Ed Brown Really Cooks. After dinner "I feel like I’ve had sex twice tonight."

Photo: Steven Richter

          Fluke crudo, marvelous soft shell crab with ras el hanout and orange, red curry mussels from his days at Tropica. Chef Ed Brown was actually at the range last night cooking his six-course Tuesday Back Room Dinner for 25 fans.  Most of Ed’s Chowder House kitchen was marked off as the chef-partner’s fiefdom for the evening while the staff fed the rest of the restaurant from one end of the range. His 25 rectangles of Skuna bay salmon — "farmed responsibly," he announced detailing the dish's confit’d shallots, veal marrow and foie gras emulsion — had been cooking at 174 degrees for two hours and it will still be rare if it cooks another two hours..

          The intimate gathering of Brown fans were excited — a few dazzled — but not as much as the chef himself. He really loves to cook. "I feel like I’ve had sex twice tonight," he confided. "And maybe later tonight too."

          Many of the diners who first tasted his food at Tropica recognized the mussels in a coconut milk with galangal, kaffir lime and holy basil. It was paired it with an Alsatian gewurztraminer. A third BackRoom dinner is scheduled for June 19.  It costs $95 with pairing, tax and service included.

          Ed’s Chowder House is our advertiser.  But I can’t ignore an exceptional evening for that reason.

Click here to return to Short Order Listings.