A Taste of Iceland at The Drake Hotel 2010

By Jamie Drummond

Whilst not exactly being a newcomer to this writing lark, I am very much aware of the fact that epiphany quite often leads to leads to a certain degree of hyperbole that I frankly find offensive and/or ignorant. So I choose to begin this piece with that statement, and with that as a starting point I ask you to hear me out.

We here at Good Food Revolution choose to decline from the reviewing of restaurants… Jeez, it was as much as we could to start rating wines with apples, and oft did we hear “Apples? WTF’s with the apples?… you rate wines with apples?!”

We do, however, feel strongly that when something is good, and when we happen to have been fortunate enough to have been exposed to that stuff, we feel we should shout from the bloody rooftops. And here I ask you to trust Good Food Revolution, we are not on some PR agency’s dime… perish the thought actually.

Before I get all hardcore on you, I’d like you to listen to this fellow… Mugison, a rather swell Icelandic musician who played a couple  of acoustic tracks for us pre-dinner… and he’s playing two FREE shows at The Drake Underground on Friday March 19 and Saturday March 20 at 10pm…. and here was me thinking for decades that all Icelandic singers were by division either agit-prop shouters or wee, waif-like, schoolgirls…

He’s good BTW. that Mugison… he sang us a sweet song about being on a factory fishing boat with his father at the tender age of 17 entitled “Jesus is a good name to moan.”  A touching song if ever there was one…

The Drake Hotel’s Executive Chef Anthony Rose has become a very special person in my life. Not only because of the man’s kitchen smarts, or because I became friends with him through the much-missed Tobey Nemeth (ex Chef at JKWB, not dead, just in Italy) but because of his astounding hospitality when I have had the pleasure of drinking/dining at his establishment. It came to a head when he arrived out of nowhere last year and served my rather squeamish Scottish Mother a rather healthy portion of Testina (rolled pigs face) on the Drake patio one sunny afternoon

… anyway, I digress…

Call me old-fashioned (or actually just call me an old bastard), but I have never been one to subscribe to what I feel to be the rather empirical doctrine of molecular gastronomy. I really do try to enjoy its frivolities and foamy spunk-like circumstantial evidence, but it has always failed to impress. The jury has more often than not, been well and truly out. Until my experience at The Drake with Chef Thor…

Chef Rose has been working/sourcing together with Chef Thor Eggertsson from the much lauded Orange restaurant in Reykjavik, Iceland to create a menu based around the infamous “Let’s Go Crazy” menu that Condé Nast Traveller have been frothing at the seams about for a wee while..

And here comes the hyperbole…

After being lucky enough to sample the Prix Fixe menu that Chefs Thor and Rose are offering next week from March 17-20 at the Drake, I can safely say that (if they deliver the same immaculate dishes that we experienced upon that media tasting evening) you will be more than satisfied. It was one of the most perfectly executed meals I have experienced in a long time, with each menu item showing Chef Thor’s flair for innovation as well as his considerable cooking skills. At $42 a pop it’s a really great deal… now that is if you can get a reservation, as I woke up really early and raved about it on Chowhound yesterday morning… Yikes!

That was some damn good food.

Oh yes…

The menu:

Breakfast of Champions-
Langoustine, Jerusalem Artichokes and Pumpkin

Decode-
Fresh Cod, Estragon Egg, Pumpernickel and Herbs

Rudolph Goes 2 The Olympics-
Reindeer In Pecan Nuts, Cauliflower, Root Vegetables and Madeira

Duck-In-A-Tub
Chocolate Duck, Vanilla and Pineapple X3

Good stuff… exceptional.

Edinburgh-born/Toronto-based Sommelier, consultant, writer, judge, and educator Jamie Drummond is the Director of Programs/Editor of Good Food Revolution…and now has his heart set upon visiting Iceland.