Best of New York 2009 • Eating

• Convivio

  45 Tudor City Pl., at 42nd St.; 212-599-5045

  Is there a food on the planet more elementally satisfying than a salty, golden crisp, perfectly rendered French fry? Probably not. But at his new restaurant, Convivio, chef Michael White gives us an inventive, compulsively edible dish that comes close. He makes his Pecorino Potatoes with fresh Yukon Golds that are salt-baked until fork-tender. After that, he flattens them with a mallet and frizzles them, to a golden brown, in olive oil. Then White seasons his crunchy little potato blossoms with salt and pepper, drizzles them with garlic oil and a squeeze of lemon, and tosses them with grated Pecorino cheese. White’s dish combines the soothing comforts of a pocket-size baked potato with a sturdy, salty, multilayered crunch. It’s a gourmet Tater Tot for the thinking man, without the ketchup or the grease, and we defy you to eat just one.

From the 2009 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine