I went to a nice vegetarian restaurant the other night and had crosnes I had “Roasted Garlic-Marjoram Risotto With English Pea Crème Brûlée Turnip-Collard Green ‘Lasagna’ and Black Truffle Vinaigrette.” Normally I would not have ordered a dish like this—way too much on the plate—but I had homed in on the one word I had never seen before they had done a spectacular job of roping me into a dish I wouldn’t otherwise have ventured serves less to describe food than to manage your expectations Take the description of my dish above: It promises the unconventional—crosnes!—while reassuring the unadventurous with familiar comforts—risotto peas—then slaps a thin veneer of glamour on the enterprise with the pizazz of “black truffle vinaigrette.” This menu entry doesn’t merely entice Not every menu manipulates you in the same way Different kinds of restaurants use different strategies Here’s a guide to some of the most popular Hand-Holding: Chain restaurants deal with novice and timid eaters Despite the “fun” names for dishes—”Moons Over My Hammy,” “Death by Chocolate”—menu language at chain restaurants is extravagantly specific It dictates the exact weight of a pork chop and how many slices of American cheese will top a bacon double-cheeseburger many chain restaurants put pictures of their offerings on the menu something that is never seen in more upscale restaurants The hand-holding guarantees the worried diner: There will be no surprise here menu language graduates from reassuring to showing off There is a certain class of adjective that appears on restaurant menus and almost nowhere else: Roasted These adjectives are often married to the blue-chip ingredients that would help sell SPAM on a shingle: hazelnuts Fresh imported truffles themselves still sell for hundreds of dollars a pound but byproducts like truffle oils and butters have democratized the concept into the adjective “truffled.” Nobody looks twice at a parsnip on a menu Food on blue-chipping menus may or may not be good What’s certain is that this restaurant thinks it is impressing you Traffic Jamming: Menus tend to be simpler abroad because other cultures have canonical dishes Everyone in Italy knows what saltimbocca is You don’t have to tell a Frenchman what’s in a gratin dauphinoise American chefs aren’t beholden to culinary history some menus pile up tedious aggregations of ingredients—more like supermarket nutritional labels than menu prose Spaghetti with red sauce at a San Francisco bistro morphs into “Spaghetti with plum tomatoes and chili flake.” Writing a menu this way panders to the finicky obsessiveness of certain American diners picking and choosing among the ingredients Traffic-jamming menus exist in part to convince diners that they could not replicate such food at home—the sheer number of components on a plate helps persuade you that you are getting your money’s worth for instance this offering from a ritzy San Francisco hotel: “Rosemary Basted Loin of Venison and Pickled Cranberries.” Nothing says “don’t try this at home” like Chocolate Venison Jus was aggravated by the American menu’s exploitation of the word “fresh.” In a midcentury interview “My son Charles sometimes sends me menu cards from New York it should be considered necessary to point out that the food is fresh!” Americans apparently remain oblivious to Gundel’s point chefs sell their food as fresh—often substituting synonyms like “local,” “market,” and “seasonal” for variety’s sake if the chef takes his or her role as procurer seriously it is in these fresh flavors that customers can rediscover the pleasures of a carrot But many self-satisfied menus take the freshness bit to the next level calling greens “gathered,” wild mushrooms “foraged,” and absurd little microgreens “hand-plucked.” When David Bouley offers “Freshly Harpooned Tuna Sashimi With Shaved Fennel Dressed in Herb Oils and a Spicy Marinade,” one almost pictures him readying to spear the slippery bugger himself Branding: Farm names originally showed up on restaurant menus to give credit to farmers and ranchers who had a special relationship with the chef the noble concern with the provenance of meat and produce has devolved into brand-name-dropping Chefs now flash farm and ranch names the way Lil’ Kim and 50 Cent flaunt their Gucci and Benz Many of the firms they promote—such as Niman Ranch and Hudson Valley Foie Gras—aren’t mom-and-pop farms but nationally distributed brands Exoticizing: Though American restaurants mercifully stick to English even the best chefs can’t resist a little je ne sais quoi plopping in foreign words (80 percent of them French) like “spring mushroom civet,” “plin of rabbit,” “orange-jaggery gastrique.” These are words for adventure seekers and they are meant to act as tripwires for a conversation with the waiter and Menu exoticism isn’t always foreign: “Emulsions,” “infusions,” and “foams” have science-labby appeal while “house made” chorizo/goat cheese/gravlax/vinegar/paneer (Indian-style cheese)/guinciale (Italian-style cured pork jowl) suggest that the “house” is performing feats of microbial derring-do Minimalizing: There are certain straight-edge chefs who refuse florid menu descriptions This “less is more” modernism works on people who eat out all the time the bigger the gap between what’s on paper and what arrives at the table where it’s understood that all the ingredients are precious and diners are expected to trust the chef’s judgment gentle surprise is a supreme virtue in extreme dining: a marrow bone carved out of potato or rough celery teased into a gentle aspic “Progressive Tasting of Marinated Fluke: Four different Ceviches; From Simple to Complex Combination.” In the end menus reflect a balance of power between the guest and the kitchen: How much of her hand does the chef have to reveal in order to make the sale The Non-Menu Menu: When I worked in one swank Beverly Hills restaurant we’d go running when a certain oil billionaire/power broker ambled into the place and ordered his special gargantuan crab salad—the one that was not on the menu true restaurant power means never having to read the menu FRANKFORD -- As the only contestant able to properly skin and cook Dover sole Florian Wehrli proved he had what it takes to capture the title of "Chopped" champion and a grand prize of $10,000 Celebrity judge Scott Conant called Wehrli's entree "something reminiscent of what you would find at a small bistro in Paris." was one of four chefs to compete on Thursday night's "Chopped" episode on the Food Network Wehrli was headed to a fundraiser called the "Billion Oyster Project" on Governors Island in Upper New York Bay when the New Jersey Herald spoke with him by phone on Friday Wehrli said that his social media has been "kind of crazy," and reservations have been coming in fast at midtown Manhattan's Triomphe Restaurant "Chopped" contestants must make an appetizer entree and dessert in less than 30 minutes with a trio of celebrity judges "chopping," or sending home Wehrli had filmed the episode in December 2015 on the anniversary of the passing of his son Amiel had to keep tight-lipped about his win for the last nine months Wehrli left work in New York on Thursday night in time to make it home just three minutes into the episode their two kittens and one dog to watch the show Wehrli said that because it was a special evening "I hope he did well on his spelling test in school (Friday)," he said Wehrli whipped up a blood sausage skewer with crosne and apple ragout for his appetizer a dish that the celebrity judges found unique as he used sticks of rosemary as skewers Recalling the passing of his son during this round "This is why I'm doing this; it's for him." had to work with an expensive European flatfish two ingredients that Wehrli said he would never combine at his restaurant Although peeling the skin from the fish proved to be a challenge for the other contestants -- they all cooked the fish with the skin present -- Wehrli was able to handle the fish thanks to his training in Switzerland as well as his work at Andre's French Restaurant in Las Vegas where the signature dish included Dover sole so I could have done it with my eyes closed," he said adding that it is impossible to eat the skin of the fish because purchasing a Dover sole at the local grocery store may not be the same as purchasing the real thing After his entree transported celebrity judge Conant to a French bistro where the sole was cooked "beautifully," Wehrli decided to make a guava soup with caramelized banana for his dessert "My dessert style is what I call a 'cook's dessert' where you rarely ever grab a measuring spoon It's a little bit of this and a little bit of that." who made it to the final round with Wehrli it was his inability to cook the sole properly and the mystery ingredients hidden in his dessert round that forced the judges to chop Lamica was greeted by Lamica at the end of filming and the duo went out for drinks the two sent friendly messages back and forth through social media Wehrli said he didn't obsess over learning any new cooking techniques or about any rare ingredients and just "went with it." He did sit down and watch a "Chopped" marathon since he rarely has time to watch television to remind himself of the rules of the show and what to expect If you go in and you lose and make yourself look bad or portray yourself negatively that's the worst thing you can do on TV," Wehrli said "Worse than losing is making yourself look like a person you aren't Wehrli's emotional side came out on the show when he spoke of his son's passing a fifth-grader at Frankford Township School at the time after choking on a cookie during the family's Christmas party with arms raised above his head and a smile on his face "We'll be able to think of Amiel on this day as a very You've just changed the whole day for years to come for our family Wehrli said that because his speaking of his son was the most compelling parts of his interviews what was cut from the show was his admiration for his wife which aims to honor his son's memory by giving back to the community and school that he loved Wehrli and local chefs held a fundraiser that went toward the construction of an interactive classroom and greenhouse at Frankford Township School Wehrli will have meetings this week for another possible A Meal for Amiel project to support the community again Lori Comstock can also be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194 The Local Europe ABVästmannagatan 43113 25 StockholmSweden Please log in here to leave a comment