish, or frankly, none at all.  After the third bite, the flavor becomes redundant.  Though, I suppose, a main course without meat seems like a tough sell in Barcelona.

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