The Bocuse Restaurant is the French restaurant in the Culinary Institute of America. Named aptly for Paul Bocuse, it is staffed by students at the CIA who learn modern cooking techniques to bring diners classic French cuisine. It’s in a large room at one end of a main building that has a parking garage next to it. Tons of windows added even more light to the fairly bright white room. Modern ceiling fixtures add soft light as does the see-through wine cellar. One end of the room is the open kitchen. Students not only do the cooking but also the service, drinks and wine service. They were all very pleasant but varied in their competency. Bench seating lines the walls with free-standing tables in the middle of the room and music was in the background. The menu is set up as a prix fixe 3-course menu with several choices in each category. They offered a nice wine list as well as many cocktails and mocktails – some made tableside. We were there with family so I got more pictures than I got to eat, but pictures tell a lot. Overall the food was nice but some menu descriptions were off the mark.
Set-Up
Food
Service started with breads that were a slice of sourdough and a baguette roll. The roll had particularly great texture and taste, the sourdough less so. Butter was a shared softened pat in the center of the table.
Les Croquettes de crabes were described as crab cakes, cucumber roll, pickled onion and Gribiche sauce. These were a favorite of our server and called crab cakes but were more croquettes or balls than cakes. They were mostly made of ingredients other than crab which did have lots of flavor. The crunch to the exterior was okay and the sauce worked well with them. Some of the cucumber slices had a funky taste like they’d been cut too long.
La Betterave or roasted beets, Bûcheron cheese, toast, mâche and candied walnuts was another first. My cousin declared it quite good.
Demi Poulet Rôti was a Snowdance Farms roasted chicken served with vegetarian dirty rice, asparagus-bacon and spring onion. My cousin said the chicken was nicely moist and the bacon wrapped the asparagus.
La Cuisse de canard confite was plated with poêlée of mushrooms, pommes sarladaise and frisée. My cousin reported that it was a perfectly crisped skin with tasty duck and wonderful mushrooms.
Fricassée de lotte or monkfish was with shrimp dumplings, potatoes, pickled ramps and mushrooms. The shrimp dumplings were more shrimp pasta made with a slightly thick pasta. The monkfish was in chunks rather than one piece but stayed moist and tender. The pickled ramps made quite a contrast in flavor but one that was fun. The sauce underneath was made with carrots and was quite sweet. Overall it was a good dish but it was not what I expected.
Le Gâteau de crêpes was a crepe cake with mascarpone cream filling and seasonal sauce and sorbet.
Dôme au chocolat was made with Manjari chocolate ganache, roasted peanut and passion fruit sauce. My cousin liked it and it was an attractive plate.
Ile Flottante was a poached meringue sitting on vanilla anglaise with almond cake on the side. A bit of caramel sauce was in the center while the vanilla anglaise was poured on at the table. The cake was not very strongly flavored but the vanilla anglaise was delightful and paired well with the light meringue, which was soft not crisp. I liked this one.
We were just in the neighborhood, staying at Mohonk Mountain House for Nancy’s birthday. We toyed with the idea of going, but the recently upgraded food at Mohonk was so good we never left.
Mohank looks cool! We wanted to try the CIA’s Italian place but it wasn’t serving dinner then. We were in the area to see my cousin and his wife who worked at the CIA and then were heading to the DeBruce in the Catskills. It was a similar place, in that it included great meals, but much smaller and all about fishing. I must read more about the Mohank!