MARIANI’S

            Virtual Gourmet


  February 23, 2004                                           NEWSLETTER

simps

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 http://www.grumpygourmetusa.com/links.html

 -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:  My Favorite Mansions: Wheatleigh by John Mariani
New York Corner:  The Last Days of Lutèce and the Dimming of the Gaslights at Gage & Tollner
                                          by John Mariani

Quick Bytes
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MY FAVORITE MANSIONS

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                                                                                                                      Photo by Galina Stepanoff-Dargery, 2003

wHEATLEIGH
Hawthorne Road
Lenox, Massachusetts
413-637-0610
www.wheatleigh.com

by John Mariani

wIt is a much braver thing to renovate a grand old structure than to build a new one from scratch.  The ceiling leaks alone can drive you mad, and then there's the detritus of decades to remove or just toss out.  Thus, the renovation of the now glorious, though once crestfallen, Wheatleigh in Lenox, Massachusetts, is testament to the dedication of owner Susan Simon, who bought the place in 1981, and the decorators she hired to rehab it, Calvin Tsao and Zack McKown, whose driving principle, it seems, was to utilize the extraordinary New England light that pours through the windows--some of them Tiffany glass (left)--into the huge rooms here.

    Despite its size, Wheatleigh was built back in 1893 by Henry H. Cook as a "summer cottage" wedding present for his daughter, Georgie, who married into Spanish aristocracy and the considerable wealth of her tycoon husband, Carlos de Heredia.  The architecture, by Peabody and Stearns, was based on a 16th-century Florentine palazzo, the 22 acres of grounds laid out by the great Frederick Law Olmstead, who also did NYC's Central Park. 
   Over the years Wheatleigh took on the decrepitude of age, but Simon's 1997 renovation has resulted in one of the most beautiful and airiest of mansions, without a whit of darkness or heavy furniture.  The colors range from deep chocolate brown through pale celadon to the creamiest of whites, and respect for the original lineaments of the house have ben enhanced with fine modern furniture, bronze casements, and a complete removal of dark, dragging draperies.  There are 19 suites, most with fireplaces and balconies, and the bathrooms and desk amenities are all modern--though lounging in one of the old claw-footed tubs seems like sheer Edwardian pleasure.  You are greeted cordially in front of a baroque fountain, and service, largely French personnel under the management of Francois Thomas, throughout your stay will be quiet but not reverential, always available but never intrusive,

     You may dine informally in the lovely Library, with its puffy sofas and breakfront of fine china, or in the more formal Loggia (right), whose Doric columns frame floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the great lawn and thedr Berkshires beyond.  Oddly, the lighting here after sunset is somewhat drab and gray, despite candles glowing on the well-set tables. 
    The wisest decision is to allow Chef Bryce Whittlesby to do a tasting menu ($115; otherwise a 3-course menu is $88), accompanied by an astounding wine list of more than 1,500 selections.  We began with canapés of squash mousse scented with orange and sage, and a medallion of lobster on braised kohlrabi with osietra caviar and lemon confit--just the right sweet-sour spark the palate needed.  Bean soup with a Parmesan tuile followed, as well as a lovely slice of squab breast with raw cèpes and a frisée salad of hazelnuts. Next came agnolotti stuffed with Old Chatham ricotta and lovage, with a simple, delicious fricassée of chanterelles and corn froth.  The menu description of "Pink Singing Bay Scallops from British Columbia" sounded more like an intermezzo entertainment than a dish, but, with its shellfish gelée and marinated cauliflower, it did indeed sing with flavor. 

     The kitchen can get a tad precious here, as with  fennel pollen-crusted tuna with edamame beans, a shiso leaf (one) fried in a  tempura batter, and a ponzu vinaigrette, which ultimately didn't add up to much.  Pan-seared prawn with shallot foam and olive relish in an star anise tuile was also rather fussy, but there was everything to love about the next course, the back and belly of wild King salmon with tiny haricot vert, oven-dried grapes, and toasted chicken "oysters" with poultry jus.
      You may opt for an all chocolate dessert tasting or go with excellent sweets like warm Mission figs in pastry with orange scented mascarpone and goat's cheese cream or passion fruit and fromage blanc tart with chocolate sorbet.
       By the end of the evening you will not feel ready to reel, for the food is uncommonly light and subtle.  So you return to your large room, open the window to the evening air, step out on your balcony, and consider what it must have been like to have a daddy to buy you a small cottage like Wheatleigh.


NEW YORK CORNER

The Last Days of Lutèce and the Dimming of the Gaslights at Gage & Tollner
by John Mariani

    One can try to be fatalistic about the closing of a restaurant--after all, four out of five go out of business within two years of opening--but the loss to New York, New Yorkers, and a world of people who dined for decades at Lutèce in Manhattan and Gage & Tollner in Brooklyn is a deep one.  The latter was a much older restaurant and therefore more of an historic loss, having opened its doors in 1879 and on its present location since 1882, a time when dining on a grand scale was trencherman's work; the former is a greater loss in iconography, for Lutèce, which had only been in business for a mere 43 years, was a standard-bearer of a kind of classic French cuisine that has not only gone out of style but it increasingly difficult to find anywhere anymore. 
    But the overriding sadness in all this is the fact that neither restaurant had ever suffered a loss of culinary excellence; indeed, the food at both was probably better than it had been in years.  Neither was it not the fault of location either: Lutèce's charming townhouse setting (below, left) on East 50th Street was as good a midtown address as any, and the far reaches of Brooklyn have never stopped hordes of carnivores from barreling out to Peter Luger's day and night.  Fashion--or rather, being out of fashion--killed Lutèce and G&T.
    gage I understand that G&T (below) was up against the odds, even though current owner since 1995, Joseph Chirico, had tried mightily to keep the original gas lamps going in the beautiful, landmark dining room, serviced by kindly waiters who had been there in many cases for decades and wore the stars and stripes of that service on their dinner jackets.  The menu, which hearkened back to the turn of the last century, was highly praised in recent years by Wine Spectator, Gourmet, the New York Times, and Crain's New York Business, especially the classic G&T dishes you'd be hard put to find anywhere else, like crab bellies, lobster Newberg, oysters "Jim Brady," and crabmeat Virginia.  Such food has been out of fashion for decades, and the addition of contemporary items like tuna steak with bok choy didn't seem to bring in a new generation of diners.  Business dropped off and drifted away, and now the doors are closed.  Mr Chirico says he may find a new location, and I sincerely hope so.
     Never a regular, I do recall my first visit to G&T and being in awe of the architecture, the charm, even the nostalgia of the place, and in subsequent visits I basked in its spirit, never believing it could go on for ever, having in my lifetime seen the closing of other venerable, much younger,  NYC restaurants like Lüchow's, Christ Cella, the Coach House, and the Russian Tea Room.  Surely if more people, including myself, had gone out of our way to be faithful, if irregular, customers, Gage & Tollner might still be around.
    The case of Lutèce, which opened in 1961, is quite different, since its history is relatively short and focused on the personality of one man, master chef André Soltner, an Alsatian who bought out his partner, André Surmain, back in 1972 at a time when French restaurants in this country were in the stranglehold of  traditions set by the indomitable Henri Soulé at Le Pavillon.  Lutèce didn't so much break that mold as it did provide wiggle room within the classic style, and Soltner introduced many new dishes while maintaining his menu's link to the dependable items like roast duckling bigarade, rack of lamb, tarte Tatin, and chocolate mousse--all prepared with impeccable finesse, night after night, because Soltner was always there, an almost manic symbol of dedication to one's craft and to one's own business, aided with the same fervor by his wife Simone, who took care of the front of the house.
     lutece 2 Lutèce thrived under Soltner (the photo below is from 1991), who prided himself on always being in the restaurant, lunch and dinner, and always cooking while there. He missed only five days in all those years; one day, after having knee surgery in the morning, he returned to the kitchen for dinner service. He would always emerge from his kitchen in a spotless chef's jacket and tall toque to chat with regulars and newcomers alike about what they might wish to eat.  Most just chose from the standard, rarely changing menu, but those familiar with Soltner's enormous range always asked him to cook for them, which is what my wife and I did every anniversary for twenty years when Lutèce was our special, romantic treat.  Never in all those years did Soltner ever serve us the same dish twice, and none was ever on the printed menu. My notes from those years teem with asterisks and exclamation points denoting wonderful, unforgettable dishes like ecrevisses in tomato cream and blowfish with Chinese spices (1982),  mousse of cod in puff pastry (1983), coq au vin blanc with Alsatian spaetzle (1984), cold raspberry soufflé (1985), ravioli stuffed with crab, scallops and lobster (1986), mussels mouclade (1987), sturgeon in beurre blanc with caviar (1988), salmon and spinach lasagne (1988),  goujonettes of red snapper in red pepper sauce (1989), quenelles of pike with sauce Nantua (1990), coffee-mocha crème brûlée (1991), tortelli of Swiss chard and porcini with olive oil and ricotta salata (1992).  So much for the idea that Soltner was stultified in French classicism.
       In two polls I conducted among food writers in the 1980s for Playboy, Lutèce was, by far, the winner of the number one slot both times.  So when Soltner retired in 1992, selling Lutèce to Michael Weinstein of Ark Restaurants
(while Soltner retained ownership of the townhouse, where he and his wife  still live), everyone wondered how things would change.  Frankly, the premises needed considerable refreshing, which Ark did without compromising the garden-like atmosphere of the rear dining room or in any way altering the beloved tiny bar up front.  Weinstein brought in a superb chef, Eberhardt Müller, who had distinguished himself at Le Bernardin, then at Opus in Los Angeles. Carefully Müller maintained the traditions of Soltner's cooking--simple, wholesome, delicious food without too much flourish, and gradually brought in his own ideas along the same lines.  Müller was to leave to become partner at Bayard's way downtown, so Ark hired a young Frenchman, David Feau, who brought Lutèce's menu well into the 21st century with brilliant ideas like turbot poached in tarragon broth with baby vegetables, smoked cod with arugula and white truffle oil, lobster with plums poached in spiced Port, and suckling pig three ways.  He also wisely maintained daily "French culinary classics" like sweetbreads meuniére, duck confit, and bouillabaisse, along with some ideas that seemed strained, like foie gras with chocolate sauce.
   l  The problems that eventually forced Lutèce to close were not linked to the quality of the food but to the loss of Soltner's charisma.  Foolish oldtimers might have balked at even the slightest change in decor or menu, but open-minded newcomers were hard to come by in the last few years, when deluxe 4-star restaurants like Lespinasse, which closed in 2003, were empty most nights of the week.  And no parade of young, handsome maître d's could ever summon up the ebullient, smiling Soltner spirit.  Soltner was Lutèce, and though he himself was always supportive of the cooking of his successors, fewer and fewer people wanted the Lutèce experience. Ark did not betray Lutèce in NYC; it simply could not keep it the way it had been for so long. Still, the irony that the name "Lutèce" lives on in Las Vegas seems symptomatic of a time when fine dining is associated more with a panorama of dancing water fountains and easy access to the craps tables than with refinement, sophistication and the personal touch of a master chef-owner. 
       It is unlikely that fashion will ever embrace another restaurant like Lutèce.  New York, fortunately, still has a slew of wonderful French restaurants like Le Périgord, La Caravelle, Le Cirque 2000, Daniel, Le Bernardin, Chanterelle, Bouley, and La Grenouille, and scores of notable chefs who graduated from those kitchens.  I for one believe that many non-French restaurants in New York rise to and surpass the level of cuisine found in the staunchly French temples of gastronomy, so gourmets will not starve.  Lutèce, then, is more a testament to one man than it is an indictment of a passing style.  Soltner, who now teaches at the French Culinary Institute, carries on as he always has--inspiring young cooks, coaxing them to do better, and making them believe that their place is in the kitchen day after day, night after night.  That is a legacy well worth preserving.


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NEXT WEEK: WHAT TO DRINK WITH THE UDDERS

bull Excerpts from an article (1/30/04) on matching wines to a gift of ten pounds of bull’s testicles, by Wall Street Journal wine writers, Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher:
   “We had read that these [mountain] oysters taste like liver or mushrooms, and we like bubbly with mushroom dishes. . . . Because we’d read that the oysters might taste like liver, we thought we’d try a sweet wine . . . .All these wines were good, but most didn’t work with the food, simply because they seemed to ignore each other, like boys and girls on opposite sides of the room at the same dance (a phenomenon John hopes will continue with our teenage daughters until the girls are 30). . . . With this [Cabernet] these red wines find their red-meat origins.’ At the same time, the simple meaty and slightly crunchy delicacies seemed to give the wine a little bit extra life that made it better. . . . Experimenting with food matches is fun.”

 


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THEY MAY WANT TO CUT BACK ON THE PEPPERONI

According to the Milwaukee-Sentinel, A Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Brookfield, Wisconsin, had more than 40 calls to police to investigate disturbances at the pizza place famous for its children’s parties, including twochuck assaults, several verbal confrontations, theft, vandalism and false 911 calls. According to the Milwaukee-Sentinel, “Unruly children are expected amid the euphoria of a singing mouse and the Whack-a-Mole. But Chuck E. Cheese has become, at least for some adults, a place where the frenzy of Skee Ball, pizza, alcohol and manic children translates into emotional overload.”




QUICK BYTES

* Restaurant Associates and Maple Leaf Farms present Winter Duck Festival, Feb. 17- 29. Participating restaurants include: Brasserie, Brasserie 8 ½, Café Centro, Cucina & Co. Rockefeller Center, Nick & Stef's Steakhouse & Bar, Rock Center Café, and The Sea Grill, all offering creative duck menu items at lunch and dinner. Visit www.restaurantassociates.com.

* On March 1  Pops for Champagne in Chicago will host a champagne tasting of more than a dozen wines from 6 different producers.  Hosting the event will be Paul & Francoise Couvreur, from Champagne et Villages, with
light fare provided. Live music will commence at 8 p.m., with no cover charge, featuring the music of Alison Ruble and Jeremy Kahn. $18 per person.  Call 773.472.1000 or visit www.popsforchampagne.com

* On March 5 Chicago’s Ritz-Carlton Dining Room chef Sarah Stegner welcomes Robert Mondavi Winery chef Sarah Scott for a 6-course dinner with wines at $150 pp. Call 312-573-5223.

* On March 6 & 7 The Dallas Morning News Wine Competition will celebrate its 20th anniversary at the Dallas Convention Center. More than 3,000 entries, including national and international wines, are expected.  For additional information on the Competition. Call (214) 319-7000 or visit www.dallaswinecomp.com.
 
* On March 8 NYC’s `21’ Club will hold a 4-course Super Tuscan Wine dinner with Lauren Nowicki of Kobrand. $125 pp. Call 212-582-7200; www.21club.com

* From March 19-21 the Boca Bacchanal Winefest & Auction will feature vintners’ dinners ($300 pp) held in cultural sites and private residences; a luncheon for the arts at Mizner Park ($40), auction and dinner at the at the Boca Raton Resort & Club ($250), and Champagne brunch ($75) . Proceeds to Children’s Place South. Call 561-395-6766 or visit www.bocabacchanal.com

* On March 20 Paso Robles Vineyards hosts the 12th Annual Celebration of Zinfandel with a live auction at the Paso Robles City Library, followed by a zinfandel grand tasting and silent auction at the Paso Robles Inn.  For info visit www.pasowine.com . . . . From May 14-16 the 22nd Annual Paso Robles Wine Festival will be held at Paso Robles City Park Downtown, with more than 670 wineries, 2 live bands, food by local vendors. Call 805-239-8463.


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

 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.
 

 ital-am

copyright John Mariani 2003