A Razor, A Shiny Knife

If Anthony Bourdain is my hero, then Michael Cirino is...also my hero. He's the mastermind behind A Razor, A Shiny Knife, an underground dining phenomenon in New York. There was an article in the Times several months ago about these underground restaurants (essentially, you're paying to go to a dinner party; it's "underground" because of the stringent health codes regarding food and kitchens). I got on the mailing lists for a few of them, and Saturday's was the first that I could actually afford/didn't have a scheduling conflict.

The dinner took place in a converted industrial loft in Williamsburg. In a normal New York-sized apartment kitchen, Michael and his compadres made the following for 24 people:
1. Lemon verbena gel topped with cauliflower puree and paddlefish caviar
2. Salmon tartare with red onion creme fraiche and a butter cookie
3. Hot potato/cold potato: a wax bowl filled with cold potato soup, then topped with a hot potato ball, a cube of butter, chive, a slice of black truffle soaked in cream, and salt
4. Celery root puree topped with black truffle sous vide in cream and a veal demi glace ragout
5. A "black truffle explosion": handmade ravioli filled with a sphere of black truffle juice and butter, topped with a piece of lettuce cooked down in butter, a slice of black truffle in cream, and parmesan
6. A foie gras cake: foie gras spread over a pistachio cake and then topped with a grape gelee, served with a basil leaf and a thin slice of dried pear
7. Beef tenderloin sous vide in beef fat, over a sour cherry and demi glace sauce, with horseradish cream and a brisket and cabbage dumpling
8. "Smores": A toasted marshmallow, granache brownie and chocolate mousse served with a graham cracker crumble, marshmallow fluff, and a chocolate emulsion
(Personally, I would have added more caviar to the first course, cut out the next two, served more of the truffle ravioli and foie gras cake, and added a cheese course at the end, with wine tastings for each course.)

Michael was recreating a number of Thomas Keller and Grant Achatz recipes; the invitation listed a possible 21 courses, of which we got eight. The full range of possibilities were:

CORNET OF SALMON – black sesame tuile, red onion crème fraîche
PRAWN – yuba, miso, orange
WHITE STURGEON CAVIAR – Lemon verbena gelée, cauliflower
BLIS CHAR ROE – coconut, coriander, vanilla fragrance

HOT POTATO-COLD POTATO – black truffle, chive, butter
BLACK TRUFFLE EXPLOSION – romaine, parmesan
HEN EGG CUSTARD – ragoût of black winter truffles
JACOBSEN’S FARM MUSQUÉE DE PROVENCE SOUP – sea urchin sabayon, black truffle purée

IBÉRICO HAM – acorn, compressed apple, celery, endive, honey

JAPANESE GREENUP ABALONE – yuzu, tapioca, seaweed, matsutake mushroom broth

ELYSIAN FIELDS FARM LAMB – fennel, pernod, coffee aroma

SNAKE RIVE FARMS ‘CALOTTE DE BOEUF GRILLÉE” – brisket and cabbage dumplings, horseradish pudding, sour cherries

CHESTNUT – quince, chocolate, baked potato

CONCORD GRAPE – yogurt, mint, long pepper
TRANSPARENCY of raspberry, rose petals

SPICE CAKE – persimmon, rum, Ohio honeycomb

CHOCOLATE S’MORES – graham cracker ‘crunch,’ chocolate ‘crémeux,’ creamy “fluff” toasted marshmallow, chocolate emulsion

SWEET POTATO – bourbon, brown sugar, smoldering cinnamon

Wines:
Champagne
Chardonnay
Hermitage Blanc
Gamay
Cabernet Sauvignon
Madeira
Trockenbeerenauslese

Needless to say, this was the most interesting Saturday night I've had in a while. The space was amazing, the food was even more amazing, and it was a nice change of pace to be in a room full of people as nerdily excited as I was about all the foie gras and truffles. And for once, I wasn't the only person hanging around the kitchen, asking for recipes and debating the virtues of hand-cranked pasta rolling machines vs. Kitchenaid pasta rolling attachments and taking pictures of the food. There was even an artisanal bartender, with his own handmade cube ice, serving drinks made with bacon-infused bourbon (trust me, I got THAT recipe) and sour cherry juice and foie-infused cognac (those were not all in the same drink, that would be gross). I got something that was equal parts gin, Lillet, Cointreau, and lemon juice. Yum. With dinner, we got a Spanish cava for the first six courses and a Cotes du Rhone for the last two.

My one quibble with the evening was that there simply wasn't enough food. The first six courses were all one bite each; while the beef and the dessert were much more filling, I found myself having to scarf down an emergency granola bar in the subway on the way home. I would have also liked a bigger wine selection. That being said, I was chatting with Michael after the dinner and discovered that of the $100 a person we all paid to attend, $85 was spent on the food. Just the food--that doesn't include the wine and booze. So he was basically breaking even, and he's getting ready to fly to Chicago for a series of dinners there--again, barely breaking even, and that doesn't include the airfare. He's got himself one expensive and time-consuming hobby, but you know what? I would start my own underground restaurant in a heartbeat. If any of you are interested, let me know.

For pics, go here.