A few weeks ago I had one of the coolest dining experiences — through a fortuitous affiliation of friends of friends I was invited to eat dinner at Quince restaurant at the Chef’s table. I had never heard of a chef’s table before, but apparently quite a few restaurants have them. Quince’s chef’s table is located in the lower prep kitchen one floor down from the actual restaurant and it has only one table which is cozily nestled in between a shelf of homemade pasta and a flurry of pastry chefs.
It was easily one of the most interesting and varied meals I have ever had. We had our choice of a three or four course a la carte menu from which I chose a parmesan and morel custard, a pici (house-made Italian pasta) and fiddlehead fern (which I chose mostly because the idea of eating fern seemed like an adventure) and finally a nettle pasta with house-smoked ricotta. Our host went to high school with the sommelier and she helped us to pair each of our courses with a different glass of wine.
Sadly, the kitchen at Quince is being remodeled, so the chef’s table there is soon to be a thing of the past.
