After a few amuses, an expectation stretched, flavor combinations dared, the downbeat of molecular meals drops – and it always pops! One bite, as always instructed, where the slightest resistance breaks with an explosion of flavor, its startling intensity foreshadows more surprise. Jaws clench down, cartoon eyes bulge, and smiles expand – a collective we have been waiting for this! At Atelier Crenn, the Kir Breton, served as the final amuse, pops with intense cool apple cider and sparkles as it engulfs the mouth – appearances are deceiving and the unpredictable fun.

Kir Breton

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Gastronauts from the future, powered by time machines, will peek into 2011 and see a variety of interesting trends – the new naturalism is still strong, vegetables are claiming more plate real estate, and aged meats are gaining popularity. In America alone, they will see, despite Michelin’s proclamations, a shift in the creative nexus, from New York to the Bay Area. If Michelin ventured beyond the interstate, they would reward serious work being done around the country. ¹ And if one of these gastronauts stopped me today, asking about the times, I would tell them “This was the best I can remember in my decade of fine dining.” And then, needing to know before they zipped back to January 2011, I would ask “which restaurants below went on to become great?” All of them could.

Every year I publish my “perfect meal” – a list of dishes, in some approximate tasting order, that could sum up one year. It is equal parts best-of and fantasy, bending time and space into this glutton’s culinary dream. Across America,² Germany, Benelux, and France – these are my top dishes from 2011. ³

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While you wait for me, I’ll bring back this old idea to write about a few meals I did not eat – in places I have eaten recently. The links are theirs; the descriptions and pictures mine. In due time, I will write full reviews of all the meals featured below – all deserve it.

Atelier Crenn (San Francisco) by Endo Edibles
Two nights ago, Dominique Crenn really surprised me with an incredible meal, worthy of two Michelin stars. Her food at Luce was stylish but it felt constrained, perhaps limitations placed on her by the hotel. And while the food at Atelier Crenn looked more expressive, it also seemed, from pictures, overwrought; so much so, that I hesitated to visit for too long. That was a mistake. Intense, concentrated flavors; an under-stated but very effective use of texture; and a surprising use of temperature contrasts throughout the meal left the entire table smiling and happy – this is one of the best restaurants in San Francisco, if not the country.

Atelier Crenn – Ocean and Land

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When the perfect storm descends, I asked Chef Joshua Skenes, let me seek sanctum at your kitchen counter. Three proteins – shrinking and intensifying – black arts based on basic principles – were near a convergence point. By land, sea, and air. Welcome to a meal of waxy 7-day fish, 50-day Epoisses pigeon, and fruity 120-day beef. It was not so much a “tasting menu” as a “tasting” menu – a glimpse into new possibilities for Saison.

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How many times have you tasted perfection? Sprouting peas, tender and delicately sweet, welcome Spring to the Bay Area when they pop up on menus everywhere. It was no different at Ubuntu except that Jeremy Fox created a masterpiece out of these tiny harbingers, showcasing them in a Michelin 3-star-worthy dish. Seductive, with a crisp burst of minty punctuation, his peas and white chocolate dish is one of the great Spring-time signatures. Smith popped up at the end of Spring – would Fox prepare the peas too?

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