Cynthia restaurant turns food scraps into a tasting menu

Cynthia, a new upscale restaurant in New York City's West Village, is the co-production of restaurateur Claire DuBois and chef Sherry Cardoso. The restaurant distinguishes itself by its commitment to low-waste cooking, where every part of an ingredient is utilized, from scraps and stems to seeds. Cardoso, who has a background at Per Se and Brooklyn Fare and gained fame as a finalist on the most recent season of "Top Chef," brings her Brazilian upbringing to the menu, which includes dishes like a plantain tortilla taco filled with lobster claw meat. The restaurant is named after DuBois's aunt, Cynthia Peck, the matriarch of the late Southern California restaurant Angelo's and Vinci's Ristorante.

Cynthia's approach to dining is unconventional: it does not use online reservation platforms, instead requiring guests to email for reservations. The tasting menu is not revealed until the end of the meal; instead, diners receive a card with a poetic manifesto about seasonal ingredients. The menu features dishes such as a corn course with corn ice cream, marinated summer squash, shaved foie gras, and nori, followed by a beurre blanc with corn kernels and charred squash, finished with platinum osetra caviar. A lobster course includes tail meat in a Thai-inflected red curry with black truffle and a taco with pressed plantain tortilla.

The low-waste philosophy extends beyond the kitchen: ingredient scraps and stems are used to infuse liquors or ferment into tepache at the bar, and lemon seeds are turned into a marmalade given to diners as a take-home treat. However, this sustainability is described as "sustainability theatre," as it is not a practical way of living for most people, requiring a dedicated kitchen staff and paying customers. The only misstep noted was in the supplementary A5 Wagyu course, where a brisket-filled dumpling and a B.L.T.-inspired tongue roulade were overshadowed by the perfectly marbled rib eye with eggplant purée.

Overall, Cynthia offers a meticulously executed tasting menu that justifies its use of high-end ingredients like caviar and truffle, while its low-waste ethos adds a unique angle to the dining experience. The restaurant's insistence on email reservations and its poetic card may seem pretentious, but the food itself speaks for itself, making Cynthia a notable addition to the New York dining scene.