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L’ecole

Jen, Cheryl, Nora and I went out to celebrate Cheryl’s belated birthday, it was on September 19th, but Nora was away on her honeymoon in St. Lucia. Jen suggeted L’ecole, part of the French Culinary Institute. The meals are prepared by the students of the French Culinary Institue (FCI). L’ecole is located at 462 Broadway and you can make reservations on OpenTable. The menu changes every six weeks. We went for the four course prixe fixe dinner. The menu can be found at http://www.frenchculinary.com/lecole_menus.htm#4course.

Jen got:

• Heirloom Tomato Salad with White Anchovies, Corn Vinaigrette
• Roasted Duck with Jicama Fondant, Bok Choy & Sweet and Sour Black Pepper Sauce
• Rosemary Cake with Goat Cheese Mousse (not on online menu)

Cheryl ordered:

• Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut Cream & Chanterelles
• Seared Tuna with Grilled Bacon, Baby Fennel, Cherry Tomatoes, Brown Butter and a Sour Cream Sauce
• Chocolate Ganache Cake with Mocha Sauce

Nora got:

• Wild Mushroom Tart (not on online menu)
• Wild Striped Bass with a Parsnip-Parmesan Puree, Roasted Mushrooms, and Red Wine Sauce
• Caramelized Apple Tart with Green Apple Sorbet

I ordered:

• Country Pâté with Cherry Chutney & Cornichons
• Grilled Australian Lamb Chops with with Eggplant Tomato Gratin, and Bordelaise Sauce ($5.00 supplement)
• Crème Brûlée Le Cirque Style

I liked the heirloom tomato salad and the wild mushroom tart. The country pâté was okay, but foie gras would have been better. Cheryl’s butternut squash soup seemed very thick and maybe needed a little more salt.

For the entrees, the seared tuna was very good, as was the wild striped bass. The duck was good, but nothing beats the Chinese style duck and it was odd because it came medium. My lamb chops were good too, but they came medium too. I’m not used to having duck or lamp chops medium, so it was a bit odd.

The desserts were all very yummy, but the rosemary cake with goat cheese mousse takes a little getting used to. We had a nice bottle of Riesling from Germany with our meal.

I enjoyed myself a lot as did the rest of us, even though one of the guys there was kind of stuffy and kept on bothering us about a not having a complete party and how they usually don’t seat the party. But we kept reassuring him that we would order and not hold them up. He was very close to actually yelling at us because he said the chef kept looking over and was wondering why the food wasn’t getting eaten. Now I’m wondering why, if the chef, is so busy, does he keep looking over at us, especially if we’re such a small party. There were a good amount of big groups that I would worry about more, but that’s just me. The rest of the wait staff were very nice, polite and attentive. That guy, who was of higher rank, but I have no clue what he is called, should take a lesson from the wait staff and came down!

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