It is because of my fellow wine lovers that I first got wind that Chef Humm was doing remarkable things at EMP, and made my first visit back in January. Now, 3 gourmand dinners later, I feel its my duty to report back on my latest experience. For our anniversary, this past Saturday night, my wife and I set out upon the 5 hour journey, which was the Fall Gourmand menu. To me, there is no dining experience in NY quite like it. It is truly a feast for the senses, and the creativity is so wonderful. I believe that the restaurant has unquestionably stepped up their game since the 4 star review, and this menu was certainly the best. Since Amanda is pregnant, I brought just one bottle for dinner, which was certainly enough, a 2005 Schrader CCS, which was sensational. I usually go old world at EMP, but I figured the bigger flavors of fall would stand up nicely to the Schrader, which they absolutely did.
But onto the food - EMP is wonderful about allergies and dislikes. I am allergic to nuts and thus my courses were structured around that. Additionally, I don’t eat certain shellfish like shrimp and lobster (call me crazy) and they altered certain courses as well for that as well.
The dinner began of course, with the usual greeting of amuse bouche. Delicious little bites, the highlight for me is always the little fried sweetbreads. The first true course was a Sterling caviar panna cotta, served in a caviar can, a wonderful way to excite the palate at the start of the meal. This was followed by a sea urchin “cappucino” with peeky toe crab. I had an altered dish which was a scallop with celery root puree. Both wonderful. Next was probably the highlight of the evening. I always enjoy their foie gras dish, but this iteration was practically food porn. A torchon of foie gras served with apples. As you cut into the foie gras, Blis Maple Syrup oozed out. It was absolutely incredible and I’m still thinking about it almost a week later. From there, they gave us a bit of a breather and then moved into the “main courses”. A wonderful presentation of dover sole followed. Delicate and lovely. Next course, my wife and I had different dishes, both of which we loved. She had langoustine which she said was so good, it had her licking her dish. I had the Ricotta Gnocchi with artichokes and olives. It was out of this world. Probably the best gnocchi I’ve ever had. Needs to be eaten to believe how good it was. From there we ventured into the meat portion of the dinner. The next dish was very cool. They came over to the table with a glass sphere filled with smoke. They opened the spheres and the smoky aromas filled the room. Sensational. When the smoke evaporated there was a piece of pork belly that had been smoked to bacon on the plate, along with a black truffle puree and a black truffle. Wonderful. This was followed by another major highlight, which was fried veal sweetbreads with white Alba truffles. Just delicious. Then the “main course”, perfectly cooked Wagyu beef. This was served with a side dish which was incredibly rich. The base was some type of cream based foam that I can’t quite recall, and had braised oxtail and foie gras inside. Super rich. After this we actually got up and walked around because we needed a serious break. The portion sizes are not small and you definitely have no chance of being anything but stuffed. Then onto the dessert portion of the dinner. This is typically where they roll around the cheese cart. However, this time around they changed it up and for the cheese course, did a Gruyere cheese souffle. The presentation was wonderful and they grated Gruyere over the top of the souffle with a massive grater. Next was the first dessert. I’m a little hazy on everything that was on the plate but it involved some excellent ice cream and a piece of candied prosciutto. The final course was the main dessert - my nut free dessert was called the Chocolate Symphony and was a chocolate tart with sea salt which was positively decadent. Amanda had if I recall a chocolate ganache with either hazelnuts or chestnut. The memory was a bit hazy by that point…As always, this was followed by their macaroons, which are delicious. I had a cappucino with dessert, which is like a work of art, and wonderful as well.
Wow…just typing this made me long for my next dinner there. It can’t be soon enough. As hard as it is to believe that they are getting better, they are, as this was unquestionably the finest dinner I’ve had there. The gourmand menu is a treat for the senses, and I can’t be a bigger cheerleader for the restaurant and the efforts they are currently putting out.
I managed to take some pictures of most of the courses, and will try to get around to posting them shortly.