Dufresne, Wylie

Wylie Dufresne (1970–) is the chef-owner of wd~50, which he opened on New York City’s Lower East Side in April 2003 with partners Jean-Georges Vongerichten (a three-star Michelin chef with restaurants all over the world) and restaurateur Phil Suarez. Dufresne describes the cuisine of his restaurant as modern American. wd~50 has garnered a three-star review from The New York Times and one star from the Michelin Guide, retained every year since the first New York edition in 2006. It also came in at no. 81 on the S. Pellegrino’s 2011 Best Restaurant Awards. Thanks to the groundbreaking techniques and dishes that are the hallmark of wd~50, Dufresne is known around the world as one of the leading experimental cooking chefs. With a small research and development department, he works with innovative equipment and ingredients, conducting experiments and developing partnerships with experts from scientists to suppliers. Dufresne’s motivation with experimental cooking is to understand food better, he says; he considers it an educational process. Some of his signature dishes include Eggs Benedict, which consists of cylinders of egg yolks cooked in a water bath at 70ºC and fried hollandaise sauce; Shrimp Noodles (noodles made from shrimp); and Aerated Foie Gras (foie gras terrine aerated by pressure). He reinvents traditional dishes, whether it is fried chicken, pizza, or an everything bagel with lox and cream cheese: the bagel is a frozen hollowed-out disc, the cream cheese is flattened into a brittle sheet, and the lox is frozen and shaven into miniscule flakes. It tastes like the classic New York breakfast dish, but with a presentation that challenges a diner’s expectations.