Like so many dishes at Thomas Keller’s Per Se, this one is about sourcing the highest quality raw ingredients possible, subjecting them to a full-on assault of classical culinary technique, and coaxing out depths of flavor the ingredients themselves didn’t even know they possessed. Chef de cuisine Eli Kaimeh sears langoustines on a smoking hot plancha (metal plate), a method he likes both for the control it gives him over the cooking process and the smoky flavor it imparts. The crustaceans’s shells are toasted in clarified butter, forming the base for a gastrique made with rice wine vinegar and brown sugar. Sliced lemongrass and kaffir lime add an herbal topspin, and the flavor intensifies with the addition of a langoustine consommé clarified with egg whites and lobster coral. To finish: oils steeped with fresh mint and toasted langoustine heads. Truly, langoustine to the nth power.