The cuisine at Castagna may be considered “molecular” or “modernist” — however one may want to label today’s avant garde cooking — but the main focus here is on local, seasonal cuisine, and less on the showmanship of dehydration or other techniques. Chef Justin Woodward (who took over the helm after Matthew Lightner decamped to New York) uses the tools of modern cooking to highlight the ingredients, which I really appreciate. At the end of the day, it should always be about the food, and not the magic tricks you can play with them. The Chef’s Tasting Menu consists of 10 courses of daintily prepared small plates, but the fun starts even before that with some snacks like dehydrated guanciale chips and sesame cookies. Some highlights from my menu included tomatoes with mustard seeds, herbs from the garden and cured beef tongue, and duck egg with toasted garlic, tomato tea and smoked cheese. But my favorite was the first dessert (which I almost mistook as a palate cleanser): sherbet with lemon pulp and wild flower meringue. Whatever molecular technique Woodward used to create the texture of this light snow-like sherbet made it magical. And I was not the only one in my party who thought this was a knockout!