The Farmhouse Inn Restaurant:
Craig Wilmer’s Gestalt of Food.
The idea behind the psychological theory of GESTALT is that the sum of the parts adds up to something greater than the parts themselves.
Chef Craig Wilmer has managed to execute GESTALTISM in his food creations. Beginning with the single crab leg bathed in vinegar infused with 35+ flavors and aromas. The simplicity of the crab leg and vinegar triggers memories of catching and cooking fresh Dungeness crab along the Oregon coast as a child. However, the incredible complexity of the vinegar carries the experience well past simple nostalgia and into the realm of "reification." Where the various hints of peppercorns and herbs infused within the vinegar form a stage of airiness in the mouth. A cloud of heightened perception upon which the texture and sweetness of the crab leg can play.
Next was the cauliflower creamed, caviar topped, oysters on the half shell. Where the cauliflower's vegetal cream created a pillow upon which the briny flavors of the caviar and oyster could rest, as the earthy flavor of the cauliflower blends with the nutty undertones. As they cross back and forth in the palate, become aware of Chef Craig Wilmer playing with the multistable nature of gestaltism in your food. The man is a chef and Psychologist Philosopher combined.
The Roe Tartare was perhaps more traditional and offered a break from the culinary equivalent of being cranked up the first hill of a roller coaster, and dropping down the other side. I love fresh fish roe, and the briny, nutty flavors were right up my alley. Here Chef Wilmer is letting you sample the raw ingredients as a nod to the freshness and perfection of his ingredients procurement and supply chain.
Next was the fish ball soup, where most of you will begin your own culinary journey with The Farmhouse Inn. The Soup henceforth referred to as a proper noun, immediately transported my tongue to the night market in Taiwan, to the 100-year-old soup stall run by generations of a single family. With the strong kick of white pepper, the fish balls deceptively hide mostly Dungeness crab within, so the texture is equally as delicate, with the flavor of The Soup also being a very clear seafood broth. I feel as I must stress the clarity of flavor in The Soup. The celery oil dropped on top brought as much visual play as it did flavor. In The Soup was the gestalt property of invariance, whereby all flavors pointed back to the source of all the ingredients consumed thus far, the Ocean itself brought forth as a statement.
Shima Aji and Beets -- The platter upon which the Shima Aji and seaweed was stunning! Atop a bed of flavored foam sat a crunchy fried seaweed. Upon breaking it and mixing it within the foam our party discovered small beetroot squares and Shima Aji. The beet's sweetness paired well with the Shima Aji. The firmness of the fish was well matched with the firmness of the beet, and they blended well together in mouth feel.
Marbled Flounder with Rare Citrus -- Here Chef Wilmer is playfully recreating the individual scales of the fish with handmade replica scales, but fully edible. The fish was perfectly cooked, and the sauce it rested in was well worth scooping up with the bread that was provided mid-meal.
Abalone Shell -- This was the visual masterpiece of the meal. A crispy edible abalone shell created from the magic of Chef Wilmer's kitchen adorning two perfectly cooked pieces of abalone, of course, topped with caviar sitting on a bed of a vegetable that I forgot the name of.
There is much more, like the Squab which arrived on an aromatic bed of smoked rosemary and house-made hoisin sauce, or the wagyu beef strip grilled to perfection paired with an ultra-thin daikon ribbon embossed with flowers.
To finish off the culinary symphony/concerto, pastry chef Amanda Hoang's Apple Mooncake is a twist on an apple pie, with a nod to her Taiwanese heritage in shaping the apple treat into a mooncake. The flavor is reminiscent of an apple fritter combined with a churro but with the buttery flakiness of French puff pastries. It is paired with a caramel sauce and Vanilla Bean ice cream on a bed of toffee and toasted nibs.
In summary, the sum of the parts was far beyond the parts themselves and formed a greater experience that I will not forget for a long time.
Thank you Chef Craig Wilmer and team at Farmhouse Inn Restaurant!
The FOUR categories of GESTALT EXPERIENCE:
Emergence occurs when a complex entity has properties or behaviors that its parts do not have on their own, and emerge only when they interact in a wider whole.
Reification is the constructive or generative aspect of perception, by which the experienced object of perception contains more explicit spatial information than the sensory stimulus on which it is based.
Multistability (or multistable perception) is the tendency of ambiguous perceptual experiences to pop back and forth between two or more alternative interpretations.
Invariance is the property of perception whereby simple geometrical objects are recognized independent of rotation, translation, and scale, as well as several other variations such as elastic deformations, different lighting, and different component features.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8239214/#:~:text=The%20existence%20of%20a%20Gestalt,units%20it%20is%20constructed%20from.