NEW YORK - David Pasternack, the talented chef from the restaurant Esca, redefined Italian seafood cooking by introducing New Yorkers to Crudo.
Literally, Crudo means raw in Italian, and five years ago Mr. Pasternack began to dazzle his customers by serving scores of raw fish highlighted by the simplest Italian condiments. His style of preparing raw seafood has been widely imitated, and it is rare to encounter a new Italian restaurant that does not offer a Crudo selection.
In his newest venture, Bistro du Vent, Mr. Pasternack chooses to navigate more familiar waters by offering classic French bistro dishes without redefining their traditional core.
Reading his menu, one has difficulty distinguishing Bistro du Vent from its many competitors in New York City. However, the good quality of ingredients, its superb preparation and its flawless execution are definitely setting this bistro apart from others.
The décor of the restaurant only reinforces the very idea that Mr. Pasternack and his partners are not seeking to break new culinary ground. The marble tables in the forefront of the restaurant could have been extracted from a Parisian photograph of an old bistro.
Just as expected, the French wine list offers a good combination of inexpensive and less-known wines from Languedoc in addition to more expensive and prestigious bottles from Bordeaux and Burgundy.
Appetizers borrow heavily from classic Provencal cuisine, such as a remarkable summer vegetable soup or a splendid frisee aux lardons salad. After all, Mr. Pasternack trained for many years in the kitchen of Picholine, the esteemed Provencal restaurant near Lincoln Center. Those of us that fear no cholesterol should venture to try the house pork pate`, the chicken liver pate` and the sausage of offal meats over tender lentils.
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About four seafood dishes are offered as a main course every night. Although very good, the mission at Bistro du Vent is to offer meats at prices that are a great bargain for their quality.
The kitchen is very well adept at serving meat roasted on the spit such as spicy lamb shank, or organic chicken with a few slices of Perigord black truffle buried under its skin.
Grilled steaks, whether a sirloin or a hangar cut, are equally satisfying and perfectly cooked to the requested temperature.
This is quite remarkable considering that all the meat dishes hover around the $20 mark.
Fortunately, the accompanying side dishes are just as delicious as the meat itself. Thin slices of potatoes are cooked in the dripping fat of the accompanying rotisserie lamb; while a crispy potato cake, only faintly greasy, shares the plate with chicken.
The French fries that are served with the steak are fried in lard contributing greatly to their texture and flavor.
Dessert after such an intense meal can be a stretch. Furthermore, profiteroles, apple tarts and pot de crème` do not reveal the same care in execution as the appetizers and main courses. Incidentally, ice creams and sorbets, that have a greater Italian affinity than a French one, are the most successful desserts.
A New Yorker by birth and still a young man, Mr. Pasternack has already shown imagination and vision by reinventing Italian seafood, and maturity and discipline by adhering to the strictest of classic French cooking. I can only wait impatiently for his next venture.
Bistro du Vent
411 West 42nd Street
(Between 9th and 10th Avenue)
New York, NY
(212) 239-3060
Open daily lunch and dinner
All major credit cards accepted
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