If someone were to tell you there was a pub, sitting on the mouth of the Thames, with a self-taught chef, serving some of the best food in England (if not Europe), you might respond you’ve heard this song and dance before. Media empires, both large and small, have been made out of trafficking these self-proclaimed hidden gems. Foodies (yes, it’s a terrible word) use them as a social currency to trade and barter; but they often only buy disappointment. So bear with this story when I say, after one visit, The Sportsman, a pub in the middle of nowhere, might be “one of my favorite restaurants in the world.”

Carrots (from the garden)

Read the rest of this entry »

Once upon a time, before all of the fancy food blogs, I stumbled upon verygoodfood and one of Trine’s many lunches at noma. It was just a one-star Michelin restaurant then but Trine’s captivating posts made it quite clear that this restaurant was worth more. With each successive post, noma bubbled further up my “to do” list. The timing never worked but I was fortunate enough to eat Redzepi’s food at Manresa last year – an experience that only solidified the need to travel to Denmark. This year’s early Summer vacation was Copenhagen or bust and I was quite fortunate to have Trine as my host¹ for this special noma lunch.

Smoked quail egg

Read the rest of this entry »

Sawa – it is one of the most incongruous high-end dining experiences in America – located in Sunnyvale (re: nowhere) in a strip mall (re: next to Subway.) Menus and prices are not offered, merely discovered. The place settings, irony at its finest, depict the typical pieces of nigiri – none of which will be served. The fish, of the highest quality available in America, can come in such large quantities that one wonders if the ocean might just quit after the meal. The naysayers decry that Sawa strokes its customers’ unchecked egos but, masters of the universe or not, the regular patrons merely celebrate the brilliant seafood hidden beyond that neon Sawa sign.

Raw Scottish lobster, killed seconds before serving

Read the rest of this entry »

The first spring lunch at Ubuntu, two weeks before, was a revelation but this meal was fine-tuned to near-perfection.¹ It was an exploration into rarely discussed possibilities of (Napa) springtime vegetables. Forging past the Chez Panisse mold of “simple and fresh”, Chef Fox is committed to a cuisine of the vegetable – understanding, coaxing, re-inventing, and creating. Every dish delved into the essence of the ingredient(s), tugged and pulled with tastes and textures, without the tricks of meat mimicry. Ulterior Epicure described Ubuntu’s food as a “living conversation dictated by the garden“; but I might say it is a “conversation with the garden.”²

vichyssoise chasseur (before pour)

Read the rest of this entry »

Ubuntu has garnered a lot of acclaim over the past year for its different take on vegetarian fare. The food seemingly takes three tracks, presumably functions of creative desires and financial reality. One is standard, safe vegetarian fare that includes pizzas and pastas – boring ¹ – but probably necessary for the business model. A second is the re-creation of meat-like dishes using vegetables. While more interesting than the first, if for no other reason than French Laundry-like irony, that take on vegetables always seemed pointless to me. The real magic, however, can be found in evocative dishes that showcase the Napa seasons. These dishes clearly have Michel Bras etched into their DNA, the countryside on a plate.

Crisp Chickpea & Flowering ROSEMARY sphere – stuffed with romesco

I have made a habit of stopping in quarterly, though blog entries are less frequent, to check out new dishes. Last year, Julot: Ze Blog and I went and he proclaimed it one of the most exciting US restaurants he had visited on his trip. I agreed but it was not in my top tier – it had hints of greatness but often settled for casual comfort-type food. Subsequent meals saw the menu changing, creeping ever so upscale with each return visit, but still fractured between comfort and haute, stuck in a minor identity crisis.

Read the rest of this entry »