Not every tasting menu is alike — Eleven Madison Park's is arranged in a grid-like list, Brooklyn Fare keeps it simple with a short rundown of the dishes, and Per Se lays out in exquisite detail the ingredients of each course.
But unless you're a seasoned tasting menu veteran, you're bound to get tripped up by some of the lofty language. An emulsion to start? A deconstructed main dish? Mignardises for dessert? How can you decide what to order when the options are impossible to understand?
We put together a list of the 11 most commonly misunderstood tasting menu words. From starters to desserts, these are the dishes you were trying to look up on your phone throughout the entire meal.
Truffled
What It Is: Using "truffle" as an adjective implies the dish has been cooked, garnished, or stuffed with truffles (subterranean mushrooms) in some way. Truffle oil is the most common ingredient used to "truffle" a dish.
Example Dish: Truffled arancini (risotto balls) at Murano in NYC.
Emulsion
What It Is: A mixture of two liquids that would normally not be mixed together. These can either be temporary emulsions, such as a vinaigrette (oil and vinegar), or a permanent emulsion, such as Mayonnaise (egg yolks and oil).
Example Dish:NYC's Poco's crudo with celery citrus emulsion.
Tartare
What It Is: A preparation of finely chopped raw meat with (optional) seasonings and sauces. There are many variations on the tartare, including steak, chicken, salmon, and eel. The most common is tuna tartare.
Example Dish: Steak tartare at Cafe Claude in San Francisco.
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