H owever, when the food arrives, all is forgiven. Each plate is a work of art. Slender stalks of fresh asparagus and fronds of ivory endive have been painstakingly arranged to form a small tepee. W ild-mushroom purses please us less. They're cute as a button but the pasta is heavy, the mushroom filling is undistinguished, and the truffled mushroom broth too salty for the truffle flavor to shine through.
Perfection is too pale a word.
S cintillating sauces are a given at Esteva, so one can order the familiar without fear of the mundane. A simple rack of lamb is ambrosial by virtue of an amazing glaze of pomegranate and molasses. Monkfish and mahogany clams evoke the Mediterranean with green olives and prosciutto. The clams are dainty little things, fresh as the briny deep. It comes with a glaze of ponzu, a Japanese sauce made with rice vinegar, soy sauce, sake and seaweed, exotic to us but traditional in the Orient and wonderfully compatible with duck.