"I loved it: the presentation, the flavor, the ritual".
The food at North Star is pretty to look at, but Chef Matthew Stanczak, who once cooked at Aurora, in Rye, doesn't let presentation trump flavor.
The Claresse, said Hendrik Colpaert, Anova's marketing director, "is positioned as eel, though not in presentation or flavor; the reaction from retailers has been very favorable".
Open-faced ravioli with mesquite-smoked tomatoes, mushrooms, greens and goat cheese is, not to put too fine a point on it, a mess, from the perspectives of both presentation and flavor.
"From testing to training, food photography and vendor presentation, the Flavor Lab fosters innovation," said Jean-Marie Clement, director of food and beverage concept development.
(Avoid in particular the Alaskan king crab -- essentially a size-large ceviche presentation with little flavor and much chewiness).
In many ways this full-bodied, though unrefined "Tina's specialty" presentation, which offers flavor, not finesse, represents "A" Tarantella's Naples-Brooklyn roots.
This modest-sized restaurant in a 19th-century, pale-yellow frame house was purchased by chef Margaret Fox in 1977 as a kind of Chez Panisse North, a kitchen that gloried in the organic, the locally produced, the presentation of authentic flavors.
Thick, graceless slices of dense smoked breast of duck made an unappealing presentation, but the gamy flavor did go well with orange compote and raspberry dressing.
The clinical message of the menu, though, is quickly dispelled by the food itself, which champions epicurean standards in flavor and presentation, featuring robust ingredients meticulously composed, like skinless baby sweet peppers stuffed with avocado and tuna tartare, and beet-root broth with orange sections.
