Chef and owner Jeremiah Langhorne cooks this family-style platter over The Dabney's open hearth, where the coals run 800 to 1,200 degrees and the fire is started each morning with the previous day's leftover menus, white oak, and charcoal. The dish uses all the different cuts of a Shenandoah Valley lamb — thinly carved heart marinated in chimichurri and skewered, loin butchered from the saddle, rack, and a terrine of braised belly — each mopped with a mixture of sorghum, mustard, soy, and Worcestershire to build a crust. It's plated over farro salad with charred gai lan, charred fava bean condiment, goat feta, vadouvan yogurt, house-made pita, and herbs clipped from the restaurant's rooftop garden.
Washington DC
The Dabney
Whole Lamb
lamb heart / lamb loin / lamb rack / lamb belly / chimichurri / cilantro / parsley / kosher salt / pepper / sorghum / mustard / soy / Worcestershire / gai lan / garlic oil / lemon / farro / fava beans / goat feta / vadouvan yogurt / pita dough / herbs
Signature Dish
From Prep to Plate
Tucked into DC's historic Blagden Alley in Shaw, The Dabney is a standard-bearer of Washington's fine dining scene, run by chef and owner Jeremiah Langhorne. On this episode of Signature Dish, host Seth Tillman joins Chef Langhorne at his massive wood-fired hearth to see how live fire and Mid-Atlantic ingredients come together. The menu centers on a whole roasted lamb: belly, rack, and heart, plated with a farro salad, grilled belly terrine, charred fava bean condiment, and goat feta, plus gai lan charred directly on the coals. It's a celebration of Chesapeake Bay bounty and Piedmont farm goods, cooked the oldest way there is.
Langhorne has a soft spot for heart — sometimes lamb, other nights pork, typically grilled... Leg and shoulder cuts of meat make strong impressions, too. Look for a fist of lamb enriched with vadouvan, the curry-fragrant spice blend.
Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post
