Tucked behind an unassuming store front in is the intimate home of true artist; his medium: froth, powder, gel, and smoke; his style; deconstructionist; impressionistic, post-modern; his themes: whimsical, magical, and edible.
J.T. Baker's New Cuisine in Greenwich, NY (that's North of Albany), is the gallery of the artist Jason Baker. He works in food, the defining form of the early 21st century, and like many of those in the great art movements of the 20th century, his is an exploration along the boundaries of our expectations and experience, testing and challenging our assumptions of what food is, what form is it in , and what it means to experience a meal.
J.T. Baker's offers a house menu, but unusual for this area, and for diners in general, he also offers tasting menus in 5, 7, and 11 courses, and it is through these that his true artistry shines. Our group had the 5 course meal (with limited restrictions, one individual was not enamored of venison). This format included an amuse bouche, appetizer, fish course, palette cleanser (consomme x2), pork course, game course, dessert course, and mignardese. A wine pairing was also available, though we did not partake.
Full enjoyment of the meal required the correct mental frame. Most restaurant meals are judged on a handful of criteria: ingredient quality, preparation, technique, portion size, sophistication, service, leftovers, & etc. These are the not frames to bring to J.T. Baker's. While in each of these (except leftovers) he excels, the proper frame of reference is edible artistry, for this is where his heart lies. In each dish, the artist commenting on food, or the food experience is seen, starting with the amuse bouche:
Synthetic Crab: served with 3 sauces: Soy, Tahini, and Sea Foam. OK, Sea Foam is not an anything that I know of, but it paired up well with the "crab" to form three excellent mouth teasers. The teaser in this course went beyond the tastes to the question, what exactly is synthetic crab? The meat had the same texture as Krabuluxe. Was it imitation? Was it imitation imitation?
First Course: Truffled Egg Drop Ravioli: The appetizer was a ravioli served with sauce and crispy cheese flat. The perfectly cooked ravioli held the surprise of a runny egg yolk. Think "over easy", with the white replaced with pasta; hollandaise on the side. Like many of the dishes, recognition of the subtle improbability of a ravioli hosting a runny egg inside came late in the course, our willingness to accept "beef, cheese, egg yolk," clouding our perception.
Second Course: Roasted Monkfish: with Froth, Dehydrated Cauliflower, Blood Orange. Baker comes from the Rothko school (Magenta, Black, Green, on Orange), describing the components, yet leaving it to the diner to discern the subject. In this case, roasted monkfish in a surf of foam, with coral and and a sweet beach schmear of blood orange reduction. In some sense this harks back to a standard of the starving artist, the desolate sea-scape, but here the subject washed against the shore, froth a-bubbling, next to the coral-flower, is a delectable seascape.
Palette Cleanser: Consomme X 2. Served vial-in-beaker, apple on top, strawberry cardamom below. For those of you who've only chugged a bullshot, this was a perfectly refreshing and challenging interpretation of consomme.
Third Course: ChocoVic Pork: with Onion, Bacon, and Smoke. If you read the transcript version of this course, it would seem standard fare: pork medallion wrapped in ChocoVic, (a Spanish chocolate brand), nestled atop a bacon and onion ragout, with two sprigs of green onion cantilevered across the pork, one deep fried, the other raw. What made the dish was the smoke, which arrived for all at the table to share in a milk bottle. The lid popped, hot smoke wafted around the table. The patient of us even poured it on the meat. The ChocoVic itself was understated, but the dish as a whole was excellent, with a great interplay among the flavors of the ragout, the fun compare and contrast of the two onion treatments, and of course the unexpected addition of smoke, not just as a flavoring aid in the kitchen, but as a visual and aromatic accompaniment to the meal.
Fourth Course: Acorn Fed Venison: with Truffled Wheat Berries, Butternut Fudge, Wolfberry Redux, and not listed on the menu, Pumpkin "Salt", Liquid Smoked Paprika, and Jellied Venison Cube. This was the star of the meal, and as with all of the dishes, there was quite a lot of delight around the table as we each explored the dish. As interesting as this showcase dish was from the menu, the real surprise was in the exploration of all of the taste elements. The Pumpkin salt, or maybe it was dust, invited a wet finger dip, and delivered the pure essence of "pumpkin" flavor. The liquid smoked paprika, also, was a distilled flavor, it inviting dips and swipes of venison. The wolfberry redux and wheatberries were two more stops for the new taste combinations with the venison. The butternut fudge, a small triangle slice, was rich and sweet, and squashy, while the venison cube was a plum gel cube, soft like jell-o, almost as though a plug had been pulled from essence of deer. We all found ourselves mixing and matching the flavors and forms, delighting all along at each flavor, and each flavor combination.
Fifth Course: Taster: Key Lime, Chocolate, Vanilla. The dessert course capped off the wonderfully fun meal with 3 miniature desserts, a creamy key lime tart, a tiny hot fudge brownie, and a vanilla cream napoleon. All were made in house. Where the other dishes tickled the imagination, this final course brought the meal back to familiar styles and forms. Each of the tastes were executed wonderfully, of course. The vanilla cream napoleon was built from a two light, flaky biscuits and a sweet, rich, cream. The hot fudge brownie was hot, fudgie, topped with whipped cream and vanilla ice cream. The key lime tart was super creamy, with the understated key lime balanced well with the cream and crackery crust.
Mignardese: this, I think, is French for "here's something tasty to take your mind off the bill." One last taste of the meal, and in this case it was light cookies. Very good.
J.T. Baker's delivered a meal and dining experience unlike any I've had. As good as the dishes were, much of the enjoyment came from the play and interaction with the dish, whether in combining tastes, the surprise of foods transformed in shape or structure, or the whimsy around the structure.
J.T. Baker's is not the restaurant you go to for an old favorite, however. Do not expect to relive old food favorites. What is a constant is the opportunity to share in a food artist's latest interests and inspirations. Plan to bring your curiosity, for not all will be readily apparent, and there surely be surprises you've never seen in dining.
Comments