The French Laundry and Garden Envy

I don't have a lot of sun. My garden slopes down, and faces north. It's damp and gloomy in the winter, in summer the ancient oak trees shade everything. Tomatoes struggle. The soil is thin, the water runs off, the oaks steal the sun. I try, but every year brings disappointments. I read about the Beekman Boys smacking seeds in the soil and harvesting bushels of yummy stuff, and I am green. With envy. Here seeds rot, seedlings wilt, there are leaves on the tomatoes and pumpkins but few fruits.

So a level garden in the sun? I covet it. In an old river bottom with deep rich soil? I drool. With raised beds, organic compost and a host of busy gardeners? Oh dear. And grass paths.

The French Laundry has such a garden. I would like to lie down in the compost and stay. I would like to adopt the garden - or have it adopt me. The well worked raised beds are lined with drip irrigation (or as we used to call it in Landscape Architecture school, irritation).

When planted you can't see the drip, just the lovely labels...

...and the gorgeous chard. Or peppers.

Or salsify...

or pumpkins

and chickens!!

they have a chicken tractor! Check out my old blog posting on Chicken Tractors

I should back up. The French Laundry in Yountville is one of the two best restaurants in the world. The other is Per Se in New York, and they are both the creation of Thomas Keller who has changed the way we all eat. And how we eat - from courses (many and small) to plates (many and stacked. All white sculpture with your food). 

In France people travel and stay in hotels (sometimes in unattractive towns) to eat splendiferous food. Not so here - until Thomas Keller. Altho the Napa Valley isn't ugly...

Thomas Keller has three other restaurants in Yountville: Bouchon, Bouchon Bakery, and Ad Hoc. Try all three - breakfast at Bouchon Bakery, lunch at Bouchon (oysters and shrimp and a glass of rose - quick before Indian Summer is over).  Ad Hoc for dinner (it's really hard to get a reservation at the Laundry) or get take-away at Ad Hoc Thursday thru Saturday. Fried chicken or barbecue. Get the chicken.

Bon Appetit and happy gardening. I will be in my shady garden shedding tears on the thin soil.

Tasting Things

Leslie brought me some Lucini olive oil that was too green and strong for her tastes. I gave her some McEvoy in exchange. We both have a new favorite olive oil, and they're not the same. I prefer the Lucini; she prefers the McEvoy. 

I started thinking about tasting notes. I cancelled my subscription to Cook's Magazine when they said they tasted no difference between real vanilla and the fake stuff made with vanillin. I taste a bitterness in the fake stuff, and it is a simpler composition. It lacks the deep notes, the grace notes, the unfolding fleeting flavors that are almost identifiable then gone. No difference? We differ. My friend Des makes vanilla and it is heavenly. Even the gossip girls notice the difference in the fragrance, and ask about it. They'd like to drink it. Maybe Des will teach us to make it. 

Wine tasters make judgements - wine drinkers slavishly follow them. If you know anything about wine you know who Robert Parker is - a good rating from Robert Parker can make a wine; a bad rating can be devastating. 

Years ago I belonged to the San Francisco Professional Food Society and we tasted things (before tasting was the rage) - tomatoes, coffee, caviar, vodka, champagne...and salt. Salt has changed a lot since then. The French Laundry and Per Se have served plates with 8 or 9 little piles of salt served with a history and geography lesson for each, and pairing recommendations. Eye opening.

 I have more than a dozen kinds of salt in my cupboard. Some of my favorites...

are from Williams Sonoma. Their red salt is great on pork, I love the black on grilled steak, and the chardonnay smoked salt means I can do ribs in the oven and they taste like they've been smoked. I plan to try it on pork chops next.

Some were gifts and I have no idea what's in them...besides salt. 

One of my favorites is the Herb Rub (with lots of salt)  from David Lebovitz. If you don't follow his blog you are in for a treat - he is funny, dry, wry, and doesn't take anything too seriously. I've never met him but he's on the list of people I'd like to have dinner with. Along with Winston Churchill and Eleanor of Acquitaine.

But my favorite - the one I reach for again and again - is this.

If you've been reading my blog for a while you know I went to the Ile de Re this summer and fell in love with the place. I get this salt at WIlliams Sonoma. I brought some back from the Ile de Re - if you come for dinner we can taste it. And you do know to sprinkle it over the finished dish, right? Don't waste it in the soup, you will lose the big flakes and the subtle flavor. Sprinkle a few grains on a finished dish and dig in.