Any critic will tell you that you can’t judge a restaurant on the basis of one dish. Hey, even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? On the other hand, you can tell a lot about a chef by the attention he lavishes on even the most humble menu item. Take chef-owner Shawn Monday at Hudson’s One Red Door, and his 48-hour process for creating french fries.
Sure, on Monday’s menu of upscale Americana, most everything rocks, from the spicy pan-fried shishito peppers to the extraordinary braised short ribs — two boneless pillows of beefy deliciousness so succulent and tender it’s a wonder they don’t float off the plate. Still, Monday’s time-consuming quest for the perfect frites says volumes about his precision and devotion to excellence.
This article appears in Dec 8-14, 2010.