Blue Hill at Stone Barns

When the kids were young we would let each of them pick a top restaurant once a month and we would go there for a meal.  It was an education in hospitality, food and culture.  One of the most memorable was going up to Blue Hill at Stone Barns in the winter while snow was falling.  It was a magical night.  Emily asked to return and so we did.

The Stone Barn is absolutely beautiful.  It was an actually a dairy barn at one point so in many ways it is fitting to return to a culinary center.

We got to walk through the fields and hear about what they are growing.  Their farming techniques have been around forever.  They move the vegetables around the field every season taking 7 years to return to their original spot.  It creates layered soil and a delicious product.  They are also creating hybrids of products without any manmade genetic modifications.  It is impressive.

The meal is essentially whatever they are doing at the farm.  Not every table gets the same meal because they run out of things or whatever the case.  We had a heavy handed vegetable meal with a lot of asparagus and rhubarb which is in season right now.  Here are some of the highlights.  Vegetables from the garden.

I honestly can’t remember what this was but you layer the duck proscuitto on the side on top of this.  It was amazing.

Beet pizza over a crispy thin bread.

Silverware to choose from as the meal continues.  I really like this.

This was awesome.  A variety of egg yolks that have been dried.  We got to add this to each dish that came out afterwards to our liking.  The reddish eggs were because the chickens ate red peppers.  Crazy!

Half way through the meal we were treated by going into the bread kitchen first to hear about this program.  They have been starting to grow grains on the property and make their own breads.  The baker in training was there that night and she could not have been more engaging.  What an amazing place to learn your trade.

Then we went into the kitchen.  The place is huge and humming.  You can see Dan Barber checking out the dishes in this shot.

I loved being in the kitchen.  This is all the cookbooks and a variety of house made products that they use.

We had one of our courses in the kitchen.  Dan told a story about a 400 pound pig that they were given that had been hanging out for the past two months.  This course was off the charts.

Dessert came next back at the table.  This was a strawberry oriented dish almost like mochi.

Then the baker, Zoe, came out with a loaf of warm chocolate bread stuffed with dried cherries and chunks of chocolate and a caramel sauce to dip it into on the side.  Kind of the perfect ending to the meal.

What a treat.