Our, email is always full of interesting things, with publicists pitching their clients and their client's projects. A month or two back one came in of particular interest, though I didn’t know what to do with it.
It was from a woman who represents a subscription service called A Moveable Feast. The pitch surprised me on a number of levels. It featured a local restaurant I knew as more of a hip bar deep in the French Quarter and one frequented by a crowd of people who weren’t even alive when the Food Show arrived in New Orleans. But I was more surprised when I looked up the place online. Jewel of The South was not only a full restaurant, but a fully gourmet restaurant, a dwindling phenomenon on the food scene everywhere.
Let me explain: there are a lot of first-class, even great restaurants, especially in what Tom refers to as “America’s greatest eating city.” A gourmet restaurant is that, yes, but it has characteristics that very few others have. To me, a gourmet restaurant often has more unusual foods than other first-class restaurants. The portions are smaller. The food is artfully presented, sometimes unrecognizably so. And it is expensive, usually the defining characteristic that separates it from all the others.
The photographs of food served at Jewel of The South were arresting, and the menu stunned me. Haggis was on the menu. I have never seen Haggis on any menu, except in Ireland, though its origins are in Scotland. Close enough.
To be honest, these revelations frightened me. This food was way out of my league. They wanted to send one of these Moveable Feast boxes to me to cook and eat at home. What would I do with this? I have been clear from the beginning of my taking over the reins from Tom: I am a mainstream eater, not a gourmet. I am a broadcaster, and I know a lot more than most people from my 35 years hanging around Tom, but I don’t eat like him. I would eat Haggis only if the other option was death.
And then I had a brilliant idea. I thought of Gunter Preuss, a renowned New Orleans gourmet European-trained chef who is now retired and a friend of the show. I asked if we could have the box delivered to him and have him prepare it and the four of us would eat it after doing the preparations as the show.
The Moveable Feast is a subscription service with an option for individual boxes. It is a box with preparations of a fully gourmet dinner delivered to your door. It is three courses for four people from acclaimed restaurants across America, celebrating American food. All of these restaurants are connected to John Stubbs, who got into the restaurant business as an investor. Our own Jewel of The South is part of his group, based in Washington, DC where he lives. The box costs $389, with an option to upgrade with wine pairings.
During the show, several people called in and asked our producer Patty why they should do this at that price and still have to cook it. For that price, they said, we could go to GW Fins. My answer then and still is: you have probably been to GW Fins many times, as well as all of the other places on that stellar plain. This is something different. You gather your friends for a leisurely evening at your own home and spend the entire evening together. Not for everyone, but fun for some.
The box arrived at Gunter’s lovely home the day before the show. He was powerfully impressed by it all. There is no cooking to be done. It is warming of some things, and arranging of most, with very minimal effort on the part of the host. Everything was so beautiful we were all in awe.
This was very carefully thought out and arranged. If you can read, or even know your colors you can do this. All of the courses were color-coded and packaged in tiny jars with labels or in vacuum-sealed color-coded and labeled bags. It was all so beautiful I hardly wanted to mess with it.
We started with a welcome cocktail consisting of a mix that just needed alcohol, with a freeze-dried lime included for garnish. This was delicious, and I don’t even drink! It called for Rum but Gunter used Bourbon and it was terrific anyway.
He had carefully assembled everything on the counter. He’s a mise en place kind of guy, so everything was indeed in its place, but my mise is never in its place and even I could do this because it was so well planned.
The first course was deviled eggs topped with smoked trout roe and Hakurei turnips tossed in bone marrow as a platter of nibbles. Gunter followed the instructions to place the marrow in a ramekin and toss the turnips, then to sprinkle them with smoked Maldon. I never eat bone marrow, not because of any real objection, but it’s just something I wouldn’t order. It was all so beautiful I ate it all.
The deviled egg filling came in a bag to pipe into the hard-boiled egg whites, and the bone marrow was in a bag as well. This took mere minutes to present. Another appetizer course was a Brie wheel with honey drizzle and rosemary springs, accompanied by roasted fingerling potatoes and crostini, both infused with rosemary. Following the instructions, Gunter inserted the rosemary sprigs into the cheese, opened another bag of honey, drizzled it, and placed the cheese and both dippers into the oven on a cookie sheet.
He then took another color-coded glass jar containing the lemon vinaigrette salad dressing and tossed the endive spears with the dressing in a bowl. The component parts of each dish were clearly delineated on the instruction page. There was a tiny container of chopped hazelnuts and another of apples to be added.
The main course came in a large box. It was a pie crust, standing 4 or 5 inches high, with a circumference like a two-layer cake. It was exactly the size of a two-layer cake, but it was a pie. Inside the large crust was a mix of short ribs and mushrooms. This came with gravy in a bag.
Mushy peas came in another bag, with instructions for heating on a cooktop and stirring vinegar into it. While the pie was heating in the oven, Gunter was to place the heated gravy on a platter and to make mounds of mushy peas with a divet in the center where fried shallots and scallions were to be placed.
The presentation was quite glamorous, and the dish very British. We learned why this New Orleans restaurant box featured food from the UK when we talked to Chef Phil Whitmarsh during the show. He’s from England, married to a local girl. A familiar story.
This course was outstanding. The crust was perfect, and the inside was bursting with tender braised short ribs and chunky mushrooms, loosely blended into a thick filling. The gravy underneath was rich with a dense texture and nice mouthfeel. Mushy peas are something I think one might need to be from Britain to “get,” but they were fine. The texture contrast between the crunchy shallots and mushy peas was appealing.
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Dessert was more pastry, this time an Eccles Cake, which dates back to 17th century Manchester England. Barely larger than a cookie, just thicker, it is filled with currants. It reminded me of mincemeat pie. British potted cheese came with it.
I didn’t care for this at all, and it was too similar to the preceding course. But Evelyn and I were standing over the plate with the potted cheese and we started nibbling at it. The texture was soft and spreadable and pretty intense. We couldn’t identify the flavor at first, but eventually, we recognized it as Bleu Cheese.
Gunter was very impressed with this box, as we were. It was so well-organized and beautiful, with first-class ingredients and fail-proof instructions. We felt that even though the instructions said for four people, it was enough food for six and perhaps eight.
The Moveable Feast was created as an answer to COVID, and a number of high-profile restaurants around the country are participating in it. You can see that list and order one here:
