Archive for May, 2011

Gracie’s, Providence, R.I.

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Posted 25 May 2011 — by S.E.
Category Fine Dining

At Gracie’s, I have no intention of pulling out my camera and capturing my dining experience. Instead, my visit is social and personal, one of pure relaxation, gustatory indulgence and the sheer satisfaction of good company.  My focus tonight is on the people I am with; at least that’s my plan. The amuse bouche of carrot pana cotta, beet puree and sour apple arrives centered on a Chinese porcelain soup spoon and I am captivated. I resist taking pictures for a minute or two but my self control fails and out comes the camera. At this point I realize I have a real disorder; one focused on gathering images and notes of the incredible dining experiences I have. Life is good.

Gracie’s is a restaurant with a loft-like feel, worn hardwood floors, golden and red colored upholstered booths, and chairs made of cherry. The walls are also painted a textured gold color and one full wall of the restaurant consists of floor to ceiling windows facing east. With a main dining room and additional private dining in the wine room and private dining room on the lower level, it’s a large restaurant with good economics. Tonight the private dining room is occupied with a large lively group having fun.

As food arrives I notice a blend of classical preparations and sauces like bordelaise and hollandaise with modernist techniques.  Food is handled with a delicate touch and flavors are, in most cases, subtle and refined. Seasonal spring ingredients abound including ubiquitous pea tendrils and tender asparagus. I am reminded of how wonderful it is that food like this can be found today in most mid-sized cities in America. As recently as ten years ago, this wasn’t the case. We have come a long way in this country.

The food is gorgeous and I am not the only one taking picures now. At some point I hope that the James Beard Foundation will give a nod to owner Ellen Gracyalny. She’s operated Gracie’s for more than a decade and deserves more recognition than she’s been given. I am glad I used my camera tonight!

Amuse Bouche of Carrots: Carrot Pana Cotta, Pavee of Poached Carrot, Beet Puree, Sour Apple

Scallop Crudo, Romesco Sauce, Fennel, Garden Herb Salad

English Pea Puree, Crab Salad, White and Green Asparagus, Pickled Red Onion

Russet Potato Gnocchi, Confit of Lamb Shank, English Peas, Pecorino

Butter Poached Lobster, Spinach Cavatelli, Chanterelles, Spring Vegetables, Brown Butter Hollandaise

Lemon Raspberry Sorbet

Wolfneck Farms Prime Ribeye, Garlic Puree, Asparagus Triple Cooked Potato, Tokyo Turnips, Sauce Bordelaise

Brioche Pretzel, Dark Chocolate Ganache, Candied Popcorn,   Peanuts, Mustard Ice Cream (you can’t tell from this picture but the center of the pretzel was molten chocolate!)

~~~

Gracie’s

194 Washington St.
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 272-7811

 

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Sidney St. Cafe, St. Louis

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Posted 16 May 2011 — by S.E.
Category Fine Dining, Full Service

Sidney St. Café chef-owner Kevin Nashan is passionate about culinary arts. He’s a professional culinary athlete who has the endurance and drive to survive the long hard hours it takes to achieve greatness; his work ethic is legendary. While on a tour of the café, chef Nashan proudly shows me his charcuterie aging room (a small humidity controlled custom room in the basement of the restaurant), fresh pates and terrines (classically made), and smoked products. We are out the back door of the kitchen in a flash and across the street to see the massive urban garden in the adjacent parking lot. Chef Nashan shows me the range of vegetables and herbs planted in neatly tilled mounds of soil, each tended by a designated member of the kitchen crew.

Back in the kitchen Nashan explains his drive to serve fresh local foods and to employ simple cooking methods with some modernist techniques mixed in. He also has a penchant for making as many things as possible from scratch. This isn’t unusual but the types of foods he makes from scratch including salumi, terrines, sausages, pretzel bread, and condiments remind me of the old school items I used to see in commercial kitchens back in the early 1980s. Few contemporary chefs of Nasan’s age (he appears to be in his 30’s) in smaller cities like St. Louis have the courage or expertise to take on scratch preparation of these types of items. Chef Nashan is a young chef with an old-school streak down his back and the unusual ability to balance classical and contemporary techniques with equal expertise and effect. His cuisine would hold up in any major metropolitan market including cities four times the size of St. Louis. Back in February the James Beard Foundation acknowledged Nashan’s talents by nominating him for the “Best Chef: Midwest” award for 2011 (Nashan didn’t win this year).

Chef Nashan is back in the kitchen now and I am sitting at the very end of the beautiful antique oak bar that dominates the front of the restaurant. The bartender and I begin to chat as she hustles to fill orders. She tells me that she has been with the restaurant for years having bartended for the previous owners. She loves how quickly the restaurant has evolved in recent years and the great attention Nashan has brought to the Benton Park neighborhood of St. Louis along with others including chef Gerard Craft of Niche located half a mile further up Sidney St. Although Craft’s food is outstanding, Nashan’s style is much more robust and craftsman-like in a St. Louis sort of way and just the type of food to draw local as well as national attention.

I am glowing with inspiration now so I order a seven-course tasting menu and sit back to enjoy the experience. My bartender gives me a refill and chef Nashan stops by again as he makes his rounds through the bar and packed dining room. As he heads back to the kitchen I am reminded once again that I just met another American chef working his heart out while living the dream. What a beautiful thing. 

Sidney St. Café Charcuterie Board with Pickled Cabbage and Pretzel Bread

 

Pork Belly with Flageolets and Bacon Powder

 

Seared Sweetbreads with Wilted Greens

 

Compressed Melon Salad

 

Sautéed Escolar with Pickled Vegetables and Pappardelle

 

Pomegranate Martini Sorbet

 

Roast Missouri Lamb Chop, Lamb Crepinette, Cassoulet with Fresh Sausage, Polenta

 

Whoopee Pie with Salted Caramel Ice Cream

  

Sidney St. Café

2000 Sidney Street

St. Louis, MO

314-771-5777

 

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Quince Restaurant, San Francisco

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Posted 11 May 2011 — by S.E.
Category Fine Dining

Michael Tusk is an experienced professional chef who, for a multitude of reasons, deserves the James Beard award he won two nights ago (best chef Pacific). Perhaps it’s the Italian inspired menu at Quince or the tremendous wine offerings or the outstanding décor and artwork in the restaurant or the well-heeled staff that gracefully provides service or the cool-cat bartenders who are quick with a joke and loose with a pour. To me all these aspects of Quince make it worthy of the accolades but the key inspiration is chef Tusk and his food.

I am sitting at the very end of the bar at Quince contemplating whether to grab a table and settle in or have a few courses and then head out into the sea of fantastic restaurants that make San Francisco such an outrageous food city. One of the bartenders senses my indecision and suggests that I take on a five course tasting menu and a flight of wines right at the bar. Good idea, I am not in the mood to sit at a table, nor in the mood to wander off into the Jackson Square neighborhood where Quince is located. My bartender is a real pro and our conversation continues comfortably.

The kitchen at Quince is located right up against the street in a two storey glass storefront. At night the kitchen radiates light and bustles with activity. Cooks in dark blue bibbed aprons work facing the street just on the other side of the glass. Chef Tusk stands at the far side of the hot kitchens island suite, back to the street expediting. Work in this kitchen flows smoothly.

My five course menu includes turbot, pasta with sea urchin roe, lobster with sun-choke and Dungeness crab. Tusk is known for his inventive pasta preparations and his heavy Italian influence. His menu is extremely seasonal and local and not overly modernistic in technique. While observing the kitchen from the  curb I noticed lots of old-school copper in use, traditional techniques being executed, and plenty of olive oil and butter being used. Chef Tusk’s time with Alice Waters at Chez Panisse comes through in his cooking. He handles seafood adeptly and my culinary experience is excellent.

 

Twice Baked Dungeness Crab and Oyster Souffle, Salsify and Red Endive Salad

 

Caramelle of Lobster and Sunchoke

 

Mancini Artisan Spaghetti, Sea Urchin, Fennel and Controne Chile

 

Turbot, Stuffed Artichoke, Artichoke Puree, Carrot and Red Onion

 

Meyer Lemon Tartlet, Meringue, Confit and Caramel

 

Financier, Chocolate, Blood Orange Gelee

 Quince
470 Pacific Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94133
415-775-8500

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American Mussel Harvesters, North Kingstown, Rhode Island

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Posted 05 May 2011 — by S.E.
Category Fine Dining, In Case You Missed It!, Travel, Uncategorized

When Bill Silkes approaches me he is smiling and, as a shellfish lover he has much to smile about. Silkes is president of American Mussel Harvesters, Inc., and he’s a fish guy. More specifically, Bill is a shellfish guy whose office window view is the pristine waters of Allen Harbor just off Davisville, Rhode Island. American Mussel Harvesters, Inc., is one of the largest producers of mussels in North America and a major distributor of oysters and clams as well. In addition to farming mussels, oysters, and clams, Silke’s company also markets and distributes nearly three dozen varieties of oysters from the east and west coast of the United States and shellfish from several provinces in Canada. The company is headed toward total sales of over 10,000,000 pounds of shellfish.

A dozen workers in orange colored rubber overalls are working to pack pallets of oysters and mussels as we tour the cold and damp packing floor. Although the room is chilly, the sweet, clean aroma of fresh shellfish gently touches my nose. I too am a shellfish lover (and a fish guy at heart) and the smell of such pristine, high-quality shellfish is more than enticing; it’s intoxicating. Slikes shows me the massive hydraulic pumps that drive the fresh seawater circulating in the thousand pound totes full of shellfish stacked at one end of the floor. Although American Mussel doesn’t grow every product it sells, it does prep and purge a good portion of its inventory on any given day.

As the oysters and clams sit inside these massive totes full of circulating salt water they filter and purge while gaining strength. Silkes has designed the system so that circulating water passes through a massive ultra-violet sanitizing process assuring that the sterile salt water arriving out the pipe at the top of the system is absolutely free of bacteria. In turn, the shellfish in the totes become happy little buggers, plumping up to peak freshness while purging sand, grit, and trace bacteria prior to being packed and shipped as “restaurant ready” product. The process is brilliant and a perfect example of the food-safety solutions so needed in the global food supply-chain.

Now we are sitting in Silkes conference room with a big pile of fresh shellfish (Raspberry Point Oysters from Canada and Quonset Point Oysters from Rhode Island, mussels and little-neck clams from Narragansett Bay, )

Raspberry Point Oysters, Canada

These meaty, briny, cold water oysters are farmed in the shallows off the rocky coast of Prince Edward Island. It’s not unusual for icebergs broken free from the arctic to float buy in sight of where these oysters are grown and the cold water (along with other factors that Silkes can share) are why it takes 5-7 years for Raspberry Points to grow to market size. They have a beautiful briny flavor with an above-average  saltiness, good density and texture, and an outstanding clean, sweet aftertaste.

Quonset Point Oysters, Rhode Island

The Quonset’s are a bit saltier than the Raspberry Points and have a meatier texture and composition. They grow faster than their cousins from Canada and take just 2-3 years to reach market size. According to Silkes the plankton levels in the bay are high right now and this impacts the flavor and texture of the Quonsets. I guess we came at the right time because the taste  is perfect with an almost crunchy texture they are so fresh.

Little Neck Clams, Narragansett Bay Rhode Island

If you are a clam lover, there is nothing like a perfect Narragensett Bay little neck clam that is ice cold and just shucked. The ones I sampled were perfectly pale orange in color, plump, healthy and fresh with a mild saltiness, great clam flavor and minimal iodine aftertaste (which I like by the way). These clams are what put the “Ocean” in Ocean State.

Restaurant Ready Whitewater Mussels, Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island

For years I have been spiking the sauces I serve over fish with reduced mussel broth. There is nothing nicer than the rich, deep, seafood flavor of mussel broth when the salt level in the mussels used to make the broth is mild. These Whitewater Mussels were mild in salt, sweet and, like the other products I sampled, distinguished by their ultra-fresh state and perfect flavor. Makes you want to pull this photo off the screen and eat it doesn’t it!

American Mussel Harvesters, Inc.

Salt Water Farms, LLc.

165 Tidal Drive

North Kingstown, Rhode Island 02852

 

USA

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