New York: Sunday in the Country

Woke up to a glorious blue sky Sunday morning. After a 10K run around Central Park at 8am when a biathalon race was already in progress, AP, AL and I headed "upstate". The drive out of Manhattan through the Hudson Valley was great. Playing in the car was Bossa n' Stones (as the title suggests, Bossa Nova covers of Rolling Stones tunes). AP and AL started singing along: "you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you might find, you get what you need". The song has quite a hook and it stuck with us through the rest of the day. What we all needed on this beautiful Sunday, was a bit of fresh air and a fresh perspective.


For the past few days, AP and I had been combing through the densely packed art fairs of Pulse, Bridge and Scope looking for emerging artists to include in the next Little Cream Book project. AP is an art consultant, so she does it for a living. In fact, she had just finished her rounds at the Dubai art fairs. Though I enjoy art, I was feeling a bit arted-out. So I wasn't exactly dying to go see more art all the way out in Beacon, but was lured by the promise of a nice meal at Blue Hill Stone Barns to tag along. As it turned out, dia: Beacon was just the fresh perspective I needed to see art through fresh eyes again. It's a contemporary art space with a collection of stunning works by iconic artists from the 60s onwards. All the pieces are brilliantly displayed in the converted paper factory. There is an incredible amount of natural light streaming into the galleries through 34,000 square feet of skylights. On this sunny day, all the artworks were bathed in sunlight. It's worth the hour-plus journey just to experience the gallery space. I sat in the Gerhard Richter 6 Gray Mirrors room meditating on my reflection. Equally meditative were Robert Ryman's white-on-white rooms and Agnes Martin's rooms filled with her rationally, straight-lined abstracts, also in shades of white and gray. But for me, the most uplifting experience was walking through the four Richard Serra sculptures. It would have been nice to have these set on an expansive grass lawn, look up from the expanse of towering spiral steel curves to see cloudless, blue skies, but the effect was not lost inside the gallery. This was art as its best, like walking into a vaulted Gothic cathedral -- moving, contemplative and transformative. It was the perfect antidote to the art supermarkets in which I had been immersed.


Next stop was Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Years ago, when I first had lunch at Per Se, I had asked one of the waiters what other restaurants were worth trying. Top of his list had been Blue Hill at Stone Barns (they also have a restaurant in Manhattan, but the Stone Barns experience is worth the journey). But because it's outside of Manhattan, several trips went by and I still hadn't made it to Blue Hill. Finally, I was going. I expected to have a nice Sunday brunch, but we arrived quite late in the afternoon. So we decided to stay for an early dinner at 5pm. We hadn't made any reservations in the restaurant, but the bar serves the same menu so we got seats at the bar. Stone Barns is a working farm and we had a bit of time to wander around the grounds. We were a trio of touristy city slickers snapping away at sheep, chicken, pigs and the beautiful surroundings.


When we finally sat down at the bar sipping their signature cocktails of elderflower royale (elderflower liquer and sparkling white wine) and blood orange martini, we were expecting a meal from fresh farm produce, simple and good. We got much more than simple and good. It was simple, elegant and a sheer delight for the taste buds. But what made it even better was having the company of Tomas Jacobsen who joined us at the bar. He's a Danish chef who was between restaurant stints in his native Copenhagen and decided to use the time off for an unpaid apprenticeship at Per Se. It's so much fun listening to chefs talk about food. They have such a passion for it. So for the next four hours, as we ogled his very, very special chef's tasting menu, sometimes even sampling bits off his plate, we grilled him about food, being a chef and his favourite restaurants. We were watching him taste everything with the deepest of concentration and waiting for his pronouncements.

Dishes in front of other people, especially when they are chefs and get special treatment, always seem tastier!

Chip envy got the better of us, so Tomas graciously shared one of his potato chips with a sage leaf with us. He also got to taste beetroot, squash and parsnip chips. Best potato chip ever!

He has sat through a 27-course meal at Per Se, but all the courses he was being served up were still delighting him. We got a different version of the chef's tasting menu, all excellent. I have never been one for eggs. I neither like nor dislike them, they just generally don't move me. Yet the morning's egg they served up with fresh farm greens and a thin slice of crispy cheek bacon was an egg like not other. The runny yolk was deliciously full of flavour. The slice of Berkshire pork belly was a little piece of heaven. The handmade pasta made from nearby harvest of spelt was a delight. All the dishes were beautifully presented.

This morning's egg with a thin slice of cheek bacon on top.

Berkshire pork belly & loin

Of course, I had to ask Tomas for his restaurant recommendations for Copenhagen. He highly recommended Noma (where he previously worked), a 2-Michelin star restaurant that highlights Nordic produce and culinary traditions. The chef at Noma had previously worked at French Laundry and el bulli. He leaves New York City today to head back to a job at the soon-to-open Nimb, which he describes as modern Danish. Asked for his favourite non-fine dining restaurant in NYC, he suggested Degustation (239 East 5th Street, T: +1 212 979 1012), where it's "a funny mixture of everything that inspires him (the chef)".