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Finally took the hubby to Momofuku Ko for dinner! Last year my dear foodie friend Lily took me there for lunch. It turned out to be the best meal of my life, trumping even the turbo-charged romantic dinner post-engagement at the 5th Floor in San Francisco in the Fall of 2007. I haven’t stopped talking about how good Ko is for a whole year and finally I was able to snag a dinner reservation and quickly put together a NYC trip with the hubby. Forget 4th of July fireworks. An incredible meal at this 12-seat restaurant marks a more significant moment in my personal history than that of our great nation. Sorry, America, celebrations for you will just have to be a footnote this year.
I was determined to remember every morsel of this meal. Dinner has fewer courses than lunch and I have a little bit more vocabulary this year, so I thought I would be able to pull it off. But with wine pairing, recounting a 12-course meal (with no printed menus) inevitably became a more challenging endeavour. But excuses aside, here’s the best we could do.
1. Amuse Bouche Trio
Cucumber square slice with a dot of black garlic and dried turnip powder
Saute julienne summer squash on carrot purée and summer squash (green) purée, topped with sauteed chanterelle mushroom
Black pepper biscuit with mirin glaze, chicharron with Japanese specialty salt
2. Cold Fish Course
Long Island fluke sashimi on a salmon-colored mayonnaise, poppy seed sprinkles, and chives segments and chives blossom
3. Cold Meat Course
Beef carpaccio, freshly grated horse radish, horse radish aioli, microgreens, cheese crisps
4. Soup Course
Ham consommé poured over a quenelle of fresh English peas, faux peas of melon balls (green and orange) arranged in one pea pod half shell, Maine uni and raw peashoot leaves
5. Warm Fish Course
Grilled trout on Benton bacon purée, grilled asparagus slices, asparagus dice
6. Egg Course
Slow poached egg, onion soubise, fingerling potato chips, caviar, chervil
7. Pasta Course
Handmade orrechiette pasta in tomato sauce with chicken sausage, crawfish, buffalo ricotta salata cheese, and green herbs garnish (chervil, chives, shiso leaves)
8. Foie Gras Course
Shaved foie gras, lychee quarters, Riesling gelee, pine nut brittle
9. Meat Entree
Lamb ribs (butterflied, sous vided 24-hrs, meat glued back together, marinated in 6-spice dry rub), seared then slow roasted (2 hrs), pickled kohlrabi layered cake with cucumber thin slices and Thai basil, roasted leeks stuffed with yellow chives, some pork product, and Greek yogurt
10. Dessert Course 1
Apricot sorbet (single-spoon quenlle!), pie crust crumble, and bourbon syrup
11. Dessert Course 2
Root beer sorbet (large single-spoon quenelle), pretzel panna cotta half-dusted in pretzel crumbs, yellow mustard jelly squares
12. Dessert Course 3
Half dome of butter milk jelly with mint and basil filling
Each course was paired with a different alcoholic beverage, including chamgpane, 2 different beers, 2 roses (1 bubbly), sake, bourbon cocktail, red and white wines, and at least one dessert wine. I loved the theatrically of bar seating and the very friendly and attentive interaction with the chefs. I was eager to learn about each ingredient and sometime mutter questions under my breath. They were fantastically generous in knowledge sharing. At one point, as I wondered out loud what the Benton in Benton bacon puree was, the chef closest to us quickly but gently let me know that Benton was the name of the bacon guy. Hehee, not every single word uttered was an edible element after all. This amazing range of influences and techniques is the level I want to be at. There were 3 chefs working the 12-seat arena and one CIA extern timidly taking it all in. 2 front of the house hosts/servers and 1 behind-the-scene kitchen guy (unobtrusively restocking the chef’s arsenal). What a wonderful meal. Keep up the good work, Team David Chang!
ps. the slow poached egg, and shaved foie gra dishes were probably signatures of Ko. With 4 seasonal changes each year, at least one of these will likely appear on the menu during your particular visit. My lunch last year included the exact same foie gras dish. It is a dish one looks forward to. Other key players such as fluke and uni are also regularly featured, although with very different preparations each time. And of course the omnipresent pork in the least suspecting corner.
by John DeLucie
This one lands in the Anthony Bourdain neighborhood. John DeLucie, chef and co-owner of the Waverly Inn in New York, has led a life of many descriptions, none of which boring. The other owner of the restaurant is Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. The restaurant carries on more like a non-stop VIP party at a hush hush private club. The carefully updated comfort food clearly has claimed the hearts of NYC’s royalty.
NYC gossip, celebrities, celebrity chefs, and sex. This book’s quite the entertaining read. It’s always fun to read about a chef’s honest opinion of another chef: Bobby Flay is a dick; Jonathan Waxman a zen master. But the best part is still about the food. I salivated at all the mentions of ingredients and menu planning. It was really funny that during my parents’ recent visit, I served them 2 dishes that they hadn’t had before but my mom totally knew what they were because she just finished reading some very detailed descriptions about them in this very book!
By the way, I read this one in Chinese translation. It just got published in Taiwan and my mom picked up a copy because I’m now in culinary school and she wants to read some chef stories. So she zipped through the book and brought it to me during her visit. Now I should probably also pick up the English copy and reverse translate all those ingredient names back to its original flavors. How’s that for continual education?
Tim
By Guest Blogger Tim Spinney
(placed 3rd in Wings Eating Contest without going all out)
A man better than I once said “ 90% of the pain of cutting yourself, comes from knowing you suck.” I wouldn’t say I thought I was the man…Ok I would… but it is embarrassingly humbling to slash your finger open pulling a damn knife out of a kit.
But anyway, my thoughts may not be as composed as Joy’s for a blog entry but I’ve always written Journal style. I have a hard time talking to people –although I have been making great progress in that area- so writing has always been where I sort my thoughts. I used to keep a Journal to express myself in, but I haven’t done so in quite a while. So thanks for letting me use your space Joy!
Onto my meaningless rambles!
So here I am, sitting at my computer, staring blankly at the glowing screen. How is it that I miss being on the go for twenty hours a day? My day feels horrifically empty; my nights feel stagnant and unfulfilling. I mean sure, I miss the scent of my wife, I miss her touch ( I think we all know what I mean by touch). But oddly enough I miss the class. I miss my books. Mostly, I miss the learning. Ultimately that is what it’s all about for me, the learning. I’ve said for more years than I can remember that if a day goes by where you don’t learn something, It’s a bad day.
The reason I chose to be a chef- outside of my child-like passion for food and culture- was that the learning never stops. If as a chef you believe you know everything, you have indeed failed miserably as a chef. I don’t understand how some students allow themselves to fail. My little clique ( the Apex of Awesome…because we are in fact, the freaking Apex of Awesome! ) gets A’s on everything. No one asks us for help. Joy is a little dervish of kick ass, no one asks her for help.
Some of our classmates have already unfortunately failed to move on. They either failed ServeSafe or Fundamentals 1-neither should have even been an option- so next 6 week block the class will again shrink in size, baring of course the students that fail Fundamentals 2.
I get upset at the students that openly say “Man! If I get a 70 I’ll be happy!”. Really? Will you? Why wouldn’t you want a 100? I got an 80 for the first time in my life two weeks ago and was devastated!
I hate to sound entitled maybe even aloof (Ok..no I don’t I am the shit), perhaps it just comes easy to me, but if you don’t strive for success why are you in a profession where everyone works there asses off for recognition? A 70? Welcome to averageville, Population, you. I yearn for the classroom and kitchen. I’ve had enough vacation already. I need the nonstop pace; I need the 3 hours of sleep. I need the camaraderie of my fellow students and hopeful chefs.
Here it is. First battle wound of the entire class.
Tim’s Finger.
We all learned a lesson on being careful taking knives out.
Hilarious, loud, and smarter than a sharp tourne knife, Tim will make a great guest blogger for us. But watch out, he’s going to be on TV one day. Fo Sho.
The only reason for going into school during summer break — wings eating contest!
Strategizing with my classmates
Our class totally represented.
focused on the yumminess
I did alright: 15 wings in 5 minutes.
Chef Lentini took the top prize at 23 wings (and 8 super hot ones in round 2).
Chef Lentini came prepared
I’m totally going on a training schedule next time.
Need to channel some Sonya Thomas.
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