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Two Chefs Scout Out the Best in New York City

What do East Coast culinary types do on their day off? They take a train to NYC to sample some of the best the city has to offer. Alissa Jeffery is the catering chef at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts in Vienna, VA – America’s National Park for the Performing Arts. She’s quite accustomed to preparing menus for special events using exquisite food items to dazzle the palate of the philanthropists who so generously support the Wolf Trap Foundation. When she’s not working, she likes to sample the work of others. She and a fellow cook/ New England Culinary Institute student took the train up to New York just to dine at this Lower East Side restaurant. Her full review was on her MySpace page. This is an edited version that she’s agreed to share with you.

Ryan and I went to Wylie Dufresne’s restaurant, wd-50. (50 Clinton St. NYC). Yes, he has been on Iron Chef and so has his pastry chef, Alex Stupak.

It was amazing. Our server was amazing and not overbearing. He got that we were “food dorks” and were super excited to be there.

We arrived at 7:30ish pm in the area of wd-50 and debated on going in. I could tell that we were both nervous and kind of not paying attention to what time it was when we were making our way there. It was chilly outside and we were sick of walking so we went in around 7:45ish for our 8pm res. We got out of there at around 10:30pm. Our bill was over four hundred dollars. I don’t spend money on a lot of things. I’m glad I spent it on this experience. Honestly it was wonderful.

Wine, Anyone? First we debated whether to get the wine tasting as well… we didn’t. I’m glad we didn’t. I would’ve been DRUNK! We did get a bottle of Gruner Veltliner ‘Loibner’ Vinothekfullung Smaragd Emmerich Knoll 2004 Wachau, Austria ~ gruner veltliner. Rich citrus, pine needles, white pepper. Powerful.

Simply amazing. It was decanted twice, according to our server. He brought it to the table and showed it to Ryan saying, “Look at how heavy metal this label is… isn’t it awesome!?” (bonus points to that dude.) It opened up well with the dinner and we just loved it.

Start with Bread. We had some sort of “bread” delivered to the table in a blonde rectangular box. Light as air and looked like a HUGE piece of flat bread with sesame seeds. It tasted like sesame and peanut. Really cool. (I was peeved because there were no plates for this.)

First.Course
Cuttlefish, squash, chamomile, orange, toast oil. The fish was a little sashimi cut pal with the skin on. It was oily and good. (It tasted a little off to me, but whatever… I’m not well versed in cuttlefish – have only had it a few times in my life.) It was presented in a small bowl. I remember it being tasty and interesting. Not mind blowing, but good.

Second Course
Pizza pebbles, pepperoni, shiitake… FREAKIN’ CRAZY! Okay… so the pebbles were cheese and sauce flavored (think the middle of Combo’s texture). It had a decent flavor but the way it felt in my mouth took away from the flavor. But it was definitely COOL. The pepperoni was an emulsion sauce that tasted like pepperoni. Then the shiitake shrooms were chips. Delicious chips with a drizzle of olive oil and fresh oregano leaves.

Third Course.
Hamachi tartare, wakame, sake lees tahini, grapefruit-shallot… HOLY MAN …! Yellow tail tartare reshaped to look like a slice of seared sashimi. AWESOME! The Grapefruit shallot smear was delicious. The Tahini complimented it well and it was a great dish over all.

Fourth Course.
Knot foie: AMAZING. I’m a fat kid, like all chefs are and I really like foie. I know that’s terrible of me, but I like it nonetheless. The foie was about the size of a shoe string and shaped as such. It was literally a KNOT of foie. I can’t remember what went along with it but it was delicious nonetheless.

Fifth Course.
Eggs Benedict: BEST DISH. Honestly. There’s nothing better than a poached egg with an English muffin toasted, pork product and hollandaise to get your motor running. Well, if you’re me. They took the yolks of the eggs and put them in a tube in an immersion circulator. (water bath.. keeps temp) and cooked it to a soft pliable state. It was delicious. Then they took hollandaise sauce and some how made it into a cube and rolled it in toasted English muffin dust. Warmed it up some how and it kept its shape. When cut open, it oozed yummy perfect hollandaise out onto the plate. The Canadian bacon was in chip form. Some sort of black sea salt from some special place in Narnia was sprinkled on the plate as well. This was recently a featured plate in the New York Times.

Sixth Course.
French onion soup. It was delicious. The Consomme was beautiful. It did however need a little more salt and pepper in the dish. It was crazy to put the globules of gruyere cheese in your mouth. They were good. The little toasts on the side were rye crisps. mmmm. And the smear of goo was carmelized onions.

Seventh Course.
Lamb belly, black chickpea, cherried cucumber. The lamb belly is bacon… again, I repeat, the lamb belly is BACON! This was amazing. The bacon was so good I seriously had my jaw dropped the whole time i was eating this dish. Total comfort food. The little green stuffs was lemon grass (I believe). The dark puree is chick pea and the little beans are fried crispy chick peas. Such a good contrast and comforting and delicious. The cherrried cuke was delicious as well. I loved this dish. Very nice and wintery without being too overbearing.

Eighth Course. (cleanser)
Wintergreen parfait, walnut, avocado, chartreuse: Exxxcellent. It was the most perfect palate cleanser for me after the lamb belly. Totally what i wanted and needed. Delicious. There was a Wintergreen “nougatine” — a light foamy green color. It was beautiful. Avocado puree. mmm. It complimented the mint all too well. The chartreuse was a gellee — kind of looked like an after thought, but it was really good.

Ninth Course.
Toasted coconut cake, carob, smoked hazelnut, brown butter sorbet: Best Dessert. The Coconut Cake was toasted. It was in a small rectangle. It
was DELICIOUS. The Carob was sort of a ganache on the plate… the Smoked Hazelnut was actually a cashew and tasted like bacon. EEE! The brown butter sorbet was delicious. Very delicious. The couple next to us squeeled with glee as they bit into it, turned to me and said “what’d you think?… taste the cashew. AWESOME!”

Tenth Course.
Soft white chocolate, potato, malt, white beer ice cream: Chef Stupak must have a little Wisconsin in him on this one. The white chocolate was a ribbon of soft white chocolate across the plate (think shoe lace standing up on it’s side). The potato was a light airy crisp with malt powder. The white beer ice cream tasted bitter and carbonated just like Lake Front Brewery’s (Milwaukee) white beer tastes. mmmmmmmm.

Eleventh Course.
Chicory ice cream-coffee: the ice cream looked like a truffle. At this point I was so blissed out I couldn’t tell what was going on. The ice cream was somehow made into a ball, at room temp on the outside and frozen on the inside. It was delicious.

Passion Fruit Marshmallow: SOUR. I really like marshmallows and they were surprisingly good and went well with a cup of coffee.

Lastly — Coffee.

If anyone has the time or money to do this kind of thing, I seriously advise you to do so. I want to go again when they rotate over to spring/summer. (This dining experience was a month or two before spring.) Maybe even just to go and do a dessert tasting.

Ryan and I barely talked through the whole thing. Early on in the meal our server printed us a menu so we could follow along. Then, as he was handing Ryan the menu, he said that we could meet the chef and take a tour of the kitchen. Ryan went through the kitchen and met Wylie. I opted to not go in. I don’t much care for going into other people’s kitchens. Sometimes I like a little mystery and magic to things. This meal was magic. I wanted to savor every thought of it.

Links to more info about WD-50

TIPS:

1) Check wd-50 Web site. The Tasting Menu is $125. Add another $75 for a wine pairing. (Alissa and friend did not select the wine pairing, but ordered a separate wine.)
2)Other main dishes are available. $30-$35 range.
3) Appetizers. $14-$17.
4) There’s Always Lunch! Lunch runs $24-$30.
5) Just Desserts? $14. BUT, wd-50 also serves a 3-course and a 5-course dessert tasting menu for $25 and $35.

Whatever your taste, whatever your budget, wd-50 has something to offer you that you’re bound to love!

Send me a note if you’ve dined there. We’d love to hear about it!