December 13, 2011 Dinner Party for Lucy at Greenhouse Bistro

December 13, 2011 Dinner Party for Lucy at Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery 

Lucy Lucero (formerly Esquivel, recently divorced), one of Suzette’s longest serving employees, who began as an employee in 1998 and who has risen to head the personal service and assistant care divisions was moving to Houston, Texas, so in honor of her years of service Suzette wanted to honor her with a meal and evening of celebration.  So it was decided to ask the Bistro staff to prepare and serve a meal for 15 in the Bistro.  This was a first, so Ann, Executive Chef and Chef Eric Elliott Heandley organized a full six course meal as follows:

First Course: oven roasted tomato bisque with a swizzle of crème fraiche.  A wonderfully hearty tomato bisque that was slightly coarse and chewy with an almost nutty texture.  Perfect for a cold wet night.

Second Course; Steamed fresh Halibut garnished with dill and served with a fresh citrus fruit and creamy mayonnaise sauce.  This was a great match of fish and fruit that satisfied both the fish course and a light fruit salad as appetizer.  The natural juices of the fish were left undisturbed by the steaming so you could taste all the fish’s flavor, just as if it had been pulled from the water and cooked in front of you, triggering visions of sea side restaurants in the Northwest and Canadian coasts.  The fruit salad included slices of orange grapefruit and mandarin oranges, on which was drizzled a creamy dressing made with mayonnaise, red wine vinegar and a touch of sugar.  All the ingredients in the dressing were in balance so that it had a smooth creamy texture and a creamy pleasant flavor that complemented the fruit perfectly.

Third Course: Lime and rum flavored sorbet garnished with a sprig of fresh mint.  I enjoyed the slightly sweet sorbet and it definitely removed any remnant of fishy flavor from my mouth.  Served in a stainless steal mini cup it definitely was cool.       

Fourth Course (entrèe): Beef Wellington with caramelized carrots, a roasted potato medley and grilled asparagus.  The Beef Wellington was lovely.  I received a thin slice about ¼ inch thick, the pastry shell skin was intact and I could see the herb-mushroom duxelle and the firm fully cooked to rare filet mignon.  This was one of the most successful Wellingtons I have ever eaten.  It was well flavored and well cooked.

The carrots were crisp and yet very flavorful.  The asparagus were ultra thin and a bit charred from the heat of the grill but very edible.  The combination of potatoes included Peruvian Purple and red skinned and white skinned potatoes ( I do not know the types of red and white potatoes).  They were roasted with olive oil and lots of fresh rosemary and were crisp on the outside and soft in the inside, so very delicious and a nice complement to the ultra tender and soft Beef Wellington.   I have not had such a tender piece of meat in a long time and had forgotten that this preparation yields a more tender and flavorful meat than standard grilling.  One could taste the intermingling of mushroom and herb flavors with the meat flavors.  It seemed to me that dishes were selected that maximized ingredients’ natural flavors and the selection of preparations were carefully made so as not to lose the ingredient’s flavors in the dish’s preparation, like the steamed Halibut earlier in the evening.

The entrée was served with lovely fresh baked dinner rolls and the compound butter that had been sitting on the table so was creamy and easily slathered onto the rolls’ exquisitely white soft fluffy center when torn open.

Fifth Course: Roasted Beet and Gourmet Greens Salad  Salad sounds simple and is often a throwaway dish but this was one of the high points of the meal for me.  The salad dressing was perfect; not too vinegary and not too oily. I asked Chef Eric about the dressing and he said that the secret was his making of a fresh raspberry vinaigrette and elimination of all the raspberry seeds and perfect on the combination of fresh organic greens and although not from the local gardens on the Campus of the Center, very lovely.  Alas, heaven even in the simplest of things.

Between the fifth and sixth course Lucy made a speech about how she had taken on responsibility and grown and matured as a person from the challenges she had to face in her life and work.  I was really moved by her lovely speech and demeanor and the gathering of her family around her, including her mother, daughter and son, her grandson Christian, who is only three, but a real conversationalist.  Suzette gave out gifts to the senior staff (Betty, Nancy, Estelle and Ann) which this year were necklaces made with brass wire twisted into a rendering of each person’s name and then strung on a thick colored thread with beads and a clasp.  I recall that Suzette had the necklaces made by one of the street vendor/jewelers in Sayulita while were eating at Pablo’s beach restaurant, watching the sunset.  Everyone put their necklace on.  It gave me a wonderful feeling to see everyone smiling as they wore their bright golden colored necklaces and I think, may have kindled my Christmas spirit.    

Sixth course: Pumpkin Crème Brulèe  Another well conceived and well executed dish.  Nothing fussy here.  The use of a French brown ceramic onion soup crock instead of a white porcelain tart dish made me immediately realize that I was in a county bistro and I found that charming and reassuring.  I think it set the right tone for the meal and the conviviality of the gathering.  A generous portion; the crock was half filled with a creamy custard with a decidedly pumpkin flavor and texture.  I could feel the slightly fibrous texture of the pumpkin even more clearly than a standard bakery made pumpkin pie that uses that canned pumpkin mush.  What can I say except really delicious and a final feel of country fresh ingredients prepared elegantly, like at the best French restaurants in the countryside.  Local ingredients prepared with sophistication but without the fussy elements of presentation found in the most elegant restaurants.  Country cooking at its best. 

Let me discuss the arrangement of the room, because I really liked that also.  The tables were arranged in a row in the middle of the restaurant under a series of light fixtures that run the length of the restaurant.  They are sandwiched glass, white inside and blue outside so they cast a lot of light and yet are a soft blue when seen from a distance.  This produced a brightly lit table and a cool monumentality to the gathering when seen from a distance, as I did because I was seated near one end of the table.  It reminded me of my garden party on my 65^th birthday last summer where we arranged a series of four of five tables in a row in my garden and served about 24 people.  In the Bistro there were five or six tables and 15 people were served at one time. 

The kitchen staff’s effort was magnificent, cooking, plating and serving the dinner along with Kat and Ann.  Everyone was left to talk and enjoy the meal with only occasional questions about refills and requests for service.

I donated two bottles of the Chalone Pinot Noir I bought at Whole Foods, yesterday.  Suzette opened a bottle of Apremont and served it with the tomato bisque and fish and fruit course.  We decided that we liked the Pennywise Pinot better because it had a cleaner more French style pinot flavor.  The Chalone had a heavier, less well defined pinot flavor, so common in California wines.  And the Pennywise is $2.00 cheaper than the Chalone. 

After dinner coffee and plates of chocolates were served, just like in a French restaurant.

The only thing different than a French meal was that a large platter with a pile of brie, white cheddar and gorgonzola cheese slices was served after dessert with the chocolates, rather than as a separate course before the dessert as in France.  I did not mind this variation, because we in America are not culturally acclimated to a separate cheese course with its own wine and about an extra hour of time added to the meal.  

After such a lovely meal, a touch of the strongly flavored gorgonzola was all I could eat, so I was happy to dispense with the cheese course also, which I think is really boring for an American, although it serves the purpose of putting some enzymes into the system to help digest the dinner of meat and allow some time to start that process before starting the dessert course.  Although there were fresh chocolate dipped strawberries, most of the chocolates were not made at the Bistro, such as the French dark chocolate truffles and chocolate covered blueberries.  I tried and enjoyed one of the white chocolate covered strawberries with a cup of fresh decaffeinated coffee, just like in France.

A lovely three hour meal.  Then home to bed.                 

Bon Appètit