All the dish: the next generation of kitchen incredibles

In an age when most cookbooks, cooking shows, and guest television cooking spots are headed up not just by some mere master of the culinary arts but by a celebrated chef, it stands to reason that there'd be a constant need to discover the next big name. Cooking, after all, is big business, and like the sports teams who must fill out their ranks with fresh talent each season, the whisk-wielding world is in constant need of new ideas, new approaches, and new names to feed this hungry machine. Thanks to the following three restaurants, a trio of talented, forward-thinking young turks is doing just that, and in the process stand poised to hit the big time. Visit now, before the reality show.

CRU

24 Fifth Avenue, 212-529-1700

That Cru could be called a new food temple has less to do with its hushed interior--the designer's goal may have been men's-club modern but the effect is plush corporate hotel--than with its wellstocked wine cellar and the cooking of a young David Bouley-trained chef with the promising name of Shea Gallante. His kitchen turns out food that deftly walks the line between complex and comfortable, and if you don't know precisely which country inspired the dish you're eating, its well-focused flavors provide orientation enough. Menu options are divided between crudo (raw seafood), appetizers, pasta, and entr6es, and though servings are small, three courses suffice and will limit the sticker shock that arrives at the end of the meal. Some recent favorites also likely to soften the blow include sliced tuna with apple-flavored vinaigrette, as well as appetizers such as buffalo mozzarella with caviar and marinated beets, and a skate wing dusted with pine nuts. There's terrific whole-wheat fuzi pasta, as well as earthy but immaculate entrees such as grouper with ramps, asparagus, and smoked peppers, and duck breast with braised onions, leeks, and Swiss chard. Desserts have been the source of some grumbling--a recent chocolate cake offering tasted strangely of mesquite--but the plate of complimentary petit fours that arrives in the final seconds goes a long way to erasing any bad memories.

5 NINTH

5 Ninth Avenue, 212-929-9460

This recent addition to the bacchanal known as the meatpacking district may have a front-row seat at the festivities, but 5 Ninth aims to stand apart. In a neighborhood where slick and dramatic are the dominant themes the mood here is one of homey restraint, albeit of a self-consciously hip variety. Since it's laid out over three small floors (and in warm weather spilling out into an idyllic, ivy-walled garden), it doesn't take long for things to go from cozy to cramped, but the restaurant's streamlined rusticity soothes even when the decibel level or long waits for food would dictate otherwise. And it doesn't hurt that manning the stoves is Zak Pelaccio, who earned a cult following at the short-lived Chickenbone Cafe in Brooklyn. With his earthy, inventive cooking it's not hard to see why fans would follow him to this latest outpost, or why new converts would find themselves equally drawn. Recent standouts among the starters (the menu changes frequently) set the tone: charred octopus on a dice of potato risotto, seared scallops with grainy mustard, and a salad of corn, cherry tomatoes, greens, and a creamy cheese. For entrees there's a succulent steamed Ioup de mer with a chili lime paste, terrific roast cod with creamed corn, and a fine guinea hen special with apricots and chopped almonds. Sweets include such universal crowd-pleasers as ice cream sandwiches, fruit cobbler, and an incomparably light cheesecake with blueberries and citrus cream--even the most committed dessert-denier stands to be challenged.

ALTO

520 Madison Avenue, 212-308-1099

Literally and figuratively, Alto stands at a crossroads: It's located on 53rd Street in midtown, just past a graffiti-covered slab of the Berlin Wall; it's named for the Alto Adige region of Italy, which abuts Austria and where the cooking reveals a strong Tyrolean influence; and it's the next act for rising chef Scott Conant, who, if things work out as planned, stands poised to enter the four-star firmament. Inside his operation, however, everything is rigorously calm. High-backed chairs in claret, slate-colored carpeting and walls, glass cases filled with wine bottles soaring to the ceiling--all seem calculated to pacify, and they do. So, too, does Conant's cooking. As at L'lmpero, the restaurant he opened several years ago in Tudor City, Alto aims to show just how high Italian-inspired cooking can be elevated. Here this is achieved via either a seven-course tasting menu or a more manageable four-course prix fixe. On several recent visits the latter included such highlights as polenta with chanterelles and truffles, soft-shell crab on a puree of clams and English peas, and a mustard seed risotto with duck and shallot confit. There's also a perfectly prepared turbot paired with artichokes and prosciutto and an exceptional lamb with radicchio and wild spinach. Middle Europe has a long history with desserts, and Alto doesn't disappoint here either: peach strudel, buckwheat Kugelhopf, and steamed Tyrolean chocolate pudding all underscore the oven-expanding possibilities of talent whipped with ambition.