THE FRENCH LAUNDRY
After reading one article that said the French Laundry in Napa is the best restaurant in the world, and another that said that it would be closing for several months while the chef opens a new restaurant in New York, we decided to go there. Whenever a chef opens a second restaurant somewhere else, we figure that the original one will suffer, so we wanted to go while the first one is still great. Of course we couldn't get a reservation. They don't have a normal reservation system. You have to call on the telephone exactly 60 days before you want to eat there-if you can get through. That's not for me, so I pulled strings and got a local friend to get a reservation for the 6 of us. I don't know how he did it, and I'm not asking. Five of the six of us had the 9 course "tasting menu." (Bonnie is not good at following the crowd). First, of course, came the "amuse bouche," salmon tartar in an ice cream cone filled with crème fraiche and scallions-quite good, but, of course, copied from "El Bulli." I talked to the sommelier for quite a while. Paul Roberts, from Texas, is one of the top wine people in the United States, and a particularly nice guy with a good sense of humor, and a really fine knowledge of wine. He explained that he selects the wines that are not commercial in nature, but small production wines that are particularly tasty and good value. Hmmm…that's the kind of wine that I buy! But on the wine list most of the wines I saw were pretty well known, and really expensive. I mean $200 and up! Since one of the people at the table with us is the founder of A dot.com company specializing in handling the "outsourcing" of computer customer sales, I decided to "outsource" the wine selection. I asked Paul to select for us one bottle of white, and two bottles of Red, that were the particularly tasty and good value wines that he had mentioned. Then came the food. Cauliflower "Panna Cotta" with oyster glaze and Iranian Osetra Caviar; duck Foie gras in terrine with truffles, sautéed filet Of Cod with pole beans; butter poached lobster in lobster broth…..With these courses we drank the 2001 Pascal Cutat Sancerre from the Loire Valley in France. Delicious, and only about $60 for the bottle. Next came a delicious roasted pork leg with cabbage and apples, in mustard Sauce-- a small, but delicious portion. With this course we had a 2000 Feraud Brunel Vacqueryras from the Rhone valley in France. Again the price was reasonable For a high priced restaurant, although I've had many a Vacqueryras that I liked better. Next we ate a wine-braised beef short rib with polenta, peppers and onions. The beef had been cooked a long time until tender, then-I guess-lightly fried to make the exterior crisp--so delicious, and very similar to an equally delicious dish I had at Whist, in Santa Monica, not long ago. With this course we drank a 1995 Côte Rotie from the Rhône Valley. I love Côte Rotie because I like the flavor of the Syrah grape, and the floral nose that the 5%-or-so added Viognier grape gives to the wine. This one was delicious, and again, reasonably priced. There were three more courses, and a number of sweets afterward. The sweets in France taste better, except for a plate of four caramel macaroons the waiter brought as we were finishing the first group of sweets. They were really good! But I haven't yet figured out why they brought four for a table of six. There were three men and three women. Five us us were born in the United States, so that can't be it. Five of us are Jewish, so that's not it. Four of us are over 60 years of age, so maybe that's the reason. So, as in a Sherlock Holmes mystery, my question to you is: what's wrong with this story? Think about it: we were in Napa Valley, one of the great wine regions of the world. We let the Sommelier pick the wines. ALL THREE WINES WERE FROM FRANCE! Where were the wines from Napa? Apparently, they were not among the "good values" that we asked for. I asked if the Chef could come out and say hello, but the waiter said that the Chef was too busy in the kitchen to talk with the customers. That's strange: even Paul Bocuse, with a restaurant at least twice the size of the French Laundry, has time to come out and greet the customers. Maybe he's busy planning his new restaurant in New York. Was it worth $500 for the two of us? Probably not, except that this is what the Palisadian Post expects me to do to write interesting articles. Would I go again? Not for a long time. How does the Napa Valley compare with France? Don't even ask! Merv Hecht, November, 2003 ADDITIONAL ARTICLES |
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