To eat is human; to feast, divine. I realized this when I was about eight years old and experienced my first food epiphany. Before then, I was pretty indifferent to food and, to be honest, remained an unenthusiastic eater for many years afterward. But one fateful day I learned that, aside from simply providing sustenance, food can be one of life’s greatest pleasures, when my great-aunt from New York City, Aunt Cecile, came to visit us in suburbia. Inside her shopping bag of goodies was a small jar of beluga caviar, filled with tiny, perfectly round black orbs that glistened in the fluorescent light above our kitchen table. I had never seen anything more beautiful . . . or appetizing. My sister and I used our fingers to each taste one little bead, then a few more. Soon, we were using teaspoons and, before long, slathering our rye toast with the magical foodstuff, which was as salty as pretzels and gently popped on our tongues. Even the fact that it was fish roe didn’t turn us off. In fact, it only heightened our sense of wonder and increased our appetite for the delicacy.
As the Editor in Chief of IN New York and Where New York magazines–and writer of the monthly “Dish du Jour” column–I get to eat at some pretty amazing restaurants and frequently sample mind-blowing dishes by the most creative chefs in the culinary capital of the world (I know, it’s a tough job…). But there’s one dish that I simply can’t get out of my head even six months after it was served to me at the counter of L’Atelier Joel Robuchon in the five-star Four Seasons Hotel New York. The pivotal dish, which will forever define my gastronomic life into before and after, is L’Oursin, humbly described on the menu as sea urchin in a lobster gelée, topped with a cauliflower cream. It was presented in a large glass egg decorated with flecks of gold, on a plate with a single rose petal and tiny pearl of edible gold. A thick layer of unctious sea urchin was on the bottom. The love-child of jello and lobster was in the middle. Cauliflower with the consistency of custard was on top, dotted with a ring of parsley chlorophyll. It was briny, sweet, creamy, oddly refreshing … and life altering.
Have any dishes changed your life? Leave a comment here, or send me an email: bonnie.davidson@morris.com.