Dominique Ansel’s answer to what’s next
Dominique Ansel opened his second bakery and concept, the Dominique Ansel KITCHEN on 29 April. As we already wrote in February, Dominique Ansel KITCHEN will not be serving the Cronut™ pastry nor many of the items that are most popular at the original Soho flagship Bakery. So if you’re visiting NYC and want to taste some of the other delicacies by Dominique Ansel, you don’t have to wait in line at his bakery, although we think it might be a problem to get a reservation at his KITCHEN as well.
At Dominique Ansel KITCHEN time is an ingredient
More than 70% of the menu will be made, finished, or assembled to order. Chef Dominique and his team have changed the operations of a traditional bakery, fusing it with a restaurant service kitchen, to bring “à la minute” capabilities to some of your best loved baked goods.
In the fully opened kitchens, guests will see the cooks cut fresh vanilla beans and scrape the seeds directly onto your ice cream rather than have it mixed in and slowly lose the intensity of its flavor in the fridge. They fold the chocolate mousse to order so it doesn’t have to harden for hours in the fridge, and guests can even choose the intensity of the chocolate. The ham and cheese croissant is wrapped in premium freshly sliced ham when the order is placed. And they aim to have everything done in the same amount of time it takes to get a latte. If people will wait for a fresh pulled espresso, why not also for a pastry?
Menu Highlights
Viennoiserie
• Pain au Chocolat 2.0: A modified croissant base showcasing the honeycomb crumb that is then topped with orange compound butter and shards of Valrhona dark chocolate sprinkled with Maldon sea salt. Because it is assembled to order, this croissant can use a higher quality and more generous serving of chocolate compared to traditional baked chocolate batons.
• Prosciutto & Boursin Croissant: The traditional ham and cheese croissant improved with fresh sliced prosciutto and a generous piping of boursin cheese with a modified shape.
• Garlic Bread Croissant: Confit garlic in the butter block allows for this staff favorite, which is drizzled with rosemary olive oil and pieces of confit garlic right after baking.
• Marcona Almond Lavender Croissant: With a gin-spiked frangipane.
Pastries
• 1:1 Lemon Yuzu Butter Tart: A made-to-order lemon tart where the lemon curd is emulsified with fine European butter just before serving using a milkshake maker.
• Made-to-Order Chocolate Mousse: Chocolate ganache is folded into meringue and whipped cream to order so that the mousse retains a light and airy texture without becoming dense and set in the fridge.
• Mini Matcha Beignets: Homemade beignet recipe with matcha sugar.
• Guinness Baba au Rhum: Warm, soaked baba cake filled with a malt cream and topped with cold Guinness to order.
Savories
• The EGG-clipse: Squid ink brioche with creamy garlic mashed potatoes and two confit egg yolks, filled with mushroom béchamel.
• Edamame Avocado Toast: With fresh ricotta, mint, and a poppy seed brioche.
Etc.
• Sage-smoked Moist Brownie: A fudgy brownie that is lightly smoked with torched sage just before eating.
• Whole Vanilla Bean Ice Cream: Each serving has one whole vanilla bean fresh cut and scraped to order.
Unlimited Possibilities
Summer 2015, they will also launch U.P. (short for “unlimited possibilities”), the after-hours tasting table. Complete with an 8-seat table that descends from the ceiling straight into the center of the 2nd floor production kitchen, U.P. will feature an 8-course dessert-only menu with a theme to be announced bi-annually. There will be two seatings a night on limited dates upon opening. Tickets will be available via the Tock ticketing system.
Address: 137 Seventh Avenue South (between West 10th & Charles Streets), New York, NY 10014
Website: Dominique Ansel Kitchen
