February 22, 2004
Lunch at Veuve Clicquot
Always a thrill, it's lunch at Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin in the heart of Champagne. Our host is the every-gracious Roselyne de Castéja.
The guests were the Dears, from Mississippi, and the Morgensterns, from Michigan. We had a reunion recently with lots of Veuve Clicquot ...
February 12, 2004
Congratulations to Trama!
Félicitations to Michel and Maryse Trama, the inventive chef and talented designer whose celebrated restaurant, l'Aubergade, has just been promoted to three stars in the new Michelin guide. They're located in Puymirol, a tiny hilltop bastide, midway between Bordeaux and Toulouse.
Cornichon & guests have visited l'Aubergade several times over the past two or three years, and we can attest to this master's skill, vision, and sheer culinary brilliance. Our most recent trip was with the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, when we ate our way across southwestern France in a frenzy of champagne, foie gras, truffles.
February 10, 2004
In Search of a Better Glass and a Smaller Plate
Cornichon goes looking for wine bars and appetizers ... and can't find what he's looking for in Seattle. So it's off to Portland. Read the whole story as a PDF.
Batali in Seattle
You know Mario Batali, right ? Molto Mario ? Well, he got his love of food from his dad, Armandino, right here in Seattle. And now that Armandino has retired from Boeing and has all the time in the world [just kidding], what better task than a deli, Salumi, a real Italian salumeria. Right in Seattle's Pioneer Square.
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More pictures in this album.
February 2, 2004
IWFS Inaugural Dinner
Seattle is now officially the newest branch of the International Wine & Food Society!
The inaugural dinner was held at The Rainier Club over the last week in January; click here for a peek at all the photos.
The impetus for the event came from Sherry Knott, a member of the IWFS's Board of Governors for the Americas, who remitted the organization's provisional charter to Michael de Maar, whom she'd enlisted to serve as branch president.
In turn, Michael had volunteered The Rainier Club as the venue, and program chair Jan Stimach had worked out the menu with the club's energetic and creative executive chef, Bill Morris.
The menu was fantastic !
Perrier Jouet champagne accompanied passed hors d'oeuvres: A lobster-avocado-mango salad with citrus gelée and sturgeon caviar; medjool dates with goat cheese and macarona almond slivers; an Autralian prawn wonton with basil, pineapple and daikon; "spoons" of pacific oysters with apple radish and bacon; and strawberry & black pepper tuiles with sheep's cheese.
We sat down at beautifully decorated tables of six to five more splendid courses, each accompanied by a distinct wine.
First, a pavé of seared ahi tuna, served on a compote of persimmons and preserved ginger and a citrus-lobster reduction. This was accompanied by a 1997 Chablis grand cru Valmur from the house of Christian Moreau. The tuna was exquisite, perfectly cooked and flavorful, shining like a star above the far more modest talents of the chablis.
Now we moved from a star turn to a finely tuned ensemble. Chef Morris presented the dish as cappuccino of truffled wild mushroom ... mushroom soup, in other words. And mushroom it was, a cup of frothy cream with the earthy, woodsy flavors of black trumpets. But that was just the beginning. To offset the creaminess in the cup, Chef Morris added two elements on the plate: a crunchy biscotti of toasted hazelnuts, and an unctuous salad of duck confit, offset with slices of pear and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. The dazzling effect was enhanced by one of the great white Burgundies, a 2001 Corton Charlemagne grand cru from Vincent Girardin's production. Sorry that my picture doesn't do this justice ...
The next dish was a puzzle, frankly, until one of the gentlemen at my table said, "It's linear." And indeed it was: it even looked linear, like a train on its tracks. The rails were a salsify purée. The gravel bed was a lentil medly. And the "train," as it were, consisted of a pan-seared sea scallop [as engine], a braised short rib [as the coal car, perhaps] bearing a load of seared foie gras with shreds of butternut squash [as sparks?]. No symphony here, it was a succession of solos, to be devoured in linear sequence.
To accompany the dish, Michael Etzell of Beaux-Frères Winery in Oregon brought out his 2001 pinot noir, a lovely wine whose versatility contributed to all the elements of the dish.
A quick palate cleanser of peppered quince gelée, then onto the next course: a loin of lamb enrusted with coffee [a technique that complements the sweet caramelization with the aromatic bitterness of coffee], along with caramelized garlic, maple cap mushrooms, organic carrots and an essence of Douglas fir. Is this last element really necessary ? Ask a skier who's sucking on a snowball scooped from a tree branch: would it be the same if it were snow from a chestnut tree ?
With this course, which photographed like nothing on earth, we drank the best wine of the evening, a 1982 Chateau Gruaud Larose from St. Estèphe. The wine had great depth and presence, yet an unexpected subtlety and delicacy ... and a lovely perfume of rosewater that became apparent when a half-glass of its sibling, the 1982 Chateau Talbot, appeared at the table. The Talbot was every bit the righteous older brother, stern, unforgiving, and the Gruaud Larose the shy, demure sister ... demure, at least, until her brother went off to war [or wherever] and she became at last her own sensual being. Shades of Faust ! You could almost hear the Talbot singing "Avant de quitter ces lieux... " The Gruaud Larose, perfumed & lovely, inspires lovers.
One more wine: a spectular 1977 Graham's Port. The vintage-dated ports of the late 1970s were exceptional ... not just icky-sweet wines dropped onto the market whenever it suited the producers, but real wines with the capacity to mature and evolve like Burgundies and Bordeaux. It accompanied a complex dessert of bitter-sweet chocolate praline mousse and a "short stack" of caramelized apples with hazelnut-espresso ice cream.
All that remained was for Alex Golitzin of Quilceda Creek winery to toast his colleague from Oregon and acknowledge that it was a night that will long be remembered.
Click for more about IWFS.
February 1, 2004
Links to Albums
A terrific trip to Bordeaux, visiting some of the leading estates, including Chateau Margaux, Chateau Haut Brion and Chateau Yquem.
Click here for more photos from Bordeaux trip led by Cornichon on behalf of The Rainier Club.
Now let's switch gears ... to a weekend reunion with the Dears and the Morgensterns. This non-stop, two-day eating & drinking binge on the Dear's 800-acre ranch in Edwards, Mississippi, had a bit of everything ... and a lot of excellent wine.
Lunch at Bandol
The Mediterranean comes to Seattle's Pioneer Square. Lunch at the new Bandol restaurant includes a delicious croque monsieur. The frites are particularly yummy.