Per Se
Few people talk about it now, but in the late 1980s, Thomas Keller left New York with his tail very much between his legs. After a glittering opening, his Rakel restaurant had essentially "failed" after the stock market crash of 1987.
By the time he returned to the city in 2004 he was America's greatest living chef. After refining his clever, re-interpretative cooking to a point that tasted pretty much like perfection at the French Laundry on the Californian coast, Keller decided in 2001 to return to New York. With a rumoured $12m and a crack team of Napa Valley veterans he was ready to go. Even a fire that led to a false start couldn't hold Keller back, and Per Se was duly crowned the city's best.
Frank Bruni, the notoriously hard to please New York Times food critic called it "wondrous", and, two years later, Keller became only the second chef in the world to hold three Michelin stars for two different restaurants. Since then, Per Se - a restaurant of just 15 tables in the glitzy Time Warner Centre mall, overlooking the tree tops in Central Park - has continued to rack up the plaudits.
The food is split between two regularly changing nine course menus - the "chef's tasting" menu and the meat-free, seasonal "tasting of vegetables" - and is regularly credited with disarming even the most cynical diners. Keller has often talked about pricking the pomposity of the big-ticket restaurant experience. "It's just a restaurant", he once said of the French Laundry. But, the food at Per Se bears out his intent. The small, intense dishes, such as Coffee and Donuts, Liver and Onions, Noilly Prat, or Keller's famous Oysters and Pearls, often trigger an almost childlike glee in diners. Who could ask for more?
Behind the stove:
Chef de Cuisine Jonathan Benno
What they say:
"Too big, with the kind of clinical atmosphere that you get when you decide to open in a shopping mall. "Gordon Ramsay on Per Se "It's one of the most ambitious restaurants the city has seen in a long time, maybe ever." Frank Bruni, New York Times
New dish this year:
Pan-roasted Maine Sea Scallop, Confit of Winter Citrus "Suprê mes", Niçoise Olives, Broccoli Purée and Blood Orange Reduction
Not a lot of people know
Thomas Keller was a consultant on Pixar's animated rat-chef romp, Ratatouille.
10 Columbus Circle (at 60th Street), 4th Floor, New York, NY 10019, USA++1 212 823 9335
www.perseny.com
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