LeRoy, who earns $250,000 a year, has already revamped the menus, substituting grilled fish and salads for squab shashlik that's pigeon on a skewer and pickled vegetables.
(A recent Time Out London review said that Jama's menu, which substitutes braised lamb for camel, was "delicious" and "gratifyingly hand-made," and noted that sauces were "served in polystyrene cups").
He and Franco bonded quickly as they discussed the tasting menu and substituted a huge portion of excellent thin-sliced calf's head -- dressed in vinaigrette with tomato and basil -- for the dainty gelee of beets.
The result is that we let price or label or flowery menu descriptions substitute for our own self experience".
The substituted menu is not for all patients — at least not yet.
The new menus, chock full of potatoes and meat substitutes, seem right out of a Spartan's cookbook.
Imagine menus where Asian carp substitutes for the threatened Chilean sea bass, or lionfish replaces grouper, which is overfished.
The French onion soup and Manhattan clam chowder on the menu, which can be substituted for the soup du jour, were also winners.
The short dessert menu includes an ingenious substitute cheese course, a Stilton tartlet with pear chutney, candied walnuts and chestnut honey.
A quick second look at the menu resulted in a substitute order of braised pork belly with clams and "giant white beans," a brave combination, so odd it had to be good.
