Gourmet | Moreton Neal | Herons Revisited: Chef Scott Crawford Brings Pure Magic to Herons At The Umstead

Herons Revisited: Chef Scott Crawford Brings Pure Magic to Herons At The Umstead

By Moreton Neal

It can’t be easy to be a hotel chef, especially at The Umstead Hotel and Spa. Breakfast, lunch, bar snacks, spa food, room service, special events and parties — imagine the work that goes into keeping demanding stomachs and palates happy 24/7. Only a very special person can keep all those balls in the air while delivering a dining experience that lives up to the hotel’s exceptionally lovely setting.
Until recently, it hasn’t been easy for The Umstead to find that person. Since opening in early 2007, two chefs have come and gone, neither a good fit for the unique property. The third time may be the charm — Scott Crawford has the talent, experience and maturity to fit the bill.
Already, Crawford is making all the right moves in building relationships with his staff, Herons’ patrons and the suppliers — particularly local farmers and artisans. He has immersed himself in the Triangle dining scene by taking his cooks to the Triangle’s top restaurants, touring farms to find the best pork and beef (his choice is Eliza MacLean’s Cane Creek Farm), cheeses (Chapel Hill Creamery and the Goat Lady) and has arranged for two acres of Cherry Lane Farm to be used exclusively for produce and herbs grown for Herons.
Personable and confident, Crawford (who looks like a movie star playing a chef) enjoys connecting with his audience. “We’re going to be the place to be,” he told us. “We’re fighting against Herons’ reputation as being over-priced. We really want people to come here and try us again.”
After tasting Crawford’s exquisite food, I’m convinced that Herons is already the place to be.
A brilliantly conceived dinner, perfectly prepared and served in a gorgeous dining room with a wooded view, wines chosen for each course by an inspired sommelier, a serene chef looking very much at home behind the open kitchen window — what’s not to like! Have I mentioned that the five-course tasting menu is priced at $70? The last meal I had of this caliber was at Napa Valley’s illustrious French Laundry — the bill, more than 10 times that.
An amuse bouche preceded the tasting menu and, as it should, spoke volumes about the chef’s sensibilities — Elodie Farms’ finest goat cheese on a bed of diced melon and cucumber topped off with a tiny sliver of deep purple basil. The tanginess of the cheese, the soothing flavors and textures of the sweet, soft melon and firmer cucumber — even the delicate size of dice — illustrated the care that goes into Crawford’s every choice. The basil’s pungency and intense color provided an unexpected exclamation point to this ostensibly simple dish. No fancy techniques were used here — just clean, bright flavors combined in a way that gave equal importance to each ingredient.

After this auspicious beginning, each course of the tasting menu (see sidebar) proved more exciting than its predecessor. Kobe beef tartare was given a spicy kick with Kanzuri, a Japanese fermented chili paste. Chopped peanuts and a paper thin slice of brioche added textural counterpoint to the softness of the chopped meat. The accompanying wine from the tasting menu, Melange, a blended white from Washington, was a surprising but apt choice. In another course, the delicately smoked flavor of butterfish was reinforced by a silky smoked butter sauce and tongue-tingling bits of pickled fennel — this dish accompanied by another bold pairing, a Willamette Valley pinot noir.
Vegetable dishes were extraordinary, both on the à la carte and the tasting menus: a frothy green pea and lemongrass soup poured over pink lobster knuckles with a dollop of smoked char roe; a spring bean salad made with fava, lima and green beans, crunchy with chopped hazelnuts and garnished with fairy-sized deviled quail eggs. The tasting menu’s delicious white asparagus with morels came with a surprise: posing as a perfectly round fritter, a soft boiled egg was coated with a crisply browned crust of Panko breadcrumbs. After cutting in, the warm, liquid yolk provided an unexpected sauce for the asparagus. I haven’t asked how this neat trick was executed, preferring to remember it as pure magic.

I did, however, ask the chef about his inspiration. “I come into this dining room every day to absorb it. I love the style, the art. It feels natural to me. I cook for the room.” In fact, there is a geometric, quasi-Asian look to Crawford’s compositions. Many of his dishes are presented on simple rectangular plates, reflecting the dining room’s contemporary elegance — worlds away from his last gig at The Cloister Hotel at Sea Island, GA.
Management at the venerable Cloister, the posh golfing resort with a clientele that includes European royalty and American presidents, recruited Crawford from the Woodlands Resort & Inn in Summerville, SC, to open their new half billion dollar restaurant. While at the lavish Georgian Room, Crawford reinvented Low Country coastal cuisine to critical acclaim and quickly earned Mobil Travel Guide’s five stars, its highest rating.
Like the greatest of American chefs — Thomas Keller, Charlie Trotter and Norman Van Aken (with whom the young chef apprenticed after graduating from Florida’s American Culinary Academy) — Crawford’s style is clean and fresh; flavors are never muddled. Every ingredient tastes like itself —but better than you ever imagined. His compositions are surprising, yet not gimmicky. The artistry of Crawford’s multidimensional dishes demands your attention in the best possible way with flavor combinations that are witty, surprising and fun.
While Crawford presided over the Georgian Room’s kitchen, John Kessler, longtime food columnist of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, dubbed him “the best chef in Georgia.”
Once he implements all the changes planned for Herons, I predict we’ll be hearing Crawford praised as the best chef in North Carolina.

Nibbles
Every Thursday evening throughout the summer, visit Herons’ terrace from 5-6:30 p.m. for a Cocktail Party hosted by new sommelier Justin Tilley and mixologist Sara Vannice. A different summer-inspired theme will be explored every week, alternating between wines and cocktails. Guests can engage in discussions with Tilley and Vannice about the libations while enjoying live music and a view of the lake. The cost is $18 per person. For reservations, call 919-447-4200.
• • • •
The farmhouse porch at Elodie Farms near Rougemont, NC, is the site of an ongoing dinner series featuring food cooked by some of the Triangle’s best chefs. Visit www.elodiefarms.com for details on the June 6 dinner with Watts Grocery’s Amy Tornquist and the Aug. 1 dinner featuring Scott Crawford of Herons.
• • • •
The new Busy Bee Café, now open at 225 S. Wilmington St. in downtown Raleigh, is part lunch spot, part coffeehouse and part nighttime bar. Chef Jeremy Clayman, formerly of The Mint, has abandoned molecular gastronomy for a more traditional fare, including shrimp and grits, steak frites, salade niçoise and a seasonal risotto. A rooftop patio offers views of the downtown skyline. Check www.busybeeraleigh.com for menus and regular beer dinners.
• • • •
Gravy, an Italian-American restaurant co-owned by Bella Monica Restaurant and Greg Hatem’s Empire Eats, should open early this summer in the spot next to the new Lebanese eatery, Sitti, at 135 S. Wilmington St., downtown Raleigh. The space was previously occupied by the Riviera Mediterranean Resto & Lounge that closed in November.
• • • •
Two new restaurants are scheduled to open in downtown Durham this summer: Dos Perros (owned by Jujube’s Charlie Deal) and Eno Restaurant & Market (a joint venture of Chef Sarig Agasi and Nancy Agasi from Zely & Ritz and Richard Holcomb of Coon Rock Farm). Both eateries will be located in the renovated firehouse building at 101 City Plaza.
• • • •
Raleigh’s popular Asian eatery ShabaShabu has expanded, opening a second location in Durham (at 4020 Chapel Hill Blvd.). Link to www.shabashabu.net for Shabu’s Thai and Japanese menus.
• • • •
Summer is the season for events throughout North Carolina’s wine regions, including the newly designated Haw River region just a stone’s throw from the Triangle. For a listing of statewide events, go to www.visitncwine.com.
• • • •
Both visitors and local residents can explore the exceptional culinary landscape of our area with two different food touring companies. Triangle Food Tour offers walking tours of downtown Chapel Hill/Carrboro and Raleigh (and soon, Durham) providing an insider’s perspective of area restaurants and farmers’ markets — tastings included! For reservations, call 919-319-5674 or link to www.trianglefoodtour.com.
• • • •
Another company, Taste Carolina Gourmet Food Tours (919-943-1231, www.tastecarolina.net), takes participants behind the scenes to restaurants on weekends. Tour guides give a historical, architectural and culinary account of the area with an emphasis on its food history and renaissance. Tastes will be offered at almost every stop.

HERONS CHEF’S TASTING MENU
Late Spring 2009

Kobe Beef Tartare, Kanzuri, Lime, White Soy, Peanuts, Cilantro
Waterbrook, “Melange,” Columbia Valley, Washington 2007

Poached Asparagus, Morel Mushrooms, Duck Ham, Aged Sherry
Domaine Henri Perrusset, Chardonnay, Macon-Villages, Bourgogne, France 2006

Smoked Butter Fish, Heirloom Tomato, Pickled Fennel, Tangerine
Silvan Ridge, Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, Oregon 2006

Roast Lamb Loin, Curried Sweet Peas & Pine Nuts, Shallot Confit
Grant Burge, “Holy Trinity,” GSM, Barossa Valley, Australia 2002

Three Preparations of Olive Oil Cake
Chocolate-Cherry, Lemon-Pistachio, Almond-Apricot, Crème Fraiche
Chateau Bastor-Lamontagne, Sauternes, France 2001