MARIANI’S
April 12, 2004
NEWSLETTER
Washington,
DC, 1942
Photo by John Ferrell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EDITOR'S NOTE: This newsletter is
also available on the very
comprehensive food site www.sautewednesday.com
which has dozens of other links to food articles
from
around the world.
at johnmariani@prodigy.net
.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New York Corner: Océo
Quick Bytes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DINING IN PARIS, PART TWO by John Mariani
The Restaurant at The
Hôtel Meurice It is
certainly not unusual for a deluxe dining room in Paris to have a
brigade of twenty or more cooks in the kitchen and an equal number of
servers in the dining room, including a maître d', sommeliers,
captains,
waiters, busboys, and coat check personnel (none of whom, by
French law, may work
more than 35 hours per week), all there to cater to no more than 60 or
80 guests each evening. The capital investment in a first-rate
wine list, the purchase of the finest silverware, glassware, and
linens, the addition of a silver voiture
for carving meats, and rolling
chariots for cheeses and after-dinner drinks all add up to millions of
Euros,
with a return that these days rarely comes even close to breaking
even, despite checks that may total $250 per person.
For those reasons Paris has seen next to no new deluxe restaurant openings, except in well-established hotels, once snubbed by both gourmands and the Guide Michelin as unworthy of serious consideration. But now only such posh hotels can afford to maintain such restaurants, hiring chefs away from the top three-star, free-standing restaurants and giving them carte blanche to raise the reputation of the hotel, which makes far more money putting pampered bodies in the rooms upstairs than could possibly be made from food service. Thus, the George V now has Chef Philippe Legendre (formerly of Taillevent) in its restaurant, Le Cinq; Pierre Gagnaire, after going bankrupt in his own 3-star restaurant, is now cooking at the Hôtel Balzac; Eric Frechon is at the Bristol (reviewed here last week: http://pages.prodigy.net/johnmariani/040405/); Jean-Pierre Piège is newly at Le Crillon, and the Hôtel Meurice (228 Rue de Rivoli; 33-1-44-58-1075; www.meuricehotel.com ) has pulled a dazzling coup by reeling in Yannick Alléno, who has won two stars for the hotel's restaurant, Le Meurice, after only five months.
There is of course a grand cheese selection, followed by exquisite desserts that include a whole preserved tangerine with spiced caramel "arlettes" and thyme ice cream, as well as a gianduja dacquoise and soft ganache with passion fruit cream.
A three-course "Déjeuner en Liberté," with several choices, runs 55€ ($67); à la carte things get pretty stiff, with appetizers 39€ ($47) to 66€ ($80) and main courses 39€ ($47) to 75€ ($91). The wine list is extensive and expensive, but there are some admirable sommelier selections listed between 35€ ($43) and 49€ ($60). All prices include tax and service.
This is an Italian restaurant, if quite a French version, and the chef
has the curious name of Tjaco Van Eyken, appointed a little over a year
ago. Our meal was of very high quality, beginning with a classic,
creamy vitello tonnato with
capers and celery shavings--a dish that can be fishy and unappealingly
gray if not done with the best ingredients; in this case, both the tuna
and the
veal were of very good quality. Next came pasta with a sauce of
squid's ink,
shellfish, and arugula that was briny and richly flavorful, then
spit-roasted
breaded lamb with a nice crispiness to the outside, served with
soft, gently garlicky Sicilian eggplant. A very French chocolate torte
followed, then wonderfully buttery madeleine
cookies, marinated cherries and chocolate cookies that reminded me of
really great Mallomars,
accompanied by a glass of sweet Passito di Pantelleria. The wine list
itself
is admirably 90% Italian.
Prices for this standard of cuisine--and I'm told Italian food is all the rage right now in Paris--are not too bad in these weakened-dollar-days: Fish dishes run about $41, meats about the same, with tasting menus at 85€ ($103) and 120€ ($147), with tax and service included.
One of my
happiest--and less expensive--meals in Paris was at a wonderful new
concept restaurant headed by super chef Joël Robuchon and called,
appropriately, L'Atelier de
Joël Robuchon (Pont Royal
Hotel, 5-7 Rue Montalembert; 42-22-56-56), which also
happens to be the title of his 1997 cookbook, written by Patricia
Wells. The restaurant is basically a French lunch counter
(it opens at 11 AM and closes at 2 in the morning)--no chairs, no
tables, just a counter (above)
that wraps around an open kitchen in a shadowy, deep-hued room.
There are 45 seats, and reservations are not taken, but if you arrive
at a très américaine
hour of, say, 11 AM or 6 PM, you're likely to get a seat, because the
French cannot bear to eat before 1 PM or 8 PM.
Robuchon was, of course, regarded as one of the very greatest three-star chefs when he ran Jamin (he left it in 1996), and since then he's done consulting (and "inspiring") and turns out gourmet products and books. So for a chef of his caliber to open up a convivial, casual bar restaurant like L'Atelier signals that we may well be seeing the kinder, gentler future of French cuisine and service; indeed, this new concept was preceded in the past decade by bistros opened by renowned chefs who say they make far more money from such enterprises than they ever could in their star establishments.
L'Atelier aims for simplicity in every aspect, from its clean lines and lacquered surfaces to its gleaming kitchen and menus as straightforward as any you'd find at a roadside diner. And the fact that you can spend as little or as much as you wish here makes it easy for everyone to love. Go with several friends and order up a storm of dishes and share them all--though sitting side by side at a counter makes face-to-face rapport impossible (all the better to turn those seats!).
The first page of the menu lists 22 small portion plates, the other a dozen appetizers and 10 large plates, so you may pick and choose among dishes that cost just 7€ ($8.50), like a wonderful, light cream of lettuce soup with toasted croutons, or perhaps perfectly cooked tempura of vegetables for 9€ ($11). The highest you can go in price is 45€ ($65), for langoustines crusted with basil, unless you go for 100 grams of osietra caviar at a "boutique price" of 200€ ($245). In between there is a marvelously rich dish of ravioli with truffled langoustine filling (21€; $26), excellent scallops with a seaweed sauce (13€; $16), even spaghetti alla carbonara, enriched with butter and cream to a decadent degree (18€; $22). A torchon of foie gras (16€; $20) came too cold to the counter, and there wasn't much flavor in the thyme-scented lamb chops (34€; $42). Desserts are as good as at any of the great bistros of Paris--crème caramel with a feuillantine of toasted nuts, a delightful napoleon of angel's hair with wild strawberries, a mango jelly with passion fruit coulis and strawberry sorbet, and lovely little vanilla and chocolate pots de crème, each 9€ ($11). The wine list is extensive and international in every category with plenty of good wines by the glass offered.
Robuchon has said, "To make a grand meal, you have to make it simple. But to look simple is very complicated. You must have the highest quality products, the best equipment, and you must stay focused on the original flavor of the products. Only then can the artistry of a great chef create grand dishes." The dishes at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon may not be grand in the sense of being elegantly sumptuous, but the same tenets guide every plate in this tantalizing new enterprise. So successful has it been, in fact, that Robuchon opened a branch in Tokyo and plans are afoot for another in Las Vegas, then maybe London and New York. It is, apparently, a movable feast, though diffusion inevitably means dilution. I'm hoping, however, that the Paris original will keep the faith.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEW YORK CORNER
Océo
224 West 49th Street
212-262-6236
www.OCÉO.com
Restaurants
in NYC's
West Side Theater District usually
thrive on pre-theater crowds who gotta get in by
5:30 and gotta get out by 7:45, which does not lend itself to refined
à la carte cooking as much as it does to mass feeding. The
farther from Fifth Avenue a restaurant is, the tougher it is to draw a
serious dining crowd after 8 PM. So the positioning of the new Ocèo on West 49th
Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, as a fine dining, though
casual, spot is fraught with uncertainties, but I for one hope it
catches on with those who wish to eat at 8:05 onward and to relax and
enjoy an unhurried evening here.
The place is certainly handsome enough. The 75-seat dining room, with an 8-seat chef's table, is located at the ground level of the Time Hotel and done in tones and textures evoking fire, wind, earth and water, the last two via a stone wall fountain (left) that shimmers in spotlights. Chairs and banquettes are formed in buttery Italian leather. One wall continuously changes colors, which is fun; blaring music also changes throughout the evening, which is not. The silver is Christofle, the stemware Baccarat, and the linens by Porthault--snazzy but very comfortable in ambiance.
The owners, Jean-Philippe Leloup and Philipp Posch, were most recently at the great, now defunct, Lespinasse in the St. Régis Hotel, as was chef Shane McBride; so while all three are imbued with an educated passion for haute cuisine, the lessons learned from Lespinasse's demise were not to overdo things and not to charge a fortune. At Ocèo dinner appetizers run $14-$26, main courses $24-$36 and desserts all $11, which puts them at about the middle level of NYC's upscale restaurants these days, where an unadorned sirloin will cost you $40. The wine list is sensibly sized and well selected by sommelier Danielle Nally, with several vertical collections of labels like Ridge Montebello, Shafer, and Joseph Phelps Insignia. Mark-ups seem to be a fair 100% above retail, give or take a few dollars; on the other hand, charging $18 for a glass of Stag's Leap Viognier '01 that costs only about $23 per bottle retail, and $30 for a flute of Veuve Clicquot Le Grande Dame '95 that runs $100 per bottle in a store, seems a bit of a gouge.
Having visited Ocèo early on (it had been open about four weeks) I found the food exciting and generally well executed, though I suspect in another four weeks the kitchen will be better focused. There is no salt or pepper on the table, and some dishes could use a shake or two. But overall I liked what I saw and ate. The presentations were colorful and sophisticated, like an exceptional sashimi of ahi tuna with caramelized pink grapefruit, pickled salsify (terrific!), and the bite of fresh horseradish. So, too, McBride's ravioli of short ribs with a purée of carrots, wild mushroom sauté and beurre rouge made for an ideal beginning for a cool spring evening. Also good were gnocchi made with buttery Yukon Gold potatoes, tasty tasso ham, garlic chips and celery root, though I wanted more of the delicious but skimpily doled-out red wine glaze. I also liked the idea of lobster "shabu shabu," cooked quickly in a truffled broth with dried mango, golden pineapple, tinged with a hint of vanilla. Seared foie gras took on too many cloying sweet notes from golden raisins and a highly reduced Sherry vinaigrette, only barely cut by pickled celery
Main courses should not be as complicated or zesty as what precedes them, and I found the entrees here good without being really wonderful. Best among them was a braised lamb shoulder wrapped in the Niçoise crêpe called socca, served with an Indian raita yogurt and tomato marmalade superb melding of Mediterranean and eastern ingredients. The charms of somewhat crisp skate wing with braised mushrooms, creamy grits and asparagus purée escaped me, and grilled John Dory with white asparagus and periwinkles was oddly tame despite an accompanying black bean sauce. Juicy pork loin came wrapped with prosciutto, served with red cabbage, cauliflower purée and fondant potatoes.
Ocèo reverted to tantalizing form with dessert, including a vanilla rice pudding with mango sorbet and sesame-mango fritter, and a chocolate fondant with lavender vanilla crème anglaise. There is also a well-worthwhile cheese selection in perfect, ripe condition, and a number of good dessert wines with which to enjoy them.
I am rooting for Océo to succeed in this neck of a highly competitive woods. The sincerity and commitment of the owners and chef is palpable, and they are young and very good at what they do. I hope New Yorkers and out-of-towners alike will think of them as an alternative to the dreary, pre-cooked $29.95 pre-theater dinners all around the West Side
For those reasons Paris has seen next to no new deluxe restaurant openings, except in well-established hotels, once snubbed by both gourmands and the Guide Michelin as unworthy of serious consideration. But now only such posh hotels can afford to maintain such restaurants, hiring chefs away from the top three-star, free-standing restaurants and giving them carte blanche to raise the reputation of the hotel, which makes far more money putting pampered bodies in the rooms upstairs than could possibly be made from food service. Thus, the George V now has Chef Philippe Legendre (formerly of Taillevent) in its restaurant, Le Cinq; Pierre Gagnaire, after going bankrupt in his own 3-star restaurant, is now cooking at the Hôtel Balzac; Eric Frechon is at the Bristol (reviewed here last week: http://pages.prodigy.net/johnmariani/040405/); Jean-Pierre Piège is newly at Le Crillon, and the Hôtel Meurice (228 Rue de Rivoli; 33-1-44-58-1075; www.meuricehotel.com ) has pulled a dazzling coup by reeling in Yannick Alléno, who has won two stars for the hotel's restaurant, Le Meurice, after only five months.
Alléno, 35, 
(right) came from Les Muses in the
Hôtel Scribe, where he'd already garnered two stars and won the
Bocuse d'Or, and he's brought with him to his new kitchen 33 of his
colleagues (there are 72
people in all servicing the kitchen and dining room of Le Meurice),
many considerably younger than the restaurant's former staff, whose
sour-puss demeanor made dining here less than a spirited
evening. Buoyed by the refreshed, ornate, well-marbled,
mirrored, frescoed and gilded decor (above),
which was
inspired by the Salon de la Paix
of the Château de Versailles, the new staff is bent on pleasing
everyone rather than
putting many off. In fact, I thought management had changed the
lighting
to brighten the ambiance, but I learn this is not the case, which means
that the new brightness is due to the bonhomie of this ebullient young
staff.
Alléno's cooking has a heartiness to balance the rigors of haute cuisine with tastes not normally seen in such rarefied atmosphere. This winter there was plenty of game, beginning with a superb breast of pheasant with juniper berries, a vegetable chartreuse and foie gras, and very fine wild hare with truffled elbow pasta--both dishes of consummate simplicity requiring consummate dexterity to bring off well. Partridge, with truffled preserved white cabbage, was an impeccable rendering of a flavorful game bird.
You might start the evening with a salad of sea scallops with a lovely
walnut-flavored bavarois, or
perhaps crab claws with lustrous
herb-infused crab cream and a discreet touch of osietra caviar. I
was enchanted with Alléno's "risetto"--tiny
pasta cooked in a paella dish and served with small fry. And if
you are up for seafood, don't miss his succulent truffled
turbot
cooked in a clay crust, with celeriac cream. When he does allow
himself some fits of fancy, it doesn't always work: his blue lobster
cooked in Château Chalon wine with "macaroni mushrooms" and a
walnut-infused fish broth had at least two too many elements to
succeed, and I tasted nothing of the walnuts in the infusion. (right) came from Les Muses in the
Hôtel Scribe, where he'd already garnered two stars and won the
Bocuse d'Or, and he's brought with him to his new kitchen 33 of his
colleagues (there are 72
people in all servicing the kitchen and dining room of Le Meurice),
many considerably younger than the restaurant's former staff, whose
sour-puss demeanor made dining here less than a spirited
evening. Buoyed by the refreshed, ornate, well-marbled,
mirrored, frescoed and gilded decor (above),
which was
inspired by the Salon de la Paix
of the Château de Versailles, the new staff is bent on pleasing
everyone rather than
putting many off. In fact, I thought management had changed the
lighting
to brighten the ambiance, but I learn this is not the case, which means
that the new brightness is due to the bonhomie of this ebullient young
staff.Alléno's cooking has a heartiness to balance the rigors of haute cuisine with tastes not normally seen in such rarefied atmosphere. This winter there was plenty of game, beginning with a superb breast of pheasant with juniper berries, a vegetable chartreuse and foie gras, and very fine wild hare with truffled elbow pasta--both dishes of consummate simplicity requiring consummate dexterity to bring off well. Partridge, with truffled preserved white cabbage, was an impeccable rendering of a flavorful game bird.
There is of course a grand cheese selection, followed by exquisite desserts that include a whole preserved tangerine with spiced caramel "arlettes" and thyme ice cream, as well as a gianduja dacquoise and soft ganache with passion fruit cream.
A three-course "Déjeuner en Liberté," with several choices, runs 55€ ($67); à la carte things get pretty stiff, with appetizers 39€ ($47) to 66€ ($80) and main courses 39€ ($47) to 75€ ($91). The wine list is extensive and expensive, but there are some admirable sommelier selections listed between 35€ ($43) and 49€ ($60). All prices include tax and service.
I also had
occasion to
dine at three other hotel restaurants: the Astor (11 Rue d'Astor; 53-05-0505), whose
Le Restaurant d'Astor has a menu "inspired by Joël Robuchon"
(whatever that means, I never did find out) via chef Christopher
Dié, who makes a lusty dish of stewed beef cheeks with
caramelized onions; Le Parc (50
Avenue Raymond Poincaré; 47-27-5959), where Alain Ducasse
is a
consultant (he is also éminence
manqué at the Plaza-Athenée) for the restaurant Le
59 Poincaré, under Chefs Alain Soulard and Pascal Bardet, whose
cooking I found pleasing (cod with watercress sauce and capers,
for instance).
Utterly delightful, however, was yet
another
Ducasse consultancy, Il Cortile
in the Hôtel Castille (37
Rue Cambon; 44-58-4567), near the Place de la Concorde.
It's a very pretty room, with an even prettier al fresco piazzetta open
in
good weather (below). 
The main room is
decorated with murals inspired by
the Villa d'Este, with Florentine marble floors and an open
kitchen. Praise to the management for having a separate dining
room for non-smokers in a city where smokers have until now been
favored in restaurants. (It is interesting to note that the
reason fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld says he no longer carries his
signature fan, which he used to use to sweep away cigarette smoke,
is "because people don't smoke any more.")
The main room is
decorated with murals inspired by
the Villa d'Este, with Florentine marble floors and an open
kitchen. Praise to the management for having a separate dining
room for non-smokers in a city where smokers have until now been
favored in restaurants. (It is interesting to note that the
reason fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld says he no longer carries his
signature fan, which he used to use to sweep away cigarette smoke,
is "because people don't smoke any more.")Prices for this standard of cuisine--and I'm told Italian food is all the rage right now in Paris--are not too bad in these weakened-dollar-days: Fish dishes run about $41, meats about the same, with tasting menus at 85€ ($103) and 120€ ($147), with tax and service included.
One of my
happiest--and less expensive--meals in Paris was at a wonderful new
concept restaurant headed by super chef Joël Robuchon and called,
appropriately, L'Atelier de
Joël Robuchon (Pont Royal
Hotel, 5-7 Rue Montalembert; 42-22-56-56), which also
happens to be the title of his 1997 cookbook, written by Patricia
Wells. The restaurant is basically a French lunch counter
(it opens at 11 AM and closes at 2 in the morning)--no chairs, no
tables, just a counter (above)
that wraps around an open kitchen in a shadowy, deep-hued room.
There are 45 seats, and reservations are not taken, but if you arrive
at a très américaine
hour of, say, 11 AM or 6 PM, you're likely to get a seat, because the
French cannot bear to eat before 1 PM or 8 PM. Robuchon was, of course, regarded as one of the very greatest three-star chefs when he ran Jamin (he left it in 1996), and since then he's done consulting (and "inspiring") and turns out gourmet products and books. So for a chef of his caliber to open up a convivial, casual bar restaurant like L'Atelier signals that we may well be seeing the kinder, gentler future of French cuisine and service; indeed, this new concept was preceded in the past decade by bistros opened by renowned chefs who say they make far more money from such enterprises than they ever could in their star establishments.
L'Atelier aims for simplicity in every aspect, from its clean lines and lacquered surfaces to its gleaming kitchen and menus as straightforward as any you'd find at a roadside diner. And the fact that you can spend as little or as much as you wish here makes it easy for everyone to love. Go with several friends and order up a storm of dishes and share them all--though sitting side by side at a counter makes face-to-face rapport impossible (all the better to turn those seats!).
The first page of the menu lists 22 small portion plates, the other a dozen appetizers and 10 large plates, so you may pick and choose among dishes that cost just 7€ ($8.50), like a wonderful, light cream of lettuce soup with toasted croutons, or perhaps perfectly cooked tempura of vegetables for 9€ ($11). The highest you can go in price is 45€ ($65), for langoustines crusted with basil, unless you go for 100 grams of osietra caviar at a "boutique price" of 200€ ($245). In between there is a marvelously rich dish of ravioli with truffled langoustine filling (21€; $26), excellent scallops with a seaweed sauce (13€; $16), even spaghetti alla carbonara, enriched with butter and cream to a decadent degree (18€; $22). A torchon of foie gras (16€; $20) came too cold to the counter, and there wasn't much flavor in the thyme-scented lamb chops (34€; $42). Desserts are as good as at any of the great bistros of Paris--crème caramel with a feuillantine of toasted nuts, a delightful napoleon of angel's hair with wild strawberries, a mango jelly with passion fruit coulis and strawberry sorbet, and lovely little vanilla and chocolate pots de crème, each 9€ ($11). The wine list is extensive and international in every category with plenty of good wines by the glass offered.
Robuchon has said, "To make a grand meal, you have to make it simple. But to look simple is very complicated. You must have the highest quality products, the best equipment, and you must stay focused on the original flavor of the products. Only then can the artistry of a great chef create grand dishes." The dishes at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon may not be grand in the sense of being elegantly sumptuous, but the same tenets guide every plate in this tantalizing new enterprise. So successful has it been, in fact, that Robuchon opened a branch in Tokyo and plans are afoot for another in Las Vegas, then maybe London and New York. It is, apparently, a movable feast, though diffusion inevitably means dilution. I'm hoping, however, that the Paris original will keep the faith.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEW YORK CORNER
Océo
224 West 49th Street
212-262-6236
www.OCÉO.com
Restaurants
in NYC's
West Side Theater District usually
thrive on pre-theater crowds who gotta get in by
5:30 and gotta get out by 7:45, which does not lend itself to refined
à la carte cooking as much as it does to mass feeding. The
farther from Fifth Avenue a restaurant is, the tougher it is to draw a
serious dining crowd after 8 PM. So the positioning of the new Ocèo on West 49th
Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, as a fine dining, though
casual, spot is fraught with uncertainties, but I for one hope it
catches on with those who wish to eat at 8:05 onward and to relax and
enjoy an unhurried evening here.The place is certainly handsome enough. The 75-seat dining room, with an 8-seat chef's table, is located at the ground level of the Time Hotel and done in tones and textures evoking fire, wind, earth and water, the last two via a stone wall fountain (left) that shimmers in spotlights. Chairs and banquettes are formed in buttery Italian leather. One wall continuously changes colors, which is fun; blaring music also changes throughout the evening, which is not. The silver is Christofle, the stemware Baccarat, and the linens by Porthault--snazzy but very comfortable in ambiance.
The owners, Jean-Philippe Leloup and Philipp Posch, were most recently at the great, now defunct, Lespinasse in the St. Régis Hotel, as was chef Shane McBride; so while all three are imbued with an educated passion for haute cuisine, the lessons learned from Lespinasse's demise were not to overdo things and not to charge a fortune. At Ocèo dinner appetizers run $14-$26, main courses $24-$36 and desserts all $11, which puts them at about the middle level of NYC's upscale restaurants these days, where an unadorned sirloin will cost you $40. The wine list is sensibly sized and well selected by sommelier Danielle Nally, with several vertical collections of labels like Ridge Montebello, Shafer, and Joseph Phelps Insignia. Mark-ups seem to be a fair 100% above retail, give or take a few dollars; on the other hand, charging $18 for a glass of Stag's Leap Viognier '01 that costs only about $23 per bottle retail, and $30 for a flute of Veuve Clicquot Le Grande Dame '95 that runs $100 per bottle in a store, seems a bit of a gouge.
Having visited Ocèo early on (it had been open about four weeks) I found the food exciting and generally well executed, though I suspect in another four weeks the kitchen will be better focused. There is no salt or pepper on the table, and some dishes could use a shake or two. But overall I liked what I saw and ate. The presentations were colorful and sophisticated, like an exceptional sashimi of ahi tuna with caramelized pink grapefruit, pickled salsify (terrific!), and the bite of fresh horseradish. So, too, McBride's ravioli of short ribs with a purée of carrots, wild mushroom sauté and beurre rouge made for an ideal beginning for a cool spring evening. Also good were gnocchi made with buttery Yukon Gold potatoes, tasty tasso ham, garlic chips and celery root, though I wanted more of the delicious but skimpily doled-out red wine glaze. I also liked the idea of lobster "shabu shabu," cooked quickly in a truffled broth with dried mango, golden pineapple, tinged with a hint of vanilla. Seared foie gras took on too many cloying sweet notes from golden raisins and a highly reduced Sherry vinaigrette, only barely cut by pickled celery
Main courses should not be as complicated or zesty as what precedes them, and I found the entrees here good without being really wonderful. Best among them was a braised lamb shoulder wrapped in the Niçoise crêpe called socca, served with an Indian raita yogurt and tomato marmalade superb melding of Mediterranean and eastern ingredients. The charms of somewhat crisp skate wing with braised mushrooms, creamy grits and asparagus purée escaped me, and grilled John Dory with white asparagus and periwinkles was oddly tame despite an accompanying black bean sauce. Juicy pork loin came wrapped with prosciutto, served with red cabbage, cauliflower purée and fondant potatoes.
Ocèo reverted to tantalizing form with dessert, including a vanilla rice pudding with mango sorbet and sesame-mango fritter, and a chocolate fondant with lavender vanilla crème anglaise. There is also a well-worthwhile cheese selection in perfect, ripe condition, and a number of good dessert wines with which to enjoy them.
I am rooting for Océo to succeed in this neck of a highly competitive woods. The sincerity and commitment of the owners and chef is palpable, and they are young and very good at what they do. I hope New Yorkers and out-of-towners alike will think of them as an alternative to the dreary, pre-cooked $29.95 pre-theater dinners all around the West Side
ttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt
THEY ALSO PLAN A LINE OF
GERMAN HORSERADISH CALLED “HEINE”
complained when a major food company in England launched
a line of curry sauces called "Bundh," because in Punjabi the
word means "ass."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FOOD WRITING 101
Lesson 48: In reviewing a
restaurant driving directions should
be confined to less than 50 words.
“There are some nice surprises
about the 
the third
traffic light after you get to Key Biscayne,’ know that means the
QUICK
BYTES
*
NYC’s Peninsula Hotel restaurant, FIVES, will hold a series of
wine dinners with Chef Gordon Maybury preparing a 5-course menu paired
with
wines hand-selected by each vintner. April
28: Bernardus; $105; May 20: Super Tuscan
Wines; $125. June 24: Castello
Borghese; $95. Call 212-903-3918.
* On April 21 The 4th Annual “Taste of Beacon Hill” will be held at The Ritz-Carlton Ballroom in Boston, with restaurants Lala Rokh, Beacon Hill Bistro, Spire, Café Vanille, Starbucks Coffee, The Federalist, The Hungry I, Torch, No. 9 Park, The Paramount, 21 Amendment, Harvard Gardens, The Hampshire House, 75 Chestnut, Artu, Jer.Ne, The Ritz, Peking Tom’s, Pancifico, Osaka Express, Hill Tavern and The Upper Crust. Tix $55 in advance; $75 at door. Call 617-536-5700.
* On April 21 The 4th Annual “Taste of Beacon Hill” will be held at The Ritz-Carlton Ballroom in Boston, with restaurants Lala Rokh, Beacon Hill Bistro, Spire, Café Vanille, Starbucks Coffee, The Federalist, The Hungry I, Torch, No. 9 Park, The Paramount, 21 Amendment, Harvard Gardens, The Hampshire House, 75 Chestnut, Artu, Jer.Ne, The Ritz, Peking Tom’s, Pancifico, Osaka Express, Hill Tavern and The Upper Crust. Tix $55 in advance; $75 at door. Call 617-536-5700.
* On April 24 NYC’s Veritas
will
hold a 4-course wine
luncheon featuring
*On April 24 Manayunk Brewery
and Restaurant
Brewmaster Chris Firey will
welcome counterparts from 30 Delaware Valley/Mid-Atlantic region craft
breweries for the Sixth Annual
Manayunk Brew Extravaganza.
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MARIANI'S VIRTUAL
GOURMET NEWSLETTER is
published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John
Mariani.
Contributing Writers: Robert Mariani,
Naomi
Kooker, Kirsten Skogerson, Edward Brivio,
Mort Hochstein, Lucy Gordan. Contributing Photographers: Galina
Stepanoff-Dargery,
Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry
McLoughlin.
copyright John Mariani 2004