Very elegant Vegetables….
There has always been an occasional vegetable or meat dish served at Le Bernardin, which has featured mostly seafood from the day Maguy and Gilbert Le Coze opened it in Paris in 1972. Now Eric Ripert, the restaurant’s executive chef since 1994 and then partner, is introducing the restaurant’s first vegetarian tasting menu. “I often get a dozen inquiries a week for a vegetable tasting,” he said. “I like the idea of a menu that pays homage to the vegetable, though it’s a creative challenge.” The menu has six savory courses and two desserts. Standouts include celeriac soup served in a whole celeriac, a twist of pasta thatched with black truffles, a roulade of zucchini and caponata, and roasted porcini alongside eggplant that is both silky and crisp:Vegetarian tasting menu, $185 a person, Le Bernardin, 155 West 51st Street (Seventh Avenue), 212-554-1515, le-bernardin.com.