All types of fooderati assembled today for Fergus Henderson's very limited engagement at Jonathan Waxman's West Village Italian, Barbuto. The partial list includes Dana Cowin, Editor in Chief of Food & Wine; Florence Fabricant, the Times resident etiquette maven; and Tim and Nina Zagat, who shamelessly passed out promo-cards for their wine club. Plus, chefs, operators and kingpins like Dave Chang, Jimmy Bradley, Ken Friedman, April Bloomfield, Joey Campanaro; and, of course, chef Waxman, who cooked alongside the world's foremost Nose to Tail cook (with some help from the Spotted Pig kitchen staff). The whole thing was far less nose and tail than Henderson's more famous regular New York engagement Fergustock, where one orders, literally, a lamb's head, for example. But the festivities are worth documenting here nevertheless as the crowd and menu both were of the very highest flavor and quality. Henderson's eel pie, of which supplies had run out by 1:30, whole black bass and a fiddle ferns salad were the highlights, though not a dish in 10-plus missed. In town to promote his new hotel and restaurant opening in Leicester Square this summer, Henderson's stateside tour continues with stops in San Francisco, at Incanto (5/11) and Chez Panisse (5/12), and in Los Angeles at Ciudad (5/15).
