Breaking News: Top Chef Coming to D.C.!

According to a recent post on the Washington Post, the upcoming season of Top Chef will be filmed in Washington, D.C. The show is set to begin taping in the spring.

Check out the Post article here.

Food on TV: Coming Soon to a DVR Near You

There are two exciting upcoming food shows on television that I learned about today, both of which are making DVR at the new apartment look like a fantastic investment.

First, the return of Top Chef: Masters on Wednesday, April 7. In addition to a number of new "master" chefs, a few of Season 1's unsuccessful chefs will be returning for another chance. I am, of course, excited for the return of any form of Top Chef. But, I barely recognize any of these chefs except for prior appearances on Bravo or the Food Network, e.g. Wiley Dufresne, Marcus Samulesson. That's not necessarily a bad thing, however, as it could present a good opportunity to learn about a new generation of "masters" out there. Most importantly, though, it will be the effective greasy breakfast for the post-Top Chef hangover, rather than the ineffective cup of coffee that Shear Genius has been.

Second, a new show, Food Wars, premiers tonight on The Travel Channel at 10 p.m. The premise of the show is to settle debates between two rival food purveyors. The classic example would be the battle between the two iconic cheesesteak shops in Philadelphia: Geno's and Pat's. The score is "settled" by a blind taste test. The series starts with a doozy: Buffalo, N.Y. The battle is between Anchor Bar, the birthplace of the Buffalo Wing, and Duff's. As a newly converted buffalo wing fanatic, I'm looking forward to checking this one out. Of course, the series will do little "settling." Most likely it will just amount to additional promotional materials for the winning establishment and make the owners thankful that Camille Ford showed up on their doorstep rather than Bobby Flay for a throwdown.

The French Laundry, At Last

The rain had subsided earlier in the day, which meant that we were able to walk down Washington Street in Yountville without an umbrella or fear of getting splashed by the occasional passing car. It was an odd sensation to be nervous about going out to dinner. We clearly were, but uncertain why. We weren’t meeting each other’s parents for the first time or having dinner with an important boss or client. It was just the two of us.

But, we were finally going to The French Laundry. We had driven past it several times on the way to eat at one of Yountville’s other spectacular restaurants, but had never crossed its threshold. We had even seen Chef Keller walking around town a couple of times. And, most recently, after being awake for almost 20 hours straight, we had slept through a reservation on the day we got engaged. Now, there was nothing between us and dining at what the New York Times had once called the most exciting restaurant in America but about 100 yards and finding exactly where the front door was located.

Superlative words have been written about The French Laundry almost since the day that Thomas Keller took over its kitchen in 1994. I’m sure that I can’t add anything to this long list of laudatory reviews. Let’s just take it as given that the food was fantastic, the service was precise and professional, and the experience was exceptional.

Nevertheless there were still “wow” moments in the eighteen courses (nine each) we enjoyed over the three and a half hours we were at the restaurant. Although these are certainly worthy of mention, it was the overall experience of dining at the restaurant from the moment we entered the courtyard outside of the front door to hearing the door close behind us that has stuck with me. With the exception of trying to figure out how to use the foie gras accoutrements – triangular pillows of toasted brioche and three types of coarse grained salt – it was a comfortable and relaxed experience uncommon in such fine-dining atmospheres.

Enough chatter. What about the food?

The meal got off to a perfect start with two of the Laundry’s signature dishes: salmon cornets and “Oysters and Pearls.” For my vegetarian partner, the salmon cornet was modified into an artichoke “tartare” cornet. The artichoke was so finely chopped that it looked like shaved ice.

These two dishes are perfect examples of Keller’s approach in the kitchen: witty, evocative, and precise. The inspiration for the salmon cornets, which look like little ice cream cones with a scoop of glistening pink sorbet, was, allegedly, a late-night visit to an ice cream shop. With this dish the wit is clear, the dish is visually evocative of something familiar and fun, and the flavors are harmonious. “Oysters and Pearls” are playful more in name than in visual presentation. Resting on a bed of tapioca pearls, two briney and delicate oysters arrive with a generous dollop of salty, savory caviar.

These were the two dishes I knew I would eat – they never leave the menu – but, somehow, they still managed to surprise me because of how bloody good they were. They were my two favorite dishes of the meal.

In his four-star review of Keller’s New York City flagship restaurant Per Se, New York Times critic Frank Bruni said that the meal that solidified the fourth star was the vegetarian tasting menu. Both Per Se and The French Laundry have two nine-course offerings per night: the Chef’s Tasting Menu and a “Tasting of Vegetables.”

(The French Laundry Garden, directly across the street from the restaurant.)

My fiancée ordered the Tasting of Vegetables and two of the courses were vegetables she doesn’t like: eggplant and mushrooms. But, as an example of the kitchen’s skill, these ended up being two of her favorite dishes. The eggplant was a particular standout. Cooked sous-vide, the Japanese eggplant had a fleshy look and texture. Paired with Madras curry, cauliflower, and chickpeas the dish was a standout and a surprising taste of India in the beginning of the meal.

Having checked the daily menu religiously for the month leading up to our reservation, I had noticed that a roasted hen-of-the-woods mushroom dish had become popular on the menu. Given my fiancee’s aversion to mushrooms, I was worried that she might not like it. I should have had more confidence in The French Laundry kitchen. Like the eggplant, it was a standout dish that had a wonderful, rich earthy flavor that was perfect for a winter’s night.

There were two low points early in our meals and for similar reasons. (“Low,” of course, is entirely relative in the context of this otherwise amazing meal.) For me, it was my tuna tartare dish (three of nine?), and for my fiancée it was her beet salad (course two of nine). Both were minimal to the point of barely being noticeable in caloric intake and it seemed like the kitchen spent more time on visual appeal than on flavor composition.

Keller is a fan of the “composed” cheese course. In other words, a cheese course that looks like a real dish with cheese as the star, rather than simply a hunk of cheese with some bread, marmalade, and nuts. This approach is fantastic because it pairs untraditional accoutrements with a certain cheese. My cheese course – “Manchester” – (the menu’s excessive use of quotation marks remains a mystery), for example, played off the now omnipresent beet and goat cheese pairing, but with some added highlights. Most notably, the addition of light, fresh brussels sprouts leaves – just the leaves – was a perfect counterpoint to the richness and earthiness of this combination.What was on the plate did taste good, but I realized a new pet peeve. I don’t like it when chefs force you to compose your own bite. Take my tuna tartare as an example. The hearts of palm, perfect pink cubes of bluefin tuna, and ginger were scattered around the flat white plate like individual Lego blocks on the floor waiting to be put together. Considering the diversity and sparse amount of ingredients, I wasn’t sure how to compose a bite of food. Each individual ingredient was, of course, delicious, but it was near impossible to get a sense of how they were intended to fit together.

We could tell that the meal was starting to wind down as soon as our cheese course arrived. It is difficult to break up with someone after building up a relationship over six unforgettable courses, but the final three courses let us down easy.

A few minutes after our empty cheese plates were whisked away, the sorbet course arrived. Sorbet is rarely elevated to sensational heights. The course, after all, is mainly a functional one. And, although both of our dishes were delicious, what was most impressive about them was that the same high standards were clearly applied to this course as the butter-poached lobster tail. Flavored frozen water was given the same respect as a pricey, luxurious piece of seafood.

Finally, dessert. Our two desserts were an “Opera Cake” and a Peanut Butter “Bavarois.” (I told you about those quotation marks.) A traditional opera cake is France’s answer to tiramisu, but without the hacking-cough-inducing cocoa powder. The Laundry’s version didn’t use sponge cake, but did have a thin layer of chocolate ganache formed into a tube filled with a praline cream like a cannoli. The most intriguing element of the dessert, however, was a milk granité.

But, the Peanut Butter “Bavarois” was our favorite of the two. It was a rich a peanut butter Bavarian cream with milk chocolate “whip” on a light, crispy crust (a “feuilletine”). This was paired with a banana sorbet that perfectly captured the flavor of the fruit and had an amazingly smooth texture. It’s not that there was anything wrong with the Opera Cake to make us like it less, it’s just that the peanut butter and chocolate combination is always a winner. And, when prepared by The French Laundry it is even that much better.

In addition to a menu that can make one’s mouth water, The French Laundry also has an encyclopedic wine list that would pique even an experienced wine collector’s curiosity. It is also really, really expensive. The Laundry has, by far, the highest wine mark-ups in the Valley. One reason for this is that service is included in the price of the bottle. However, taking my housemate’s recommendation we decided on a strategy to avoid the high prices.

We planned to suck it up and pay the $50 corkage fee for our bottle of red, order a half bottle of white for the early courses, and have a glass of sparkling as an apertif. It ended up working perfectly. Like many restaurants that serve long, multi-course dinners, the Laundry has a great selection of half-bottles, which allows diners to try a number of different wines as the meal progresses. We selected a half-bottle of chardonnay from Burgundy, France. In particular, we selected a bottle from the Meursault area, which traditionally make some of the richest chardonnays in Burgundy. It paired well with many of the decadent flavors and ingredients in the meal, such as my foie gras and my fiancee’s turnip soup.

Keller’s goal for each dish is to serve just enough food that the diner wants one more bite of food at the end of the course. After nine courses, this adds up to enough food to be almost perfectly sated without being stuffed. As we were walking out the door, I found myself wanting one more bite of food, one more sip of wine, and just to stay a little longer.