Luke's Gatronomy - Kingston Ontario, Nov 26, 2010

Luke is a 19 year old wonder kid who has been training as a chef since he was 11 in his parents restaurant in Kingston. When he was 15 he became executive chef and began his adventures in (molecular) gastronomy.
The restaurant itself is small and funky. Luke's food is amazingly inventive.
We started with a charcuterie plate. All the charcuterie is made by Luke from locally sourced meat. Particularly good was a fennel flavoured sausage.
I started with the Crisp Pork Belly Pizza with thyme, potatoes, capers, olives and onions. The pork belly itself was the "pizza" - a bit disappointing. The toppings were nice but the pork belly was dry and uninteresting (and I love pork belly!)
Much better was the Tete du Cochon (head cheese) with mushroom ketchup, preserved lemon and quail egg. The Tete was marvellous - creamy and tasty.
For my main I had Beef Cheeks, which was filled with vin sauce au chocolat, sweet pea, a garlic croquette (served in a bent spoon standing in a glass) and "umami". I asked about umami, which I understood to be the "fifth taste" (according to the Japanese). It was described - by Luke's mother, who handles the front room - as a mix of different ingredients which evoke "umami". Quite honestly I didn't get it. The beef cheeks were somewhat dry although the sauce was interesting. Not really a successful dish. My fellow diners tried the Blues Junkie Goat (goat, solid yogurt, coffee dust, chilles, dates and almonds. Meant to evoke the flavours of Yemen it was interesting and tasty. The Cosmic Duck was duck confit (good) with tomato and a marshmallow (!).
Deserts were also interesting - "Serendipity" which featured chocolate and blue cheese, and "Testosterone", which had tobacco ice cream (surprisingly delicious) and scotch (in the form of what looked like a cinnamon stick).