The Waldorf-Astoria's Fresh Bid for Dining Relevance

"Waldorf has brought in Michael Anthony, the longtime executive chef of Gramercy Tavern (where he remains), to create the menu. A hotel restaurant-especially a high-end one, especially a high-end one that wants to bring in diners beyond hotel guests-is a tough trick to pull off. The kitchen needs to turn out three meals a day that are creative enough to draw in finicky locals, anodyne enough to satisfy an international clientele, and sturdy enough to survive the room-service gauntlet."

"The menu at Lex Yard is a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables, the selection attuned to the seasons in a way that feels real, not just like empty words in a server spiel. The offerings in August were abundant in tomatoes, peppers, stone fruits, and summer squashes. But, unlike the clarity of approach at Gramercy, where the star of a dish is given space to really shine, at Lex Yard there's an awful lot of fussing over these low-fuss ingredients-preparations, as a whole, tended to be over-considered, overwrought, over-garnished."

"A peak-of-summer tomato salad was needlessly complexified with both a swoop of creamy cheese and a watery tomato broth, along with vinegar-soaked red cherries whose thunderous tartness outcompeted all of the tomatoes' vibrance. Green beans, snappy and garden-fresh, were an ingenious pairing for fluke in a tartare, but their subtle sweetness was nearly imperceptible against an onslaught of seemingly random garnishes: pelagic bits of nori, toasty sesame seeds,"

Waldorf engaged Michael Anthony, longtime Gramercy Tavern executive chef, to design the menu at Lex Yard. Hotel kitchens must produce three meals daily that attract locals, satisfy international guests, and endure room service. Anthony's Gramercy approach emphasizes ever-changing seasonal elements and painstaking attention to detail, which contrasts with high-volume hotel demands. Lex Yard's menu foregrounds abundant, seasonally attuned fruits and vegetables, especially summer tomatoes, peppers, stone fruits, and squashes. Preparations at Lex Yard often add numerous garnishes and elaborate components that overcomplicate simple ingredients, causing bright produce and subtle pairings to be masked rather than showcased.

Read at The New Yorker