Thursday, May 19, 2011.
Chocolate Turtle Soup. Chefs Playground At Commander's Palace.
New Orleans Audi must be getting something out of the series of live broadcasts we've staged in its showroom. It embarrasses me how few people show up to take test drives and such. I'm a pretty good pitchman for restaurants I like (the only ones I undertake), but I've had very few successes moving other commodities.
Well, we had a good show there today, anyway. Chef Tory McPhail, the executive chef of Commander's Palace, was there making "chocolate turtle soup." The reference is not to Commander's famous reptilian potage, but the gooey Southern candy of caramel, pecans and chocolate.
He handed me a sample of the stuff right before I went on the air. I knew I was in trouble. The caramel gave me voluntary lockjaw. If I had to force my mouth back open, the caramel would have yanked at least a couple of fillings from my teeth. Thank goodness for a heavy commercial load, so I could tongue my way out of the mess.
Jamie Peckinpaugh from the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience was also in the house, because we were giving away a bunch of tickets to the Grand Tastings next weekend. That brought some people in--but no cars were sold.
One of the potential customers was our friend Dr. Doug Swift. After the show he gave me the second valuable bit of advice to ease my current condition. "When they let you start walking, do it in a swimming pool," he said. "That takes a lot of weight off, so your muscles can work their way back into shape. And if you fall, you'll just fall into the water!" I'll like this better than the first matter on which he advised me: how to give myself injections during the month when I had to do that every day.
By coincidence, Mary Ann and I had a reservation for dinner tonight at Commander's Palace. It's been almost two years since I last dined there. I spoke with Chef Tory about what we might find--specifically on the $95 "Chef's Playground" tasting menu.
"We changed the price," he said. "We've knocked it down to $75."
What? Why?
"We want more people to try it, so we cut back on the number of courses," he said. He said the eight-or-nine course version was too much food and took too long for a lot of people who were interested in the Playground. Indeed, it became more appealing to me for that change--not because of the price, but because I can't eat as much as I used to.
Our table was on the first floor--where I'd want to be even if I had no trouble climbing stairs. The first rank of servers came by to get the drinks started. And the garlic bread, Mary Ann hoped. She loves it even more than most people do, which is saying something. They couldn't get it out quickly enough. We went through three plates of it.
I wanted to order a bottle of wine for the evening. It proved to be a daunting task. Commander's newly rebuilt and refilled wine cellar has taken a quantum leap in its variety and impressiveness. For an oenophile, it may be the best wine list in town. Many labels from every important part of the wine world. And among the big wines that benefit from aging, here are many vintages to choose from. And pages of wines by the half-bottle.
I'm ashamed to admit that the list was too much for me. I read it for fifteen minutes or so, while the servers were waiting for some kind of beverage order from me, and Mary Ann impatient to get the show on the road. Now I know why my readers haven't responded to my record-breaking 300 Best Restaurants list. Like this wine list, it's more than one can get one's head around.
A solution appeared. This was a rare evening for Mary Ann. Save for a few garnishes, everything on the Chef's Playground sounded great to her. I couldn't pass an opportunity like that by, so we went for it. I asked for the wine pairings--an extra $50 for six half-pours, which seemed like a bargain to me.
That decision got things moving at last. Here came a flute of L'Ermitage Brut 2002, one of a few wines that could be considered Roederer's top wine. This stood me through two amuses-bouche. The first was a little ball of goat cheese with bacon, fried to a crusty brown. The second was a large panneed oyster with a mustardy cream sauce underneath and Louisiana caviar on top. Also taking refuge under the wing of the Champagne was a demitasse of soft-shell crab bisque, a smooth, light, creamy soup with a mellow tone of saffron and an elusive sharpness.
This strong start was followed by a jumble of house-made linguine with grilled (!) crawfish tails, in a creamy sauce that reminded me a little of the restaurant old (1980s) saute of crawfish. 2010 County Line Pinot Noir with that.
Then, a break in the action for a cocktail shooter. I liked the name: "Recalculating." It's Aperol (the liqueur everybody is using these days), reposado tequila, lime, and grapefruit. I have sworn off drinking cocktails since my accident, but I'll accept those that come my way without my collusion. I knocked this back, and Mary Ann's, too. (The only time she ever drinks cocktails is when she's on an airplane and needs to calm down.)
Back to work. Here came half of a big soft-shell crab, the cut side down so the appendages could wave. Around it was a shredded salad of crispy greens and little tomatoes, splashed with a peppery orange aioli. Another mayo was on the plate, shot up with mustard and (I think) wasabi. Wine: Boillot Puligny-Montrachet 2007. Dan Davis, the restaurant's wine director, wanted to make a point about Boillot, so he brought out a taste of the house's basic white Bourgogne--same winery, same grape, different selection of vineyards.
At this point Mary Ann said that she was finding a sameness throughout the courses. If the sauce wasn't creamy, she said, it was otherwise enriched to the same note. I see what she means. On the other hand, I was thinking about how distinctly New Orleans all this stuff had been, with its varied ways of putting warmth into the backgrounds.
No cream showed up in the meat course. It was a classic: tournedos Rossini. Make a long story short: a filet with foie gras on top, and white truffles around it in fond de veau. (Demi-glace Jr.) MA sent hers back to be overcooked. Mine was fine. But I was distracted. Dan Davis brought the programmed wine for this course: an Echezeaux, and not one I'd had before: Mongeard-Mugnerot. Echezeaux is one of the biggest names in red Burgundy, but you couldn't prove it to me by this wine. Sharp and apparently (but not really) light, it will need ten years before it gets really interesting. Mary Ann made quite a face after taking a sip.
I had a lot of wine on the table at this point, and the kitchen sent out a little cheese course to keep it balanced. Then it was dessert time. The Playground had a three-layer blueberry trifle, as juicy and good as it was pretty. Mary Ann asked for something intensely chocolate, and got a small cake she said was wonderful.
She was way off her precious diet tonight, but was free of remorse. She did say that we will not be dining out again for many days, however.
Lally Brennan showed up to say hello. From her we learned that Chef Tory had left for a short vacation after he finished the gig at New Orleans Audi with us. This showed off one of Commander's least-heralded merits: the strength of its bench. This has always been the case. I remember it was that way during Paul Prudhomme's leadership here, when Frank Brigtsen, Kevin Vizard, Gerhard Brill, Gerard Maras, and other major up-and-comers were in the second a third strings.
Any hesitation I might have had in putting Commander's at the top of the Most Essential Restaurants list last week vanished. It's as close as any to being the perfect New Orleans restaurant right now.
Commander's Palace. Garden District: 1403 Washington Ave. 504-899-8221.
It has been over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
