Paul Liebrandt at CORTON
Paul Liebrandt, the enfant terrible of New York’s haute cuisine scene got his close-up on an HBO special earlier this summer. If you’re a fan of high-flying French food, molecular gastronomy, or great restaurant cooking (and restaurant gossip in general), you owe it to yourself to watch this documentary — filmed over an eight year span of his (still young) career.
Having eaten Liebrandt’s food several times in a couple of venues over that time span, we were fascinated by what makes him tick. Liebrandt is arguably, one of the most artistic/creative chefs in the world (chocolate covered scallops anyone?). We at ELV enjoyed the documentary and really enjoyed dinner at Corton last month.
(Why wouldn’t we? He’s an acolyte of Pierre Gagnaire, and Gagnaire-ean touches abounded on the menu.)
Here are a few tasty snaps of one, memorable meal. The picture quality is a bit muted since the staff asked us not to use flash, but even with that, you can almost taste the smoked caramel with brown butter crumble — a dessert so good, Carême probably sat up in his grave and saluted when it first came off the line :
The seven course prix fixe menu pictured above was $115. A longer degustation is available for $135/per.
CORTON
239 West Broadway
New York, NY 10013
212.219.2777
Restaurant reviews, quips, picks and pans-with some seriously salivating history-from the man who eats his way through Sin City every day.
August 13th, 2011 at 9:07 am
I’m jealous, hopefully I can score a resi during nycwff
August 13th, 2011 at 12:32 pm
Were there 25 portions/person. Seems too proud of their food.
I myself would prefer a trip to Bryant’s bbq in KC.
August 13th, 2011 at 6:00 pm
I want. My only complaint is the lack of pictures, more plz!
August 13th, 2011 at 7:49 pm
What does BBQ have to do with fine French gastronomy??
August 13th, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Little quantity overpriced meal vs good filling food.
August 14th, 2011 at 3:32 am
Leaving full is not a problem at Corton. There is plenty of food and all of it exquisite. There is nothing wrong with “good filling food,” but Liebrandt’s artistry is something else. Glad you made it there, John.