Black Is the New Black: 9 Dishes Featuring Burned Food on Purpose
Photo courtesy of MetropoleAlthough I’m not exactly a culinary school graduate—the last time I cooked dinner I think a Bush was president—I imagine that not burning things is one of the core lessons they teach there. And yet many top chefs are ignoring the whole thou-shall-not-burn thing and are purposely burning their food.
Charring and scorching make for bold, smoky flavors that enhance everything from fruit to lattes—plus, taking food to the dark side looks pretty damn cool. This trend is especially big at fine dining restaurants, where chefs apparently got bored with perfection and decided to challenge what it means for food to be perfectly cooked.
“It used to be considered an error, but nowadays this (charring) is a utilized technique,” says Ryan Pfeiffer, Chef de Cuisine at Chicago’s Blackbird restaurant. “My favorite part about this technique is the versatility. It’s amazing how you can take something that someone would consider wrong and twist it to make your own ideas flourish.”
Want to feel the burn? Here, nine dishes that prove that black is the new black.
Metropole, Cincinnati – Burnt carrot salad
“We originally had a charred carrot vegetable side on the menu and it became so popular that we decided to add some ingredients to the carrots and turn it into a salad,” says Jared Bennett, executive chef at Metropole. Yes, the burnt food was so popular that they had to make more. Creamy avocados, crunchy pickled red onions and briny feta perfectly complement the sweetly charred carrots.
L’Espalier, Boston – Apple confit with charred lemon ice cream
This dish was originally inspired by L’Espalier pastry chef Jared Bacheller’s desire to use local apples in an innovative dessert. The medley of apples—fresh, sauced and caramelized—sandwich charred lemon ice cream, which cuts the richness of the dish while adding an earthy, almost smoked undertone.
Mizuna, Denver – Arugula and charred watermelon salad
One time, I burnt Jell-O. I only mention this because it seems just about as unlikely a thing to burn as a salad. But not only is Mizuna burning their salad, they’re burning a fruit salad. The charred watermelon base, arugula, melon and white balsamic actually tastes like it’s supposed to be burnt. Unlike that Jell-O.