The French Laundry: Meal of a lifetime
Written: Sep 30 '99
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Exciting, wonderful, perfect food; attentive, almost doting, but ultimately unobtrusive service
Cons: Can be extremely difficult to get a reservation, but worth every iota of effort
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| Chuq's Full Review: The Wine Country |
Last year I had the pleasure to dine at The French Laundry in Yountville. It was without a doubt one of the most breathtaking meals I've ever had, if not the most.
It's been about a year and a half since that memorable meal (and I still remember every bite), but I was inspired to write about it after having read a feature article about Chef Thomas Keller's astonishing restaurant in the Los Angeles Times' food section a few weeks back. I started digging around through my restaurant notes, and here we go...
I first heard about the place almost two years ago, after someone had forwarded an article about the restaurant from the New York Times. I had been planning a trip up to the Bay Area for the S. F. Celtic Music and Arts Festival, so the timing was perfect for a jaunt up to wine country with three friends. The French Laundry only accepts reservations two months in advance, so two months to the day my friend James started calling. Quickly, he found that the auto-dialer was the only way to get past the busy signals; finally, HOURS later, he got through. Being named Restaurant of the Year by the James Beard Foundation tends to make a restaurant difficult to get into, I guess.
We had spent the earlier part of the day bopping around wine country and quite enjoying ourselves. It was, believe it or not, my first trip up to Napa Valley, and will certainly not be my last. We didn't get to visit as many wineries as we'd have liked, although we did visit and enjoy the Beringer, V. Sattui (free tastings!) and Francis Coppola wineries before we headed to the restaurant.
The French Laundry was nothing less than astonishing, and worth every bit of the effort. They were a little hard to find, on one of Yountville's two main drags -- a little stone building with no sign whatsoever. I had to run inside and check if it was really them. "Just wanted to double-check," I said, "you don't have a sign." The maitre d' replied, "We don't have a sign." My friend Mark thought that a tad snobby, and went into a Sybil Fawlty voice once we were out of earshot ("I should never have let you write that advert, Basil ... fancy putting 'No riff-raff!'") ... but once inside they were anything but snobby. We had a total of about six waiters bringing us things, and they were nice, helpful, friendly and entirely devoted to our dining pleasure.
There was a choice between two five-course prix fixe dinners, or the nine-course Chef's Tasting Menu. For the five-course ones you either pick a fixed vegetarian menu, or choose from a selection of between four and eight different choices each for five different courses -- first course, fish course, meat course, cheese course and dessert. I opted for that, although I was really tempted to go for the niner, as did another in our party -- Mark and James went for the gold and got the niner.
Here's what I chose:
First: Agnolotti filled with Mascarpone Cheese, with Marrow Beans in a White Truffle Oil and Butter Emulsion, with minced Black Périgord Truffles.
(This dish was also served with two slices of rich, nutty Parmagiano Reggiano cheese crossed on top.)
Fish: Pavé of Atlantic Salmon with a Fricassé of Ronninger Farms Organic Potatoes, Melted Green Leeks and Whole Grain Mustard Sauce.
("Pavé" is just a French culinary term for "rectangle", and this was the single best piece of salmon I've ever had in my life. Perfect flavor, and perfectly cooked to medium rare. The potatoes consisted of perfect little triangles of Peruvian blue potatoes (and to think George Carlin said there's no blue food ... wrong-o), plus fantastic little fingerling potatoes and at least one other kind). The leek slices had been sautéed for so long that they really were melted, kinda, and the sauce was fabulous.)
Meat: Ris de Veau, with Caramelized Cauilflower, Cauliflower Mousse and French Winter Truffles.
(I adore sweetbreads. These were rich and creamy and had a marvelous flavor, served on top of the cauliflower with a tiny dollop of this cauliflower, cream and truffle mousse on top, and that topped with a big slice of black truffle.)
Cheese: "Vacherin", with a Vol au Vent of Cinnamon Poached French Prunes and Baby Greens.
(Vacherin is a soft, creamy cheese from Switzerland that was served drooping like a Dali watch over a little puff pastry shell filled with a marvelous poached prune, with the poaching liquid drizzled around -- I could taste honey and cinnamon and fruit and some kind of sweet wine. There was a little bit of greens on top, mostly watercress.)
Dessert: Best Ever Pear Sorbet, with Champagne Gelée and Poached Pear Salad.
(This was the best pear sorbet I had ever had. The gelée was underneath the sorbet along with diced poached pears. Topping the dessert was a paper-thin lengthwise slice of pear that had been candied until crisp ... it looked and tasted amazing.)
Wine was a half-bottle of Cristom Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, Mount Jefferson Cuvée, 1995.
And as if this wasn't enough ... as the Times article said, one of the amazing things they do at the French Laundry is to constantly bring you little bites and tastes of stuff, off the menu, while you're waiting for your courses to arrive. In addition to the above, we were brought little bites of:
Salmon tartare on a sesame cornette (cone-shaped cookie) filled
with red onion crème fraîche
Broiled fresh sardine topped with watercress, drizzled with a citrus
vinaigrette and dotted with aged balsamic vinegar reduction
Tiny apple, pear and banana tartlets topped with a dollop of meringue
Chocolate truffles
Tiny meringues filled with chocolate.
Here was what Mark and James had, the nine-course Chef's Tasting Menu, in addition to the little bites mentioned above (quotation marks are as they appeared on the menu):
"Oysters and Pearls". Sabayon of pearl tapioca with Pearl Point
oysters and Osetra caviar
"Degustation de Pomme de Terre". Yukon gold potato ravioli with a
"fricassée" of organic potatoes and Périgord truffles
Crispy skin Atlantic black bass with parsnip purée, black and gold
chanterelle mushrooms, and mushroom essence
"Macaroni & Cheese". Sweet butter-poached Maine lobster with a
creamy lobster broth, and orzo enriched with mascarpone cheese
"Rouelle" of Liberty Valley duck breast, wrapped in Savoy cabbage
with roasted organic potatoes, "confit de Gésier" and picked
huckleberries
"Pot au Feu". Red wine-braised short ribs with winter root
vegetables and roasted bone marrow
"St. Agur" cheese, with rosemary-poached winter fruits and
rosemary-infused extra-virgin olive oil
Ruby grapefruit sorbet with citrus salad and candied orange syrup
Bittersweet chocolate "fondant" with coffee custard sauce and
chocolate "dentelle"
Oh. My. God.
All this, including the wine, only set me back $86, not including tax and tip. (The five-course meal is $65, the nine-course is $80). For what you get -- a three to four hour culinary orgasm -- I think that's a relative bargain. The prices have gone up slightly since this visit, however; it's now $80 for the five-course menu and $95 for the chef's tasting menu. Still, it's a deal for what you get.
I took the menu home and actually had it framed. I feel like such a geek for doing that, but I have to say that that framed menu looks great in my dining room. My one regret is that I forgot to ask if the chef would sign it for me. (See? Geek.)
Up until my evening here, my finest meals had been in New Orleans restaurants (biased as I am as a native New Orleanian). I've got to say, though, that this place currently occupies #1 on my list of the great meals of my life. I'd have to give it a score of 100.
The French Laundry is located at 6640 Washington Street in Yountville, and their telephone number is (707) 944-2380. You can find out more and see sample menus on their website at http://www.sterba.com/yountville/frenchlaundry/
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Chuq
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Member: Chuck Taggart
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 29
Trusted by: 81 members
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