Peachy Picks L'Ecole The Restaurant of The French Culinary Institute
Previously, we featured L'Ecole in Tasty Tidbits:
We are pleased to announce it has graduated with flying colors to Peachy's Picks! L'Ecole, if you have not had the pleasure of dining there, is absolutely the best quality food in Manhattan we have ever seen for the price it is offered at. For four courses at $42, L'Ecole, the restaurant of The French Culinary Institute will exceed your expectations in every way. It is truly an opportunity to see the best chefs around right before they are drafted into the major leagues. The food is divine, the service is wonderful and there was not an empty table in sight, even on a Monday. You will remember we introduced The French Culinary Institute to you when we learned how to "mellow lobsters":
Last night the lobsters were on extended happy hour and we enjoyed all of the other heavenly creations of L'Ecole. Daniel Low, our pleasant waiter for the evening, surprised us with canapes of pickled vegetables. Before last night, Peachy did not eat pickled vegetables but she will eat them and ENJOY them at L'Ecole. From Nils Noren, Vice President of Culinary and Pastry Arts, who greeted us as we arrived, to Alice Stringer, the manager with polish, to Chef Justin Levine, who puts the t in talent, every person we encountered was the ultimate professional. Of course, Peachy Deegan in supreme crabbiness (we see crabby as positive!) ordered for an appetizer the Peekytoe Crab (from Maryland) and Artichoke Salad which was paired with avocado, ruby red grapefruit, saffron and yellow pepper coulis and grapefruit vinaigrette:
About 5% of the time, Peachy goes to a restaurant where they are able to tell her what she wants rather than listen to her order. This is in the 5%. Peachy would say about 95% of the time she knows what she wants, but following this lovely vision of crabbiness Peachy was introduced to the Cavatelli with rock shrimp, fava beans and ricotta salata which is just the best and the appetizer to order. Still we are thinking about it and how succulent the little shrimps were! The pan-roasted quail is simply superb as well and another high point of L'Ecole is that EVERYTHING is beautiful in presentation, much more so than most restaurants. Our new affinity for quail is pictured here:
For her entree, Peachy ordered the Black Angus Strip Steak which was cooked to perfection. Served with spinach puree, french fries and bone marrow bearnaise, which trumps regular bearnaise, it was a carnivore's dream and well in competition with the best steakhouses Peachy has ever been to, whether she was reviewing them or not! Again, the presentation was worthy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she had just been in the morning to preview Picasso:
The digestive consisted of buttermilk sorbet and caesar salad, and again we learned another thing that is to die for that you might not realize: buttermilk sorbet! Peachy sipped rose and pringa and could not have been more delighted with the dessert. If you can eat them all, we highly recommend that but if you pick just one, the White Chocolate and Coconut Lime Parfait with strawberry orange sorbet and rhubarb spice compote was absolutely amazing. What surprised Peachy the most about L'Ecole is that food she normally will not eat, she loved at L'Ecole. Coconut and white chocolate are normally a no, and they were a big yes last night even over such favorites as Apple Tart and Creme Brulee. Of course, of the food she normally loves, she worshipped at L'Ecole. You cannot go wrong with anything at L'Ecole and here is what the panel raved:
On a Monday evening the L’Ecole dining room was buzzing with a nice crowd filling the tables; the room is elegant and spacious, with modern décor and lighting, and nice background music at an appropriate volume so that you can still hear your conversation. As you relax in the elegant atmosphere, your menu arrives….and you can get 4 courses for only $42! It is like restaurant week everyday at L’Ecole, the restaurant of the French Culinary Institute. In the early evening diners choose from 4 courses from the Professional kitchen menu, prepared by professional chefs (some who are graduates of the FCI). Those whose dinner reservation is from 8pm onward will have a different menu with 5 courses prepared by the level 5 and 6 students of the French Culinary Institute (under supervision of course)!
As we had arrived earlier we dined from the professional chef’s menu. To begin, we opened up our palates with a nice amuse bouche: this was a selection of pickled vegetables such as English cucumber, watermelon radish, and mushrooms, a light and crisp opening to our meal. For an appetizer I began with Celery Root and Asian Pear Soup. This was a warm soup with a nice mild flavor that was also pleasing to the eye with a swirl of parsley purée on top. I would also highly recommend the Pan Roasted Quail Appetizer, which was crisp, flavorful, and simply delicious. For my entrée I chose the favorite dish of our server Daniel, the Juniper Smoked Rack of Lamb, shown above. This lamb was wonderful and cooked perfectly, and I loved the side of sunchoke-cheddar purée. In addition to the standard menu, each night of the week L’Ecole offers a dish from the Chef’s Classic Menu. On this Monday night it was a Skirt Steak with a savory and rich red wine and shallot sauce which was quite tasty as well. The next course was a Digestive interlude, a buttercream sorbet which was tangy and sweet, paired with a taste of a salad. The portions were just the right size- not too little and not too big.
Then it was one to my favorite course of a meal, dessert! Actually every dessert I tasted was delightful! The crème brûlée was perfection - a crisp layer topping a creamy sweet custard. The citrus brown butter cake had a spicy, citrus kick to it with a kumquat compote, and the apple tart was also so good, paired with a lovely honey lemon ice cream! In fact the sorbets accompanying the different desserts were all wonderful, ranging in flavors from chocolate olive oil to strawberry orange. Some complementary small dessert bites were also included, such as an almond cake with a raspberry atop. Many of the chefs in the professional kitchen are also teachers of the students, and in my experience being a teacher causes a professional to stay at his or her best. We met one of the professional chefs, Justin Levine, who expressed some of the philosophy of the L’Ecole, telling us that no matter what they want their customers to feel like they are getting a good value. Quality food without a pretentious attitude- perfect!
L’Ecole is truly a unique restaurant in that it is part of a cooking school, and one FCI graduate Rochelle took us behind the scenes to see the kitchen in action. All prep areas were clean, and the chefs and students were wearing crisp white uniforms. The kitchen is quite expansive to accommodate the students, with separate areas of appetizers, fish, meats, and the wonderfully fragrant pastry room! For a minute I could imagine to leave my day job to learn how to cook delicious food…however as I could see this was extremely hard work! So I will be happy to have a school in New York training the next generation of chefs so that I can continue to enjoy their skills when I dine out.
L’Ecole is truly a unique restaurant in that it is part of a cooking school, and one FCI graduate Rochelle took us behind the scenes to see the kitchen in action. All prep areas were clean, and the chefs and students were wearing crisp white uniforms. The kitchen is quite expansive to accommodate the students, with separate areas of appetizers, fish, meats, and the wonderfully fragrant pastry room! For a minute I could imagine to leave my day job to learn how to cook delicious food…however as I could see this was extremely hard work! So I will be happy to have a school in New York training the next generation of chefs so that I can continue to enjoy their skills when I dine out.
L’Ecole restaurant is housed in The French Culinary Institute in Soho, New York City. The French Culinary Institute has been training chefs in New York for the last 25 years. Open for business each day, they serve the most amazing dishes. Brunch is served on Saturday and Sunday from 11:30am to 2:30pm for only $19.50.
Justin Levine, the Culinary Chef Instructor for our evening has been there for 3 ½ years and clearly his experience shows in the preparation and delightful taste of the culinary dishes.
Our waiter Daniel Low took exceptional care of us throughout our L’Ecole experience. His attention to detail and knowledge was inspirational.
Considering our reservation was at 6:30pm on a Monday night, I was surprised to see how bustling the restaurant was. Happy to be seating in one of the restaurant’s luxury booths, we pondered the menu. With so many great options, we all had a hard time choosing a favorite!
Canapés were presented on a spoon. Lovely pickled vegetables, English cucumber, water melon radish with pickled mushroom were refreshing and tasty.
For appetizer I ordered Grilled Smoked Salmon. A strip of salmon arrived, surrounded with small cut hard boiled quail eggs, baby yellow beets and decorated with rich orange curry vinaigrette. The presentation of colors on the plate were extremely pleasing to the eye, the combination of flavors were outstanding. I also tried the pan roasted quail, by far my favorite dish of the day! Also a firm favorite of the table was the Cavatelli with Rock Shrimp, simply delightful.
For my entrée I was eager to try the Tuna. Seared Tuna wrapped with Nori was outstanding, shown above. Edamame and horseradish puree with a warm mushroom salad complimented the dish. The tuna was cooked to perfection and simply melted in my mouth, an outstanding job! I was also lucky to be able to try the Pan Roasted Trout, I am still thinking about how wonderful that dish actually was.
Prior to dessert, the digestive was served. A butter milk sorbet with a mini Caesar salad cleansed my palate immensely; honestly you will need a moment as the desserts are to die for!
As I do not have a sweet tooth, I am surprised to admit that I am craving both the wonderful Crème Brulee and the White Chocolate with Coconut Lime Parfait, both exceeded any expectations. [Insert from Peachy: This dining panelist never eats dessert, but she ate it here and loved it!] In fact everything about L’Ecole will exceed your expectations, for a mere $42 dollars, this fixed price menu is one of the best deals in New York City, with the best new chefs to show you how it is done! Outstanding, thanks L’Ecole, I will be back!
L’Ecole, it’s the perfect marriage of fine dining with all its accoutrements and the opportunity to enjoy all this for a steal! This is actually my third visit to L’Ecole, my last outing here was actually a few years ago, and as I recall, the food and service were always impeccable. Upon arrival, my party of 4 were each greeted warmly by the staff, starting with Amy, who is one of the managers, and Daniel, our cheerful waiter for the evening. Amy gave us a brief background and history of the French Culinary Institute, which runs L’Ecole, and the inner workings of L’Ecole. It was very interesting and piqued our interest to come back at some point very soon to try to out the brunch and lunch options. But our focus was on the dinner at hand!
The dinner menu is seasonal and updated periodically within a given season, ensuring that there are always new, fresh and exciting options to choose from. The menu is always pre-fixe, allowing for either 4 or 5 courses, which include an appetizer, 1 or 2 entrees, a digestive and dessert. For our party of 4, this ensured that we got to sample a wide variety of offerings from the menu. My Grilled Smoked Salmon was delicate and moist, with the hard boiled quail egg, baby yellow beets and orange curry vinaigrette lending a light but flavorful touch. The kitchen also sent out the Pan Roasted Quail and Cavatelli options for us to try, which we thought were absolutely delicious, especially as these weren’t choices that caught our eye when we were going thru the menu, being that they were not the typical appetizer choices that one would normally expect. My entrée of Roasted Duck with potato terrine, creamed kale with duck confit, mustard & lime leaves and sweet & sour orange sauce was heavenly, was highly recommended by Daniel. I’m quite particular about my duck and I have to say this one was cooked to its perfect texture and retaining just enough flavor from the sauce to complement and yet allow the natural taste of the duck to shine through. Small bites of other entrée items that the group enjoyed, such as the Seared Nori Wrapped Tuna, the Black Angus Strip Steak, and the Monday evening special - the Skirt Steak, proved that mine wasn’t the only great choice of the evening.
The digestive consisted of a frisee salad with a separate buttermilk sorbet, it was lite, tangy and refreshing, the perfect touch to cleanse our palates prior to the desserts we anxiously awaited.
Despite all the food we had up to this point, there’s always room for dessert and indulge we did! We shared and enjoyed each of the 5 desserts on the menu pictured above: (1) Crème Brulee Le Cirque Style, (2) White Chocolate and Coconut Lime Parfait with Strawberry Orange Sorbet and Rhubarb Spice Compote, (3) Bombolini with Pandan Pastry Cream and Chocolate Sorbet, (4) Apple Tart with Honey Lemon Ice Cream and Almond Clutters, and (5) Citrus Brown Butter Cake with Lavender Vanilla Ice Cream and Kumquat Compote. Each and every one of these was delectable in its own way. For the chocolate lovers in this group, the White Chocolate and Coconut Lime Parfait was the clear winner, as it was flavorful without being too sweet. The accompanying Strawberry Orange Sorbet was a big hit too. We were also given a plate of 4 mini raspberry and cream almond cakes and a separate plate of 4 mini chocolate cookies. We were absolutely in dessert heaven!
The wine offerings, we found were actually quite varied and there is even a 3-course wine pairing, which is an excellent deal. And for the cheese aficionados, there is a separate menu of artisanal selections by farmstead cheesemakers.
To cap off the evening, we were treated to a tour of the kitchen/classroom, led by Rochelle, our friendly and intrepid tour guide, who happens to be a recent FCI grad and is manning the kitchen for the evening. It was a wondrous sight to see all the chefs/students hard at work in the busy and bustling kitchen. This is something that’s usually off-limits to the average diner at any restaurant and it offered a glimpse into what an average evening is like behind the scenes with the good folks who prepare our meals and the usually frenetic pace that they need to work under in order to serve us. The kitchen is quite spacious, which is unexpected given that this is in Manhattan, but there’s plenty of room for what we’re told are up to 60 chefs/students to work under and it seems everything is orderly even with everyone running around at a frenetic pace working on their different tasks. Rochelle walked us thru the culinary, pastry and bread stations, which is the basic kitchen layout. The atmosphere is energetic and enthusiastic, and it shows in all the dishes that we enjoyed during the course of our evening. The chefs/students aim to please and the quality of the food and service do rival that of some of the top restaurants that I’ve been to. A gracious thanks to Alice, Daniel, Wahed, Chef Justin and L’Ecole for a most wonderful and enjoyable evening, we look forward to our next visit, which should be in the very near future!
WHOM YOU KNOW HIGHLY RECOMMENDS L'ECOLE!
