Oceana

[TCD]

NYT reports today that Michael Schenk has left and is being replaced by Cornelius Gallagher, who has worked at Daniel and Bouley (in which capacitiies is unstated). I believe that Schenk was the chef du cuisine under Rick Moonen and was promoted upon Moonen's departure earlier in the year to open RM.

Does anyone have a recent report regarding Oceana or know anything of Mr. Gallagher?

[Wilfrid]

Similarly, it would be good to hear if anyone's been to RM.

[Suzanne F]

Just received the current "Currents" -- "a newsletter from the Livanos Restaurant Group." It's got a bio of the new chef. There's also one, essentially the same, on the Oceana website

The newsletter also says:

Hired as chef de cuisine in July '02, Neil's remarkable talent and strive toward excellence demanded that he be promoted to executive chef without delay.  Chef Gallagher has already impressed staff and guests alike with dishes like yellowfin tuna tartare with horseradish sorbet and lobster salad in lovage dressing.  More evidence of his skills will be in place on Oceana's fall and winter menus, just in time for the holiday entertaining season.

[Hank]

Oceana has been one of our favorite seafood restaurants for many years and we were quite shocked to hear that Rick Moonen was leaving to open his own restaurant, RM, to which we have gone twice and liked it very much. But, we went back to Oceana the third week Cornelius (call him Neil) Gallagher took over the kitchen and we are going back this week for the fifth time. This is one very fine and very well trained chef who more than deserves the three stars that the NY Times gave him today. He has completely changed the menu and his style of cooking is totally different from Rick Moonen and I cannot tell you how much we love it. Aside from the restaurants mentioned in the article he has also worked at El Bulli in Roses, Spain, where he worked, IMHO, with one of the most innovative of chef's and also at the three star Michelin L'Esperance in Vezelay, France. Not bad credentials for a kid born and raised on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. We truly believe that Neil is very special and will make a name for himself in a very short period of time. My advise. Run, do not walk to get a reservation to experience his cooking. Yes, it is an expensive restaurant but more than well worth a wonderful dining experience.

[Lreda]

Hank, what did you have? I was gearing up for RM for personal reasons but wouldn't mind a different option.

[Bux]

For what it's worth, l'Esperance has had only two stars for a couple of years or so, although it may have had three stars when Gallagher was there. All of that is far less significant the the food he's serving. Care to add to what was in Grimes' review. I was impressed with Carmichael, the pastry chef, and he's remained with Oceana.

[chopjwu12]

Im glad someone posted about this because i was goign to anyway. I want to let everyone know that my good friend joe who is formerly of daniel, cafe boulud, the tasting room, and now is at oceana. He is the fish cook there and i want to congradulate him on a job well done. He is extremely happy and releived that they got three stars. This means many good things for him and the restaurant. They are also going to be in art culinares next issue so keep your eyes out for them. He told me what a strange feeling it was cooking for Mr. Grimes. But he felt he did his job to the best of jis ability and obviously he did. Again i want to congradulate him and the rest of the staff of oceana on a job well done. He met cornelius at daniel and the chef called him over for his help at his new adventure. They have a solid staff and i imagione great things are soon to come.

[Fat Guy]

Chop, isn't every cook at Oceana the fish cook?

[Rail Paul]

He told me what a strange feeling it was cooking for Mr. Grimes. But he felt he did his job to the best of jis ability and obviously he did. Again i want to congradulate him and the rest of the staff of oceana on a job well done. He met cornelius at daniel and the chef called him over for his help at his new adventure. They have a solid staff and i imagione great things are soon to come.

He knew he was cooking for Grimes? Talk about being under the gun...

[chopjwu12]

LoL ok you got me on that one!!

But this is how the kitchen i sset up. There is a garde manger cook and then a hot apps guy. But when it comes to entrees its like this. You have a entremed(sp) who cooks all the vegetables and sides for the entrees. Then there is the leader of the line who cooks all the protiens. Its a french style kitchen. So basically if the place does 200 people the entremed and the protien guy cook for all 200. What they do that i never did was when the veg and fish are done they hand their pans to the chef across the line. So the chef and i think the chef de cuisine plate up all the dishes. I thought that was kind of wierd but it works and makes it alot easier on the cooks.

[Bux]

He knew he was cooking for Grimes?  Talk about being under the gun...

I wouldn't hazard a guess as to percentages, but I'd bet that most of the time Grimes enters a restaurant of this sophistication--in terms of management, front and kitchen staff--they know he's in the house.

[Bux]

I want to let everyone know that my good friend joe who is formerly of daniel, cafe boulud, the tasting room, and now is at oceana. ...  He met cornelius at daniel and the chef called him over for his help at his new adventure. They have a solid staff and i imagione great things are soon to come.

I don't know when they were at Daniel together, but David Carmichael worked there when Payard was pastry chef. Carmichael was at Lutece sometime between Daniel and Oceana. I believe he was pastry chef when it reopened. I haven't been to Oceana in a long time, but I though he was really hitting his stride when we were there.

[Mrs. B]

We ate at Oceana last night and had a special tasting menu (they knew it was our 40th anniversary). I think we had almost every item in the menu because we each had different dishes. If you go to Oceana's web site you will see photos of some of the dishes we had. I won't go into details of everything we ate, but I will give you a peek. I was certainly wowed with the Rollettes of Diver Sea Scallops specially the chopped up little vegetables around it which exploded in different parts of your mouth with wonderful flavors. One of my very favorites was the Tartare of Yellowfin Tuna. A cylinder made out of Daikon radishes contained the small cubes of tuna. In between the tuna pieces there were little flavor surprises of cubes of balsamic gelee. On top there were bits of horseradish sorbet which melted in your mouth in a creamy spicyness. The Spanish Mackerel with pickled peppers was not far behind. A lightly smoked square of the fish with its shiny dotted skin was topped by the tiniest zucchini blossom I have ever seen. He must have used a microscrope to stuff it with caviar The Ivory Turban of Pasta "Robuchon" was a cooking feat in itself. The spaghetti was cooked, and formed around the chicken mousseline in a ring! And David Carmichael, whose pastry we've loved in the past, outdid himself with a quad of chocolate desserts. We'll be back, again and again.

[johnnyblaze]

Has anyone gone to Oceana lately?

Whats it like?

[edit: There was a post just about two hours before yours about a meal last night. It should have been fairly high on the recent posts list. I've taken the liberty of merging this thread with the ongoing one that has the post about last night. --Bux]

Edited July 4, 2003 by Bux (log)

[pirate]

Yes, I lunched there on Thursday, the 26th of June. $45 for three courses. Drinks tax and service added $37 to that. Started with excellent sashimi of kampachi. Then the chef sent out a dish of potato gnocchi with a creamy basil (?) sauce as an extra. It was delicious.The main dish was swordfish which was the daily special. This was a letdown. The fish was too mushy to be really fresh. Dessert was a pistachio semifreddo with chocolate. I liked the "micro" strawberry shortcakes that came with coffee better. Service high grade and friendly. It was a hot day and I wore an open shirt and light cotton twill pants. I was seated at an excellent table.

[Bux]

The three course menu at dinner is $68. If the lunch menu is the same, it's a bargain. Thursday night, Independence Eve, dress wasn't much more formal. As we were celebrating and the weather took a turn for the cooler, I wore a tie and was one of three diners with ties. The dress code is "business casual - jackets requested." Most men weren't wearing them at dinner. The food in NYC keeps getting better and the dress more casual, especially in summer. That's just an observation and it's only the first part that I care much about.

The operative word for our meal, and for just about every dish, was impressive. We didn't get to have the swordfish, which I am not sure was on the menu, and counter to what was said, we didn't get to taste every dish on the menu because we didn't get chicken -- except for the mousseline. Reverse engineering that dish -- of course the mold was lined with cooked spaghetti and the mousseline piped into the mold. Still it's a neat looking package as it is coated with sauce and the pasta is not immediately evident. Cutting into the ring and seeing the strands of spaghetti, I was reminded of a comment I posted about eating spaghetti with a knife and fork. That was a very mildly flavored dish and quite classical. In most ways it was unlike the fish dishes, unrepresentative of Gallagher's cooking but an excellent foil in our menu.

Most Gallagher's cooking is tied to classic cuisine only by the deftness of technique and attention to detail. As Mrs. B. intimated in her post by commenting on flavor surprises, sauces and garnishes -- which to a large degree are indistinguishable from each other -- are composed of bits and pieces that vary from bite to bite and which continue to tease your palate in a contemporary style different from the one that used triple strained homogeneous sauces. I don't mean to imply it's a better way to cook, only that certain changes and innovations are exciting.

We've had David Carmichael's desserts before at Lutece and Oceana. He has a deft hand with fruit desserts as well as a range of chocolate, nut and carmel.Our appetite was flagging by the last savory course and neither of us quite finished all four desserts set in front of each of us, but I can vouch for the quality of six of the eight. I never got to taste two of them as Mrs. B. didn't slack off until the third one.

It would be inaccurate to say Neal threw everything in the kitchen at us, not because we didn't get to taste his range, but because the food is very deftly delivered to the table. I thought the service was terrific. It seemed to combine the best of classic formal service without being stodgy. I suppose as it was evident we were being treated as friends by the kitchen, we would have seen both the best of the service staff as well as seeing them relaxed.

[robert40]

The New.York.Post gave Oceana four stars today,the first such rating sense 1999.

RR

[bloviatrix]

Here's a link to the review.

They also have a feature on Gallagher.

He started cooking at 12, when his mother was hospitalized and he leafed through "Joy of Cooking" to prepare meals for himself and his younger brothers and sisters.

[Bond Girl]

My one time of dining there left me very very impressed with Oceana. I'm glad it earned three stars.

[robert40]

Bond Girl,

Was your one time there after Chef Gallagher took over?

RR

[tommy]

i'm confused and don't have the paper. was it 4, or 3 stars. a big difference. 4 would be very impressive indeed.

[robyn]

For what it's worth, l'Esperance has had only two stars for a couple of years or so, although it may have had three stars when Gallagher was there. All of that is far less significant the the food he's serving. Care to add to what was in Grimes' review. I was impressed with Carmichael, the pastry chef, and he's remained with Oceana.

I made reservations at l'Esperance when it had 2 stars. It had 3 stars by the time I ate there. It was an excellent eating place in my opinion - but I don't think it was up to Michelin 3 star standards in terms of other things (like "worldliness" - for lack of a better word - for example - basically no one there spoke English - any English - or decorating). Still - it was really excellent food - and that's what counts in my opinion (although Michelin demands more when it comes to handing out that third star). Robyn

[robert40]

Tommy,

Four stars!!

Click the above link.

I am not a fan of the Post but I have to admit I was impressed.

[tommy]

Tommy,

Four stars!!

Click the above link.

I am not a fan of the Post but I have to admit I was impressed.

ah. for some reason i thought it was the times. not that this isn't wonderful for Oceana, but it makes a little more sense to me.

[Lreda]

I read the review in the Post as I was closing tonight and thinking with a 4 star review that I would have problems getting a reservation. I called, thinking a 30 day policy might be possible and was astonished to get a 7:30 reservation on 12/18.

Anything I should know beforehand?

Birthday dinner after all and would prefer a tasting menu.

Edited November 20, 2003 by Lreda (log)