Eleven Madison Park - New York, NY

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Sample Menu From Eleven Madison Park
http://www.elevenmadisonpark.com/
A dear friend of ours (TL) is turning the big 4-0 and is the first of hubby’s ‘Stuy Posse’ to reach this milestone. In celebration, his wife (SL aka CuisineNV) threw him a lovely dinner party at Eleven Madison Park, a place that I've longed to go to, but was afraid to try. I saw this restaurant featured on some show...can't remember which one, but I do recall my reaction when I checked out the menu online. It was first confusion…then bewilderment…huh – this is the menu? What? I need to choose the ingredients? I consider myself a good cook, but not a chef by any means.

A good cook can read a recipe, follow the instructions and deliver a reliably good, if not great meal. A chef on the other hand can create those recipes and find combinations that the average cook would be unable to craft. I guess a menu such as this shows what a great and creative team of chefs they employ because they have to create new dishes everyday, meal after meal. It leaves a lot to the imagination and conceptually cool, but this kind of open model cooking doesn’t naturally appeal to someone like myself. I like tried and true recipes…sure, be creative, but leave me out of the process.

Thankfully, SL did all the choosing and did all the thinking for us. That was nice since she has a great palette and I trust her taste (oh, and she is an actual chef). Therefore, we could just focus on the birthday boy and having a good time.

The food was yummy and surprisingly, the first course was my favorite. I normally am not a fan of scallops, but those master chefs made it so delicious that I think I will try them more often from now on. Of course, good food is one thing, but an evening is not complete without the right company. I'm lucky that I got married to an amazing man and also ended up marring into a wonderful group of warm, caring and fun friends (his extended family).

It was a lovely evening and was a great way to end the first week of the new year!