Gilt

[tan319]

It may be NIN but that's a whole 'nother story.

I was pointing towards the food pix.

[reachej]

It may be NIN but that's a whole 'nother story.

I was pointing towards the food pix.

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Seems appropriate to comment on the website though...Let the guy start "'nother story."

[noambenami]

The new stuff looks good, but those slaughter images have got to go. They're fetishism at it's worst and reeking of a mid-nineties NIN asthetic that was more than silly then.

Ha! Well said. (I've always found NIN to be an eminently silly band.)

[tan319]

Seems appropriate to comment on the website though...Let the guy start "'nother story."

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[dan.]

Um, the guy has a bunch of food pics. Interspersed with those are some glamour shots with a dead pig. Excuse me if I find them ridiculous and because of their placement, a bit detracting of the guys overall aesthetic. The Nine Inch Nails line was only a reference for his visuals. I didn’t say whether or not he liked the band and I’m not sure how you took that from what I wrote.

I am interested in what he’s doing culinary and have been reading the thread from it’s start. I was directed towards the photo gallery and it’s not my fault that he’d draped his food shots with pig blood.

Edited March 8, 2006 by dan. (log)

[tan319]

Well, you know, you're right.

But chefs do get bloody hacking up pigs for different cuts and butchering fish so why not stick your hand thru it's neck out of it's mouth and glamourize it?

[milla]

perhaps out of respect for the product and the animal?

[robert40]

perhaps out of respect for the product and the animal?

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So true! Lesson number one without a doubt.

Oh, but let me guess. He is making some type of artistic statement.

Lesson number two in the "hospitality" business... Those artistic statements can very well come back and bite you in the ass.

[tan319]

This thread was better buried and dead 3 pages back while everyone got wound up about the 'round one.

Sorry to all, especially GILT.

[Sneakeater]

Yeah. God forbid there should be any critical commentary about restaurants on eGullet.

[Judith Gebhart]

Gilt is the new restaurant Marechal, a staff member of Mugaritz asked us to seek out when in NY. We have yet to visit this Mugaritz influenced chef. We are eager to hear what New Yorkers have to say about this recently reviewed February 8, 2006 eatery. Is the Spanish influence evidenced in the food? We are ardent Mugaritz supporters and frequently visit NY. Is Gilt a new, desirable destination for us to recommend to Chicago chefs and diners? We would appreciate any feedback for today. We will visit Gilt but not until later in 2006! Judith Gebhart

[Vadouvan]

Sure you should go to Gilt.

its very good and avante garde.

Food is more Gagnaire than it is Aduriz.

A few of the staff have apprenticed at Mugaritz.

I actually plan on eating at Mugaritz in August.

Would definitely rather eat at Gilt than anywhere in NY for a high end meal.

More interesting exciting food.

[Sneakeater]

This is REALLY embarassing.

I was excited about eating at Gilt last night. And I was looking forward to posting a detailed report about it.

But my dining companion was 45 minutes late. So I sat at the bar and waited for her. They have a very good cocktail there called a Quince Rose. It's made from Hendricks gin, quince nectar, and lemon juice, topped with champagne rose. It's very drinkable. Too drinkable, as it turned out.

So my memories of this meal are muddled. Moreover, since nothing I ate remotely resembled any dish I've had before, it's not like I can just recall I had a squab ballotin or some such. So this report is not going to be very detail-oriented.

There's no question that Gilt is a very good restaurant. Is it one of the four or five best in New York? No, I don' t think so. Is it worth going to? Absolutely. If you're interested in cuisine and its development, I don't see how you can miss it.

The only thing I can compare Gilt to is WD-50 (I really didn't think it was much like Arzak). Interestingly, I think I prefer the food at WD-50. Gilt is obviously more lux, with expensive ingredients and lots of them. But (this is going to sound patronizing to Wylie DuFresne, but I don't mean it to) the cooking at WD-50 has sort of this home-spun mad scientist aspect that's very appealing. Whereas Gilt is more like fairly weird ultra-haute food.

Also, this wasn't the case when WD-50 first opened, but at this point I think Wylie hits more frequently (and misses less frequently) then Paul Liebrandt does. I didn't have any dishes at Gilt that I thought were failures, but there were some things that seemed more like good tries than total successes.

As has been noted by others, each dish at Gilt is really a bunch of dishes: you get all these accompanying plates containing side-dishes that are as complicated as the main dish. I wouldn't say that I thought anything was too complicated as much as I'd say that in some dishes it didn't seem like all the elaboration really added much. Of course, other things were both delicious and unlike anything else I've ever had.

We had the three-course dinner, which cost $92 apiece. I don't remember there having been a lot of supplements. The wine list remains ridiculously overpriced. I seem to recall some people having had problems with the service when Gilt first opened, but last night, at least, it was excellent.

See, this sounds like a lot of niggling. And maybe some people will read this as saying that I think it's stupid to go to Gilt when WD-50 is so much cheaper. But I don't think that at all: the two restuarants are comparable, not interchangeable. Liebrandt's cooking doesn't really resemble DuFresne's except insofar as they're both off-beat. The food that is served at Gilt is stuff you can't get anywhere else. Not all of it is great, but all of it is unique (you literally don't know what you're going to taste next). And that's so interesting (this will show you how how inexperienced I am) when such food is at this high level of luxury.

Edited March 17, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)

[Sneakeater]

Having said all that, my visit to Gilt confirmed my pre-supposition that it's a mistake for Liebrandt to operate in a very expensive Midtown hotel. You could have an equally expensive restaurant in Tribeca, but I think that there you'd attract more of the kind of crowd who are open to this much experimentation. If Gilt fails, I think it's going to be because it's not placed to attract an appropriate clientele.

Edited March 17, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)

[rich]

The wine list remains ridiculously overpriced. 

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Did you have wine or was it so overpriced that you opted to pass?

I know you were snookered but do you remember an example of wine rape?

[Sneakeater]

The wine list remains ridiculously overpriced. 

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Did you have wine or was it so overpriced that you opted to pass?

I know you were snookered but do you remember an example of wine rape?

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OF COURSE I had wine.

As I recall through the hazy cocktail mist, it was about $145 for a Marcel Deiss Alsatian riesling.

Edited March 17, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)

[rich]

The wine list remains ridiculously overpriced. 

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Did you have wine or was it so overpriced that you opted to pass?

I know you were snookered but do you remember an example of wine rape?

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OF COURSE I had wine.

As I recall through the hazy cocktail mist, it was about $145 for a Marcel Deiss Alsatian riesling.

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Nice wine, but at about a 650% markup, the wine should have cleared the table and drove you home.

[Sneakeater]

Then I probably would have had to pay $30 to park it.

[Sneakeater]

650% markup

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Really, when faced with that (and it's like that across the board), all you can do is throw up your hands, bite your lip, and order something you like.

[gaf]

Macroscopic Cuisine New York City Entry #79 Gilt

Artistic movements pass through several stages. First, one finds brave experimenters, those who stretch the envelope to its limits, hoping that it will break asunder. But for movements to develop and to enlarge, practitioners must be more than bad boys. They must incorporate what is best of the new with what is best from the tradition. Novelty must become establishment. Over the past half-dozen years, at El Bulli, at Alinea, at Moto, at WD-50, each in their own way, the experimentalists have been developing what has variously been called microscopic cuisine, sci-fi cuisine, technocuisine or cuisine agape. With the opening of Gilt, Paul Liebrandt's new restaurant at the New York Palace Hotel, experimental cuisine is showing signs of coming of age.

While I am not equally passionate about all of Chef Liebrandt's dishes, he has created a menu that merges technocuisine with classical tradition, revealing a chef in command of his faculties. The prix fixe menu is divided into two sides, "Classical" and "Modern," but it is in the Tasting Menu, "Le Menu," where the chef attempts to combine techniques. And it is not the food alone in which classical and modern interpenetrate, but in the space itself. The wood paneled room in the Villard Mansion is set off with red back-lighting, suggesting an otherworldly charm, a traditional setting that is cracked through the fire of illumination. I was impressed by the bravado of the synthesis, although the dining room, barely half-filled throughout the weekday evening, causes me to wonder whether this fusion appeals either to uptown or downtown.

Gilt has been open several months now, so it was startling how little the staff seemed to know about the menu. On several occasions servers corrected themselves, and at least once claimed ingredients that could hardly have been in the dish I tasted. Not only were we not offered coffee, we were stiffed our complimentary macaroons. The staff was perfectly friendly, but there seemed a disconnect between the kitchen and the front of the house, confusion that could not be justified by a dinner rush.

Gilt has taken to heart the heat over their infamous supplemental charges and the absence of modestly priced wines. Now only two dishes have supplemental charges, and several wines were priced in the mid-two-figures. Customers have spoken. Whether the damage is too great to repair, given the image of a restaurant too greedy for its own good, remains to be seen.

My companion and I selected Le Menu, a eight course sequence that, in the end, amounted to a dozen courses. I have mixed feelings about Tasting Menus. When I dine with my wife and she can be hectored to share, I typically avoid the abundance of mini-plates. All too often - and certainly at Gilt - the small size of the plates works against an appreciation of the chef's skills. Every little thing is piled together: one can not appreciate a dish in a bite. Understanding a chef's work is a deliberative process. It is not only the cuisine that is microscopic, but with the dominance of the tasting menu, the plates are as well. On a second visit, I hope to watch Chef Liebrandt create on a larger canvas.

What should one term the dish that precedes the amuse, an amusette? We began with two of them, a pair of odd constructions. Strangest was a little marshmallow, flavored by passion fruit and dusted with powered saffron and paprika. This petite pink cube was a alien mix of fruity and musty. Consuming it was a novel experience, and one that I still taste, but not one that provokes a hankering for a second. Paired with it was a tiny financier flavored with arugula and Stilton. I am not a fan of these often dry cakes, and the mix of green leaf and blue cheese didn't convert me. As a bite, it was passable, but not a creation that demanded a larger slice.

Our amuse set things right. The oyster vicchyssoise was delicious, presented with, if memory serves, a Parmesan tortellini, butternut squash puree and lardon. This combination was a treat that made me regret that it was only an amuse. The oyster soup managed to be both airy and intensely spicy with a slight citrus aftertaste, never heavy handed. It was superb.

Our first course, "Fluke with Salad of Porcini and Yuzu, Salad Burnet and Olive Oil Pebbles," revealed Chef Liebrandt's restrained play with molecular cuisine. The structure of the dish was sashimi-plus-salad. The citrus yuzu added a culinary twist. However, it was the olive oil pebbles, little beads of olive oil ice cream which slowly melted as the appetizer was consumed that was a cheery surprise. These dippin' dots seem the rage at establishments such as Chicago's Moto, often overused as the center of a dish, a statement of a young chef who feels he can do as he pleases. Liebrandt's is more restrained and more respectful of the structure of the dish. It was a masterful touch.

Our second dish borrowed from the vaults of WD-50. We were served Foie Gras with "Vinette" Jelly and Black Olive in Textures. The olive was what the downtown monde might call "olive soil" and "Vinette Jelly" was described as being from huckleberries, although traditionally the glaze is made from barberries. Although not busy, the flavors, herbaceous and fruity, created one of the more appealing foie gras dishes I have tasted this year. The olive soil did not seem like the conceit that it would have been elsewhere, but more a flavor enhancer, a reconsideration of salt and pepper.

The third course played with the idea of foam. Chef Liebrandt served Lobster with Smoked Haddock Foam, Almond Croquant, and what was labeled "Jus Vert" (presumably verjus, liquid from unripe fruits such as grapes). Oddly the servers suggested that the Jus Vert were the bits of asparagus and snow peas hiding under the lobster. With fresh lobster, complications tend to overwhelm the simple crustacean's flavor. I would have been pleased without the haddock foam. Granted this was the only foam of the night, and young chefs need to be given their due, but lobster deserves a classical treatment.

John Dory with Black Truffles, Green Mango ‘Gnocchi,' Cauliflower, and Periwinkles is a clever treatment of seafood. I was amused by the tiny ‘winkles winking as they surrounded the Dory, and found the green mango wittily constructed as a jellied square with a taste slightly reminiscent of wasabi. However, such a wee dish was undercut by the multiple tastes presented. Of all Liebrandt's dishes, this was the one that might have worked best if larger, when the several tastes could be appreciated on their own.

Prior to our poultry course, we were served a lovely sorbet, green apple and lemon verbena with extra-virgin olive oil, perched on an oyster shell. The touch of olive oil provided a depth of taste to the refreshing, straightforward sherbert.

Our main course was Poularde with Spring Garlic Purée and Artichoke Laqué (we were informed that the artichoke was pureed, rather than lacquered). The star of this dish was an elegant leaf of Chinese broccoli, a crisp and slightly sweet leaf that dominated the plate. Without this construction, I found the dish pleasant but lacking in memories. The chicken leg was cooked properly and the garlic and artichoke matched nicely, but, leaf aside, there was nothing startling.

Perhaps the most experimental course was the trio of cheeses: Goat Cheese with Hazelnut Financier, Gruyere with a White Chocolate Wafer, and Stilton with Muscat Grapes and Cocoa Nibs (chopped cacao beans, separated from their husks). These small bites of cheese were presented microscopic style and were suitably crazed in their taste combinations. As short tastes, they effectively deconstructed a classical cheese course.

Next was a dessert of pure elegance: Lemongrass-champagne sorbet on white chocolate pudding with a bit of gold leaf on top - a fantasia of white and white. Such a clarifying dessert was most welcome.

I was less taken with the clementine gelée with toasted almond sabayon and lychee sorbet. The clementines that should have been the acidic center of the dish seemed wan and soggy. I'd was tempted to imagined them canned, but the almond sabayon was nicely constructed and the lychee sorbet pungent.

The final dessert was a degustation of chocolate, which my companion enjoyed. Avoiding caffeine, I was served a puzzling dessert, a lovely architectural conceit, but seemingly not as described. According to our server, I received a licorice charlotte (slabs of pineapple replaced the more traditional lady fingers) with rhubarb sorbet. Although the plate had a post-modern drizzle of deep black licorice syrup, I was perplexed by a pudding that had little licorice flavor, but tasted of cream and by a sorbet that seemed more yuzu than rhubarb. Perhaps by this point at night my tastes had dulled, but it was a singularly tame licorice. The dish was beautiful and nicely modulated, but a potent licorice charlotte would have been stirring.

By the end of the meal, I discerned a weening desire to return. Although I admire Chef Liebrandt's vision, a tasting menu is not the best way to experience his skill. The dishes that were the most successful were those not jammed and cluttered. What was so impressive about Liebrandt's cuisine is that he doesn't experiment constantly, but realizes that a twist is sufficient to amaze. These twists are most startling in dishes where a diner was not faced with a new ingredient in each bite. Liebrandt is a chef whose creations deserve to be taken seriously and slowly: culinary foreplay before the climax.

Gilt

455 Madison Avenue (at 50th Street)

Manhattan (Midtown)

212-891-8100

My Webpage: Vealcheeks

[Pan]

Interesting report as usual, and I enjoyed the photos!

What do you mean by a "weening desire to return"? Waning? [Edited to add that I don't mean to nitpick, only to understand.]

Edited March 25, 2006 by Pan (log)

[gaf]

I may have been out of control when I wrote that. But weening is a real word, if archaic, referring to thinking or believing. It has such a nice ring.

Weaning is another matter.

[ASM NY]

Great post gaf, interesting that the servers made mistakes in describing the dishes, which also happened to me when we went. They were a couple of minor mistakes, no big deal. I wonder if it's a consequence of the tasting menu changing so often and the dishes being so elaborate.

[ckkgourmet]

I wanted to report that I had a very good meal at Gilt last night. I cannot say that every dish, or part thereof, was equally good, but I was generally impressed by both the quality of invention and preparation.

You will have to forgive me here if I am a bit vague about what I ate. I didn't bring a notebook or a camera--and the number of ingredients per square inch, as Bruni noted, was tremendous. Unlike Bruni, I did not find the number of ingredients to be a weakness. Perhaps the kitchen has developed since Bruni’s review.

While we ordered from both the Classic and Modern 3-course menus, there were a number of additions that make describing the whole experience accurately difficult. From what I remember (the waiter’s descriptions were unreliable), my companion and I began with the stilton financier amuse paired with cardamon marshmellow. I thought these were quite good, provocative combinations. A subsequent amuse "group" included a piece of sardine on a bed of white bean ragout with herbs. It was paired with another small amuse consisting of sweet pea and beer foam, I think. Then, I had my official appetizer of foie gras terrine. It came with truffle butter (decadent) and a very nice brioche. The foie gras was also accompanied by a Thai basil sabayon—the quail in this was very well prepared. My companion had an artichoke veloute, which was both original and excellent, accompanied by three small envelopes of stuffed pasta. It came with a cuttlefish salad that was, I think, less successful overall, albeit funky in flavor. At this point, a green apple (?) sorbet drizzled with olive oil intervened. I enjoyed the combination, although it was a stretch. My lamb rack entrée was covered with green tea crumble and paired with a goat cheese royale (the royale seemed to re-use the beer foam of the amuse in an interesting, but ultimately unsuccessful, combination). The lamb was delicious, perfectly prepared. It gave me considerable confidence in the abilities of the kitchen. My companion’s rib eye with spring vegetables (called “winter” by the waiter—the vegetables included pear and pineapple, incidentally, so terminology is apparently not meant to be precise) was apparently a bit on the rare side. It was good, but the lamb rack was better.

There was yet another sorbet, lychee I think, and then we had our deserts: the famous chocolate and chili, which was quite good, and the chestnut dome. The deserts were not as good as the rest of the meal. The petits fours were marvelous though.

My overall feeling is that Gilt is a fortunate addition to the NY restaurant scene. I very much enjoyed the creativity of the kitchen. But comparisons with WD-50 are inevitable. It seems to me that Wylie Dufresne (WD-50) has an ultimately stronger vision. Perhaps this is because WD’s vision would appear to be more thematic, basing itself in fascinating interpretations of edible Americana that engage cultural and personal memory in a purposeful, even intellectual fashion. In this way, WD’s cuisine is one of the highest permutations of the retro-chic that has pervaded our culture for the last decade or so. Indeed, he is Andy Warhol reborn as a chef. By comparison, Gilt’s creations appear less directed, more given to loose (but skillful) improvisation. I hope to have further meals at Gilt, however, and perhaps those meals will indicate something more about the direction and character of Paul Liebrandt’s own overall vision.

[Sneakeater]

My overall feeling is that Gilt is a fortunate addition to the NY restaurant scene. I very much enjoyed the creativity of the kitchen. But comparisons with WD-50 are inevitable. It seems to me that Wylie Dufresne (WD-50) has an ultimately stronger vision. Perhaps this is because WD’s vision would appear to be more thematic, basing itself in fascinating interpretations of edible Americana that engage cultural and personal memory in a purposeful, even intellectual fashion. In this way, WD’s cuisine is one of the highest permutations of the retro-chic that has pervaded our culture for the last decade or so. Indeed, he is Andy Warhol reborn as a chef. By comparison, Gilt’s creations appear less directed, more given to loose (but skillful) improvisation. I hope to have further meals at Gilt, however, and perhaps those meals will indicate something more about the direction and character of Paul Liebrandt’s own overall vision.

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At least one reader thought this a brilliant paragraph, FWIW.

Edited March 30, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)