Critiquing a critic after my culinary tour of New York at Eleven Madison Park

Posted by: Scott Tags: Eleven Madison Park, food Posted date: March 13, 2013 | 6 Comments

I’ve occasionally left a restaurant miffed with a chef. But Saturday was the first time I’d ever left a restaurant miffed at a food critic.

Back in September, Pete Wells of the New York Times reviewed the reinvented menu at Eleven Madison Park.

In front of Eleven Madison Park, currently ranked the #10 restaurant in the world.

The restaurant, which currently ranks #10 on the list of top 50 restaurants in the world, had recently assembled a tasting menu meant as a tribute to New York and its culinary history. Which meant that the servers kept up a running narrative in order to put each course in context.

Wells didn’t care for this, and wrote, in part:

While people come to Eleven Madison from all over the world, those who live in the city may have to fight back the impatience and urge to interrupt that come with the keys to every New Yorker’s first apartment. The narrative tone isn’t sharp, it isn’t quick, it isn’t wised up, and it assumes the listener knows nothing: in other words, it’s not a New York voice. By the end of the four hours, I felt as if I’d gone to a Seder hosted by Presbyterians.

Ouch!

I’d read on various food sites that Eleven Madison Park had toned down the patter in response to this critique, though no one let slip any details, so I was intrigued by what I’d hear during my lunch. Unfortunately, by the time my meal was over, what I heard, or what I didn’t hear, made me want to find Chef Daniel Humm and tell him he’d have been better off ignoring all of Pete Wells’ advice. Because the historical patter wasn’t just toned down … it had been eliminated entirely. As an ex-New Yorker, I could fill in some of the blanks. But still.

While every dish was magnificently prepared, causing me and my lunch companion to smile, or fall into silence as the flavors caressed our tongues, or eat as slowly as possible so a dish would not end, whatever narrative arc the sixteen courses would have conveyed was missing.

The servers, always professional, always smiling, always willing to answer questions, would bring each dish, describe the ingredients and their method of preparation, and then back away, at no point making reference to what was being honored or reinterpreted. Not even an introductory few sentences at the start of the meal explaining that we were about to experience the chef’s tribute to the cuisine of New York. So while the food itself could not have been better, I had no sense of a journey, and my lunch of nearly 4 1/2 hours consisted of individual dishes, rather than story.

When my companion and I departed, not being “handed a pocket-size book of historical background on the food you’ve just eaten” as Wells had been, I felt strangely disappointed, and a bit sad, as if in order to placate an influential New York Times critic, Chef Humm had decided to strip away a vital component that sewed the individual courses into something larger, leaving the dishes unmoored. And as to the part of the meal Wells describes like so—

And the meal’s final moment (I won’t be the one to spoil it) brought to life a fantasy of New York the way I’ve often wished it could be.

—I have no idea what that could possibly have been, because we experienced no such fantasy.

Am I ungrateful to have come away with the sense that even though I’d experienced one of the peak dining experiences of my life, I still walked away feeling something was missing? Perhaps. That’s truly a First World Problem if there ever was one. But I can’t ignore that at the end of the meal, instead of thinking, “wow,” I was left a desire to head for the kitchen, find Chef Humm, put am arm around him and say, “I beg you … please ignore Pete Wells and do whatever your heart tells you to.”

Check out the food below, which (I repeat and cannot stress enough) was prepared with precision, honoring the ingredients with every course. I just wish the opinions of one critic hadn’t been privileged over the vision of one of the world’s greatest chefs.

First course at Eleven Madison Park: Cheddar (Savory Black and White Cookie with Apple)

Second course at Eleven Madison Park: Oyster (Wood Sorrel, Buckwheat, and Mignonette)

Third course at Eleven Madison Park: Black Radish (Shaved with Sorrel Snow and Apple)

Fourth course at Eleven Madison Park: Sea Urchin (Custard with Scallops and Chervil)

Fifth course at Eleven Madison Park: Clam (Surf Clam with Morcilla Sausage and Celery Root)

Fifth course at Eleven Madison Park continued: Clambake with Whelk

Fifth course at Eleven Madison Park continued: Clambake with Whelk, Parker House Roll.

Fifth course at Eleven Madison Park continued: Clam (Chowder)

Sixth course at Eleven Madison Park: Foie Gras (Seared with Sunchoke, Dates, and Water Chestnut)

Extremely flakey roll at Eleven Madison Park.

Cow butter, salt, and duck fat butter at Eleven Madison Park.

Seventh course at Eleven Madison Park: Carrot (preparation)

Seventh course at Eleven Madison Park: Carrot (Tartare with Rye Bread and Condiments)

Eighth course at Eleven Madison Park: Lobster (Poached with Rutabaga, Black Pear, and Lovage)

Ninth course at Eleven Madison Park: Potato (Baked with Bonito Cream, Shallot, and Pike Roe)

Tenth at Eleven Madison Park: Duck (Roasted with Lavender Honey, Plum, and Kale. Braised with Foie Gras and Potato)

Eleventh course at Eleven Madison Park: Greensward (Pretzel, Mustard, and Grapes)

Twelfth course at Eleven Madison Park: Malt (Egg Cream with Vanilla and Seltzer) http://

Thirteenth course at Eleven Madison Park: Maple (Bourbon Barrel Aged with Milk and Shaved Ice)

Fourteenth course at Eleven Madison Park: Earl Grey (Sheep’s Milk Cheesecake, Honey, and Lemon)

Hidden beneath the fourteenth course at Eleven Madison Park, revealed via a card trick — a honey-flavored chocolate.

Fifteenth course at Eleven Madison Park: Pretzel (Chocolate Covered with Sea Salt)

Sixteenth course at Eleven Madison Park: Chocolate (Sweet Black and White Cookie with Apricot)

My favorites of the dishes above? So hard to choose!

The creamy sea urchin? The seared foie gras? The roasted duck? The maple with shaved ice milk?

Chef Humm has made picking the winning dish of the afternoon an impossibility.

And now I urge him to wipe away all opinions other than his own—including mine—and do whatever his soul bids him.

Critics be damned.

6 Comments for Critiquing a critic after my culinary tour of New York at Eleven Madison Park

Rebecca Maines

As I said on FB, you hit the nail on the head. If I hadn’t read that same review–if I’d come to the menu cold, as it were–I’m not sure at what point I would have figured out the theme. (And if I’d come to it cold before I moved to New York, I probably wouldn’t have gotten it at all. It’s like Seinfeld, which also only made sense after I moved here.)

Also in full agreement on the food itself, though there were 1-2 things I thought were a bit over-salted for my taste. (I almost never use salt, and use little when I do, so that’s a matter of my own palate probably being set on a slightly different scale than most people’s.)

I also enjoyed the company. When’s the last time we had a four-hour conversation? Never!

Scott

When did we last have a long meal? Does this ring a bell?

http://www.sff.net/people/terry_mcgarry/conimages/icon/icon9910.jpg

Bev Vincent

Have you read The Dinner by Dutch author Herman Koch? The entire book takes place (except for some flashbacks) at a long dinner such as this, where every item of food is explicated in detail.

Scott

No, I haven’t. This is the first I heard of it. But my issue with the meal wasn’t that it was long — I’ve been to other lengthy meals at Alinea, Steirereck, etc. — or that there were explanations, but that the explanations which would have bound the dishes into a meal had been eliminated.

jim wall

I hadn’t realized were Eleven Madison Park was.

You said the food was delicious – which I don’t doubt – it’s one of the few $200 plus restaurants that sounds interesting enough – but I find the irony more delicious then any food.

You are standing in front of one of the most amazing Art Deco entrances in NY of one of the most amazing Art Deco buildings – on the US Register of Historic Places -pointing to a sign done in the Art Deco style and say nothing of those amazing pieces of context – but go on and on about the fact that the waiters didn’t tell you about the history and context of the food. The most important part of the history and context of your dining experience *was* the building. That doorway could only exist in NY. The building’s architect, Harvey Wiley Corbett, and his collaborator, Hugh Ferriss, would publish the design book “The Metropolis of Tomorrow” which would inspire the design of Gotham City.

You’re right – this is a First World Problem (a term I had not heard of before reading your post). OMG!! Scott missed the fact that his uber expensive elite menu that riffed on NY foods was *in* an iconic NY building!! OMG!!

What would Louis CK say?

Scott

You’ve never heard the term First World Problem. Wow. I’m gob-smacked. Is this the first time you’ve ever been on the Internet? 😉

As for the building, yes, it’s historic, but the most important part of the dining experience? No.