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noma Now...and Then - A Look Back During Lunch

 

The end of a great meal is always a bittersweet experience. I am exhilarated by the meal I just had, but saddened that it is done. Such was the case when Scott Boswell and I finished our dinner at noma. Our sadness, however, was considerably tempered by the fact that we would be returning to the restaurant in just a few hours for lunch, this time accompanied by our wives and my one-day-shy-of-eleven year old son. In addition, we would get to experience some of noma's culinary history. Our dinner consisted of noma's current menu and some of its newest dishes. The lunch would consist of a collection of dishes from the last three years. We left our dinner at noma the night before quite happy. We had eaten an amazing meal and were coming back for more!

The snacks we had at lunch were the same that we had at dinner the night before. A discussion of them with photos can be found here.One dish that requires a little further discussion is the live fjord shrimp. For his age, my son is a very experienced and adventurous diner, but I knew that he would be challenged eating the live fjord shrimp and he was.Rene Redzepi told us that about 90% of the people to whom he serves it are challenged by it. He says, "It's because of the eyes...an oyster, no problem, it doesn't look at you and move, but essentially it's the same thing." My son did eat it, but didn't really enjoy it and unfortunately, it put him a little on edge going into the rest of the meal. Happily, his raised defenses soon began to melt away.

 

At dinner, Scott and I very much enjoyed the wine pairings using the wines of the Loire Valley. Since many of the same wines would be paired with lunch, I opted to experience another side of noma that I had heard about - their natural juices, and had my lunch paired with them. Another reason for choosing the juices was that I would be having dinner later that night at Restaurant A.O.C. and wanted to limit my alcohol to remain fresh for that - or at least as fresh as possible. That didn't stop me from trying noma's own Pilsner style beer to start my meal. It was golden, hearty and refreshing.

Cucumber Juice 

 

Cucumber was the unifying bridge between the first full course and the paired juice. We were served a salad, but a salad unlike any that I had ever had before. Called "Gem Salad and Hazelnut Milk, White Currant and Juniper", the main part of the salad was the leaves and the  root of a gem lettuce that had been cooked in an aromatic tea made from "wild plants." The root was then sliced and arranged on the plate looking like little white coins. The cooked leaves were arranged around the salad with a perimeter of nasturtium leaves, while the plate was dotted with sweetly tart white currants. This all rested on a small pool of hazelnut milk and was dressed on top with a vinaigrette of green juniper oil from Gotland and apple vinegar. Each plate also held a cucumber blossom that added a bit of cucumber flavor and a touch of color to the dish. The juice was a cucumber juice, which truly tasted of the essence of itself and mingled nicely with the faintly sweet salad. The dish was a lovely study in texture with no element proving overly assertive, but each adding subtle nuance. 

 

Invasive species can be a real problem. Sometimes, however, an invasive species can be an improvement - at least culinarily. The razor clams in the next dish, Razor Clam and Parsley, Horseradish and Dill, are Pacific razor clams, which have invaded and overtaken the native variety. Chef Redzepi prefers these clams to the native North Atlantic variety, stating "they are quite larger, do extremely well in our cool waters and are extremely tasty." Not having a basis at hand to directly compare the two varieties, I can't personally confirm the differences, but these clams were certainly quite tasty, quite large and quite beautifully presented, wrapped in a shiny parsley sheet next to  grated frozen horseradish with a swirl of clam and dill juice poured onto the plate. Chef Redzepi, who serve the dish, urged us to use the spoon and the fork to get each of the flavor elements in each bite. He was right about that too.

 

I have certainly had pineapple juice before, but this was the first time I ever had apple pine juice. The next juice pairing was apple juice infused with pine. It was a remarkably delicious combination, tart, sweet and with added depth from the pine. It was paired with another dish that I had a version of in NY at the Corton dinner, Tartar and Sorrel, Tarragon and Juniper. 

 

One of the oldest dishes still in their rotation, the development of this dish has an interesting story. Chef Redzepi explained that when this dish was first conceived, it seemed that most new dishes were being prepared with some type of new machinery and/or new chemical. While he has nothing against either of those things, he and his crew wanted to see if they could " make a dish where we only used our hands and still make it feel innovative." They used to make this dish with a mortar, but now they do use a blender. At the Corton dinner, I was enthralled by Redzepi's skillful use of sourness, especially with sorrel. In Copenhagen, the sorrel was even more sour, but the dish was even better. As Chef Redzepi explained to us, in Denmark he is able to get wild woodsorrel, which grows in shade in forests. By virtue of being relatively sun deprived, the wood sorrel, a type of oxalis, becomes even more sour. While I enjoy sour, too much can be unpleasant. With this even more sour wood sorrel, I was even more amazed by Chef Redzepi's balancing skill. He had instructed us to pick up a little of the meat and and a little of the sorrel with our hands, dip it in crushed juniper then in a tarragon emulsion before eating it. Eating this dish was as much fun as it was delicious and it was quite delicious. The apple pine juice made a perfect pairing.

 

There are few things I enjoy eating more than langoustines. I was thrilled when I saw them come out on the next plate. I use the term “plate” loosely, as the langoustines were served on large stones. Nevertheless, or more likely, as a result of the stones, the dish, Langoustines and Söl, Rye and Parsley, was particularly stunning and dramatic. Once again, we were instructed to eat the langoustines with our hands, picking them up and dipping them in beads of “mayonnaise,” which was actually an emulsion made from Pacific oysters and seaweed. The protein rich oysters are simply blended with a touch of oil before the seaweed is added. The result is a deep, rich, primal oceanic flavor. The langoustines, small, but extremely flavorful, were, according to Chef Redzepi, alive just a couple of hours before. They are fished from very deep waters from a specific area of the Faroe Islands, which are located in the North Sea between Iceland and Norway, to the northwest of Scotland. They were magnificent.

 

Potatoes and Milk Skin, Lovage and Yogurt was really a study in potatoes, with the other ingredients used to highlight the essential potato-ness of the dish. In the center of the plate lay a very smooth potato puree made only from potatoes and potato stock without any fat. To add a little creaminess to the dish, the kitchen layered milk skin on top. Some slightly cooked small potatoes were scattered around the plate to provide textural contrasts, while chervil and watercress stems were placed to add color, flavor and visual drama. The dish was finished with a sauce made from yogurt whey and lovage oil. It was a surprisingly complex dish with many subtle nuances of flavor and texture. It was my son's favorite savory dish of the meal.

 

A pairing with a crazy good, flavor saturated celery juice couldn't have been better.The celery juice was carried through to the following course, King Crab and Leek, Ashes and Mussels.

 

The king crab, from the north of Norway, was plated next to the leeks, which had been covered in hay ash. The small logs were then bathed table-side with a foamy sauce of mussels. The plate was then sprinkled and finished with fried bread crumbs. One might think that the ash would impart a burnt or at least strongly smokey flavor to the dish, but somehow it doesn't. The overall gestalt of the dish was similar to the langoustine dish from earlier and the oyster dish from last night, incorporating very elemental and primal sea flavors and eliciting a very specific taste memory. Ash coatings seem to be a growing trend. According to the noma staff, the use of ash in food was a Viking tradition. More recently, I first became of the creative use of ash in modern cooking via Andoni Luis Aduriz, who presented his ash coated beef at Madrid Fusión several years ago. This particular dish, was put in service at noma over the past three years or so and Redzepi may have used ash before then, so it is not clear to me, if one has come from the other's influence or if they were arrived at independently. I have since seen ash used elsewhere, most recently prior to this meal at Town House in Chilhowie, Virginia, where leek ash was used in a lamb dish. This would also not be the last meal I would encounter an ash coating on this trip. The ash is certainly visually striking and all the dishes I have had with it, have been outstanding, yet I have so far been unable to discern more than a subtle flavor contribution from the ash in those dishes. Based on the evidence, I have had so far, though, I am happy to continue exploring its continued evolution.

 

Like the celery juice before it, noma's carrot juice spoke of the essence of the very best carrots. This was poured more for fun to taste it then it was to be a specific pairing for the next dish, Turbot and Stems.

 

The turbot was spectacularly delicious, served with a sauce of elderberry capers, white wine and roasted turbot bones and accompanied by celeriac, puree, beach cabbage leaves and a variety of stems and herbs. Though the plating could not be considered so, this dish, was perhaps the most classical of all that we had. It is also one of the oldest noma dishes that we had, as it has been served using different fish and accompaniments seasonally “for a long time.” This was another of my son's favorite dishes. In my estimation, fish doesn't come any better than this.

 

Sea buckthorn is a flavor I had been totally unfamiliar with prior to this trip to Scandinavia, but it is a flavor that I will now seek out when I can. The next dish was accompanied by a sea buckthorn juice, that was bright, tart, refreshing, addicting and colorful. Its flavor seems like it should come from a tropical fruit rather than a berry from very northern latitudes.

 

The parade of seafood continued with Lobster and Red Currant, Rosehip and Salad. The lobster was sauteed and served with a lobster cream that used the lobster coral, lightly cooked lettuce leaf, roasted salad root, pickled rose petals, sorrel leaves and a creamy red currant wine sauce. The lobster, barely cooked, was sweet and tender. Sorrel leaves added a nice, piquant component while the rose petals added a touch of sweetness. The dish was pure, luxurious decadence.

 

Our last savory dish moved away from the sea. Beef Cheek and Verbena, Pear and Endive. The cheek from ox was braised in hay at 72ºC for 24 hours and served with chicory (endive) cooked in red currant wine sauce, pear, verbena, a verbena and spinach puree and a sauce which had been cooked with chicken and brown butter and poured table-side. This dish really reflects Redzepi's pairing talents, utilizing ingredients that most mortals would not consider to be intuitive combinations such as ox cheek and pear and performing culinary alchemy to create something absolutely marvelous.

 

Lingonberry juice worked well with the dish. It had a flavor and mouthfeel reminiscent of cranberry juice, but deeper, fuller and more robust.

 

The forest in summertime was the theme of our first dessert, a noma classic, entitled simply, Blueberries and Wood Sorrel. The dish contained wild Danish blueberries, a blueberry sorbet, a pine granita layered on top to look like forest moss, a pine flavored sorbet, wood sorrel leaves, wild thyme flowers, brioche croutons for crunch and pine oil to finish. This dish, marvelously creative, fully reflects the Scandinavian basis of Redzepi's cooking.

 

Elderflower liqueur has become quite fashionable in recent years and with good reason. The juice at noma, served with the first dessert supported it - refreshing and delicious.

 

I'm not sure that I have ever tasted a better dessert than Walnut and Blackberries, Cream and Powder, despite the fact that I am generally not terribly enthusiastic about either walnuts or blackberries. Walnut is incorporated into an ice cream and a powder. The powder is made using walnut oil and maltodextrin. The dish includes frozen cream and dried blackberry. Minimalist in appearance, the flavors are anything but, achieving great depth and perfect balance. I loved this when I had it in NY at the Corton dinner and I loved it no less here. 

 

It was paired with sorrel juice, which really, really grew on me the more I drank it. Outstanding!

 

Our final dessert, based on a Danish breakfast called Øllebrød, which basically means "beer bread", consisted of a small porridge made from rye bread and ale. The bread had been soaked in the ale for a while then pureed. Underneath there was milk foam and skyr sorbet. This dessert straddled the boundary between sweet and savory, reminiscent of Sam Mason's Beer and Pretzels dessert that he served at Tailor and I most recently had at a Sam Mason retrospective dinner at Aldea. Both desserts are definitely designed for adult palates and work extremely well for them.

 

Based on the previous night's dinner and the day's lunch, it is interesting to try to gauge how noma has changed over these recent years. While delicious proteins were served throughout both dinners, it struck me that over the past three years the emphasis of the plates has shifted away from the central proteins and more towards the supporting elements or vegetables as the main element on the plate. At lunch two of the savory courses lacked any visible or central animal protein, while at dinner there were four and those dishes that did possess significant animal protein, seemed to use them in more integrated ways, such as The Hen and the Egg, The Oyster and the Sea and the Dried Scallops with Watercress and Biodynamic Grains. As the animal proteins appear to have receded from their centrality, the dishes have also become even more sophisticated. Of course one dinner and a lunch is not enough evidence to commit to such a sweeping conclusion, but these are the impressions I was left with after our too brief journey into the cuisine of noma.

I was left with even more impressions and thoughts about this wonderful restaurant. The food at noma is delicious, original, beautiful and of a place. The service is friendly, warm, efficient and extremely professional. The space is warm, inviting and comfortable. It is no wonder that Rene Redzepi and his restaurant have become popular, but I believe that what makes it resonate so deeply with its diners goes beyond that. noma merges modern sophistication, elegance, luxury and comfort with something more elemental or even primal. With an emphasis on such things as roots, rocks, seaweed, raw food, red food, marrow, eating with hands, skins on the chairs, woodsy interior, foraging, pine, berries, wildflowers and more, noma taps in to atavistic tendencies that run deep in our collective psyche. It strikes a deep chord. That it is done so well helps that chord ring loud and true, making for a very powerful and visceral response from most diners. In a sense, as modern diners, we have a restaurant in which can have our cake and can eat it too. We have a very sophisticated restaurant that comfortably allows us to deeply respond to deep primal culinary instincts.This time we left noma not having the consolation of returning for yet another meal there in a few hours. That was indeed very sad, but we still had some other things to look forward to.

Food, Farms & the Future at Skidmore College

 

Dinner at noma - The Principal Plates

 

With the light snacks behind us, we moved into the more substantial dinner plates. While the food was to remain true to the restaurant's Scandinavian roots, we diverged from a pure Nordic experience when we elected the wine pairings to accompany the food. The noma wine list strays from Scandinavia, but it doesn't stray far, as it only lists wines from Europe, with an emphasis on wines from northern Europe.That evening they were focusing on wines from the Loire Valley of France, which also happen to be some of the most food-friendly wines in the world. The choices were superb. Not only did they work beautifully with the food, they were delicious on their own, a trait not always present in wine pairings. I did not complain about the variation in terroir.

 

The change in direction of the meal was indicated by the arrival of noma's incredible bread and accompanying spreads. While I do not consider bread to be the sine qua non of a restaurant, I do feel that a restaurant's approach to bread is generally indicative of their approach to food.  Some restaurants don't offer bread at all. I would rather that than receive a half-baked attempt.  Other restaurants offer a variety of breads. I am often tempted to try the gamut, especially if they are good, but I tend to shy away. Usually, though, bread is not something more than a way to fill time and a mouth between courses. While noma did not set out a variety of breads, they did set out what may have been the most perfect bread I have ever eaten. It was still warm with a wonderfully crusty exterior and a light and fluffy crumb. A sourdough with a special flour originally from Sweden called Ølands, but now grown in Denmark, the bread is baked fresh twice daily, before each service. Though it is so good it doesn't need any accompaniment, it came with pork fat spiked with apple aquavit and "virgin" butter from Goteborg, Sweden. The butter , incredibly light and fluffy, is called "virgin" because it still contains the buttermilk along with the butterfat and contains the natural acidity of the buttermilk. If this is how good "light" butter can be, bring it on!

 

We had already tasted the small fjord shrimp, which are caught at a depth of only one meter. The next dish highlighted deep-sea shrimp. The shrimp were served raw and cold amongst several large stones on a plate representing a rocky beach. They were laying atop a vinaigrette of fresh, biodynamic unhomogenized cream with dill oil, beach plants and frozen summer urchin. These urchin, low in roe, are juiced, which is then frozen and grated.Chef Redzepi delivered the dish himself and advised us to try some of each element in each bite. The result was a beautiful, refreshing and delicious dish. The urchin played a supporting role here as it was not as assertive as a typical roe-laden example.

 

To this point, we had been drinking the champagne that was served with the snacks. From here on, we began the formal pairings with the wines from small family-estate biodynamic producers from the Loire Valley of France. The first formal pairing was the 2007 Cheverny from Domaine Philippe Tessier called "La Charbonnerie" from the eastern Loire Valley.This was a mineral rich half Chardonnay/half Sauvignon Blanc that was paired with a dish familiar to me from Redzepi's dinner at Corton. The Dried Scallops and Watercress with Biodynamic Cereals and Hazel Nut did, in fact, taste different from the one in NY. This time the dish was prepared with Scandinavian ingredients.The scallops were sliced thin and dried at 80ºC for twenty four hours, crisping them and lending them roasted tones as the sugars of the scallops were slowly caramelized. Underneath lay four different varieties of biodynamic grains. The grains were bound with a puree of watercress. In NY, Redzepi used beechnuts to add another crunch, but here used toasted hazelnuts since beechnuts were out of season. A sauce made from squid and a little seaweed finished the dish. The dish was a textural tour de force between the crispness of the scallop, the plush softness of the grains, the crunch of the nuts and the liquidity of the sauce. The flavors were deep and rich with a strong nuttiness. The sour aspect of the dish here was more muted than the one served in New York, but was still present. Though the main protein of this dish was from the sea, the overall effect was one of earthiness.

 

The essence of the sea can be elusive. It is easy to suggest the sea, especially when it comes to food, but it is not always so easy to truly evoke it, to make it real right in front of the diner. I've experienced it in restaurants before, but not very often. I have yet to dine at The Fat Duck, so I haven't experienced Heston Blumenthal's ode to the sea, in which he utilizes an ipod to add an aural element to his dish. Earlier in this very meal, Redzepi's shrimp dish on the rocks visually evoked the sea, but the dish, while wonderful in many respects, including deliciousness, didn't fully transport me right to the very ocean. His next dish, however, did, and without any props, but the food itself. The dish could not have been any more accurately titled, The Oyster and the Sea. The magnificent, wild-harvested oyster itself came from the west coast of Denmark, from a large fjord, called Limfjord that extends across most of the northern part of the country. This essentiall oyster was lightly steamed over sea rocks and seaweed. Inside the shell, the oyster was joined by pickled elderberry capers, tapioca pearls and some herbs. The elderberries were picked unripe and pickled for a year in salt and vinegar. The ones in our oysters were picked a year ago. The elderberries for next year's capers, it turns out, had been picked that very morning.The net effect of the dish was to transport me directly to the primal sea, such that if I closed my eyes, I felt as if I was there.

 

This oceanic dish was followed soon after by another very earthy dish, Cauliflower and Pine. We had first experienced Redzepi's use of pine during our snacks when he used a little as a component of a savory cookie. In this dish, spruce boughs were used as a flavoring element for cauliflower. The cauliflower was surrounded by the spruce in an enameled cast iron pot and steamed slowly for an hour and a half with some caramelization occurring on the bottom surface of the cauliflower. After an initial presentation to us, it was brought back to the kitchen for plating. When it returned , a sauce of whey and spruce oil was poured over the cauliflower while a dollop of whipped cream with horseradish was spooned onto the plate. Redzepi encouraged us to dig right in, emphasizing that temperature was essential to the dish. It's funny how specific dishes can trigger certain memories. The dish reminded Scott of Euell Gibbons, a well known proponent of natural diets, who in a 1974 ad for Grape-Nuts cereal, asked "Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible." In many respects, Gibbons was before his time. Redzepi and his friends from Cook it Raw are direct descendants of his approach. Of course, cauliflower, is not ostentatious when it comes to flavor and can be easily overwhelmed. I might have thought that the pine would have done just that, but it didn't. It gave enough flavor to color the vegetable, but not drown it. The same was true for the horseradish. This particular dish was subtle. It was paired with a dry Vouvray, "Les Grenouilles" 2007 from Domaine du Petit Coteau.

 

In New York, we were treated to a very special carrot. In Copenhagen, it was celeriac that was served with black truffle and garden sorrel. Upon its initial presentation, I thought it was a baby chicken. The young celeriac was roasted for about two hours in goat butter along with wild sorrel that grows around the celeriac. The celeriac was started upon our arrival and turned often throughout the roasting process. The flavor had intensified over that time. The sauce was made with Swedish black truffles from Gotland. This was a dish that did not initially knock me over the head, but grew on me as I ate it, to the point that I enjoyed it very much. It was paired with a tasty and very interesting chenin blanc "Vin de France" called "La Lune"  made in Anjou by Mark Angeli at his La Ferme de la Sansonniére.

 

The quality of the service at noma has been amply described elsewhere. The dishes are served by the cooks themselves, which provides a depth of knowledge to the delivery that simply can't be duplicated elsewhere. It provides yet a closer connection to the food itself. It is interesting to note a similar model now being incorporated into the service at NYC's Eleven Madison Park. Yet, the cooks are not the only servers. The dedicated front of the house staff also does an extraordinary job handling the wines as well as some of the more mundane aspects of good service such as bussing, replenishing liquids and providing fresh napkins. The attitude is warm and friendly without being overly familiar, which to me is the ideal. This provides a level of comfort that at noma is magnified by the room itself. With plenty of wood and warm wood tones, it is relaxing, yet still surprisingly elegant. The latter part is most definitely helped by the generous spacing of chairs and tables as well as the sheepskins on the backs of the chairs and the focused lighting. One thing the room is not is pretentious.

 

The next dish was Onions in Different Textures. It was as thorough and delicious an exploration of this ingredient as I have ever encountered. On the bottom of the plate was a compote of slowly cooked caramelized onions, that was glazed with a melted cheese from Sweden. Around it were two different types of onion shells. The larger, white ones were from new onions and were lightly cooked in butter. The smaller brown ones had been pickled in beer and honey. This was dressed with an onion bouillon. Atop it all were "air onions," small seeds of wild onions, which had been slightly cooked and mixed in amongst tapioca pearls. The greens on the plate were chickweed - herbs that grow around onions - and also chive flowers and leek. The cheese covered compote was reminiscent of the very best French onion soup. I suppose that this could be considered a "Danish" Onion Soup. The whole dish was simply a knockout, providing a new flavor palate for onion along with much that was familiar. 

 

The next dish, accompanied by a rosé, all pinot noir champagne from Olivier Horiot called Séve, involved a little theater and diner participation. Called The Hen and the Egg, it consisted of us frying our own eggs for a precise, predetermined period of time (one minute and thirty seconds) in a hot cast iron pan with hay oil. Once the time is up, a pat of thyme butter is added to the pan along with lovage and spinach leaves for a quick saute. The cook then returns to add sauce and finish the dish with herbs, flowers and crispy potato strands. Aside from being fun, it was also rather tasty!

 

Pickled Vegetables is a name that did not fit the glory of the next dish. With a variety of vegetables pickled in their own brine including yellow beets, elderflowers, hip roses, red beets, the dish also included bone marrow and a sauce from roast pork. The dish was both beautiful and deliriously delicious and my favorite of the evening, reminding me of the minestrone dish I had at Town House earlier in the summer in terms of its vegetable base, deliciousness and incredible beauty.

 

Red, a visual and gustatory study of the color arrived at the table along with a pouring of our first red wine of the night, a 2005 red Sancerre, "Belle Dame", from Domaine Vacheron. The wine, a pinot noir, was not particularly tannic or heavy. It was excellent and paired well with the evening's final savory course, Deer and Wild Thyme, Red Beets and Red Fruits. The idea behind this dish, as with many of the dishes at noma is to pair the principle ingredients with others with which they coexist in nature. In the case of this dish, the deer exists in the forest and walks on and eats the wild seeds, berries, fennel, parsnips and other elements found in this dish. Though beets aren't really part of that equation, they are included and provide additional color, depth, flavor and a touch of sweetness. The venison,taken from wild roe deer from Sweden, was obviously cooked "red" and was delicious. It blended visually with the beets and berries and gave off a primal air. The deep red was only disrupted by a touch of green from the thyme. It was a marvelous dish on many levels. The venison, excellent on its own was elevated further by the other items on the plate. This dish represents the art and alchemy of cooking on the highest level.

After the venison, we grudgingly moved on away from the savory part of the meal into the sweet. That transition was aided by the arrival of a fascinating and delicious wine, Ze Bulle Zéro. Pointe, a wine that breaks all appellation rules. Made from chenin blanc using biodynamic methods, the gas released during fermentation is captured and placed back with the wine during bottling. Declassified according to the appellation rules of Saumur, the wine is nevertheless delicious, sweet, but balanced with great acidity. 

 

Once the first dessert, really an intermezzo, came out, our regrets about moving past the savories completely disintegrated. As delicious as it was beautiful, Hay and Chamomile with Sorrel and Wild Herbs made me fully appreciate anew the conceit of bringing savory elements into the realm of dessert. Hay parfait had been aerated and served with chamomile jelly made from fresh chamomile as well as sorrel juice with rapeseed (canola) oil and a number of different herbs and flowers.

 

Rene Redzepi certainly likes sorrel. Before first encountering the sorrel in his dishes at his NYC dinner, I can't recall more than a handful of dishes that I have had in my life that had featured the herb. The next dessert, "Gammel Dansk", Milk and Woodsorrel, featured it yet again. In lesser hands, this degree of relying so heavily on a single herb family might have come monotonous and cloying, but in Redzepi's hands, new vistas kept opening up to make me appreciate it in  so many different ways. "Gammel Dansk" is a traditional Danish bitters drink. In this dessert it was utilized as the base for an ice cream. The acidic woodsorrel was used to complement the sweetness of the ice cream. The dessert was finished with "milk" crisps on top and "milk" crumbs below.

 

We were poured another chenin blanc, this time a Coteaux du Layon "Fleurs D'Erables" from Domaine des Sablonettes. Wonderfully botrytized and acidic, this wine enhanced our final, and yet again, savory based dessert, Jerusalem Artichoke and Marjoram, Apple and Malt. The jerusalem artichoke came in the form of an ice cream.The apples were compressed with French apple juice and there was apple sauce on the bottom of the plate. In addition, there was malt oil, malt cookies and marjoram. Both the apples and the malt cookies were made into equal sized discs that provided visual as well as taste and textural contrast. I initially had doubts about this dish, especially as a dessert, most likely secondary to the presence of the malt, but the dish was fantastic and a suitable ending to the dinner progression. 

 

It wasn't , however, quite the end of our meal. As an aquavit neophyte, I asked for a recommendation for a good aquavit with which to complete the meal. The response was that we would be surprised and we were! We were poured a line of different Danish spirits starting with a fruit based spirit made with Danish apples called "Ingrid Marie", then a Danish Schnapps that had been matured with sloe berries for a year, then another with walnuts and yet another made with Icelandic seaweed that was made especially for noma, called "The Sea at noma." We certainly received a grand introduction. Each was delicious with, of course, the noma seaweed schnapps being the most unique.

 

The real end of this glorious dinner came with the final mignardises, which included the justifiably famous bone marrow caramel, more salty and smokey than sweet and made with actual veal marrow; a "creme bun" that contained no cream and was not a bun, but is a danish classic (It is actually a small malt biscuit with a meringue flavored with the whey from yogurt to give it acidity and covered with sweet milk chocolate); and finally a bitter chocolate covered potato chip sprinkled with fennel seeds. Naturally, each of these were presented in keeping with the style of noma. The bone marrow caramels were wrapped in butcher's paper and twine while the others were brought in tins.

This was truly an extraordinary tour-de-force meal that confirmed for us all the accolades that have been bestowed upon this revolutionary restaurant in recent years. The ambiance was warm and relaxed. The service was warm and professional, the wine was well thought out, delicious, interesting and extremely well paired and the food was original, delicious and completely of its place. There will not, can not be another noma somewhere else in the world. There may someday be one that will attempt to replicate what is here, but if there is, it will not succeed, for noma is a restaurant of a very specific terroir. noma was good, indeed very, very good at Corton in NYC. That evening was a smash success, but that was as much due to its unique event status as much as the excellent food of both Redzepi and Liebrandt. It was noma, but it was noma NYC, something I could not fully appreciate until I ate some of the same dishes at noma, the one and only, in Copenhagen. That Corton meal was a great introduction to Redzepi and his concepts, but it was not a substitute or a replacement for the original. Certainly the geographic stamp of the food from nearby in Scandinavia has something significant to do with that, but that is only part of the story. Another, perhaps even more important part of the story is the level of comfort of Redzepi and his crew in their home. This is clearly their space and it is a space that they make full use of. By all means, one should experience the food of noma wherever and whenever one can, but one should never let that substitute for the inimitable original.

A Dinner at noma - the Snacks

 

Having spent a good part of the day visiting noma and getting a behind-the-scenes look at its operations, Chef Scott Boswell and I made it back through the cold Copenhagen rain to relax a little and change before we returned for dinner at 6:30PM. Our wives and my son spent the day sightseeing in the city and on this night would have dinner at Kodbyens Fiskebaren, a seafood oriented restaurant not too far from our hotel. As they would be dining with us at noma the next day for lunch, neither Scott nor I felt too guilty about doing this noma day on our own, especially as Fiskebaren was another restaurant we also wanted to get to. We had to settle this time for a vicarious experience from there.

That Scott and I would be doing both dinner and lunch at noma was a direct inspiration taken from this post by the esteemed Food Snob, a man whose dining experience leaves us in awe. While we were not to follow the exact format of Food Snob's noma marathon, we did keep to the spirit of it. Our dinner was to be taken from the current noma menu, including some brand new dishes. The lunch would be comprised of dishes from over the last three years or so. The snacks were to be the same in each meal and representative of the current menu. This post will focus on the snacks with subsequent posts focusing on the principle plates from each meal.

 

By the time the early evening rolled around, the rain had stopped and the weather had become pleasant. While not clear, the sky was reasonably bright, which was fortunate as we were seated comfortably at a table next to a window with plenty of space to set up my camera. Once we sat down, our dinner started promptly with a glass of crisp, non-vintage brut nature Champagne from André Beaufort and the start of the snacks. These proceded to follow one another with a fairly rapid, but not too rapid pace. We were allowed to enjoy each one, but did not have to wait long for the next delight to follow.

 

The first snack, Nasturtiums and Snails, were already on the table, comprising a significant part of the floral arrangement. The snail, from Sweden, was embedded in the flower along with some remoulade. Taking the wild foraged nasturtium straight from the centerpiece, we ate it in one bite as instructed. It was a wonderfully clever, whimsical and tasty way to begin this adventure of a meal. 

What initially piqued my interest in noma several years ago, were the descriptions of a chef using ingredients from an area not particularly known for its native cuisine in fascinating new ways, creating a new Nordic culinary style. The nasturtium and the snail as well as the rest of the meal followed that path. 

 

Sea Buckthorn Leather and Pickled Hip Roses quickly followed the first snack. This bite was colorful and tasty, sea buckthorn being an ingredient new to me, but reminding me of tutti-frutti chewing gum - in a good way! It was sweet and acidic and combined with the pickled rose petals, pleasantly floral.Rose can be an overpowering flavor, but this one carried just the right nuance. The texture was slightly chewy, but not persistently or annoyingly so. The combination wasn't just a happy accident. Both the sea buckthorn (a berry) and the hip roses grow by each other on the Nordic coast. As the cook who brought them said, "they know each other." The bite left a smile on my lips.

 

Fried Leek and garlic also brought smiles to our lips. A leek was brought for each of us. The root end had been dipped in a batter and fried and was served with a bit of garlic puree on the batter-fried roots. We were instructed to pick it up and take a small bite, not too far up the leek, as only the lower part was cooked. The combination of sweet cooked leek and crisp roots along with the flavor of the garlic worked nicely.

 

Earlier in the day, as Chef Redzepi was showing us around the workings of the restaurant, he received a shipment from a day-boat fisherman containing live fjord shrimp. He tasted one then and there to assess it's quality. When I asked if I could try one like that, he promised that I would - at dinner. That time had now come. Several of the small, live shrimp were brought out anesthetized on ice in a mason jar. They were to be picked up and dipped in a brown butter emulsion before being dropped whole in the mouth. The sensation of eating a live, wriggling shrimp was an odd one, as tasty as it was. While I had no compunction about it and quite enjoyed it, the next day, at lunch, my young gastronomically inclined son did not have as easy a time with it. He did eventually pop it into his mouth, but he couldn't bring himself to chew it and swallowed it whole, thereby missing its fine and delicate flavor.

 

Next out was a savory cookie made with salt instead of sugar. It was served with a slice of "speck," which was described as Danish cured pork fat. It was topped with a black currant paste and a sprig of pine. The presentation of this snack was special. They were brought out in a cookie tin with each cookie sitting in its own little wrapper. A nice little touch though was the presence of empty wrappers in the container, providing a feeling that the cookies were a shared treat of hospitality, which in fact they were, albeit in a restaurant setting. This was also our first experience with pine during the trip, something that would pop up again, both at noma and elsewhere during our Scandinavian odyssey. Pine appears, largely due to Redzepi's influence, to be the "it" ingredient of the moment in Scandinavia.

 

Not all of the snacks were new to the menu, even though all were current to it. Our next snack was one that was described as a noma "classic" although the filling changes seasonally. It consisted of a template of crispy rye bread on top and crispy chicken skin on the bottom. The filling served to us consisted of Rygeost, a fresh danish smoked cheese that was blended with lovage leaves and yellow split peas. It was delicate and light, a lovely bite!

 

My son's favorite snack when he came to noma in March was the pickled and smoked quail egg. The eggs were brought out in an egg-shaped box that was opened at the table to reveal an egg for each of us sitting upon some lightly smoking hay. It had also been lightly smoked with apple wood and pickled in apple vinegar from the orchard of noma co-owner Claus Meyer. Popping the soft egg in my mouth in one bite and eating it was a delight as it contained a wonderful balance of flavor to go with its soft and gooey texture. I had never had an egg like it before.

 

I had tried the next dish before when Redzepi and his crew came to New York in June and cooked at Corton. The radish and carrot with soil and herbs was better for me this time, as I had a better understanding of how to eat the dish, scooping up the yogurt base and crumbly roasted malt "dirt" with the root vegetables,ensuring a more even distribution of flavor and textural contrasts.

 

Conceptually similar to the rye bread/chicken skin cookie, the next snack was a "sandwich" of sorts. This one consisted of a base of wavy crisp bread with dots of a cod roe emulsion placed on top of it and with various herbs placed on top of them. This was then dusted with a vinegar powder and the whole thing was covered with a "crispy duck stock" made from the natural film that forms atop a duck stock. The film was skimmed off, then dried. Though difficult to eat gracefully, this take-off on the traditional Danish open-faced sandwiches called smørrebrød was a quite unusual and quite extraordinary bite.

 

I saw Chef Redzepi make aebleskiver, Danish pancakes, in Madrid in 2008 when he presented at Madrid Fusión. These savory lard-fried pancakes contained cucumber, vinegar powder (vinegars are used to provide acidity to dishes in lieu of citrus, which is used more commonly in southern Europe)and a preserved sardine-like freshwater fish from Finland called muikko, which appeared to be swimming directly through the pancake.

Redzepi has plenty of experience working and learning outside of Copenhagen, including at elBulli for the 1999 season. His use of "snacks" to open the meal bears the stamp of the Adrias' influence, but while Redzepi owes a debt to that experience, he has forged his own identity.Like the snacks at elBulli, this part of the meal  was fast, but appropriately paced,  as the various snacks were generally one or two bite morsels.While all were delicious, they also were fun and playful.  Other than the format and the sense of playfulness, noma's snacks bear little resemblance to those served at the Catalan cove as those from the Adria's had a tendency to represent Mediterranean or other world culinary influences, while Redzepi's focused directly on Scandinavia. Regardless of influence, the snacks made for a marvelous introduction for what was yet to come.

Inside noma - A Docsconz Video

In the second half of August I had the opportunity to travel to Copenhagen and visit noma, the restaurant now considered by The San Pellegrino World's Fifty Best Restaurants as the number one restaurant in the world. Prior to dining there, I had the opportunity to visit the restaurant before lunch service and had a tour from Chef Rene Redzepi himself. We were joined by my friend and dinner partner, Chef Scott Boswell of the restaurants Stella! and Stanley in New Orleans, Louisiana. I hope this short video provides a glimpse into the inside of a truly incredible restaurant.

Inside noma from John Sconzo on Vimeo.

Tivoli Gardens

 

It used to be that amusement parks represented very idiosyncratic reflections of the community in which they were located. I grew up going to Astroland and Steeplechase Park in Coney Island. Granted, I was very young when those places were still special, but they did then and even now still radiate a special feeling that can only mean "Brooklyn." When I moved to the Glens Falls area of upstate NY about 20 years ago, The Great Escape still had the special home town feeling of its progenitor Story Town, which I also remember having visited as a child. Since then, The Great Escape was sold to Six Flags. What it gained in more sophisticated rides, it lost in uniqueness, as it began to resemble countless other American amusement parks.

 

Tivoli Gardens, located in the heart of Copenhagen, surrounded by high brick walls, is nothing, if not unique. The word "Gardens" is not a meaningless part of the park's name, as the grounds are quite beautiful, landscaped immaculately and colorfully. It's not a big park, but there is no wasted space. That is not to say, that all the space is packed full of detritus. Much of the space is given over to the afore-mentioned gardens. The rest of it is given over to rides, games and food.

 

Coney Island used to be known for food and Disney, in Orlando at least, is noted to have some good food, but most amusement parks suffer from food that tends to be ordinary at best. Not so for Tivoli Gardens, which claims two restaurants with Michelin stars. The Paul is located within the heart of the park and is the province of an Englishman, chef Paul Cunningham. Serving cuisine with a modernist flair, The Paul is set in a glass salon. The other Michelin starred restaurant of Tivoli Gardens, Herman, is situated along the periphery of the park, within the ornate, Turkish inspired hotel, The Nimb. Thomas Herman's cooking is inspired by the techniques and palate of France and provides a supremely elegant, tasty and delightful experience. In addition to the stars, there is a multitude of other restaurants running the gamut from fancy to basic, including the international chains Wagamama and The Hard Rock Cafe. We stopped at one fast food place for a light snack. It turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. While it was not particularly fast (the food was not sitting there pre-made), it was very, very good, ranging from a Danish hot dog in a mini-baguette to great fried potatoes to a super fry-roasted chicken. The chicken, was especially delicious. It was fried without a coating, but had a perfectly crisped exterior, moist and juicy interior and spot-on simple seasoning. I'm not sure that simply prepared chicken can be better and still taste of chicken.

 

As wonderful as the food and the gardens are and as important as they are to keeping people happy once there, the main draw of Tivoli Gardens remains the rides. By American amusement park standards, there aren't many, but the rides they do have are generally very good ones, including some, like Vertigo, which are amongst the very best I've ever been on. In Vertigo, the concept is that one is flying an acrobatic airplane doing all sorts of loop-di-loops and spins. While the ride is truly an incredible thrill and adrenalin rush, perhaps the most anxious part of it is waiting in line directly underneath the ride. The mesh netting seems scant protection from the planes that appear to be diving right for you, pulling up just at the last moment!

 

Vertigo may have been my favorite ride, but it was far from the only great one there. Daemon is a superb roller coaster set in a mock Chinese village. The Golden Tower provides a great view of surrounding Copenhagen before dropping one in a sudden and rapid free-fall and the Dragon provides a whirling dervish of an experience, twirling one over and under in addition to round and round. Even the bumper cars seemed more fun than usual.

 

Had we not had our son with us in Copenhagen (we took him there on our arrival in Copenhagen and just before we left on his 11th birthday sandwiched around lunch at Herman), we might have eschewed it as being something for kids and not for adults. That would have been a mistake, as I think my wife and I enjoyed it as much as our son. It has been quite some time since I have enjoyed an amusement park as much.

Ferrari Challenge at Watkins Glen

Yesterday, my son, L.J. and I drove across N.Y. State to meet up with my friends, Scott and Tanya Boswell, who were participating in the Watkins Glen Ferrari Challenge along with their friends from Ferrari of Tampa Bay and other regional Ferrari clubs. Jerome Bocuse was also there running his Ferrari adorned with the logo for Bocuse D'Or USA and Daniel Boulud came up with his friend, Dean Santon to participate. While I didn't get a chance to ride in one, let alone drive one, we had fun, partaking of a unique experience. The cars are simply stunning - beautiful just standing still and jaw-dropping when zooming around the track. It was a pleasure to bask in their glow and to resonate with their rumbling engines. The event started on Thursday and was continuing through the weekend. I wish that we were able to stay for more than just the Saturday afternoon.

Bar Inopia Closed

Word has it that Barcelona's Bar Inopia is now closed. New projects for A. Adria are apparently on the horizon. http://www.barinopia.com/

I'm sad that I never made it there, though I look forward to whatever Albert has up his sleeve. I'm hearing something about "macrotapas." Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be interesting and of the highest quality.

Bocuse D'Or USA 2010 - A Docsconz Video

Bocuse D'Or USA 2010 - A Docsconz Video from John Sconzo on Vimeo.

It has been 6 months since James Kent of Eleven Madison Park was selected to represent the United States at the next Bocuse D'Or competition in February 2011 in Lyons, France. This video featuring the likes of Jerome Bocuse, Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller, Gavin Kaysen, Alain Sailhac, Andre Soltner, Andrew Friedman, Daniel Humm, Joel Buchman and the most recent US representative Timothy Hollingsworth, strives to give an idea of what the competition means for culinary America as well as a sense of what the competition itself was like.

Blue Smoke in Saratoga

It's really not just Blue Smoke. There's a Shake Shack and a Paddock Bar too, all from the Union Square Hospitality Group. Situated by the Club House Gate off Nelson Avenue and near the paddock and horse path and with their own betting windows, the restaurants are perfectly placed to enjoy both the equine and hominid action of the Saratoga Race Track.

Even though it was a beautiful day after the track's opening weekend of hot and sometimes rainy weather, it was still Monday and the track was only lightly attended as were the restaurants, which at this point was just as well. With the track just having opened for the season this past Friday, the restaurants are still absolutely brand new. It showed in the time it took for small orders to be filled, but the quality of the food was still excellent and service was given with the trademark Danny Meyer reputation for friendliness and excellence. When I ordered fries at Shake Shack, the ones I received were not particularly fresh. When I asked the counterperson about them after I had tasted one, she didn't blink an eye. She took them back with an apology and within a couple of minutes I now had two orders of delicious piping-hot fries right out of the fryer. With a special "Sloppy Track Shake" to go along with the fries, we were good to go. The shake was a truly beguiling salted caramel with a generous heaping of Valrhona cocoa sprinkled on top. I couldn't finish the shake, but I made sure to siphon off the wonderful cocoa. At $7 the shake was not cheap, but it was truly decadent and worth the splurge, especially if splitting it with someone.

 

At Blue Smoke, the ribs came right away, but the pulled pork sandwich took a bit longer despite the lack of any line. Both were excellent, however, especially when eaten in the small dining area situated directly above Blue Smoke overlooking the Paddock Bar. The ribs were meaty with a Kansas City style sauce that mercifully wasn't too sweet. I prefer a non-tomato, vinegar based North Carolina style sauce with pulled pork, but the Blue Smoke sauce was still tasty without smothering the pork's flavor. There are also chipotle chicken wings and some desserts on the menu, but we didn't try them this time. 

The upstairs vantage point is a great spot to hang out, enjoy the meal, have a cold brew or glass of wine available at a small bar up there and observe the milling people and horses below or watch the race on the simulcast tv screens. We just happened to find Danny Meyer himself overseeing the early days of this venture.

 

The Paddock Bar is a nice spot for cocktails. Since I was driving I didn't indulge, but the Lynchburg Lemonade with Jack Daniels and house made lemonade and The English Twist with Bombay Sapphire Gin, Pimm's Cup No.1, lemonade and cucumber both tempted.

A few kinks still need to be worked out in distributing the food efficiently, especially when the days get really busy, but that will undoubtedly happen sooner rather than later. The enthusiasm of the staff at the restaurants and the expertise of Meyer and his crew will see to that. More importantly the food is as good as I expected (I expect a lot from the Union Square Hospitality Group though I must admit that Shake Shack burgers are not my favorite) and the location and ambiance are as good as it gets for food at the track. I'm not a betting man in general and I don't really go to the track to play the ponies. I go because it is fun to watch not only the incredible horses, but the people at the track as well. Now with the additions of Blue Smoke and Shake Shack as well as kiosks for a number of local Saratoga eateries, it is also a fun place to eat.

Starchefs 2009 - Sean Brock Shows His Kind of American Cuisine

Sean Brock and benne - precursor to today's sesame.

I apologize for having been remiss in not finishing my detailed individual profiles of the presentations at the 2009 Starchefs ICC, having only made it partially into Day 2 of the 3 day Congress. I don't know if I will be able to get to all of the rest of them in detail before the next Starchefs ICC comes up in September (It's not too late to sign up for what looks to be another outstanding Congress), but I will do my best to at least get up more photos and as much detail as I can recall from my notes. Given my current focus on Sean Brock and McCrady's, I thought it only fitting to resume (out of order), with some photos and a brief description of Sean's hands-on workshop and his demo highlighting his take on traditional Carolina Low Country Cooking.

In his hands-on workshop on the morning of Day 2, Brock focused on "Bringing Back American Heirloom Ingredients" and demonstrated his "Shrimp & Grits" in the process with the audience separating into small groups to use liquid nitrogen to grind and then combine an heirloom corn variety, Jimmy Red Corn" with South Carolina Shrimp. Once the ground shrimp and corn combination was plated, it was overlaid with a shrimp stock gel, various herbs and flowers and a piece of dried shrimp toast. I was fortunate enough to get a taste of this insanely delicious dish. I had been wanting to visit Sean Brock at McCrady's for some time anyway, but upon tasting this, I made it a priority.

Shrimp & Grits

For his big stage demo, Sean repeated the shrimp & grits, but followed it with two more spectacularly beautiful dishes utilizing heirloom ingredients grown on McCrady's S.C. Farm, Thorn Hill Farm. The first, called simply, "The Garden" utilized pristine root and other vegetables to form a colorful and quite beautiful tableaux. The second was a contemporary interpretation of an old Low Country dish with slave days origins, a rice and beans dish called "Reezy Peezy" or "Hoppin' John," the name it is more generally well known by. Hoppin john is generally a very rustic dish, one traditionally served on New Year's Day. Brock's version, utilizing an heirloom pea called "Sea Island Red" also utilized a variety of techniques that while making it visually unrecognizable compared to the original, still remained true to its ingredients and presumably (since I didn't get to taste it) to its flavor.

The Garden

"Hoppin' John"

Once again, the thrust of Brock's discussion focused on the value and importance of saving heirloom and heritage varieties of the foods that have contributed to the development of an American culinary tradition. His particular area of concern is the South, especially the Carolina Low Country, but his message is to do the same for all the Regional Traditions. Is it any wonder I had to visit McCrady's and that I hope to do so again and again (Husk too!)?

More Photos From McCrady's

I had the opportunity to take these photos at McCrady's prior to service the evening I dined there. Chef Brock was kind enough to let me accompany him as he tended to tasks like cutting the evenings herbs and receiving the day's harvest from the restaurant's farm as well as to take me on a quick tour of the restaurant.

McCrady's - Dining with History and Innovation

"George Washington ate here," McCrady's chef Sean Brock told me as he gave me a tour of the massive building that is the center of his varied culinary activities. During the new President's tour of the fledgling United States of America in 1791, George Washington did, indeed, eat at McCrady's, then, as now, a prominent dining location in the city of Charleston, S.C. At that time, though, McCrady's stood on the waterfront. The restaurant (then a tavern) didn't move, though the waterfront was later extended away via landfill, leaving some functional but less attractive buildings between modern McCrady's and the Charleston waterfront. While Washington dined with some of the area's most prominent citizens, a cannon stood underneath the window and was fired each time a toast was made to the President so that the rest of the Charleston citizenry could toast him too! While Washington enjoyed a lot of pomp and circumstance and probably ate pretty well, one thing he could not have enjoyed was the cooking of Chef Sean Brock. Too bad for him! I'm pretty sure George Washington would have been a fan of Chef Brock.

Town House - A Destination in Chilhowie

Most destination restaurants make it somewhat easy for a diner to choose it and make a trip there. They are generally not that difficult to get to and there are other attractions in the area. As examples, elBulli has Barcelona nearby as well as the incomparable Mediterranean Sea at its doorstep and The French Laundry has the entire Napa Valley wine country to beckon, while being within a reasonable drive of San Francisco and the Bay Area. Unless one lives in the area, Town House, in Chilhowie, Virginia - not far from the Tennessee and North Carolina borders, is not the easiest destination restaurant to get to. One can not take a quick and cheap flight and it isn't really a short drive from anywhere with a sizable population. Fortunately though, once one makes the effort, the area around the restaurant has some charms, including bucolic mountain scenery, top-notch farms, a venerable old hotel and the State Theater of Virginia – The Barter Theater in nearby Abingdon. More importantly though, it has the other most significant attribute shared by the best destination restaurants – it is absolutely worth the journey, as difficult as it may be.

Chef John Shields and his wife, Pastry Chef Karen Urie Shields did not start out in Southwest Virginia. Unlike their friend and colleague, James Beard award winner Chef Sean Brock of McCrady's in Charleston, S.C., they were not born in nor did they grow up in nearby Abingdon or anyplace else in the vicinity, though their Certified Sommelier, Charlie Berg, did, as did much of their kitchen and front of the house staff. The Shields' chose to come to Chilhowie in order to be able to put their collective culinary vision to work. Turning down the opportunity to be the Executive Chefs at and open Charlie Trotter's foray into Las Vegas , they preferred the opportunity to do their own thing, working for restaurant owners with the willingness, capability and vision to allow them to do just that. Sean Brock called Town House his “favorite restaurant in America.” After my dinner there, I can understand why.

Driving up, the restaurant appears very unassuming, located in a small storefront on the main street of a very small town. It is quite easy to miss, even with little else around. Once inside the door, however, things change. While not opulent like the restaurants of the Shields' previous employers, Alinea, Charlie Trotter's and Tru, Town House is quietly elegant and supremely comfortable: relaxed and yet, sophisticated. The kitchen is spacious and outfitted to do anything a chef in today's world is likely to want to do. The chefs can play and they can make very serious food. Much of the ingredients they use comes from within the region. On the afternoon I was visiting, they received a delivery of buttermilk from Cruze Farm in Tennessee. Aside from the buttermilk itself, which is of extraordinary quality, the most notable aspect of this delivery was that it was facilitated by a patron of the restaurant returning home from Blackberry Farm in Tennessee. Since Cruze Farm was on his way, he did the favor for the restaurant.

We arrived for our 7PM reservation with plenty of sunlight still in the sky and shining through the window on to our table. To be honest, I was a little nervous. In addition to my wife, I was dining with our 10 year old son and my sister-in-law, who joined us in Abingdon to visit the now closed nearby summer camp she and my wife had attended in their youth. I was nervous because I was uncertain how my son would deal with an extended tasting menu and though I had dined out with my sister-in-law on numerous occasions previously, I had never dined with her at a restaurant serving food like I was expecting Town House to serve. I was not sure how she would respond.

The opening salvo came in the form of a cookie sandwich. The amuse, two thin dark brown cookie wafers sandwiching Parmigiano cream, olive oil jam and Meyer lemon confit, told us that we would be in for a unique experience, both playful and tasty.

The next dish, though told us that we would be in for a special experience. We opted for the 10 course tasting menu (we did receive a few extra courses thrown in) for $110pp. The menu opened with Shields' “Chilled Vegetable 'Minestrone,'” a dish that stunned us with its beauty when it was brought to the table. Consisting of 19 different vegetables sliced into thin ribbons, rolled into cylinders and stood on end in a bowl with a vegetable consommé poured around it table side, the dish was equally impressive on the palate combining a myriad of flavors playing off each other. This was a home run on the first pitch, one of the more spectacular courses I've had anywhere. From this point on, I didn't need to worry anymore about my son and my sister-in-law. They were equally wowed and all in.

I will comment at this point on our drink pairings, which were orchestrated by Certified sommelier Charlie Berg. As would be expected of a restaurant with the aspirations of Town House, the wine pairings were superb with each glass working in a synergistic way with the food. More remarkable though, was how well Berg composed non-alcoholic pairings for my son's dinner. While we drank the Foggy Ridge “First Fruit” hard cider from Virginia, our son received a cocktail of Italian sparkling water with lemon thyme and fennel pollen, that was superb. Both beverages had good acid balance to complement the food with just enough sweetness to make them pleasurable and balanced. The remainder of the dinner worked equally well with Berg serving wines to keep me interested and cocktails to make my son feel special and well cared for. It was always a treat for him to anticipate what was coming next and he was never disappointed.

Our next course was the first detour from the tasting menu. Hamachi Lightly Marinated in Sudachi with Sea Bean, Caramelized Buttermilk Yogurt (Cruze dairy), Apricot, Arugula and Lovage was the first time my son had eaten raw fish. He (and the rest of us) was smitten. The flavors were clean and fresh and the dish had plenty of textural contrast. My son received a creamsicle like drink with buttermilk and orange. We continued with the cider.

The menu was back on track with the next dish, “The Orange From Valencia,” a visual, textural and flavor tour de force and an obvious homage to the contemporary cooking of Spain. The “skin” of the orange was an orange cream that was frozen in liquid nitrogen while coating a balloon. Once the balloon was removed, the “orange” was filled with amongst other things mussels, bread crumbs, marcona almonds and a flavored mayonnaise and then sealed. The combination was exhilarating, full of fun, texture and flavor. I particularly enjoyed watching my son's eyes grow wide and listening to him wonder aloud “how did they do that?”

The next course led to a 2008 rosé from the Cote de Provence, Saint Andre de Figuiere, for the adults and a lemongrass ice “berg” mixed with house made local cherry extract for my son. The common factor of the beverages was in fact cherry as the rosé held lovely cherry undercurrents. This was no accident as the course, another departure from the set menu, was a ”Soup of Cherries with Bronzed Sardine, Sweet & Spicy Ginger, Tomato and Almond Bread.” This was another dish benefitting from a strong Spanish inspiration. The soup was described by our server as having “gazpacho flavors,” which it did, in fact resemble, though it was sweeter than a classic Andalucian tomato gazpacho. Sardines are a very “Spanish” fish, commonly found as a staple throughout the country. Interestingly, our server described these as having been “steamed” as opposed to the more typical grilled sardine preparations one might find in Spain and elsewhere in Europe. On its own, the flavor of the sardine was strong and mildly off-putting to some at the table. The genius of the dish, though, lay in the combination of the sardine with the cherry soup. The fish provided the soup with a taste of umami and salt, while the sweetness of the cherries submerged the stronger elements of the fish flavor and left the most pleasant ones on the palate. The almond “bread” reminded me of Adria's sesame sponge. As with Ferran's sesame, the “bread” was incredibly light and airy, but still full of pure flavor. The almond component also served to add greater legitimacy to the soup as a gazpacho. This was a dish in which the sum was clearly greater than its parts.

How does one embody spring rain in a dish? Somehow, Shields did just that with his next course entitled “Representing Spring Rain.” Not only did the dish taste like what I would imagine the embodiment of an idealized spring rain to be; clean, crisp, pure and slightly sweet, it visually looked like an idealized version of what a spring rain might produce. It contained lavendar misted onto the plate, droplets of horseradish, nasturtium, fava bean, shiso, shaved avocado, parmesan water and banana ice cream. Not exactly an intuitive combination, this dish spoke of an amazing understanding of the building blocks of flavor as well as an astounding imagination. From an ingredient combination perspective, this was perhaps the most impressive dish of the evening.

Once again veering from the menu, we were poured a NV Piper-Heidsick Champagne, but we were instructed to drink a little sake that was also poured for us before tasting the dish and following that the champagne for the remainder of the course. Chef Shields brought the course to the table personally and gave us his description, describing it as “Middle Eastern.” This was a “Kusshi (Japanese origin) Oyster Lightly Poached with Rose Water, Oyster Broth and Cilantro Accompanied by Cabbage, Cucumber, Sweet Onion and Cauliflower.” Whether it was the unusual instruction regarding the beverages or simply the combination of ingredients, the dish was absolutely magnificent, one of the most delicious and novel combinations I have experienced. My sentiment was shared by the rest of the table, including my son, who only slightly struggled with swallowing the oyster.

Blis bourbon barrel maple syrup provided the foundation for my son's next pairing. To the Blis, Berg added a touch of Pedro Ximenez sherry vinegar. The rest of us were served 10 year old Bual Madeira from Cossart Gordon to accompany The “Scrambled Egg Mousse with (Blis) Smoked Steelhead Roe, Birch Syrup, Sweet Spices and Preserved Ramp.” This dish was decadence pure and simple and worked best when the spoon took a bit of every layer. As the fourth course in the progression (as listed on the menu), I think the table's response to the richness of this dish would have been different, but as the seventh course (as it arrived to us) and not knowing what was yet to come, this was the first dish that returned to the kitchen with some plates requiring additional cleaning.

That was not the case with the following dish, “Softshell Crab Roasted in Brown Butter accompanied by 'Caramelized Onions', Lime, Sea Grapes, Salt Cod, Vanilla and Mustard Oil.” Paired with a Jarana sherry from Emilio Lustau, this was another course that sang harmoniously and deeply. I'm a sucker for soft-shell crab in almost any variation that does not extinguish the wonders of the crab. Though the crab was essentially hidden in the presentation of the dish, buried under a number of ingredients, its essential nature and flavor shone through with the remainder of the ingredients adding nuance and originality. Though I was starting to feel the combined power of the meal, I was secretly hoping for more of this dish.

 

At this point, the last thing we needed was bread, but bread we received and bread I ate – a potato ciabatta served with olive oil. As with everything else, it was too good to pass up, though I limited myself to one piece.

In an evening filled with remarkable dishes, one of the most remarkable followed, “'Risotto' of Squid.” Prepared entirely of squid, without the benefit of rice or dairy, this dish could not have been a better replacement for a traditionally prepared risotto. The squid pearls had just the right degree of toothsomeness and the risotto was perfectly creamy all while possessing wonderful sweet squid flavor. Along with the initial “minestrone” this squid dish was my son's favorite savory course of the evening. He actually cleaned his plate with a bit of the well-timed bread.

Cola was the flavor component our sommelier was seeking for the next pairing. For us, he selected a Pinot Noir from Victoria, Australia made by celebrated winemaker, Chris Ringland. The 2008 Permutations. For my son, Berg chose a concord grape slushy to accompany the “Foie Gras Royale & Crisp Chicken Skin with Beet, Lemon, Pine Needles and Nuts, Blueberries and Black Raspberries.” The chicken skin, used to scoop up the foie gras and berries, was a great touch for this rich dish.

Our final savory course showed inspiration from Andoni Luis Aduriz. “Thorntree Farms Lamb Cooked in Ash with Black Garlic, Burnt Leeks, Smoked Bacon and Silverized Potato Starch and Eggplant Puree,” took off from Aduriz's classic dish of Veal in Ash, adding original elements and combining them to create a sublime dish and a suitable ending for the savory portion of this astounding meal.

The first dessert entitled “Parsnip Candy” consisted of parsnips done three ways (ice cream, dehydrated and candied), yeast sponge cake, aerated coconut ice cream, almond macaroon powder and banana pudding. We were poured a 2007 Vidal Fleury Muscate de Beumes de Venise, while my son received goat milk infused with lavender and clover honey with a lavender blossom on top. The dessert was delicious and refreshing, comparable in every way to the savory portion of the meal in terms of creativity, imagination and deliciousness.

By the time we arrived at desserts, we were the only patrons remaining in the restaurant. As if the evening didn't have enough magic already, Chefs John & Karen came to the table to invite our son into the kitchen to help plate the final dessert. With a grin wider than any I have ever seen, he gleefulyy accepted and trotted off to the pastry station, where, with direction from the chefs, did a creditable job of layering on the elements of “Powdered Chocolates,” which included steamed yuzu sponge, bergamot and an aromatic “salad” of herbs. He (and we) enjoyed eating it as much as he enjoyed constructing it.

This was one of the most singular meals I have ever had in this country. With outstanding food and beverages, unparalleled warmth, an elegantly casual space and great service, this meal would have stood out under almost any circumstances. When adding the pleasure of seeing one's young son discover, marvel and thoroughly enjoy the pleasures of a great meal, the situation is priceless. The enjoyment I received observing my son's excitement and pleasure was similar to my first meal at Alinea, shortly after it opened, when we were accompanied by our two, then teenage, sons as well as a friend of my eldest son and again, when dining at elBulli, with my then 16 year old eldest son. Each of those meals would have stood amazingly on their own, but were so much more fun and memorable by sharing it with them and sensing their pleasure and excitement. This was the case at Town House, where in addition to enjoying our son's response to the meal, my wife and I also enjoyed having her sister with us. My initial concern and apprehension quickly faded, replaced by a mutual sense of excitement and discovery. Town House with Chefs John and Karen Shields and their superb staff is truly special. It may not be the easiest restaurant to get to, but it is worth the trip!

The Red Hen - Shining in Shenandoah

The Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia is not a large restaurant. In fact, it is fairly small, so small that it employs one chef, one waitress and a dishwasher. Though its size is diminutive, its quality is not. Chef Tucker Yoder, the lone cook, uses plenty of seasonal, local ingredients along with a few select imports from outside the region, to craft a menu that is both interesting, beautiful and most important, delicious.

The Red Hen was the first serious culinary stop for my wife, my son and I as we headed below the Mason-Dixon Line to experience the region's apparent cooking renaissance for ourselves.

Chef Yoder works from an open kitchen, which also happens to have three seats at a bar overlooking it. Of course, that is where we sat. Some may prefer to simply eat their meal and and leave the workings of the kitchen to those in the kitchen, figuring that they are there to dine and that is sufficient in itself. While the food experience is, of course, paramount, I enjoy watching the choreography of a professional kitchen, whether it include many cooks or just one. Observing enhances (usually) my overall experience. If the cooks or the chef happen to be amiable, so much the better. At the Red Hen, it was fun watching Chef Yoder work. He is extremely efficient and methodical, but still outgoing and friendly. It was just as much fun chatting and interacting with him as he went through his paces and served the plates we watched him prepare directly in front of us. Watching the act of creation provides an additional connection with the meal, especially when it is done with the grace with which Chef Yoder cooked.

  

We elected to have the Chef choose our meal. I enjoy ordering for myself at restaurants I frequent or at places specifically known for a special dish or two, but at creative restaurants, I prefer to let the chef decide. While every item on a menu should be good, I think the chef's decisions provide additional insight into his thinking and tastes and is instructive to see what he is actually most proud to serve. It is also generally a good way to get variety. At the Red Hen, Yoder offers a five course tasting menu for $55 as well as a five course wine pairing for $25 to accompany it. For the quality of the food and wine served, the price is a downright bargain. We actually received more than five courses if one includes two amuses and a sampling of desserts.

Chef Yoder started us with a very interesting, unusual, pretty and delicious salad of strawberry, shiso and Mountain View Farms “Marmac” raw milk cheddar cheese. Mountain View Farms, located in nearby Fairfield, Va, makes a variety of cow's milk cheeses. The “marmac” was probably the tastiest I have had from south of New York State and was comparable to some of the better cheddars up there. The shiso added a distinct herbal element that while now familiar, still remains somewhat exotic. The combination of those ingredients with the fine local strawberries proved a very pleasurable start. I finished a lovely cardamom margarita with this course.

Yoder's skills and dedication to his craft were further illustrated with the second amuse of beets, house-made tofu, cracked wheat, cacao and walnuts. The tofu, silky and tasty was well made and combined well with its texturally contrasting dishmates. The beets provided their sugar, while some lovely arugula added peppery notes.

With the first flesh-centered course, Yoder's talents really started to shine even brighter. His roasted halibut with fava beans, curry and gnocchi put the recent halibut dish I had at Jean-Georges to shame. The colors and flavors were bright without overwhelming the perfectly cooked and seasoned fish. The fish was paired with a lovely, grassy 2009 sauvignon blanc from Altas Cumbres of Argentina.

Seared Scallop arugula, bacon and leeks followed and was a triumph. Scallops aren't exactly local to the Shenandoah Valley, but these were wonderfully fresh and sweet. The arugula in this dish was in the form of a bright green purée that added color and depth, but it was the house-cured lardons that brought it all together and added depth. Yoder successfully paired a 2008 Loire chardonnay/groslot gris from J. Mourat “Collection” with this dish.

The next course, Rabbit BBQ with smoked stock, biscuit and pickled seeds was good, but more interesting intellectually than on the palate. It was fun, but not an improvement over a good version of what inspired it. The 2009 Coteaux D'Ancenis rosé paired with it, was crisp and delightful.

Skirt steak Grits, Onions and swiss chard was marvelously full flavored. The grits provided an appropriate welcome to the South. The dish was balanced by a deep red malbec from Goulart Clásico 2009.

  
The wines paired with the savory courses were not break the bank wines. How could they be when the restaurant is only charging $25 for the pairings? They all, however, are good wines and great values. The selections are all interesting, complimentary wines that “come from vineyards using organic and biodynamic methods.” For me, the wines I choose for pairing with a specific food work best when they are chosen to harmonize with the food, not overshadow it. These wines harmonized well. There are other times, when I am focusing on great wines, I want food to be the supporting player, but this was not one of those times.

The Red Hen's desserts are imaginative and creative without being over the top. Delicious and satisfying, they provided a wonderful curtain to this very lovely meal. They included Blackberry Soup with Buttermilk Parfait; Lavender Custard with black pepper caramel and raspberries; Basil Genoise tofu with raspberries and Dark Chocolate with a white peppermint shroud. Chef Yoder paired some luscious dessert wines for us including two ciders from Foggy Ridge, the bracingly tasty First Fruit and the decadent Pippin Gold as well as Adesso Cagnina di Romagna, a sweet red wine to go with the chocolate dessert.

Contentedly full, our dinner came to a close. We paid our bill, bid adieu and waddled back to our lovely hotel, which fortunately, was within a comfortable walking distance. The Red Hen is simply a wonderfully charming restaurant serving delicious, fresh, creative food in a delightful location. No one passing through the area should miss it and those who live around there should do their best to make sure this little gem thrives.

The Pit In Situ

Ed Mitchell is an undisputed and well deserved star in the world of barbecue. He is one of the founders of the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party and a perennial favorite of that seminal bbq event. That is where I initially became familiar with him and enamored of his pulled and chopped pork. On my way home from South Carolina, we took a little detour to visit some friends in Raleigh, N.C. and to take the opportunity to try Mitchell's bbq-as-fine-dining restaurant The Pit for ourselves.

The first thing that sets The Pit apart from most bbq establishments is that at least on a weekend night (and I suspect any night) one needs a reservation for a table. Most bbq places I know are walk-ins. I wouldn't suggest trying that on a weekend night at The Pit. The place is massive and it was busy. It wasn't easy getting a table for 8 on a Saturday evening around 6:30, but my friend and fellow food blogger, Dean McCord of the excellent, Raleigh based  Varmint Bites, fortunately, managed. The time was important for us, as we were only passing through Raleigh on our way home from South Carolina and not even staying the night in the area (for the record, we made it as far as Fredericksburg, VA that night after dinner).

Most barbecue restaurants are pretty basic places, but The Pit, like it's NYC cousin, Danny Meyer's and Kenny Callaghan's Blue Smoke, is a seriously nice restaurant, with classy, modern decor, an impressive wine list and great and interesting beers on tap. With good service, it has all the accoutrements of a fine restaurant even if one is still compelled at times to eat with one's hands.

The Pit's menu is pretty extensive, much more so than I had imagined. In addition to chopped and pulled pork, they do the same with turkey, have various chicken dishes, ribs, salads, catfish and even bbq tofu! They also serve a wide range of cocktails. Since we were planning on driving though, I, regretfully limited myself to one glass low alcohol North Carolina craft beer. I liked the fact that they indicate a beer's alcohol level on their always changing draught beer list

We opened with a couple of Starters for the table. Their chicken wings were judiciously smoked and like Buffalo wings, served with blue cheese dressing. We also ordered a true calorie bomb, that given current governmental trends is likely to be banned in coming years - The Pit's Barbecue Fries a southern version of Quebec's poutine. This one had hand-cut fries, melted pimento cheese, chopped 'cue, chives and bbq ranch dressing. I generally don't mind a little culinary excess, but this was a bit much even for me. I preferred the wings and cornbread and hush puppies that were brought out. The hush puppies, in particular, were pure happiness for this northerner (being a Mets fan, I can't call myself a Yankee) who doesn't get them very often. They came hot, crisp and flavorful. My son would have happily filled up on them alone.

Not knowing when I would be able to return and not having the time for a protracted meal, I went for the ultimate Pit sampler, the Triple Combo, choosing chopped turkey, pulled pork, "Mother Mitchell's" fried chicken, collard greens and fried okra. It was a lot of food! Ed himself came out to chat with us before we ordered and suggested trying the turkey and the fried chicken. I'm glad I did on both counts. It was actually difficult to distinguish the turkey and the pork. Both were prepared in a typical North Carolina vinegar style, full of flavor and juicy. The chopped was very fine, while the pulled pork was chunky and meaty. Finishing two weeks in the South, I had eaten very, very well, but had commented earlier that day to my wife in the car, that one emblematic southern food I had missed was fried chicken. Well, I didn't miss it any more. Mother Mitchell's was worth the wait. The coating was crisp, not greasy and tasty. The dark meat inside was perfectly juicy and wonderfully sweet. While I'm not sure that it was quite as wonderful as my fried chicken gold standard, New Orleans' Willie Mae's Scotch House, it was in that ballpark. As much as I enjoyed Mitchell's superlative cue, the fried chicken was the culinary highlight of the night. The porky and slightly vinegary collards were delightful. The okra was crisp, but not quite as vibrantly flavored as I had hoped. Nevertheless, they were quite good.

Somehow we managed to sample some desserts. The banana pudding was sensational, though I could only manage a small taste. The key lime pie ice cream was wonderful as well, beautifully tart and not too sweet. The pineapple upside-down cake and chocolate-chocolate chunk ice creams were also noteworthy.

After dinner, Ed showed us the kitchen and explained his approach to bbq, saying that one must "not fear the heat." Instead of the classic "low and slow" approach to barbecue, he uses a a hot and fast technique, allowing the meat to rest and the heat to distribute throughout the meat. Of course, for his pork bbq, Mitchell uses whole hogs and makes a point of using Animal Welfare Approved hogs in his restaurant. The Pit cooks a lot of meat, cooking hogs, turkeys and chickens round the clock in an indoor pit designed by Mitchell.

The Pit impresses on a number of levels. Certainly, the food is excellent and much more varied than I expected. It also works as a very good restaurant experience regardless of its genre. While it is still not quite haute cuisine, it is a terrific family restaurant, even as busy as it is. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of The Pit is how well run it is. It is big and very busy, but it seems to run very smoothly, at least the night we were there. Service was very good, efficient, but not rushed. The food was fresh and tasty and nobody seemed stressed - neither the patrons nor the staff. It would have been worth the detour just to see our friends  or just to eat at The Pit. To have done both made a long trip into a very memorable and happy one!

My March to the Sea: A Journey to Some of the Best New Southern Cooking

Unlike another invader who came from the north, I did not descend upon the south to plunder and conquer, intent on leaving a wake of devastation. No, I came to discover for myself some of what I have heard so much about, the reawakening of contemporary southern cooking from Appalachia to the Carolina coast. While I have heard many good things about contemporary cooking all over the south and have become familiar with much of it in and around New Orleans of late, I decided to focus on a path that would lead me from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Carolina sea.

Starting out from a weekend of excellent eating in Philadelphia, I ventured south into Virginia with my wife and 10 year old son, shooting down past Washington, D.C. to Charlottesville to reacquaint ourselves with Mr. Jefferson, his home and his “academical village.” Unfortunately, we didn't eat anything of positive note there, as our time was spent revisiting old haunts.

Our next evening found us in Lexington, VA, to some the heart of the old south as it was the home of General Robert E. Lee. Set amongst the beautiful rolling hills of the Shenandoah Valley, Lexington is an atmospheric academic town, hosting both Washington & Lee University and The Virginia Military Institute. Both institutions boast of close associations to both Lee and Stonewall Jackson, Lee's close associate and legendary general, who ultimately succumbed from complications of “friendly fire.” Today though, Lexington has something special for those on the trail of really good food to go with their history and scenery.

Chef Tucker Yoder of the Red Hen cutting house cured bacon

The Red Hen is a cozy, casual restaurant located in downtown Lexington with beautiful, big flavored food that highlights the area's produce and respects the area's culinary traditions while expressing the culinary creativity of Chef Tucker Yoder. We sat at the 3 person kitchen bar overlooking the action, while Chef Yoder, who cooks alone, prepared our dinner and that of the other guests of the restaurant. Yoder utilized seasonal locally sourced elements such as rabbit, beets, arugula, grits, grass-fed beef, wheat berries, favas, house cured bacon from local heritage pigs and mixed these with ingredients brought to the mountains like scallops, halibut and chocolate to create a personal cuisine, that while not strictly local, had a definite sense of place and personality. Whether doing a version of North Carolina style barbecue with rabbit, vinegar based bbq sauce and pickling spices or pairing local, grass-fed beef with stone-ground Anson Mills grits or a perfect scallop with a bright green arugula sauce with house cured lardons or any of the other outstanding dishes, Yoder never failed to please. Amongst the excellent wine pairings, Yoder also poured two local hard ciders from nearby Foggy Ridge including the crisp and bracing “First Fruit” and with dessert, the acid-balanced, but sweet and delicious Pippin Gold. The Red Hen, though easy to miss due to its diminutive size, is not a restaurant that should be overlooked. In addition, the nearby Hampton Inn Col Alto, which incorporates an old mansion, is simply the finest Hampton Inn I have ever seen, let alone stayed in.

Dishes at the pass at The Red Hen

Hopping on I-81 South, a few hours later we arrived in Abingdon, Virginia, a town known for a few things including The Barter Theater, The Martha Washington Inn and the unfortunately now defunct Camp Sequoya, famous (to me at least) as the place where my wife and her sisters spent several summers of their youth. Heretofore always a main attraction of the area, Abingdon is now also becoming known as a town close to Chilhowie, Virginia, which is located about twenty minutes further north on I-81.What is so special about Chilhowie, you ask? While I suppose there may be other elements to recommend this quaint, blink-of-an-eye town, there is one thing that must make any contemporary food-obsessed person make a beeline for it. John Shields and his wife Karen Urie Shields, with Tru, Charlie Trotter's and Alinea on their combined resumes, decided several years ago to answer an add seeking a chef to run a restaurant in the middle of this small town. They took the job rather than go to Las Vegas to open the new outpost of Charlie Trotter. Arriving in Chilhowie in January of 2008. With restaurant owners happy to let them cook as they wished in order to make Town House a destination restaurant, the husband and wife team did just that and with an award as one of Food and Wine's 2010 Best New Chefs, the country has taken notice.

Chef John Shields of Town House

To my palate and experience, John, Karen and their team is the most Spanish, non-Spanish restaurant I have experienced in this country. With an aesthetic and sensibility similar to Andoni Luis Aduriz, Joan Roca and Francisco “Paco” Morales, the Town House Kitchen is using the best seasonal and local ingredients to serve exquisitely beautiful and delicious food such as the stunning “Chilled Vegetable Minestrone” with 19 different vegetables cut, rolled and placed on end in a bowl with a vegetable consommé poured around it. Additional highlights included a self-consciously “Spanish” homage entitled “The Orange From Valencia” in which liquid nitrogen is used to make an orange “skin” from orange juice with mussels, marcona almonds, bread crumbs and other delights occupying the orange's interior and a “risotto” of squid that utilized neither rice nor dairy products. Karen's desserts were equally exquisite, employing a symphony of flavors, herbs and textures to achieve beautiful, harmonious and delicious results. Since we were the last ones left in the restaurant by the end of our meal, John & Karen invited our son to help them plate the final dessert course. His ear to ear grin was priceless.

Vegetable "Minestrone" at Town House

Our son was enthralled throughout the four hour dinner, tasting and enjoying each dish as well as the imaginative and successful non-alcoholic pairings prepared specifically for him (or anyone else who would like them). The wine pairings poured for my wife, my sister-in-law (who met us to re-visit Camp Sequoya with my wife) were equally imaginative and satisfying. Both the wine and non-alcoholic pairings were overseen and served by Abingdon native, Certified Sommelier Charlie Berg.

Pastry Chef Karen Urie Shields of Town House

Though not limited to sourcing locally, John & Karen have committed to using the best of what this agriculturally rich region has to offer. While not the easiest place to get to, Town House is worth the journey and with accomodations like their own two-bedroom luxury inn Riverstead or the grand old Martha Washington Hotel to stay in, it can be quite comfortable as well.

We continued our journey to the sea, veering to the southeast to spend some time in the lovely mountain city of Asheville, N.C. It had been a few years since I had been to Asheville and it was a great opportunity to reconnect with some old friends. Asheville has become known as a beer making and beer drinking city, but that is not what we focused on. Instead, we went to a non-descript, self-described “dive” of a restaurant located in West Asheville called The Admiral. Non-descript and divey it may be, but The Admiral has certainly generated a following in Asheville. With food as flavorful as we had, it is no surprise that getting a last minute reservation proved difficult with us having to settle on the uncivilized time of 5:30PM (but at least they take reservations). With bold flavors and a lack of pretense, the restaurant struck me as a southern version of Momofuko Ssam Bar. Keeping the Benton's bacon, but substituting grits, peaches and green tomatoes for the Asian accents of David Chang, The Admiral delivered with dishes such as South Carolina quail with arugula, peach vinaigrette, avocado crema and pickled onion and Sonoma Farms duck breast with heirloom tomatoes, pickled plums, Benton's bacon and blue cheese amongst others.

South Carolina quail at The Admiral

Though not likely to open until late November, we spent a good part of the rest of the evening bringing together our old friends with some newer ones, who were telling us about their upcoming Spanish tapas oriented restaurant called Cúrate (which has me itching to return to Asheville once it opens). With a capable, motivated and seasoned team including the man who was primarily responsible for serving my table with poise, grace and fun during my first visit to elBulli, who will be responsible for running the front of the house and with advice and support from such luminaries as the Adria brothers and Jose Andres, Cúrate has the potential to be a destination restaurant in its own right.

Chef Sean Brock of MacCrady's

From Asheville, it was a hop, skip and a three hour jump straight down I-26 to the sea and Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston is a fascinating, charming and historic old city with plenty to recommend it. The city has plenty of excellent restaurants including ones like Fig, which boasts James Beard award winner Mike Lata running the kitchen, but on this occasion, the purpose was to visit a restaurant that has been on my wish list for quite some time – Sean Brock's McCrady's. What has intrigued me about Brock and McCrady's has been Brock's way of uniting two of my favorite culinary interests – preservation of biodiversity as it pertains to food and the use of creative technique to enhance the presentation and overall pleasure of a dish. Brock considers his style with food as “95% refinement and 5% play,” using various tricks from contemporary kitchen tools to enhance the delivery and sophistication of his dishes. With a farm at his disposal to help rescue and preserve seed stock of such important southern tradition foods as benne (the forerunner of modern sesame), Ossabaw pigs and various other entities, Brock has a kitchen and a pulpit to put them to use. His house-cured 18 month Ossabaw ham was silky and delicious in a way that I had never previously experienced outside of eating the best Jamon Iberico de Bellota in Spain. In the same way, the Ossabaw tenderloin reminded me in flavor of Iberico tenderloin in Spain, both cooked to a wonderfully flavorful and juicy medium rare. Brock is fanatical when it comes to flavor and freshness, using herbs freshly snipped from his herb garden just outside the restaurants entrance because, by using them freshly cut, they retain more of their aromatics and taste better. Brock is just as fanatical though, about preserving the bounty of the seasons, as much of the restaurant's kitchen time is spent preserving meats and vegetables for future consumption through curing, pickling or canning techniques. In the not too distant future, the Abingdon, Virginia born and raised Brock is planning on opening an additional restaurant in Charleston not far from McCrady's, called Husk. This restaurant will be dedicated to serving nothing but southern food, that is to say, food from the southern tradition and food that is grown and raised only in the South. It will be a place where much of Brock's heirloom seed and livestock are brought back to their rightful places of culinary glory.

Preserved parsnips at McCrady's

Sherman wreaked havoc and destruction throughout the South during his march to the sea almost 150 years ago. Additional destruction and devastation arrived in the south as with the rest of the country later in the twentieth century as the rise of modern agricultural practice and large-scale agribusiness  wreaked havoc on Southern culinary traditions nearly eliminating many heirloom products, putting many small farmers out of business and white-washing long-standing culinary traditions. Fortunately, thanks to organizations like The Southern Foodways Alliance and individuals like Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills and Sean Brock, all has not been lost. I am happy to say, that in my march to the sea today, southern food is still alive and prospering with great local product, great creativity and a respect bordering on reverence for the region. Depending on the kind of Southern food one is looking for, there may be different routes to highlight the specific target, such as the Southern Foodways Alliance's distinct culinary tours. I daresay, however, that for fine dining, nary a better path for a week's worth of incredible dining, solemn history and beautiful scenery can be found to surpass the one described here.

Keep your eyes on this blog for more detailed descriptions of my experiences at the above restaurants.