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Celery root Milanese
At Yellow Magnolia Café, located at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York City, a classic chicken Milanese is reinterpreted as a meatless item inspired by the garden. Celery root is peeled and cut into slices just over ¼ inch thick and poached in a court-bouillon seasoned with a little turmeric, black pepper and coriander seeds until tender. Then the slices are dried, simply breaded in unseasoned breadcrumbs, and pan-fried until golden brown. Then they’re seasoned with Maldon salt and topped with a lemon-caper aïoli that has some grated Parmesan cheese folded in.
It's topped with a salad of watercress, nasturtium flowers, baby heirloom tomatoes, pickled Sweety Drop peppers, pickled red pearl onion rings, basil leaves and shaved Parmesan. It’s finished with some more Maldon salt and extra virgin olive oil and served with a lemon wedge.
This item was developed by a team comprised of Union square Events, a division of Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group, and onsite operator Restaurant Associates.
Price: $23
Pan-seared duck breast with spring salad
At Little D’s in Asheville, N.C., lead line cook Spencer Edmunds dry ages duck for three days to dry out the skin. Then the breast is scored and seared in a carbon steel pan with salt and pepper, allowing the fat to render out and the skin to crisp up.
He makes a miso citrus glaze by reducing grapefruit, lemon, and lime juice with brown sugar and miso and lets the duck breast rest in that before plating it.
Edmunds and chef de cuisine Faith Hall developed a savory custard spiced with smoked paprika and onion and garlic powder, which is used to make a bread pudding using sourdough made by pastry chef Hillary Lamont.
That’s plated with the duck along with strawberry crème fraîche, which is meant to spotlight local strawberries and is made by folding a strawberry-honey purée into the crème fraîche.
Also reflecting the season is a salad of pickled green strawberries, shaved asparagus, fava beans, English peas, shaved radish, and a chiffonade of ramp leaves in a Champagne vinaigrette.
Price: $32
The Idol’s Eye
At Queen Miami Beach, a Japanese steakhouse that opened in April, bar manager Karol Ansaldi combines 1.5 ounces each of gin and umeshu plum-infused shochu with an ounce of Campari infused with cocoa nibs and two dashes of cherry bitters in a shaker. He shakes it three times and serves it in a rocks glass over one large ice cube and garnishes it with a burnt orange wedge and a caperberry.
Ansaldi said this is an interpretation of the Negroni in which the umeshu replaces the vermouth, and chocolate and cherry elements are added.
Price: $20
Kimchi Caesar Salad
At Noko Nashville, which opened in East Nashville, Tenn., in March, executive chef Dung “Junior” Vo combines gochujang paste and gochugaru powder with whole tinned anchovies, the oil the anchovies are packed in, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and black pepper. He makes that into a paste and then adds Kewpie mayonnaise and mixes it until smooth.
He chops romaine lettuce into bite-sized pieces, tosses it gently in the gochujang mixture and tops it with microplaned Parmesan cheese and toasted panko breadcrumbs. It’s finished at tableside with freshly cracked black pepper.
Price: $13
Saragli
At Kosmos, a Greek restaurant that opened quietly six months ago in Walpole, Mass., chef and owner Angelos Petropulos makes this traditional rolled baklava by combining ground walnuts with cinnamon, cloves, lemon and simple syrup, rolling that in phyllo dough, baking it and topping it with olive oil ice cream, Greek honey, and sea salt.
Price: $11
