Alison Cook touts Duck Heart Bolognese at Chris Shepherd’s One Fifth Romance Languages.
Shepherd’s duck heart Bolognese an inspired pasta dish
“Snail pot pie” were the three little words — texted to me in midmeal by a friend —that made me hustle in to the new Romance Languages edition of Chris Shepherd’s One Fifth restaurant.
The format-changing concept had barely opened its doors to the public. But in my haste to partake of the admittedly fetching snails en croute, buttery of crust and creamy of sauce, I discovered three different little words to obsess over: “duck heart Bolognese.”
You read that right. Bolognese sauce, everyone’s favorite Italian comfort food, made with D’Artagnan duck hearts ground up to a springy, brisk turn. With just a hint of tomato, the sauce tastes wonderfully earthy and bright at once, thanks to a distinct lilt of lemon zest in the blob of whipped ricotta on top.
That ricotta takes the place of the shot of milk that goes into a classic Bolognese. A few odd scraps of foie gras enrich the sauce, too. Al dente casarecce made by Houston’s Tavola Pasta, the local farmers-market vendor, catch the sauce in their curves.
It all added up to one of the best pasta dishes I’ve ever encountered. If you think you won’t like duck hearts — just one of the various cuts of offal with which Shepherd has punctuated his French/ Italian/Spanish menu — well, here’s the entry-level dish to open your mind and your palate.
“We’re taking that really familiar dish and adding something new,” Shepherd says. “That’s always been a goal, making people comfortable but pushing them out of their zone a little bit.”
I was happy to find there’s plenty else to love at One Fifth: Romance Languages. That snail “pot pie,” for one, its garlic gentled by cream. A spectacular version of foie gras torchon, for another, the satiny disk of foie housed in a persimmon pudding that poufs up in the wood oven like a popover, then collapses into a rich, soft, crispedged shell. With the tart bite of apple butter and crackles of Maldon sea salt, it’s a brilliant dish.
So is Shepherd’s version of tripe alla Romana, the bouncy lengths of intestine clean and mild as you please, set off by a spicy tomato sauce that positively shimmers with red Fresno chile. With Texas grits ground polenta style on the bottom, and magenta crescents of pickled red onion on top, it’s another dish that seems bound to win over diners who think they won’t like offal.
The new menu is not just about the odd bits. There’s a compelling blend of shrimp and chorizo; a simple carbonara mined with bits of house-made guanciale so crisp they’re almost carbonized; beef cheek Bourgogne in a thick, glossy red wine sauce; pressed suckling pig with red pepper mostarda.
And don’t leave without sampling one of pastry chef Victoria Dearmond’s polvorones, little squares of Spanish shortbread made with pork fat. Their fine, sandy texture melts on the tongue.
I thought Shepherd’s work at the late, lamented steakhouse version of One Fifth was some of his best in years. After closing that concept as planned in August, to make way for the second of five concepts that will occupy the sanctuary space of this 1920s church, he’s come back just as strong.
Even the look is refreshed, with a pale canopy installed over the bar and a silvery metal wall relief that hints at Art Nouveau.
I hesitated to put One Fifth on my recently released list of Houston’s Top 100 restaurants because of the uncertainty of the changing formats and the fact that the restaurant’s closure every year during August, when Top 100 goes to press, precludes me from gauging the new iterations.
But after my initial visit, know this: As far as I’m concerned, One Fifth: Romance Languages has earned an honorary Top 100 slot. It’s exciting work.