By now we’ve all seen the picture of what Martha Stewart ate for dinner last week. Yes my friends, it’s time for us to discuss… The Chobster! dun Dun DUN! Technically a rather innocuous sounding chicken stuffed with lobster, the photo Martha snapped to Instagram more resembled a chicken humping a lobster, who affectionately curled its tail around the chicken in return. Martha didn’t prepare this abomination feast herself; she was dining (or as she put it in her caption, “ding,” I kid you not) at a newly opened NYC French brasserie called Maison Barnes, presumably donning a $500 bikini as underwear in the fine eatery. This inter-species dish alone cost half that bikini! Slate staff writer Luke Winkie (my new favorite name) contacted Maison Barnes executive chef Romain Paumier to talk about this divisive delicacy:
Shock and jaw: What is going on here? Is it Mastering the Art of French Cooking according to David Lynch? Was it harvested from the eighth dimension? Is it going to attach to my head and suck my brains out? Are these what the unseen aliens in 3 Body Problem look like? Beyond the provocative intention of the plating — just look at that poor lobster’s exoskeleton mounted around the chicken, like it’s undergone a satanic rite — I find myself baffled by the concept behind the flavor profile. Breast meat and lobster is simply not a combination you’re going to find on many menus in America.
Dinner as a show: “This dish is a classic, but it’s usually made with crayfish,” said Paumier, who, it should be said, is well-reviewed and most certainly knows what he’s talking about. “It was created in the 19th century, and it has disappeared with modern cuisine. This is my attempt to bring back those ideas, and also to make it into a bit of a show.”
The preparation: On the Maison Barnes menu, the dish is called Poularde Homardine, which literally translates to “lobster chicken.” The restaurant serves it table side, usually for two to three people, and it goes for $250, according to the menu. Contrary to what you might assume from the plating, the recipe does not call for a chef to roast a whole lobster inside a poultry carcass. Yes, Paumier does use every part of the crustacean in the preparation of the dish, but the crimson-scalded chunks surrounding the chicken are mostly there for decoration. In fact, the only piece of the lobster that is cooked with the bird is its head, which is flambéed with cognac and is removed from the chicken while it’s carved. The method gives the poultry a sweet infusion of lobster flavor, accentuated even further when the head’s juices are squeezed into a sauce made from a base of lobster bisque, chicken jus, and crème fraîche — which truly is about as French as it gets. As for the lobster tail? Well, that’s just poached in aromatics, glazed with butter, and served alongside the chicken. Simple as that.
It’s the French surf and turf! Paumier himself refers to the dish as France’s very own take on surf and turf — the much more American idea of serving a butter-bathed lobster tail with a bone-in ribeye. He also was not surprised at all — and, in fact, was encouraged — by the people who filled Stewart’s Instagram comments with cries of shock and horror. (The top one reads, “Girl, respectfully what the f–k.”) “Some people are going to be amazed, and some people are going to be shocked. They’re going to say, ‘Why are you combining the chicken with the lobster?’ That’s what I expected, especially from American people, because this is not their culture,” said Paumier. “It’s what we want. Food is an art. If you do something that is ordinary, people are going to forget about it.”
Just hearing “chicken and lobster” as a combo doesn’t sound offensive. After all, we Americans have turducken — chicken stuffed into duck stuffed into turkey — made prominent by Louisiana chef Paul Prudhomme (may he rest in paprika). And apparently there’s a British version called gooducken — chicken stuffed into duck stuffed into goose. Obviously, these ‘ducken dishes confine the combos to varieties of birds. But so what? If a shellfish and poultry want to make sweet gastronomical music together, who are we to judge?! That’s why I think it truly comes down to the visual presentation that makes the coupling seem jarring. I mean, I know it’s not good to play photo assumption, but my goodness there’s a lot going on in Martha’s shot! I’m turned off and turned on all at once. At $250 a pop, though, I’m unlikely to get a taste of the creature from the French lagoon any time soon. Crazy to think that lobster used to be peasant food, a fact I desperately hope Martha Stewart is aware of.
photos credit Getty and via Instagram
Okay, that picture is not appetizing – it looks like lobster and a baked potato to be honest – but as a general idea, I don’t see what’s so crazy about this. I’ve had chicken breasts stuffed with or topped with crabmeat, or crab imperial, or crab dip (I’m in Maryland, lol.) This seems about the same idea.
I’m in Maryland and lived in Louisiana, I’ve had seafood stuffed in just about every kind of food you can imagine. I’d absolutely eat lobster-stuffed chicken, though that photo is gross.
The description of how it is prepared sounds delicious. But the picture is godawful. It looks like something out of Alien!
Thank you Kismet for the light-hearted article!
Looks aside, I’d eat it. Sauce preparation sounds yummy.
I consider myself to be an adventurous eater, but that looks really off-putting. It sounds like it would taste good, so as long as I don’t have to look at it (or pay for it), I’d give it a try.
The more I look at it, the more it looks like it belongs in the Beetlejuice Day-o scene.
I am going to have to look up the recipe but I know chobster don’t sound so appetizing. I mean is it lobster meat stuffed into a whole chicken? or is it a whole lobster stuffed into a chicken?
I kinda like the idea. Im not into rib & reef /big pieces of red meat but I love some seafood so im down with lobster and chicken. This could be great and leaner and cheaper (in other versions?). Im sure they have this combo elsewhere in the world.
I have tried turducken and it was really delicious. idk about this dish tho. it looks pretty creepy.
“chicken humping a lobster”. I’m dying 😂😂😂😂😂😂.
Not a bad combo but the presentation is so unappealing!
It doesn’t look appealing at all, but I would imagine that it would be similar in taste to a whole chicken stuffed with a crawfish jambalaya that my family loves. It takes forever to cook but it tastes so good. So I would think that as long as you have the right sides it would taste great. But like someone further up said, I would probably not be able to look at this before I ate it because that image is not appealing.
France would very much like to be excluded from this narrative. I challenge anyone to find this in an (actual) French restaurant in France. Nope. Absolutely not.
On a more serious note: many young French Chefs are increasingly exploring vegan and vegetarian options, and sustainability more broadly (I don’t know if it’s the same in the US?) This giant protein overload is absolutely not the direction French cuisine is going these days.
We go to a “fancy” restaurant once or twice a year and that tracks with my experiences – there are still a lot of meat based dishes, but plant based dishes are becoming more prominent and sustainability and locally sourced food is becoming more of a priority.
Agreed and it’s wonderful! When I was fully vegetarian through my teens and into my 20’s (in the 90’s) it was such a challenge to go from the UK where we were based to stay with family in France and find anything to eat! Never mind in nice restaurants. The experience these days is so different and I’m loving it.
Squeezing the juices out of the head to make the sauce sounds very unappealing.
I moved to New Orleans when I was 24. The first time I heard about a turducken I thought it was a joke. It was my first and last foray into the world of Frankenmeat. Never again will I eat meat stuffed with another meat. I am not Henry VIII. Gross.
I’d eat it if it was made in the (deep) south.
Otherwise, absolutely not. It looks like it needs salt (and that is a kind understatement).
A reminder that lobster was peasant food because until refrigerated railway cars there really wasn’t a way to transport it in large enough number to be anything but the rarest delicacy. So it was food for the locals – peasants.
As for the chicken lobster thing. I’m a New Englander, but not the biggest lobster fan. You can have the grocery store steam it for you here, so it’s not all that exceptional. It’s nice and tastes good when cooked well, but the fuss seems overdone.
Yes! I think it was the Southern Gothic podcast that I was listening to that mentioned that; it was also used as prisoner food down there in SC or NC or somewhere in those southern coastal states.
I have bought & eaten Chicken Kiev stuffed with lobster from supermarket. I like it.
I would eat it but I would not pay for it.
If you go through the pics to the one where he’s pouring the sauce on it, it actually looks really good. I’d eat that. But if it was presented to me like in the first pic? No way.
Looks like that poor lobster lost the Halliween costume contest. Dressing up as a chicken was just asking for trouble, bro….
It’s the feet – the twisted, blackened chicken feet that get me. But as flavors go, it should be delicious, if prepared properly.
When I read the headline, I was like “Yes and yes!” When I saw the photo I was like, “Ummmm….no.” I was thinking it would be a chicken breast stuffed with lobster meat or lobster salad.
I knew someone years ago together with their then husband do a tenderloin stuffed with lobster tails. It was very good!
Hell no Martha. Looks awful. Also, I’ve had turducken and it’s disgusting.
that was truly gross but Martha likes to shock people! And i loved your line about Paul Prudhomme “resting in paprika,” Lucky fellow.