Terrance Brennan
photo: courtesy of Picholine
On January 21st, NYC's Picholine hosted the third night in the Zagat Vintage Dinner series. Chef Terrance Brennan talked to the Buzz about the event, which found him deconstructing oysters Rockefeller, cooking a whole leg of beef and adding vintage dishes to Artisanal's menu.
Zagat Buzz: How did the dinner go?
Terrance Brennan: The customers were really, really into it, especially the beef. It was just roast beef, really, not dry-aged wagyu or anything, but they were just flipping out over it. And the lobster Americaine. I put a glaçage on it – like hollandaise with whipped cream on it – and they just ate it up.
ZB: Was there anything that people seemed particularly cautious about trying?
TB: Maybe some of the amuses I did I might have gone a little nouveau on. I did oysters Rockefeller, deconstructed, and I did a kidney and lamb heart kebab since they ate a lot of organ meats then. Many were a little weary of that...Everyone ate everything. No one wanted substitutions, and they really enjoyed it. I was in the dining room carving the haunch of meat and they loved that. People were taking photographs. Nobody’s seen a big hunk of meat like that sliced tableside.
ZB: What inspired the menu?
TB: I went online and researched the ingredients of the time. Back when I worked in a hotel, when I was like 22 years old, we used to do these steamships rounds for banquets. And so that was in my memory bank when I was looking to do something big and over-the-top in the dining room.
ZB: Were any of the dishes hard to procure?
TB: Well, I had to preorder the haunch of meat. Here’s the story: it was like 75 pounds, so there was a lot of carryover cooking involved. I got one in the week before to cook it and time the carryover cooking...That worked out perfect, but the haunch wasn’t long enough with all of the garnishes, so I asked the butcher to give us more bone the next time. But when it came in on Monday, the butcher cut the bottom too low. We had to scramble and had to really pressure our purveyor to get us another one that wasn’t so low – which is tricky since it was all special order. We practiced again with the short one. It worked perfectly, and then we just fed it to the staff.
ZB: Do you plan on incorporating any of the dishes into your regular menu?
TB: Absolutely. The baked Alaska! The inside is vanilla ice cream and passion fruit sorbet, so it's like a creamsicle. It got such a huge response, and since it isn’t quite refined enough for Picholine, it's going on the menu at Artisanal.