Cafe de Boulud

It goes without saying that Daniel Boulud is one of the undisputed dons of New York cooking. Eating at his secondary restaurant, Cafe de Boulud, I can see why. That doesn't mean his performance is spotless, however.

I started my (relatively) reasonably priced meal with a clever amuse bouche - a tiny chinese soup spoon of molded sauteed aubergine topped with a single half of cherry tomato and a little tart yogurt sauce. The meal continued with my second fluke carpaccio of the summer (see Django below), this one draped over an interesting semi guacamole of avacado and apple - the face of the fish was scattered with thin slivers of juicy tangerine, I think. For a main course I chose Sea scallops sauteed in butter and served with a rich lemon-verbona sauce, piled atop a delicous fricasee of green beans and peppers, and topped with an excellent frenchified puttanesca, dotted with tiny salt cured capers. Dessert was an terribly disappointing hazelnut biscuit crowned with chocolate mousse and cream - whoever did this pastry needs to be lectured by Boulud about freshness, though even if fresh I think the dessert would have failed - but the course was saved by the delicate little madeleine cookies served with my cappucino. If I had to pick one thing from the meal that exemplified the magnificence of French cooking, those little lemon zest tinged butter cookies would be it, actually - flour, sugar, butter, egg; those are the four pillars of french cooking. Indeed, it seems safe to say that the kitchen's boulanger is stronger than the patissier, since the bread too was excellent - crunchy, airy, and when slathered with obviously fresh and high quality butter, utterly delicious.

Assuming that Mr. Boulud has cleared up his pastry problems at the main line restaurant Daniel my hopefully impending visit there should be pleasurable indeed. But for a reasonable price, Cafe Boulud is high dining, and standing alone, would probably be the best restaurant in many a city.