Eugene Mirman Gets an Early Taste of Chef Brandon Baltzley’s Café ArtScience
Brandon Baltzley in the kicthen at TMIP , his native food pop-up in Indiana. / Photo by Nick Murray provided
A chef known for wild ingredients has taken up the kitchen at a restaurant known for wild technique. Brandon Baltzley is the new executive chef at Café ArtScience, Eugene Mirman tweeted.
The Massachusetts comedian broke the details of news Baltzley hinted at last month: The chef, who has been running the Buffalo Jump on Cape Cod with wife and co-chef Laura Higgins Baltzley, and a roaming, culinary pop-up called Crux, is working on a new Boston project. Higgins Baltzley will continue the Buffalo Jump, though the seasonal pop-up is currently on hiatus.
Baltzley is taking over for Patrick Campbell, who is developing plans for a neighborhood bar and restaurant in his hometown of Stoneham, per a rep for Café ArtScience. Campbell opened the pioneering French restaurant-cum-science lab in 2014, with co-founder David Edwards, a Harvard professor and founder of adjacent experiential gallery space, Le Laboratoire, and partner and award-winning bartender Todd Maul.
Southern-born Baltzley has cooked in Michelin-starred kitchens in New York City and Chicago, as well as at the wild food innovator, Noma. He also has a memoir, Nine Lives, that dives into the chef’s past substance abuse. After meeting his future wife in Chicago, the duo came East to Tim Maslow’s Ribelle, where Baltzley was co-chef. They relocated to Higgins Baltzley’s native Falmouth last year, initially signing on with a local restaurateur on the short-lived the 41-70. Last summer, the Baltzleys debuted the Buffalo Jump, a pop-up dedicated to cuisines and ingredients native to the Waquoit Bay area.
Last night at Café ArtScience, the chef prepared Mirman a spread of tuna in beef fat with radish and truffle, oysters, and Cafe ArtScience’s craveable red hot weiner. The Bob’s Burgers star and Flight of the Concords landlord also had a cocktail, because how can you not?
Thanks to @CafeArtScience & @BrandonBaltzley for an amazing dinner last night! pic.twitter.com/6i1y9H9MW4
— Eugene Mirman (@EugeneMirman) January 6, 2017
Baltzley’s menu will roll out in the next couple months, with dishes that “reflect Baltzey’s passion for introducing guests to unexpected ingredients and flavor combinations, while maintaining the restaurant’s classic French technique and European influence,” per the restaurant.
In the meantime, check it out for yourself: Baltzley is trying out specials, like fermented sweet potato agnolotti, and duck fat-seared deviled eggs on toast with mornay, lovage, and white truffles. Maybe you’ll see Eugene Mirman at the bar—and if not, you can always just have a daiquiri or two.
Café ArtScience, 650 East Kendall St., Cambridge, 857-999-2193, cafeartscience.com.
