Luxeat: Eleven Madison Park

Tagliolini with king crab , black pepper and lemon

For me, Eleven Madison Park is one of the most interesting New York's fine restaurants at the moment.First design-wise - it's vast Art Deco style dinning room with high ceiling opens your mind for new gastronomic adventures as soon as you enter the buiding. Swiss born Daniel Humm is the chef cooking at Eleven Madison Park . In a way his cuisine is quite classical but at the same time he transmits his very special aesthetics.

Once you read the menu, soon you realize that Daniel has a special love for fruits and berries. Lobster is poached with fennel, orange and peach, chicken is with green grapes and oats while pork is roasted with cherries , onion and mustard. Not all the dishes are sucré salé though - you can have beet salad with goat cheese and rye crumble or roasted Angus beef with Swiss chard and chanterelles.

Most of all, each of Daniel Humm's dishes are very beautiful, almost like an art composition.It's as if the chef is hesitant to mix all the ingredients and he composes a painting on a plate instead. I do think that Eleven Madison Park is still in the process of evolution, but some dishes are a perfection already.

"Mille feuille of foie gras with bittered almond and pickled plum" It was very sweet - like a dessert of foie gras.

"Tuna tartare with sorrel, tomato and olives" Refreshing and very Mediterranean.

"Tagliolini with king crab , black pepper and lemon" The main reason of this post and this is the dish that was that "perfection" i mentioned before. Thin pasta, lemon sauce, crab meat - a dish of an extraordinary finesse...