FROM DEEP BLUE SEA TO DEEPER BLUE HILL

This innovative eatery welcomes cruisers to the freshest feast possible.

THE FRESHEST FARM-TO-TABLE experience has to be when the aforementioned table is actually located on the aforementioned farm. That’s the secret behind the exquisite dining event that is Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

The restaurant has no menu, and there’s no tipping. Instead, diners come to the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, New York, a working, four-season farm and educational center, and taste whatever happens to be growing on that day. Meals are constructed from ingredients from the Stone Barns fields and pastures, or from one of the neighboring local farms. Recent diners were allowed to sample ham from Tamworth pigs, panther soybeans, eight-row flint corn, arcuri garlic, winter kale, scarlet frills mustard greens, hakurei turnips, Swiss chard, and chrysanthemum sprouts, all minimally seasoned yet prepared to perfection by Dan Barber, once recognized with a James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef in America.

Though the dining has a back-to-the-land philosophy, the setting is nothing short of elegant — no shorts permitted, jackets and ties preferred for gentlemen, and children are encouraged to try the nearby Blue Hill Café for a more family-friendly meal.

With advance notice, parties of up to 14 guests can enjoy a private dining room that overlooks the herb garden.

Blue Hill also has an elegant casual location — where cellular telephones and flash photography are not permitted — in a landmark speakeasy off Washington Square Park within New York City. The dishes there are equally fresh and innovative — with offerings like Montauk Monkfish with cauliflower and Finger Lake grapes, or a Juice Pulp Cheeseburger with fried egg, beet ketchup, and polenta fries — served in more familiar surroundings. Either way, you are getting a culinary introduction to the land. bluehillfarm.com/dine/ stone-barns.com