Restaurant Review: Blanca Is Not for Beginners

Restaurant Review: Blanca Is Not for Beginners

Aesthetically, philosophically, this is all rather thrilling, and arguably incredibly cool, the culinary equivalent of jolie laide. But taste is an experience of reflexive sensation, not of intellect. Both of my meals at Blanca began exuberantly, with petite vessels of citrus segments and a chile grenada granita, sweet-tart and clarion-bright—then, digging in a fork, the … Read more

A Tasting Menu with a Bit of Noma in Its DNA

A Tasting Menu with a Bit of Noma in Its DNA

Midway through a recent meal at Ilis, a new, dramatic tasting-menu restaurant run by the Danish chef Mads Refslund, I looked up from a piece of carmine-red bigeye tuna loin, mirror-glazed in stone-fruit vinegar and only barely cooked, atop a square of kombu, and wondered, for a moment, exactly where I was. I knew, of course, … Read more