When the plate first arrives, it is breathtaking. Bright green, pink, and white look like splatters of paint on a palette. It’s also a bit odd — alien, even — in that it looks like magnified organic matter under a microscope on a petri dish, with geometric fragments of cells. Poached salmon with many sauces, circles, and squares, it’s called. In its whimsy and oddity, it is the newest dish by executive chef Freddy Money hidden on Atlas’ spring menu, which launches in two weeks. It will be a supplemental dish on the tasting menu.
“I built this crazy matrix when I design,” says Money, of creating the menu at the one-Michelin-starred place. “You think about the color wheel, the contrast, height, shapes, spaces, geometry … you want to offset with odd numbers, three looks better than four on a plate.”
There are three minuscule dots of a powerful black garlic sauce on the plate. There is a play on height and texture with feathered dill and citrus lace. The salmon is cured in salt, poached to a velvety texture, and glazed in a parsley gelee. It is served on a well of seaweed and mirin sauce and finished with herb oil.
“One circle is a parsley gelee. One circle is ponzu. One is black garlic,” says Money. “Braised leeks are the circles and squares. Mirin is the sweet, ponzu is the acid, tarragon is the herbaceous [note].”…