Thursday, May 26, 2016.
NOW&FE Wine Dinner @ Hotel Mazarin
The New Orleans Wine and Food Experience began as usual with an evening of wine dinners around town, but with three notable differences. First, the dinners have been moved from Wednesday to Thursday, as the whole program crunches down from four days to three days. Second, the inclusive price of the dinners ballooned from around $125 to nearly $200. Looking at the numbers comparatively, they used to be priced at the middle to low end of typical wine dinners around town. Now they're decidedly at the high end.
Finally, the number of dinners decreased from around forty (there have been as many as fifty in the past) to thirty-one this year. This almost certainly is an effect of the higher prices.
As I head into the French Quarter to the Hotel Mazarin for the $150 NOW&FE wine dinner there, I was of two minds about the changes. It's still rather amazing that we have over thirty major dinners, each produced by a local chef, all on the same night. Only the country's biggest cities would be able to match that, and they usually don't.
I was also looking forward to a dinner from the hands of Chef Agnes Bellet. She is the last remnant of Louis XVI, the spectacular French restaurant that set the standard for grandiose dining in the 1970s through the 1990s. Very French herself, Agnes (she would be pleased to hear you pronounce her name "ahn-YES") has kept the recipes and styles of Louis XVI, even as her main job these days is mostly about breakfast and banquets in the Hotel Mazarin. (Formerly the St. Louis Hotel, plus the final quarters of the historic La Louisiane restaurant.)
The menu was so appealing that Mary Ann said she might join me. She didn't--the dieting thing got a higher priority. Her seat at my table was instead taken by Poppy Tooker. It's not often that I dine with someone else who hosts a radio show about food and wine. She was loaded with restaurant gossip, none of which I am allowed even to hint at. She also told me about her upcoming projects, which are numerous. She said that one of her goals is to win a James Beard Award. I have no doubt that she will.
Is a Beard recognition in my future? I have been asked. It won't be unless I take the time out of my dining out, cooking, and writing to fill out the forms and send in the hundreds of dollars in fees. In another word, no. (I have never applied to win any professional award. Seems to me that if I really were good enough to merit such a thing, I wouldn't have to ask for it, let alone pay for it.) I more like the idea that I had lunch
a deux with James Beard once.
The food tonight is everything I expect from Chef Agnes. We began with passed tidbits in the courtyard--wonderful little fried ravioli stuffed with crawfish in a creamy, slightly cheesy sauce. We also had the best duck rillettes I've ever encountered, served on crostini with some pickles.
[caption id="attachment_51611" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Foie gras with chilindron sauce, at Hotel Mazarin.[/caption]
Next came a chilled watermelon soup with seared but mostly raw tuna, with toasted pumpkin seeds. Delightful, especially in the warm French Quarter tonight. Now a generous nugget of duck foie gras with a chilindron sauce (that's a sort of Spanish stew with a lot of spicy paprika). With this was a new wine from Robert Mondavi, whose wines make up all but one of the six bottles in the pairing. It's called Maestro, and is a handsomely-packaged blend with a focus on Merlot. I think it's out of balance on the acidic side, but I didn't have that idea until the standard Mondavi Cabernet arrived, with its richness and artfulness.
[caption id="attachment_51609" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Poached fish with mushrooms.[/caption]
Before we get to that, however, we have a fish course involving poached black drum in a creamy sauce with mushrooms. It comes, of course, with a Pinot Noir. Robert Mondavi has long been known for the boldness of its Pinot Noir, sometimes approaching that of a light Cabernet. Someday we will get past the Pinot-Noir-With-Fish dictum.
[caption id="attachment_51608" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Filet of tenderloin with a truffled red wine sauce.[/caption]
The best dish of the night is a very generous filet mignon with a truffled red wine sauce, potatoes and vegetables. This is in the spirit of Louis XVI's old Chateaubriand, and it triggers a few memories of dinners in that magnificent restaurant. The Robert Mondavi Cabernet helps flesh out the memories.
And then a bunch of recollections blossom. The banquet room where this dinner is taking place was the final address for Louis XVI. It was born in the Marie Antoinette Hotel, four blocks from here. The second Louis XVI was on the rear wall of the courtyard, where before had been another grand French place called Chez Louis. Next to that at another time was the fantastically overpriced L'Escale, and around the back corner was Savoir Faire. All these were in the collection of restaurants and hotels owned by the late Mark Smith, a bon vivant in the highest order.
I have one more memory. Robert Mondavi came to New Orleans in the late 1970s to roll out a new line of inexpensive wines that he was calling "Bob White" and "Bob Red." These would evolve into the Woodbridge wines, which made more money for Robert Mondavi than all his grand wines put together. The tasting he hosted was in the very room where we are having our NOW&FE dinner tonight.
[caption id="attachment_51607" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Puff pastry and berries at Hotel Mazarin.[/caption]
Dessert is a beautiful sandwich with lighter-than-air puff pastries, and an assortment of berries held aloft by Chantilly creme. We have Ruffino Prosecco with this. Is Robert Mondavi out of its sweet wines?
If all of the wine dinners tonight were as good as this one, then this shank of the NOW&FE program is well represented. I give a hug to Chef Agnes and strike out for home. I was able to limit my drinking to less than two glasses. I miss my designated driver, though. I think she would have liked this dinner.
I was also looking forward to a dinner from the hands of Chef Agnes Bellet. She is the last remnant of Louis XVI, the spectacular French restaurant that set the standard for grandiose dining in the 1970s through the 1990s. Very French herself, Agnes (she would be pleased to hear you pronounce her name "ahn-YES") has kept the recipes and styles of Louis XVI, even as her main job these days is mostly about breakfast and banquets in the Hotel Mazarin. (Formerly the St. Louis Hotel, plus the final quarters of the historic La Louisiane restaurant.)
The menu was so appealing that Mary Ann said she might join me. She didn't--the dieting thing got a higher priority. Her seat at my table was instead taken by Poppy Tooker. It's not often that I dine with someone else who hosts a radio show about food and wine. She was loaded with restaurant gossip, none of which I am allowed even to hint at. She also told me about her upcoming projects, which are numerous. She said that one of her goals is to win a James Beard Award. I have no doubt that she will.
Is a Beard recognition in my future? I have been asked. It won't be unless I take the time out of my dining out, cooking, and writing to fill out the forms and send in the hundreds of dollars in fees. In another word, no. (I have never applied to win any professional award. Seems to me that if I really were good enough to merit such a thing, I wouldn't have to ask for it, let alone pay for it.) I more like the idea that I had lunch a deux with James Beard once.
The food tonight is everything I expect from Chef Agnes. We began with passed tidbits in the courtyard--wonderful little fried ravioli stuffed with crawfish in a creamy, slightly cheesy sauce. We also had the best duck rillettes I've ever encountered, served on crostini with some pickles.
[caption id="attachment_51611" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Foie gras with chilindron sauce, at Hotel Mazarin.[/caption]
Next came a chilled watermelon soup with seared but mostly raw tuna, with toasted pumpkin seeds. Delightful, especially in the warm French Quarter tonight. Now a generous nugget of duck foie gras with a chilindron sauce (that's a sort of Spanish stew with a lot of spicy paprika). With this was a new wine from Robert Mondavi, whose wines make up all but one of the six bottles in the pairing. It's called Maestro, and is a handsomely-packaged blend with a focus on Merlot. I think it's out of balance on the acidic side, but I didn't have that idea until the standard Mondavi Cabernet arrived, with its richness and artfulness.
[caption id="attachment_51609" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Poached fish with mushrooms.[/caption]
Before we get to that, however, we have a fish course involving poached black drum in a creamy sauce with mushrooms. It comes, of course, with a Pinot Noir. Robert Mondavi has long been known for the boldness of its Pinot Noir, sometimes approaching that of a light Cabernet. Someday we will get past the Pinot-Noir-With-Fish dictum.
[caption id="attachment_51608" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Filet of tenderloin with a truffled red wine sauce.[/caption]
The best dish of the night is a very generous filet mignon with a truffled red wine sauce, potatoes and vegetables. This is in the spirit of Louis XVI's old Chateaubriand, and it triggers a few memories of dinners in that magnificent restaurant. The Robert Mondavi Cabernet helps flesh out the memories.
And then a bunch of recollections blossom. The banquet room where this dinner is taking place was the final address for Louis XVI. It was born in the Marie Antoinette Hotel, four blocks from here. The second Louis XVI was on the rear wall of the courtyard, where before had been another grand French place called Chez Louis. Next to that at another time was the fantastically overpriced L'Escale, and around the back corner was Savoir Faire. All these were in the collection of restaurants and hotels owned by the late Mark Smith, a bon vivant in the highest order.
I have one more memory. Robert Mondavi came to New Orleans in the late 1970s to roll out a new line of inexpensive wines that he was calling "Bob White" and "Bob Red." These would evolve into the Woodbridge wines, which made more money for Robert Mondavi than all his grand wines put together. The tasting he hosted was in the very room where we are having our NOW&FE dinner tonight.
[caption id="attachment_51607" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Puff pastry and berries at Hotel Mazarin.[/caption]
Dessert is a beautiful sandwich with lighter-than-air puff pastries, and an assortment of berries held aloft by Chantilly creme. We have Ruffino Prosecco with this. Is Robert Mondavi out of its sweet wines?
If all of the wine dinners tonight were as good as this one, then this shank of the NOW&FE program is well represented. I give a hug to Chef Agnes and strike out for home. I was able to limit my drinking to less than two glasses. I miss my designated driver, though. I think she would have liked this dinner.
