The Meal . Oysters , chili , smoked trout roe , lime . Scallop , cabbage , kumquat , peanut , nuoc cham . Pork belly Ssam ! Crispy squid , fermenty things , crunchy things , spicy things . Study in green .
With a disarming grace , she hands me an oyster , prepares a cabbage roll for me at just the right time , has me try a scallop , and instructs the initial crunch of greenery . What I ’ m experiencing goes beyond food or a date . I am enveloped in the essence of femininity — they ’ re all here , the lover , the friend , the sister , the mother , the host . I ’ m taken back to the memory of my dear friend Charlotte with whom I used to skip high school classes in Paris , just so she could play the cello for me . Beethoven , colors , flavors , shapes , textures , and the beauty of her diaphanous skin — all notes of the same past and present symphony .
In that moment I realize I don ’ t know food and I don ’ t know love . Not at least this way . It ’ s all being reinvented before me in an explosive color palette that assaults all the senses , and she is the portal . I am loving every single second of this moment . Damn . I ’ m in deep trouble .
There ’ s no doubt . She is Quaintrelle .
You can ’ t direct , tame , or master a quaintrelle . Relax and enjoy the voyage . No one knows exactly where it will take you or when it will end . That ’ s OK . Live with the question mark ; embrace the question with abandonment and curiosity . There ’ s a whole new world you ’ ll soon want to call home .
Cuisine might be art in its purest form when the fewest steps are taken to make simple ingredients shine . Chef Ryley Eckersley will conduct your experience with an inviting elegance , and guests will rediscover ingredients they thought they knew .
Quaintrelle ’ s cuisine is delivered with style , carriage , and intentionality , but is never postured . There ’ s a genuine appreciation for the soil that bred us . There ’ s an intuitive and visionary flow that celebrates the union of crisp and tender , sweet and tart , sophisticated and wild , man and earth , altogether colliding in poetry as my dining partner keeps feeding me .
Quaintrelle will take you on a trip that you cannot imagine . Take a seat and let it transform you . The world will be a different place when you leave this destination . This is not cuisine , not food , and not a date . It ’ s a tribute to life for anyone who wants to attune their soul with the world ’ s wild sophistication and beautiful complexity . Quaintrelle ’ s cuisine doesn ’ t capture spring . It IS spring .
There is so much beauty in witnessing a group of artists celebrating the best of what earth has to offer . Chef Ryley Eckersley and his team ’ s cuisine resonate like a delicate expression of activism for mother Earth — delivered with so much grace and simplicity that its relevance becomes undeniable .
No doubt . They are Quaintrelle .
“ Cooking is like love . It should be entered with abandonment or not at all .” Harriet Van Horne
The chronology is lost . I ’ m willingly lost , as well . The only thing I can recall is the sharp depth and intensity of the look in her eyes completely taking over and shouting SPRING .
40 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE