The chicken at Chris Kearse’s Will BYOB is far from ordinary or boring and it is Craig LaBan’s example of what is happening at this modernist Passyunk Avenue restaurant.

Paired with pureed Kabocha squash firmed into a cube with agar-agar and Tuscan kale two ways (baked into chips; creamed and rolled into a log set with “reverse gelatin” that holds as it warms), the once-boring chicken has been willed and worked into unlikely status: a Kearse-ified poularde star. Gorgeous, complex, intriguing, yet still comforting to eat.

Is there a more inspired example of avant-garde cooking in Philly now? If so, they’re few and far between.

The challenge for Kearse is harnessing that magic on every dish. And there are still too many experimental slips to earn unqualified praise.

Two Bells – Very Good

Will BYOB [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Will BYOB [Official Site]