Thursday. July 30, 2016.
60 Eat Clubbers Dine At Café Giovanni.
I get a lot done in the morning. All the usual NOMenu articles, plus another 2000 words for Inside New Orleans magazine. And an hour lost figuring out why a lot of people didn't get their email newsletters the last two days. (A mistake in the mailing list, easily fixed.) Yet I have time to take a twenty-minute stroll around the grounds.
The dog Susie, condemned two months ago by the vet for what he says is bone cancer, follows me around with a splint and a limp, but still keeps right up with me. The vet is astonished.
[caption id="attachment_52038" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Eat Club gathers for dinner at Cafe Giovanni.[/caption]
The radio show goes smoothly in the studio, although we have a new guy running the board. I sign off at six and walk the six blocks to Café Giovanni, where we will hold this week's Eat Club dinner. Chef Duke notified everyone on his mailing list about the six-course big eat, and we wind up with over sixty people in the dining room. The dinner is classic Café Giovanni: not much to look at, but delicious and generously served. The wines, particularly the reds, are just right for the food. The price is a steak at $70 inclusive. Everybody is happy.
[caption id="attachment_52037" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Italian baked seafood.[/caption]
We begin with little casseroles of the Big Four of local shellfish: shrimp, crabmeat, oysters, and crawfish, baked with bread crumbs, garlic, herbs and olive oil. Chef Duke, who doesn't like to serve bread at his dinners, allows it for this dish. The sauce is too good to resist sopping it up.
[caption id="attachment_52036" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Chilled avocado soup with jumbo lump crabmeat and caviar. [/caption]
Then comes a cold avocado soup with crabmeat and caviar. This is such a good idea that it's no surprise that Chef Duke and I discovered it independently. (I put it in a dinner I did for a charity auction some ten years ago. The guy who bought my services for $1200 still talks about that dish whenever I see him.) Duke will doubtless do more than I for making this a classic.
[caption id="attachment_52034" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Redfish poached in Pinot Noir.[/caption]
Now we have redfish poached in Pinot Noir, with a sauce of thyme and mushrooms and a lot of corn. It's the worst-looking dish of the evening, but it's the one that tastes best. The Pinot it was served with--I didn't catch its identity–was well liked.
[caption id="attachment_52033" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Quail stuffed with boudin.[/caption]
I thought the Fontanafredda "Briccotondo" Barbera was better. Better still was the Belguardo "Serrata"that came next. It has a big flavor radius (I think I may just have invented a new bit of wine jargon), a characteristic amplified by the lamb ragu with pappardelle pasta.
[caption id="attachment_52032" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Pappardelli pasta with lamb ragu.[/caption]
The dessert was more interesting than good. Beignets stuff with creme brulee. Sounds good, but not bad is as far as I want to go with this commentary it.
[caption id="attachment_52031" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Creme brulee stuffed inside beignets.[/caption]
This is the time in every Eat Club dinner when the house singers--who have put on quite a show tonight--take a breather and let me show off how much better is a well-trained voice (theirs) than that of a guy who just likes to sing (me). My usual song: "Where Or When," including the verse. I start in a full step off key, but after one bar I slide into position and collect a big jar of tips for the real singers.
Chef Duke tells me that he is getting ready for the twenty-fifth anniversary of Café Giovanni soon. He's already moved to the next generation: his son is cooking these days more or less full time.
Even though I was caught in road construction on my way from the restaurant to the airport, I arrive to find Mary Ann, just having picked up her luggage, waiting only a few minutes for me at the Delta entrance. I take her home, and she debriefs me on how things are going with our grandson Jackson, now seven months old. He is so cute she can hardly stand leaving him back in California with his parents, his other grandparents, and his nanny.
Cafe Giovanni. French Quarter: 117 Decatur. 504-529-2154.
Eat Club gathers for dinner at Cafe Giovanni.[/caption]
The radio show goes smoothly in the studio, although we have a new guy running the board. I sign off at six and walk the six blocks to Café Giovanni, where we will hold this week's Eat Club dinner. Chef Duke notified everyone on his mailing list about the six-course big eat, and we wind up with over sixty people in the dining room. The dinner is classic Café Giovanni: not much to look at, but delicious and generously served. The wines, particularly the reds, are just right for the food. The price is a steak at $70 inclusive. Everybody is happy.
[caption id="attachment_52037" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Italian baked seafood.[/caption]
We begin with little casseroles of the Big Four of local shellfish: shrimp, crabmeat, oysters, and crawfish, baked with bread crumbs, garlic, herbs and olive oil. Chef Duke, who doesn't like to serve bread at his dinners, allows it for this dish. The sauce is too good to resist sopping it up.
[caption id="attachment_52036" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Chilled avocado soup with jumbo lump crabmeat and caviar. [/caption]
Then comes a cold avocado soup with crabmeat and caviar. This is such a good idea that it's no surprise that Chef Duke and I discovered it independently. (I put it in a dinner I did for a charity auction some ten years ago. The guy who bought my services for $1200 still talks about that dish whenever I see him.) Duke will doubtless do more than I for making this a classic.
[caption id="attachment_52034" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Redfish poached in Pinot Noir.[/caption]
Now we have redfish poached in Pinot Noir, with a sauce of thyme and mushrooms and a lot of corn. It's the worst-looking dish of the evening, but it's the one that tastes best. The Pinot it was served with--I didn't catch its identity–was well liked.
[caption id="attachment_52033" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Quail stuffed with boudin.[/caption]
I thought the Fontanafredda "Briccotondo" Barbera was better. Better still was the Belguardo "Serrata"that came next. It has a big flavor radius (I think I may just have invented a new bit of wine jargon), a characteristic amplified by the lamb ragu with pappardelle pasta.
[caption id="attachment_52032" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Pappardelli pasta with lamb ragu.[/caption]
The dessert was more interesting than good. Beignets stuff with creme brulee. Sounds good, but not bad is as far as I want to go with this commentary it.
[caption id="attachment_52031" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Creme brulee stuffed inside beignets.[/caption]
This is the time in every Eat Club dinner when the house singers--who have put on quite a show tonight--take a breather and let me show off how much better is a well-trained voice (theirs) than that of a guy who just likes to sing (me). My usual song: "Where Or When," including the verse. I start in a full step off key, but after one bar I slide into position and collect a big jar of tips for the real singers.
Chef Duke tells me that he is getting ready for the twenty-fifth anniversary of Café Giovanni soon. He's already moved to the next generation: his son is cooking these days more or less full time.
Even though I was caught in road construction on my way from the restaurant to the airport, I arrive to find Mary Ann, just having picked up her luggage, waiting only a few minutes for me at the Delta entrance. I take her home, and she debriefs me on how things are going with our grandson Jackson, now seven months old. He is so cute she can hardly stand leaving him back in California with his parents, his other grandparents, and his nanny.
