Good to the Bone

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The New York Sun

Chef Neil Ferguson is best known as Gordon Ramsay’s opening chef at Mr. Ramsay’s first foray into New York. After serving for more than five years as Mr. Ramsay’s right-hand chef, the two parted ways when the new restaurant, Gordon Ramsay at the London, failed to sufficiently impress New York restaurant critics. Now as executive chef at Allen & Delancey (115 Allen St. at Delancey Street, 212-253-5400), Mr. Ferugson has declared his independence with a new, and surprisingly sought after, dish: caramelized bone marrow with caviar.

The classic preparation of bone marrow is both spare and dramatic: Roasted leg or shank bones, typically beef bones that are stripped of all meat, are placed upright on a platter, sprinkled with coarse salt, and accompanied by parsley salad. The diner’s job is to scrape out the marrow with a tiny fork that is specially designed for extracting the gelatinous, fatty mass melting within the center of the bones. After that, diners can spread the marrow on toast points.

While you may never have scooped the marrow out of bones yourself, you may have tasted the effects of bone marrow. The flavorful fat is also used to add depth to stocks and broths, and to enrich a red wine sauce known as bordelaise.

For Mr. Ferguson’s version of a bone marrow dish — he said he was inspired by French chef Marc Meneau’s use of caviar in a bone marrow sauce — he removes the marrow from the bone, and poaches it in beef consommé until only the “meat” of the marrow remains. He drains off excess fat and cools it. When the marrow has a jellylike consistency, he packs it tightly in a mold and freezes or refrigerates it until the marrow sets in solid blocks. Then he douses the solid block in flour and roasts it in a scorchingly hot pan until it is golden, and serves it with a creamy, lightly sweet shallot purée topped with domestic paddlefish caviar. There’s no scooping at the table necessary here.

Mr. Ferguson acknowledged that the invention sounds weird, but insists that customers are eating it up.”Our butcher is struggling to keep up with the demand,” he said.

John Schaefer, formerly executive chef at Gramercy Tavern, offers his own take on bone marrow now that he is the executive chef at the month-old Irving Mill (116 E. 16th St., between Park Avenue South and Irving Place, 212-254-1600). He serves it with short ribs of beef that are braised in stout beer with veal stock and topped with pepper chutney, which “brings some acid to that rich bone marrow,” Mr. Schafer said.

A former sous chef at Le Bernardin and Del Posto, Gabriel Thompson is now the executive chef at the new Dell’anima (38 Eighth Ave. at Jane Street, 212-366-3333), an Italian restaurant dedicated to seasonal Italian cuisine. With famous bosses such as Eric Ripert and Mario Batali, Mr. Thompson wasn’t the one designing the menu at his former places of work. And although the classic preparation of roasted marrowbones is his favorite dish at Blue Ribbon, the popular chef hangout in SoHo — “If they don’t have them it bums me out,” he said — he wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before.

Mr. Thompson’s intriguing creation is bruschetta with bone marrow custard and gremolata salad. He roasts the marrowbones until the marrow oozes out of them, and then steeps the captured marrow in cream. He purees the cream and marrow mixture, strains it, and then tempers hot eggs into it. He bakes it all until it sets into custard. The custard is presented in a container so that diners can scoop it onto pieces of grilled bread. The gremolata — composed of lemon zest and juice, garlic, parsley, and horseradish — helps cut the custard.

Chef Matt Hamilton, who was chef and owner of the now-closed East Village restaurant, Uovo, recently signed on as executive chef at the just-opened Belcourt (84 E. 4th St. at Second Avenue, 212-979-2034), where he uses a classic Italian preparation, known as pereà, to serve bone marrow. Pereà involves a peppery Veronese bread sauce that is usually served with boiled meats in the bollito misto style.

The sauce, which Mr. Hamilton said he was first exposed to when he worked under Judy Rodgers at Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, and perfected when he cooked in Italy, is made by combining bone marrow fat with bread crumbs, light beef stock, and lots of fresh cracked black pepper. It has the consistency of moist stuffing. “It’s a way to add fat back to meat that doesn’t have much fat,” he said.

At Belcourt, the dish is served with a lean grilled hanger steak. Some versions of the bread sauce add Parmesan cheese, but Mr. Hamilton prefers the sauce without it. And since he’s in charge of the kitchen, that’s the way it’s going to be.


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