A friend and I ate at Troisgros. What I would call the first dessert, your Something Pre-Sweet, was named Flocons de neige, à la passion. First, the staff wheeled over a cart bearing a large bronze tureen piled high with blocks of meringue. Then we were each given a plate with a dark, crisp gingerbread Xmas tree on it. Then the waiters brought forth the rasps….

Gleefully silly.

Would you put l’Arnsbourg in that category? Particularly, with the breadth and playfulness of the amuses and the ‘invitation to discover’, I think Chef Klein enters some territory that is “wholly [his].”

“in order to understand the chef and to discover the world of food through his/her eyes.”

I couldn’t agree more.

@ Jon: Yes, I suppose that’s the difference between a culture that’s formally acknowledged and institutionalized the “tasting menu” and named it sacred (i.e. the Japanese and the “kaiseki”), and a culture that’s couched its tasting menu as a culinary expression and statement unique to a particular chef (i.e. the West and its “degustation”) when all it really is (and no one is willing to admit it) a boilerplate form by which they can guarantee an average check amount.

Asia is totally different from the West, which is why I had made this caveat in the post above: “(I would include the rest of the world, but the rest of the world doesn’t necessarily eat the way people in the northern half of the Western hemisphere do).” And, for what it’s worth, I think fruit – especially good fruit – is a thoroughly acceptable (and often preferable) way to end a meal. I still dream about that spoon-ripe musk melon I had at masa.

@ Bryan Z: Jaded? Guilty as charged. LoL. I agree with what you say, but I would add: for me, more than it “serves as a means to try as a many dishes as possible in search of that ‘new’ something,” a tasting menu serves as a means to try as many dishes as possible in order to understand the chef and to discover the world of food through his/her eyes. Even if nothing “new” appears, I’d be happy walking out having gained a better understanding or having a different perspective of the “old.”