As Andy and I boarded the train for our 40-minute ride to Tarrytown a couple of Saturday nights back, we found ourselves discussing our favorite meals of 2009.  After all, we were on our way to one of our favorite spots, Blue Hill at Stone Barns on the Rockefeller estate (30 miles north of the city in Pocantico Hills, New York), to meet Gary and Jacquie for a celebratory dinner.  We had dined at BHSB a few times before, and the anticipation of an eight course farm-to-table feast inspired us to think up all the other exceptional dining experiences that we’ve enjoyed over the past year.  And what a culinary year it’s been, from the Grand Tasting Menu at Vetri in Philadelphia and the côte de boeuf at Minetta Tavern, to our 10-course Wine Pairing Extravaganza at Momofuku Ko and Brooklyn Brewery Dinner at Per Se.  We debated which of these amazing meals would go down as the year’s best.  It turns out, however, that such debate was premature since our dinner this night at BHSB would top both of our lists as the very best meal of ’09, if not our best meal ever.  To find out what separated this meal from the pack, for the details about each course, for a view of the day’s harvest menu and to see all of our photos…

The Place:

Blue Hill at Stone Barns opened in the spring of 2004 within the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, a working four season farm and education center where most of the ingredients used in creating the multi-course tastings at BHSB are grown.  Driving up the winding driveway to BHSB through the rolling pastures and past the animal pens, you know you are in for a real farm-to-table experience.  Although these words (farm-to-table, market-driven, locavore, etc.) have become trendy catch phrases dropped lightly in restaurant press releases, BHSB is the real deal.

The Experience:

Gary and Jacquie picked us up at the train station and we arrived at BHSB just in time for our 6:30 pm reservation.  We were seated immediately in the beautiful dining room – an old dairy barn that has been renovated with elegant dark wood floors, soft ivory walls, and high metal beams- modern design juxtaposed with images of the field and farm and with beautiful views of the countryside (if it’s not dark out yet, that is).

The first thing to note is that the service is truly exceptional.  Impeccable may even be a better word for it. Our team of servers did not miss a beat during the entire evening (and it was quite a long one- 4+ hours). Each dish is explained by the lead server with incredible detail and enthusiasm.  Prior to our soft fried egg with locally foraged mushrooms course, our lead server Will brought out a plate of fresh eggs and described how the chickens that produced these eggs roam freely around the farm and escape to their special chicken mobiles in the evening to keep warm.  He told us about their diet and about how their pasture is rotated to achieve the best use of the land.  Prior to our forono beet salad course, Will showed us a plate of beets, and we learned about how the sugar concentration in each root increased during the cold winter weather on the farm- optimal for the beets served in our salad.

I could go on and on about the provenance of every ingredient (if I remembered it all) and Stone Barns’ four-season and pastured livestock farm, but even without all of this knowledge, the food really did take center stage.  We were blown away. Learning about the activities on the farm and the ecological dynamics in bringing the field to the plate enriched the overall dining experience that is Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

For the menu, you receive a list of over 100 ingredients that are part of that day’s harvest and that could be served throughout the course of your meal.  Check out our harvest menu from Saturday, December 12th.  You then choose whether you would like the 8-course or the 5-course Farmer’s Feast.  We all opted for the 8-course Farmer’s Feast ($135 per person) instead of the 5-course tasting ($105 per person).  The idea is that you have more diversity and variety with the 8 courses (rather than more food), so the plates tend to be a bit smaller than those you would get with the 5-course option.

Not including the six amuse bouche, our 8 courses included 6 savories and 2 sweet.  We added on a cheese course as well (because we just couldn’t help ourselves).  There is a wine pairing option for $105 per person, but we started out with some seasonal cocktails and decided to choose our wines ourselves (with the help of the fantastic sommelier who really did the choosing).   I do recommend trying a flight of the infused artisanal vodkas. We were asked if we had any food allergies or particular aversions, but thankfully our group had none and we were up for trying anything, so we put ourselves in the hands of the chef…and we were off.

The Food:

The first thing to note about the amuse at BHSB is the fun and creative ways in which they are served. Each of our amuse really showcased all the chefs’ particular talents and unique approaches to food.

Amuse 1: Mokum Carrots & Vegetables On the Fence. These vegetables were served beautifully, hovering on silver pins atop a wooden plank.  I especially loved the sweetness to the fresh mokum carrot and the complexity of the edamame.

Amuse 2: Forono Beet Sliders.  Little sesame topped, sweet fluffy buns with a sweet and savory beet burger topped with creamy goat cheese.  The sweet beat worked nicely with the tangy cheese.

Amuse 3: Dehydrated Vegetable Chips.  Served in a veggie chip tower of some sort, so that each delicate chip resembles a tree branch- a very tasty tree branch that is.  Andy remarked that these are what Terra Chips strive to be.

Amuse 4: Amazingly Rich, Paper Thin Ham.  Beautifully presented on black slate.

Amuse 5: Salsify wrapped in Pancetta & Buckwheat.  Served on top of long wooden sticks that are inserted into a dark wood base (think porcupine).  Once again, inventive presentation and a hearty, savory bite of all that is good about winter.

Amuse 6: Homemade Chacuterie from the Farm’s Berkshire Pigs.  A bologna and salami like I’ve never had.  These meats were made from Berkshire pigs on site at the farm.  We asked our server for some bread to go with the chacuterie, and quickly received some of their ridiculously delicious crusty rustic bread served with homemade, creamy butter and a fresh cottage cheese spread and with a small bowl of some sort of granulated beet salt.

Wine #1 for Courses 1-2: After perusing the wine list, Andy spotted a bottle of 2008 Merry Edwards Sauvignon Blanc. We love their pinot’s and had heard great things about the SB, so we decided to give it a shot. The 2007 Merry Edwards SB was recently awarded #9 on Wine Specatator’s Top 100 Wines of 2009.

Course 1:  Local Bluefish with Caviar and Apple.  I never knew rare bluefish could taste so good.  The sweetness of the sauce and apple worked perfectly with the saltiness of the caviar.  The texture of the raw fish also worked nicely with the crunchy apple and caviar. Not to mention the mouthwatering acidity of the wine was a perfect match for the richness of the bluefish.

Course 2:  Mache with Forono Beet Salad, Pinenut Butter and Yogurt.  These are the gorgeous sweet beets that Will brought to our table moments before, and this dish really surprised me.  It was light yet hearty at the same time and I loved the pinenut butter and yogurt foam element.

Wine #2 for Courses 3-5: The sommelier recommended a 1999 Trinchero ‘Vigna Del Noce’ Barbera d’Asti from Piedmont. Once this biodynamically-produced wine opened up, we enjoyed a firmly structured wine with some dried red berries and cherries on the nose.

Course 3:  Maine Shellfish with Potato and Spinach Soup. It was amazing how the flavor of each piece of scallop, mussel and lobster kept its distinct and delicate taste even though it was an element of a larger dish.  I loved the creativity of the layering of the soup and the diversity of seafood flavors.

Course 4: Soft Fried Egg with Locally Foraged Mushrooms. This was a true standout for me.  I went nuts over the earthly mushroom and the inventively prepared fried egg with its bright orange running farm fresh yolk and crispy exterior.  Brilliant.

Course 5: Broad Breasted White Turkey with White Shelly Beans and Cardoons. Now, not to go overboard or anything, but I can confidently say that this is the best turkey I have had.  I thought it must have been cooked sous-vide to achieve the perfect degree of moisture and tenderness consistent through each slice.  The savory beans and beautiful sauce worked perfectly.  I have never had turkey like this before.  After tasting this, we had to ask whether BHSB is open on Thanksgiving, and we were sad to find out that they are not.

Wine #3 for Courses 6-8 and the Cheese Plate: For our third (and final) bottle of wine, the sommelier brought out an off-the-wine list 1994 Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Though we can’t recall the producer, we were surprised to discover that this bottle fit in our $65-$100 price range that we had given earlier in the evening.

Course 6:  Hudson Valley Red Deer Venison with Squash Purée with Flash Fried Bloomsdale Spinach . The meat was perfectly medium rare and so rich and gamey.  I was getting quite full by this point, but I managed to savor every last bite.

Cheese Course: We snuck this one in.  We were served two types of cheese from Consider Bardwell Farm in Vermont.  The server explained how the dorset and manchester cheeses were produced differently to create two very different products.  They were served with a baguette and two types of preserves.

Course 7:  Sweet Potato Cake with Apples and White Cinnamon Ice Cream.

Course 8:  Prune Armagnac Ice Cream with Chocolate and Graham Souffle.

Bonus Birthday Surprise Course:  As if we hadn’t had enough, the folks at BHSB surprised us with one more course of ice cream and fruit in honor of Jacquie’s birthday.

Overall:

Our BHSB experience was incredible on all levels: the service — impeccable, the presentation — unique and inventive, the food & wine — exquisitely prepared and perfectly matched. This was our fourth visit, and I have to say BHSB keeps getting better each time. We were impressed by our lead server’s in-depth knowledge of the ingredients and BHSB’s philosophy on the food preparation.  A dinner at BHSB is much more than a meal.  From end-to-end, it’s a complete culinary experience and an education in local, community-based food production.  We are already looking into making reservations for the Spring Harvest!

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