Mr. Zamarra's menu is a model of conciseness and variety.

This jerkin is a zamarra in Spanish.

Mr. Zamarra bakes squab in a clay shell, producing astonishingly moist flesh.

So Zamarramala, which sounds as odd in Spanish as to English ears, would mean "a bad zamarra".

Galen Zamarra, chef and owner of Mas in New York, chooses 100 percent grass-fed beef for meatballs, steak tartare and braising.

Galen Zamarra prepares rabbit braised with tarragon-riesling dressing over greens; and guinea hen stuffed with prunes and leeks over a stew of fresh shell beans.

Michael Romano of Union Square Cafe was named outstanding New York chef and Galen Zamarra of Bouley Bakery, rising star of the year.

Mr. Zamarra has figured a way to mute the ramps' funkiness and allow them instead to impart a cool flavor that is not unlike a spring rain on hot concrete: all ozone, and absolutely interesting.

AT his Greenwich Village restaurant, Mas, Galen Zamarra serves duck from Ulster Country, goat cheese from Connecticut, trout from the Neversink River in upstate New York.

Yet in a meadow beside a storybook barn a few hours north, Donald Leab tended a small herd of Black Angus that had exactly the grass-fed, corn-finished flavor Mr. Zamarra was looking for.

The chef is Galen Zamarra, who trained in France and was the chef de cuisine at Bouley Bakery, and was named the 2001 "rising star chef of the year" by the James Beard Foundation.

The chef, Galen Zamarra, who once steered the kitchen at Bouley Bakery, tries to get his meat and produce from local or regional providers, to use organic ingredients when sensible and to tailor what he prepares to the moment in time.

Other pleasantries: Mr. Zamarra shaves big-eye tuna onto a plate, American sashimi style, then pours a wickedly hot beurre noisette over the fish to sear it - the nuttiness pairs extremely well with the soft meat of the tuna.

Bart de Ligt: El Gran Olvidado (Bart de Ligt: The Great Forgotten One); article (in Spanish) by Cthuchi Zamarra, mentioning, in passing, Jose Brocca's work in Spain.

Jose Jimenez Blas directs the 120-seat dining room with authority; Custodio Lopez Zamarra, the sommelier, dazzles diners with his knowledge; and the restaurant's Basque chef, Benjamin Urdiain - silver-haired and modest as always - keeps on working his magic.

"The slaughterhouses here are the biggest problem," said Joshua Applestone, 36, who opened a butcher shop in Kingston, N.Y., called Fleisher's two years ago and soon became a matchmaker between chefs and farmers like Mr. Zamarra and Mr. Leab on the side.