This year’s New York Taste 2011 took place at Skylight SoHo, it’s presented by sponsor HSBC Premier (with additional sponsorship from Bordeaux Wines, Cadillac, and Spring44 spirits). 45 NYC-based restaurants and the International Culinary Center (they featured frozen cocktails) cooked and fed the hungry and attendees to this fun Monday night event. Lots of powerhouse chefs like George Mendes of Aldea, Marcus Samuelsson of Red Rooster, Seamus Mullen of Tertulia, Michael Psilakis of Kefi, and Paul Liebrandt of Corton graced their presence to talk and fed us.
Here’s my top five picks of the evening:
Corton’s Red Kuri Pumpkin Velouté with Salt Cod Chantilly
I like the comforting, seasonal flavors of Red Kuri Pumpkin Velouté with Salt Cod Chantilly from Paul Liebrandt’s restaurant Corton. The chantilly lightened up the entire soup and gave it a little kick of salt from the sweet, velvety pumpkin soup.
Brushstroke’s team with Executive Chef Isao Yamada and the Steamed Chawanmushi
Brushstroke‘s steamed chawanmushi with black truffle sauce was awesome. The robust black truffle flavor worked so well with the silky egg custard.
Bar Basque: Sepia Carbonara with Quail Egg and Jamon Crisp
Bar Basque keeps pushing the envelope at food events by cooking their dishes practically à la minute (cooked to order). This time, Chef Yuhi Fujinaga and his team served Sepia Carbonara with Quail Egg and Jamon Crisp. So much work went into each serving but it’s pretty damn tasty. The sepia “noodles” were springy and chewy and the poached quail egg provided the sauce like a traditional carbonara does.
Greenmarket Melonball from the Pegu Club
Pegu Club mixed two cocktails: Greenmarket Melonball (seen above) and Bay Leaf Martini (photo). Of the two, I adored the melonball. Balanced and not as potent and intense as the martini. I drank that entire cocktail under a minute, so that says something.
Payard’s ‘Tour du Monde’ macarons and my plate of macarons
François Payard did a ‘Tour du Monde’ (world tour) of macarons. Since I have the odd obsession of macarons, I practically ate a dozen or so macarons. The best of the ten flavors he served (chestnut, passion fruit, chocolate with cacao nib, cassis, gingerbread, salted caramel, pistachio, Oreo, peanut butter and jelly, coffee) were coffee, cassis, and salted caramel for flavor. Others were good but it didn’t tickle my fancy as much.
For more photos of this event, please click through the slideshow below (or look through my Flickr set, if Flash is not available on your browser):
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