Boston chef does guest stint at Foxwoods steakhouse

David Burke Prime hosts Dumont

MASHANTUCKET — David Burke Prime, the upscale but accessible steakhouse on the restaurant level of the Grand Pequot Tower at Foxwoods Resort Casino, welcomed a busy Boston chef to host a one-night in-residence dinner recently.

The steakhouse is run by Craveable Hospitality Group, and visiting Mary Dumont runs the new and fashionable Cultivar restaurant in Boston, which has a sustainable food philosophy and a hydroponics garden on premises. Dumont comes from a culinary family, and is a former executive chef at The Dunaway in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Dumont also worked her way through other top kitchens and successfully ran Harvest, an icon of Cambridge, Massachusetts, not to mention competing on Food Network’s “Iron Chef America” and “The Next Iron Chef.”

Dumont’s menu, served to foodies and invited guests that included David Burke’s affable Executive Chef Pedro Avila and Craveable’s Culinary Director Matt O’Neill, featured hors d’oeuvres of bay scallop crudo (with blood orange and heirloom pepper slivers), caviar with shallots and creme fraiche in a mini popover shell, and ribeye in a bone marrow bernaise.

The meal continued with a celery root agnolotti pasta — small, firm and bathed in cultured butter with a sliver or two of apple and celery. The star of the night followed, a halibut with small cauliflower bits, romanesco, winter citrus and Meyer lemon beurre blanc. There was also a roulade (sliced roll) of cornish game hen and a dessert of cherry wood-smoked brownies with ice cream. Why anyone would smoke a brownie is a mystery to us, but this is fine dining so anything goes.

Joe Amarante / Hearst Connecticut Media Executive Chef Pedro Avila displays a 3½-pound lobster from the tank at David Burke Prime.

Courtesy of Bread and Butter PR A happy hour margarita at SolToro, which is getting a new look Monday.