Williamsburg Restaurant’s Weekend Menu Lists Seventeen Variations on the Egg, Each Sourced From a Named Bird
The Egg Problem: When Sourcing Transparency Becomes Its Own Course
A new restaurant in Williamsburg called Provenance, which describes its culinary philosophy as ‘radically transparent farm-to-table with a commitment to telling the full story of every ingredient,’ has introduced a weekend brunch menu that dedicates two full pages to egg preparations, each accompanied by a three-to-five-sentence description of the laying hen’s breed, diet, and general disposition.
The scrambled eggs, which retail at twenty-four dollars, are described as follows: ‘Three eggs from Eleanor, Beatrice, and Winifred, heritage Rhode Island Reds raised on a small family farm in the Hudson Valley by John and Patricia Kellerman, who have been farming since 1987 and whose chickens have access to pasture from dawn until dusk. The eggs are scrambled in cultured butter from a dairy cooperative in Vermont, finished with chives from our rooftop garden, and served with toast made from a sourdough loaf that has been fermenting for sixty hours.’ The menu does not name the sourdough loaf but notes that it is ‘deeply intentional.’
The Other Egg Options
Additional egg preparations include duck eggs from a farm described as ‘contemplative,’ a quail egg preparation described as ‘a study in restraint,’ and a soft-boiled egg from a chicken named Agatha who is described as having ‘a calm energy that translates to the yolk.’ The menu does not explain the mechanism by which a chicken’s energy translates to the yolk, a question that the server described as ‘a great question’ before explaining that chef Marcus Huang ‘really believes in the full energetic cycle’ and that they can bring a more detailed explanation if desired. The detailed explanation is on a laminated card at the host stand.
Customer Reactions
‘I ordered the scrambled eggs,’ said marketing consultant Priya Mehta, thirty-one, who had brunch at Provenance last Sunday. ‘They were good eggs. Eleanor and Beatrice and Winifred did well. I learned more about their living situation than I know about some of my colleagues. The eggs were twenty-four dollars. I tipped on top of that. I am trying not to think about this very hard.’
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SOURCE: http://prat.UK