Off Menu Dining

[Simon Tan]

Over the years, I have generally cultivated relationships with a few of my favourite restaurants to a point where they indulge me with off menu items. Sometimes I am a guinea pig or mine canary, other times I am agent provocateur. Suffice to say that almost all these places now have omakase of Chef's Discretion with their loyal customers. I noticed a certain loathing to do this in the US, both on the part of the house and patrons. It is a difficult balance to maintain, without seeming to load up with the high ticket items. It also requires contact between chef and diner.

 

Sometimes, the results are most surprising. A Japanese place I went to started to serve essentially Scotch eggs as an appetizer. They did it very well, but the egg was only slightly soft. I challenged them to have the egg a la 'onsen tamago' (runny poached). After a couple of weeks....a Scotch Egg was put in front of me by the chef. A fork into the crisp breaded meat shell and running white and dark orange interlace. It had been solved and was utterly sublime. The entire kitchen spent a week trying a variety of solutions....suffice to say it was not chef who cracked it. Since then, this has become part of the 'off menu' and been kicked up a notch by going to duck eggs.

 

Dining local and supporting the local talent is something that is often not adequately cultivated. Screw Ramsay and Puck.

[Rick]

A couple of my renters work in local restaurants. What you have stated is true.