After much anticipation, Top Chef season 13 winner Jeremy Ford has finally struck out on his own with South of Fifth newcomer, Stubborn Seed. It marks the first of two new restaurants Ford is opening with Grove Bay Hospitality Group – the same guys behind favorites like Glass & Vine – and we got a first look.
We started our meal with a fantastic amuse of Hollow Potato with caviar, paprika crème fraîche, salmon roe, live seaweed over sous vide egg yolk along with a warm Bread Service topped with fennel pollen and served with a garbanzo chili dip.
We then moved onto heartier dishes like the table favorite Smoked Foie Gras with Jomestead boniato tortellini, Marcona almond and spiced quince and a Jojo Tea Cured Snapper with sorrel, celery, clementine and hearts of palm. Other favorite dishes from the menu included the Warm Celery Root with crackling maitake, mustard froth, herbs and blossoms along with the Roasted King Salmon accompanied with dill tomato jus, Anson Mills white peas, caper sofrito, smokey pork and mustard greens. And finally we got to try out the Wahoo with fermented chili, buttermilk, kombu, sea grape and Asian pear and the Herb Roasted Wagyu with trumpet mushroom, carrot textures and mustard butter.
While the savory dishes were great – desserts cannot be missed. Created by one of our favorite pastry chefs, Dallas Wynne, who is making more creative desserts that are elegantly as beautiful as they taste. We tried the Coconut Semifreddo and a to-die-for Snickerdoodle Cookie.
To wash all these dishes back were, of course, plenty of cocktails. All of them were delicious — and of course we tried them all — but the highlight was the DIY Silver Dollar Old Fashioned that guests make table side choosing their choice of liquor and seasonal bitter.
Other drink highlights included the Negroni a la Ford, which it Ford’s favorite cocktail and made with mezcal, campari, cocoa di torino, ancho reyes, white creme de cacao and xoxocalit mole served with a passionfruit marshmallow that is roasted table side. Additional drinks included the Cesario Royale made with Elyx, St. Germain Elderflower, Suze, yuzu, and topped with a cava effervescence, the Dessert Daisy with tequila, beet, orange bell pepper, habenero shrub, lime and carrot habanero dust and then finally The Kure with carbonated glenlivet, domaine de canton ginger, pineapple-mango kombucha made in-house, orange flower water and lemon.
Make sure to put this Top Chef winner’s new spot of your radar, and until you have a chance to check it out, take a look at the tasty pictures below.