[Pigging by Wilfrid: December 5, 2011]
If you don't know Um Segredo, it's because it's a too-well-kept secret. It's what happens when a skilled restaurant chef ends up between gigs, and just can't stop cooking.
The chef in question is Dave Santos, most recently of the crazed Hotel Griffou, but with a solid background in fine dining at places like Bouley and Per Se.
I think he'd agree it's been a bumpy ride recently. Five & Diamond seemed to want to go more family friendly - Monday night is now Mac'n'Cheese night. Hotel Griffou was already primarily a nightclub with a long wait for the bathrooms, and although Dave set up some highly praised special dinners, the venue was a bedlam of young people with eating at the bottom of their to-do lists.
Right now he's offering multi-course menus which reflect what he likes to cook - which means dishes reflecting his classical training and Portuguese roots. He has been announcing his menus on Mouthfuls. Happily, New York magazine noticed, although their Grub Street blog lazily copied and pasted the Mouthfuls content (same typos!).
At the dinner I attended, around eight or ten people sat around the table and enjoyed a long meal. Highlights included a home made blood sausage wrapped in al dente tripe, with a piquillo sauce and almonds.
He's a master of seafood, sending out a cod brandade reconfigured as a pot pie, and perfectly seared scallops with a red wine/fig sauce and hints of fennel. His pheasant was about as good as pheasant can ever be.
Seven courses, finishing with a characteristically deconstructed "pumpkin pie." I said at the time, that in comparison to many other pop-up dining clubs, this is restaurant cooking rather than good home cooking. I was immediately corrected: "This is top-level restaurant cooking." Yes indeed. I have booked another trip for myself: remember - this could still be around a month from now, it could finish next week. Think on't, as I believe they say in Yorkshire.
There is now a Facebook page; you can also follow developments at the Mouthfuls link above or email Dave at [email protected].
Donations, $75 and up. BYOB. Here are some of Dave's upcoming plans:
We were there on Saturday for the truffle dinner. Whoever corrected you had it exactly right: top-notch restaurant cuisine!
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11863391@N03/sets/72157628286048117/
No surprise to us since we've known Dave's extraordinary talent from his years at the upscale Restaurant Nicholas, in NJ (and I, like you, first met him on-line during the "good old day" on eG).
He just sent out an email with a link to his Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Um-Segredo/291770270863639
Posted by: Roz | December 05, 2011 at 02:51 PM