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Tucked along the French and Belgium border, In De Wulf sits between farmland and field1 – a space that frames the restaurant’s dialectics. There are no answers but only more questions – true art. What explains the difference in philosophy between someone like Alain Passard, who with three gardens is supremely interested in the terroir of ingredients; and Rene Redzepi, who primarily plucks from the wild land for the plate?
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.
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
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.
A motley crew rambled into town, nearly driving by the restaurant in search of a bucolic pasture, despite big bold letters reading Town House on the back of a wall – “that’s not it – it’s in a field.” Collectively, to a person, we were already looking past Main Street USA for green rolling hills in the mountain mist ahead – “keep going!” It was thought to be a place where the Shieldses (John & Karen) could just step outside and pluck wild herbs for the next course. The mythology of its remoteness had clearly fogged our senses1 until The Ulterior Epicure, on a rare pause from the gas2, pulled in for a closer look. Spotting liquid nitrogen tanks, he asked “Who else in Chilhowie would use those?”
when not eating ...
putting in the work ...