Order the Thing That Shows Up Twice

Repetition on a menu isn't a theme — it's the walk-in cooler leaking onto the page, and it's your best clue.

28 September 2026

Fennel in the crudo, fennel in the sausage, fennel pollen dusting the chicken. That's not a point of view. That's a case of fennel in the walk-in and a chef who had to do something about it. Every menu is a sales document written over an inventory sheet, and the ingredient that appears twice is where the two documents fail to line up.

This is the best news on the page. A thing bought in quantity was bought properly, from someone who sells it by the case, and a thing used in three dishes turns over daily. It will never be old. Order it.

What I avoid is the orphan — the lone seared scallop marooned on a menu otherwise built of pork, beans and bitter greens. Nothing else touches it. Nobody in that kitchen loves it. It is there for the one guest who doesn't eat pork, and it has been waiting in the freezer for weeks to meet you.