We had another lovely dinner at Chez Panisse on Thursday night.
Lou and I took our friends, Jesse and Shawn, for their first visit to the downstairs main restaurant, and we had a fun night, filled with good food and lively conversation.
I had restrained myself back from looking at the menu all week long so Lou and I could go to dinner not knowing what was to come. I usually look over the menu about once a week to see what they're serving, but I like being surprised when I go in to eat (here is a link to our last dinner at Chez Panisse). Shawn broke down and looked at the menu in advance, so he and Jesse knew what was for dinner. They were good to us, however, and agreed to kept it a secret. On the way over to Berkeley I speculated that we were in for another lamb dinner since that's what we almost always seem to be served when we eat in the restaurant. Luckily for us, I was wrong.
The first course was a Dungeness crab salad with avocado, lime and coriander. The base for the salad was frisee, which was lightly mixed with three or four small slices of avocado, a creamy dressing, and hints of lime and cilantro (coriander). It was a marvelous way to start. Light and freshing, the flavors of crab, lime and avocado were divine together.
We brought along a magnum bottle of 2004 Patricia Green Cellers Goldschmidt Pinot Noir, which was even better than Lou and I thought it would be. The nose was of that Oregon grass, along with cherry, blackberry, and hints of leather. The finish was long and complex, echoing the fruits from the nose, but with more spice and pepper than we expected. It was a delicious wine.
The second course was my favorite: grilled chicory risotto with balsamic and Parmesan. It was incredibly good tasting. The risotto was creamy, perfectly white in color, and the chicories (mostly endive, I think) had been stirred in at the last minute of cooking after being grilled. The risotto was served on a thin pool of balsamic vinegar and several large slices of Parmesan cheese and some black pepper were arranged on top. I loved the slightly sweet, yet savory combination of the dish. Grilling the endive cut down its bitterness and transformed it into almost sweet, smokey tender leaves. Embedding them into the creamy risotto was brilliant. The balsamic gave the dish an acidic zip to bring it alive. Fortunately, I discovered a recipe for grilled radicchio and balsamic risotto in the Chez Panisse Vegetables Cookbook, and I'm going to make the dish myself tonight for Amy and Jen.
The fourth course was braised Soul Farm chicken with wild mushrooms, leeks, and potato puree with olio nuovo. I must say, this was one of the most moist and juicy chickens I've ever tasted. I was served a small piece of chicken breast, along with what I think was a wing, though it may have been a piece of thigh. Honestly, I'm not sure. No matter, it was delicious. I ate every bit of it except the bones. I even picked up the bones and sucked every last piece of meat off each bone before relinquishing them to our server. I earned my membership in the clean plate club. The mushrooms and leeks, as well as the potatoes, were a lovely match for such delicate, juicy chicken.
For dessert, they served an apple and quince puff pastry tartlet with vin santo zabaglione. It was an superb dessert, and I savored every bite. The tartlet was served on a thin layer of what appeared to be vin santo syrup, with the creamy zabaglione on one side of the tartlet. Our server brought out a 1993 Fattoria di Felsina Vin Santo by mistake (he was going to bring a newer vintage but couldn't read the labels and brought us the older one instead), which had a nose of light, sweet caramel and hints of honey and fig. The finish was so long, light, and caramelly that I'm pretty sure I was purring after my first sip.
It was a great dinner all around. We talked about music lessons, travel, molecular gastronomy, the Farm Bill, San Francisco politics and the food. I think Jesse and Shawn enjoyed the experience, and I know did we.
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