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Not so long ago, ambitious chefs used to display their cooking skills by whipping up elaborate sauce reductions and esoteric foams. Thanks to the rise of high-profile carnivore cooks like Mario Batali and David Chang, many young chefs channel their creative energies through the innumerable and variegated possibilities of pork. One of the most promising young luminaries of this “pighead” branch of haute cuisine is Ryan Skeen, who rose to prominence at Resto, an excellent Belgian-style restaurant in the Flatiron district. Skeen’s specialties there included pork-centric dishes like crispy pig-ear salad and a fiendishly delicious innovation called “pork toast,” composed of squares of mashed, deep-fried pork jowls topped with caviar, among other sinful things. Skeen left Resto, and now he’s taken over the kitchen at Irving Mill (he replaces John Schaefer), bringing his intricate brand of trencherman cooking to a larger, more ambitious stage for the first time.

To sample the dark essence of Skeen’s meaty, calorie-rich repertoire have a bite or two of the spicy Peruvian-style pulled-pork sandwich (located on the “Bites” section of the menu), then order the “charcroute plate,” which comes to the table in regal fashion on a large porcelain serving plate. This mélange of porky goodness includes strips of glazed pork shoulder cut in moon-shaped slices, and crispy wheels of deboned pig’s feet that are flattened and deep-fried. There’s an excellent iteration of that old French classic pig’s-head terrine, served warm so that it liquefies gently on the tip of your tongue, and a sampling of Skeen’s famous salt-and-pepper ribs (also available on the “Bites” menu), which the chef braises in a mix of sugar and soy then deep-fries to give a nice exterior crunch.

Skeen, who has worked at Café Boulud among other places, is adept at cooking things besides pig. The new menu at Irving Mill includes a cooling crudo of kampachi (sprinkled, characteristically, with sizzling little sticks of chorizo) and superior housemade rabbit and boudin blanc sausages, served with pots of artisanal mustard. If you tire of this endless parade of animal products (do we really need pork rinds on our macaroni and cheese?), I recommend the sautéed sturgeon, which is mingled with tiny, sweet beets and a creamy horseradish sauce. My friend the Steak Loon considered the rib eye for two, from Four Story Hill Farm in Pennsylvania, to be overpriced at $120. But the gourmet $55 chicken for two (also from Four Story Hill, and served over kale) is a worthy investment, and so is Skeen’s version of lamb “cassoulet” ($26), which contains poached leg of lamb, pink slices of loin, and a crispy strip of lamb’s belly, all neatly arranged on a bed of softly cooked coco beans.

The airy, overly large space at Irving Mill is still decorated with random bits of barnyard paraphernalia (i.e., freakishly shaped gourds), and it’s still too big by half. Skeen’s elegantly casual brand of cooking is probably best suited to the bar area, and the item to get there is the superbly charred house cheeseburger, which the excitable Steak Loon lovingly described as “a beef bomb, oozing blood and glory.” Several of the new desserts at Irving Mill pack a similar punch. I liked the doughnut-shaped apple fritters (made with real slices of apple) and the excessively smooth banana-cream-pie “parfait,” garnished with broken chocolate macaroons. Best of all is the crème fraîche panna cotta. It has a velvety crème brûlée texture to it, and a cool tartness (thanks to a topping of cranberry compote) that soothes the belly and makes it the perfect coda to a satisfying pighead feast. — Adam Platt

Note

Although the menu has changed, Irving Mill still retains its excellent selection of stouts and Trappist ales from Europe.

Ideal Meal

Charcroute plate, chicken for two, cheeseburger or lamb cassoulet, crème fraîche panna cotta.

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New York Magazine Reviews

• Adam Platt's Full Review (11/17/08)
• Adam Platt's Full Review (12/17/07)
• Gael Greene's Full Review (11/5/07)

Best of New York Awards

• Best Pig-out (2009)

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