Archive
NYC: wd~50 (Apr. 2013): 10th Anniversary Dinner!
Authors: Victor and Monte
Restaurant: wd~50
Exec Chef: Wylie Dufresne
Sous Chef: Sam Henderson
Pastry Chef: Malcolm Livingston II
Website: http://wd-50.com/
Date: April 9, 2013
Dinner: 10th Anniversary!
Victor’s Notes:
While in New Orleans, Monty and I learned that wd~50 was having its tenth anniversary. We made reservations ASAP once they were available, and before we knew it we had a reservation and a wonderful meal planned for today!
For wd~50’s tenth anniversary dinner, Chef Dufresne invited back a lot of wd~50 alumni to have a collaborative dinner, including (but not limited to) big names like Alex Stupak, Christina Tosi, and Mario Carbone. A lot of the chefs featured are doing some pretty amazing things right now. Stupak is running Empellón Cocina and Empellón Taqueria, Tosi is doing her Momofuku Milk Bar stuff, Jon Bignelli is running Alder, Carbone is one of the head chefs of Torrisi Italian Specialties and Carbone, and so on.
Each course was made by a chef or two, so this meal was very much like a meeting of the minds. (I was especially excited to see what kind of desserts Chefs Stupak and Tosi would come up with!)
The menu illustrates just how much work and thought went into this anniversary dinner, and all of the participating chefs even signed the back of every menu! (The signatures were slightly different for each menu, too; Monty and I checked hahaha.)
The meal was AMAZING, and I am really, really grateful to have had the opportunity to eat such playful and delicious food. This was definitely an experience that I’ll never forget. Everyone was happy and celebrating, the environment was exciting, and Chef Dufresne even gave a heartfelt speech at the end.
Monte’s Notes:
This was truly more than just a meal, and the celebratory atmosphere really made it an EVENT, and a fantastic event at that. It seemed like Victor and I, as just enthusiastic diners, were a minority in the room in the sense that it seemed almost everyone in the room had some connection to the restaurant industry. Drinks were flowing, the food was mind-blowing, laughter filled the dining room, and congratulatory handshakes and hugs were freely exchanged with the kitchen staff. Chef Dufresne really knows how to throw a great party.
NYC: Eleven Madison Park (Mar. 2013)
Author: Victor
Restaurant: Eleven Madison Park
Exec Chef: Daniel Humm
Website: http://elevenmadisonpark.com/
Date: March 24, 2013
Dinner
Notes:
I haven’t eaten here for a few months, and I have wanted to come back for a while now. The menu still has some staples, such as the black-and-white cookies or the carrot tartare course, but there are a bunch of new courses, such as the lobster course or the WONDERFUL maple dessert!
Once again, my pictures are terrible—that’s what I get for using an iPhone to take pictures of food when there’s terrible lighting haha :(. I hope that I’ll be lucky enough to go for lunch in the future so that I can get better pics for you guys!
SF: Hachi Ju Hachi (in Saratoga, CA) (Feb. 2013)
I love Hachi Ju Hachi. There are a couple restaurants that make me feel instantly at home the moment I step into the dining room, and Hachi Ju Hachi is one of them. It’s not just the clean and neat decor, or the increasingly numerous handwritten notes on the walls of the restaurant from former customers (if you order the kaiseki, you literally get to leave your mark on the restaurant – my sister somehow wrote on the ceiling).
What makes Hachi Ju Hachi wonderful is the food and the chef. It’s like stepping in my grandma’s kitchen, if my grandma cooked badass Japanese home-style cooking and had a wonderful sense of humor that made me feel at ease. Chef Suzuki-San is always in the kitchen with a bright smile plastered onto his face and has a fantastic sense of humor that just makes you feel like you’re part of the family. And he serves fantastic food that reveals an underlying intensity about food that hides well behind his friendly grin.
This isn’t an izakaya or a sushi bar (although there is hakozushi (boxed style sushi)). It’s much closer to kaiseki a la carte, with actual kaiseki options available if you call ahead. On my most recent trip I didn’t try the Kaiseki, but we did order a ton of the dishes and a lot of them kept me floating on a blissful cloud 9 made of great flavors. Let’s get to the food:
Eggplant deep fried with grated mountain yam and seaweed
Oops my chopsticks got to this dish before the camera did. I don’t know how that happened. The eggplant was slightly sweet and salty, and I loved the milky texture of the grated mountain yam.
Monte
Victor
tadv3
Happy Noms 