The South flies under the haute culinary radar but the rewards are proving to be worth the adventure. Restaurants like McCrady’s and Radius 10 (Nashville) are quietly developing a modern regional identity - borrowing from Alinea and WD-50’s it-could-be-anywhere cuisine - but retaining a southern flare and finish. And what better place than in the south where the hospitality runs circles around even the most expensive European restaurants?

To get it out of the way, McCrady’s blew my socks off. My expectations were high - Opinionated About raved about the restaurant last October, various online fora reports were exceedingly positive, and I knew Chef Brock moved in circles whose food I respected. In terms of “wanting to return”, only Manresa and Urasawa would rank higher than McCrady’s right now (in the US, that is.) Yes, it was that good ¹.

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Urasawa is a celebration of the season, sometimes down to the week or day. This Spring meal was possibly my best Urasawa meal yet - everything had a lightness, and brightness, to it; perfectly complementing the beautiful Los Angeles weather.

Analyzing the food is nearly impossible. The meal, and its component dishes, are a system that can not be reduced to single elements - circular and inter-locking. The flavors are balanced, subtle, and fresh - despite some dishes approaching what could be a dangerous number of ingredients. Ingredients pop up in one dish as a primary flavor, recede to the background, and re-surface seven to ten dishes later as supporting cast. The meal is a journey with complex patterns.

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How much would you pay for perfection?

Conventional wisdom (mine included), among those who have eaten at both restaurants, says Urasawa (LA) is a better experience than Masa at one-half the price. It was a case of the student, Urasawa, surpassing the teacher, Masa. The Masa experience has been derided for its exorbitant price and short duration. If you factor these two variables out, and just focus on the food, I had the best sushi meal of my life at Masa this past February.

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Rather than compile a simple list, I’ll post a hypothetical perfect meal where the confines of time, distance, and narrative play no part in compiling the list of 2007’s best dishes. This is an attempted menu, not a preferential ordering; if pressed, I’d have a very hard time ranking them. The long list is also a testament to a great year in dining.

The pastiche of chefs and dishes represented here would render an actual meal schizophrenic - from high concept to base ingredients, a jerky back and forth - but try to imagine eating this wonderful meal on its own terms - a collection of wonderful dishes.

The restaurant names are linked to the original reviews of the meals. I’ve left the original descriptions intact.

If you have a blog, post your “perfect meal” for 2007, link to this blog, and I will link to them below:
1 - CountryEpicure has posted a great looking meal
2 - very good food has posted her favorite meals of the year
3 - Ulterior Epicure has an impressively long list of favorites.

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Every year, one restaurant captures my attention like no other. In 2004, Manresa began what has been tremendous run of meals. Ludo Lefebvre’s Bastide of 2005 awoke my palette to the wonders that might lie across the sea and, no doubt, provided inspiration for my 2006 European adventure. In 2006, it was Ideas in Food’s two stellar meals at their former Keyah Grande restaurant. For 2007?

From top to bottom, there may not be a restaurant with greater attention to detail and production values than El Poblet. The restaurant is quite modern with a huge open kitchen as you walk in. The menus nearly qualify as works of art. In the technique/ingredient matrix, you would be hard-pressed to find a restaurant that uses such high-quality ingredients for their experiments. And in the realm of dining as experience, despite the crass commercialization of the beach ghetto Denia, El Poblet (the restaurant and food) has a Shakespearian quality - poetic and magical.

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