Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
city restaurant, it only takes a few minutes
for vegetables and fruit to get from field to
kitchen up in Westchester. Dan Barber's
cooking is energized by produce so fresh
the soil is still clinging moistly to its roots,
the leaves still warm from the sun. As a
cook, he has always favored gentle poach-
ing and braising, methods ideally suited to
expressing the deepest essence of vege-
tables. Many diners walk out raving over
the ingredients, not realizing what skill it
took to make such seemingly simple dishes
soar.
Dan Barber goes way beyond the typi-
cal locavore cruising a farmer's market for
daily produce. He's free to plant unusual
varieties of vegetables—the sort that are
bred for flavor rather than for shelf life and
transportability—and raise heirloom
breeds of poultry, sheep, and pigs (free-
range, of course). He has become quite
the activist chef, in fact, writing op-ed
pieces for the
New York Times
and serving
on several advisory boards including Slow
Food USA.
It's impossible to predict what you'll
find on the restaurant's five-course tasting
menu or the even longer Farm Feast sam-
pler. If spring peas are at their height, you
may find peas everywhere on the menu—
in a crisp gazpacho, in creamy cannelloni,
and mixed into a seafood risotto. When it's
time for beets, parsnips, and fennel in
autumn, you'll find them in dizzying profu-
sion—julienned, pureed, layered, minced,
roasted whole—alongside perfectly
poached fish, amazingly flavorful turkey,
or deeply savory pork. Summer is an espe-
cially lovely time of year to come, not only
because you'll be at the height of the
growing season, but because late summer
sunsets give you more daylight to enjoy
the view of meadows and fields from the
dining room's large windows.
The center itself (www.stonebarns
center.org) hosts several weekly tours,
workshops, and lectures. Monthly wine
Dan Barber's farm-to-table cuisine at Blue Hill at
Stone Barns.
dinners and special holiday feasts give din-
ers even more of a reason to take that
easy train ride from Manhattan. Reserva-
tions are taken 1 month in advance for
dinner Wednesday through Sunday or for
Sunday brunch.
630 Bedford Rd., Pocantico Hills
(
&
914/366-9600;
www.bluehillstone
barns.com).
(
John F. Kennedy International (38
miles/61km); Newark Liberty International
(44 miles/71km); LaGuardia (29 miles/
47km).
L
$$
The Lucerne,
201 W. 79th St.,
New York NY (
&
800/492-8122
or 212/
875-1000; www.thelucernehotel.com).
$
Milburn Hotel,
242 W. 76th St., New
York NY (
&
800/833-9622
or 212/362-
1006; www.milburnhotel.com).
