Saturday, December 19, 2015.
Part B: Reveillon Pinnacle, Commander's Palace.
Our friend Chuck invited Mary Ann and me to join him and his girlfriend Linda for dinner tonight at Commander's Palace. This is a new chapter for Chuck, who untied the knot with his wife a couple of years ago in what seems to have been a friendly, bilateral action.
From the moment we sit down, Mary Ann and Linda hit it off famously. By the second or third course of what grew into a ten-course dinner, the two women are thick as thieves, laughing heartily about matters that are lost on us guys. So we focus on the food and wine.
That gave us much to consider. We were up to the fourth course when the waiter suggested that we just let Chef Torey McPhail continue to send us stuff. It was the Chef's Playground Menu in the guise of the Reveillon menu, with wines paired by Dan "The Wine Guy" Davis. More on that below. The first course was a gigantic raw oyster from Caminada Pass, down by Grand Isle. The oysters there are gigantic, even though they're the same species we eat around New Orleans. They come with a gin-and-sage sorbet, and a sprig of rosemary that is set on fire at the table. But the luscious, cold meat of the oyster is what this is all about. The bigger the oyster, the better it tastes, say I. The girls are afraid of oysters this big, so Chuck and I each get two.
Next are stone crab claws, poached and served cold in their colorful shells. Most of the time, I find stone crabs less delicious than they're reputed to be. But not tonight. These things were perfect in every particular, from the soft, easily-engaged, oddly sweet white meat to the hats of Louisiana caviar on top of them.
[caption id="attachment_50055" align="alignnone" width="470"]
Scallops, course #3[/caption]
The third course is a pair of seared sea scallops, with three different beans around them. This puts an end to the idea we are getting extended amuses-bouche. This was a full-size course in a grand dinner, and a very strong one at that.
I begin to be reminded of recall dinners at Commander's in its Golden Age of the 1980s. Then, on the first Tuesday of every month for ten years, Marcelle Bienvenue, Dick Brennan Sr., and I surveyed the culinary cutting edge as interpreted by Chefs Paul Prudhomme, Emeril, and Jamie Shannon.
Those were the most enjoyable and instructive meals I ever had in New Orleans. . . no, wait. Let's make that "in America." Only when I consider the repasts I had in France and Italy do the Commander's dinners drop from first place.
I have not had so thrilling a dinner in a long time, not even at Commander's. But tonight, here it was. We kept on going with Chef Torey's plan. Chuck, who was hosting, was all in. He's a Cajun, so there was no question of his not liking something.
The girls were so caught up in their chatter that they don't really pay a lot of attention to the food or wine.
So here is foie gras baked in a tiny mincemeat pie. What an idea! A savory custard made with duck eggs held this in place with confit of goose. Say what?
Confit d'oie was the first really French dish that knocked me into the Seine when I first fetched up in Paris.
[caption id="attachment_50059" align="alignnone" width="473"]
Poussin.[/caption]
Now, for the benefit of the ladies, we have a nice piece of red snapper over rice with wild mushrooms. The fish also establishes a perfect bridge to the next course, a true poussin--a baby chicken, small enough that we each get half a bird. It's roasted with black truffle butter. We men devour the poussins in their entirety. The women keep on laughing and talking incomprehensibly. Mary Ann has eaten an entire tray of garlic bread. (I must admit that I kept up with her.)
[caption id="attachment_50057" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Steak Stanley.[/caption]
The most dramatic course of the night is steak Stanley. It dates back a long way in the Brennan restaurant cookbook, having first been introduced at Brennan's on Royal Street. And yes, it was the entree three days ago in the Eat Club Gala dinner! Pure coincidence, and an extremely unlikely one. Both Brennan's and Commander's have a legitimate claim to this dish. But the respective evolutions--begun in 1973, when the infamous Brennan family split occurred--makes the two versions of steak Stanley very different. Basically, it's a filet with a brown sauce, topped by a creamy horseradish sauce, with bananas finding a niche in there somewhere.
Twice in four days, I have both versions of steak Stanley. Which of them is the best steak 'n' bananas in town? Both are excellent, but the Commander's gets the gold. The horseradish is a bit more in evidence.
[caption id="attachment_50056" align="alignnone" width="462"]
Cheese course.[/caption]
We have a cheese course, in which the homemade biscotti impress Mary Ann so much that she clears out most of them. That makes eight courses. Then we get the dessert bomb: at least six items, including bread pudding soufflee, creme brulee, strawberry shortcake, cheesecake, and a a chocolate thing or two that the women claim for themselves. They are still having a ball.
The Wine Guy had a field day with this menu. If he had been testing of my wine knowledge, he wouldn't have gone any farther afield than he did. Fortunately, my palate was more acute than usual, and I would have aced his test (if, again, there had been one). I may have impressed him when I called a wine I'd never heard of a Cabernet Franc based on taste alone. Which it was.
Here's the list of the wines we were served, and with what. Mostly French juice:
With the oysters and scallops: 2010 Domaine Zind Humbrecht Brand Vieille Vignes, Alsace Grand Cru, France
With the foie gras: 2011 Château Laribotte Sauternes, Bordeaux, France
With the red snapper: 2010 Maison Champy Ile de Vergelesses, Pernand-Vergelesses Premier Cru, Burgundy, France
With the poussin: 2011 Catherine et Pierre Breton les Perrières, Bourgueil Cabernet Franc, Loire Valley, France
With the steak Stanley: 1995 Château Gombaude-Guillot Pomerol, Bordeaux, France (en magnum)
With the cheese and desserts: 2013 Naufragar Malvasia di Casorzo DOC, Piedmont, Italy
I learned later, from calls to the radio station, that our table was one at least a dozen that had come in for this same dinner with wines this weekend. It was a pinnacle of fine dining that we don't often taste.
And now the bad news. I took photos of all this, but they have vanished into the thousands of food shots on my computer. (The ones you see here were taken by Mary Ann with her phone. Not bad!) My shots will turn up some day, when this dinner will still echo in my brain. Any feeling I might have that Commander's Palace is less than the finest restaurant in New Orleans--at least in the hands of diners who know what they're doing--vanishes.
Indeed, this may have been the most impressive dinner I've ever had in New Orleans. And get this: take away a course and the excessive desserts, and you have the Commander's Reveillon menu for this year. It sells for $110, with paired wines for an additional $56. Chuck and I talk about doing this again next year. But the girls are cold from the chill outside, and we disperse to our respective homes.
Commander's Palace. Garden District: 1403 Washington Ave. 504-899-8221.
Scallops, course #3[/caption]
The third course is a pair of seared sea scallops, with three different beans around them. This puts an end to the idea we are getting extended amuses-bouche. This was a full-size course in a grand dinner, and a very strong one at that.
I begin to be reminded of recall dinners at Commander's in its Golden Age of the 1980s. Then, on the first Tuesday of every month for ten years, Marcelle Bienvenue, Dick Brennan Sr., and I surveyed the culinary cutting edge as interpreted by Chefs Paul Prudhomme, Emeril, and Jamie Shannon.
Those were the most enjoyable and instructive meals I ever had in New Orleans. . . no, wait. Let's make that "in America." Only when I consider the repasts I had in France and Italy do the Commander's dinners drop from first place.
I have not had so thrilling a dinner in a long time, not even at Commander's. But tonight, here it was. We kept on going with Chef Torey's plan. Chuck, who was hosting, was all in. He's a Cajun, so there was no question of his not liking something.
The girls were so caught up in their chatter that they don't really pay a lot of attention to the food or wine.
So here is foie gras baked in a tiny mincemeat pie. What an idea! A savory custard made with duck eggs held this in place with confit of goose. Say what? Confit d'oie was the first really French dish that knocked me into the Seine when I first fetched up in Paris.
[caption id="attachment_50059" align="alignnone" width="473"]
Poussin.[/caption]
Now, for the benefit of the ladies, we have a nice piece of red snapper over rice with wild mushrooms. The fish also establishes a perfect bridge to the next course, a true poussin--a baby chicken, small enough that we each get half a bird. It's roasted with black truffle butter. We men devour the poussins in their entirety. The women keep on laughing and talking incomprehensibly. Mary Ann has eaten an entire tray of garlic bread. (I must admit that I kept up with her.)
[caption id="attachment_50057" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Steak Stanley.[/caption]
The most dramatic course of the night is steak Stanley. It dates back a long way in the Brennan restaurant cookbook, having first been introduced at Brennan's on Royal Street. And yes, it was the entree three days ago in the Eat Club Gala dinner! Pure coincidence, and an extremely unlikely one. Both Brennan's and Commander's have a legitimate claim to this dish. But the respective evolutions--begun in 1973, when the infamous Brennan family split occurred--makes the two versions of steak Stanley very different. Basically, it's a filet with a brown sauce, topped by a creamy horseradish sauce, with bananas finding a niche in there somewhere.
Twice in four days, I have both versions of steak Stanley. Which of them is the best steak 'n' bananas in town? Both are excellent, but the Commander's gets the gold. The horseradish is a bit more in evidence.
[caption id="attachment_50056" align="alignnone" width="462"]
Cheese course.[/caption]
We have a cheese course, in which the homemade biscotti impress Mary Ann so much that she clears out most of them. That makes eight courses. Then we get the dessert bomb: at least six items, including bread pudding soufflee, creme brulee, strawberry shortcake, cheesecake, and a a chocolate thing or two that the women claim for themselves. They are still having a ball.
The Wine Guy had a field day with this menu. If he had been testing of my wine knowledge, he wouldn't have gone any farther afield than he did. Fortunately, my palate was more acute than usual, and I would have aced his test (if, again, there had been one). I may have impressed him when I called a wine I'd never heard of a Cabernet Franc based on taste alone. Which it was.
Here's the list of the wines we were served, and with what. Mostly French juice:
