Trailing triple play: Dovetail, Gramercy Tavern and Cru

It’s been a busy week for the Aspiring Chef. Worked on Sunday and today at the Fancy Food Show, helping at the Spanish section’s demonstrations of Serrano ham carving, tapas preparation and olive oil tasting. I had some friends over on Saturday for a dinner party, during which I braised some short ribs (good stuff), made a sweetbread marmalade (turned out mediocre, in my opinion) and an ugly but tasty pistachio cake.

And I did three days at three different restaurants: Cru, Dovetail and Gramercy Tavern.

Overall, I liked Dovetail the best, though both it and Cru were somewhat slow in terms of patrons. Dovetail had a lot of interesting food, and apparently is known for its sherry selection. But while I came for the work (manning the amuse bouche station, an inglorious job of plating three mini-apps and fresh cornbread), I stayed for the food. The roasted sirloin with beef cheek lasagna was particularly tasty, as was the brioche bread pudding with bananas, bacon brittle and rum ice cream.

I had less luck at Gramercy Tavern on the work side—for legal reasons, they don’t allow first-time trails to do anything but stand, watch and taste—but I was fed quite well. Stuffed, even. Gramercy is a legendary staple in New York, and while their look is a little dated, their food was pretty good. I was told that one of the signature dishes of executive chef Michael Anthony is the smoked trout with cippollini puree and pickled onion vinaigrette. It was easily my favorite. Some of the other dishes were a little boring, but I picked up some cool presentation tips (more on that later).

Finally, Cru, a West Village restaurant that some have said is on the skids. I had the pleasure of working with outgoing chef Shea Gallante, who is now going to work for David Bouley. A lot of folks had credited Chef Shea with the prior success and accolades at Cru, but sous chef Scott Riesenberger (who also worked at Gilt) definitely seems like a great chef, too.

But enough name-dropping BS. The food at Cru was as good as Dovetail, I thought, even though they did significantly less business. But I was most impressed by the plating (which was very beautiful). One plate, for example, was sauced to look like a flower, with stems, leaves and budding “blossoms” of scallop.

Each of these restaurants taught me a thing or two about plating and presentation, some of which I’ve also been taught in school. Here are a few tips: that might be transferable to home cooking:
-- The most heavily used utensil is not a pair of tongs, a fish spatula or some fancy Asian tweezers. It’s a saucing spoon. I’ve seen chefs use it to baste fish, flip all types of protein, transfer everything to plates, taste, etc. Frankly, I think most line cooks seem born with a saucing spoon in one hand and a folded up rag in the other to hold hot dishes and sauté pans.
-- Never put an even-numbered series of items on a plate. Always go with an odd-numbered amount.
-- Height on a plate is very important. At Cru, for example, they twist a lemon confit-like appareil so that it blooms upwards. Microgreens are constantly bunched together like ‘70s afros. And meats should lean against sturdy lesser ingredients so they look like collapsing buildings.