Tag: Julia Child

The Brockhaus Returns to its (Houston) Beginnings: November 12 Marks a Montrose Homecoming

August 30, 2016 / [email protected] / 2 Comments

It’s a house in the Montrose section of Houston, the home of dear friends. It’s a lovely place, with a pool and lots of art. And it was the venue for The Brockhaus’s premiere evening, back in September of 2014. Eight guests, engaging and stimulating conversation, lots of laughter, and, of course, food and wine. We attracted a bit of attention, made some new friends, and went on to stage dinners on Nantucket, in the Galleria area, in the Heights of Houston, near Dallas, and, back in Houston, in Memorial (evenings in two homes there). May 7 was the date of the most recent event, and 10 guests gathered around the table then. There were truffles and lobster and, again, some great wines.

The First Supper menu

That house in Montrose kept calling to me, and now it’s time for a return engagement. On November 12, The Brockhaus will cook again at the bungalow, in what will be a homecoming of sorts, a homecoming and an evening in honor of late chefs and cooks who have inspired us. We’ll remember Charlie Trotter and Fernand Point, Julia Child and Edna Lewis, plus Craig Claiborne and Michel Richard. Their lives and passions, and their approach to food. This is an homage, a celebration, not a re-creation. The menu was inspired by these greats, and it’s a progression of courses that we are certain would please them all.

Snapper, zucchini agrodolce

Without further ado, the menu (and as always, there will be surprises):

THE BROCKHAUS HOMECOMING
November 12, 2016

1.
Billi Bi
Craig Claiborne

San Salvatore “Pian di Stio” Campania 2015 (Fiano) — Special bottling of Fiano in a 500-ml bottle, back-to-back Tre Bicchieri from Gambero Rosso. Imagine a crisp mineral-driven white with the secondary notes of young Sherry.

2.
Butter-Poached Lobster
Charlie Trotter

Terlano “Nova Domus” Alto-Adige 2008 Magnum (60 percent Pinot Bianco, 30 percent Chardonnay, 10 percent Sauvignon) — The winery has produced this stellar blend since 1893. It’s a wine built to age. .

3.
Corn Nugget Crab Cakes
Michel Richard

Michele Satta Viognier Bolgheri 2013 — A Tuscan from the man who planted some of the most famous vineyards in the world. An incredible Viognier with broad appeal.

4.
Quail in Champagne
Fernand Point

Pietro Cassina “Ca’ daj Tàss” Coste delle Sesia DOC 2011 — Super-soft style of Nebbiolo from Lessona in northwest Piedmont.

5.
Wagyu Ribeye with Chimichurri
Julia Child

Donatella Cinelli Colombini Casato “Prime Donne” Brunello di Montalcino 2010 ~ First-all female winery in Italy, a silky/complex style of Brunello; the winery is in (far) north Montalcino. Special blend assembled by five women hailing from four different countries. The 2010 is considered the best one ever (so far).

6.
Very Good Chocolate Cake
Edna Lewis

Tolaini “Valdisanti” 2011 (75 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 20 percent Sangiovese 5 percent Cabernet Franc) — Michel Rolland and Diego Bonato made this Super Tuscan in a specific part of Chianti Classico famous for producing powerful reds.

The Brockhaus is pleased to be partnering with Jeremy W. Hart, regional manager for Banville Wine Merchants. I have enjoyed talking with Jeremy about wines, and know you will, too. He’s based in Houston, and covers Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Colorado, and recently announced a wine-and-dining tour that will take place in several cities. Live and Let Dine will feature dinners at Commander’s Palace, Italic, Galatoire’s, Hunky Dory, June’s, and many more. Go to liveandletdinetour.com for further information. The Brockhaus is looking forward to experiencing Live and Let Dine.

$145 per person/wine pairing with each course/mirth/new friends

Kitchen Zen (Provence, 1970)

May 18, 2015 / [email protected] / 1 Comment

Olive oil, salt, radishes, and heat

A blank canvas, a sheet of paper devoid of characters or symbols, an empty plate. All draw us to them, call out for completion, for satisfaction. I am forever filling plates and bowls, in my mind and at the countertop, and it is not uncommon that something I read or view forces me into the kitchen. I recently finished a book that inspired some cooking. It is titled “Provence, 1970,” and it was written by M.F.K. Fisher’s grandnephew, Luke Barr. It’s a work of nonfiction that takes readers to France and puts them at the table with Julia and Paul Child, Richard Olney, Judith Jones, James Beard, and, certainly not least, Fisher, a writer for whom I have immense admiration and respect. I still want to find her home in Vevey and have a vermouth and gin on its terrace.

The book tells the story of a year that saw the end of one grand era in American cuisine and cooking and the beginning of another. It is a fine read, and its pages bring to life conversations between Olney and Fisher, evenings spent at La Pitchoune, James Beard’s enormous personality. (It makes one feel that life is diminished now that those souls are no longer cooking and writing among us, but I say read it despite that.)

I’ve been cooking osso buco, and duck, and radishes, and chicken and watercress, and “Provence, 1970” has added to my kitchen repository, and some of its scenes have been translated onto my plates. For many a year now a handful of special people (including some in Barr’s book) have been in that hallowed room with me when I plan and plate and clean, and from now on a part of me will regret not being in that small part of Provence with those individuals during that pivotal year.

Time makes things perfect.

To Julia Child: I Toast a Grande Dame on Her 102nd Birthday

August 15, 2014 / [email protected] / 1 Comment

A giant in the kitchen, in more ways than one. (Photo courtesy estate of Julia Child)

I am celebrating her birthday in her absence. She would have turned 102 today, and she would have done it in style, sitting at a table surrounded by friends and loved ones. Paul would have been there, of course, the love of her life. Their courtship and long relationship should be the envy of us all. James Beard would be at her side, as well.

I won’t speculate about the menu, but I would not be unhappy for Julia Child if a waiter brought her sole meunière at some point during the meal. I feel a lot of passion for that dish, because it is what awakened Child’s senses and opened her mind to the wonders of good food, and the preparation of it. It was November, 1948, and she and Paul had just arrived in France. They were on their way to Paris, but needed to eat during the drive. It was Julia’s (allow me to refer to her as “Julia”) first meal in France, and she writes of it in “My Life in France” in this manner:

Rouen is famous for its duck dishes, but after consulting the waiter Paul had decided to order the sole meunière. It arrived whole: a large, flat Dover sole that was perfectly browned in a sputtering butter sauce with a sprinkling of chopped parsley on top. The waiter carefully placed the platter in front of us, stepped back, and said: “Bon appétit!”

I closed my eyes and inhaled the rising perfume. Then I lifted a forkful to my mouth, took a bite, and chewed slowly. The flesh of the sole was delicate, with a light but distinct taste of the ocean that blended marvelously with the browned butter. I chewed slowly and swallowed. It was a morsel of perfection. … At La Couronne I experienced fish, and a dining experience, of a higher order than any I’d ever had before.

As a child, I watched Julia on television. I am sure that back then I did not know what to think of her. My mother was born in Savannah, as was I, and I was very familiar with crab and shrimp and clams and pheasant and fried chicken and Cornish hen and even some less familiar sorts of seafood, but this tall woman with the funny voice … well, she had a way with those things that was different. She made me want to learn as much about them as I could. Little did I know that she would become a profound part of my life. I’m grateful she did, and I am certain many of you feel the same.

Julia Child became, and is, an international star.

Every chance I get to “mingle” with Julia I take. In Napa, I visited Copia – the cultural and educational center dedicated to the discovery, understanding, and celebration of wine, food, and the arts in American culture – to see some of the pots and pans and other tools that she used in her Cambridge, Mass., kitchen. Copia, which she helped found, is now closed, but those pots and pans are in the Smithsonian, so when I was in D.C. in 2013 I visited them there.

A kitchen for the ages. (Photo courtesy estate of Julia Child)

I’ve spoken with people who met her, and with a few people who cooked with her. In Houston, I ran across a letter she wrote to Robert Del Grande, which now hangs in his restaurant, RDG+Bar Annie. I talk about her with people all of the time, and when I met Mike Lata in 2007 at Blackberry Farm we talked about how she is the reason he cooks. I have many of her books, and never tire of watching her shows: her solo ventures, segments with other chefs, and the beautiful series she made with her great friend, Jacques Pépin. I never met her, but it is not because I did not try. Once, when I was in Cambridge, I went to her house and knocked on the door. No one answered … I assume she was away. I don’t know what I would have done if she had answered.

Most profoundly, I cook with her. Not a day goes by that I don’t see her, in my mind’s eye, standing at a stove or counter, chopping an onion or pounding a piece of veal or hoisting a pot. She, in ways that I have yet to fully realize, taught me how to cook, taught me how to see the wisdom and grace that food possesses. And that is much more of a gift than that little boy watching her on television all those years ago could have ever expected.

Thank you, Julia, and Happy Birthday. I love and miss you.

An Impromptu and Perfect Lunch

August 28, 2013 / [email protected] / 4 Comments

Last week I made a spur of the moment decision to dine at RDG+Bar Annie, Robert Del Grande’s elegant restaurant in the Galleria section of Houston. I ordered the Restaurant Weeks menu, and for $20 was treated to three courses … All very good, one excellent. I started with a chilled corn soup – the excellent course – and proceeded to a nearly perfect hanger steak and frites, closing with a chocolate brioche bread pudding. The soup was creamy, fresh roasted corn, touch of spiciness imparted by a dollop of smoked chile, garnished with cotija. I drank a 2011 Jean-Louis Chave Côtes du Rhône ‘Mon Couer’ and am now ordering a case of this beautiful wine.

A lovely touch I encountered in the restaurant … Actually, two lovely touches: a framed handwritten letter from Julia Child to Chef Robert Del Grande hangs on the wall, and when the hostess (I later found it that it was Mimi Del Grande I was talking to) saw the book I was reading, a volume of Johnny Apple‘s NY Times dispatches, she told me that he and his wife, Betsey, were frequent guests . She added that his business card was still in her wallet, and produced it for me. I like how food and passion connects us.