It's not very often you find a restaurant serving up food that's both technically precise and adventurous at the same time (or rather, makes the combination work), but then Aussie-born Shaun Hergatt is not your average chef. His Midtown Manhattan restaurant, Juni, was awarded its first Michelin star last year; since then, its reputation has been ascendent.
Hergatt's latest Herbivore, Omnivore and Chef's Tasting summer menus are a particular highlight. Juni roughly translates as 'the heart of the season', which sets the tone for the culinary proceedings. 'To make it onto the menu, produce has to be at its very ripest... and having grown up on a farm where I learnt how to cook straight from the earth, "ripeness" comes as second nature to me,' explains Hergatt.
Inspiration is the main tool of the chef's trade, and Hergatt's comes from wherever he can find it: childhood memories of his hometown of rural Queensland, art, nature, and, of course, the city on his doorstep. The theatrically designed 'Cherry Ripe', for instance, takes its name from the Australian chocolate bar he used to devour as a child. Composed of spherical shaped foie gras mousse, coated in cherry gelée and finished with chocolate tuile, this is edible art at its very best.
Hergatt's latest Herbivore, Omnivore and Chef's Tasting summer menus are a particular highlight of his nuanced cooking
Juni roughly translates as 'the heart of the season', which sets the tone for the culinary proceedings
'To make it onto the menu, produce has to be at its very ripest... and having grown up on a farm where I learnt how to cook straight from the earth, "ripeness" comes as second nature to me,' says Hergatt
The theatrically designed 'Cherry Ripe' takes its name from the Australian chocolate bar he used to devour as a child. It is composed of spherical shaped foie gras mousse, coated in cherry gelée and finished with chocolate tuile
ADDRESS
Juni
12 East 31st Street
New York, NY 10016
-
Inside Lily Allen and David Harbour's maximalist Brooklyn townhouse, now on the market for $8 millionThe former couple have listed their Billy Cotton-renovated Carroll Gardens brownstone, which has been immortalised in Allen’s new album ‘West End Girl’
-
This refined Manhattan prewar strikes the perfect balance of classic and contemporaryFor her most recent project, New York architect Victoria Blau took on the ultimate client: her family
-
This is your chance to invest in some ultra-rare Maison Margiela Tabi bootsPart of the new ‘Tabi Collector’s Series’, these one-of-a-kind Tabis are adorned with 8,000 hand-embroidered beads, sequins and metallic shards – an ode to the pioneering split-toe style, introduced by Martin Margiela in 1989
