Le Bernardin

Crab with cauliflower


Thinly pounded tuna


Smoked tuna


Egg and caviar


Charred octopus


Seared langoustine


Nori crusted skate


Pan-roasted monkfish


Baked striped bass


Crispy black bass


Surf and Turf


Baked lobster


Goat cheese spheres


Mascarpone Cream


"Egg"


Caramelized corn custard


Cinnamon-caramel parfait


Passion fruit mousse


Petit fours


Le Bernardin Kitchen

Le Bernardin, wow, this is a meal I have wanted to eat since I was first interested in cooking. Chef Ripert is the biggest influence on my love of food. I first saw him on an episode of Top Chef season 3, he was the guest judge, and he was like a walking-talking dictionary of cuisine and flavor profiles. Hearing him talk about the simplest of dishes with such love and knowledge really spoke to me and inspired me to start cooking.
The first thing that happened to me when I sat down at my table was that the headwaiter, Julio, delivered an envelope to my table. Inside the envelope was...A SIGNED MENU FROM CHEF RIPERT HIMSELF. After something like that a night can not get any better, right? Well, guess what, it did. Julio came to our table with the complimentary amuse bouche, lump crab with a Parmesan tuile and cauliflower foam. You could tell this crab was not fake because of the really briny texture. Crab is very sweet so you would not think it goes with something also sweet like cauliflower, but it works perfectly. Our next dish was thinly pounded tuna with foie gras toast, chives, EVOO, and lemon. Most of the time when I eat tuna, either the tuna is over powered by the other flavors or it is bland and only has a fishy taste. This tuna dish had fantastic flavor and you could still taste the tuna. Foie gras on toast just made that dish totally perfect. Our next course was smoked yellowfin tuna "prosciutto" with pickled vegetables and crispy kombu. The vegetables were perfectly pickled and not too vinegar intensive and the tuna was not overly smoky. It was perfect. Now before I go on, let me tell you about the service. Our waiter, Julio, engaged us in friendly conversation and it felt like we were his first priority. If our water was running short, we did not notice when it was re-filled because they were amazingly discreet about it. Now, back to the food. The next dish was a poached egg with black caviar, toasted english muffin and marinier broth. The egg was perfectly cooked with a great oozing yolk. Caviar is just amazing and was great with this dish. The next course was charred octopus with fermented black bean and pear sauce, squid ink and miso vinaigrette with purple basil. Every time I have ever eaten octopus, it has been like chewing on rubber but this octopus was so amazingly tender. The black bean sauce is in the running for one of the best thing I have ever eaten. Chef Ripert ferments the beans underground in his own backyard! The next dish was seared langoustine with a wild mushroom and mache salad with shaved foie gras, and white balsamic vinaigrette. Langoustines are so sweet that you have to pair them with something earthy like mushrooms and mache. This dish had perfect flavors that worked perfectly together. Next dish was nori crusted skate, with braised winter lettuce, oysters, and ponzu vinaigrette. The skate was moist and the oysters were like little bursting lumps of the sea. Next came the pan roasted monkfish with hon shimeji mushrooms, sake broth and a turnip-ginger emulsion. The monkfish was silky and smooth and the ginger-turnip emulsion actually melted in my mouth. The next two courses were bass dishes. Baked striped bass with a corn "cannelloni" and a light perigord truffle sauce and Crispy black bass with lup cheog and beansprout "risotto", mini steamed buns and a hoisin-plum jus. The striped bass dish was the better of the two. It was flaky and moist. The corn cannelloni was very good. The corn filling was not stuffed into pasta but actually wrapped in leeks. The sauce had many chunks of truffle in it that gave it a very funky and earthy flavor. The black bass was very crispy and the bean sprout risotto tasted very fresh. Our last savory courses before the cheese and dessert were: 1) Surf and Turf: Escolar and seared Kobe beef with sea beans, eggplant fritters, pesto, and a red wine bernaise and 2) Baked lobster on a bed of truffles and foie gras stuffing with a brandy red wine sauce. Now I love the idea of surf and turf, and kobe beef and escolar are a perfect match. Escolar has a very soft and moist texture, and a very delicate flavor. Kobe, on the other hand, has a very fatty, rich flavor. When put together they are a perfect pair. Lobster is one of my favorite things to eat and this dish hit the ball out of the park. Not quite as good as my lobster at Annisa but still amazing. Now some of you may be thinking, when does this meal end? Well, dessert is coming. Our last savory item was our cheese course; Creamy spherified goat cheese with Concord grape "caviar" and candied walnuts. This dish was very unique. The goat cheese was spherified and so was the Concord grape juice. The way you spherify something is puree it up until it is smooth. After that, balance chemicals in a bowl and spoon the puree into the chemicals. This process causes a chemical reaction that creates a thin sugar around the puree that causes it to be solid on the outside, and liquid on the inside. The dish was divine. The goat cheese tasted so creamy and the walnuts and grapes went perfectly with the richness of the cheese. Next came our pre-dessert, Mascarpone cream in a crisp sugar shell with almond cocoa pain de genes. The dish was just beautiful to look at. It was so interesting the way the sugar shell was shaped, though when I broke it the sugar formed sharp edges and cut the inside of my mouth a little bit. Other than my little injury the dish was great. The next dish was our complimentary "Egg" Milk chocolate pots de creme with caramel foam, maple syrup, and maldon sea salt. The flavors were absolutely perfect. The pot de crème had a fantastic chocolate flavor. I love the mixing of salty and sweet, and maldon sea salt is super salty so they did not have to put too much on. Our next dessert was Caramelized corn custard with hazelnut praline, brown butter ice cream and a popcorn tuile. Now when I think of dessert my mind jumps to chocolate or caramel, I never think of corn. Well, corn is what I think of now for dessert. This dessert was a revelation. The combination of corn, hazelnuts, and brown butter ice cream was just so good. The popcorn tuile was the best part; it is tasted exactly like cracker jacks. Our next dessert was Cinnamon and caramel parfait with liquid pears, smoked sea salt and fromage blanc sorbet. First of all, the plating on this dish was like a work of art and second, it was so good. They did the same spherfication process to pear puree as they did to the goat cheese. When I placed the liquid pear in my mouth it burst. It tasted like the ripest pear in the world. Fromage blanc sorbet is my new favorite ice cream flavor. So rich, and so creamy. We then got a free dessert, compliments of the owner; it was Passion fruit mousse with mandarin sorbet and white chocolate. The mousse was so light, fluffy, and fruity. All the textures and flavors were spot on. It felt like a $100 dish but it was free. We received our petit fours at the end of the meal, which were excellent, and then I got a private tour of the Le Bernardin kitchen. This exquisite 19-course meal is probably something I will remember my entire life as the best meal I have ever eaten, and I doubt that will change.