• Le Bernardin

  155 West 51st Street, 212-489-1515

  You assume they’re to be found at a restaurant that ends in a vowel, right? Certainly, Babbo’s goat-cheese tortelloni with fennel pollen have achieved urban-legend status. And Fiamma should be brought up on charges for not offering Michael White’s braised-oxtail-and-beef-shank ravioli by the pound. But there is something so supremely and serenely confident about Le Bernardin chef Eric Ripert’s trio of perfectly aligned demispheres of silken poached dough harboring coriander-and-scallion-flecked shrimp. First they are presented naked for scrutiny. Then, just as one is struck by their simplicity, a sauce of foie gras, black truffles, truffle juice, and shrimp stock is poured and the newly combined aroma becomes jarringly seductive, like a longtime lover with a surprise move. And from a Frenchman, yet. Deal with it..

From the 2004 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine