MARIANI’S   
        	Virtual Gourmet

                                                New Bedford, PA, September, 1943       Photographer: Bubley Esther

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EDITOR'S NOTE: This newsletter is also available on the very comprehensive food site www.sautewednesday.com
which has dozens of other links to food articles from around the world, as well as at  The Grumpy Gourmet at www.grumpygourmetusa.com
 

 -Readers trying to reach me through e-mail cannot do so by hitting REPLY to this newsletter. Instead, write to me directly at johnmariani@prodigy.net .   
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Cover Story: DINING AT DISNEY by John Mariani

New York Corner: Trata Estiatorio by John Mariani

Notes from the Wine Cellar : Renaissance at Castello di Brolio by John Mariani

QUICK BYTES

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DINING AT DISNEY
by John Mariani

For several years now the food service at Walt Disneyworld Resort in lake Buena Vista, FL, has claimed a number of first-rate restaurants by any standard of quality and seriousness.   It should be noted that back in 1972 when Disneyworld opened EPCOT Centre (now just Epcot), there was a notable improvement  in what had in the past been a pretty steady diet of burgers-and-fries throughout the theme parks (to this day the offerings at The Magic Kingdom are still a sorry testament to fast food and mediocre sit-down service).  Epcot's World Showcases, like world’s fairs in the past, manifested a serious attempt to bring attention to international food.  The Mexican, Japanese, and Moroccan pavilions were probably the first restaurants to introduce those countries’ cuisines to tens of thousands of Americans with no prior access to them, while L'Originale Alfredo di Roma brought Italian food to a higher level than was to be found around the U.S. at that time.  The biggest coup was the recruitment of star French chefs Paul Bocuse, Roger Vergé and Gaston Lenôtre to oversee the French pavilion restaurants, which, while not likely to win any Michelin stars, have evolved into a casual bistro downstairs called Chefs de France and a serious French restaurant (oddly called Bistro de Paris) upstairs.  There was also the very good Coral Reef seafood restaurant, and several of the restaurants at the newer Disney-MGM Studios theme park were commendable as well as fun, including the Brown Derby and the very witty Prime Time Café.
     The arrival of Sr. VP of Food & Beverage Dieter Hannig from EuroDisney, however, resulted in vast improvement at Disney’s upscale hotels, including the Pacific Northwest-themed Artist’s Point at the Wilderness Lodge, the amazingly influential California Grill at the Contemporary Resort, the superb Flying Fish (see below) at  the BoardWalk, a Mediterranean restaurant called  Citricos in the Grand Floridian, and the brilliant African restaurant Jiko at Animal Kingdom Lodge , which stocks what is probably the world’s best South African winelist.
    Yet in the background of all this evolution there has long been Victoria & Albert’s (below, right), lodged on the second floor of the deluxe Grand Floridian Hotel, which was positioned for a more free-spending, discriminating crowd. Opened in 1988 it too was themed--a hushed formal dining room  of arched ceilings (and unexpected (with whispering corners), fine tablesettings, harp music, and a waitstaff all named either Victoria or Albert (a silliness Disney should have abandoned years ago).  The extraordinary wine list has won a “Best of Award of Excellence” from Wine Spectator, now maintained by sommelier
 and maître d’ Brian Koziol, who is nothing if
 not enthusiastic in his descriptions of wines
(and near taking the prestigious Master of Wine
exam). 
    The six-course menu is fixed priced at $95
 (with paired wines $145) at two seatings, and there
is an elegantly set “chef’s table” for about twelve
in the kitchen that runs $125 (with wines $185) with
one seating--unfortunately at 6 PM, when only
children should be eating dinner.  Jackets are
required for gentlemen (non-gentlemen may
 go downstairs and eat with the kids and t-shirt
crowd at 1900 Park Fair where adults dressed
like Disney characters pat you on the head
between bites, which isn't bad if you happen to
get Cinderella or the Blue Fairy).
     V&A’s have always been among WDW’s most sought-out tables, booked up to 90 days in advance (though on the recent night I visited the dining room was far from full), and the restaurant only serves about 80 people each night.  When  V&A first opened the menus of that time could be described as top-notch continental dining. But nine years ago V&A’s acquired Chef Scott Hunnel, who I have long believed ranks with the very finest in the U.S.  Indeed, I’d rank him among the top ten in this country, which therefore puts him into a world league.   
    Hunnel is nothing if not obsessed with obtaining the best, very special ingredients, whether it’s the first Nantucket Bay scallops of the season or the finest grade Iranian caviar (“from the south side of the Caspian Sea").  His mise en place is crammed with rare spices, heirloom tomatoes, and aromatic vinaigrettes. And pastry chef Erich Herbitschek may use two or three different chocolates in one dessert.
     If Hunnel may be accused of technical complexity--one of his dishes had 27 different spices in it!--the results are astoundingly balanced, dish after dish, with fine subtleties and layers of flavors melded impeccably into sensible food, not mere concepts.  They are tours de force that also work at the basic level of delicious, exciting taste;  they are also beautifully presented in small,  jewelike portions. This is not a place for the kind of guy who wants to see his food overlap his plate.
    At a recent dinner Hunnel began with those sweet bay scallops with a golden osietra caviar and a leek foam (OK, even he gives in to trendy ideas sometimes), which Koziol accompanied with a Drappier Grande Sandrée Brut ‘96 Champagne that had a good touch of fruitiness to go with the saline caviar and briny scallops.  Cape Canaveral shrimp with rutabaga and French lentils followed, with a Dr. Burklin-Wolf Gaisbohl Ruppertsberg Spätlese Trocken Riesling ‘97, along with an appetizer of Texas wild boar with Costa Rican hearts of palm and a radish salad, paired with Château Thivin Côte de Brouilly Beaujolais ‘99 of considerable body.
     Next of the seafood courses was a nice, meaty turbot topped with a somewhat chewy but tasty fresh abalone with capers and something called "Buddha Hand lemon." With this we drank a Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc from Château de Beaucastel ‘00, a rather odd example of these temperamental whites, with a nose that at first smelled of fresh corn, then of dank, moldy corn.

                                     A botanical note from Chef Hunnel: "Buddha Hand lemon: A citron
    indigenous to the Himalayas, closely related to the lemon. 
    The Chinese call it fo-shou, the Japanese bushukan, both meaning
    'Buddha's hand' and considered a symbol of happiness,
    longevity and good fortune. It is also a traditional temple
    offering and a New Years gift.  They now are grown in a
    very limited quantity in California. The best use is the zest,
     for the fruit does not have any juice on the inside.

            Flying Fish, adjacent to the Yacht and Beach Club Resort,  opened in 1996 and improves measurably each   year, having found the right balance of seafood (the majority of dishes) and non-seafood, all in highly enticing but never weird dishes whose generous portions fly right in the face of those who accuse Disney of high prices for small portions. (You’d have to be a 300-pound gorilla to make such a dumb statement at any of the upscale dining rooms at WDW).
  The dining room itself is a wondrous hoot (left) designed by the late Marty Dorf, who used his childhood memories of Coney island as inspiration--decked out with an open kitchen that seems to get an inordinate number of dramatic flame-ups, tall pillars, a charming mural of the joys of the boardwalk, and a motif of flying fish throughout, even suspended from parachutes.  The amiable greeting, professional efficiency, and knowledgeable waitstaff are typical of the Disney training, and the wine list is again an award winner. Since WDW is very wine-driven (they have more than 250 employees who have taken their wine course) recommendations for wines are made with each and every course, ranging from $8.50-$14 a glass.     The seafood here, via Chef Robert Curry (previously at Domaine Chandon in Napa Valley),  all comes from American waters--no Dover sole, no turbot, no Patagonian toothfish-- and the preparations, while innovative, toe a proud Euro-American line with a few Asian accents, as in tuna tartare with a soy-cilantro vinaigrette and wasabi crème fraîche.  More characteristic are mussels steamed in chardonnay wine with a parsley-Pastis sauce with a nice hunk of sourdough bread on the side.  There is of course plenty of salmon available here, grilled over oak with applewood smoked bacon spaetzle and whole grain mustard sauce one night.  Dayboat scallops might be caramelized and served with roasted fingerling potatoes and wild mushrooms in a bacon vinaigrette. while tilefish takes well to balsamic-scented lentils, crispy onions and a piquant tangerine emulsion. 
    There are also several meat items on the menu, including first-rate venison with a sweet potato napoleon and a red-wine sauce sweetened with cassis, and an exceptionally beefy, char-crusted NY strip steak with Yukon Golds. There's even foie gras, and my favorite soup of any I've had at WDW--roasted chestnut with chives and truffle oil.
    Desserts are nothing short of scrumptious--a pear-cabernet tart with prune-Armagnac ice cream, a banana napoleon in phyllo with vanilla créme brûlée and warm caramel, and of course a warm chocolate soufflé cake, made with Valhrona chocolate.
       Appetizers at Flying Fish run $12-$16, entrees $18-$33.  Dinner only.

A Note on making reservations at all WDW restaurants: Anyone can make a "Priority Seating" (reservation)  by calling (407) WDW-DINE , which means upon arrival at your dining location, you present your name and Priority Seating number and your party will be seated at the next available table that will accommodate your party size.


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A few years ago anyone craving good Greek seafood  in Manhattan had very few options (the still excellent Periyali and Molyvos being two), forcing anyone who didn’t already live in Astoria, Queens, to trek out to that large Greek community for a fix.  (I'm certain the father figure in “My Big Greek Wedding” would insist the neighborhood was named after the Greek goddess Astraea, but it actually took the name of  German-American tycoon John Jacob Astor.)  Even there, with a few exceptions, most of the eateries still offer a kind of Greek-American menu not much evolved from what you find in Greek-American diners.
    
 Then, seven years ago in Manhattan, a new style of seafood restaurant was pioneered by a Greek-Canadian, Costas Spiliadis, who opened a branch of his Montreal restaurant Estiatorios Milos in the Theater District, setting the mold for others to follow by featuring impeccably fresh Mediterranean seafood displayed on ice for guests to choose among, to be grilled whole over charcoal. 
     Milos’ rampant success spurred others to copy his formula, the first, in 1998, being Estiatorios Trata, whose original owners had worked for Spiliadis and effected an extremely good facsimile of his concept at a considerably lower price.  Now five years old Trata has new owners--Chef Christos Christou (who has worked at Molyvos, Milos and Trata) and cousins Efthimios Salouros and Christos Giorgou. A return visit proved that Trata is not only better than ever but likely to remain one of my favorite New York restaurants for a long time to come.
    You can't help but fall for the place, for whatever the Greek word for "cozy" is, it fits these  taverna-like premises perfectly, with a 25-foot long chestnut bar, 14-foot ceiling, wood floors, photos of Greek fishing villages, and lemon yellow walls, all a backdrop for a colorful  display of fish and vegetables. There are also outdoor tables in good weather, and while Second Avenue may lack some of the charms of Piraeus, it's a lovely thing to contemplate dining here in early summer.
     The atmosphere of the place is as infectious as it is lively.  Take a look at the smiling face of Chef Christos in the photo above. Is this not a man  who clearly loves the food he cooks and has a  Hellenic mission to make you love it too?  The staff carries along the same genuine bonhomie in what they recommend and serve, which is to order several generous appetizers and a whole fish or two and to share  it all at the table with the addictive toasted country bread and olives here.  And although it would be the height of folly not to order the main course fish, one could happily feast on the wide assortment of orektika (appetizers) here, starting with traditional items like the spinach-leek-and onion pie called spanakopita and the lightly fried kefalograviera cheese called saganaki.  Then there is the plate of gigantes, huge, tender Greek lima beans baked with herbs and tomato that come out wondrously sweet, and garides, a clay casserole of sautéed shrimp with onion and garlic and dotted with melted feta cheese.  The menu says the octapodi are "sushi quality," which is fair enough, for these  were indeed very tender, nice and fatty and full of flavor after a good grilling, served with onions, capers, peppers and red wine reduction. The unusual trata piato is a plate of paper-thin zucchini and eggplant chips deep fried to fine crispness and served with a cool, creamy tzatziki dip.
    The whole fish selection is abundant with impeccably fresh Mediterranean species, including barbouni (red mullet), which is one of the only items here that is fried, and fried expertly.  Indeed, this is surely the best rendition of mullet I've had in this country.  There are also karavides (langoustines) with plenty of meat in the carcasses.  Otherwise, all the species whole fish grilled each to its own texture--red fagri  (which has no English name equivalent as far as I know), tsipoura (royal dorade), lethrini (in the snapper family), lavraki (loup de mer), and others.  You order by the pound and the fish is cooked on the bone, so unless you are incapable of the easy task of filleting familiar to every six-year-old child in Europe, ask for it to be served on the bone in order to keep the succulence.  And ask for them to warm your plate: if the waiter does the de-boning, one fish may be cool before the next is filleted. Only tonos (tuna) was a disappointment, unnecessarily crusted with spices and tasting rather ordinary.  
    With these beautiful specimens order a plate of horta greens or garlicky spinach.  The kitchen roast potatoes with lemon juice would have been a whole lot better if they'd not be prepped so far in advance.  One other suggestion to the management: Most Mediterranean restaurants these days place a good sea salt and good olive oil on the table.  Here you get neither and the olive arrives in a metal pouring container, poured, then is taken away.
    Trata's desserts are very good, from a yogurt so rich and thick you could patch a whole in the Argo with it. It is served with pistachios, thyme honey, and sour cherry preserves, while the walnut-cinnamon cake, karidopita, soaked in a lemon syrup, and the orange-scented custard in phyllo (galactoboureko) with cinnamon honey go beyond the usual baklava, which Trata serves--all of them lovely with a glass of Greek dessert wine.   Trata's wine list has been much improved and now includes only Greek wines, which I increasingly have come to delight in sampling, from the wonderful array of Athiri Assyrtiko Roditis from the Main Land to several examples of the Moschofilero varietal from Peloponnisos.  Greece has perhaps too readily adapted Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, and Cabernet Sauvignon to its vineyards (who hasn't?) but there are good examples from fine estates.  Mark-ups range from the highly reasonable to the unreasonably high.
    Trata has a very faithful clientele every night of the week (it's within a stone's throw of several NYC medical centers, so if a bone sticks in your throught, worry not), but, with apologies to my Eastern Orthodox Greeks, I think anyone who loves great seafood should convert to Catholicism if only to have a good and moral reason to eat at Trata every Friday night.

    Appetizers are Trata range from $7-$18, main courses, $20-$30 (with whole fish by the market price per pound).

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NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR

Renaissance at Castello di Brolio
by John Mariani

To say that the Barone Ricasoli family is one of the most illustrious  in Italian history is merely to speak the obvious of an aristocratic lineage  traceable back for a millennium in the hills of Tuscany.  The family’s castle, Brolio, in Gaiole, stood as a bulwark for the Florentine Republic during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth  centuries, and Barone Bettino Ricasoli was an avid supporter of the Kingdom of Italy that emerged in the Nineteenth century.
    To say that the family’s position in Tuscan viniculture was pioneering is to define how the wines of Chianti came to achieve their signature character; indeed, Bettino Ricasoli’s viticultural work in the region became the standard for Chianti Classico production by 1872, a wine dependent on a careful blending of local grapes in varying amounts—Sangiovese, Malvasia, Canaiolo, and Trebbiano—all gratefully sanctioned by Italian wine laws.  Yet Chianti’s success in the post-World War II period was fraught with overproduction and widely differing styles, its straw-covered fiasco bottles used as much as a candleholder as for good wine with pizza.
    Some Chiantis among the seven official Tuscany zones achieved higher acclaim by virtue of producers like Brolio that knew the wines had stature, and Chianti Classico was among the first D.O.C. wines under the new Italian wine regulations of 1963. But the region's prestige soared when, in 1984, Chianti Classico acquired a D.O.C.G. appellation that requires a distinct quality level each year for the wine to be so labeled.  Otherwise, it is labeled mere vino da tavola, which protected the wine's quality but prohibited any experimentation with the old formulas. Before long Chianti Classico had to compete with the so-called "Super Tuscans" like Sassicaia, Ornellaia, and Tignanello, which did not follow strict formulas, blending in varietals like Cabernet and dropping Trebbiano, Malvasia, and Canaiolo entirely. 
    The Ricasoli family was smack in the midst of this swirl of events, its own reputation belittled by a period beginning in 1968 when the majority ownership was in the hands of an American international company. The current, 33^rd, Baron Ricasoli and his son Francesco thus vowed in 1993 to bring back the luster of Brolio by buying it back, and, with the investment of 16 million Euros, has recast his wines into a highly competitive Tuscan market.  There is no question that in tasting the wines now being produced at Brolio versus those of the 1970s and '80s the growth of quality is quite amazing.
    I had the unique chance to taste the most recent releases at a gala event at the Castello di Brolio itself (above), which is set among hillsides of cedar, chestnut and pine forests, neatly arranged in steps, as are all the vineyards of Chianti.  Brolio commands 3,600 acres that are hand harvested from vines that have been severely pruned in order to improve grape quality, so that 55-60 quintals of grapes produce only 38-42 hectares of wine, well below the maximum allowed by law.
    The event, which was themed “A Thousand Years of History, A Thousand Years into the Future at Castello di Brolio,” brought in what seemed to be the Ricasolis’ thousand closest friends and a few humble wine scribblers like myself who tried to remain nonchalant strolling within the baronial halls of this magnificent and very beautiful Castello.  Under a white tent overlooking the Tuscan landscape, the moon glowing on cue, we sat down to a fine Tuscan dinner accompanied by the new Brolio releases. The wines served were  the 2001 vintage of Brolio, which was harvested from an average summer's heat and rain with a heat wave in August, leading to well-ripening fruit with excellent acid and fruit, which is all 100 % Sangiovese--a switch to a single varietal that signals where Brolio is going with its Chianti Classicos, which is away from the traditional blending formulas.  The wine spent a year in French oak and barriques in Brolio's new eat-off-the-floor modern cellar, bottled last January at a production of 430,000 bottles.  The simplest of words to describe this affectingly complex wine is "delicious"--a Chianti to drink with pleasure and not only as an addition to food.  Not that I would drink it without food, for I have always believed Chiantis to be the ideal wine with just about any food, even some firmer, bolder-tasting fish.  The fact that this is a bigger-boded Brolio than we've seen in past years indicates that Sangiovese on its own,
as has long been evident from Brunello di Montalcinos and certain Super Tuscans, can be distinctive while revealing layers of itself over the years.  One can certainly drink this Chianti right now, but it will certainly be even better over the next five years of age, when it should be rounder, its tannins softened, though they are not now particularly rough.
     The other wine at the dinner was a gorgeous voluptuary, the '99 Castello di Brolio, that had indeed developed over four years into a wine of elegance that retained all its lineage and Chianti character.  The weather cooperated, and the wine was blended from the first selection of Sangiovese (all Brolio grapes are hand harvested), with a small percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot to soften it all.  Aged 19 months in barriques, 65% of them new, 155,00 bottles of superb Chianti was the result, and the wine press has been enthusiastic about the blend.  It is a big, bold wine, innovative in its blend, and the years of age have done everything to harmonize those elements of fruit and earthiness that the wines of Tuscany should have, together with a fine tannic spine and a spiciness that keeps it all in balance. 
    I'm sure there are some, particularly in Tuscany, who believe Chianti is becoming too difficult to describe as a single wine, and that Brolio is fueling the flame for a more international style.  But Chianti, even in its most tradition-bound days, was consistent in nothing but its variety of styles, right from the beginning, and if the post-war improvements allowed the better producers to make better wines, there is hardly anything to prevent Brolio and others from making still better wines in a region still surrounded by Chianti zones where the familiar drives the way those wines are made, marketed and enjoyed.
    There is a saying in Chianti that in order to make a great wine, "the vines must suffer," growing down into the soil to find water and nutrients after so many centuries. It is hardly ironic then that the Ricasoli coat of arms bears the motto "Rien sans Piene"--Nothing without pain, through which they have not only survived strife and Italian politics but continued to take chances that now seem to guarantee another thousand years of the future of Castello di Brolio.

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  BUT I’LL BLATHER ON ABOUT IT ANYWAY

 “It is an oldish question, but not perhaps a  very interesting  one, whether
 cooking is an art or not.” --Robert Hughes, The Balthazar Cookbook                                                                                                                        

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OBVIOUSLY THEY’VE NEVER BEEN HIT IN THE HEAD WITH A DOPPEL WHOPPER®

Hoping to curb
violence
in schools,
the citizens of
Dietzenbach,
Germany, offered to
give vouchers
for Burger King
meals in exchange
for students’
“guns, knives,
knuckle-dusters
and kung fu stars.”

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DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS

1. With reference to an article in the November 3 number of MVG, we received the following:  "We'd like to ask you to include the following correction in your next Virtual Gourmet newsletter, pertaining to the article, 'In Good Spirits, Another Look At Cream Rums,' by Mort Hochstein, in which Hochstein describes a 'Baileys Light' product. No such Baileys product with that name that currently exists; however, a new Baileys Original Irish Cream line extension, called 'Baileys Glide,' is currently being tested in the UK.  Pending the successful results of this test, plans for launching 'Baileys Glide' in the U.S. will be made public at the appropriate time.  In regards to Captain Morgan, there actually was a man named Captain Morgan whose legacy and actual rum producing history was recently published by A.J. Baime."--Susu Block, VP Edelman, Chicago, ILL. 

QUICK BYTES

* On Nov. 17 Boston’s Bricco will hold a wine reception and 4-course dinner celebrating the wines of Friuli.  $80 pp.  Call 617-248-6800.

* From Nov. 17-20 Marcella Hazan will teach the first of 3 evening classes at NYC's French Culinary Institute at $1,950, limited to 15 students, with dinner and wines based on the classes to follow. The classes will again be held May 24-27, 2004. call 800-FCI-CHEF.

*On Nov. 19 Martini House in St. Helena, CA, will hold a Miner Family Vineyards “meet the winemaker” event from 5:30 PM on, with wines by the glass to accompany a la carte dining.
Call 707-963-2233 or visit www.martinihouse.co

* On Nov 21 Restaurant Jean-Louis in Greenwich, CT, will host a George Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau lunch, which will include a t-shirt contest.  $49 pp.  Call 203-622-8450.

* On Nov. 21 the chefs of Atlantic City’s Borgata—Ron Ross, Luke palladino, Susanna Foo, Patrick Feury, Edwyn Ferrari, Aaaron Sanchoez, Romeo DiBona, and Thaddeus DuBois-- will hold a James Beard Centennial Celebration dinner at $175 for the general public, $150 for JB members. Special hotel rate at $125 per night.  Call 866-MYBORGATA.

  * On Nov. 20 The Beverly Hills Hotel’s 2003 Winemaker Series will feature Dom Pérignon and Moët & Chandon, at a dinner hosted by Champagne Ambassador Lisane Lapointe and The Beverly Hills Hotel. The evening will feature a reception and four-course dinner created by chef Katsuo “Suki” Sugiura.  $95 pp.  Call 310- 281-2919.

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MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly.  Editor/Publisher: John Mariani. Contributing Writers: Naomi Kooker, Kirsten Skogerson, Mort Hochstein, Edward Brivio, Robert Mariani.  Contributing Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery,  Robert Pirillo.

John Mariani is a columnist for Esquire, Wine Spectator, Diversion and the Harper Collection. He is author of The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink (Lebhar-Friedman), The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink (Broadway), and, with his wife Galina, the award-winning new Italian-American Cookbook (Harvard Common Press).   To  purchase from amazon.com, click on the image below.

copyright John Mariani 2003