Atera

**Note.  If you are planning on dining at Atera, I highly recommend eating the food before reading this post, as it will ruin a lot of surprises through the course of the meal**

It's amazing how many culinary trends New York City has undertaken in the past decade.  The fall of the twin towers caused the death of fine dining, where as a nation we turned to more economically feasible comfort food options.  We looked for menus that had a recognizable burger and french fries, instead of duck and foie gras.  Fast forward a few years and we became ready to play with our food, and all the emphasis was on molecular gastronomy and the multiple ways we could manipulate nature's ingredients.  Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck in Bray, England, and Ferran Adria's El Bulli in Catalonia, Spain were the world's best known restaurants to showcase it.  When trendsetters like Alinea in Chicago, and WD-50 in New York City ran out of ideas, so did the city's interest with science.  We've seen it already, what can we do next?

Then out of nowhere the "fad" was a practice multiple chefs had been utilizing for years.  Relationships they had built with farmers and emphasis on fresh and local produce started the "farm-to-table" craze.  Like little kids showing off their newest and coolest toys, it became a trend for restaurants to show which local farmers they were using, and how they were showcasing their products.  "Here we have a strawberry soup utilizing strawberries from Berried Treasures Farm."  It was a vehicle that caused all these hard-working low-key farmers at the greenmarket to finally become celebrities in their own right, but chefs decided to push this further.  They wanted to up themselves.  Thus began urban farming and rooftop gardening.

But this is New York City.  We need to push the envelope even further.  We need to watch what chefs from all around the world are doing, and then we need to up that.  Well, New York finally has a theater in which to showcase the newest food craze.  It is called Atera, and the 31 year-old Chef Matthew Lightner has brought from Portland not just a philosophy to utilize local farms, but local parks.  The new trend is called "foraging", and foraged food is now beginning to pop up on menus all around the city.



How did it start?  All you need to do is look at Rene Redzepi, the chef and owner of the world's number one restaurant, Noma, located in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Rene's climb to become the chef at the world's best restaurant is a separate story, but it is his approach to food which is beginning to inspire younger chefs from all around the world.  Rene becomes inspired not by what can be manipulated and grown at a farm, but by food in its natural state, growing in parks or by the shore of the beaches.  It has become second-nature for him to pick out what most of us would see as a weed, crush it, taste it, and utilize it in his restaurant.  Noma now has three full-time foragers working for them.

Matt had spent one month working at Noma, and 18 months working in Spain's Mugaritz, mastering Spanish technique and learning how to celebrate one main ingredient.  He brought his new experience back to the United States to Portland and became the Executive Chef of Castagna.  It was here that he started to win numerous awards such as "Rising Star Chef" and one of Food & Wine's "Best New Chefs" of 2010.  Yearning to forage and experience a different part of the country, he has thus brought his experience to New York City, and opened the 17-seat, tasting menu only Atera.  Atera in just a few months after opening, garnered three stars from the NY Times, and has already placed Matt at a culinary level very few chefs have achieved in this city.

The front door, advertising so many other businesses

"Nothing is as it seems" is the philosophy you need to remember when dining at Atera.  This includes walking up to the restaurant.  Atera is located at 77 Worth Street, and when you get to the outside of the building, you realize it shares the space with a veterinary hospital, doggie day care, and an eye & ear doctor's office.  "You see some really strange shit in this building.  Yesterday I saw a dog in a wheelchair." is how a friend explained it after being given a tour at the end of the meal.  Luckily a well-dressed doorman stands at the open window and lets you in.  However, he is very cold and didn't smile or even say hello until I did.  The experience started off as very uncomfortable for me.

Right off to the left is the host stand, with the restaurant's logo hanging on the wall to the left.  Just beyond him is the main space, a somewhat dark room with a 12-seat counter-top surrounding the incredibly spotless open kitchen, with a five-seat table located in the back-left corner.  Above the back table is the "living wall", in which various herbs are growing right in the corner of the restaurant.  Natural light shines in from some open windows on the left of the "stage".  When it does get dark out, the mood and setting of the restaurant changes, where even a visit to the bathroom will have your eyes refocusing on where the door latch is.

Matthew was not at the restaurant the night I dined, but Victoria Blamey, Atera's sous chef, was in the kitchen leading a team of four cooks.  Also in the kitchen are two kitchen servers, dressed in black & white, ready to explain the series of dishes as they drop them in front of you.  If these two are busy, the cooks and Victoria do not hesitate to meet you and drop off the next courses themselves.  It made the feeling of the room very warm, as you can tell everyone there was interested in making you feel welcomed.

The meal is broken into three different parts.  The first is a series of "snacks", all being one or two bites and making you eat with your hands (No utensils or even a placemat are presented yet), then comes the savory courses, followed by a series of desserts.  A cheese course can be added if you prefer.  I highly recommend doing the wine pairing, as the sommelier paired the courses very well together.  As the first series of snacks come to you, you can't help but feel the portions are humorously small, but by the end of the meal you will feel very full.  I am a man that can eat, and when I leave in almost physical pain, believe me when I tell you there is a lot more in store for you.

The pace of the kitchen is also very spot on, where after a course is cleared, the next will arrive in under five minutes, and in some cases, in under thirty seconds.

**Before I get into the food please understand that a lot of these courses have been manipulated to create something that is recognizable.  I may miss a few ingredients in the descriptions, but it is up to you to dine here and experience the hard work and flavors the kitchen presents yourself.**

I started with a small bite of a beer and cheese macaroon.  Inside the macaroon is a generous dollop of osetra caviar.  Not a bad way to start.

Beer & Cheese Macaroon with Osetra Caviar

Next came a flax cookie.  Mushrooms are dried and powdered, and mixed with coriander seed.  The powder is dusted onto the cookie right before serving.  When I did eat this, I thought the coriander overpowered the other flavors, as it was the only thing I could taste.

Flax Cookie with Dried Mushrooms and Coriander

The kitchen then presents their version of a lobster roll.  Lobster is mixed with mayonnaise but the buns are made of toasted meringue.  A little bit recognizable, but a completely different flavor combination from what you may expect.

"Lobster Roll"

The next snack I didn't fully understand, and was my least favorite of all of them.  It is a horseradish parfait with halibut and mustard seed.  The parfait created an ice cold bite with a small amount of fish in the middle.  Since you are being watched I ate this one with a straight face simply out of courtesy.

Horseradish Parfait with Halibut and Mustard

A trio of snacks are presented next, and these are a few that Atera is now well-known for.  A pickled quail egg (remember, it is not as it seems) is garnished with muldon salt and presented in a bed of hay.  A "foie gras peanut" is foie mousse made to resemble a peanut.  The last is a "chips & dip" made of dried pork blood and herbed yogurt.  The chip was my favorite of the three.

Pickled "Quail Egg"

Foie Gras Peanut

Pig's Blood Chip

The trio as presented

Atera's now famous "surf clam" snack came next.  It is actually a baguette that is tinted with squid ink as it cooks, baked to resemble the shell of a surf clam.  After baking an ice cream made with surf clam and lemongrass is piped in, and garnished with small herbs and thin slices of clam.  As its presented to you the kitchen server says "it's all edible".  Your mind tells you no, and after just one bite you can't help but shake your head in awe.

"Surf Clam"

Next up was another "chip".  This one made of dried duck stock and garnished with sorrel and spinach leaves.  The stock was incredibly concentrated, making for a very flavorful few bites.

Duck Stock Chip with Spinach and Sorrel

The next chip is presented on a bed of rocks.  "This is rock tripe, a type of lichen".  This course is a great interpretation of the "foraging" philosophy.  When Matt moved here from Portland he began to hike in Harriman State Park (Bear Mountain), located about one hour north of the city.  The "rock tripe" grows on rocks in this park and is considered edible when prepared correctly.  Early North American travelers used it as a food source when other food sources were not available.  Here, the "tripe" is transformed into a chip with an herb mayo presented underneath it.

"Rock Tripe"

The last snack was my favorite of all of them by far.  This is swordfish belly, treated much like ham.  It is salt cured and preserved, sliced thin, rolled to resemble slices of deli ham, and sprayed with pork fat.  It looked and tasted just like pork, even though you were eating swordfish.  Bravo for this one Matthew.

Swordfish Belly

The "real" menu starts next.  All 17 courses of it.

You start off with a cup of frozen and smoked tomato ice.  Underneath the ice is fresh sea urchin or uni.  The freshness of the ingredients and temperature contrasts really stood out in this one.

Smoked Tomato Ice with Sea Urchin

Next came diver scallops.  The scallops are almost mashed on the bottom of the tasting, and topped with pickled green tomato, scallop "chips", and black sesame.

Diver Scallops with Black Sesame and Pickled Green Tomato

A tasting of peekytoe crab was up next.  It is presented with artichoke leaves, strained buttermilk cream, and a cold herb infusion or oil.  Honestly, out of the savory courses this was the one that didn't do anything for me at all.

Peekytoe Crab with Artichoke Petals and Herb Oil

My favorite was up next.  This is lamb tartare mixed with ground tomato.  What made this course was the malt cracker is it served with.  Together the dish had so much flavor running through it.

Lamb and Tomato Tartare with Malt Cracker

Along with this course came a little bundle of joy.  Two slices of salty lamb bacon are presented with nasturtium flowers.  They were very good, and the presentation was spectacular.

Lamb Bacon with Nasturtium Flowers

The next course was seared duck hearts, however, I was not sure if they were to be the star of the plate or the salad surrounding them.  The salad was made of slightly blanched tender young vegetables, mixed with more nasturtium flowers, and pastrami spices.  The kitchen servers will pour a spoonful of mushroom stock over the salad.  It was hard to get everything as one bite, but even eating it separately made for an enjoyable course.

Seared Duck Hearts with Slightly Blanched Baby Vegetables

The first of three breads is finally presented to you next.  Atera makes all their breads, and even their butter, in house.  The first of the three, a Rye bread, is good, but the butter is the standout.  It was easily the best butter I have ever had.

Rye Bread and House-made Butter

The next course was Matt's play on New York City's comfort food, the ramen noodle.  Although I couldn't pick out the main ingredient in the noodle this course was very tasty.  A few roasted shallots are buried underneath the noodles, and a chicken bouillon is poured out of a test tube tableside...err...counterside.  The broth is poured over a dissolvable "plastic" packet, which holds, guess what, more flowers.

"Ramen"

Next up is the beet course, and this one will truly blow your mind in terms of presentation.  Matt thought of this course as he had forgotten a tray of beets in the oven, and in the morning noticed that they had taken on a very smoky black skin.  He then took this mistake a step further and now bastes the beets with water and hay ashes, and sears them on a charcoal grill.  The resulting beet looks like a rock, and when presented with salmon roe, a "burned bread crumble" and a sauce made from lobster stock and uni, you can't help but think of the ocean.  My only complaint about this course is that I wish the beet itself had more seasoning to it.

Beet with Salmon Roe and Crustacean Sauce

I was trying to capture the smoke coming off the beet here

The second bread comes next, and is presented as a "pork roll".  Sourdough bread is baked and brushed with the fat of mangalitsa pigs.  Matt, now you're truly playing with my emotions.

Pork Roll

Brined hake is dropped next.  It is presented with daisy flowers, which sit atop wildflower honey and yogurt.  The sauce is comprised of mushrooms and fish sauce.

Brined Hake with Wildflower Honey and Yogurt

The second-to-last savory course was a barbecued veal sweetbread.  The bbq sauce tastes like your traditional bbq, but it mixed with hazelnuts to give it a more complex flavor.  The sweetbread sits on a board with pickled green garlic.

BBQ Veal Sweetbread with Pickled Green Garlic

The last of the three breads finally comes next.  Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it, though.  But after the pork roll, I honestly didn't even care to take a bite.

The last savory course is a slice of wagyu beef, cooked just under med rare.  It is presented with dehydrated lobster mushrooms cooked to resemble chips, and a sauce made of bone marrow and smoked onion.

Wagyu Beef with Lobster Mushrooms and Marrow Ragu

Before finishing this course the kitchen servers will ask if you'd like to add on an additional cheese course.  I highly recommend doing so.

The cheese that was presented is a type of sheeps milk cheese coming from the northern section of Vermont.  The rhine is very developed and has a lot of natural flavor.  The cheese is served with wild blueberries still on the branch, and a few slices of bread.  This blew all of the other courses away.

Sheep's Milk Cheese with Wild Blueberries

Like the savory courses the desserts that followed really played with your mind, and made you really think of what you were eating.  Most notably in the churro course, because after you realize what it is made from, you hate yourself for not even thinking of it sooner.

The first dessert is the "white rose", explained by my friend as "these take forever to make".  Frozen rosewater gel is mixed with orange blossom water and vinegar.  The petals are constructed frozen petal by frozen petal, and then sprayed with a vinegar made from wild beach roses.  The white rose sits atop a wildflower sherbet.  Matt picks orange blossom, roses, chamomile, and elderflower, soaks them in a mixture of cream and sugar mixed with lemon and lime juice in the refrigerator for several days, before finally turning them into ice cream.  The result is a very, very intense small bite.

The White Rose

Out of the desserts, the peach course that came next was my least favorite.  It had no "wow" factor and no punch of flavor.  The peach is slightly roasted and topped with a sunflower toffee ice cream.  Besides being visually aesthetic, this didn't really do anything for me.

Peach with Sunflower Toffee 

The dried tomato course is next.  Tomatoes are sun-dried and topped with a parsley powder.  Paired with a raw milk ice cream that sits atop what I believe was a hazelnut powder.  This course delivered nice flavors throughout.

Sun-Dried Tomato with Raw Milk Ice Cream

Next up was the churro.  Topped with white cardamom and cinnamon and paired with house-made nutella (chocolate and hazelnuts).  This will bring out the inner child in you.  And no, I refuse to tell you what the "churro" was really made from.  That you will have to see and taste for yourself (and if you're saving the surprise, do not read the last paragraph).

"Churro" with "Nutella"

The second-to-last course is a bourbon ice cream sandwich.  The ice cream is vanilla flavored, and made from cream that is aged in a bourbon cask for three weeks.  Looks and tastes like your traditional ice cream sandwich.  Fully savor this small bite, as there are just two small bites left to come.

Bourbon Cask Ice Cream Sandwich

The meal finishes with a hazelnut truffle, and a chocolate truffle made to resemble a black walnut.  The hazelnut truffle, eh, but the "black walnut", wow.

Hazelnut Truffle

The "Black Walnut"

Is Atera the best meal you'll ever have?  Honestly, probably not.  But as a meal that really makes you think and plays with your emotions and "what you think you know", it really does an outstanding job.  When you really try to think of how the flavors combinations come together, and the work that the kitchen has done to achieve these results, you can't help but applaud them.  Even when you think all you're eating is a churro with chocolate sauce, it boggles your mind when you realize something as simple as a churro was not created using a sweet dough, but from a piece of salsify.  It is a savory vegetable that tastes much like turnip.

Nothing is as it seems indeed.

**Update 9/13/2012**

The restaurant has just sent me a postcard in the mail thanking me for dining with them.  As nice of a touch as this is, the most exciting part is what reads on the bottom.  "Simply place this postcard in damp soil and watch the seeds grow."

The postcard is dotted with seeds

I am very excited to keep you updated on what's going to happen soon.

Atera

77 Worth Street

New York, NY 10013