One of our cooks, Jason, was interested in staging in NY. He started by emailing a couple restaurants and then waited to see what happened. After 3 weeks of waiting with no response he was finally contacted by the GM of WD-50. One of Wylie's rules is that if you want to stage then you need to put in at least five days otherwise its pointless, you won't really get to experience everyday service and the creative process. Jason got up there, showed up the first day around 1pm and was assigned the first task of any stage. Clean the walk ins, this may not seem right but it is a great opportunity to see every thing in all the coolers and ask questions later. As a stage you are entering another chef's kitchen to learn and do what ever tasks are asked of you in the hopes that you will just learn. Jason did his part and then spent the next 5 days on the garde manger station, one of the busiest in the kitchen. They prepare the amuse and the first 5-6 courses of the tasting menu. There is a fish station and a meat station, pastry, and yes Wylie is always there working the pass. Here is a shot of the kitchen and the skylight.
Wylie is one of the most inventive american chefs around. Looking at the run down neighborhood, the building front, and the minuscule sign that I myself walked by 10 times trying to find the place when I ate there you wouldn't think that this is one of the most innovative restaurants in the country. Wylie proves it though, you don't need your restaurant to be at the top of a mountain or on a beach in some exotic location to become a destination restaurant. When was the last time you told your significant other that I have this awesome trip planned to the lower east side??
Well, he has done it. Jason did a great job of documenting so if you want to know what the food looks like at WD-50 as of a week ago here it is.
Starting with one of my favorites is the Octopus Sheet, pine nut oil, saffron cake, pickled ginger
Everything bagel, smoked salmon threads, sorrel leaves, cream cheese
Shattered foie gras, sherry vin jam, shaved fennel, malt balls
Parsnip tart, quinoa, hazelnuts, bok choy
More to come........stay tuned
Interesting seeing how things evolve at wd-50. I ate there about 9 months ago and in current photos I can barely even spot any repeated techniques from my visit.
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