One of the most memorable dining experiences I have had recently was in upstate New York at the restaurant Blue Hills at Stone Barns. This restaurant is unique because it is situated in the middle of a working farm, and gets a large proportion of its produce from the farm.
Before dinner, we toured the farm area and saw the chicken coops and (huge) greenhouse where they grow all the vegetables and fruits. Because it is a working farm that has to turn a profit, the restaurant actually has to buy all the produce from the farm at market prices.
Dinner was spectacular. The service was impeccable and even though the style of food preparation was relatively simple, it only served to highlight the difference that fresh ingredients can make in the taste of the food. If you've never tasted farm-fresh eggs before, you will have to - the consistency and color of the yolk is quite unlike anything you've ever seen from a store-bought egg. The pork on the menu is straight from the Berkshire pigs that they rear on the farm, and was quite assuredly the most succulent pork I have ever tasted in my life.
After dinner, we went on a tour of the kitchen and the wine cellar and charcuterie room. The sous chef is apparently so deeply engaged in charcuterie that he doesn't even work "on the line" anymore (ie. in the kitchen). The fragrance from the charcuterie (or meat curing) room was amazingly pungent that the smell hits you like a sledgehammer even from a couple of feet away. A fellow foodie friend remarked that he was in heaven and did not want to leave after smelling the charcuterie.
I've been privileged to have the opportunity to dine at some very nice restaurants before (Lumiere in Vancouver, Jules Verne in Paris, Jean Georges and Aquavit in New York), but Blue Hills was a singularly unique experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone who visits New York and has a free evening to spend. (Blue Hills also has a restaurant in Manhattan for those on tighter schedules).
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