We had an amazing dinner at Blue Hill (at Stone Barns) last night. The overall trip took about 9 hours, of which an hour and a half was waiting (which was great because we got to walk around the beautiful grounds and see the animals) and too much time was spent waiting for trains (there was a cab calling snafu that led to an hour long wait for the 12:12am train back).
Anyway, the food and experience were so good that we can’t wait to do it again. Dan Barber and his co-chefs have really taken the Chez Panisse model and pushed it to a higher plane. The food was supremely fresh, flavorful, light and satisfying.
We had the 5 course menu and I had two excellent wines to go with it (I will write more about this separately). Our dishes were:
1) Blue Hill V-8 : the only doinker of the night
2) Sesame and pancetta-wrapped fried eggplant : excellent, as anything wrapped in pancetta should be
3) Farm tomato crudite : good but no different than what we can get at the GAP greenmarket
4) Heirloom tomatoes, tomato sorbet, stone fruit, burrata cheese, summer herbs : fabulous dish and miles above other heirloom tomato dishes I’ve had
5) Striped bass in a dairy-free corn and clam chowder: A great dish with perfectly cooked fish, and a corn/clam chowder that was elevated by the use of tarragon.
6) Panko-coated egg on a summer bean ragout: I don’t even like eggs and I loved this. Delicious beans.
7) Seared Beef with a zucchini and okra succotash: Great beef and the best okra I’ve had in the US (my mom’s okra is better but that’s a different story).
8) 2 Desserts - Chocolate Brioche with gooseberries and ginger ice cream & Yogurt Mousse with blueberries and corn ice cream: A good end to the meal but no big culinary fireworks here.
