Whither Beef Wellington?

[dropcap1]Q. [/dropcap1]I saw a cooking show on TV recently that featured a dish called beef Wellington. It sounded very complicated to make, but I was interested in eating it. Which restaurant makes the best version? [dropcap1]A. [/dropcap1]Beef Wellington, I'm afraid to say, is nearly extinct. The peak of its popularity in New Orleans (and most other places) was the 1970s. It was the signature dish of Louis XVI French Restaurant, where it was one of the many dishes served from carts that rolled up to your table and put on a culinary show. It's a three-layer dish, with a semi-cooked beef tenderloin (the filet mignon part) was patted with a duxelles of finely-chopped mushrooms and onions. That was surrounded by puff pastry and baked in the oven. The sauce was the best part: a Perigourdine made with demi-glace, truffles, and foie gras. The first bites of a beef Wellington were wonderful, but as soon as the pastry became drenched in the sauce and undermined by steam from the beef, it became less than attractive. Add to this the declining skills of dining room personnel, who had to perform all the tableside ceremony perfectly, and the dish fell out of favor. Even Louis XVI stopped serving it except on special order. (Louis XVI itself ceased to be an a la carte dinner venue after Katrina.) One restaurant makes beef Wellington these days. It's the last place you'd expect to find such a pedigreed dish. Ye Olde College Inn, which raises its own beef cattle, reserves the tenderloins for use in making the Wellington. It's a special, but a frequent one. With advance notice they'll make it for you. It's not served tableside, however. Nor is it as good as Louis XVI's chefs Daniel Bonnot, Claude Aubert, and Agnes Bellet made it.