I recently dined at Little Owl on Bedford Street with four of my friends. Though the wait was long, the dinner was well worth it. Fat scallops served over grapefruit slivers, duck resting upon spicy arugula, Parmesan, and almonds, and cavatelli laced with ricotta, fava beans, and bacon impressed us as our opening salvo.
The feast continued with seasonal dishes that included corn, peas, and nodes of citrus. Surprisingly, the true gem on the menu was the crispy chicken, which came with thick home fries, asparagus, and shitake mushrooms. Chicken isn’t always the superlative option, and my mention of it here does not imply that the rest of our food—the pork chop, the halibut, the cod—was bad. It was quite the contrary. All our food was impeccable; it was just the chicken that we all kept grabbing for bites.
And this led to a conversation about other great chickens: Zuni in San Francisco and L’Ami Louis in Paris. These places are renowned for their birds. I’ve heard of rock stars finishing a show and then boarding a plane that takes them directly to L’Ami Louis. And on my first culinary excursion to California, I was told I absolutely could not miss Zuni’s roast chicken.
This humble bird needs to redeem itself and Little Owl’s rendition is helping it fluff its feathers. In a restaurant where the majority of the menu has popped up in conversation for nearly a week now, it’s impressive that the chicken makes the cut.
It seems like if someone can do chicken right, then it is really right. When I interview my Culinistas™, I give them chicken to cook with because its so simple and so versatile and so often perceived as boring. But are chicken cacciatore, thyme crusted chicken, sweet and sour chicken, or citrus seared chicken boring? I end up eating a lot of chicken when I hire and am always impressed by the diversity of the dishes that my Culinistas™ create.
Whether it is your Culinista™ preparing it for you or your waiter at Little Owl setting it down at your table, chicken is a perfect dish for any occasion, the excitement is in how you make it.
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