I recently had the pleasure of experiencing a wondrous 12 course tasting dinner and wine pairing at Wylie Dufresne's Modernist Cuisine Restaurant, WD-50, for the fourth time since it was named the best NYC tasting restaurant by Time Out NY magazine in 2003, when it first opened. Wylie is amongst few of the most cutting edge international chefs on our planet, which include Ferran Andrea of El Bulli in Spain, recognized as the Top Chef in the world for 5 years running until 2011.
A dear friend of mine, Sherif Tamim, a food photographer from Cairo, Egypt was visiting NYC for a week. Our aim was to peruse as many of the great New York City food venues as possible in our short time together. I considered WD-50 as a must see for him, a lover and experimenter with international cuisine, and new owner of a Cairo based Food Magazine called "Wasfa Sahla."
The reception we received at WD-50 and it's alimentary extravaganza did not disappoint our high expectations. Wylie's imaginative and thoughtful concoctions bring food and technology elements together into masterpieces of full sensory artistic escapades, augmented by his attentive, knowledgeable, enthusiastic and erudite staff. We could not have felt more welcome or cared for at twice the price.
There were too many courses to do justice to each one individually, in a short review, so I am outlining the highlights I found most memorable both visually, playfully delightful, and just down right delectable. Each course was accompanied by a commensurate well paired libation, chosen and orated by a master Sommelier.
The first photo shown above is comprised of seared rare Quail Roulades with Nasturtium Yogurt and Sunchoke Confit, garnished with peppery Nasturtium Flowers and Leaves, and accompanied with a New Zealand Pinot Noir. The result was perfection.
The next dish featured here in the second photo above was an amazing mouth sensation. I love Foie Gras prepared well, but Wylie's is truly remarkably delicious and surprisingly light. The process to create this air-filled savory confection was described to me, and now I have little memory of how it was rendered so mouth melting. It has to be experienced to be believed. It was expertly accompanied with paper thin, crispy toasted brioche slices, plum paste and fennel greens, not to mention being paired with the just so oh perfect German Riesling Kabinett Feinherb.
Above, one of the most imaginative and playful dishes presented, is so surprising, and oh so NYC, that it tickles the heart cockles of even the most jaded lost boys ... girls, or whatever child's heart category you may have forgotten you belong to. The "Everything Bagel" is made of savory ice cream. The "Salmon" is a freeze dried, bread textured salmon derived tidbit, served with a solid sliver of cream cheese and juicy pickled onions. Together the textures and flavors combine in the mouth to meld into the quintessential "Everything Bagel with Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese with Pickled Onions" delight.
Below, I share photos of some of Wylie's remarkable desserts, behind the scene shots of the Master Magician and his apprentices, as well as the wonderland where they all take place. Have fun while you explore the world of this fanciful culinary adventure.
WD-50 is located at 50 Clinton Street, NY NY 10002. Phone 212-477-2900. His partners are renowned Chef Jean George Vongericheten, restaurateur Phil Suarez, and Wylie's father & beverage manager, Dewey Dufresne.
Also visit my first blog at foodfloozie.com and my professional website at marilinda.com
I have eaten at WD 50 and I can describe the meal (tasting menu) I had as "interesting". I can't say anything was "yummy" nor do I recall the flavors. It was more about presentation and creativity, like going to a (very expensive) art gallery, and mostly to satisfy my curiosity. This does not mean teh chef is not talented, but certainly when I left I needed a plate of "real food" to satiate my grumbling tummy.
If your goal is filling and great tasting food, this stuff will probably leave you cold.
However, I'm not sure that's what these chefs are trying to give us.
Once again, I'm not against culinary artistry. The Japanese, especially, are geniuses at making food visually appealing - the way they can slice sashimi so thin it's nearly transparent and then arrange slices in the form of chrysanthemum petals is brilliant, in the hands of the right chef. But it's still just fish, and it doesn't have to be in quotation marks.
It's like going to the symphony and getting 3 minutes of Tchaikovsky, 3 minutes of Bach, 3 minutes of John Philip Sousa, 3 minutes of Chopin, etc., etc. - interesting, perhaps even impressive, but ultimately uncohesive and unsatisfying.
And I'm with you regarding the avant-garde approach. Maybe I'm missing something, but . . .does anyone actually crave this stuff? Is there something wrong with food actually being what it seems? And when you've got, for example, Heston Blumenthal using pop rocks in his dishes (I'm serious), I'm reminded not so much of fine culinary artistry as I am of the flavor scientists who work for the processed food industry. There's certainly nothing wrong with clowning around in your kitchen and playing with different tastes and techniques - you might even occasionally come up with a worthwhile discovery. But when I'm paying a few hundred bucks for a meal, I expect satisfying food, not a magic show, and when I'm finished, I want to think, "man, that was great!", not "OK, so when's dinner?".
I'm about the most adventuresome eater I know. I just like venturing into exotic, but entirely real, cultures, and not Willy Wonka land.
If my mom had asked me to cook breakfast some Saturday morning, and suggested eggs benedict, and I served her this (from WD-50):
http://www.wd-50.com/imagewins/imagewin203.html
she would have slapped me silly.
If I ordered beef bearnaise in a restaurant, and I got this:
http://www.wd-50.com/imagewins/imagewin210.html
I'd want my money back.
I'm not some ignorant rube - I appreciate fine dining and the culinary arts, and there's nothing wrong with artful playfulness. I just think that there's a level of playfulness at which food ceases to be food and becomes something more akin to cubism, which is fine when it comes to the visual arts. But I guess I just hang on to this antiquated notion that eating is supposed to have at least something to do with nourishing our bodies, and that dishes should be named in such a way that customers have at least some clue what it is they're ordering.
I'll be glad when this faddish enthusiasm for food that isn't what it seems, and for chefs who chief talent is pulling the proverbial rabbit out of a hat, has finally gone by the wayside.
Also.. why are the top chefs like Ferran Adria and Heston Blumenthal doing this and have the top 2 restaurants in the WORLD. Its more than a gimmick, its breaking the mold and coloring outside the lines... instead of doing the same thing that everyone else did 20 or 50 years ago.
I just think that some of it (not all of it) is so extreme that it goes beyond creativity, to where the point where it ceases to be what I would consider to be food. You may feel differently, as you have every right to.
I appreciate the contributions of the likes of Adria and Blumenthal to increasing our understanding of the science of food and flavor. And to the extent that innovations of theirs which are both sustaining and sustainable gain traction, I say good for them. The modernists' introduction of sous vide cooking even into the kitchens of home cooks is especially appreciated. (I have a sous vide water oven on my countertop in which I'm right now cooking an Emmental and pancetta stuffed roulade of chicken breast - my take on "chicken cordon bleu", sous vide.)
But I really wonder if there'll ever come a time when people routinely think to themselves, "you know, I could really go for some good old celery ice cream, palm suds, and green tea foam right about now".
But, using edible ingredients to create sculpture or graphic arts is not conceptually interesting enough to engage them. I'll be grateful when this phase of foodiedom is over.
Thanks for the pretty pictures, though.