How much would you pay for perfection?

Conventional wisdom (mine included), among those who have eaten at both restaurants, says Urasawa (LA) is a better experience than Masa at one-half the price. It was a case of the student, Urasawa, surpassing the teacher, Masa. The Masa experience has been derided for its exorbitant price and short duration. If you factor these two variables out, and just focus on the food, I had the best sushi meal of my life at Masa this past February.

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Rather than compile a simple list, I’ll post a hypothetical perfect meal where the confines of time, distance, and narrative play no part in compiling the list of 2007’s best dishes. This is an attempted menu, not a preferential ordering; if pressed, I’d have a very hard time ranking them. The long list is also a testament to a great year in dining.

The pastiche of chefs and dishes represented here would render an actual meal schizophrenic - from high concept to base ingredients, a jerky back and forth - but try to imagine eating this wonderful meal on its own terms - a collection of wonderful dishes.

The restaurant names are linked to the original reviews of the meals. I’ve left the original descriptions intact.

If you have a blog, post your “perfect meal” for 2007, link to this blog, and I will link to them below:
1 - CountryEpicure has posted a great looking meal
2 - very good food has posted her favorite meals of the year
3 - Ulterior Epicure has an impressively long list of favorites.

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I’ve reported on Urasawa before - it’s one of the very best restaurants in the country. Los Angeles might be a superficial slum to some, but more integrity and soul go into each Urasawa dish than any restaurant I’ve visited. Each dish is meticulously crafted and lovingly served. Urasawa almost transcends its restaurant digs - it’s more of a temple for food.

Grilled Shitake Sushi

Here are the photos from my meal last week. The first few courses are usually the same, ingredients and variations changing with the season. Then the usual onslaught of sushi arrives.

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Every year, one restaurant captures my attention like no other. In 2004, Manresa began what has been tremendous run of meals. Ludo Lefebvre’s Bastide of 2005 awoke my palette to the wonders that might lie across the sea and, no doubt, provided inspiration for my 2006 European adventure. In 2006, it was Ideas in Food’s two stellar meals at their former Keyah Grande restaurant. For 2007?

From top to bottom, there may not be a restaurant with greater attention to detail and production values than El Poblet. The restaurant is quite modern with a huge open kitchen as you walk in. The menus nearly qualify as works of art. In the technique/ingredient matrix, you would be hard-pressed to find a restaurant that uses such high-quality ingredients for their experiments. And in the realm of dining as experience, despite the crass commercialization of the beach ghetto Denia, El Poblet (the restaurant and food) has a Shakespearian quality - poetic and magical.

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One month and eight reviews later, I’ve saved the best for last. This is the final adventure of the eight day truffle trip.

The truffle trip was in danger of becoming a misnomer. Truffles popped up in a few dishes over the past few weeks’ reviews, but their impact or form was not up to our expectations. We came to gorge on truffles - we wanted decadent vulgar displays of gastronomic wealth. We got mostly after-thoughts with but a few truffle-focused dishes.

Les Ambassadeurs was a last-minute tack-on after we learned L’Ambroisie and Le Meurice (hey, I wouldn’t mind meeting Mandy Moore) were closed during our ill-timed visit. The last Les Ambassadeurs meal certainly had potential given the ingredient quality and our 3rd member was very intrigued by the endless parade of desserts. The dining room is not especially conducive to eating but we figured we’d give it a shot (in hopes of finding top-notch truffles.)

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