Critics’ choice: Three chefs working the cutting edge

Ink Los Angeles

Top Chef winner Michael Voltaggio is putting on quite a show at his new place, said S. Irene Virbila in the Los Angeles Times. While some of the series’s other champs have been disappointments when the cameras vanished, the elaborately tattooed 2009 winner represents the “chef as carnival barker”—a real talent who seems so determined to give his fanatical followers “explosive flavors, weird textures,” and “amazing juxtapositions” that every meal becomes “a thrilling, giddy ride.” Ink is a casual place, “with a cozy but edgy decor” and a small-plates menu inspired less by any one cuisine than by the cutting-edge explorations of experimental kitchens throughout the world. A pristine skate wing arrives in a foamy broth of mushrooms and steel-cut oatmeal that’s been “extravagantly perfumed” with shaved matsutake mushrooms. The cream on an apple dessert is infused with applewood ashes to add “a weirdly smoky taste.” Some of this experimentation works, some “doesn’t quite.” But Voltaggio strikes me as a tinkerer, and “each meal I’ve had has been better than the one before.” 8360 Melrose Ave., (323) 651-5866

Wong New York City

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At its best, Simpson Wong’s cooking “resembles nothing else in town,” said Pete Wells in The New York Times. In a previous Manhattan venture, Wong introduced Asian ingredients to Western dishes and won raves; at this affordable West Village spot, Wong uses Asia as his starting point, then adds a “locavore” ethic and his talent for assembling contrasts. “The best dishes at Wong have a ‘where did that come from?’ quality.” Say yes to the duck tongue meatballs, which are paired with seared scallops and hit the plate after they’ve been braised until tender and coated with a crunchy fried crust. Also not to be missed is the lobster egg foo young—which is a sad-looking omelet in most Chinese restaurants. Here, the dish is “a half lobster tail and claw poached to an angry red,” plus two fried chicken eggs “cradled in a cast-iron skillet” with a tomato-chili sauce and shaved yolks from salt-cured duck eggs. As far as I can tell, the accompanying toast is for wiping the skillet clean. 7 Cornelia St., (212) 989-3399

Kris Bistro Houston

It’s not often that a restaurant inside a cooking school rewards diners with a significant variety of “accomplished thrills,” said Alison Cook in the Houston Chronicle. But in a sleek dining room that was once a humble walk-in cooler at Culinary Institute LeNôtre, chef Kris Jakob and a revolving crew of students are churning out dishes so brilliant they could easily be the creations of Houston’s “current crop of young-Turk chefs.” Though the menu is billed as “modern French bistro,” only the classic French cooking disappoints. Experimental dishes are much better, like the cold-smoked chuck tender—a “brilliant modern Texas take on Hill Country sauerbraten.” Braised in a double bock beer and served with spaetzle in a heady veal reduction, the chuck tender anchors “one of the best beef dishes I’ve sampled in ages.” More amazing still, it’s only $15. 7070 Allensby St., (713) 358-5079