NEW VISION. NEW IDEAS. NEW HOPE. 50Pases of People andiapasThat WiUOMrigeOur Lives.Witha , Ways to KeynoteEssay by PRESIDENT BILLCUNTON $3.00 #28... W^ffl esquire.com More Naomi Watts* [ THE CHEF ] You want comfortfood?PSlfi Liebrandt is not your man. You Andbringabbndrold THE IMPRESARIOS There'sa43 percent chanceyou'relis- teningto a song from the NeptUPIGS right now The pair producesevery- onefromNoDoubtto MaryJ.Blige— andmakestiiemsparkle. THE INGREDIENTS—lime blos• soms from Nice, ham from a Dover Sole with Vanilla INTERVIEW NUMBER ONE with Pharrell Williams of ace Spanish pig fed exclusively on andBlackTruffie pop-and-rap production duo the Neptunes is canceled be• acorns—are odd enough. The By Psul Liebrandt fusion of those ingredients— cause he is having a house party. Interview two lasts approxi• eel with watermelon, scallops 24 oz Doversole mately ninety seconds, after which Williams says he has to go with chocolate—is still more (depending on size, get some chicken and will call back from the road. peculiar. But that's not even either 2 small fillets or The return call comes two days later. This is interview three, the end of it. That's not even to 1 large fillet) mention the bizarre ways chef 2 cups duck fat and it lasts all of seventy-five seconds, ending with "Hold on one Paul Liebrandt's bizarre food salt and pepper second" and a promise to call right back. Interview four is quite has been served. Diners have 2 tbsp sherry vinegar been blindfolded, fed dessert spectacular: "I want to do this fucking interview," he says. First 1/4 cup truffle juice soup through the nipple of a 2 tbsp heavy cream question: "What are you working on right now?" First answer: baby bottle, ushered into a I vanilla bean smoke-filled room to peel jelly "Right now... hold on Can I call you right back?" 1 oz black truffles, chopped from the back of a naked The truth is, in the time it takes to do an interview, Williams 2 tbsp chives, chopped woman. "Half of them didn't and his partner, Chad Hugo, both twenty-nine, could have creat• even realize it was a real 3 oz black truffles, sliced ed a number-one single. If it is a fact that at any moment four peo• woman until one guy poked » Dice tire soj'e into very her bum," he says. smaS pieces warm tiieduck ple are being born in the world, then at any moment at least four These days Liebrandt—a far in a pan to IIS degrees, hundred thousand people are listening to a Neptunes produc• twenty-six-year-old Brit trans• then add the sole. Turn off tion. Everything these two middle-class suburbanites from Vir• planted to New York—has the iwat. outlet sit in the hot ginia Beach produce (and often write) seems to turn to platinum. renounced the flashier, Bunuel- fat (or 10 to i? minutes. Then ian performance art. But it's ren love sole from duck fat Scan the dial yourself: You'll hear their trademark beats whether still a good glimpse into his and let sit on a paper towel your station plays rock (they produced No Doubt), pop ('N Sync, technique: He toys with stimuli, to drain oft excess fat Keep taste, and texture to create warm and seaso/ l with salt Britney Spears), hip-hop (Jay-Z, Nelly), or R&B (Mary J. Blige, new responses to food. Some• and pepper, set aside. Janet Jackson). Which only makes sense, for they are the prod• times his dishes are great, »In a small pan on medium uct of a channel-flipping culture themselves. sometimes you'd rather eat heat, reduce sherry vinegar nails, but his food is always and tivffle juice by one The charm and grace of their output is that it is not the fascinating and daring. third, add cream, and reduce messy kitchen sink of postmodernism but the sparkling, clean to a coating consistency. Liebrandt first turned heads Split vanilla bean and scrape chrome kitchen of hip-hop futurism. Nearly every song car• at New York's Midtown standout out vanilla. Add vanilla and ries the Neptunes' brand-name sound: a syncopated bouncing Atlas, where he became a three- chopped truffles. Let sit off star chef at twenty-four years beat, seductive keyboard chord progressions, and an unfor• heal for-I minutes to infuse old before moving downtown to flavor, then add chives. gettable yet oddball hook. It's a sound that comes from a re• Papilion. He recently left Papil- » Arrange solo in the cen- markably broad swath of influences, among them Steely Dan, lon and will open his own place tei of a large warm plate. in New York next year, but until Steppenwolf, Afrika Bambaataa, Tears for Fears, Stevie Won• Driz/le the sauce over and then, try this, the perfect dish around the fish. Lay the der, Ben Folds Five, and Stereolab, the British electronic-pop for Esquire men, he says. The blacl. truffle slices on top. act that wrote a song that Williams, left, describes, in his fifth Dover sole is a manly fish, yet el• Serves 4. egant and stylish: the Sean Con- and final interview, as the best fellatio music ever. Why? "If s nery of fishes. —MATTCLAUS the fucking chord changes, man." —NEIL STRAUSS 148 E5QUIRE DECEMBER 2002 .