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Foodie TALK: Hilary Ambrose & Avalon Split
Submitted by Jamie.Barys on Sat, 2010-11-20 18:00

Tis the season for chef turnover. Today will be Hilary Ambrose Jr's last day at Avalon, the wood grill and wine bar on Changle Lu. Ambrose will be heading to MOCA's erstwhile ArtLab (new name pending), gutting the restaurant and turning it into a veritable laboratory of edible science experiments. Expect a lot of molecular gastronomy on your plate come mid-February when the renovations are scheduled to be completed (or earlier, if you snag an invite to the private Chanel parties that are being held there in the coming months).

As for Avalon, Howard Quan (former ASC wine exec who owns Avalon) is "interviewing extensively" for a new chef, but has not confirmed Ambrose's replacement. He is in talks with a former chefs from Luna and Kathleen's 5, as well as several from the Expo Pavilions, noting "this is the first time the Expo has actually been helpful to finding staff".

Avalon's new chef will obviously bring his talents to the menu, but for now expect it to remain at the "status quo". Quan would like to keep the sous vide aspect that Ambrose popularised at Avalon on the table, noting that it was "the most eye-opening part of Hilary's dishes". Quan would also like to play up the restaurant's wood grille strength in the future.

When asked for a comment, both Ambrose and Quan wished each other the "best of luck".

We have been to Avalon a couple of times and both times Hilary was not there and both times the food was excepional, so if he leaves or not Avalon will still continue to do well as they do make an efort to promote,make lots of special events and generally try that much hardr. We will still continue to go there and hope they keep the lobster promo on for the next year to

In my humble opinion, the place can only get better...

I don't have a with-or-without Ambrose comparison but always thought Avalon was one of the better casual restaurants in this city. Hope Quan finds a replacement, and quick!

We're pretty sure Mr. Quan will bounce back and find someone fairly quickly. Although no one here at Dining Secretary doubts Hilary Ambrose's fine culinary skills, we do remember Howard mentioning that he was aiming for a wood grill theme for his restaurant, and the rest kind of took a turn after Hillary joining the team. Perhaps now Mr. Quan will have more freedom to navigate his restaurant into the direction he initially had planned. Either way, all the best to both parties, whom we are sure will both find something that works for them in the near future.

wow!

I like Avalon, always had good meals there, but sure if those were prep'ed by Hilary or not, but definitely hope a smooth transition for Avalon.

Avalon does not need Hilary
The sous chef cooked for us on Monday and this is the verdict...
With partner in hand we headed there on Monday and were once again as we had been there before greeted warmly by the Manager and settled into our seats. For those who have not been before the . Décor is a nice safe warm wood encompassing the big open kitchen window where you can see the foods being prepared. The ALa Carte menu is a mixture of western favorites with a Chefs twist and a “molecular” style so we were informed by our waiter. We opted for safe being that neither of us had really been down the molecular path before when we had been there and hunger was setting in so better the devil you know. Starters was difficult to pick as 4 or 5 items sounded really good so we took the Close your eyes and point” route. Fresh calamari in a crispy biscuit/taco breading was fantastic, fresh, crispy and moreish. Goat Cheese and Jerk Chicken homemade ravioli was also a winner with just a hint of the jerk seasoning coming through and mixing with the cheese texture making it a delicious mouthful every bite. In most reviews no one mentions the bread or bread basket if its served. With this reviewer I feel I must. If you go to Avalon, just try the homemade artisan rolls especially the one with crispy bacon bits embedded into the warm fluffy bread. Simple, tasty and oh so effective. Main course. Ribs. They were slow cooked, meaty and came glistening with a tasty and spicy jalapeno sauce that didn’t overpower but did kick once the mouthful was swallowed. This came with a sautéed chefs vegetables and a huge baked sweet potato that served as a very compatible accompaniment Great combination and probably some of the meatiest ribs we have tried in Shanghai. The girlfriend opted for the safe Tenderloin, a well cooked and juicy piece of meat with nice grill markings and served with this creamy mashed potato with hazelnut puree. More bacon bread 2 X Glass of house Merlot 2 X Coffee (great coffees there) No idea of the bill as Gf paid.

I know you are a friend of Howard's and you are very kind but come on... meatiest ribs in Shanghai? Please. That means you either are being a bit too friendly to Howard or you haven't even ribs period here. Have you been to Malones? Have you been to Bubba's? Etc

And sweet potato? Nah. It's a dried up turd that should NEVER ever be served with Ribs..

I'm a bit confused. I've been told that Hilary worked at Spice Market, but did not work in the kitchen, furthermore the food at Spice is of the tapas/comfort finger food variety, so....

Why is this person being perceived as a chef?

Why is this person an authority on molecular gastronamy all of a sudden? (wiley dufressne is prob the only person in nyc with the credentials to claim a good working knowledge on this "fad" form of cooking)

Hi Beaver
Seriously. The ribs were really really good, maybe i was lucky with the portion then if you know otherwise but they were very full on meat. I have tried both Bubba Ribs and malones ribs and i enjoyed malones much more as they had a great authentic bbq taste and the meat was tender and juicy but nevertheless Avalons ribs were superior to either of these places in taste, quality and portion.
The Sweet Potato was anything but dry,the outside skin was a little crunchy and chewy which we both liked and the potato within was soft and tasty and if you added a little of the rib sauce on the forkful with the potato its was a great little mixture of flavors going on.
Just my 2 cents

Handoogies2.0 wrote:I'm a bit confused. I've been told that Hilary worked at Spice Market, but did not work in the kitchen, furthermore the food at Spice is of the tapas/comfort finger food variety, so....

Why is this person being perceived as a chef?

Why is this person an authority on molecular gastronamy all of a sudden? (wiley dufressne is prob the only person in nyc with the credentials to claim a good working knowledge on this "fad" form of cooking)

Thank you! You are 10000000000000000% correct.

It all started when Howard thought it would be ok to let a little "misperception" grow a life of its own... thinking it would help market his restaurant. When confronted face to face, Howard said, "I never actually said he worked in the kitchen at either of these places..."

It's Shanghai.... people think they can say anything...well I guess they can because it seems almost everyone will believe them.

Im pretty sure its not coincidence, Im also pretty sure it was pre-meditated (as there is no "This was last edited on........"
But in Urmama review 7 posts upwards there are 3 definate bold K`s
Seeing that we are talking about a black Chef is it just me or am i just far too cynical ?

Handoogies2.0 wrote:I'm a bit confused. I've been told that Hilary worked at Spice Market, but did not work in the kitchen, furthermore the food at Spice is of the tapas/comfort finger food variety, so....

Why is this person being perceived as a chef?

Why is this person an authority on molecular gastronamy all of a sudden? (wiley dufressne is prob the only person in nyc with the credentials to claim a good working knowledge on this "fad" form of cooking)

Is that the WD50 guy?
Not only that restaurant was a bitch to find, the food wasn't all that great IMO.
I mean it's good for a small cozy place, but the price was almost fine dinning like, might well go somewhere like Bouley for that price.

^ I've never been, I just know he's the only guy around town with a extensive menu based on molecular cooking. I was disappointed at a few places this time back, the Lincoln sucked, as did Marea. Usually I don't use words like "sucked" to describe food but after paying the prices we did and ate the food we did, no energy to elaborate. Blue ribbon sushi and grill was surprisingly good however.

SexyDjPaul wrote:Im pretty sure its not coincidence, Im also pretty sure it was pre-meditated (as there is no "This was last edited on........"
But in Urmama review 7 posts upwards there are 3 definate bold K`s
Seeing that we are talking about a black Chef is it just me or am i just far too cynical ?

I noticed those bold K's too and thought WTF? Didn't realize there were three though. Pretty curious, indeed.

SexyDjPaul wrote:Im pretty sure its not coincidence, Im also pretty sure it was pre-meditated (as there is no "This was last edited on........"
But in Urmama review 7 posts upwards there are 3 definate bold K`s
Seeing that we are talking about a black Chef is it just me or am i just far too cynical ?

Might you have an active imagination? Unless I am completely blind and after dropping the post into a Word document and searching every K, there only appears to be 2, not 3, bold K's.

Do you believe that the poster is trying to activate the underground KKK sleeper cell here in Shanghai?

Here's the 2 I found:

Goat Cheese and Jerk Chicken

but did kick

Handoogies2.0 wrote:^ I've never been, I just know he's the only guy around town with a extensive menu based on molecular cooking. I was disappointed at a few places this time back, the Lincoln sucked, as did Marea. Usually I don't use words like "sucked" to describe food but after paying the prices we did and ate the food we did, no energy to elaborate. Blue ribbon sushi and grill was surprisingly good however.

You did not miss anything from WD-50, I won't recommend it to people.

As for molecular cooking, it's interesting to try it, it's never a satisfying meal.
I went to my fair share of those, from Fat Duck in London to Peirre Gagnaire in Paris, (although I don't really see this one as molecular gastronomy, it's more like modern French), to other smaller less well-known joints.

The last one I went to, is Bo Innovation in HK, it just received its' Michelin star. It's a *cool* meal, for sure, for example an item called xiaolongbao, it's a spoon of something, you put it in your mouth, it explodes and fills you with flavor, exactly like you are eating a xiaolongbao from Ding Tai Feng, very interesting, but the problem is, you have not actually eaten anything, other than a mouth full of "flavored air". It was like 11 courses meal, the actual sheer volume of food is probably 1/2 bowl of rice. We left the place hungry still, and had to hit the streets in Mongkok for more food.
So you are right on about spending all the money but having no energy to talk about the meal LOL.

The plot thickens...........

Funny how the brain plays tricks...yeah, see it now... weird that I couldn't before. Really, I could not see it. Maybe I just don't want to believe things like this could be happening in 2010. That's even more ridiculous. The world has enough hate.

chingiskhan wrote:

TheBeaver wrote:Funny how the brain plays tricks...yeah, see it now... weird that I couldn't before. Really, I could not see it. Maybe I just don't want to believe things like this could be happening in 2010. That's even more ridiculous. The world has enough hate.

Maybe it's like that sentence:

PARIS IN THE
THE SPRING

Some people don't see THE is repeated twice.

What are you talking about? I just pasted your post into WORD and searched and there is only 1 "THE"!












hahaha

So Ambrose now at MOCA...has anyone tried the food? Was there back in the day when it was "Italian"...and I use those quotes for a reason.

^Can a cafe at the top floor of a small museum be considered a real dining destination or is it more like the cafeteria at Ikea you stop in at to take a break whilst shopping?

I can't see anyone saying to their spouse, "Honey, have a I got a surprise for you! We are going to spend a romantic evening together at the cafe in that contemporary art museum! Dress for it!"



That's just me.