Quote:
Originally Posted by Prudence
(Post 295649)
Is that Hubert Keller as in Top Chef Masters contestant Hubert? If so, I am exceedingly jealous and want details on the meal.
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It is indeed, and that's the reason we chose it. We're Top Chef fan geeks and Keller's definitely our favorite of the Masters (with Bayless a close second).
The meal was divine. I won't recall all the details but here's what I can recall. There were 4 of us, so lots of dishes and I don't remember every one.
First course, CP and I both had an asparagus salad with fois gras and black truffles, with a perfect brioche. The highlight of the dish was definitely the cream of salsify on the plate. Which would be a theme as the highlight of one of our friend's courses was a cream of saurkraut. Yes, cream of saurkraut. SO GOOD!
I was the only one who did a 4 course meal, so I had a scallop. I don't think it's the same one that's on the menu online, but similar in that it was nut crusted and deliciously so.
My main was venison chop. I have habit of getting venison whenever I'm at top end restaurants. It's something I rarely eat elsewhere, plus it gives me a good comparison point between them. This one definitely stood out. First, I'd never had a chop. Second, the sauce was not sweet, the first time I'd ever been served vension without a sweet sauce. And not surprising that a french master like Hubert made a perfect sauce. CP had duck, basically a classic orange sauce, but with fresh mandarin and a pureed celery. My friend's wife also had the duck, he had a filet with mac&cheese (purely for the delight of ordering mac and cheese at the fanciest restaurant he'd ever been to). The filet was brilliant, the mac and cheese was good but not anything spectacular.
I won on dessert. The ladies both got chocolate soufles, which were good. I've forgetten what he got. I had the "fleurburger". It was so much fun! The plate arrived and it had a little "burger" with bignet as buns, ganache as patty, a strawberry slice as tomatoe and a kiwi slice as pickle, with a kiwi spear on the plate as another pickle. There was a helping of fennel ice cream "pome frits" (as we were taking video one of us can be heard to say, "hurry, your french fry is melting!"), and a yummy banana shake served in a shot glass on the plate.
Amusingly, having just seen Keller run into near disaster on Top Chef when servers twice knocked over a shotglass on a plate while serving, the shake was firmly glued to the plate (probalby with some sugar-based paste). :D
The service was top notch. If you were to stand and head to the restroom, practically before you were out of sight of the table a server was there to refold your napkin for you (in synchronization if 2 people left the table!), and there to pull your chair out when you returned, and yet it never felt like anyone was hovering over us. Our server was very helpful, happy to give us a list of the wine pairings and point our friend who lived locally to where he could get bottles as well as the name of "his guy" at the wine exchange.
It seemed the chef Keller was not there. I imagine he was getting his rest as the following day he was scheduled to appear at a Top Chef demo/Q&A in Napa (wish we could have fit that in!). But even without an apperance it was just awesome to taste his food!
