The Boyfriend Chef had asked what I wanted to do for my birthday. I’ve never dined at a chef’s table and thought it would be fun. Our first choice, Nicholas, is booked through June. Who’d have thought?!?! So I got on Google and found a couple other restaurants in NJ that offered this experience and sent them off to the BF Chef. Elements had a cool menu & was available that Tuesday, so we were in!
We live over an hour away & were concerned about traffic so we ended up arriving early for our 7pm reservation. That’s never a problem for us…we’re always happy to wait at the bar but we were seated right away. There are two tables of 4 in the chef’s table area and we were the only two seated while we were there.
Overall the experience was very cool. Having never worked in a restaurant I was surprised at how quiet the kitchen was. No yelling (in a good way) about orders being fired, no pots & pans clanging around. It was really neat to interact with the chefs every now and then. Our server was attentive as was the rest of the staff.
We opted for the wine paring with the dinner which is always trouble for me. I have a very low tolerance for alcohol. When we’re sharing a bottle I can pace myself, but when matching alcohol course-for-course I feel obligated to finish every last drop. I try to eat more slowly but inevitably by the third course I’m good & drunk. That’s why you won’t get a play by play of this dinner, but I’ll do my best to share what I remember.
I do recall that everything was delicious. The third course was paired with sake and that was probably the beginning of the end of my memory. I’ve only had sake a few times and was never that impressed. But this was so good and very different from what I guess was swill that I’ve had previously.
I couldn’t refer to the menu posted on the web site because it changes every couple of days. Awesome for Elements and the customers, not so good for the blog. There’s also no written menu in the traditional sense. We did receive a random list of ingredients that would be served and sources but no indication of the preparation until the food arrived.
As we drove home (before I passed out) we decided that Elements is now in our rotation of favorite restaurants. It is definitely worth the drive. I’ll just have to lay off the alcohol. Maybe.
After explaining my conundrum (or would that be conun-drunk?) to the BF Chef, he graciously pieced together the menu from memory. Here it is:
- salmon………steak tartare……avocado puree on crisp tortilla…..carrot terrine
- celery root-apple-ginger soup
- surf clam
- scallop with cockles and oyster
- salad with quinoa, citrus, mangalista jamon
- wild salmon with gnocchi
- foie gras with yogurt, and heirloom grains
- foie gras custard with arugula soup
- foie gras sandwich
- duck with black truffle agnolotti and clove ricotta
- kobe beef with beans and spicy salsa
- chocolate mousse with vanilla ice cream and raspberry gelato
- mignardises
- choco macadamia, biscotti, macaroons
All of the wine pairings were fantastic, and some of the standouts are:
- emerald bay 2008 chardonnay, central coast, california
- Melville 2009 pinot noir
- Lucky Country 2008 shiraz, barossa
Elements
163 Bayard Lane
Princeton, NJ 08540
609-924-0078