those of you who know me know that there is nothing i love more than eating out.  but from time to time i also like going to restaurants…

it’s no secret that i love food.  and as any proper foodie knows, blue hill at stone barns is foodie mecca.  having waited 3 years to go to blue hill, we finally made it for april’s birthday dinner.  located in westchester on the grounds of the stone barns center for food & agriculture (a non-profit farm and educational center built on 80 acres of land formerly belonging to the rockefeller estate), the restaurant is the epitome of locavore dining.  vegetables are harvested ripe from the farm not long before they find their way into your belly. complimenting the uniquely fresh vegetables are various delicious animals from chef dan barber’s other farms.  

unlike every other restaurant in the world, there are no menus at blue hill.  rather, they provide you with a list of everything that’s seasonal at the farm.  after you tell the server of any dietary restrictions you might have, the chefs begin preparing you a customized 8-course meal (though we were told chef barber himself foamed our soups!).  our marathon of eating began with a handful of delicious amuse-bouches and ended 4 hours later with 3 desserts and the most amazing tea service you’ve ever seen.  having gone at night, our food pictures weren’t great, but i did manage to write down all the dishes we had:

amuse-bouches
baby vegetables from the farm & a fresh herb spritzer
asparagus spear wrapped in pancetta & sesame seeds
roasted kale
cured round of grass-fed beef and homemade bologna with buckwheat flatbread

courses
spring salad with asparagus, watercress, johnny jump up wild flowers, and goat cheese foam
red fife brioche with homemade ricotta and ramp marmalade
potato onion bread with butter from ronnybrook farm
maine shellfish in spinach soup with potato foam
asparagus, broccoli rabe, watercress, and almond salad
home cultivated mushrooms with lettuce froth
local black bass with ramps
homemade gnocchi with mushrooms
hudson valley chicken with morel mushrooms and beet greens
berkshire pork with beet greens and carrots

desserts
strawberries with soy milk & sea salt
chocolate brioche with coffee cream & caramel ice cream
strawberries with flax seed caramels

while the food was already enough to write home about, the post-dinner tea service put this meal over the top.  when you ask for tea service at blue hill, your server wheels a cart over to your table holding a number of vases filled with fresh herbs.  they begin telling you about each herb and what combinations of flavors go well together, all the while snipping small pieces of the herbs from their stems and placing them on a tray for you to touch and smell.  after you decide which ones you want (we had 2 pots: chocolate mint/lavendar & orange mint/lemon balm) they snip off all the herbs you need and steep them for you.  i swear it’s like drinking a beautiful country field.  

the point here is that one day you need to go blue hill yourself and have the greatest meal of your life.  the downside is that eating out will never be the same after and you’ll constantly be wondering why all meals aren’t 4 hour eating marathons.