Sunday, August 1, 2010
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French Laundry List
Chef Timothy Hollingsworth put us through some extra cycles at The French Laundry where he combined delicates with beet-stained business at this coin op shop.
We suds up with a 2005 Pierre Gimonnet Champagne which had a crisp as linen finish.
The tide of tastes began with their touchstone gougeres and cornets before we soaked up a fragrantly fresh, cool cucumber soup:
Radish, cucumber and Frog Hollow peach hid beneath this jade pool of jardin juice before we progressed to another course of fluid 'freshment.
A consummé of Santa Rosa plum splashed a shock of color under almond milk sorbet:
Braised fennel and a fennel cracker anised up this fruit, seed and stalkable soup.
The strand of signature salivatory sustenance brought us "oysters and pearls". Plump Island Creek oyster feet waltzed with tapioca sabayon and white sturgeon caviar in this classic hit.
2007 Nigl Riesling Privat made up for an economical use of vowels by being a consonant companion to the raw power of razor clams, eeny uni, beech mushrooms, young fennel, ice lettuce and toro sashimi:
This petri dish of infectiously awesome sea-lacious segments trumpeted in yagara with sauce Japonaise, rice and a Toyko turnip.
We scraped every trace of the truffled egg custard from its shell and knocked the chive chip from the soft shoulder of this umami baby.
Sensational sweetbreads:
...were glazed with a veal reduction which glanded on a bed of cauliflower, raisins and pine nuts to re-veal a sweet, creamy, crunchy combo.
Pain au lait got further gilding from the churnings of Andante Dairy (unsalted) and Vermont butter and Cheese Co. butter with fleur de sel.
A geometric gathering of compressed watermelon with fetal, flowering cukes, ice lettuce, avocado puree and pink peppercorn agrigole:
... was a reviving, wet, sweet, crunchy, peppery palate perk before we bridged our 'bibing with a white Rhone.
Guigal 2007 Condrieu mined its minerality with Yukon Gold gnocchi with Australian truffles:
These fungi were furloughed from Perigord 18 years ago to give birth to Perth-fection. This down under delicacy metamorphosed the potato pupae into melting mothras of microbial mastication.
Halibut with Nicoise olives, squash, peppers, baby basil and saffron vierge:
... was virgin on Mediterranean.
They shook their usual tail by adding a beet tortellini to their "beets and leeks":
This butter-poached lobster motivator was pom pommed by both pommes Maxime and pomme puree to plug the King Richard leeks of this wiki-worthy, horseradish and beet puree brushed blending.
We were stuck on the 2007 Meyer Fonné which wed with the clover honey glazed terrine of foie gras:
Crabapples were cored and stuffed with a perfect micro-dice of their brethren bordered by nasturtium petals, celery, toasted walnuts and coins of Burgundy truffle. We created a brioche bread crumb blizzard from the regularly refreshed toast while slathering it with this foie-nominal filter.
2003 Brunello di Montalcino took flight with a poulard which was given a hot milk bird bath and terryclothed in bacon. Blackstrap molasses, corn pudding and kernels, blackeyed peas and chard added ex-hen-tricity to this peck culinary portion.
Tender veal with crispy crusted eggplant parmesan and creamy house made buratta:
... was given further Italian flair with dried tomatoes, basil, garlic and capers.
Montgomery Cheddar with bacon-infused pain perdu, cipollini onion and stewed cherry wheeled our mouths towards the sweetness to follow.
White Apron Ale foamed a beautifully bitter head over an apricot sorbet anchored by a base of barley and capped with earthy cilantro spouts.
Hot cinnamon sugar coated brioche donuts and a cappuccino semi-fredo (aka "coffee and donuts") remains another of their slam dunk shots.
The caramel notes of the 20 year old Dow Port raised the index of a caramel souffle:
Although this dessert appears to be a flat disc, the plate is actually a dish that hides the molten meggma which was fortified with caramel ice cream and bourbon creme anglaise to sauce up this fab 'fle.
Chef Thomas Keller often leaves a little note to welcome back regular customers but today we didn't spy an envelope on our table and reasoned that he must be incredibly busy with Bouchon Beverly Hills. But Chef Keller surprised us by coming out for a quick chat to make our evening complete.
Espresso and mignardises capped off our caloric budget for the rest of the year so we spun out after thanking Chef Hollingsworth for such a magnificent meal.
The French Laundry
6640 Washington St.
Yountville, CA
707.944.2380
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