Innovative Food puts Binkley's on top in Phoenix
Classically Trained Chef Kevin Binkley: Gourmet Food & Whimsy
Chef Kevin Binkley graduated from the Scottsdale Culinary Institute and perfected his craft under the tutelage of executive chefs at the Inn at Little Washington and the French Laundry. Today Binkley fuses his classical training with modern techniques like molecular cooking to create some of the most playful gourmet food available in the area.
A Dining Experience
While Binkley’s offers an a-la-carte menu, the 4, 5, or 6 course tasting menus are the way to go. Each course plays to Binkley’s strengths, and the numerous amuse bouches delivered along the way will spark your culinary imagination. In fact, dining at Binkley’s should be viewed as an experience, not merely dinner. Expect to spend three to four hours feasting on anything from flash frozen carrot curry salad to foie gras three ways (including as a “milkshake”). The food is sure to spark conversation in your dining group.
Only the Freshest Ingredients
Binkley is fastidious about using fresh ingredients. For this reason the menu, which changes daily, may change several times during the night based on what was sourced fresh that day. The front office staff is often kept busy reprinting menus throughout the night!
While each night brings a fresh menu, diners might start with a slow roasted baby beet salad featuring three types of beets from a local farm along with feta, almonds, sunflower sprouts apples and snow peas. For the culinary brave, the second course could challenge the taste buds with a delectable presentation of sweetbreads. An amuse of fruit cocktail shots presented on a coaster that changes colors will evoke the memory of lava lamps and cleanse the palette for the main course.
Main courses focus heavily on meats and fish. The wild-stripped bass is accented with hedgehog mushrooms, broccoli, baby turnips and creamy orzo. Or try the speck and pear stuffed quail alongside baby carrots, English peas and a pear butter popover.
Save Room for Dessert
Despite all the food, dessert is not to be missed, especially the small dessert amuse bouches the kitchen sends out. Fans of molecular cooking will delight in the meringue cookie with root beer pop rock center and when the waitress tells you to eat the disappearing lemonade quickly, she’s not kidding. Wait too long and your treat will have disappeared. The dessert entrees may include the frozen fruit, prepared tableside in liquid nitrogen or the poached pear with a thin sheet of dark chocolate that melts on top of the fruit.
Binkley’s is housed in a former dry cleaners and its safe to say that Chef Kevin Binkley and his staff take it to the cleaners every night with some of the most unique cuisine in the Valley of the Sun.
Binkley's Restaurant
6920 E. Cave Creek Rd.
Cave Creek, AZ 85331
480-437-1072
www.binkleysrestaurant.com
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