A Priceless Experience at The Trencherman

Inside the kitchen

I was just browsing through the Mastercard Priceless events when I came across the opportunity to enjoy dinner at The Trencherman for a brothers battle and cooking demo.  I have to say it wasn't much of a battle, but I was still not disappointed. “Located inside a former Turkish bathhouse, Trenchermen offers vintage cocktails and a menu of dishes that can probably be described as “substantial.”” according to Ask Men.  The welcome cocktail, a simple daiquiri, was one that would have made Hemingway himself proud.  By daiquiri I don’t mean one of those sugar laden frozen blended drinks that hides the poor quality of the liquor that is used.  I’m talking one that play up the great quality of the ingredients and features the rum.  The location itself is perfect and you feel as though you’re stepping into a different time period stepping into the dimly lit place.  First things first I had was the house made beef jerky.  It was amazingly tender wand mouthwatering.  Soon we were all welcomed into the kitchen where we had the opportunity to try a few more appetizers and ask the chefs some questions.

One of my favorites that we had at this point was the fried chicken skin rillettes.  It took so much restraint in order to keep from taking two hands and eating each and every one of them that was on the platter.  I never had rillettes before so I had to do some research to see what it was.  It is an interesting preparation where you cook the meat in fat until tender and shred it and serve it cold.  Undoubtedly, this is how such a technique delivers such high marks on flavor.  I must admit that even though the said dish was probably fat laden, it didn't taste fatty or greasy at all and I loved it.  There was also a play on the classic lox and bagels in the form of a smoked salmon salad that was brightened with a bit of mustard cream cheese.  I liked it felt like breakfast grown up and refined and was the first of the hors d’oeuvres to disapper.

Another look behind the scenes

After getting out of the way of the servers in the pristinely clean kitchen, we sat down for dinner.  The first course was a beet salad.  The salad combined burrata and pistachios with the beets.   I loved the technique that they used of slow roasting some of the beets in order to give them an intensely sweet taste and chewy texture.  Additionally the candied black olives bought a bit of saltiness to the party.  This dish was so good that I had to go and try to make my own interpretation.

The Second course was a playful approach to tots that has brought them a lot of fame.  The pickle tots, combine that delightfully sour and briny taste of pickles with a red onion yogurt.  I did coax out of them when they came to discuss the dish that it the yogurt gets that beautiful pink color as a result of the addition of a little bit of beet juice.  While I thought it was pretty good and very inventive, I just think the hype was a little too much and it fell slightly short for me.

I did love the Cod.  Cod is a fish that I would probably never think to do anything other than batter and fry and serve on newspaper alongside some chips with some tasty malt vinegar.  This time they did something special that I would not normally expect.  Cod is actually a really good fish that withstood this pan roasting and was paired with a broth that clearly created an experience that was incredible.  The fresh and flaky perfectly cooked fish was perfectly complimented by the rich brown butter and piquillo pepper broth.

My favorite dish of the night was the last course.  A rack of lamb that took a technique to cooking nuts that I had never heard of before.  Until it was explained to me that they cooked down the pine nuts using a pressure cooker in order to get that wonderful texture, I was wondering for quite some time what type of wonderful beans they were.  You also get a little bit of crunchiness added to the dish as courtesy of fried salsify.  The date chutney also stands up well to the rich lamb.

I love desserts that feature unconventional and savory ingredients.  That’s why a chai ice cream and a smoked meringue were such big wins for me.  I guess it is the overall complexity of flavors that I enjoy.  You can also throw in the fact that I don't really have that much of a sweet tooth.   I will gladly accept a BLT over the the best chocolate cake any day of the week.