New York's two top dining critics had very different impressions of Millesime, the seafood-centric brasserie in the Carlton Hotel on Madison and 29th. New York Magazine's Adam Platt said, "The haphazard, jury-rigged space at the Carlton still feels less like a grand big-city stage than like the mezzanine dining room of a randomly upscale suburban hotel." Sam Sifton at the Times countered, "But holy cats, is there a beautiful, even exciting brasserie up there." Critics: who the hell knows? Considering the high quality of Chef Laurent Manrique's ingredients, Millesime is actually reasonably priced, so perhaps it's worth paying a visit to form your own opinion.
Manrique, a practicing Buddhist who comes here by way of France and San Francisco (he was the chef at the two-Michelin star restaurant Aqua for years), has brought his beloved Moroccan tuna tartare (with Berbere, dates, and mint, $14) back east; prepared table-side, it's as fun to watch as it is to eat. Another surprising hit comes in the form of the delicious Smoked Herring Salad and Warm Fingerling Potatoes ($15). And in true brasserie style there are plenty of options, from towering, multi-level seafood plates to simply grilled fish with your choice of sauce. After inviting us in for a recent visit, Manrique sat down with us to talk about the menu and what brought him back to New York.
Is this your first place in New York? Well, I was working in New York in 1990 for 10 years. I was the chef at Peacock Alley in the Waldorf Astoria, then I opened Gertrude's with the owner of O Bar. But in 2000 I left and moved to California, so this place is the first one since I've come back.
But you wanted to come back? It was an opportunity. My three other partners were very interested in doing something on the East Coast. My concern was I don't want to do something like that by myself, because I'm also running restaurants in California. When I saw the mosaic floor, it convinced me to do a brasserie. I didn't want to come back to do a fine dining room, I did that at Aqua and for me it was important to do a change in my career at this time. The location, the space convinced me to come back.
The main dining room. There is also a ground floor lounge with a jazz band center stage.
There's a constant debate over which city has better restaurants, San Francisco or New York. Can we settle this now? The same, they are all good! I said the same thing to someone an hour ago. I think when I moved from New York to California in 2000, the biggest difference was how restaurants in San Francisco was very oriented to farmer's market products. Unfortunately New York didn't have that, or it was not so much present. Now, it's incredible. You can now go to the Union Square market, you can go to Whole Foods and other places. The whole way we look at food development has changed, not just for restaurateurs but also customers. Restaurants in New York, not only have diversity because there are 10 million people here compared to San Francisco, but you also have the chefs who do molecular cuisine, and you also have the ones who do ethnic cuisine and anything really, but both cities are the same because chefs all focus now on the quality of the product. Right now, both cities are great for a dining experience. They are different, but they're great. You couldn't say one is better than the other. That's my opinion, but I'm sure some other people will have different opinions.
I was reading that you practice Buddhism. How has that influenced your cooking? Well, I think it does by removing the unnecessary ingredients in the dishes. Just focus on the important things. If it doesn't bring something important to the dish, why bother bringing it, right? Keep things simple, keep it focused. For example, with the fish as a product, why change it? Try to make it better by understanding the product, especially in cooking technique and especially seasoning, but don't try to change it. Don't try to add anything to make it look better or that'll make it sound better, when it won't bring anything to the true nature of the product. I think it's helped me to focus on the true nature of the ingredient and what I want to convince the customer when I am cooking for them.
I've never had the tuna tartare the way you did it or seen it prepared that way. That was entertaining. Where did that come from? When I was in California running the restaurant Aqua, it had opened in 1994 and since the beginning the tuna tartare was one of the signature dishes on the menu. When I took over the restaurant in 2003, it was important that if I had the chance to bring my style to the restaurant it was to make this dish my own. I played around a lot with different recipes, and my father was born in Algeria and I had a lot of influence with North African spices when I was growing up. I remember I had a tartare that we prepared with lamb. We played around, and the only difference at the time was the additional ingredient of yogurt, and with the tuna that was not working very well. So we played around and we came out with this particular dish and it became the signature dish at Aqua. And when we opened in New York we thought it should be put on the menu because it was something that was very popular at the time, and I'm very attached to this dish.
The herring with the potatoes is also really phenomenal. What's the secret to that? You know I wish I could get the credit, but that was a classic dish done for hundreds and hundreds of years in classic seafood brasseries in Paris. The herring is smoked in Holland. I fly them to New York and we marinated them in milk for 24 hours and that removes the strong flavor, sometimes they get too strong. After that, we marinate it in olive oil with different spices, shallots, juniper berry, thyme, garlic, lemon. And it's served with warm potato and mustard vinagrette. It's a classic, if it's done well it's very good.
What's the most popular thing on the menu right now? I'd say the lobster Pot-au-feu and the roasted chicken, aside from the oysters and the seafood plateau.
It's a very warm, pleasant place. Do you feel like it replicates the feeling of the brasseries you were talking about just now in Paris? It will never be an exact replication because what is somewhere in Europe is hard to replicate somewhere else. But I think we were very lucky with the floor. It is an authentic floor from the '30s, the mosaic in the floor is what you can find in brasseries in France. The dome, the Tiffany dome, that is also very similar. The rest of the restaurant is brand new, unfortunately. In 50 years I hope the restaurant is still going to be there and I'm sure we'll have a different character, but we did try to have a Parisian atmosphere.
You own a vineyard too, right? Yes, in Spain.
Do you sell any of your wine at your restaurants? Yes, the wine is present in New York and in San Francisco. We also distribute through a wine bar, and I know some restaurants in New York have the wine, like Le Bernardin.
So you also spend your time on the West coast too, right? Correct. I run a French brasserie called Cafe de la Presse, and two wine bars in San Francisco, Rouge et Blanc and Blanc et Rouge.
So you apprenticed under some very talented chefs. What's the most important thing you learned? I think the main thing they all said was be passionate with what you're doing if you want to do this business, don't do it just because you want to be like someone else on TV or a star, because it's hard work, it's a hard job. Be passionate, respect the product, and be disciplined are the three main pieces of advice. It doesn't matter which chef they were, they all said that.
How many hours do you work a day, and how many days a week? I try to work 5 days a week. For me it was important, especially when I had children, to spend time with my family. Usually 10 hours a day. And when I was 30, I was working 16 hours a day. But now I'm older, so I think it's time for a younger chef to work that hard. I'm sure you can understand that, it goes for any business.
Have you had the chance to dine at any other restaurants in New York? Do you have any favorites right now that you're impressed with? One of my best friends is Eric Ripert at Le Bernardin, so it will be unfair for the other one's because it is my favorite. I know him and we've known each other for many years, but there are so many great restaurants. Jean Georges. I was very impressed by the quality of Prune, Gabrielle's actually in the Times today. I like the food at Spotted Pig, I like the food at Babbo.
Do you have any plans to open up other restaurants in New York? So far right now, no. Maybe in the future but we just opened this one and it's a big space, so I think I'm going to focus on this place running well before planning to do something else.
What would you like to do that you haven't done yet? I don't know. Right now the style of food and the casual dining is what I like to do right now. But maybe in five years it'll be something else, but right now I can't think of that something else.
Do you have time to cook for yourself or your family when you aren't working? Yes, I cook a lot. I like to make single pot things, like stew. But my family's in California and in New York I'm just living at the hotel. It's an easy commute, but it's also easy for them to find me.
