100 Very Best 2015With the arrival of Kyoo Eom, who joins the kitchen after a long stint at 2941, this modish Kimpton hotel restaurant undertakes yet another reinvention. The previous chef went for Southern flavors; his predecessor was an advocate of local, seasonal American cooking. Eom is a Francophile, with a love of the laborious, old-school preparations that should never go out of fashion (though, sadly, they have).
Putting vol-au-vent, a delicate puff pastry laden with butter-rich sauce, on the menu in summer was a mistake, but the fact that Eom is attempting the dish at all speaks to his dedication to classical virtues (and we’d be remiss not to point out that the vol-au-vent itself was pretty terrific). Even in this charcuterie-laden age, you seldom find a chef taking on the painstaking task of producing a ballotine of pheasant.
It’s still early in his tenure, but so far the thing to do is to front-load your meal with these and other starters. (Main courses have been up and down.) The pastry chef, Casto Unson, is new, too, and a talent; his texturally intricate pumpkin profiterole is as delicious as it is ingenious.
Don’t miss:
- Crispy duck ravioli
- Lamb tarte flambé
- Salmon with ginger beurre blanc
- Roasted duck breast with barley, farro, and quinoa
- Truffle frites
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
