Executive Chef Bret Andreasen shares the inspiration and intentions behind Tarragon’s latest menus. While some of the menu item names may look familiar, the taste, texture, and accompaniments are far from it.
“What excites me is classic food intentionally prepared with a delicate hand. As far as I am concerned nothing is original anymore, and that is ok. It is our job to take something that has been done before, and make it the best version someone has ever had. That is what I am hoping these menus will do for us here.“
About the Menus.
The dinner menu has a very similar format to the previous, but depth of flavor and intentional cooking are really going to step up this change. We are pushing for discipline and want the plates to show a skill set we have been working toward.
Sea Scallops Dinner Entree
Lunch is a really big step forward for us this time around. If we are fine dining at dinner, lunch will be the sort of bistro counterpart to that, in terms of stepping away from sandwiches and further in the direction of specially prepared cuts of meat and small bites. This will lend a definite cohesion to the dining room experience at Tarragon and will provide guests with the special occasion getaway feel they are seeking when they come here.
Belgian Endive Lunch Salad
The new club level hors d’oeuvres menu will give each person a choice of the appetizer they would like, as opposed to the standard flatbread du jour and small side we served previously. We crafted this menu to be familiar yet enticing, so that guests who may not normally come to Tarragon will feel right at home and will hopefully feel encouraged to continue their meal at a table.
Chef’s Perspective.
What sort of feelings do these new menus evoke in you?
I have never been the kind of cook that goes for radical new concepts, three tier presentations, or molecular gastronomy. What excites me is classic food intentionally prepared with a delicate hand. As far as I am concerned nothing is original anymore, and that is ok. It is our job to take something that has been done before, and make it the best version someone has ever had. That is what I am hoping these menus will do for us here.
What else excites you about this new release?
This upcoming menu is really exciting for us as a kitchen. We renovated parts of the kitchen just days before the menu debut, so we are internally treating it like a restaurant opening, which is exactly what it feels like behind the scenes for us, while nothing will be quite that noticeable from the guests’ perspective (besides the new menu, of course).