Luxury Comfort Food

Kathleen McKenna March 16, 2007

 

Mama’s kitchen enters the world of haute cuisine

Occupying two floors of the trendy Ponce Loft Building, Repast is Atlanta’s latest culinary hot spot, with its hipster-chic décor of exposed concrete and towering ceilings along with its nouvelle American menu. The brainchild of husband-and-wife team Joe Truex and Mihoko Obunai, this trendsetter serves expectedly distinguished dishes like Muscovy duck breast a la plancha, braised Australian lamb shank and…hot dogs?

Yes, hot dogs. But these are no Oscar Meyers: Each tube of Americana is meticulously handmade, topped with foie gras and sweetbreads, and served on a brioche bun with homemade three-onion ketchup.

While hot dogs will likely conjure up childhood memories instead of Michelin stars, the frankfurter’s image is changing. And these dogs are hardly the only traditionally down-market item crossing over into high-end restaurants — many of yesterday’s blue-plate specials are receiving decidedly white-collar touch-ups by some of the most distinguished chefs around.

“Burgers, cupcakes and mac 'n' cheese, possibly the most comforting dishes ever, are all getting makeovers,” said Michael Mahle, manager of communications at Zagat. “It’s coming about by the use of additional ingredients, or better-quality ingredients.”

The final concoctions are full of a very purposeful irony. With macaroni and cheese, skip the Kraft and pass the white truffles. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with Smucker’s? Not a chance — at least not when there’s foie gras to be had.

See our slideshow of 10 luxury comfort foods.

What's behind the gourmet comfort food trend? Perhaps nostalgia for a pre-Atkins past, or maybe the irony of gussying up greasy-spoon staples. Mahle leans toward the sentimental explanation. “People are always excited to try a new twist on an old classic, even if it means paying more for it.” A lot more. Those aforementioned higher quality ingredients include some of the planet’s priciest foodstuffs: truffles, foie gras and Kobe beef.

Particularly daring dishes, like the FleurBurger 5000 of Las Vegas’s Fleur de Lys Restaurant, combine all three of those ingredients. With $100 Kobe beef burgers pretty much de rigueur, creative chefs had to up the ante on this American classic with something even more extravagant.

Chef Hubert Keller did just that. His $5,000 piece de resistance is a Kobe burger topped with foie gras and black truffles, served on a brioche truffle bun and garnished with his signature sauce. Contributing to the hefty price tag is a treasured bottle of 1990 Chateau Petrus poured in Ichendorf Brunello stemware. Gastronomic boredom just might have factored into the equation here: “It’s something we did for fun,” Keller has said, “and only in Las Vegas is it possible!”

Steering away from diner staples and toward comfort food’s sweeter side is the Golden Opulence Sundae, at Serendipity 3 in New York. At $1,000, it’s officially the Guinness Book of World Record’s most expensive dessert. While ice cream may have been Bridget Jones’s favorite panacea for heartache, here it’s purely celebratory, concocted to honor the 50th anniversary of the restaurant, once Andy Warhol’s favorite sugar joint. Not surprisingly, the sundae, which arrives wrapped in 23-karat gold leaf atop a $300 Baccarat crystal goblet, has been the most talked-about item with this Upper East Side establishment’s celebrity clientele — perhaps because it's to be consumed with an 18-karat gold spoon. Fitting, since it's only the silver-spoon set who can afford it.

Fancy down-market dishes officially become a trend when celebs, whose ever-slender bodies are the source of public concern, tout the joys of high-class fatty foods. But they’ll grow tired of mac 'n' cheese soon enough. So what’s next? According to Mahle, “We have yet to see truly regional cuisine getting the upscale treatment. Grits could be the next big, blank canvas for creative chefs in the South. And beans are a terrific base for new haute comfort food in the Boston area or elsewhere up north.”

Whatever the tastemakers cook up next, it’s sure to contain some irony. And plenty of extravagance.

See our slideshow of 10 luxury comfort foods.

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