Omnivore - Classic Blais

You may have already heard, but Richard Blais has resigned as chef at Home. You can read the full AJC story here. As I made quite clear in my review of Home, I never thought Blais’ talent was properly showcased there.

Last week I got a new reason to get excited for whatever comes next for Blais. A friend took me to Eno’s foie gras dinner on Thursday - six courses of foie prepared by six Atlanta chefs. It was an interesting night and I feel as though I’m still recovering. I haven’t wanted to eat much since then - each course on its own would probably have been wonderful, but six courses was a bit much.

The one course that stood out was prepared by Richard Blais, and it made me terribly nostalgic for Element and Blais totally unrestrained. It was classic Blais - very lightly poached lobster tail over sweet corn puree with maple foam, pickled lichee, and shaved foie (it had been frozen and grated, and looked like the shaved chocolate on top of a black forest cake). The flavors together were so bizarre and disorienting and ultimately delicious. The lichee made the dish, despite being the weirdest thing on the plate.

As of this post, Blais’ only definite project is Flip, the gourmet burger joint. But I’ve heard he’s looking for a “small restaurant” space. We’ll keep you posted as we find out more.