This mutant masterpiece takes “Frankenstein foods” to the next level.
The new Maison Barnes — the sister restaurant to Cafe Boulud, both at 100 E. 63d at Park Avenue — is serving a $250 whole roasted chicken stuffed with the head of a Maine lobster.
Dubbed “The Chobster,” it looks like something out of a 1950s sci-fi fil and is served with the most elaborate tableside spectacle I’ve seen in the city.
A viral Martha Stewart Instagram post in March showing the composite creature drew more than 31,000 “likes” and comments such as “seems like a PETA hate crime” and “Mommy, I’m scared.”
Executive chef Romain Paumier dreamed up the Chobster after his boss Daniel Boulud asked for a big, iconic dish to set Maison Barnes’s menu apart from Café Boulud’s. Mission accomplished.
To make the dish, Paumier and his team first flambée a lobster head in Cognac glaze and then insert it in to the cavity of a whole Sasso chicken — a French breed prized for its deeper flavor.
The stuffed chicken — think of it is as a high-class Turducken — is roasted in the oven, while the remaining lobster parts are poached and shelled.
Before the Chobster emerges from the kitchen, it gets dressed up. A brass lobster head, tail and claws — all comically large — are attached to the creation. It’s quite a sight.
Karim Guedouar, the urbane regional manager of Boulud’s Dinex restaurant group, wheels the whole shebang to the table. On my visit, a jolly Boulud and Paumier came along for the ride.
Eyeballs pop when the Chobster makes its way across the dining room. When it reaches the table, the brass appendages are removed and the real lobster head is extracted from cavity. It’s placed in an old-fashioned duck press to be juiced.
Boulud turned the machine’s wheel, crushing the crustacean and yielding a flavorful liquid that’s added to lobster bisque, creme fraiche and chicken jus to make a rich, complex sauce — a variation on classic Nantua sauce that’s usually made with crayfish.
After so much spectacle, the finished product comes to the plate looking a bit anticlimactic — amusingly so.
Alternating chunks of tender white-meat chicken and shelled lobster are lined up in a tidy row, and the sauce is spooned on after the plate is set down in front of you.
Fresh green asparagus and wild rice made for wonderful, seasonal accompaniments.
That’s just the first Chobster course. A plate of beautifully bronzed dark meat comes out for the second.
It all appears fairly simple on the plate, but the flavors are anything but. The Chobster is a rare marriage of oceanic-and-barnyard essences that are sweetened and deepened by the creamy sauce. The latter is luscious enough to be served as a soup.
The Chobster is only for a lucky few. Just four or five tables can order it each night “as it’s quite exclusive,” Guedouar chuckled.
But it’s already put Maison Barnes, not a familiar name to New Yorkers, on the map. Its most famous and notorious dish is a must try — at least once.
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